The Airwaves July/August 1995

THE AIRWAVES
Voice of the Sierra Amateur Radio Club

CLUB MEETING - SECOND MONDAY OF EACH MONTH AT KERR-MCGEE CENTER AT 1930
THE INDIAN WELLS VALLEY EMERGENCY NET MEETS
ON ALL OTHER MONDAYS AT 1930 ON 146.640(-) MHZ.
ALL AMATEURS ARE WELCOME

SIERRA AMATEUR CLUB PO BOX 1442 RIDGECREST, CA. 93556-1442

JULY/AUGUST 1995

CLUB OFFICERS:

President	Jerry Brooks	KK6PA	446-2228
1st VP	Dave Stone	KC6UUR	375-1730
2nd VP	Bob Phillips	KA6PLU	371-3540
Secretary	Lloyd Brubaker	WA6KZV	375-7245
Treasurer	Thom Skeer	KD6IQJ	446-4359
Newsletter	Judith Rogow	N7TTH	375-2521
Sysop	Dave Stone	KC6UUR

THE PRESIDENT'S REPORT
You missed the fun. Field Day worked out fine. It was a lot of work. The beam and 20 mtr gear was up and ready by about 10:30 AM Saturday. The 40mtr CW system was put into operation at 11:13am. The 160 mtr system was set up Saturday morning also but wasn't put into operation until the sun set and the band started opening up. We had a lot of visitors. Most of them were hams. It got up to about 103 degrees Saturday afternoon, so it wasn't all that bad. I'm not going to try to list all the hams who participated in the activities. However, I must note that KE6DWM, Jim was the only ham who stayed up all nite. He finally hit the sack Sunday morning. The 20 meter group worked 203 hams and 39 states. There were an additional 73 voice contacts on 160 meters, 80 meters and 2 meters. The CW group made 116 contacts including 5 QRP contacts on 80 mtrs. The pot luck was delicious. I probably gained a couple of pounds. Especially when I had my FIRST breakfast at 3 AM Sunday. The 40 dipole for CW was taken down before the operator knew about it. He made about five more CW contacts on it while it was laying on the ground. Talk about a cloud warmer. Thanks to all of you who participated.
Jerry KK6PA

ANTENNA WORKSHOP
The antenna workshop plans are moving at last. The antenna designs are on hand, parts list ready and cost determined. As soon as all participants have paid their money, I'll order all the parts. The cost for the antennas are about 45% of the cost of a new one. According to my source for the design of the antennas, they look like very good performing antennas. The two meter antenna is a five element, the 1-1/4 meter antenna is six elements and the 70 cm antenna has eight elements

SECRETARY'S REPORT
There are no formal meetings scheduled for July and August.
Respectfully Submitted:
Lloyd, WA6KZV, Secretary

TREASURER'S REPORT
By: Thom KD6IQJ

CHECKING	(6/30/95)
Beginning Balance	$287.06
Disbursements (Newsletter)
Disbursements (Autopatch)
Ending Balance
SAVINGS	(6/30/95)
Beginning Balance	$4400.64
Ending Balance

PARADE VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Bob Rose, KC6YYT needs operators to assist at Magnolia Days on September 23rd, and Mark, N6BVP requests communications personnel for the DEF parade on October 7th. Please contact Bob at 371-4785, and Mark at 375-2521, to volunteer. Hams who work Magnolia Days receive a tee-shirt, DEF personnel get in free from noon until 2PM.

FROM THE RACES OFFICER
By Lloyd, WA6KZV
While we are justifiably proud of our equipment, several repeaters, communications vehicles, a tower trailer, and packet equipment, we are sometimes hampered when one or more of these fail for one reason or another. This happened in the 1995 disaster drill when poor propaganda and equipment failure isolated us from surrounding communities and OES headquarters. We could not contact Bakersfield, Fresno, or Sacramento during the time of the drill! While it is true that the drill time was short and in a real disaster we would not be limited by a stand down time still it is desirable to make contacts when they are needed. The .085 machine was not functioning for some reason separating us from Bakersfield. The HF propagation was very poor that day so the experiment to gather data on surrounding Red Cross chapters was a failure. OES facilities could not get into us nor we out to them. Taking this into account, and the fact that in a number of occasions all of these facilities worked flawlessly, it would seem that additional drills and experiments are needed to simply test the communications out of the valley. Both HF and VHF should be utilized. Various times of the day and year should be tested. A number of our members should take part in these tests using their own equipment and that of RACES. Army and Navy MARS is tested daily on a routine basis. Repeaters are used and monitored even more often. But, contacting specific stations where a disaster has alerted us all needs to be tested. It must be more reliable. In short. This fall we will initiate some drills involving making contacts with stations in Bakersfield and Fresno. A number of local stations will take part using both HF and VHF to confirm that this can be done on demand and to give experience to operators in the valley. We also need to test from time to time, the currently operating nodes to assure smooth packet flow on these circuits. We need more drills than just one a year! There will be a series of training sessions held on flex Friday mornings beginning this fall. Each session will be an hour or so long and be held in the Red Cross office on base. The time discussed has been from 0800 to 0900 so that the day and week end will be disturbed as little as possible. We hope to build a cycle of training that will take in the problems we have encountered in our disaster drills and our service-to-the-public experiences. We will also expect to familiarize all operators with the composition and changes in the disaster preparedness in the valley and the county. It is imperative that you attend as many of these training sessions as possible. Preparedness is NOT simply the application of obvious common sense. There is more to it than that!

VE SESSION - JUNE 10TH
The VE session on June I0th was, as always, a busy activity. The usual bunch of VEs were there to guide the candidates through their exams and forms. Eleven candidates began arriving about 8:30 a.m., some of them still cramming in their books, some nervously grinning and looking about, and others with square jaws and steely eyes determined to do their darndest to upgrade or become hams. As usual, the VEs checked each others work, caught errors just in time, and signed on all the appropriate blanks. At the end of all this, better than usual results were exalted and congratulations extended. We can brag about one new Extra, two new Advanced classes, one General, one Tech w/H and three Technicians. Only two came away with only the determination to do better next time and one with a CSCE to show for some progress. We managed to talk a couple of candidates into taking the next exam in fine that they hadn't planned, on and one of them did make it up. And, as usual, several of the VE's trooped off afterwards to celebrate at the Sizzler over lunch. But, somehow, things were not "as usual" for eight or nine of our happy candidates! The next VE sessions was on July 22nd, where we had an easy day with five candidates who garnered one upgrade to Advanced, two Technicians, and one Element 2 CSCE. We extend congratulations to everyone who has upgraded, or made the grade, this summer! The next VE Session will be on Saturday, the 4th of November.

HAM CLASS RESULTS
Our last Ham Class turned out to be rather a success. We did not have a big crowd, but our success rate was high and the students stayed with it until the end. We met on a week-end before the VE session and had 15 hours of class work to explain, review and study, and find the soft spots. The students then had a week to prepare and harden up the soft spots so that the scores were rather better than usual. How about doing this again? Tentative planning looks at October 27-29 for a class covering the General - Advanced or the Advanced - Extra material. Anyone interested? The pattern that we followed was to give a practice exam, correct it, then discuss the weak spots and clear them up, then do it again with another practice exam. About six exams provided the drill. This was done without any code practice. It may well be that code practice would be a part of the higher license preparation although most of this preparation must be on the students' own time. Please give Lloyd, WA6KZV, a call to let him know if you are interested. The class will be offered through the Adult Education program with the Sierra Sands school district.
Above articles by: Lloyd, WA6KZV

IF YOU DON'T PASS THE EXAM
In keeping with the spirit of the above articles, we publish a cautionary photograph! Officer JR Skaggs, with able assistance from Bob, W6UPI, "arrests" Arthur Hebben, N7ZDF (AKA DF6JZ) who is suspected of being a "Z" collector. Bail was set at $1.00.

ANNUAL POT LUCK SUPPER
Ron Olgren, WA6PEV, always hosts a great BBQ, and - according to Ann McMillan, WD6AYI - this year was no exception. The pot luck dishes ranged from salads to deserts, in a wide range of flavors and styles. Everyone brought their own meat to roast (or burn as the case might be), and shared the other dishes. The men enjoyed the "junk swap" where various "treasures" were exchanged, Ann and Mac showed photos of their progress in Kennedy Meadows, where they are building a retirement home. Ann said the get together was very pleasant and low key, and it was nice to see some of the newer hams and their families there.

FUTURE EVENTS
August 14th, Ice Cream Social 7PM at Al and Reeds September 1-3 - Hamcon 95 on the Queen Mary Long Beach, CA Nov. 8-11 - Baja 1000, Contact Paula or WB6WTE 619-868-3862

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
By: Judith, N7TTH
This month's issue features photographs of Field Day showing many of the activities and events that make HAMming such a varied and interesting hobby. I apologize that there are no captions and identifications with the snap-shots, and humbly request that - in future - any and all photographs are submitted with names and captions (where not immediately obvious) clearly marked on an attached paper. Having said that, I would be remiss not to thank the members who provided the professional and interesting shots, those who posed (often unknowingly) for them, and Mark for doing the scanning. Your input is much appreciated, as is Ann's for taking the time and effort to make the BBQ item possible, Lloyd for articles and the mailing labels, and everyone who has assisted in getting this newsletter published. Tnx, all! This issue is the one mailed to all HAMs in the area, members or not, which meant that a few changes were in order. Our usual printer, Joyce Hibberts, wife of Mark, KK6JX, was not able to do all the mechanical required in reading The Airwaves for mailing, and I did not have the man-power available to do the collating, folding, and stapling at home, so we have had Quinn's produce this month's newsletter. Our next issue will be published after the September meeting. 73/Judith, N7TTH

POTPOURRI
Bob, W6UPI, and John, KM6HG, have recently been authorized the WAZ certificate awarded by CQ magazine for having worked all 40 CQ zones! Congratulations, guys! A recent Daily Independent article featured Jim, KE6DWM, and his other hobby, "Surfing the Net" - unfortunately, the writer left out the part about Jim using the 'net to obtain HAM related software and other information.

NEEDED - ARTICLES FOR AIRWAVES - PLEASE CONTACT THE NEWSLETTER EDITOR THE DEADLINE ON SUBMISSIONS FOR THE END OF SUMMER ISSUE IS SEPTEMBER 20, 1995

THIS SPECIAL "FIELD DAY" ISSUE OF AIRWAVES IS BEING MAILED TO ALL AREA HAMS
PO BOX 1442 RIDGECREST, CA 93556-1442
NEXT MEETING, SEPTEMBER 11, 1995

REMEMBER - IN CASE OF IMMINENT OR IMMEDIATE EMERGENCY
Monitor the 146.64(-) translator, call Lloyd on the 146.64 translator to let him know you are available, and be ready to leave when needed. An E-Pack should contain your radios/batteries/charger, a water jug, (with at least a 2.5 gal container in the trunk of your car), Paper and pens, a clip board, flashlights, a watch or small clock, clothing & a hat, extra glasses, sun glasses, any meds you take regularly, some basic first aid items and your medical history (in case you get injured), and some non-perishable snacks (like hard candy) Always have extra batteries handy, if you don't need them, someone else sure will! Keep water and a sleeping bag in the trunk of your car.