THE AIRWAVES CALENDAR

SARC MEETINGS Nov. 13 SARC Board of Officers Meeting at Carl's Jr., 17:30 hrs Nov. 18 Membership Meeting Third Monday, Kerr-McGee Center, 1930 hrs Program: QRP, Where Amateur Radio Still Flourishes, Mike Herr WA6ARA Dec. 9 Membership Meeting Back to Second Monday, Kerr-McGee Center, 1930 hrs Vote: Election of 1997 officers. Vote: Constitution amendment Jan. 13 Officer Installation Banquet Where: To be annouced When: 1830 hrs Reservations: Lloyd Brubaker 375-7245 Mondays SARC Emergency Net Every Monday except meeting nights 1930 hrs, 146.64 -600kHz WA6YBN translator PUBLIC SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES Dec. 8 Desert 50 K Run A coordinator for this event is needed. Call Lloyd WA6KZV, 375-7245, to volunteer as coordinator and communications crew. Jan. 25 Twenty Mule Team 50 Mile Horse ride, 12 hour. Call Lloyd Brubaker WA6KZV 375-7245 to volunteer as a radio communicator.

RACES TRAINING Nov. 25 RACES Training Session Cycle 2 Red Cross Office. 1900-2100 hrs All RACES members who haven't participated in this class should attend. Call Lloyd, WA6KZV, 375-7245, for more information. Dec. 16 RACES Training Session Cycle 2 Red Cross Office. 1900-2100 hrs All RACES members who haven't participated in this class should attend. Call Lloyd, WA6KZV, 375-7245, for more information. CLASSES and EXAMINATIONS Jan. 97 Beginning Electronics and Amateur Radio laboratory and class Cerro Coso Community College will offer a course leading to Novice and Technician licenses in the spring semester of the 96-97 school year. The electronic lab will have an operating HF, VHF data and voice station now being installed with the guidance of Mike Cash KN6IS. Watch for announcement in the CCCC spring semester course catalog available 21 November. Mar. 1 Volunteer Examination Session 0900 hrs, Kerr-McGee Center

QRP QRP QRP MEETING PROGRAM This "Q" Signal, according to the Amateur Handbook, means "Shall I decrease power?" Come to the November meeting and find out what QRP means in small, inexpensive, battery powered hardware. Mike Herr WA6ARA will give a talk on QRP operation, kit building and other aspects of this challenging portion of the amateur radio hobby. For you DIY HAMs, QRP is a hotbed of user assembled receivers, transmitters and many other magic small boxes. QRP is an inexpensive way to learn electronic assembly, circuit theory and really sharpen your on-the-air operating skills. Yes, there are many WAS, WAC and DXCC certificates won by dedicated QRPers. Come hear Mike, ask questions and see some QRP hardware. NEW MEETING LOCATION NEW MEETING DAY CONSTITUTION CHANGE REQUIRED Dave Shipley KE6RRT, hearing that the SARC money coffer is suffering from dwindling content of coin, struck out into the wilds of Ridgecrest to find SARC a less expensive place to meet. His search ended at the Heritage Inn which has offered SARC second Wednesday evening use of their Flight Deck room for NO RENT. As a kicker first Wednesday evening use of a smaller room for Board of Officer meetings is also included. Great work Dave! And Dave isn't even a club member yet. The Board of Officers has agreed to accept this offer subject to a vote by the members and a subsequent amendment to the SARC constitution to remove "second Monday" as our specified meeting day. CONSTITUTION AMENDMENTS To avail ourselves of the Heritage Inn's offer of rent free meeting rooms (and save $300 per year), the constitution must be amended to remove the current "second Monday". The Board of Officers has also proposed two other amendments. The first is to make a meeting place change a decision of the Board of Officers and the second is to officially create a family membership. The following is presented as part of the constitution specified process to amend it. Excerpting from the SARC constitution: ARTICLE IX reads in full: This Constitution or the Bylaws may be amended by a two-thirds vote of a Quorum of the members at a regular meeting. Proposals for amendment shall be (a) submitted in writing at a regular meeting and (b) shall be voted on at the next following regular meeting (c) provided all members have been notified by mail of the intent to amend the Constitution and/or Bylaws at said regular meeting. (Bracketed letters added for clarity.) The proposed amendments are below. Strikethroughs are portions to be removed. Italics are additions. BYLAW 2. Regular, monthly, meetings of the membership shall be held on the second Monday of each month a specific day of the month at such place as the President Board of Officers shall order. The location shall be published regularly in the club newsletter. Special meetings may be called by the President upon the written request of any five Club members. Notices shall be sent to members concerning special meetings and the business to be transacted. Only such business as designated in the special meeting notice shall be transacted at said special meeting. Special meeting notices shall be delivered to arrive not less than forty-eight (48) hours before the special meeting's time. BYLAW 3. Dues shall be as determined by a majority of the Board of Officers and shall be payable annually by 31 March. Full time students, and active duty military and immediate family members shall have dues reduced to an amount equal to fifty percent (50%) of regular dues, payable annually by 31 March. A family membership is for parent(s) or guardian(s) and minor dependents at one address with one newsletter sent to one address. Family membership dues shall be one-hundred-and-fifty percent (150%) of the regular dues. This article serves to meet the "notified by mail" stipulation of Article IX. It will be repeated in the December Airwaves. Copies of the constitution with proposed amendments will be available at the November and December meetings. The amendments, as proposed herein, will be voted on at the December meeting. No changes to the amendments can be made without restarting the three month process. RECENT SARC ACTIVITIES Desert Empire Fair Parade by Mark Rosenthal N6BVP I would like to thank all who showed up bright and early Saturday 19 October at the K-Mart parking lot to provide communications for the Desert Empire Fair Parade. Luckily all we had to do was watch (and cruise up and down the boulevard on our motorcycles), but, if an emergency had arisen we would have been ready. To those who participated for the first time it is not usually so dull. Those who braved the cold to stand around and wait were: Judy KC6UTF, Jan KC6UTH, Dave Stone KC6UUR, Dave Shipley KE6RRT, Judith N7TTH, Larry KE6YLG, Erik KC6UUT, Tom WB6EPD and Gene KF6CMV. Next year we won't get up so early. Thanks again. Mountain Bicycle Race by Elvy Hopkins ND6Q Mother nature's three day, blustery, cool warning of rapidly approaching winter was undoubtably brought upon us by the Desert Empire Fair being scheduled for the same weekend. However, Sunday morning, 20 October, dawned clear, calm, cool and a perfect day for the Seventh Annual Ridgecrest Classic Mountain Bicycle Race. Thirteen SARC members in various forms of mostly four-wheel-drive vehicles, and Greg Roush's nineteen-ought-and-seven VW Bug with the portable repeater in it, gathered in the CCCC parking lot for a 0745 hrs briefing. T-shirts, pins, maps and briefing sheets were dispensed. Volunteers were assigned to nine fixed locations and Mark Slay to rove the west loop on his motorcycle. All departed the parking lot by 0815 hrs to reach their spot in the desert before the 0900 hrs race start. A couple of first timers lost their way to their duty location but with the map and coaching on the radio all reached a place to park in time for the race. My having the portable repeater location marked incorrectly o This year, the race promoter, Kem Park, asked us to spot Hams on some difficult, steep or rocky areas on the race course in addition to the three check points and the start/finish. Mark Slay rode the course on Saturday and picked out several of these areas and we then asked Kem to prioritize them. We were able to have communications at five of these potentially dangerous sections of the course. Linda Finco, the leader for the China Lake Mountain Rescue Group (CLMRG) contingent of seven medical mercy dispensers is now a Ham, KF6CMW, and followed communications with her 2 m HT while a CLMRG HT was operating in the van, at the start/finish, for additional coordination if required. The portable repeater worked flawlessly all day after Greg Roush fixed a transmitter problem which has been bothering it for some time. Tom Ingram and Charlie Hawthorne helped Greg set it up and then delivered it back to Greg in the parking lot after the race. The race went quickly with the Pro riders completing their 27.4 mile race in less than two hours. Dave Rait transported a rider with severe leg cramps back to the start/finish and the medics for treatment. By 1400 hrs all riders were accounted for and the group of Hams began to leave for home and unfinished weekend projects. There were no serious medical events. No riders got lost. It was a beautiful fall day in the desert and a good time was had by all. Thank you to all who participated. The entire crew was: WA6ARA Mike Herr, KF6BCN Mike Gallagher, WB6EPD Tom Ingram, KE6IFD Mark Ball, KN6IS Mike Cash, KM6JM Hal Hazel, KG6LR Dave Rait, ND6Q Elvy Hopkins, KE6SMA Mark Slay, NL7SX Jack Bitzer, KC6UUR David Stone, KE6WQR Charles Hawthorne and WA7IRW Greg Roush. At the volunteer appreciation luncheon on Saturday, 26 October, Kem Park presented several checks to public service organizations and school athletic organizations. SARC was represented by Dave Stone KC6UUR and Elvy Hopkins ND6Q. Emergency Communications Van The Ridgecrest Emergency Communications Van was on display at the Desert Empire Fair 18 thru 20 October. Three SARC RACES members kept the radios talking, the packet equipment squawking and replacing the signboard on the tripod every time the wind blew it down. Those who worked this event were Hal Hazel KM6JM, Jerry Brooks KK6PA and Bill Burns WA6QYR. License Cram Class Lloyd Brubaker WA6KZV conducted another License Cram Class on 18-20 October. Two persons attended and both, Patricia Weiss and Larry Ingle, passed Elements 2 and 3A to get Technician licenses at the following week's VE Session. RACES Training Session A repeat of the Cycle One RACES training session was conducted by Lloyd Brubaker WA6KZV on 24 October at the Red Cross office. Only one trainee, Dave Shipley KE6RRT, attended so the one-on-one interchange was informal. Cycle Two sessions have been scheduled for Monday, 25 November and Monday, 16 December. Call Lloyd Brubaker at 375-7245 for more information. Volunteer Exam Session The October 26 VE session had four applicants take ten tests. Charley Hawthorne KE6WQR upgraded to Tech Plus and received a CSCE for Element 3B. Larry Ingle has received technician call KF6HBH and Patricia Weiss in now a technician with KF6HBI for her call. John Stinstrom received a CSCE for Element 2. Congratulations to these four and here's to your Hamming it up any way you like it. Charley says that he has ordered an HF rig so he can copy code off the air "like a real HAM" and plans to "get that code test" next March. Happy new radio, Charley. Check in with W1AW at least once a week to measure your progress. VEs who conducted the session were Mike Herr WA6ARA, Tom Ingram WA6EPD, Lloyd Brubaker WA6KZV, Bill Maraffio N6PR, Elvy Hopkins ND6Q, and Bob Huckins W6UPI. The next SARC VE session is 0900 hrs, Saturday 1 March at the Kerr-McGee Center. IN THE MILL RACES Training Scheduled RACES members need to mark one of two Monday evenings on their calendars. Lloyd Brubaker WA6KZV is continuing his RACES training series with Cycle 2 sessions scheduled for 25 November and 16 December at the Red Cross Office from 1900 - 2100 hrs. The Red Cross Office is in Unit A of the NAWS Family Service Center, Building No. 02308, about one block east of the NAWS Administration Building in the northwest corner of Blandy St. and Hussey Rd. Register for CCCC License Class November 25 thru 17 January is the registration period for the CCCC's new Electronic Theory and Novice/Technician License Class. Call CCCC at 375-5001 for details. Coordinator Needed Chris Rios, Over The Hill Track Club's organizer for the annual 50 K Run, has again asked SARC to provide communications for this years event scheduled for Sunday, 8 December. A SARC coordinator is needed to organize volunteers and communications for this event. Please call Lloyd Brubaker at 375-7245 to participate. Note: If there is no volunteer coordinator, Lloyd will appoint one from the volunteers. Election of the 1997 SARC Officers Election will be held during the 9 December meeting. The Nominating Committee is seeking SARC officer candidates. Please consider serving SARC as an officer or committee member. Want to know more? Contact Jerry Brooks KK6PA 446-2228, Mike Cash KN6IS 375-4441 or Lloyd Brubaker WA6KZV 375-7245 Officer Installation Banquet As of closing date for submissions to the November Airwaves (Doesn't that sound officious?), Lloyd Brubaker is working on the details for January's 1997 Officer Installation banquet. Do you have ideas, suggestions, wishes, a skit, awards (funny), offers of assistance or --- ? Call Lloyd at 375-7245. Final plans will be announced in the December issue. OLD BUSINESS Minutes of the Board of Officers Meeting, Date: 16 Oct. 1996 Attendees: President Mark Ball KE6IFD, 1 st. VP David Stone KC6UUR, 2 nd. VP Mike Cash KN6IS, Treasurer Mark Rosenthal N6BVP, Secretary Lloyd Brubaker WA6KZV, Airwaves Editor Elvy Hopkins ND6Q. Discussion: 1. Payment of equipment insurance which has been "billed" by CIGNA. SARC has no such policy? Liability insurance is with Wholers. 2. All Hams in IWV Airwaves mailing in Jan. 97. Articles and contributors. 3. Dave Shipley KE6RRT has talked to the Heritage Inn regarding a meeting location for SARC. Wednesday nights are open. Dave is taking a SARC wish list to the Heritage for their consideration. A SARC constitutional change will be required to meet on Wednesday. 4. Treasurer N6BVP will initiate a new membership data base and address label printing procedures beginning with 1997 membership payments. 5. Contract with Ed Tipler WA6KYZ and payment of the yearly telephone line rental for the 147.00 MHz repeater autopatch will be reviewed with Tipler by Elvy Hopkins. Minutes of the General Meeting, by Secretary, Lloyd Brubaker Date: 21 October 1996 The meeting was called to order at 1934 hrs by the Vice President. The treasurer's report was given, the high point being that we have spent $1200 more this year than we have taken in. Reports were given on: The bike ride by Elvy ND6Q. The DEF Parade by Mark Rosenthal N6BVP. All went well, no problems. The Cram Class in Ham Radio by Lloyd WA6KZV. Only two in the class. Both of these got Technician licenses a week later in the VE session. The Communications Van on display at the fair by Bill, WA6QYR. A few came up to talk. Everybody could see it. It was proposed by the board that the January Airwaves be sent to all of the Hams in the valley. This was approved by the members present. Elvy has already started on the special issue. Articles are requested. Anyone with something to say should submit copy (preferably on disc in Word) to Elvy. The new Ham Club organized at Burroughs High School by Mike. Jim says that about six come more or less regularly. The general aspects of the packet system in the valley by Jerry, KK6PA. The El Paso node is on line and has been for a week. We are trying to establish a fast link into the San Joaquin Valley via Shirley Peak. Two frequencies can be used: 145.050 and 223.68 into WA6YBN-4. Also available in Inyokern is 145.61 (AMD) and is faster. 145.01 is another active frequency as is 439.025 a 9600 baud El Paso Peak node. The 431.025 is on bird springs but is a primary ATV frequency. The meeting was adjourned at about 2100 hrs. REPEATER HAPPENINGS Two Meter Keep-It Sheet Mike Cash KN6IS has put together the Keep-It Sheet enclosed in this issue. Keep-It in your shack for quick reference. Keep-It in your RACES prepared emergency communications vehicle. Copy-Reduce-It and Stuff-It in the back of your HT carrying case. Mike would like to include 220 Mhz and 70 cm repeaters but he doesn't have gear for these bands. If you wish to assist Mike in completing this Keep-It sheet, call him at 375-4441. 147.00 Repeater This repeater has been going on/off the air on its own due to an intermittent that Mike Hugo KA6OIJ has been hunting for some time. In his recent poking around to find said intermittent it seemed to have quit for good. (Mike, did you put a penny behind the fuse?). Mike says that replacing of a major board in the transmitter section has "fixed" (?) it. So far so good. Thanks Mike for several hair pulling sessions on the mountain. Packet Racket by Jerry Brooks KK6PA Jim KE6DWM had a nice keyboard-to-keyboard chat with Bud, N9IA in Las Vegas recently. Bud was apparently having some problem establishing a two meter NTS link with YBNBBS. He suggested we look at establishing the link on their (Las Vegas) backbone frequency which operates on the 70cm band at 9600 baud. Their 96LAS node is located on Low Potosi. and should be easily received at Erich KA6AMD's location near Inyokern. In an effort to find a better way pack-it out of the IWV, Erich KA6AMD, Jim KE6DWM, Jerry KK6PA and Dave KC6UUR conducted a test on 3 November attempting to work the 9600 baud 70 cm Las Vegas backbone on Low Potosi Mtn. It was not heard. However, the 2 m, 9600 baud, machine could be heard but a connect was not possible. Subsequent investigation revealed that it was running 2 watts into a 12 element beam pointed north. Ooops, what do we do now? Another test was arranged for 8 and 9 November. The Las Vegas sysops will point the 70 cm 9600 baud machine's antenna at Ridgecrest. Errata: Well, 'ole Ed diddit agin. This time he left out the PLs for two of the SARC repeaters out of the Airwaves header. Check this month. They're there. They're correct. Also, Jim KE6DWM pointed out that WA6YBN-4 is a Node and not a bulletin board. That's been corrected too. AIRWAVES TO ALL HAMS A special January 1997 issue of the Airwaves will be sent to over 400 Hams in the IWV and surrounding areas in an effort to boost membership. At $.75 per mailed issue, a one-in-twenty membership sign-up will pay for this venture. If you have ideas for an article for this special issue, please contact the Airwaves editor, Elvy Hopkins ND6Q at 384-3589. AMATEUR RADIO LICENSING 1996 - 1997 Schedule Below is the SARC Cram Class and Volunteer Exam (VE) Session schedule for the remainder of 1996 and 1997. 21, 22, 23 Feb. Cram Class at Red Cross Off. 1 Mar. VE Session at Kerr Mc-Gee Center 2, 3, 4 May Cram Class at Red Cross Office 10 May VE Session at Kerr Mc-Gee Center 21 June VE Session at Kerr Mc-Gee Center 31 Oct., 1, 2 Nov. Cram Class at Red Cross 8 Nov. VE Session at Kerr Mc-Gee Center STICKER SHOCK My Kenwood TH-315A 220 MHz handheld which I bought used in 1991, has been dropped once to many times on it's volume/on-off pot. (No. I wouldn't do a thing like that. It must have happened before I bought it.) This left me with deteriorating volume control and finally only one volume level --- way too LOUD. After calling the Kenwood phone number and punching my way through a myriad of menus, I was informed by the computer synthesized voice that I would have to call another number luckily an 800 number. Dialing 800-262-1312 got me Pacific Coast Parts and Johnny who informed me that the pot/switch was $10.88. OooowwwEeeee! Since the unit was at least five years old, I also asked for the CR2032 lithium, memory holding battery another $11.10. Oooowww. That cell is less than $4 at my friendly local computer store without the solder tabs. Well, after paying for a steak for the governors dog and a $6.50 flat shipping/handling fee, the total impact on my Visa card was $30.29 for two parts. Oh well, I'm missing the Do you have a Sideband Engineers SBE-33 or SBE-34 or any other HF rig of that vintage, which uses 8950 tubes in the final? If you do, you know how hard they are to find. Thanks to a neighbor who wishes to remain unnamed I have three very slightly used 8950 tubes available for the asking. Call me, Elvy Hopkins, at 384-3589. Charles Quinlan WD6FPZ reports that his employer, Star Communications, wants to be rid of the remaining sections of the old KLOA broadcasting tower lying on the ground north of the Coast to Coast building. There are three twenty foot lengths. The price is right. First-come-first-served. You haullem - you gottem. Go look at them and call Charles at 371-7827 if you want them. They must be removed no later than 16 November or they will be torched and scrapped. --- Aaaah sooo saaad. (Hint: This tower is bolted together. It can be reduced to a box of nuts, bolts and washers, another pile of braces less than three feet long and the twenty foot long legs. Sound easier now? And you can hide it in your back yard behind the doghouse until you convince your wife how beautiful it will be pointing at the sky. Ahhh yesss, Kemo Sabe.) 73s See ya in the funny papers ND6Q