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The Salami Merchant - August, 1997



Next S.A.R.A. Meeting on Thursday, August 21st at 7:30 PM at the Doylestown Village hall

VE Update


S
ARA held their VE session on July 26.  Nine people attended.  There were two new licenses earned and one upgrade.  The three VE's were Dave KE8HA - Eric N8EW -

Mary KA8MPH.

Club Trustee Election


Due to other commitments, John, N8CD will be leaving the position of Club Trustee.  A special election will be held at the August SARA meeting on August 21st to select a replacement. 

If you are interested in the position, contact Joe, KC8DKF at 330-335-8861, or [email protected]

Treasurer's Report


Telephone bill paid for June, $-27.26
Total Income from the raffle: $437.00

As of the end of July, our balance was $1996.97, which puts us about $900 ahead of this time last year.

Marge, KC8DES

A Busy Agenda for the August S.A.R.A. Meeting


There are several items that will be discussed and voted on at the August meeting.  The agenda will include:




A vote for a new club trustee
Discussion and a vote on the future of S.A.R.A.'s UHF (440MHz) repeaters
A vote on several club by-law changes (these proposed changes may be found later in this newsletter)
Discussion of several club officer positions

The meeting will be held in the basement meeting room of the Doylestown Village Hall , on August 21st at 7:30 PM.

Salami Merchant Articles

For those of you that would like to submit articles for the Salami Merchant, here is some information. 

I like to have the newsletter in everyone's hands a few days before the SARA meeting on the third Thursday of each month.  To allow time for layout, printing, posting the Internet version, copying, folding, stapling, stamping, and a few days in the mail, the cutoff will be the first Monday of each month.  You can still submit articles at any time, but any articles received after the first Monday of the month will probably be published in the following month's Salami Merchant.

Since I've become the editor of your newsletter, I've received a fair number of contributions, and they are all appreciated.  If you would like to submit an article but you're not sure what to write about, try  these suggestions:









Review a radio you have tried
Describe an antenna or radio project
Give a report on a SARA activity (including pictures!)
A report on a hamfest or other event
A commentary or observation
Upcoming events
An interesting contact you've had
Draw a cartoon

One thing that is VERY helpful is license upgrade news.  Despite hours of meditation, I still don't have the ability to use ESP to detect upgrades.  If you know of someone that has upgraded, LET ME KNOW!

If you have an article that someone else wrote, I can only publish it with written permission from the author, or if the article specifically says it is released into the public domain.

You can send articles via e-mail, postal mail, in person, etc., either electronically or on paper (Sorry, I don't take dictation). Don't worry if you can't spell, just let my computer take care of that part.

If you are sending an article via e-mail or diskette, I can accept almost any word processor's format.  Less formatting is usually better (don't bother with columns fonts, etc.).  If you are sending paper, I'll do my best to read your writing, or type it if you are in doubt.

Send your articles to:
John Wagner, N8CD
337 Wunderlich Ave.
Barberton OH 44203-2226

or  [email protected]

What to Expect


As we all are aware of, the current antenna site for two of our repeaters will be torn down this fall to make way for a new (and hopefully taller) water tower.  In the mean time, we had to find a temporary site for two of our three repeaters.  The two repeaters, 147.39 and 442.275 will be re-located to the north east of the current site right here in Doylestown.  The site happens to be the home of one of Doylestown's Planning Commissioners who offered his site for us to use.  This was quickly accepted by the technical committee because of the difficulties of mounting antennas on the north side water tower. Thanks, Paul, for your generosity.

Paul's home/office site sits at 1280 feet above sea level (ASL); the water tower sits at 1200 feet above sea level. Currently, the 39 repeater hears from an antenna at 1340 feet ASL and the transmit antenna sits at 1290 feet ASL. At Paul's site, the antenna for 39 will be at 1320 feet ASL. So what does this mean ?  Well, at the temporary site, the antenna is only 20 feet lower
than the current receive antenna's height but the transmit antenna will be 30 feet higher than the current transmit antenna.  Because the antenna at Paul's will only be 40 feet above the ground the antenna is well under the tree line. I am not sure what the coverage result will be but I'll stick my neck out and say that the transmit coverage will be about the same, but you will need more power to get in to 39 than you do now.  But there is relief.  When the leaves fall, your radio will not have to work as hard to get in.  Also, we will only have about a 30 foot run of transmission line so that in it's self will help you get in to 39.

The ASL for the UHF repeater will be the same as for 39. As we all know, the higher the frequency the more line of site becomes important. I would say that the coverage of 275 will diminish.

We will operate from Paul's for the duration of the winter and in the spring we will located back to the new water tower.  We are planning to move the UHF repeater in about three weeks and then we will move 39 to Paul's.  Stay tuned to the weekly nets over the next several weeks for updates of this project.


73 de Bob N8ZCC

Swap & Shop


For Sale: Yaesu FT-11HP mini-sized 2 meter handheld. 99 alpha-numeric memories,  PL Encode, DTMF paging & squelch. With 5 watt-600mah and 3 watt-1400mah battery, overnight charger, rubber duck, box, manual.  Works great, appearance is 8 out of 10. $200, contact John, N8CD, 330-745-6081 or [email protected]

September Phase 3D Launch Doubtful


From ARRL
Headquarters
Newington, CT July 30, 1997
To all radio amateurs

The September 30 launch of the Phase 3D Amateur Radio satellite was put in grave doubt this week. It appears extremely unlikely that Phase 3D will be able to meet revised mechanical specifications in time to fly on schedule aboard the Ariane 502 rocket. AMSAT officials are holding out a glimmer of hope that the Ariane 502's schedule will slip just enough to let Phase 3D catch up again, but those chances are considered very slim. In a statement, AMSAT called the turn of events ''very bad news.''

AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan, W3XO, confirmed that, in order to include Phase 3D, the Ariane 502's overall launch schedule would have to slip a month or two. But, he said, ''if it goes on schedule, we won't go on '502.''

The latest setback for the next-generation Amateur Radio satellite came when the European Space Agency (ESA) significantly increased its estimate of vibration levels the Phase 3D payload would be exposed to aboard the Ariane 502. The revised estimates mean AMSAT will have to move fast to make structural changes in the Phase 3D spaceframe in order to withstand the anticipated rougher ride. Phase 3D Project Leader Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC, told ESA in mid-July that the work required by the agency's new information would prevent AMSAT from delivering the spacecraft to Kourou, French Guiana, by the specified August 10 date. AMSAT brought in an independent structural engineer to review the spacecraft's design and construction. Since his report, AMSAT said that ''substantial effort has been taking place at the Phase 3D Integration Lab in Orlando, Florida'' to make and install the recommended structural reinforcements. That work continues.

If the Phase 3D payload is not going to be available on time, AMSAT must supply a ''mass simulator'' representing the Phase 3D spacecraft by September 5.

Proposed By-Law Changes

On August 5th, 1997, the SARA's elected officers met, and agreed upon the following proposed changes to the club By-Laws.  These changes will be discussed at the August general meeting, and a vote will take place at that meeting as to whether these changes should be approved.

This is Article I, Section 6 as it appears in the by-laws now:

Article I
Duties of Officers

SECTION 6:

The operations manager shall be responsible for maintenance of the club repeater(s) and shall be custodian of all club chattel property and shall be responsible for the good care and storage of the same. The operations manager shall from time to time, upon request of the president, make recommendations for improvements to or disposal of such property. The operations manage shall become the trustee of the club station license, provided that the office holder has a valid amateur extra class license. If the office holder does not hold an extra class license, he or she must appoint an extra class license holder of the operations managers choice to become trustee of the club station license.
The operations Manager shall maintain a technical committee assembled from members in good standing for the purpose of sharing knowledge of the club's on the air radio equipment and shall maintain an appropriate number of control operator to monitor on the air activities of said equip, equipment

This is the proposed amendment to Article I, section 6:

Article I
Duties of Officers

SECTION 6:

The operations manager shall be responsible for maintenance of the club repeater(s) and shall be custodian of all club chattel property and shall be responsible for the good care and storage of the same. The operations manager shall from time to time, upon request of the president, make recommendations for improvements to or disposal of such property. The operations manage shall become the trustee of the club station license, provided that the office holder has a valid amateur license meeting the requirements of the Federal Communications Communication. If the office holder does not hold valid amateur license meeting these requirements, he or she must appoint an operator who holds a valid amateur license meeting the requirements of the Federal Communications Communication to become trustee of the club station license.

The operations Manager shall maintain a technical committee assembled from members in good standing for the purpose of sharing knowledge of the club's on the air radio equipment and shall maintain an appropriate number of control operator to monitor on the air activities of said equipment

This is Article VI as it appears in the by-laws now:

Article VI
Amendments

SECTION 1:

These by-laws may be amended at any meeting by a two-thirds vote, a quorum being present.

This is the proposed amendment to Article VI:

Article VI
Amendments

SECTION 1:

The By-laws may be amended if the following conditions are met:

A) A committee will be appointed, including the President and 3 members in good standing, when a written request is received from a member asking for a revision of the By-laws. All requests will be honored and completed through a vote on the issue.

B) Publication of the proposed amendments in the club newsletter not less than 30 days prior to the vote.

C) Ballots for voting are mailed in the club newsletter announcing the amendment.

D) Ballots will be accepted for the vote, from members of good standing, by mail or at the meeting.

E) Ballots are counted at the first membership meeting after the 30-day period has expired. The 3-committee members will perform the count. A two-third majority is required for passage.

F) Publication of the approved amendments in the club newsletter.


KI8BS
checks ground-wave propagation characteristics at SARA Field Day '97

Thank You for Your Support


Well it seams that we have a very good year so far, and I want to thank everyone that helped with our projects so far this year ( you know who you are! )  It's the same as always, 6 or 8 People do all the work.  It sure would be nice if we had some more help with stuff. The people that do the the work are also the people that are having all the fun.

Both of the horse races were GREAT!  Beautiful horses, in the woods, covered bridges, GOOD FOOD, great people...  We will do this again next year, but this time we might camp out Friday, and Saturday night, Sounds like fun to me. You can have fun also, but you have to be there!

  We Will be doing some more things this year like:




Labor Day parade in Barberton
Wilderness Ctr. in Wilmont
Another raffle for the Christmas Party in Dec.

REMEMBER THE S.A.R.A. CLUB CAN NOT GROW WITH OUT YOUR HELP

                          Thanks Again!          Gary, N8OGK

Thanks for the help!

Hello again fellow S.A.R.A. Members !!!  Thanks Bunches and Bunches For all the support we had for the Business Men parade that Doylestown Had Friday the 8th.


THANKS
                and
                          THANKS AGAIN   

SEE YA  NEXT TIME
          Gary, N8OGK

Barry KI8BS
Rick KC8DMN
Joe KC8DKF
Benny KC8DEO
Gary N8OGK
Larry WD8ITF
Grandma (supervised)

Carol N8SIN
Randy KC8DJA
Bryan KC8DKG
Brenda KC8DEP
Jeremy KB8LFA
Steve KC8DJV

Congratulations


Happy 47th Wedding Anniversary to KA8MPH
, who claims she was a VERY young bride!