SARC Committees
THE AIRWAVES CALENDAR
From the President's Shack Merry Holidays! Well the cold weather finally came to Ridgecrest. I don't know if it was the strong winds or the heavy birds parked on my tribander, but I am back with one element twisted off horizontal again. My 13-element two-meter antenna survived. I guess it wasn't big enough as they say. The repeater antennas stayed in place, as did the 1296 MHz and the 2304 MHz loop Yagis that I have on the other tower. I have been keeping the house warm with the wood stove, so soon it will be time to get out and cut up some more wood to keep things warm inside. The radio room keeps its temperature in the winter with the lights and radios running. Hope you remembered to change the antifreeze in the car while it was still warm season. All these "wireless" computer toys seem to be on the move for our upper ham bands. Both 2 GHz and 5 GHz bands are in for more toys other than amateur radios. Even the 24 GHz band is seeing others crowding in to our space. The FCC still is messing around with the broadband Internet over power lines. Thanks to club members, SARC donated $500 to the defense of our HF bands. It is like they say, we have to be users of our bands or we will be losing them. Happy Holidays, Bill
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
The January SARC / Installation dinner will be held at the Texas
Cattle Company "party room" (located on north China Lake Blvd).
on January 14, 2004 at 6 pm. The dinner is low key and families are
invited / encouraged to come. This year SARC is sponsoring door
prizes. The Grand prize is a Yaesu VX-2r dual band 1 w HT with 500
KHz to 1 GHz receive. There are also two $25 AES Gift Certificates
and one $20 gift Certificate as well. SARC members who come and buy
their dinner will receive one free ticket. Other tickets can be
purchased for $5 each. And of course, there is always the grab bag
"gift exchange" too. It's a good way to collect and get rid of
some ham junk. Come join the fun and good fellowship.
Board of Officers Meeting Minutes
The November 12, 2003 board meeting was called to order at 1901 hrs.Those present: Pres. Bill Burns (WA6QYR), 1st Vice Pres. Phelps TerHeun (W6PTH), 2nd Vice Pres. Dennis Farrell (W6DWF), Treas. Pam Evans (KC6UUS), Secy. Tom Ingram (WB6EPD) and Airwaves Editor Mike Herr (WA6ARA). The possibility of using the SARC trailer tower during an upcoming Boy Scout campout was discussed. The Board of Officers Installation dinner is planned for the second Wednesday in January. A number of items relating to this dinner were discussed including door prizes. Door prizes could include a HT and/or gift certificates at a HAM store. This will be brought up at the general meeting. A nominations committee is needed for the upcoming elections. An Audit committee is needed for the SARC annual audit. The program for next month is on the Windmill farm. An Over-the-Hill-Track club event is scheduled for next month. Several letters have been received from the ARRL in recognition of SARC support of the ARRL Special Campaign for Spectrum Defense. The meeting was adjourned at 1927 hrs.
Minutes of the General Meeting
The 12 Nov 2003 meeting was called to order by the President, Bill Burns (WA6QYR) at 1933 hrs at the Heritage Inn. The Sign-in sheet was started around. Announcements: 50/50 tickets are available. The Treasurers Report is in the newsletter. There was no request for Technical assistance during the past month. The Jamboree-On-The-Air was a successful event. Details were in the November Airwaves. Patches are available for those who helped. There will be a Boy Scout campout in Keesville in April 2004. It will include Boy Scouts from Kern County. A letter and a certificate were received from the ARRL in recognition of SARC support of the ARRL Special Campaign for Spectrum Defense. A Nomination committee is needed for the upcoming SARC elections. Lloyd Brubaker (WA6KZV) talked about the Coso Bun Buster Horse ride. Although things were a little confused Saturday morning, everyone had a good time. HAM support was plentiful on Saturday but a little thin on Sunday. There were 54 entries on Saturday. SARC received a donation of $200 from the COSO Bun Buster Committee. There will be a Horse ride in January and again in February. The Over-The-Hill Track club will have a race on 7 December. It will start at the Cerro Coso Gym at 0630. Jerry Brooks (KK6PA) announced that there would be a Hospital drill on 13 November. The SARC Officer Installation dinner is scheduled for 14 January at Texas Cattle Company. A discussion was held on the club providing $200 for door prizes. A motion was made by Lloyd Brubaker for the club to spend $200 on door prizes. The motion was seconded by Greg Roush (WA6IRW), and passed by the membership present. The President recognized Fred Moses as a new Ham (KG6STR) and a new member in SARC. The program provided by Jerry Brooks and Hal Hazel (KM6JM) on the RACES/ARES Functional Drill to take place at the Salvation Army at 0900 on Saturday, 15 November. Kern County Search and Rescue has expressed an interest in having Hams go along on some of their missions. Pam Evans (KC6UUS) provided cookies. Greg Roush won the 50/50. There were 17 amateurs at the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 20:21. TREASURER'S REPORT Treasurer's Report As of December 01, 2003: Draft Account $ 438.21 Share Account $ 5,448.55 TOTAL $ 5,886.76 Obligated Funds: Relocate 147.00 Repeater $ 139.90 BALANCE: $5,746.86Submitted by Pam Evans, KC6UUS 147 Repeater Status Not too much has happened in the last month with the repeater. I have just been too busy working on a RACES 220 MHz radio for Jerry and all the other projects, plus the honey-dos. We still need a computer type to help check out the compatibility of the 147-machine control software with the Rand machine so that when we install the link it will work. Bill, WA6QYR Nominating Committee
Paula Herr, N6VGW has volunteered to be on the ballot for first
vice president. This is the only position needing to be filled.
The nominations will be opened at the December meeting, so any one
wishing to be nominated for any position please speak up.
IWV Emergency Net
I'm looking for net operators for 2004. It is simple to do and great
practice for the real thing. Drop me a line to sign up.
Book Review
I first saw a write up on this book in CQ magazine over the summer. The CQ article was about the story behind the book. That was enough to get me enough to go out and purchase it. This is not your ordinary ham radio book, rather it is a celebration of a ham's life as viewed through his years of QSL cards. The book was started with the discovery of a silent ham's stash of QSL cards at a flea market. The writers, both non hams at the time, become intrigued with the collection. The QSL card chronicled the life and times of Jerry Powell, W2OJW, from 1928 to his death in 2000. Changes in ham radio, his personal life and in the world are shown through the cards. Consider that this ham's radio life spanned a time when some were still complaining of the loss of spark gap transmitters being the down fall of ham radio, through the depression, World War II, and the numerous world events that followed. This is a non-technical book and will be enjoyed by hams and non hams alike. One thing for sure, you will never look at your QSL card collection the same again. I pulled out my old novice collection from 1970 and swear I could still smell the hot 6146 homebrew transmitter pounding out WN6ARA. I strongly recommend this book. It makes a nice addition to the collection next to the easy chair. Late in the evening, just pick it up for an enjoyable read. As a side note, both authors have received their ham radio licenses. And while they never met W2OJW, they consider him their Elmer. It's available at amazon.com
A Ham's Night Before Christmas
'Twas the night before Christmas, And all through two meters, Not a signal was keying up Any repeaters. The antennas reached up From the tower, quite high, To catch the weak signals That bounced from the sky. The children, Tech-Pluses, Took their HT's to bed, And dreamed of the day They'd be Extras, instead. Mom put on her headphones, I plugged in the key, And we tuned 40 meters for that rare ZK3. When the meter was pegged by a signal with power. It smoked a small diode, and, I swear, shook the tower. Mom yanked off her phones, And with all she could muster Logged a spot of the signal On the DX Packet Cluster. While I ran to the window and peered up at the sky, To see what could generate RF that high. It was way in the distance, But the moon made it gleam-- A flying sleigh, with an Eight element beam. And a little old driver who looked slightly mean. So I thought for a moment, That it might be Wayne Green. But no, it was Santa The Santa of Hams, On a mission this Christmas to clean up the bands. He circled the tower, Then he stopped in his track And he slid down the coax, Right into the shack. While Mom and I hid Behind stacks of CQ, This Santa of hamming knew just what to do. He cleared off the shack desk Of paper and parts, And filled out all my late QSLs For a start. He ran copper braid, Took a steel rod and pounded It into the earth, till The station was grounded. He tightened loose fittings, resoldered connections, cranked down modulation, Installed lightning protection. He neutralized tubes In my linear amp... (never worked right before-- now it works like a champ!) A new, low-pass filter Cleaned up the TV. He corrected the settings In my TNC. He repaired the computer That would not compute, And he backed up the hard drive And got it to boot. Then, he reached really deep In the bag that he brought, And he pulled out a big box, "A new rig?" I thought! "A new Kenwood? An Icom? A Yaesu, for me?!" (If he thought I'd been bad it might be QRP!) Yes! The Ultimate Station! How could I deserve this? Could it be all those hours That I worked Public Service? He hooked it all up and in record time, quickly Worked 100 countries, All down on 160. I should have been happy It was my call he sent, But the cards and the postage will cost two month's rent! He made final adjustments, And left a card by the key: "To Gary, From Santa Claus. Seventy-Three." Then he grabbed his HT Looked me straight in the eye, punched a code on the pad, And was gone--no good bye. I ran back to the station And the pile-up was big, But a card from St. Nick would be worth my new rig. Oh, too late, for his final came over the air. It was copied all over, It was heard everywhere. The Ham's Santa exclaimed what a ham might expect: "Merry Christmas to all, And to all, good DX." "__... ...__" ARRL Audio News Every Monday night, just prior to the IWV Emergency net, Mike, WA6ARA, re-broadcasts the ARRL Audio News on 146.64 simplex. This is a great source of amateur radio news and a good warm up for the net. So check it out, at 1910 local time (7:10 p.m.) on 146.64 MHz. This is transmitted on the SARC translator output frequency but in simplex. Done so that we don't have to worry about timing out the repeater. I'm also looking for other Amateurs who would be willing to share the job of re-transmitting the news. It is simple enough, just need to download the news from the ARRL web site, and, with a simple to build interface, re-transmit it at the appropriate time. If you want to volunteer please contact Mike, WA6ARA at herr@ridgenet.net Looking for News!
I'm always looking for local news for and about the IWV amateur
radio community. Also, if you have something for sale or are looking
for something else, drop me a line and I'll put it in the Airwaves.
SARC Newletter via Email The SARC Newsletter is available in TWO formats, Adobe Acrobat PDF and in plain text. The PDF version is complete, and in color, but you will need Acrobat Reader to view it. Most have it and it is available free to both PC and Mac users. The plain text version can be read by just about anything! ...but you lose the graphics.
If you want the newsletter via Email just drop me an email and say
which version you want and if you want to drop receiving the paper
version. If you are receiving it via Email and want off the list,
please do the same.
Updated Fri Dec 5 20:12:53 PST 2003 |