IMPORTANT! January Meeting Wed 24 January

Central Illinois Radio Club
P.O. Box 993
Bloomington, IL  61702-0993

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.


JANUARY PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

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


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. Important considerations
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 hair pin 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 feed line to the antenna and I recommend that the
feed line 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 feed line with a PL259 on one
end and a connector suited to your rig or attenuate 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 & ARES Corner

The Central Illinois WX Seminar is March 3rd.  Registration is  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. This information is provided by those
individuals that register in the program. 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


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

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

The testing is being headed by Keith, AC9S.

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.