N6ENV NEWSLETTER Issue No. 2 November 1994 N6ENV REPEATERS Keller 224.340 PL-156.7 Keller 447.025 PL-162.2 Loop 224.520 PL-156.7 Loop 447.025 PL-156.7 Loop 224.860 PL-156.7 Castro 224.340 PL-162.2 SAN 224.520 PL-162.2 SURGERY UPDATE For those who did not know, Marlene Oden, Frosty's wife, had breast cancer surgery on November 22, 1994. Thankfully everyone's prayers were answered. Marlene returned home on Thanksgiving day in GOOD health. Also for those who did not know, Frosty has been "Mr. Mom" through this. Did you know he could cook? Did you know he does toilets? REPEATER UPDATE There has been plenty of work done on the repeater system since the last newsletter. Many, many people have helped with the effort to upgrade the system. Thanks to all who contributed their time. Now, what has happened? The Keller 447.025 repeater is on the air! It is being controlled by one of two new Link Com. controllers. Keller 224.34 controller has been replaced. The new Link Com. controller that controls the 440 box also controls 224.34. The ID messages will be updated in the near future. The San Diego 224.52 repeater will be operational in the next couple of weeks. The equipment is completely installed. The receiver had a problem and has been repaired. The Castro site had a political problem that has been solved. Castro will also be back on the air in a couple of weeks. Loop 447.025 will be back on the air about the time you receive this newsletter. The autopatch should be available for use soon after the machine is on the air. Loop 224.52 had a MOSFET go bad. It has been on reduced power for about three weeks. Frosty has built a new amp that will have twice the power and less affinity to power fluctuations than the old MOSFET design. The new amp will be on the air in the next couple of weeks. The Loop 224.86 repeater will be on the air soon. The PL is 156.7. The same design amp will be utilized that is on the Loop 224.52 machine. We are making every attempt to get an autopatch on Keller before the snow. Frosty has been plagued with bad crystals from International Crystal. In the midst of this bad weather, it makes us feel like your local postman. Neither rain nor sleet nor snow will keep Frosty & Bob from their appointed repeater rounds. Brr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r! NEXT QUARTERS NEWSLETTER Next quarter, February 95, Angie, KC6TWO, Bob, AC6AV, and little man Reilly (who will be born copying 20wpm CW) will do the newsletter. Articles early please !! FROM THE SHACK OF AC6AV Hello everyone and Happy Holidays. With the holidays coming there are a lot of exciting things happening in our lives. As with any change, the old must go to make way for the new. Some old news that is important to the N6ENV Repeater Group is Field Day. Field Day is important to mention because so many people put a lot of effort into making Field Day possible for the group to participate. I don't know everyone that helped get it all together, but I do know Judy (WD6FWZ) and Bob (KD6KEZ), as usual, sacrificed their time and their family's time to make Field Day possible. I wasn't on the mountain top with those that participated, and I have a million reasons why not, but I did participate from home. The results go like this and was listed in QST magazine, November 1994: KB6C(+N6ENV) N6ENV Repeater Group. Yes, that's right. The call KB6C was used, and I know most of you are familiar with the da dit da.... that comes from the Magic Mountain Repeater, a group with more than two operators under 150 watts using the designaters 2A (Two Alpha). 279 hard earned contacts for 1,256 points. Those numbers put the group in the TOP of the bottom 4th of the 2 alphas. Good Work! Congratulations! So I'm spinning the VFO on 40 meters LSB. All I hear is, "CQ contest! CQ contest!" So I decided to join in by answering CQs. "Roger AC6AV, copy this......" So I get the big idea, why not do some CQing of my own, get even more points and see how well 100 watts does out of my multi-band dipole. "CQ field day. CQ field day. This is AC6AV, CQ field day!" Pop crackle.... "KB6C, roger, KB6C." "Copy AC6AV. One Delta, LAX, over..." Pop crackle.. "Hey Bob is that you?" "Yeah, who's this?" "It's Bob up at field day." I'm thinking, yeah, I bet there are a lot of Bob's working field day, so what. KB6C who's that? "Bob, ke zed Bob!" pop crackle... "Bob is that really you?" "Roger." "Okay, copy AC6AV, One Delta, LAX. Hey, how are you guys doing up there?...... I made it to Field Day my own way. 69 hard earned contacts, 138 points. I scored top of the bottom third 1 Deltas (1 operator, less that 150 watts, commercial power). I had the time of my life, 8 feet from the refrigerator in my nice warm shack. Now for the new stuff: At the time of this writing the baby hasn't been born. He has dropped, and Angie is dilating with a lot of back pain, and we expect Reilly soon. Yes, it's a boy. Thanks to sound waves at 3MHz (ultrasound), we are sure! Angie had the shower last week and received many fine gifts from family and friends. That included his first radio, a baby monitor. Hey, don't laugh. You get a transmitter and a receiver in the box. I couldn't wait to test it out for him. Yes, I have the frequency programmed in all my scanners. Lastly, my personal thanks to Frosty for making the repeater possible and to Bob KE zed for being the wizard of ez.... And to all my friends that make all these radios worth listening to. All the best, 73 De Bob AC6AV AR SK NNNN Antenna restrictions and the January earthquake by Tony Buttitta KD6AJG One of the biggest enemies of hams are CC&R's or antenna restrictions. We spend months thinking of antenna designs and where we are going to put them. Then we get all our other ham buddies to spend all day hanging these contraptions, all for the price of, all the beer and pizza they can eat and drink. All this to have some "association," made up of your neighbors, to tell you that you can't have any antennas. You probably knew that before you even started, but you thought that you would try it anyway and maybe nobody would notice. After all, part of your planning was thinking of ways that you could make the antenna blend in with the rest of your house, like making it a flag pole or growing a tomato plant around your beam elements. Most people that try to fight CC&R rules usually loose.....right? I recently received a letter from my local association ordering me to take down my beam within 15 days, due to a violation of the CC&R's. My first reaction was, "Oh no, I guess I have to give up packet radio and sell all my stuff." My second reaction was, "Hey wait a minute. It's been up there for 3 years and hasn't hurt a fly. Why should I take it down? What are they going to do, kick me out?" I was all prepared to write them a nasty note and tell them how I felt, written tastefully of course. Later that night I received some very rare but valuable information from Bob, KD6KEZ. I was telling him how I was going to write this letter and let them have it. He suggested that I take a more subtle approach and be nice to them. So I took his advice and threw in some ideas of my own and wrote them a very official looking letter. So where does the earthquake come in to all this you ask? I started the letter off by telling them just how important the antenna and myself were during the recent earthquake and how I was in direct contact with the Sheriff's Department and other local people that can help, not just my family but all of my neighbors as well. I also sent photocopies of my FCC license and my Disaster Communications Service (DCS) identification card. Those really impressed them! I used big spelled out words like Federal Communications Commission and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Disaster Communications Service. I then pointed out that on the back of the FCC license it says, "...The person named herein as licensee is authorized to establish an amateur radio station at the fixed operation location herein specified.." I am not sure what did the trick, maybe a combination of them all, but they sent me a letter back saying that they feel that an exception to the rule should be made in my case because, "We feel that saving lives is very important." So the bottom line is that I get to keep my antenna up and keep on helping the public. 73 Tony Buttitta, KD6AJG DAVE & CINDY SAY HELLO Hello all from Dave (KC6WFS) and Cindy (KE6FPP). Well this has been a very fast year for Cindy and I. A lot has happened this year. Her callsign came in the mail! The EARTHQUAKE. We had a BABY girl (Katelynn). She weighed 6lb 13oz at birth and now at 2mos. 1week she weights 10lb 3oz... She is the joy of our lives. Going to be the youngest HAM! hi hi! Also with a LOT of help from Jim (N7HQZ), Lyle (KD6NOL) and a few others we got the tower up at the site. And that was NOT an easy task being on solid ground. Or SOLID ROCK! I have never used a jack hammer before but I found the awesome power one of those has! Jim and I used it, and I tell you I never saw rock crumble so fast! Well before the year is over we also have the Christmas dinner. We are looking forward to that, and also Thanksgiving. Also THANKS to Armine' (KE6IRC) for making up this env's news letter! A lot of work I'm sure! Also thanks to Forrest for having the BEST repeater system out there and also Bob (KD6KEZ) for all the technical stuff he does up there. Well 73 all de Dave and Cindy... till next time! ARMINE' & BOB'S PISTACHIO CAKE RECIPE CAKE 1 Pkg White Cake Mix 1 Pkg Instant Pistachio Pudding 3 Egg Whites 1 Cup Oil 1 Cup Club Soda Mix and bake in 9" pan 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. FROSTING 2 Pkg's Dream Whip Mix 1 Pkg Instant Pistachio Pudding 1/2 Cup Chopped Nuts 1 1/2 Cups Milk Mix dream whip and milk. Add pudding and nuts. 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� Submit your recipe for next quarter. FROM THE PREZ Gary Andary - N6UU The fall season provided an increase in the number of users on all repeaters for our system, and increased participation in our social events - Congrats to all! The Westside users of the Loop Canyon repeaters initiated a pizza bash on the last Friday of each month. The Eastside users of Keller Peak continued their dinner gatherings with a Chinese feast in Chino, thanks to the work of PERRY, WA6LLB and ANNE, N6BOP. Breakfasts are continuing for the Keller Peak users on the first Sunday of the month in Claremont. All amateurs and their family's and friends are welcome to N6ENV Repeater Group functions. Keep in touch via the Sunday evening nets on the East and West systems for system and social function news. We will be announcing a location, date, and time for our annual holiday dinner meeting. At press time, we are looking for the Pasadena area to be centrally located for all Los Angeles basin users, to be held in December. This is an important function, since we will be electing officers for the system. All nominations will be welcomed. East Side Transmitter Hunt On Sunday, August 21, I arrived home at 1530 hours to find a telephone message from N6BOP - the Keller Peak 220 repeater was being locked on by a jamming signal! When I got on the air, a number of users were trying to get readings on the offending signal on the repeater input. I knew an immediate T-hunt was in order, but I had no sophisticated 220 equipment for this. Nevertheless, I jumped in the car with my trusty hand-held and headed east from Montclair on I-10. I had taken a beam heading from my QTH (East - Northeast), coordinated with Alvin, KD6UZM in Riverside (heading due North). Others helping were Perry, WA6LLB and Bob, N6EAI. My guess was. . . Fontana? Every transmitter hunter knows that you need to reduce the strength of the received signal as you get closer to it, in order to be able to take accurate bearing. Every auto antenna has a recognizable directional pattern when the car is turned in a circle - IF you have a way to reduce the signal strength in order to take a bearing. The best way is with an attenuator, which I used 20 years ago on 6 meter hunts, but which I no longer have. I headed north toward the mountains in Fontana, taking bearings with my hand-held against my body outside of the car, and a side mounted whip inside the car. I used gradually shorter whips and rubber duckies for the hand held to reduce the signal. At 6 PM. I was joined by Alvin, KD6UZM, who acted as driver. We had determined the jamming signal was between I-215, in Devore, and the mountains. Time was running out before net! We toured up and down residential streets until the signal was full scale with NO ANTENNA on my hand held! Time to bail out of the car and look on foot. I finally spotted a blue sedan with call - Letter plates and an antenna, parked in front of a house. I approached cautiously and looked inside. There was a transceiver mounted under the dash and the display read 222.74 - the repeater input! Alvin and I banged on the door of the house until we rousted the folks out. A young YL visitor was duly embarrassed when we pointed out to her that her radio had jammed out the repeater for over 5 hours! The cause, we found, was that the microphone had fallen and was wedged between the seat and console, with the PTT switch on. We were exhausted from our chase, but thankful the jamming was accidental, and we were able to conduct the net on time! RUSTY BUMPERS COLUMN The following excerpts submitted by Rich Johnson (KD6IPC) are from the May 1993 issue of "Solid Copy", the Richmond (VA) Amateur Telecommunications Society's monthly newsletter. Most of the examples used by "Rusty" have happened on the local repeaters exactly as written, although some of the items are exaggerated slightly for humor. HOW TO SOUND LIKE A LID by Rusty Bumpers, N4LID On two meters lately, I have noticed a tendency of people making a concerted effort to sound like a Lid (i.e. poor operator). Since this appears to be the new style in amateur radio, I thought I would present this handy guide to radio nerd-dom. The following is what I call: "How to sound like a Lid in one easy lesson." 1. Use as many Q signals as possible. Yes, I know they were invented solely for CW and are totally inappropriate for two-meter FM, but they're fun and entertaining. i.e. "I'm going to QSY to the kitchen." QSL used to mean "I am acknowledging receipt," but now it appears to mean "yes" or "OK." I guess I missed it when the ARRL changed the meaning. 2. Never laugh when you can say "hi hi." No one will ever know you aren't a long time CW ragchewer if you don't tell them. They'll think you've been on since the days of Marconi. 3. Utilize an alternative vocabulary. Use words like "destinated" and "negatory." It's OK to make up your own words here. "Yeah Bill, I pheelbart zaphonix occasionally myself." 4. Always say "XX6XXX (insert your own call) for I.D." Anything that creates redundancy is always strongly encouraged. That's why we have the Department of Redundancy Department. (Please note that you can follow your call with "for identification purposes" instead of "for I.D." While taking longer to say, it is worth more lid-points. 5. Always give the calls of yourself and everyone who is (or has been) in the group, whether they are still there or not. While this has been unnecessary for years, it is still a wonderful memory test. 6. Always ask involved questions of the person who is trying to sign out. Never let him get by with a yes or no answer. Make it a question that will take a long time to answer. 7. If you and the other station are both within a mile or two of the repeater you are using, you should always give a signal report. "I'm sitting under the repeater and I know you can see it from there, but you're full quieting into the repeater. How about me?" Plenty of Lid points here! N 6 E N V N6ENV Holiday Dinner The N6ENV Repeater Group will hold its Annual Christmas dinner Sunday, December 11, at 3:00 P.M. It will be at the: Pasadena Cafeteria 325 E. Colorado Blvd. Pasadena, California The Pasadena Cafeteria is located off the 210 freeway between the Fair Oaks and Lake offramps and is located across from the Pasadena Plaza Shopping mall. We will be in the banquet room. This location was chosen so all could attend without having to drive all day to get there. So now there is no excuse to miss this years Christmas party! See-ya-there. 같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같같� NEW MEMBERS Welcome aboard to our newest Autopatch members. They are: Jim Sandford - N7HQZ Greg Jelin - KE6MBC Spencer Winston - KG6YW Elliot Yaffi - N6ZCX Ken Butler - KE6KDV Bob Francis - KD6AMI Rick Anglin - N6KUB Dan O'Brien - AB6IO Due to a filing error, we are unable to mention the new general members specifically by name. Thanks to all of you who have donated time and money to the N6ENV repeater system. The repeaters are maintained by YOUR donations. I know we all feel like the "HAM" to the right, however, with the continuation of your generous donations, the system will continue to expand until all the N6ENV repeaters are linked. The link will then be controlled by you, the MEMBER. HAPPY HOLIDAYS HOLLYWOOD LANE CHRISTMAS PARADE This past Sunday, November 27, the annual Hollywood Christmas parade was held. For the 7th year straight, The N6ENV repeater group supplied the repeaters for parade communications. Sunday morning Frosty (N6ENV), Bill (N6JKC), and myself, Bob (KD6KEZ), set out to put two repeat-ers on the air atop the First Interstate Bank in Hollywood. Despite an attempt by the "meter maids" to tow our vehicles (which were parked in a tow zone with permission of LAPD), we got both repeaters on the air and both worked flawlessly as usual. If you would like to work this event next year, be sure and let Frosty know. SUNDAY NIGHT NETS Be sure and listen in to the Nets on Sunday nights, at 8:00pm. Currently the net is held separately on 224.52 and 224.34. By net time on December 4, the two nets should be linked together with one net control. Tell a friend to join our open net! QUESTIONS? If you have questions about the operation of the autopatch, or any other aspect of the system, contact Bob (KD6KEZ) at (805) 298-0528.