The Starved Rock Radio Club
April 2001
STATIC

Meeting Happenings

Mark announced that there might still be life in the Tabor Grain deal yet. (I
wish it would go away.  We are still looking for an Activities Chairperson!
We agreed to buy a GE commercial radio for the packet base. for $135.00, and
we are looking out for three or four sections of Rohn 25G tower to erect a
30-40 ft tower for the packet antennae.  We still need to schedule an antenna
party and fix the guys and do something to the antennas on the top of the
tower.
KB9EZZ told us that we will have help (?) from a troop of Boy scouts at Field
Day.  We need to decide on a food menu, and we are going to TRY to schedule
operators around the clock.
N9ZJK told us that he has 50 tables sold for the hamfest, the sign-up sheet
is going along OK, and we have sold over $400.00 in advance tickets.
Jerry then told us about inquiries he has made about moving the hamfest to
the Mendota Fairgrounds.  See article below for more details.
KB9EZZ asked that the club look for some 2M gear to donate to the Illinois
Veteran's Home.  There is now one resident vet who is licensed, but , of
course, there is not much money for ham radio.   Anybody want to help?
I gave a fairly long repeater maint report.  See the edited version of the
report below.  It was voted to buy a new power amplifier to replace the
Midland amp, which died again.
We have a new porch light, and I'll try to get it installed pretty soon.

PROPOSAL TO MOVE HAMFEST TO MENDOTA

    Jerry, N9ZJK gave a presentation at the April meeting regarding moving
the hamfest to the Mendota fairgrounds.   There is more building space, and
better accommodations there.  There are some downsides to it of course.   The
big one is that lots of folks think of our hamfest as "the Princeton Hamfest"
Mendota is not that far away from Mendota, so distance is not a problem.
Jerry is pretty sure we can get the fairgrounds for less cost than we are
paying Bureau County.  I am asking Jerry to write up what he has done, and
what he has found out.   I am sure everybody will have lots to say about this
one.  We need to move fairly quickly on this if we want to move for 2002.

REPEATER REPORT

    The repeater went down twice last month.  The first time I found the
power supply had shut down.  I reset it and it worked for a day, then shut
down again.  This time I found the power amplifier had fried-again.  This is
what had caused the first outage I'm sure.  This is the third time that
amplifier quit.  The first time was right after it was first installed, and
it was fixed under warranty.  The second time was over a year ago, and it
cost us $300.00 odd to fix it.  I recommended we NOT fix it, and buy a new
amplifier of a different type at a cost of $330.00 This was accepted, and the
new amp is on order.
The two UHF receivers are on order from Spectrum.  They cost $405.00 each.  I
also ordered the manual for the cross-band repeater we bought recently.  It
will probably cost $100.00 or so to re-crystal that unit so it will become a
remote site unit.  In addition I gave some figures for completing the remote
repeater system.  Here are some rough figures for a three remote site system.

2 new UHF receivers (on order-810.00)
Rework S7R x-band rptr-100.00
Hardware/cables/for installing UHF rcvrs at Etna Rd-70.00
PL boards for system-250.00
2 VHF rcv, 2 UHF xmt ants and coaxetc-300.00
New 2M/70CM x-band radio-400.00
Power supplies-100.00
This does not include any site costs, such as tower rental, additional
insurance, and antenna installation charges.   We won't have any idea of
these costs until we HAVE a site.
And about $1000.00 more for each additional site - not including any site
work which may be needed at them.
There is a legitimate concern of how complex the system can get before it
becomes a maintenance white elephant.  Every piece you add is a possible
source of trouble I don't think we are near that point yet.   I have not had
to touch the Leonore site in over a year.  Before the lightning strike last
year at Etna Rd it was working for over four months without any need for me
to touch it.   The voter is working pretty well now.   It did do a little
glitch just before the power amp quit.  I was able to readjust it with no
trouble, but I am concerned that it DID jump out of adjustment and I don't
know why.
De KF9NZ


Starved Rock Radio Club - April 2001 Equipment Chairman Report

I have much to report on for this month in the equipment area.  First, the
maintained battery charger has been purchased from Farm and Fleet this past
month, and is in operation, keeping the battery charged that is powering the
remote receive site at the clubhouse.  This battery will later power the club
packet station as well, which will be moved out to the table in the main
room, directly behind the remote receiver equipment.  Look for this move
sometime later this spring.  It was approved at the meeting last night to
purchase the GE pre-programmed 16 channel VHF packet radio that I presented
information on in last months report.  The radio will be programmed to
include the club packet frequency of 145.010 MHz as the default frequency.
The total cost of the unit and accessories will be $135.00.  As was reported
previously, the club has been in need of its own packet radio since the other
Alinco took a kaputt last fall.  The radio will be ordered as soon as Kurt
(KB9RKU) and I sit down and devise a list of the exact 16 frequencies to be
programmed into the radio.  Thanks much to Kurt for the loan of his Icom
IC-2100 for the time being!
Discussion was held on the condition of the guy pole(s) that support the club
tower.  It was decided that at least the far west pole on the SW corner of
the building was leaning too far to the right, and needs to be fixed and/or
replaced.  It was approved to pursue the purchase of a used tower to be
utilized by the clubs two meter Ringo Ranger antenna and 440 MHz Yagi beam
antenna for the packet station.  There will likely be a full proposal on a
purchase at the May meeting, but in the meantime I need everyones help.  We
would like a 25-35 foot used tower, in very good condition, with no major
internal nor external rust/corrosion problems.  We would also need the
special top piece for this tower.  If anyone knows of a tower that someone
would like to get rid of, for little or no cost,
then let me know.  My e-mail addy is kb9tma@yahoo.com, or call (815) 673-1023
and leave a message.  The tower must meet the criteria I listed above!  I
will repaint the tower if needed.  We would like to re-anchor the guy wires
for the west side of the existing club tower at the base of this new tower,
thus eliminating the need to spend money fixing and re-cementing the existing
guy pole that is already leaning.  Frank (KF9NZ) suggested that any
additional guy poles that need to be fixed should be done with aground anchor
kit, thereby eliminating the need to do any major cement work.

Finally, we still need to organize an equipment party to install the new
Mosley HF beam that has been patiently waiting since last July.  We need at
least 2 or more people (besides Pat-KC6VVT and myself) who can assist as
ground crew while Pat does the climbing work.  I will be contacting Pat to
get an idea of some open dates for the project, which will likely take place
over a weekend with decent weather.  Watch the reflector for an email with
some possible dates, and then please respond if you will be available.  We
can not continue to hold antenna parties where I am the sole participant!
Stay tuned for more info, and let me know if you have any tower ideas to
bring before the club next month.