MERRY CHRISTMAS
HAPPY NEW YEAR
The General Meeting this month is our
Small Wonder Labs PSK-31 Transceiver Kit
By Dave Lido, AB2EF
At a
recent GARC meeting, Hank, W2ZZE, sat down next to me. He started to tell me about the PSK-31 QRP
rig he was interested in. I thought it
would be fun to build the kit so I volunteered to do the job for him. He thought that would be great. It took a long time for Hank to receive the
item. It appeared that Dave Benson,
NN1G, at Small Wonder Labs, had been in touch with Hank by e-mai and some of
the parts for the kit were on back order.
When Hank finally received the kit, he drove down to my house, and I
started to put it together.
December 2007
Vol. 80, No.12
CIR 100
Besides my reading glasses, I had a
magnifier and a digital VOM to check all the resistors before soldering into
the printed circuit board, as I didn’t want to make any mistakes. I finally took the kit to work so that I
could do some of the work during my lunch hour.
Therefore progress on the kit was slow.
Toward the end of construction I noticed that there was a missing part,
labeled U5, which is a metal can mixer.
After I had finished as much as I could, I found that there also was a
missing capacitor and a tuning tool.
When I could not go any further I contacted Hank and in turn he e-mailed
Dave Benson. It took another two weeks
to get all the missing parts. I was
thinking about taking some photos of the project but I knew that there were
some problems with reproduction of the club newsletter, which convinced me to
leave the photos out.
Finally, when the kit was completed,
I invited Hank to my house for the “smoke test” and tuning. We hooked up the transceiver to the antenna
and also applied 12 Volts. (Thank God,
NO SMOKE). I loaded Digipan, which is a
great program and free on the Internet.
Before adjusting anything, we were copying stations from
INTERRNET LINK OF THE MONTH FOR INTERNERDS
Last month I told about the web site of the
It works. I tested it.
The above link was suggested by Dave Lido, AB2EF. Dave also suggested the followuing link at
the same time, and I will now use Dave’s second suggestion for our December
link.. This link is a link to old commercial
radio broadcasts. These broadcasts are
not about amateur radio but they offer lots of nostalga to old timers…Just as
the old “boat anchor” vacuum tube radio receiver descriptive links do. This site sells CDs of many old broadcasts,
but you can also hear free samples of many programs, which you can choose by
clicking on the categories and shows in the free sample area.. You get to the samples by clicking on them
from the “Radio Favorites” area.. I
can’t remember what I had for breakfast , but I do vividly remember most of the
old comedy radio broadcasts. I listened
to many of them on my crystal set or my two tube regerative receivers. I also remember the theme songs, jingles, and
the commercials, which are included in the samples as intergral parts of entire radio shows. Somehow the jokes seem corny, dated or silly
now. More so than when I first listened to “Can you Top This?”,
“It Pays to be Ignorant”, and other comedies. That is probably due to the fact
that I can remember hearing them before and even trying to repeat some of the
old jokes myself. The prize money that
could be won in radio contests would be insignificant today and this serves as
another reminder of the shrinking value of the dollar. Do they still make Kirkman soap flakes? A years supply was part of a prize. Perhaps it might be worth more than the prize
money if it doesn’t contain phosphates. The shows that feature music are authentic,
because the fidelity is as poor as the old AM radio broadcasts and receivers
were. Their audio response topped at 5
kHz. We accepted this poor audio from
our 5-tube AC/DC superhets in those days, and it often rode upon some 60 Hz hum
(which didn’t bother my crystal set). Anyway
the web site, for those who don’t Google, is:
http://www.otrcat.com/comedy-c-106.html
It works. I tested it.
.
2007 NY-LI Field Day
QSO Comparisons
as reported by Tom
Carrubba, KA2D
K2VN
K2IRT
NYC Transit ARC 3510 WB2QBP Red Cross ECS 3218 W2EC/K2DQ Bonac ARC 3176
W2VL
LIMARC 2472 W2RAK
Kings County ARC 2068 W2VA
WA2LQO GARC 1648 WB2HBO HBO/Police ARC 2712 W2LIX/W2CYX LI Simplex 1054
WB2JSM
Hall of Science ARC 948
PUZZLE
Here
is another cryptogram:-
XW’VW FUU
LB HMLO HYKWHMWV
-- RP YIVOWUNWV.
--ULUP HYDULB--
Solution
to November’s cryptogram:-
THE
MINUTES
OF GENERAL MEETING – 11/21//2007
Secretary, Karen KC2OPX
This meeting was called to order by
Gordon at
TREASURERS REPORT – Ed, WB2EAV REPEATER REPORT – Gordon, KB2UB
Finances
continue to be in good shape. Both repeaters are now on the
air.
VE REPORT – Bob, W2ILP NET REPORT- Zack, WB2PUE
1 applicant applied: and passed: Sunday 40-Meter
net had a good turn out.
the General exam. 4 VEs were present: Thursday night 2 Meter nets were good..
AB2NT, KB2QFT, KC2OPX and There were no Thursday nets on
Thanksgiving.
W2ILP.
OLD BUSINESS: Ed has mailed liability forms, as required by the NG
Recreation Department.. According to a newspaper article, The
Nantucket lightship will be taken over by the town of
NEW
BUSINESS: The December meeting is our Holiday Party at
Bertuccis. We hope to see everybody
there. The cost of 2008 membership subscriptions was agreed to be unchanged,
except that the cost for members located out of the local area was changed from
$5.00 to $10.00, due to increased cost of postage and reproduction.
PROGRAM: Ray, W2DKM conducted the GARC annual election. ED, WB2EAV was elected President and acting
Treasurer. Jack, WA2PYK and Bob, W2ILP
were reelected as Board Members. Ed,
WB2EAV is also our official Northrop Grumman Recreation Commissioner.
The meeting
was adjoined at 6:30 PM
GARC NETS:
40 Meters:
7.289 MHz at 7:30 AM EST Sundays.
2 Meters
(via repeaters): 146.745 MHz (-.600)at
145.330 MHz (- .600) at 8:45 PM EST Thursdays.
[Tone for
both repeaters is 136.5 Hz]
(ARES/RACES) Mondays
MEETINGS
General Meetings of the GARC
are held on the third Wednesday of each month, starting at
The web site of the GARC can be found at http://www.qsl.net/wa2lqo/ Webmaster is Pat Masterson KE2LJ. Pictures of GARC activities, archives of
newsletters, roster of members, and other information about the GARC may be
found there including Field Day pictures.
CQ de WA2LQO TWENTY YEARS AGO
December 1987 Vol. 59 No. 6 Circ. 412
President John Magin W2MFN
having been relocated to
Elections were held in
November of 1987 and the following:-
President:Ed ,W2IVA Vice President: Jim, WB2QDT Secretary-Treasurer: Marty: N2CRD
Reelected board members
included: Jerry, WB2MPP, Gordon, KB2UB and Bert, K2DOD
The Standing Committees
remained unchanged.
Bert, K2DOD and Howard, W2QUV
were responsible for FCC Exam Coordination.
Bert, K2DOD was the CQ de
Editor.
Bob, W2ILP arranged for
meeting programs.
On the president’s page W2IVA
congratulated Ken, KC2DH for a job well done, and promised that the New Year
1988 will see new activities, starting with the December Christmas Party. The party was to be arraigned by Jack,
WA2PYK, who was commended for his culinary skills at field Day. IVA then spoke of the challenges that lied ahead;
the most obvious were being the relocation of the HF Station and the
An original article showed
several methods of mechanically mounting 2-Meter antennas. The article was coauthored by Robert M.
Forester W2DVG and GARCs own George Klaus, W2CJN
An order form was included
for buying License Manuals from W5YI-VEC
The cost of taking a ham exam
was $4.35 as opposed to the present $14.00
It is not yet certain if the
fee will be raised in 2008.
An ARRL update from Hudson
Division Director, Steve Mendelsohn, then WA2DHF spoke about a proposal to
issue what were then called “secondary calls”, and later became Vanity
Calls. The ARRL had wanted to coordinate
the program that would have issued the calls.
A poll of members resulted in 74 % saying that the program should not be
run by other than the FCC, 74% also said that the program should not be run by
the ARRL Apparently they were against issuing vanity call in any case…but 60%
said that if the program was not to be run by the FCC then the ARRL should do
it. We know now that the FCC is the only
source of Vanity Calls and it is the only possible procedure where the FCC
collects fees from amateur radio operators.
A full page cartoon lampooned
possible Vanity Callsigns that might be asked for, including: K2BUG, K2DOG,
K2ELF, K2FAT, W2GIN, K2HIM, K2JOE, K2III, K2KID, K2LID, K2MET, K2OLD, K2PUT,
K2QSX, K2RST, W2SPY, K2TOO, K2UMP, K2VHF, K2WET, K2XO, K2YAK, W2ZIG and
K2ZAG…with no imaginative mention of W2ILP!
As we can see the challenges
faced by W2IVA in December of 1987 remain faced by our new president. In fact most of those same challenges are
much greater now!
|
GARC
VE SESSIONS We are continuing to proctor exams
for all classes of ham licenses on the second Tuesday of each month starting
at The present exams are: Element 2: Technician Element 3: General Element 4: Amateur Extra Class. The fee for 2007 is $14 for all exams taken at one
sitting. Applicants for upgrades should bring a photocopy of their
license and any CSCE and know their FRN number. New, first time applicants should be aware that their
Social Security number will be required on their application form. All applicants should bring driver’s license
or other picture ID. Until further notice, VE exams will be at Room: Briarcliffe in All applicants should contact W2ILP to preregister so as
to confirm location. If no applicants
apply, exam sessions may be cancelled. For any information e-mail: - [email protected] or phone: - (631) 499-2214 Study material information is
available at the http://www.arrl.org or the http://www.w5yi.org web site. All VECs use the same Q & A pools. Since the beginning of the VE program the GARC has
provided opportunities to take ham exams monthly, during all twelve months of
every year. Bob Wexelbaum, W2ILP and the Grumman
VE team. |
CQ de WA2LQO VOL.
80, NO. 12 EDITOR Bob Wexelbaum W2ILP (631) 499-2214 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS All the members of GARC (we hope!) CQ de WA2LQO is
published monthly by the Grumman Amateur Radio Club for its members and
friends. Send articles and amateur equipment advertisements to: W2ILP Articles may be
sent by e-mail, or postal
mail. They can be in MS Word format
or simply in plain text. Articles
will only be edited when permission is granted by the authors. ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS For insertions
to the WA2LQO website information or photos may be sent by e-mail to Pat
Masterson. Pat Masterson’s e-mail address: Ed Gellender’s e-mail address: First off I want to wish all the members of the GARC a
Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous New
Year. I know that many do not take the time to read all of
this newsletter…but I want you all to read page 4 this month, which tells
about our club 20 years ago, when we faced some of the same sort of
problems that we face today.
Thanks to many of our loyal members we survived in 1988, and I know
that we will likewise survive in 2008.
The GARC, as a group, has performed well as loyal hams and as loyal
friends and it will continue to do so. Its 40 and 2 Meter nets still remain well
attended. Ed, Gordon, Zak and I
will still be running our usual committee tasks. Our loyal VE team will continue. All of us can not be expected to participate
in all of our activities. No
individual member alone can be expected to do everything…but the club, as a
well organized group, can continue the legacy that has earned us the
reputation of being one of the best amateur radio clubs on 73, Bob w2ilp (I Like Peace) GRUMMAN
AMATEUR RADIO CLUB OFFICERS FOR 2008 President Ed Gellender WB2EAV X02-14 516-575-0013 Vice President Gordon
Sammis KB2UB Retiree 631-666-7463 Secretary Karen
Cefalo KC2OPX 631-754-0974 1Yr Board Member
Zack Zilavy WB2PUE Retiree 631-667-4628 1Yr Board Member
Bob Christen W2FPF 2Yr Board Member
Bob Wexelbaum W2ILP Retiree 631-499-2214 2Yr Board Member
Jack Cottrell WA2PYK
Retiree 516-249-0979 Trustee
WA2LQO Ray Schubnel W2DKM Retiree STANDING
COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN FCC
Exam Coord. Bob Wexelbaum W2ILP Retiree 631-499-2214 Webmaster Pat Masterson KE2LJ Retiree 831-971-8761
EDITORIAL
Treasurer Ed Gellender WB2EAV X02-14 516-575-0013
1Yr Board Member Dave Ledo AB2EF
|
|
IMPORTANT!
For those who have not paid
theirs yet, membership subscriptions for 2008 are due.
The
cost is the same $20.00 per year for local members and $5.00 extra for
additional family members at the same QTH.
Because of rising costs of postage and reproduction, members who are
located too far away to attend meetings will now be required to pay $10.00 rather
than the $5.00 that was previously required.
Checks may be sent to:-
Grumman
Amateur Radio Club,
Registered or not, you still can
attend.
The
traditional GARC December Meeting & Holiday Party will be at Bertucci’s
Restaurant this year. Bertucci’s is an Italian
Restaurant, located at
HRU 2008
Mark your calendars
for
http://www.hamradiouniversity.org/
.