September Program:

Our Program for the September Meeting of the Athens Radio Club  will be "Homebrew Rig and Gadget night." So dust off all those nifty construction projects you've done and bring 'em along.

Well, the UGa students are back. If you've been driving in Clarke County in the last few days you don't need me to tell you that. The traffic is really heavy, with some big time traffic jams in places like College Station Road in the mornings. Usually, people talk about Labor Day being the official end of summer, but in college towns like Athens, I think the first day of classes marks the end of summer. Or perhaps its the date of the first home football game. Either way, summer is about over and its time to shake off the summer doldrums and get back to the "real world." Once again, the club will be helping the Red Cross with communications during UGa home football game this year. This is probably our most consistent and significant public service activity during the autumn. And with 6 home games you can really work around your other weekend activities. The first game is Saturday, September 5th. Plan to meet at the T-Bones parking lot on Baxter Street by 3pm. Bob, KE4JLL is coordinating this, so if you have any questions please let him know.

Well, we had a real nice Family day Picnic and Fox hunt last Saturday. I'd guess we had 20+ in attendance. Lots of good fellowship and lots of good food. Thanks to all who brought a dish and to Phil, KE4TYV for getting together all the club supplied hot dogs, drinks, plates etc. and for serving as grill chef again this year. Thanks also to Ed, N4ALE who served as foxmaster. The fox was found first by Dave, KE4EOI and then by Phil, KE4TYV. Several interesting antennas were used and Jerry KC4JRL reports that when he was entering the park, the attendant in the gatehouse was talking on the Parks Dept. radio with another employee who was asking about the "guy running around with the antenna" That had to be Phil, who had a 3 element beam mounted on a piece of PVC pipe. Most people recognize a yagi as an antenna when they see one. The fellow probably thought Phil was a wildlife ranger tracking a bear or something. Ed, N4ZRA had a single element quad which would have looked at home at the head of a religious procession and Scott, KD4MSR must have drawn some stares as he walked around with his HT down in a quaker oats can covered with aluminum foil. It's hard to be inconspicuous on a fox hunt :-) A good time was had by all participants. Ed, N4ZRA wants to organize another fox hunt for sometime later this fall. Watch the Emitter for details.

Don't forget Homebrew Rig and Gadget Night, Tuesday, September 1, 7:30 PM at the club shack. If you built it and you're proud of it (kits included) bring it along and show it off!

73,

Ken

N4NFI

10 Years Ago in the ARC

Michael Covington, N4TMI, spoke at the September meeting on the subject: Computer Understanding of Human Languages.The new repeater controller has arrived. Installation soon. Once again the ARC will be assisting the Red Cross at Georgia home games.

North American Sprint, CW 0000Z—0359Z Sept 6

ARRL September VHF QSO Party 1800Z Sept 12—0300Z Sept 14

North American Sprint, Phone 0000Z—0359Z Sept 13

Air Force Anniversary QSO Party 0001Z Sept 19—2359Z Sept 20

The Tuesday ARC Net

146.745/-

8:30 PM

President Ken Schroder,N4NFI, opened the meeting with introductions by the 10 members and 3 guests present. Members

were reminded to pick up their SkyWarn Certificates if theyparticipated in the last SkyWarn training. Minutes of theprevious meeting were approved as distributed in the Emitter. Paul Smith, N4CUA,treasurer, reported that ARC currently has 53paid members. There is a balance of $1,164.91 in the treasury. ARC completed 336 contacts on ARRL Field Day this year. The club competed in the 1A class. There were 13 check-ins in the June 19, 1998 SkyWarn net. Remember to check-in the the 2M ARES net Sunday nights at 5:45pm. T-shirt orders are still being taken. Ordering information is on the club web-site or contact James Reeves KF4AQO. Ken Schroder announced the death of ARC club member James Oxford, KD4QHB. No club meeting will be held on the regular 1st Tuesday in August. Instead, a Family Day Picnic will be held at Sandy Creek Park Shelter #1 on August 22 from 2-6pm. A foxhunt will be held at this cookout. Bring your handheld and participate.Respectively submitted,

Ed Roller, N4ZRA

2 Meter ARES Net

by Bob Herrin, KE4JLL

Part 3 of a 3 part series.

In a previous article I touched on the subject of locating frequencies. To explore that concept further I want to excerpt from an excellent posting by Bill Parnass. Mr. Parnass is a frequent contributor to publications like Monitoring Times and Popular Communications. He also posts to the newsgroup rec.radio.scanner and makes this information available to us in that format.

By Bill Parnass, AJ9S

Examine the FCC License on Premise

I have found the actual FCC radio license, complete with frequency assignments, hanging on the walls of places like the Bell Labs security office and the guard shack at Waste Management's Greene Valley Landfill in Naperville.Examine the Labels on Radio Equipment Frequency information is engraved on labels on the back of many walkie-talkies, or inside the battery compartment, like in the Motorola HT220 model. Most pagers have labels on the bottom or inside. Like passwords taped ontoterminals, it's not uncommon to find Dymo or P-Touch tape labels embossed with frequencies or call letters glued to the front of base stations. You can make your own opportunities for eyeing the equipment or take advantage of "open house" events. If information is displayed publicly, then a reasonable person could assume it's not government secret.

-At the annual Glenview Naval Air Station open house, Iexamined a military manpack radio being used by dispensary paramedics. The radio's tuning dial was set at 34.15 MHz.

- The Illinois Army National Guard displayed two armored personnel carriers at the local county fair, eachequipped with VHF-FM and HF-SSB transceivers. In addition to a tuning control (VFO), the VHF-FM radio had a set of channel select pushbuttons, much like those in a car radio. I asked a guardsman a few questions about the radio, and he demonstrated thechannel preset feature. A panel above the channel pushbuttons was labeled with the frequencies: 32.055, 34.45, 35.35, 40.55, and 40.60 MHz.

- An Army National Guard UH1 helicopter was displayed at the Marseilles armory "open house". The public was permitted to climb aboard, and observe the instrumentation and radio gear. A channel plate on the instrument cluster listed over a dozen frequencies.

Hobbyists are urged to exercise a modicum of restraint and good judgement. In New Jersey, a radio technician/hobbyist called to service a transmitter in a county building, noticed a new unattended repeater installation in the same room. Being curious about what frequency this repeater was on, he opened the access door to copy the frequencies from the radio's crystals. It turns out that this radio belonged to the US Secret Service, and opening the access door could have activated a "tamper alarm"! The tech was skating on thin ice. He had nobody's permission to tamper with that equipment.Another source of frequency information is as close as your nearest Radio Shack store. Some Radio Shack stores make a local frequency list available to assist their scanner customers. Be sure to ask. Stores located in shopping malls almost always know the mall security frequencies. I often check the frequencies programmed into the floor modelscanners, too.

Examine the Antenna to Determine Frequency Band

You can often determine a transmitter's frequency band by the size and type of antenna used. The Police Call Plus book contains sketches of antennas. Antenna catalogs are crammed full with antenna pictures and specifications and they are usually free. Contact   Antenna Specialists (216-349-8400), Cushcraft (603-627-7877), Tessco (800-472-7373), Maxrad, Larsen Electronics (800-426-1656), and other companies in the land mobile equipment business.

Equipment to Determine Frequency Usage

If you don't know the exact frequency, but have a general idea of the range (e.g. 150 - 152 MHz), use your scanner's "search" mode. Most programmable scanners afford the ability to search between two frequency limits set by the user. Some models, including the Radio Shack PRO-2035, ICOM R7000/R7100, Bearcat 2500XLT, and Bearcat 250, have the ability to automatically store active frequencies found during an unattended search operation. To find the frequency of a hotel communications system, one fellow installed his Bearcat 250 in his car and parked in the hotel lot, leaving the scanner in the "search and store" mode. He left the antenna disconnected so the scanner would only respond to a transmitter in the immediate vicinity. Test equipment can aid in the quest for new frequency information. I've used a spectrum analyzer connected to an outside antenna, another spectrum analyzer connected to a receiver IF stage, and a frequency counter for close-in work.

How Can I Determine To Whom I'm Listening? - An Example

While scanning the industrial frequencies in the 150 MHz range, a van driver was overheard communicating with "base" while driving around my town. The stations involved never used FCC call signs -- this would have made life a lot easier for me, and legal for them! (one may use FCC license microfiche, described earlier, to identify stations using call letters.) Transmissions were short and infrequent, so it was decided to tape record all transmissions on this frequency for several days to determine the station'sidentity. During daylight hours, a modified Regency K500 scanner was left tuned to the target frequency, connected to a cheap tape recorder through a home built interface. Using a carrier operated relay, the tape interface supplied power to the recorder only during radio transmissions, so a day's worth of traffic could be compressed into a 45 minute tape.Each day, the tape was played back and notes on names, locations, and activities mentioned during the day's transmissions were taken. The van driver appeared to be making daily stops at a local bank and two shopping malls. A Walgreen's store seemed to be the only stop at one mall. A few times, "base" ordered the van "back to the Training Center." There were frequent references to "guests checking out", "dropping a guest off", and "instructor[s]missing a class". At times, "base" spoke with "security",who must have been using a walkie-talkie as his signals weren't strong enough to hear. Was this a hotel? Calls to the three local hotels revealed that none provides shuttle bus service to the shopping malls. A call to the Walgreen's, inquiring about bus service to the store, drew another blank. During my shopping trips, I began to pay closer attention to vans with antennas driving through the parking lots. I was leaving the mall one day, when a week's effort paid off. A maroon and white van, equipped with a VHF-Hi antenna, was dropping shoppers off at Walgreen's. A sign on the van's door read: XYZ Central Training Center (XYZ is a pseudonym for the actual licensee name.) Lisle, Illinois I watched the driver pick up a microphone, and listened to him on my portable scanner checking back with his "base". All the pieces fit: the "guests", the "classes", the "instructors". Mystery solved; I had been monitoring the customer training center for a large computer manufacturer. The training center has hotel rooms and dining facilities to accommodate students from out of state. As a convenience, shuttle van service is provided to local shopping malls.

Summary

Through books, government records, and radio clubs, scanner listeners can make use of frequency information compiled by others. Two-way radio users often fail to identify their transmissions properly, making it more difficult for listeners to know who they are monitoring. By examining radio equipment labeling, and monitoring and taping transmissions, scanner enthusiasts can unearth new information.

Addresses

Grove Enterprises
7540 Highway 64 West
Brasstown, NC 28902
tel (828)837-9200
order line (800)438-8155

Official Scanner Guides
P.O. Box 525-NS
Londonderry, NH 03053.
tel (603)432-2615
order line (800)351-7226

Scan America
430 Garner Drive,Suffield, OH 44260-1557

Scanner Master,PO Box 428
Newton Highlands, MA 02161.
telephone 1-800-722-6701.

Copyright � 1998, Bob Parnass, AJ9S [email protected]

Be sure to visit the ARC WEB site often.

Mike Ellerson, KS4JU, has done an exceptional job providing an attractive and informative site. You’ll find an exhaustive list of Athens/Clarke County frequencies, links to other sites, Skywarn and hurricane info, and excellent reviews of several ham radio products. You can even get a quick update of current Athens weather conditions. Of course the latest Emitter is also available.

September 19-- Gainesville, GA