 The PARC S-Meter An Electronic Newsletter of the Panoramaland Amateur Radio Club PO Box 7 Colville, WA 99114 Issued Monday, October 13, 2008 (Issue No. 10) ___________________________________________________ Club Website: www.qsl.net/k7jar Club repeater: Output, 146.62 MHz; Input, 146.02 MHz, no tone ___________________________________________________ SPECIAL NOTICE: PLEASE REPORT ANY DIFFICULTY IN SEEING THE PHOTOS CONTAINED IN THIS ELECTRONIC EDITION OF THE NEWSLETTER. ___________________________________________________ QST ALL HAMS October club meeting scheduled for Friday, October 17, 2008 at 7:30 P.M. PDT, 19:30h PDT, or 02:30h UTC (on October 18, 2008). You pick. Meeting QTH is Hearth and Home Technologies on Highway 395 North. Enter off 395 at traffic light at Arby's. ___________________________________________________ CLUB NET Sunday evenings, 8:00 P.M. local ___________________________________________________ THE VIEW FROM THE TOP OF THE TOWER...a few words from WX7P, President  President Wilse Morgan, WX7P, receiving tutorial on use of an amateur handi-talkie. The 54th annual Pacific Northwest DX Convention will be held for the first time in Spokane. The dates are August 7th thru the 9th 2009. The first meeting of the DX Convention committee was held in Spokane Saturday, October, 11th. Gimmie and I attended and of course were given several assignments. The Spokane DX Association will be the host club. The Spokane Ham Fest did very well this year. Betsy, N7WRQ, the Chairman of the event said that there were over 500 in attendance. There were several high dollar prizes given away by raffle. For the first time, all 3000 tickets were sold. Several of the PARC members had booths there. The auction was the best one so far. Lots of treasures were donated to make the auction a success. Dave, N7DRK, was a very good Ringman and helped make the auction work. Well Dave N7DRK had his antenna party today October 12th. His new SteppIR beam is now 70 feet in the air. The weather was very nice and the beam went up without a hitch. Randy, N7CKJ, of course was the man on the tower. His ground crew consisted of Dave, N7DRK, Guy, N7YRT, Ric, K5UJU, Steff, KA7BHW, Dennis, KB7UJI, and Wilse, WX7P. Bert, KE7MAK, and Gimmie, AL7LB, fixed lunch for us and of course it was a spectacular feed. Thanks to all for helping another Ham get on the air. The CQ World Wide DX Radio Sport will be held October 25 and 26. It is a 48-hour contest to see how many DX stations can be worked. We always need operators so step right up and we will put you on the mike even if you have had no experience. There will be an experienced operator there to help you. It does not matter what your grade of license is. You all are welcome to come to the QTH any time over the weekend to see the action and there will be refreshments. Dave N7DRK The ARES Chief and his group had their SET exercise on October 4th. It went well. Keep in mind that emergency communications is the most important part of Ham Radio. If you would like to be part of this effort give Dave a call.at 509- 738- 6876. I hope to see you all at the PARC meeting on Friday Oct, 17. At the Hearth and Home. 73 Wilse WX7P 509-738-4248 [email protected] ___________________________________________________ SPOKANE HAMFEST The Spokane Hamfest was held on September 27, 2008, and several of our PARC members attended. Thanks to Bert Klimas, KE7MAK, for the photos.  EWA SEC Gordon Grove, WA7LNC, Dave Klimas, N7DRK, Stevens County EC, and Guy Fiola, N7YRT, Stevens County Assistant EC at the hamfest.  Our own PARC love birds, Diane Jones, KC7WQB, and her OM, Randy Jones (Radio Randy), N7CKJ, pose for a shot at the hamfest. For a fun experience, check out Diane's QRZ posting to see OM Randy protecting himself from RF.. er, is that RF or the sun? Go to http://qrz.com/callsign and plug in Diane's callsign.  Mary Heino, KC7DXY, and OM Karl, N7TCL, journeyed all the way from Curlew to make the hamfest. Mary and Karl also participated in the SET in Stevens County.  Gimmie Morgan, AL7LB, XYL of Wilse, WX7P, of Rice, WA, assisted, as usual, during the auction at the hamfest.  John Kresek, W7HWG, and sons Stephen, KE7TDZ, and Kevin.  Dennis Schanzenbach, KB7UJI, wanders aimlessly around at the hamfest looking for classic cars with none to be found. ___________________________________________________ EWA SET - FUN HAD BY ALL Oct 4 EWA SET Exercise by N7DRK, Dave The ARES Eastern Washington (EWA) Simulated Emergency Test (SET) was held October 4th. Participants were from Asotin, Benton, Grant, Kittitas, Lincoln, Okanogan, Spokane, Stevens, Walla Walla, Whitman, and Yakima along with Latah County, Idaho, and even a station from Kamloops, B.C. SETs present a great opportunity to practice communications skills under a variety of conditions. In the past we have participated from Mt. Carmel Hospital and the 911 center in Colville. This time, Bert - KE7MAK and I had the pleasure of hosting it in our shack in Rice. During the exercise which lasted from approximately 09:00h to 17:00h local, ten amateurs helped out. These included Dave Klimas, N7DRK, Bert Klimas, KE7MAK, Guy Fiola, N7YRT, Jim Frees, KE7WDD, and his wife Cynthia, Mary Heino, KC7DXY, Karl Heino, N7TCL, Tom Howe, KE7TEG, Maria Hoteling, KE7SDK, Ric Tell, K5UJU, and Stef Mallory, KA7BHW. Mary and Karl came from Curlew to represent the new Ferry County EC, KE7OIA - Sam, who was unable to attend. The exercise started off with a net. After that the focus of the day was in sending/receiving assigned messages to other counties. The test involved the receipt and transmission of messages, provided shortly before the event from our EWA SEC (Section Emergency Coordinator), Gordon Grove, WA7LNC, to other SET participating counties. Guy's tutorial and coaching on radiograms and message handling got us off on the right foot. Many of the pre-written messages had potential for error and contained great practice for phonetics. Messages were handled primarily via single side band (SSB) voice on 75 meters, with some traffic on the two-meter repeater, Winlink digital on 80 meters, with a 70 centimeter / 2 meter crossband repeat to the N7CKJ packet node repeater. We also used telnet during busy periods. In the SET, the "Alpha" message is the outgoing message, generally but not always, sent via HF radio to another county. The "Omega" message is the re-transmitting of the received message back to the Operations Center to confirm what was originally received so that it can be compared to what was supposed to have been sent. Sounds sort of complicated but is actually fairly straightforward. Each participating group was given ten messages to send and was also tasked with receiving messages from the other groups. Keeping track was an important part of it, logging the who/what/where of outgoing/ incoming messages, staying in touch with net control, etc. Stevens County was the first to complete the level one messages and go on to level two where we managed to send out four more messages. Exercises and drills present a great chance to try ourselves and our equipment under varying circumstances. The SET gave us a chance to learn from each other as well as deal with everyday radio challenges (batteries, conditions, the occasional bizarre message…) The exercise is a lot of effort and a lot of fun! I want to thank all those who participated and hope that more of you had a chance to listen in. Great job, folks! Dave  Maria Hoteling, KE7DSK, operates the N7DRK station during the EWA SET while Karl Heino, N7TCL, watches and Ric, K5UJU logs the sending of the message. Editors note: The SET exercise is an important annual, or more often, event that helps amateurs become fluent with handling of emergency traffic should such an event ever occur. Besides the educational aspect of the activity, it's a lot of fun. Each operator is challenged with getting the message through to another operator in a distant location. The messages are composed to include complex words in some cases, making the job more difficult, especially when band conditions and interference impede an easy flow of communications. Each time you participate in such an activity, the easier it becomes to take you seat at the station and jump into the fray of the process. Contact Dave, N7DRK, if you are interested in learning more about how you can get involved. Karl Miller, KC7KPA, passed along this website which has some useful traffic handling tools. Check it out! http://home.earthlink.net/~k7bfl/tfctools.html ___________________________________________________ A SAGA OF POWER LINE RFI-Part 2 Sparking Power Poles and Radiofrequency Interference in Colville For what seems to be an eternity, Ric, K5UJU, and Bill Kendall, KD7MMU, who happen to be neighbors on the eastern edge of Colville, have been experiencing horrible HF interference, rendering communications very difficult in many cases. The interference consists of an almost continuous buzzing noise, strongest on 160 meters and diminishing in strength with increasing frequency. In our last episode, Ric and Bill had identified a particular pole on the Addy-Colville transmission line operated by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and had observed an electrical arc high on the pole. A call to BPA's regional office in Spokane resulted in a field crew visiting the site and repairing some loose hardware on the pole. Unfortunately, this repair did not seem to fix the noise problem at Ric or Bill's stations. With the horrendous noise at sometimes as strong as 50 dB over S-9, you can understand why these two hams want to find the problem and get it fixed. On October 6 and 7, Ric, along with Bill, went about another go-round of radio direction finding, using a field strength meter with a loop antenna, listening on 1600 kHz, near the top of the AM radio broadcast band. With a couple day's worth of measurement data, the bearings obtained during the measurements were plotted on a Google Earth photo of the area. What emerged was a region in which most, but not all, of the bearing lines intersected. A careful inspection of the transmission line revealed that one set of poles fell within this so-called "circle of uncertainty" which happened to be in the middle of the Dominion Meadows Golf Course in Colville.  Map showing radio-direction finding bearings taken at 1.6 MHz of the broadband power line produced interference. Because the loop antenna is bi-directional, the lines have arrows on each end since the signal could come either direction. Note the confluence of lines, however, in the dashed line circle area. Next came a night-time walk through the golf course armed with a flashlight and portable radio to listen to the continuously buzzing sound and direct visual inspection of the poles. Sure enough, when finally at the suspect poles, indicated by the earlier direction finding work, and also pointed to by the portable radio with its internal loopstick antenna, substantial arcing was observed at the points where the upper ends of the steel x-brace between poles attaches to the poles. In this case, arcing was occurring on both poles at the point where the ground wire is supposed to connect to the steel x-bracing. Besides a nice arc-welding spark display in the night sky, the arcing caused a very noticeable sound with the characteristics of a high metallic rattling effect. This is the same sound that power line personnel sometimes use to help identify loose hardware on poles since it results in a sizeable amount of acoustic energy in the ultrasonic frequency range. This allows them to use small parabolic dishes equipped with ultrasonic microphones to pinpoint the exact location on a pole where the arcing is occurring. In this case, the arcing was so evident that the human ears and eyes could detect the result of the arc. In addition, the same arcing sound, this time without an associated visible arc, was found on a pair of transmission line poles located behind Bill's home. BPA will now be returning to Colville to fix these problems and, hopefully, solve the long-standing interference problem to HF reception in this area. A future installment of this story will, hopefully, conclude this saga of power line interference to ham radio. One lingering concern: The point of arcing on the poles corresponds directly to the same location on the pole found a month ago. Could this imply a weak point in the engineering design of how the ground wire connects to the steel? Stay tuned. ___________________________________________________ 2008 LIONS CLUB BICYCLE RACE Joe Schmeller, N7YPS, once again, headed up the PARC communications support for the annual Lions Club Bicycle Race. The event involved approximately 35 bicyclists riding from the city park in Chewelah south toward Springdale and, for some, out to Waites Lake, before returning to Chewelah. Amateurs manned various checkpoints along the route to help with emergency communications is necessary. Besides Joe, other amateurs involved included Dennis, KB7UJI, Ric, K5UJU, Dale Bell, KE7SMC, Dan Penny, KC7LBY. Gerry Cook, WA7JM, served as Net Control. Cheyanne, KE7TRR, Joe's niece, served as "chauffeur" for Joe.  Cheyanne, KE7TRR, and Joe, N7YPS who served as "sweepers" for the annual Lions Club bicycle race in Chewelah. ___________________________________________________ Ham Radio in NAUVOO, IL. Submitted by Bert Wasson, N7YPP When Kris and I arrived here in April, I searched for any Preparedness and Response plans that existed. Finding none except some scattered information on responding to tornado alerts I decided to write a plan. I patterned it after the one we have in Colville. Communications, with a backup system in the event of power failure is at the heart of such a plan. The Nauvoo Visitor Center area covers about 500 acres here with folks scattered in various residences. There is a telephone calling tree that is used for urgent communications that can be used. I worked with some of the local hams here to survey who were active hams and who had what equipment. We set up a 2 meter simplex net on 146.410 MHz with check in every Sunday night. Next, I worked with a couple of hams to get their HF sets and antennas working. There is a St Louis Area Preparedness Net (SLAPN) net on 3.878 MHz every Tuesday night and now there are three stations from Nauvoo checking in. Our next highest reporting level is the St Louis Storehouse. So now we have a telephone calling tree to account for each person here and phones to report to our next highest level. As a backup we have a 2 meter net with 5 people with hand-helds who can physically account for people and an HF net for upward reporting. My thanks to Randy, N7CKJ, for his help in encouraging me to take my HF set with me and helping me get an antenna set up. It has really come in handy. I’m reading lots about various wire antennas for 80 meters and mentally experimenting with them. There is still so much to learn – but I’m making progress. Here are a couple of pictures of my VERY simple setup: Bert N7YPP. Editor's note: Bert and his XYL, Kris, KB7TWC, are currently on a church mission project in Illinois.  Bert Wasson, N7YPP, operating his station setup from Navoo, IL.  Bert, N7YPP, points to one of his antennas used where he and his XYL Kris, KB7TWC, are currently living. ___________________________________________________ N7DRK ANTENNA PARTY Dave, N7DRK, and Bert, KE7MAK, hosted an antenna party at their place in Rice, WA, on Sunday, October 12, to install Dave's new SteppIR beam antenna atop his 70' Titan Trylon tower. The crew was listed in 'The View from the Top of the Tower'. The following pictures tell the story.  The SteppIR beam on saw-horses before lifting to the top of the tower.  The SteppIR beam with Randy on the top of the tower.  Dave on his tractor that he used to pull the beam up to the top of the tower.  We call this 'Ham on High', Randy, N7CKJ, with self portrait at the top of the tower, what a view!  'Big Foot' takes a photograph from the top of the tower where everyone looks like ants.  'Randy the Angel' takes a break in the sun at the top. But, please notice, that he is wearing an approved safety harness. Diane says, "I hope so!" ___________________________________________________ OFF FREQUENCY Recently, a group of Stevens County hams took the train ride from Ione to Metaline Falls. Karl, KC7KPA, and XYL Cleo, KC7TTM, Wilse, WX7P, and XLY Gimmie, AL7LB, and Dave, N7DRK, and XYL Bert, KE7MAK, took the train on a cool and sort of rainy day. Karl and Cleo had their grand daughter Kayla with them. Reportedly, they all had a grand time but, contrary to what your editor suggested, none of them took along a hand-held radio so they could operate "train mobile". That would have been a real kick.  Karl, KC7KPA, grand daughter Kayla, Wilse, WX7P, and Dave, N7DRK, having an eyeball QSO aboard the train to Metaline Falls. No radios were to be found among all these hams...what a shame. ___________________________________________________ ONLY SLIGHTLY OFF FREQUENCY Contributed by Mike Hoteling, KD7IBE In August, Maria and I went to visit our son and his wife in Bellingham, WA. While we were wandering downtown after a show in the evening, we came across the American Museum of Radio and Electricity! They were closed at the time, so we returned the next day. The exhibits began with early batteries, leyden jar capacitors, and progressed through the evolution of radio. There were spark gap transmitters, a large display of vacuum tubes, hundreds of vintage radios of all sorts, and more modern radios, including military and ham gear. A representative of ICOM had been there recently and ICOM has donated a modern contesting type transceiver to the museum as they are setting up a ham station in the coming year. The guy I talked to said the equipment was in the $10k+ range. He said that in the future, guest hams would be able to operate from the station. Here are some pictures I took, there are a lot of radios in the museum. I have never seen such a collection. If you ever find yourself in Bellingham, this is a must-see.    Editor's note: Nice collection of boat anchors! Some of the newer hams may not know that in earlier years, hams used separate transmitters and receivers for communicating. Transceivers used by ham radio operators didn't come along until the late 1950's. Subsequently, many manufacturers began design and production of transceivers for amateur bands. Editor;s second note: For those of you that still have a soft spot for what has become know in the amateur world as "boat anchors" (because of their size and weight), or for newer hams that would like to take a look at what earlier ham gear looked like, check out this website: http://www.webmasterforyou.com/Radios/vintage_ham_radios_for_sale.htm There are lots and lots of goodies shown here and it is likely that if you once owned some older equipment, you will see a copy of it in one of these pictures! BTW, in case you are interested, all of this equipment is up for auction...so get your checkbook out or contact your mortgage lender. ___________________________________________________ WHEN VOICE WON'T WORK- TRY CW Contributed by Bert Klimas, KE7MAK (if you have a hard time remembering Bert's call, think of the phonetics- 'Married A Klimas'...cool, huh?) Did you know that Thomas Edison had a love affaire with the Morse Code? Reportedly, he proposed to his second wife using Morse Code. Also, he and his first wife gave their daughter the middle name 'Dot' in recognition of the code and their son, the middle name, you guessed it, 'Dash'. Read the whole story by logging onto: http://www.nps.gov/archive/edis/home_family/fam_album.htm ___________________________________________________ QRT  Ric, K5UJU As always, your suggestions, comments, contributions are encouraged and welcome. Ric, K5UJU. Editor 73's for now...de K5UJU ___________________________________________________ Ric Tell, K5UJU PARC S-Meter Newsletter Editor 1872 E. Hawthorne Ave. Colville, WA 99114 509-684-9999 voice 509-684-2956 Fax email: [email protected] |