>From the President-KB9JTL
We had a nice presentation about the Boy Scout Camporee from Ralph Moshage
during our September meeting. This will be a fun way for the SRRC to expose
young people to the magic of ham radio. I would like to have some help
during the day on Saturday. It would be nice to have at least one person
with a general class license, or above, so we could demonstrate HF. The
dates are Oct 14th & 15th at the Barry Welber's farm in Spring Valley. This
event will be field day style with a camp out on Saturday night. The theme
is outdoor / wilderness survival. They will set up several stations to teach
the boys different survival skills.

Another scouting event we can participate in is the Jamboree On The Air. The
dates for JOTA this year are Oct 21st & 22nd. KB9EZZ is planning some
activities at the clubhouse. We will have more details at the October
meeting.

The Tabor Grain agreement was defeated by a wide margin. I informed Jeff on
Tuesday morning. He said he would think about his other options and get back
to me if he wanted to bring another proposal to the table. For now this is
dead.

We have purchased a remote receiver from N9OUW. This would be a good time
for our more technically minded members to join the repeater committee and
help KF9NZ make it operational. This is a ground floor opportunity to be
part of the solution!!!!!  My hope is to thoroughly test the completed unit
at a temporary site and then find a permanent home in the northern part of
our service area.

None of our members expressed interest in Red Cross training. I will inform
the instructor we are not interested.

73 for now. This is KB9JTL and I will be listening.

SRRC 11SEP00 meeting (Leonore)-KF9NZ
N9ZJK began to pass out the 50/50 tickets, and even sold about $50.00 worth.
Get yours now!

We had several minutes devoted to the controller.   We bought a piece of
equipment from N9OUW that is a vhf rcvr/uhf xmtr which is 90 percent of the
next remote site.  It was voted to remove the controller from service in
order to get the autopatch repaired.

We discussed the upcoming ARRL Section Manager election coming up.   I moved
that the Club endorse Dick Isely, W9GIG.  The motion failed.

There was discussion about changing the QSL contest.   No one came up with
an idea that seemed to ring any bells.  We need to fix this or eliminate it!

REPEATER HAPPENINGS-KF9NZ
With the now repaired and operating service monitor, and the able assistance
of KB9TMA, the repeater is now operating quite well, and voting (selecting
the best receiver signal) pretty well.  I don't think we will ever get it to
work perfectly.  We may be able to "tweak" it a little, but we will never
see it always work right.   You will still hear mobile signals chop at
times.  That is NOT the voter.  That is loss of signal by both receivers.

Receive PL--as you should all know by hearing the "double beep" courtesy
tone, the receive PL has been off for a week and a half now.   We are not
experiencing out-of-channel interference to any degree.   If needed, it can
be turned back on by remote command at a moment's notice.

Transmit PL is not working.  What is transmit PL you may ask.   It is a low
frequency tone (100 Hz or so) TRANSMITTED BY the repeater.   Many 2M rigs
have a PL receive feature
by means of which the rig will not open its squelch unless it hears the
proper PL tone - just like the repeater not operating unless it hears such a
tone when receive PL is active.   IF transmit PL is active, and your rig is
set to respond only when it hears the correct tone, you will not hear other
signals on our frequency.    Sometime over the last several months, the
circuit board that generates the transmit PL tone broke and refuses to send
anything but a 79.7 tone.  I will buy a new board and fix this matter.

It was voted at the meeting to take the S-Com controller out of service,
wiring in a simple COR circuit to replace it.  The controller will be
returned to the Mfr to fix the autopatch - and other minor problems.
During the time, the repeater will not ID.  It will be necessary for YOU to
ID it!

The Club bought a  receiver/transmitter that is the heart of the next remote
receive site.   With the addition of a power supply, antennae, coax and a
place to install it (!) we will have everything we need for the next site.
We will need a UHF receiver, and an antenna splitter at Etna Rd.  The site
is the big item of course.   The Mendota area would be
the first choice.

VE Session
 Wednesday, October 11, 2000 5-9pm.  You must register by calling KB9EZZ at
433-2347 or drop a note to kb9ezz@arrl.net  University of Illinois Extension
Service (4-H) Route 23 North and Dayton Road (1 MI N of I-80 exit 90)
Ottawa, IL

 For Sale
87 x 52 Library Carrel...four positions--perfect for the shack! Each
position is 42" x 22" deep with a 9" ledge 15" above the desk.  Asking
$300...or best offer.  Please call kb9ezz at 433-2347 or at kb9ezz@arrl.net

Free Antenna
Bill Dunlap has a 31 ft 400 lb log-periodic antenna to give away. 13-30 MHz,
Hy-Gain model LP-1001. It needs work.   Bill also has a Kenwood 940 he would
like fixed. He has the manuals.  You can contact Bill at 434-5078 or at
w9jid@theramp.net

>From The ARRL Letter:

ARISS HAM GEAR REACHES DESTINATION
The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station initial station
equipment plus supplies that the ISS Expedition 1 crew will need later this
year were delivered to the ISS this week. After entering the station itself,
astronauts and cosmonauts worked to unload the cargo--including the ham
gear--from the shuttle Atlantis and from a docked Russian Progress rocket
and to set the ISS up for its first crew.   The ARISS initial station gear
will be installed temporarily aboard Zarya and will use an existing antenna
that's being adapted to support FM voice and packet on 2 meters. The gear
will be re-installed in the Zvezda Service Module next year, and it will
have both 2-meter and 70-cm capabilities. A Russian call sign, RZ3DZR, has
been issued for the ISS ham radio station.  For more information about
Amateur Radio on the ISS and SAREX, visit the ARISS Web site,
http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov/.

FCC CANCELS LICENSE OF "CAPTAIN TRUTH" SUSPECT
The FCC has cancelled the license of the individual it strongly suspects was
"Captain Truth." The Commission notified John M. Yount of Newton, North
Carolina, on September 5 that it was canceling his Amateur Extra class
ticket because he failed to appear for re-examination. Yount had held the
call sign K4QIJ.

The FCC zeroed in on Yount last spring as a prime suspect in its "Captain
Truth" investigation into unidentified Amateur Radio transmissions and
malicious interference. FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement
Riley Hollingsworth wrote Yount on March 29, citing FCC and other close-in
monitoring evidence that indicated Yount's station was the source of
"malicious interference and jamming" on 20 and 75 meters.

Hollingsworth said this week that "Captain Truth" has not been heard on the
air since the FCC's initial letter to Yount on March 29. After failing to
get a satisfactory reply, Hollingsworth wrote Yount in July requesting that
he retake his examinations under the supervision of an ARRL-VEC volunteer
examiner team on or before September 1. "And he never showed up,"
Hollingsworth said.

The FCC says radio-direction finding bearings led to Yount's residence and
antenna. Part of its monitoring evidence resulted from work done by the
FCC's High-Frequency Direction Finding facility in Columbia, Maryland, the
FCC said.

Yount suggested in his only reply to the FCC that there were a lot of
vehicles and other houses on his property and that someone else could have
been responsible for the transmissions the FCC had monitored and tracked.

Hollingsworth said he wrote Yount again on June 1 to seek clarification and
additional information in the ongoing investigation before sending the
retesting notice on July 17. "I never heard from him again," Hollingsworth
said.

SOLAR UPDATE
Solar sage Tad Cook, K7VVV, Seattle, Washington, reports: The sun has been
almost spotless this week, which seems odd for what is supposed to be the
peak period of activity for solar Cycle 23. The Boulder Sunspot Number went
all the way down to 27 on Monday, and the average sunspot number for this
reporting week (Thursday through Wednesday) was a tiny bit over half of last
week's average. Monday's index was the lowest sunspot number of this year.
What we are experiencing now is the wide variation in activity that can be
observed even at the peak of the solar cycle.

Activity for the past few days has been picking up, and the latest solar
flux forecast for Friday through next Thursday is 160 for Friday and
Saturday, and 170 for Sunday through Thursday. Solar flux is expected to
stay above 150 until October 5, then reach the next minimum around 125 on
October 10 or 11.

Next week is the autumnal equinox, a time when HF conditions should be at
their best. Let's hope that the sun cooperates, and gives us more sunspots
and less solar flares.

Emergency Communications course site moved
The Emergency Communication (EmCom) Certification pilot project outline and
related materials have been moved. The new URL is
http://home.earthlink.net/~w0ipl/emcom-rd.htm . If you experience any
problems with the new URL or have any other questions or
concerns, contact ARRL Certification Specialist Dan Miller, K3UFG,
k3ufg@arrl.org; 860-594-0340. Miller says the program is proceeding on
target, and Part 1 of Level I is expected to debut in late October.

The ARRL Letter offers a weekly summary of essential news of interest to
active amateurs that's available in advance of publication in QST, our
official journal. The ARRL Letter strives to be timely, accurate, concise,
and readable. The ARRLWeb Extra at http:// www.arrl.org/members-only/extra
offers ARRL members access to late-breaking news and informative features,
updated regularly.