The Airwaves December 2006 SIERRA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB An ARRL Special Services Club -- RACES -- ARES -- P.O. Box 1442, Ridgecrest, California 93556-1442

BOARD	President	Bill Burns	WA6QYR	375-8566
	First VP	John Andrus	KC6UWM	371-2190
OF	Second VP	Fred Moses	KG6STR	371-4034
	Secretary	Lloyd Brubaker	WA6KZV
OFFICERS	Treasurer	Pam Evans	KC6UUS	375-4240

SARC Owned and Maintained Repeaters

Randsburg WA6YBN 145.34 MHz (-600 kHz), PL 100.0 Hz, Wide Area Coverage, Emerg. Pwr. Ridgecrest WA6YBN 146.64 MHz (-600 kHz), Translator, No Squelch Tail, Emergency Power Ridgecrest WA6YBN 147.00 MHz (+600 kHz), PL 107.2 Hz, Autopatch, linked to 145.34 Ridgecrest YBNBBS:WA6YBN, 145.050 MHz, Bulletin Board, 1200 Baud Ridgecrest #YBNSW:WA6YBN-4, 223.580 MHz, Node, 1200 Baud Ridgecrest #YBNSW:WA6YBN-4, 439.025 MHz, Node, 9600 Baud

SARC Committees

Technical Assistance: Greg, WA7IRW 446-4383 Program: Fred, KG6STR 446-1315 RF Interference: Bill, WA6QYR 375-8566

Public Relations: John, KC6UWM 375-5324 Airways Editor: Mike, WA6ARA 275-5324 Emergency and Public Service: Jerry, KK6PA

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THE AIRWAVES CALENDAR

Every Monday Night ARRL Audio News 1910 (7:10 PM) on 146.64 MHz IWV Emergency Net Visitors Welcomed! 1930 (7:30 PM) WA6YBN Translator 146.64 MHz (-) East Kern County Emergency Net Visitors Welcomed! Rand repeater 145.340, pl 100 2000 (8 PM)

Dec 13 SARC Meeting Heritage Inn -- Solar Power Overview AMATEUR RADIO LICENSE EXAMS Second Saturday, Even months Dec 09 Volunteer License Exam Sessions Kern County Library Ridgecrest Branch 131 East Las Flores Ave. Meeting Room Pre-register by 05 Apr. All must sign in at 9 AM. Code test 11 AM. Contact Elvy NØLV 760-384-3589 E-mail ehopkins@ridgenet.net

Hello for December 2006. The weather finally has turned cold and we have a number of communication service events coming up in the next few months. We will have had the Over The Hill Track Club Ultra by the time you read this. The two endurance horse rides are coming in January and February. Just more chances for you to get out and try running with a net operation in the field. More and more there are things that need our communications capabilities; The Navy MARS operations Bob Fletcher talked about in November for example.

The Randsburg repeater / California City net on Monday nights following the Ridgecrest net is another capability that we need to practice just in the case of the often spoke of but yet to happen BIG ONE comes along.

I hopefully will be stepping down following the December election. I have been President of SARC for several years and would like to do more operating and building gear for a while. I would like to thank the rest of the officers for supporting the club and keeping it going with good programs and leadership.

So until the next time I see you, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Bill WA6QYR

Treasurer's Report as of December 1, 2006:

Draft Account $ 443.37 
Share Account $ 5,115.89 
Balance:      $ 5,559.26 

The program for December will be Solar Power Overview, plus a short presentation by WA7IRW on his Mobile Solar Power
...KG6STR

Net check in for November is as follows:

06 Nov - 21 checkins 
13 Nov - 16 checkins 
20 Nov - 14 checkins 
27 Nov - 14 checkins 

Bob Fletcher, WB6KWE, is looking for amateurs who want to get involved with MARS. Please contact him at (760) 375-1749

December marks the end of the SARC year. Your 2007 dues are now due.
Please print the membership application.
(you may also RIGHT CLICK to download either PDF or plain text)

Please fill out all the info, including email and post address. This way we can keep an up to date data base of everyone and, hopefully, you won't miss a single issue of this dynamic and exciting newsletter.

The Over The Hill Track Club Ultra Marathon was held on December 3 and SARC provided some much needed communication. This was essential in that there were 4 support sites along the route which did not have cell phone capability. Hams supporting the effort included Greg, WA7IRW, John AI6A, Jerry W6JLB, Mike KF6WSR and Mike WA6ARA. Greg set up the portable repeater, which again gave superb performance. While we did not have any real emergencies, the OTHTC appreciated our support. I want to personally thank Greg, John, Jerry and Mike for coming out at o dark thirty, and in well below freezing temps to support the effort.
...Mike WA6ARA

One of my favorite T-shirts says "Life's too short for QRP." Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor is always grunting and talking about needing "More Power." As Tim proved in each show, more power can get you in trouble when you're not paying attention.

My trouble with "more power" started a few weeks ago when it was my turn on the Indian Wells Valley Emergency Net Roundtable. I mentioned a problem I was experiencing with RFI when I operated WINLINK 2000 on 30 Meters. I mentioned that if I transmitted using 350 watts or more, my home cooler would momentarily come on with each PACTOR burst transmission even though the thermostat for the cooler was turned off. If I reduced power to 300 watts or less, the cooler would stay off.

Here's where the trouble came up. Shortly after the net, I received a very nice email from a fellow Ham reminding me of the power limit of only 200 watts on 30 Meters. Oops. Well shoot. I quickly did some research in hopes that the 200 watt limit was measured at the antenna or maybe even measured as ERP. Maybe I could claim that I had 2.8 db loss in the coax which would put me under 200 watts when measured at the antenna or as ERP. Well, it was not to be. Per the FCC rule book, the 200 watts is measured at the transmitter for the 30 Meter band.

So, I would like to apologize to everyone for not operating my Amateur Radio station within the proper constraints of the FCC rules and regulations. I have reviewed the power limitations on all Amateur Radio bands that I have the capability to operate on in an effort to avoid this subject in the future. Looking at the good side of this, my RFI issues with the cooler are no longer a problem since I will keep my operating on 30 Meters to 200 watts or less in the future.

I guess I shouldn't feel too bad. This past weekend during the annual CQ WWDX SSB contest, I heard several U.S. stations try to make contacts below 14.150 MHz. One N7 station went as low as 14.137 MHz and had to be told by a VE3 station that he was operating out of band.

By the way, for a great source of information for power limitations, authorized modes, frequencies and more, RIGHT CLICK

http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/Hambands_color.pdf (color)
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/Hambands_bw.pdf (black and white)

Finally, if you don't know what QRO, QRP, RFI or ERP means, I'm reminded of my days as a sea-sick U.S. Navy Radioman Second Class riding out one typhoon after another (or so it seemed at the time), right after our Senior Chief Radioman would knock me on the back of my head, he'd say "Look it up, you'll remember it longer!" You know what? He was right. Thanks Braz.

Till next time.....73.....Hal/KM6JM

After waiting, literally years, there are numerous changes being made to the amateur radio service. This is under the long-awaited ''Omnibus'' Amateur Radio Report and Order. Order was finally published in the Federal Register and will be in force as of 15 December 2006. This has taken some time, starting back in 2003. This rule making does not include the code in licensing. That will be a separate rule making (who knows when).

Some of the finer points include:

• expanded the phone subbands in the 75 and 40 meter bands
• permitted auxiliary stations to transmit on portions of the 2 meter band
• permitted the use of spread spectrum on 222-225 MHz
• permitted amateurs to retransmit communications from the International Space Station
• permitted amateur licensees to designate a specific Amateur Radio club to receive their call sign in memoriam
• prohibited an applicant from filing more than one application for a specific vanity call sign
• eliminated certain restrictions on equipment manufacturers
• permitted Amateur Radio stations in Alaska and surrounding waters more flexibility in providing emergency communications
• clarified that "amateur stations may, at all times and on all frequencies authorized to the control operator, make transmissions necessary to meet essential communication needs and to facilitate relief actions."
• deleted the frequency bands and segments specified for RACES stations
• deleted the requirement for public announcement of test locations and times

The FCC also released erratum correcting some omissions and errors (FCC and error! Say it is not so!). The original release would have limited digital in the HF region to below 500Hz. That would have cut out several digital codes now on the bands. The correction now allows them as they are now.

All of this will also change the licensing exam pool. The Question Pool Committee cut just one question from the Technician question pool, 13 from the General pool and 10 from the Amateur Extra pool. Changes in rules governing frequency privileges and external RF power amplifier standards accounted for the lion's share of the questions cut from the General and Amateur Extra pools. Modifying material will be sent out to the ARRL VEs.

Remember, these are not in effect until 15 December!

New, unused Cushcraft A4S HF Yagi. $500.00 Nearly $750 from a business.
Jerry Brooks, KK6PA

Updated Sat Jan 13 10:58:35 PST 2007