President: Rick Kempf, WD9HRU
309-828-8054
Vice President: Larry Mays, KB9NPH
309-827-8183
Secretary: Dean Lacy, AA9BS
309-452-4309
Treasurer: Floyd Hofmann, W9EX
309-452-3612
Newsletter Editor: Norman Huber, N9ZKS
309-378-4674

The CIRC is a not-for-profit ARRL special service club whose purpose is
to advance the service of Amateur Radio.  Located in Central Illinois,
CIRC and its members welcome all to use the 146.94 repeater and to
attend club meetings.

Submissions for the newsletter must be received by the 10th of the month
and may be snail or e-mailed to the editor at:
Norm Huber
19268 E. US Hwy 150
Bloomington, IL  61704-5855

e-mail  n9zks@earthlink.net

Permission is granted to Amateur Radio-related organizations to
reproduce contents of Short CIRCuits provided full credit is given.

FEBRUARY PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

Hello again. It's one month closer to Field Day (i.e. summer) and it is
the month of the annual Cherry Pie night.  We will have a short business
meeting followed the main event.  That being the sampling of all the
cherry flavored desserts that everyone brought.  It is also a family
night.  This column is short just as the business meeting will be.  We
will no doubt want a final tally of how many people will want the
Direction Finding Antenna.  73 de WD9HRU
 

I AM REPRINTING JANUARY'S PRESIDENT'S COLUMN FOR THOSE WHO DID NOT SEE
THE E-MAIL VERSION.

We have started a New Year and let's make this the first year of making
the club better and better.  We need the support of the membership
because the officers can't do it alone.  We need input from the
members.  What type of programs and activities would you like to see?
What type of programs and activities would you be willing to present or
chair?

Some activities coming up are the Feb cherry pie night.  A portable
2-meter antenna is being designed for fox hunting.  Then during warm
weather we will have a foxhunt to try out the new antenna as well as to
develop our skills at fox hunting.  It has been suggested that we have a
family picnic during the summer.  During last fall's Emergency Test, it
showed the need for a refresher course in Emergency Radio procedures and
net operations might be in order.

Bring your ideas to the club meeting and let's kick this New Year off
with a bang.  Lets make the club meeting a can't miss function.  Let's
make the club a fun and informative place to be every month.  Let's make
the club the must join organization for all the Hams.  All it takes is
your input and participation.  Let's find a way to bring in young
members to keep the club interesting and ensure its longevity.

Rick Kempf, WD9HRU

Note from the Vice President
Mark your calendar for February 28, 2001, Cherry Pie Night at the CIRC
meeting, 7:30 PM at the Red Cross building in Bloomington.  Need
directions, check in on the W9AML repeater 146.34/146.94.  This annual
gathering, in honor of a great president, will center on enjoying cherry
pie or other special deserts. Club members will be supplying the
goodies, including a cherry dish, ice cream, coffee, and Kool-Aid and
paper goods.  Don't have a special cherry treat, then come and enjoy the
evening on behalf of the CIRC.  Visitors, friends and family members are
encouraged to attend, always plenty of goodies to share.  If anyone
needs a ride, contact members Tuesday evening on the 2M net 34/94, held
at 9 PM.  Or call any club officer listed in Norm's newsletter.  I'd be
happy to provide transportation, Vice Pres. KB9NPH, Larry at
827-8183.    73....
 

CLUB PROJECT PROTOTYPE FOX HUNT YAGI

Hi All,
The Club project prototype fox hunt yagi has been designed and
completed. For those of you, not in the know, the club decided as a
project that fox hunt yagis should be built by the club and offered for
sale to club members. I was called upon to design and build the first
yagi. An important consideration to the design is low cost, excellent
pattern for a short boom, good reproducibility and ease of construction
and maintenance.
The final design is 54" long and constructed of 1" PVC tubing. The
elements are of 1/8" aluminum cloths line wire. Five elements are
arranged on the boom mostly bunched toward the driven element. This
design produces 7.5db gain over a dipole and is within 1 db of maximum
gain for the boom length. Of course the maximum gain version would be
nearly unusable for fox hunting due to a marginal pattern. Specifically
the front to back ratio would suffer and the minor lobes would be large.
In the case of my design, when used with vertical polarization (all
elements vertical, as is the case for repeaters), the first null is 90
degrees off the side. When multipath is low, this null can be used for
direction finding (DF). It is also useful to be able to tell if you have
selected a DF site that is free of multipath. Such a site will show deep
nulls off the side (about 30 db).  The back null is around 30 db as
well, but it is not as sharp as the side nulls, but it could be used for
DFing as well. The rear corner lobes (these are the only side lobes) are
over 20 db down, making it easy to tell when the array is pointed in the
correct direction. Since simple construction was one goal, much time was
spent in vain trying to come up with a gamma match that did not require
the capacitor. This idea was abandoned and the hairpin match, sometimes
known as the beta match, was successful on the first try. The SWR nulls
at 1/1 at 146.5 mhz and is well under 2/1 over a 145 to 148 mhz range.
A pl259 female connector (actually a double female barrel connector), is
used to connect the feedline to the antenna and I recommend that the
feedline be coiled (about 24" of coax) around the boom toward the
reflector and dropped to the DF equipment behind the reflector for
vertical polarization. You will supply the feedline with a PL259 on one
end and a connector suited to your rig or attenuator at the other end.
You are unlikely to get too far into the hunt without the attenuator
even with 30 db nulls, but it can be tried. As well a non-conductive
mast should be used for mobile operation (you supply this), or hold the
array by the boom near the reflector. It is a featherweight when handled
this way making it well suited to DFing in motion or triangulation from
fixed sites or even on foot hunting. This yagi should be usable for fox
hunting (the club does plan to do these), portable use, such as
emergency, or vacation antenna or even fixed use at home with suitable
maintenance. Two of these side-by-side would separate even the most ill
placed repeaters and produce a useful 10 db gain. One great way to use
the yagi is to track down power line noise then report the noisy pole to
your power company. For this, AM or SSB detection is needed (air band
receiver?). For these reasons and since these yagis can be built for $8
each, perhaps you now find that you need one. Perhaps you say you can
build your own. Well do it. Don't be left out of the fox hunts. I need
two list of people sent to Norm. The first list of people is for those
of you that want one or more yagis. The next list is for those of you
that wish to participate in the building of the yagis. These lists
should both be in by January 24. Be sure to pass the word to those that
don't see this.
Sometime shortly after January 28, we hope to be assembling these yagis
at the shop of AA9BS.
73 Jim Shaffer, WB9UWA.
 

ESDA Corner

The Central Illinois WX Seminar is March 3rd.  Registration was required
before February 1st.  See  http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/2001seminar.htm
for details.

For those interesting in Amateur Radio Emergency Service, online
training is at <http://www.qsl.net/k9orp/ARES.html>  The classroom
training schedule is available from Larry Keeran K9ORP, evenings at
(309)726-2100 or days at (309)438-5342.

Lincoln Weather is looking for people that would be able to travel to
Lincoln during severe weather and operate the Ham Radio position there.
Training will be provided. Contact Rick Kempf or Larry Keeran.

The S.W.O.P, or Significant Weather Observation Program, is a program
created at the National Weather Service in Lincoln to help give the
forecasting community more weather data to work with for issuing
statements, advisories, watches and warnings. The observers in this
network provide real time data on rain and snowfall amounts as well as
additional information on events common to thunderstorms, such as hail,
high winds and flooding. Those individuals that register in the program
provide this information. Since this is computer based more information
can be had by going to:  http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ilx/swop/swop.htm

--
Larry M. Keeran K9ORP - k9orp@arrl.net - Life ARRL - past SCM-IL
EC McLean County - Pres QCWA Chap 59 - Life QCWA

Received as Newsletter was being mailed

ESDA just called me and said the Spring Weather Watch training is on
March 27th at 7 pm.  Opps.. you are on the air... will try to catch
you.

--
Larry M. Keeran K9ORP - k9orp@arrl.net - Life ARRL - past SCM-IL
EC McLean County - Pres QCWA Chap 59 - Life QCWA
 

A NOTE FROM THE NEWSLETTER EDITOR

I had every intention to get this printed and mailed this weekend and in
fact was formatting the President's column when I received a call from
my wife. My mother-in-law passed Thursday afternoon, so I left about 7
PM for New Orleans and am typing this here in New Orleans. I'll probably
be here all week.

I hope to get back for the Wheaton Fest but if I do not, someone should
check which connectors Jim needs for the antenna project and bring them
back. I'll take two of the antennas.

Looking at the new QST, I was wondering if we had a welder in the club.
That antenna trailer the Washington PA club used for OP Sail would be a
fantastic thing to have and share during emergencies or special events
in the area. I heard the clubs in the Connecticut area planning their
response to that operation. It was certainly an interesting project and
it appeared that they pulled it off with great success.

73's
Norm

LF-to-LF Transatlantic Amateur Contact is Completed
Finally, a code speed I can copy!

Special Bulletin 5  ARLX005 From ARRL Headquarters, Newington CT
February 20, 2001

Amateur Radio history was made this month when amateurs in Canada and
the UK completed what appears to be the first two-way transatlantic
Amateur Radio exchange on 136 kHz. Larry Kayser, VA3LK, and Lawrence
''Laurie'' Mayhead, G3AQC, managed the LF feat using extremely slow CW
that featured 90-second-long dits and 180-second-long dahs. The two-way
contact took two weeks to complete.

''We are the first to do a two-way QSO on LF across the North Atlantic
as far as I am concerned,'' Kayser said. ''We are the ones who put the
stakes in the ground; others will build on what we have done.''

The VA3LK-G3AQC contact began February 5 and was completed February 19
with the reception and confirmation of VA3LK's report by G3AQC. Both
stations used spectrographic software and computers for receiving. The
participants agreed in advance to a ''firewall'' between them for the
duration of the contact and that all QSO information was exchanged over
the LF radio link.

The UK has an amateur band at 136 kHz. While Canada has not yet
authorized general Amateur Radio operation on 136 kHz, Kayser and a few
other Canadian amateurs have received special authorization to conduct
LF experiments there.

G3AQC and VA3LK were using a combination of commercial and surplus
equipment at their respective stations. G3AQC estimated his effective
radiated power at 350 mW, while VA3LK said he might have been at the 5 W
ERP level.

In October 1998, the ARRL petitioned the FCC to create two amateur LF
allocations at 135.7-137.8 kHz and 160-190 kHz. The FCC has not yet
acted on the request.

A SAD END TO ROUND-THE-WORLD SOLO SAIL ATTEMPT

An attempt by 76-year-old David Clark, KB6TAM, to become the oldest
person to sail solo around the world came to a sad end this week when
Clark's vessel, the Mollie Milar, sank two days after leaving Cape Town,
South Africa. Clark was rescued, but his "constant companion" Mickey, a
west highland terrier, was lost at sea during the rescue attempt. Clark
was on the final leg of his journey.

"David has been rescued by a container ship and is okay, although I have
not been able to talk with him yet," said his wife Lynda, in an e-mail
posting. "The ship is heading for East London, South Africa, and I am
waiting for a phone call from him, hopefully tomorrow."

David Clark's 44-foot sailboat went down the evening of February 7.
Lynda Clark said that she got the news via ham radio. "According to the
ham operator who contacted me, the boat sprang a leak and the pump could
not cope," she said. "It was very heavy weather, so when he realized
that the situation was hopeless he called for help and a passing
container ship sent a lifeboat to pick him up, and he had Mickey with
him."

Lynda Clark said that the lifeboat capsized on the way back to the ship,
and everyone ended up in the water. "It would have been pitch dark, and
in all the trauma Mickey got lost. I'm sure David is heartbroken, as am
I," she said. "All of you who have met Mickey along the way know what a
special little guy he was."

" 'So close, and yet so far away,' I guess the quote goes," she
concluded. Lynda Clark said she would post additional information as
soon as she hears from her husband.

During his journey, which began in late 1999, Clark had been keeping in
touch with his wife and family via ham radio, and he was a regular
check-in on the Maritime Net on 20 meters. His vessel, which was named
for his mother, also had satellite communication gear aboard.

Clark had been hoping to return to Ft Lauderdale, Florida, in mid-May,
in time for his 77th birthday.

>From the ARRL Letter.

BLOOMINGTON EXAM DATES
Following is the schedule for W5YI-VEC Amateur Radio exams for the year
2001 at the Bloomington Public Library. Setup is from Noon to 1:30
normally. Exams begin as listed.  Questions may be directed Keith
Hanson.
Please bring two forms of identification. You must have Social Security
Number. We can not administer a test without SSN. You will need a copy
of your Current license plus any CSCE you want to apply.

Bloomington Public Library
205 E. Olive
Bloomington, IL 61701

Remaining dates for the year 2001 (Walk-ins are welcome)
Mar 24
May 12
\Jul 21
Nov 10

Keith, AC9S, is heading the testing.
 

MORTON EXAM DATES
Following is the schedule for W5YI-VEC Amateur Radio exams for the year
2001 at the Morton Public Library. Setup is from 11 to Noon. Exams begin
at noon but registration is typically from 11:45 to 12:30.  Questions
may be directed to Bob Davis (AA9MY) at 309-263-8620 (Day) or email to
redavis@dpc.net
Please bring two forms of identification. You must have Social Security
Number. We can not administer a test without SSN. You will need a copy
of your
Current license plus any CSCE you want to apply.

Morton Public Library
315 W. Pershing
Morton, IL 61550

Remaining dates for the year 2001 (Walk-ins are welcome)
Feb 17
Apr 21
Jun 16
Sep 16 (Peoria Superfest)
Oct 20
Dec 15
There will be VE testing at the Peoria SuperFest on Sunday September 16,
2001
Testing at the Fest will begin at 10:00 A.M. Walk-ins are welcome.