The Illuminator

November Meeting

Lamar, N3AT, is scheduled to do a show-and-tell of his new Elecraft K2 transceiver at the regular meeting on Thursday, November 16, at 7:30 p.m. For those who may not be aware of it, this is a QRP SSB/CW transceiver kit that has become very popular among QRPers and non-QRPers alike. This promises to be a very entertaining program.

Propagation

By Larry, N3CR

We are approaching that point where many say we will be at the peak of this current solar cycle 23. Looking at things it is hard to tell. The numbers have been low with mild sessions of geomagnetic activity keeping things down to much lower than expected conditions. We are seeing the effects of seasonal changes as the hours of darkness increase. 20m meters has been open later and signals are more stable. 10 meters has been showing some signs of better openings and the 10m FM portion of the band has come back to life. There is also considerable PSK-31 activity around 28.120mhz. During the recent Pa Qso Party, 10m was one of the surprise bands as activity was all over the place and good runs of contacts could be had without the high power.

For the Pa QSO Party, conditions were less than I expected, yet conditions were good on all the bands. 40m was full of loud signals and my 100 watt station and "magic wire" kept me in the hunt. I actually could hold a frequency and not have to call stations a second time. I had a good run on 20 meters working both the close in stations as well as Florida, Texas and the West Coast. This was normally a band I had to work at to make contacts. 15 meters showed a lot of good signals as well. This didn't stop all the usual activity heard on the bands. 80 meters seemed a little thin on activity and signals were down from what I expected and much of the same could be said for 160 meters. This was the best conditions we have seen for the contest in a few years.

The K3II Carbon Arc group, operating from Monroe County, has again claimed the top multi multi score beating last years K3ANS score by more than 80, 000 pts. K3LR had to back out as the bonus station and the K3YA group picked up the opportunity. They were on the bands using new operators and future operators to the ham radio contest arena. We applaud their effort to show new hams the fun part of ham radio. On Saturday of the contest, 3 hours into the contest, I lost my first 115 Qso's on 40 m SSB. After giving up on saving the contacts I started anew and run up a total of 215 Qso's on SSB and CW with 80 multipliers. I only heard two other Carbon stations and Carbon was a wanted county by many.

We can expect conditons to peak around November 3rd and December 3rd with the solar flux

falling below 160 around the middle of the month. We can expect some unsettled conditions between these times as a coronal hole is opening up facing the earth. The average solar flux for October was 167 and shows a general decline down from August and September. With the A and K numbers low, signals on the bands have been some of the better signals heard lately. The solar flux and sunspot numbers have been reaching just over 200 during the peak of the month. There is little support around the propagation community that we will see much better condtions than we have to this point. Has the cycle peaked?? We will know for sure a couple months from now. Conditions should be favorable for the upcoming DX contests coming up including the ARRL 10 meter contest. There will be several new callsign areas activated and the scores should show the slight increase in propagation capabilities. Warm up the computer and give it a go!!

73s de Larry N3CR Conditions Reader.

From the President’s Desk

By Larry, N3CR

I want to thank everyone for attending the Skywarn Session at our October meeting. It was very informative as the weatherman from Mt.Holly, explained all the details of the weather service and the importance of Carbon County. Weeknights are difficult to run these types of sessions with the fire companies working to get their organizations ready for 2001. Provided we can gather up some interest, we may do this again in the spring, perhaps on a Saturday.

Monday November 20th, there is an EMA drill in the Palmerton area involving hazardous materials (chlorine gas). We would like to have two operators at the EOC and a couple others from home and in the Palmerton area to assist. This will be a full qualifying drill for the county and there will be staff at the EOC. We will use the link to get as many operators on the air for this drill. It would be good to see some active participation since I have an important announcement to make at the next meeting. Winter is just around the corner. Now is a good time to dust off those radios and check into our Wednesday evening net at 9PM with KC2DLR Bill as net control. Bill has been doing a good job keeping the net going. Some good ideas have been coming out of these nets even though few members have been checking in. By the way, the drill in Palmerton will begin about 6 PM.

The International Space Station has its first permanent crew aboard !! This is good news. The2m operation should begin about November 15 using an alternate antenna. The intended antenna was broken during a space walk by the Shuttle Discovery. You can expect to hear activity on 145.800mhz from the Space Station. 145.200 mhz will be the voice uplink frequency for region one. Sergei Krikelov U5MIR is again in space - the old cosmonaut without a country. He is in charge of space training in the Russian Republic. He is not shy about radio and is familiar with packet radio. Yes, dust those things off because they will be actively using packet in between the voice sessions. Bulletins will be sent by the Space Station and the mailbox will be active. It appears their day begins at 10 pm EST wakeup time with the rest period beginning about 1:30 pm EST. Check out the ARRL Bulletins and web sites for more detailed info. NASA

Web TV is a good place for news on the mission.

Andrew KB3CWH has been in the hospital after experiencing a sinkable episode. It appears the affects of the attack are not of a permanent nature and the diabetes treatments should have Andrew back in school and active again. Andrew had been secretary for the club. He is the son of Rob Roomberg KB3BYT in Jim Thorpe. He keeps busy working on robotics while attending high school.

We will begin collecting dues for the year 2001 at the November 16th meeting at the EOC. Lamar will show us his new K2 transceiver and explain his success with QRP. Lamar spends a lot of time on QRP, 40m and 20m, and has a lot of good stories and info to offer. I can explain some of what we need to talk with the International Space Station and making turnstile antennas work. Also get your excess goodies together and we may have an auction at our December meeting. Have to make some room for the things Santa is bringing this year!! As always, your comments and ideas are always welcome. I look forward to seeing all of you at the next meeting and some long awaited news.

73s and Good DX to all de Larry N3CR CARC President.

Carbon Amateur Radio Club

Regular Meeting Minutes

October 19, 2000

By Bob, K3PH

President Larry Lilly, N3CR, called a regular meeting of the Carbon Amateur Radio Club to order at 7:36 p.m. on Thursday, October 19, 2000. Fifteen people attended.

The minutes were read by Bob, K3PH, and approved by the members in attendance.

Larry, N3CR, read the treasurer’s report. At the last meeting, we had a balance of $751.67. We had no receipts, plus expenses of $22.00 for our post office box, leaving a balance of $729.67. The members in attendance approved the Treasurer’s report.

It was noted that the K3II group set a new record in the Pennsylvania QSO Party by a large margin! Congratulations are in order to all the participants.

Larry, N3CR, noted that Vice-President, Glenn, K3PP, is about to change jobs after 20 years with Lucent. His e-mail address has, therefore, changed. He may be reached at [email protected].

Scott Forster noted that a HAZMAT drill is coming up in November. There will be a desktop drill on November 6 at the West End Fire Station in Palmerton, followed by a full-blown drill at the Palmerton pool on November 20. Participation from CARC members is encouraged.

Dean Lovino, from the National Weather Service, gave a very informative talk on severe weather and the SKYWARN system. Several CARC members signed up for SKYWARN participation during the meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 9:06 p.m.

The Warbler

By Lamar, N3AT

The NJQRP club has recently developed a very interesting kit called "The Warbler". It's a very inexpensive kit to enable you to get into PSK fun. They have produced and sold 100 of these kits, and are now in the process of gathering parts to make up more kits. The unit is named the "Warbler" for PSK's 2-tone warble sound.

It provides the ham/builder with a very easy and inexpensive way to get on 80 meter PSK. This is a great band for local (200 mile radius) communications, and the Warbler is the perfect, narrow bad, low power rig for club round table QSO;s and regular fireside chats with friends.

It might be fun for members of CARC to get into another building project that features another new way of communicating, If anyone is interested, let me know. They hope to have more kits available by sometime in December. Might be a good idea to ask Santa to bring you one for Christmas!

72 de Lamar, N3AT

DX News

Provided by Bob, K3PH

The Ohio/Penn DX PacketCluster
DX Bulletin No. 483
October 30, 2000
Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW
Provided by BARF-80 BBS Cleveland, Ohio
Online at 440-237-8208 28.8k-1200 Baud 8/N/1

Thanks to the Northern Ohio Amateur Radio Society, Northern Ohio DX Association, Ohio/Penn PacketCluster Network, WB2YQH/WB2RAJ & The 59(9) DX Report, K3MLA, K3TEJ, W3UR & The Daily DX, WB4PVT, K8IW, K8YSE, N9PD, K0RX, NU0Q, BD7NQ, CT1BWW, DJ5AV & DX News Letter, EA5RM, F5NOD, G3SWH, HK3JJH, HR1ERL, IZ1DFI, JA3MZB, JF2MBF, JF6OJX, LA9XGA, PS7AB, PY2YP, VK2GJH and VK4AAR for the following DX information.

1SL1A, SEALAND (Interesting report of the week! DX IS...). OPDX received a report this week from a person named Jon stating that he along with some other hams are going to be operating from the "Principality of Sealand" sometime next month or in December. The callsign that they will be using is 1SL1A. Sealand is currently being disputed worldwide as being its own entity. More details on this operation is forthcoming soon. You may have heard of Sealand, if not, here are some links you may find useful for research: http://www.sealandgov.com/ http://www.fruitsofthesea.demon.co.uk/sealand/index.html Here is an ABC News article on Sealand. Click on the picture for a video news story using realplayer video. http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/dailynews/sealand000606.html

5T, MAURITANIA (possibly S0). Eight members of the "International Amateur Radio Volunteers" (IARV) led by Yoshi, JA1UT, will visit 5T-land for their NGO project. They will operate as 5T5U, same as last December. In addition, if allowed, they will try to enter the land of Sahara Occidental and operate S07CRS. QSL for their operation will be handled by JA1UT.

9M6, EAST MALAYSIA. Members of the Borneo ARC will be signing with the special callsign 9M6C from November 3-5th. Activity is expected to only be on 14195 and 21195 kHz.

C21, NAURU. Jack Haden, VK2GJH, will be active as C21JH (RI-39) during the period December 10-22nd, inclusive. A special focus will be on 50 MHz band with HF activity on a limited basis. He will be monitoring 50.110 and 28.885 MHz using an IC-736 (100w) to a five element at 45 feet. Jack states, "Any donations from the 50 MHz fans for this operation would be appreciated due to travel costs incurred in the HIGH SEASON." QSL via VK2GJH direct only.

C6, BAHAMAS. John, K3TEJ, will be active from Treasure Cay (NA-080) from November 21-28th as K3TEJ/C6A. Activity will be on 160-10 meters including the WARC bands. He will participate in the CQWW CW Contest as C6AKW. QSL via K3TEJ

CQ2, PORTUGAL. Look for operators CT1BWW and CT1DGK to activate CQ2K in comemorating the year 2000 on November 10-12th. Activity will be on all bands (no 160m), including the WARC bands and an entry in the JIDXC Contest. A special QSL card will be available via QSL Manager CT1BWW.

E30TA, ERITREA OPERATION. There are only a few days left for this operation. Operations are expected to end November 1st. This station was very active during last weekend's contest. QSL via DL5NAM.

EIDXA 2001 OFFICERS. The Eastern Iowa DX Association is pleased to announce its officers for the 2001 calendar year:

President - Heinz Blankenhagen, NR0X

Vice President - Rick Heinrich, N0YY

Secretary/Treasurer - Tom Kueny, K0DX

Congratulations and best of luck to these fine amateurs.

GD, ISLE OF MAN. Steve, G4UOL, is expected to be active November 17th through December 1st as GD4UOL. Activity will be on 160-10 meters CW only with an entry in the CQWW CW Contest. QSL via G4UOL.

IOTA NEWS.............

· AS-056. Masa, JA6GXK, will be active from Danjo Archipelago (Meshima Island) several times during the next few months: November 14-24th, Decemeber 15-25th, January 5-16th, February 6-16th and March 20-30th. However, this is not a DXpedition and Masa will only be active during his spare time. Suggested frequencies are: 14260 (+/- 10 kHz) or 21260 (+/- 10 kHz). QSL only via the Bureau.

· OC-129. John, G3IZM, will depart the UK for Manila on December 17th, and will be operational as DU7/G3IZM from Guimeras Island in the Visayan Group between December 19th and January 5th, as swimming and other holiday pursuits permit! His activity will be done with an IC706 MK2G with dipoles over the sea on 20/15 meters CW/SSB. QSL to home callsign.

JW, SVALBARD. Tor, LA9XGA, will be operating with the callsign JW9XGA from the JW5E Club hut in Longyearbyen Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard. He will be active from November 2-8th. Activity will be on all bands, CW/SSB /RTTY/PSK31. QSL via LA9XGA to the bureau or direct to: Tor-Atle Sandal, Hamnaflot 6, N-4200 Sauda Norway. For more info, check the Web site at: http://www.qsl.net/jw9xga/

KP2/WP2, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS. Bill, NU0Q, will operate WP2Z from St. Croix during the ARRL CW Sweepstakes Contest November 4-6th. Before and after the contest, he will sign KP2/NU0Q. IMPORTANT: QSL WP2Z via KU9C. QSL KP2/NU0Q via NU0Q.

K5K, KINGMAN REEF OPERATION. There are only a few days left for this operation. Operations are expected to end November 1st. K5K was heard during the CQWW DX SSB Contest begging for QSOs on 20 meters.

P5, NORTH KOREA. Rumors continue to be pass around about a possible P5 operation to take place at the end of October. However, according to "The Daily DX" a multi-national team of operators who meet in Seoul, South Korea "in preparation for trip and possible demonstration operation of amateur Radio in North Korea", were informed by authorites "that permission to operate Amateur Radio would not be granted." The group was, however, given a new date of January 7, 2001, for a possible Amateur Radio operations. Only a few details are available because of the sensitive nature of this operaion. More details are to follow. Let's hope that this operation can tatke place, KYFC and stay tuned.

PV3, BRAZIL (Special Operation). Look for PV3DC to be active from "Fort Duque de Caxias" from November 2-5th. The will be valid for the "Brazilian Historical Fortifications Award" (DFH) as RS-01. Activity will be on CW/SSB on all bands 80-10 meters. QSL Manager is Ruy Brasil (CBA/QRZ). E-mail address is: [email protected]

QSL INFO AND NEWS...............

· Logs for 3A/IZ1DFI (Gianni) and 3A/IK1QBT (Tony) for their October 21-22nd operation are now available at: http://www.qsl.net/iz1dfi/ http://www.qsl.net/ik1qbt/ If you are missing from the log file, send E-mails to: IK1QBT/Tony - [email protected] or Gianni/IZ1DFI [email protected] with your callsign and log information, and they will do a search for you.

· Terry Liang, BD7NQ, informs OPDX that QSLs for B7K go via W2AY, NOT BD7NQ.

· Charlie, WB4PVT, has talked to Georgi, LZ1ZF, and he reports that Georgi is the QSL Manager for BT4ARDF. Georgi has just returned from China where he took part in The 10th Amateur Radio Direction Finding World Championship (were he took 4th on 2 meters band and 5th on 80 meters). He states that all logs (over 4000 QSO's) are at his disposal, and he is the QSL Manager for all contacts regardless of the operator of BT4ARDF. QSL cards will be printed in two weeks. Georgi will QSL 100% via the bureau, but states that the LZ QSL bureau is quite slow, so he will also confirm directly (please SASE) via CBA or to: LZ1ZF, P.O.Box 11, 4300 KARLOVO, BULGARIA.

· Gil, F5NOD, reports that the FO0/F5JJW log is now available on his Web site: http://f5nod.waika9.com/ Pictures will also be available soon. The operation was from Mangareva Island (Gambier). Reference number: OC-063 (IOTA) and FO-108 (DIFO). Gil states, unfortunatly, the operation from Tikeau Island was cancelled and Joel (F5JJW) is back home. Gil, F5NOD, also reports that the FK-DX Group Wep page is now on-line at: http://www.multimania.com/fk8hc/

· Two members of the Radio Club GRAPA (Grupo de Radioaficionaodoa al Packet) HR1AAB/Alberto and Antonio/HR1ERL were active in this past weekend's CQWW DX SSB Contest as HR1AAB. QSL via: P.O. BOX 1734, Tegucigalpa Honduras, Central America, Zip Code 11101.

· SV9/K7BV QSLS. Mike, K8IW, informed OPDX that he talked to Steve, KU9C, and was told that the QSLs would be ready in about a month. They are having a full colored QSL card printed, but had some problems with the picture. The picture was sent to the printer just recently, and Steve thinks the turn around will be pretty quick. He is sorry for the delay, but wanted to do a nice card for this operaiton.

· VK6BM QSLs. Alan, VK4AAR, advises that after several unexpected holdups at the printer's, he has been advised that he should be receiving the VK6BM (OC-234) QSL cards very soon. All the envelopes are ready with stamps on them, so as soon as he receives the cards, they will be on their way to the DXers, progressively over the following days. Alan will make sure such delays do NOT occur on future operations. He thanks all for your patience.

· Toni, EA5RM, informs OPDX that the XU7ABD log is now available at the Web site: http://www.qsl.net/xu7abd/

· Cesar, PY2YP, Chairman of the Grupo de CW de Sao Paulo (CWSP), informs OPDX that the Grupo de CW de Sao Paulo (Sao Paulo CW Group) has a new URL address: http://www.cwsp.org.br/ The CWSP site hosts the logs for AX0LD (Macquarie Island) and PS0S (Peter & Paul Rocks).

· QSL cards for YC3ZMI (IOTA OC-237 operation) should be sent to IK8CCW at: Antonio Cannataro, PO Box 360, 87100 Cosenza ITALY (he is not member of ARI).

SPECIAL EVENT. Look for UA4SKW to operate the special event station to commemorate 80th Anniversary of Mariy-El Republic. The special event callsign UE4SMA will be used now through November 30th. QSL to: 80 years of Mariy-El, P.O.Box 145, Yoshkar-Ola, 424000, Mariy-El, Russia. A "Special Commemorative QSL" card will be available. A donation of a USD to defray printing would be appreciated. For more information, contact Tom UA4SKW at: [email protected] There will be a special award certificate "Mariy-El 80" for those who made QSOs with Russian stations from "UA4S"-oblast during year 2000 (foreign stations need 2 QSOs, CIS - 3, Russia - 5 QSO`s). UE4SMA counts for 2 QSOs for everyone. The certificate fee is 4USD or 10 IRCs.

VK6, AUSTRALIA. Larry, K3MLA/KG4ML, will be in Geraldton, Western Australia, from November 5-17th. However, he states this will be a business trip and has been issued the callsign VK6BRP. He will be taking his FT-100, along with a rigblaster interface and laptop, and will be trying to hand out some PSK31 contacts from Zone 29. Larry plans on operating 40-10 meters, including the WARC bands, operating CW and SSB. He is hoping that the "Best Western" motel will be "HAM Friendly" to antennas (this may be a problem). As a backup, Larry is taking an ATAS-100 mobile HF antenna just in case he can only operate from the rental car. Like his KG4 operations, if he is not working, he will be operating the radio! QSL via his home callsign, K3MLA.

VK9L, LORD HOWE ISLAND. "The 59(9) DX Report" reports that Ed, AA4EH, will be active from October 31st through November 6th as VK9LEH, His activity will be on 20/15/10 meters and the WARC bands. QSL via AA4EH.

VQ9, CHAGOS ISLANDS. "The DX News Letter" reports that Patrick, W3PO (ex F6DWY), will be active as VQ9PO beginning October 30th. Activity will last until next March. Look for him to be mostly on CW and on all bands. QSL via W3PO.

YJ, VANUATU (DXpedition Update). "The Prairie DX Group" has provided more details to their DXpedition to Vanuatu November 19-29th. The group plans to not only have real-time on-line logging, but also a live Web cam active during the operation. They expect to be assigned the callsigns YJ0PD for their general operating and YJ0V for the CQWW CW Contest. The complete press release will be sent to all OPDX InterNet Subscribers as an additional bulletin. The QSL route for the DXpedition (including CQWW CW Contest) is via N9PD, direct (please include SASE, IRC or USD) or via bureau. DO NOT SEND QSL CARDS VIA "YJ VANUATU BUREAU". For further information, please check their Web page: http://www.n9pd.com/ Or contact them at: [email protected]

ZK1, NORTH AND SOUTH COOK ISLANDS. Remember to look for operators Yasu/JI1NJC and Yu/JR2KDN to be active from Penrhyn Island (IOTA OC-082, Grid Locator BI11) now through November 4th as ZK1NJC and ZK1NDK, respectively. Both are veteran DXpeditioners. However, as this bulletin was being prepared during the CQWW DX Contest Sunday morning, PacketCluster spots show the duo is currently active from the South Cook. Hopefully the team will be able to travel to the North Cook Islands. Activity is expected to be on CW/SSB/RTTY on 160-6 meters. Please refer to OPDX.478 for further details and QSL routes.

Check out http://incolor.inetnebr.com/n0ujr for other cartoons and to purchase N0UJR’s book, “N0UJR and His Friends.”

Heard Through the Grapevine…

Jim, W3BBS passed away Monday November 6 in the Palmerton Hospital at the age of 70. Jim was responsible for the first repeaters on 147.255 and 224.26, worked for Western Electric and AT&T at Allentown, and enjoyed VHF contesting. He retired in 1984. Our thoughts and prayers are with Jim and his family.

The club needs an EC/RO for the ARES and RACES activities. Contact Larry N3CR for details.

November 2000