July 2002

Calendar of Events

Coffee Klatch
      Monday thru Friday 9:00 am
      Dairy Queen College Ave. across
      from College Hills Mall
Thursday Coffee Klatch
      7:00 PM at Country Kitchen off
      Route 9 by Farm & Fleet
Weekly 2 Meter Net
Every Tuesday evening on the
146.940-146.340 repeater at
 9:00 p.m.
10/10 Breakfast
 First Saturday of every month at 8 a.m. Baker’s Square, Vernon & Vets (Just south of College Hills Mall)
CIRC Meeting
 Fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at the Red Cross building in Bloomington (Just north of the airport).

CQ CQ CQ to the CIRC

I’d like to thank everyone that made Field Day, 2002 a huge success.  We had sixteen individuals sign in either working as operators, gave support for set up, or provided behind the scene activities.  The club elected to work a site where we would hopefully create some local publicity.  We did receive local exposure through the newspaper and radio station, how this will affect or stir interest for the Amateur Radio service to the community will only be told with time.  For those of us that worked the radios, I believe a good time was had by all.  The heat could have been turned down a bit and much thanks to the huts that provided very much needed shade.  We certainly thank the Red Cross of the Heartland for providing the site and the cool facilities within the building.  We also thank State Farm for providing equipment to make our weekend run a smoothly as possible.  The State Farm group and the CIRC worked together to make the weekend very enjoyable.

Next up is our July 24th meeting.  With the summer months at hand and attendance being a bit light, let’s consider an informal setting, with a more casual gathering of those that can attend.  We don’t have a program as such; however via this newsletter I’ll invite members and guests to bring your latest project or that favorite piece of equipment.  We’ll even entertain a swap meet as such if members care to bring the equipment.  Otherwise, this meeting will address the upcoming August picnic and any emergency business.

Speaking of the August meeting, the CIRC will hold the August meeting on the 18th, sponsoring a family picnic. We will begin around 4 pm, eating around 5 or 5:30 and last as long as everyone wishes. We’d planned on reserving a park site, however all have been spoken for, and thus an alternate site was to use Miller Park.  If anyone has another suggestion, please bring that to the meeting on the 24th or present them on the Tuesday 2M net.  The CIRC will provide hamburgers and buns, members area asked to bring a dish and drink to share.  You also may elected to bring lounge chairs.  We will need a head count, which will be taken at the July meeting and over the 2M net.  Final location and talk in, will be addressed on the W9AML repeater.  Should we not find a location with a grill, I’ll bring my gas grill.

73’s   de KB9NPH, Larry

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

President: Larry Mays KB9NPH
(309)-827-8183
Vice President: John Payne KB9ZDZ
(309) 728-2288
Secretary: Mitch Bricker KB9PXL
(309)-378-4454
Treasurer: Rick Kempf WD9HRU
(309)-828-8054
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
19266 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.
 

Minutes CIRC Meeting
June 24, 2002
 

May CIRC minutes were unavailable at the June meeting , and will be read at the July Meeting.

Rick WD9HRU read the treasurers report, Checking  $431.44 Savings $629.09.
Floyd W9EX motioned to approve treasurers report, Norm N9ZKS seconded the motion, Carried

Field day sheet was discussed, and checked for points and station contacts.

A big THANK YOU to State Farm for the support and equipment that they supplied!

Field Day was a success, and all had a good time with contacts and social time.

A suggestion was made by Dan N9NSN to hold field day at a 24 Hour Grocery store, or Mall.

Larry KB9NPH Contacted Schnucks who supplied us with pop and Water. Another big THANK YOU !

Floyd W9EX checked on the condition of the repeater, after it went down for a few days. Thanks Floyd!

 It was brought up to order new W9AML club jackets. Norm N9ZKS will investigate details and cost.

Mitch KB9PXL motioned to decline the donation of a coffee pot to the CIRC club from the Dillinghams, Dean AA9BS seconded.  The club  thanks you for the offer anyway.

Floyd W9EX brought up future location and replacement considerations, tabled for later discussion.

Upcoming activities: July- Fox Hunt,   August 18- 4-dusk Family Picnic.
Rick WD9HRU made the motion for the club to purchase meat for picnic, Larry KB9NPH seconded.

July 13, testing at the Library.

Hamfests- Peotone July 7,   Sugar Grove- July 21

Norm N9ZKS motioned to adjourn  the meeting.  Dean AA9BS seconded. Meeting closed 8:30 P.M.

CIRC Monthly Meeting Minutes
May 22, 2002

Minutes from last meeting were approved as written.
Floyd W9EX motioned to accept minutes, Andy K9IKR seconded.

Rick WD9HRU read the treasurers report, Barb WA9BKB motioned to accept, Norm N9ZKS seconded.

A letter from the Girl Scouts for donations was read, and was tabled.

Red Cross members were unable to attend due to being out of town.

Larry KB9NPH, Talked about Field day plans and current needs.
A Breakfast meeting prior to setting up, will be at the Garden of Paradise 7 a.m. Saturday.

Norm N9ZKS will take care of publications and news.

Items needed, included shelters, drop cords, tables, rope to tie down shelters, ground rods, ect.

 The Club talked about the purchase of a shelter rather than renting them.

John KB9LNS, will work with software on four laptops, for field day activities.

 For security and safety at least 3 Radio operators for field day activities from midnight to 6a.m.
 would be appreciated. Drinks will be provided.

Barb WA9BKB motioned to adjourn, Norm N9ZKS seconded

For Sale

60 ft of standing Rohn tower 25 W/25ag top sect.--very good shape
Telex th3 /10-15 -20 mtr beam in the air-new 5 yr ago out of box 1 yr in the air
Cushcraft 2mtr -13b2------Cushcraft 6 mtr 3 element----Hamm IV rotor w/control box
all coax and control cable(85or90 ft each) guy wire and 14kv insulators.
$550 for all in the air
contact---N9BMR--Scott @309-694-4124 Creve Coeur il or e-mail  to n9bmr@aol.com
Only reason for selling -selling home to travel for 10 years or so in RV.
--Scott Lehman,  N9BMR

Norm, N9ZKS

As I was in a tent, directly under the all band dipole, with about 40' of 450  twin lead, a MFJ tuner, 36" of RG-58, the 706 running off a battery/ac  inverter supply, sitting on a big rock, I didn't have a lot of options for  grounding and RFI control as I had 36 others walking around the tent and  station.  I elected to just run the radio direct off the 12 volts, so I was  literally in the dark at night running CW and ragchewing using N9PE's (SK)  Bencher paddles which were atop a Rubber Maid storage tub. It was kinda awkward but I had fun working VK9NL, P40RM, G3NYY, NC3S, OD5NH, K9ZO,  and  others. I had a daily sked with KB9PXL and AA9BS on 40 SSB. I also took my  Kenwood D7A out of my truck and tried to beacon APRS messages thru PCSAT, but  had no luck with 5W and the rubber duck antenna ... the last full day  (Friday), I took the station back to the truck (with 35 W amp and quarter  wave on the roof) and reestablished the APRS beacon on the PCSAT VHF digipeat  frequency and during the next 18 hours did hear and was heard thru PCSAT.

For those "fishing" there were plenty of big fish.... a dozen large mouth Bass in the 2.5 to 3.5 pound range (unfortunately too big to keep until after July first), Walleye and Northern pike were hitting as were Crappie. Even with all the fish that were released (and the ones that got away) we had  plenty for a big fish and steak dinner for 38 people on our last night in  camp.

All in all it was a great time, I got to spend a good amount of quality time with my grandson. I was able to help ten boys with the radio merit badge, I  sent about half a dozen pieces of "having a good time" traffic, and the OD5  and VK9 contacts were "icing on the cake of regular and DX QSO's with a  portable station."

73 & DX,

Gary,  AB9M

Freq Callsign Location PL
145.390 N9EZJ Lincoln
145.430 KD9F Gridley 103.5
146.790 K9CYW Bloomington
146.940 W9AML Bloomington
147.015 NX9M Normal 88.5 (open*)
147.150 WD9FTV Bloomington 103.5(open*)
147.345 K9ZM Lincoln
442.700 WB9UUS Normal 107.2 (open**)
443.325 KE9HB Congerville 107.2
444.350 W9EX Bloomington 107.2
444.975 N9FZF Normal 136.5
* Repeater is currently in open mode with pl for those with QRM
** Repeater RX with tight carrier squelch and loose tone squelch (107.2)
 

Bloomington Public Library
205 E. Olive
Bloomington, IL 61701

Remaining date for the year 2002 (Walk-ins are welcome)
Nov 16

Keith, AC9S, is heading the testing.
 

Satellite APRS with D7A

I received this in reply to a query of Gary, AB9M. I fell it would be of interest to others, so I am including it in the newsletter.  Norm, N9ZKS

Most of the setting on the D7A(g) are the same for satellite APRS as  they are for terrestrial (144.390 MHz) operations. The notable exceptions  are; ISS frequency is 145.800 downlink (receive for the D7A) and 145.990  uplink (D7A TX) which is loaded as a nonstandard repeater pair, UNPROTO is  set to ARISS and PATH is set to ARISS. For PCSAT you can't set the exact  freq. 145.8275 MHz (145.825 or 145.830 depending on Doppler - '830 coming at you, '825 going away) but it seems to work okay with the freqs on either  side, with UNPROTO and PATH set to W3ADO-1. (If the PCSAT resets due to low power, it comes up with a default callsign of W3ADO-1 but looses the alias APRSAT, so just use W3ADO-1.)

Standard settings I use that are working for both terrestrial and satellite APRS include; Limit (Coverage) OFF, Beacon interval - 1 minute, TX delay - 200  ms (since I'm using an external amp I've changed that to 300 ms), STATUS   1/1,  STATUS text "CQ, AB9M-3, EN50NK" , AUTO REPLY ON with a message "QSL,  TNX, 73 Gary" or something similar, MESSAGE INPUT TO: ALL with message "CQ,  AB9M-3 EN50NK" or similar.

By setting the message box with a "Message input" which can be okayed just  before a satellite pass, the message will be sent to "ALL" about five times  automatically during the pass. The beacon will send the status text every  minute (whether a bird is in view or not). Anyone sending a directed message to AB9M-3 as a result of the outgoing message or status text digipeated by  PCSAT or ISS, will get an automatic reply sent back to them.

To work the satellites you need to know when they are "in view" or just leave  them on FREQ with the beacon running. To get the in view times you can download Keplarian data and either "do the math," run a computer program, or the easier method (I think) is to just log on to N9PE DXSpider on 144.91  (1200 baud) and do a "sh/sat" for a listing of the satellite Keplarian data available. The syntax is "sh/sat ISS 30 (hours)  3 (minutes)"  for a  prediction over the next X hours and an interval in minutes when the  satellite is in view. To get PCSAT data for the next 24 hours and a two minute interval, "sh/sat PCSAT 24 2".

To see your location on a map (or others) and the satellites use these links; http://www.ariss.net/ for ISS, http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/pcsat.cgi for PCSAT, or http://www.findu.com/cgi.html for "findu.com" cgi which you can customize for the output you want to see.

That's pretty much what you need to know to get on satellite APRS with a Kenwood D7A(g), if you use some other radio and TNC combination, "your  results may vary".

73 & DX,

Gary - AB9M

July 15, 2002

CIRC Members

Re:  Field Day, June 21 – 23, 2002

Dear:  CIRC

Field Day is a twenty-four hour, competitive, amateur radio, emergency communications exercise, and an opportunity for local HAM radio operators to work together and exchange ideas and experiences.

The emergency preparedness support services provided by staff of State Farm Insurance of the Illinois Regional Office and our local chapter of the American Red Cross of the Heartland made Field Day of 2002 a huge success.  The CIRC club call, W9AML was used for radio contacts with other groups in the USA, its possessions, and Canada.  The N1SF call was used in connection with a special event station, for those that have not been recently active; together we demonstrated how amateur radio can provide non-commercial health and welfare communications for catastrophe victims.

As President of the CIRC and on behalf of the NISF club, I wish to express my extreme thanks for the support of this years Field Day.  State Farm Regional Office provided us with Quonset huts, a generator for emergency power and most noted, staffing of deliveries for set up and tearing down and overnight security of the premises. The Red Cross provided us with the property, cooperating with State Farm Insurance Regional Office for actual ground set up and accessibility.  The Red Cross provided both clubs access to their offices for needed relief from the extreme heat and access to personal facilities.  This was a great opportunity to demonstrate unlimited possibilities when members of different organizations work together for a common cause.

Thanks again directed to all the unnamed individuals that made this year’s event another success.

Best regards,
 
 

Larry G. Mays – KB9NPH
CIRC President

Cc: N1SF Club

 CIRC Club

 Herb Stevens, State Farm Insurance Regional Office

 Sondra Hayes, Red Cross