THE N6ENV REPEATER GROUP NEWSLETTER Winter, 1995 P.O. Box 70 9857 Mills Ave Agoura Hills, CA. 91376 Montclair, CA 91763 818-884-8083 909-626-6990 Messages from Forrest By Forrest, N6ENV The Best Year Yet ! The group has accomplished more this year than ever thanks to the combined efforts of so many of you! We have moved our system from Loop Canyon to Oat, gaining much improved coverage to the East (Hemet) and to the West (Semi Valley). Each hill top has a brand new controller and repeater equipment. We have, so far, branched out into the "who's who" band of 440 with great success! Here again all new equipment and both major hill tops have new, highly technically made repeater antennas that have proven to work quite well! We have also cut our basic phone bill (cost to get dial tone) by 60% and our site fees and rents by over 50%. This all was necessary so we do not have to raise the cost of an autopatch membership. We are still at the same autopatch membership prices as we were in 1981 when I first started building repeaters! In fact, we have increased to five repeaters for the same low price and dropped the cost in 1983 by $20.00 per year. In the interest of space in the newsletter I can't mention everyone that I would like to, but thanks to, Bob Jones, KD6KEZ (Chief Operations Manager); Bill Thomas, KN6OC (Chief Control Operator for Oat Mountain); Gary Andary, N6UU (our Club President); Perry Westrope, WA6LLB (Chief Control Operator for Keller Peak); and Steve Lampert, KB6PZD (Site Manager for Keller Peak); as well as many other control operators, who have put in countless hours helping us debug this new powerful controller. I thank you! Each step takes us closer to one of the most sophisticated repeater systems anywhere. Many of you have been taking advantage of the "full duplex" autopatch, the convenient voice mail digital recorder, and soon we will once again have a powerful remote base at both main sites. This year has found us rebuilding and returning to the air Castro Peak, 224.34 (Pl 162.2 hz) and building a new site at Loop Canyon for our new 224.86 repeater, (Pl 156.7 hz) soon destined for linking with the Condor System. Besides having the repeater group capable of utilizing all this high tech equipment, all members can keep in touch and access each other via email on the Internet. Using the new "Web Page," all the members of the system can now report problems, get new information, and keep in touch with members on other N6ENV repeaters. I understand that by the time of the distribution of this newsletter, the web page will have been accessed close to 500 times since going public six weeks ago. Another thank you goes to Dave, WB6WKB and to Dr. Bob, AC6AV for their effort on this new N6ENV project. This year hasn't been without set backs! We are still working with the coordinators at SCRRABA to help us coordinate a suitable link from Keller/Castro/Oat to tie our vast system together. Also, the transfer of trustee and location from WB6ELR Repeater (448.075) on Sunset Ridge, and the saddest news of all is that there is still litigation between the 2 meter group and Mr. Ames. At times it has made working on the site a little tenuous at best. Our glass is half full now, but I know with more of your on-going support with the repeaters, it will be bubbling over with greater improvements. Happiness and joy for all in the 'Group' in 96! Forrest Oden, N6ENV; Trustee Technical notes By Forrest, N6ENV Dr. Bob, AC6AV, and others have asked me from time to time to share some of the knowledge I have gained from designing and building repeater systems over the past 15 years. I have never perceived myself as an expert in anything. I feel safe just passing along the information gleaned from years of practical experience and sitting at the feet of real experts. They say knowledge is power and the dissemination of it, as Bill Gates wrote in his book, "The Road Ahead," affords us to leap over "the mistakes of the trail blazers...and move directly into the information age." The next series of articles is dedicated to a sharing of information in the amateur spirit. A repeater is a specialized transceiver style radio placed high on a hill in order to overcome the attenuating reaction to nearby objects and the deteriorating effects of an all too short horizon. The "E" and the "F" layers help HF ham radio, but the "atmosphere" attenuate VHF and UHF signal by 3 db per 100 mhz. The object of a repeater is to place an amateur station in the middle of the stations communicating to receive a weak signal from tens of miles away by venture of a lofty mountain perch, separate the natural and man made "hash and trash," and then resend the signal at renewed higher signal power than received. To do this correctly takes a good deal of money as well as engineering investment. Let's start with the massive repeater antenna. The weak signal has to be received with an elaborate "repeater designed antenna." I call this elaborate because several tuned pieces of metal for your frequency have to be added together to give you gain. The transmitted signal needs to have low gain and a low angle of radiation to send the signal to the horizon, but also below the horizon because we are sitting on a pretty tall mountain and we want all the cars below to hear us, and we them! Also, the metal used to receive and transmit these signals should be made up of the same or similar metal or we will end up with all kinds of intermod and spurs. There are three other ways that you can transmit and receive signals, that are close in and are below the repeater site. First, you can "tilt" your antenna toward the area you wish to communicate better to. This is called "physical beam-tilt" or "man-made beam-tilt." The obvious drawback is improvement of service to the front, but the back becomes weaker due to the antenna surface pointing up and into the sky. You could try to fix some of this by having several antennas pointing physically down on all four quadrants and combing them all together. But now you have a considerable investment in antennas, feed line, combiners, let alone the room on the tower taken up by all this stuff! Second, you can tune each element making up the gain in the antenna by making each slightly too short. This causes the "phase angle" of the antenna to point more below the horizon than above it, thus reaching cars moving directly below your mountain. The more you shorten them (to a certain point) the more electrical beam-tilt you will generate. Everything in life is a trade out, so when you add beam tilt to the repeater antenna you trade off some receive gain, and, of course transmit ERP due to the shortness of the tuned elements. Lastly, leave the money saving and skill to the cheap ham! Why not use a technique called "split sites" for antennas. Place a high gain antenna (for those weak signals) high up on the tower and run hardline to your receiver. Next, place a di-pole that radiates in all directions DIRECTLY BELOW the receive antenna separated by the magic number of 58 db or more of physical isolation (or distance) from each antenna. The vertical distance for 440 is about 40 feet from top to bottom. 220 is about 60 feet, and 2 meters is roughly 80 feet. If you have to position the antennas horizontally, then multiply the lengths by about 10 times the physical distance to gain the needed isolation. I said that you also save money and that's because you won't need to buy a very expensive piece of repeater equipment that electronically attenuates or isolates the power sensitive receiver from the powerful transmitter. This device, called a duplexer, takes advantage of the frequency separation or split to separate the transmitter almost completely out of the receiver and still use one repeater antenna. More to come... 73 Forrest, N6ENV; Trustee From the prez... Gary, N6UU Two Years of Repeater Fun! As I look back over the past two years of my run as "Prez," I think we can be proud of the progress and changes made at all N6ENV Repeater site locations. System upgrades were implemented at Oat Mtn. (THE BIG MOVE), Keller Peak (addition of 440 system and enhancements), and Castro Peak (on the air!). The level of sophistication of our controllers increased dramatically, due to the tireless efforts of Bob Jones, KD6KEZ. Additional control operators were added at all sites, and despite Murphy's best efforts, numerous spontaneous and planned work parties solved problems as they came up. All of this happened because several individuals were willing to "go the extra mile" to help keep the systems going and because users of the systems became advocates for the systems. Frosty's enthusiasm has a way of infecting all of us! Paying the price of maintaining the systems is paid in many ways beyond Frosty's investment: user donations and autopatch fees. Each time a user volunteers to help, he/she pays the cost of their personal time commitment, travel, and miscellaneous expenses. I would like to offer special thanks to the following individuals for "paying the price": Frosty (for hanging in there); Bob Jones, KD6KEZ (Controller Mania); Perry, WA6LLB (Treasurer/Keller Controller); Steve, KB6PZD (Keller Site Manager/Tower Climber #1); Judy, WD6FWZ (Secretary/West Net/Event Organizer); Alvin, KD6UZM (East Net Control); Ward, WB6YSW (Keller Newsline); Bill, KN6OC ("I'll go anywhere anytime!"); Dr. Bob, AC6AV (Newsletter); Dave, WB6WKB (Web Site); and countless others and their families (for "pulling duty" at a moment's notice). Best wishes to all our members and users for a happy, productive 1996! Attenuator Addendum I have a supply of free circuit boards for the active attenuator (see last newsletter), which I will be cutting and drilling. I arranged for a run of 24 boards, plus I have the art work available. Contact me if you are a member interested in one (909-626-7325). Satellite Stuff There are several amateur radio satellites in orbit, which are fairly easy to access via SSB, CW, or packet. Consult the Radio Amateur's Handbook for basic information. There is also a regular satellite column in QST Magazine. Several of the on-line bulletin boards have an amateur radio forum with satellite information. I have a public domain tracking program, called "Quiktrak" that is easy to use and runs on any IBM compatible pc, new or old. You can obtain Keplerian tracking data to plug into the program through Internet or the Compuserve on-line amateur radio forum (Go Hamnet). Contact me if you are a member and want a copy of the tracking program. 73, de Gary, N6UU From the Secretary By Judy, WD6FWZ I want to start off by wishing everyone the best of holidays. As most of you know, the N6ENV Repeater Group doesn't have regular meetings. We do try to get together a couple of times a year, one of them being the Christmas party and the other Field Day. The plans for the 1996 Field Day is to hold it at the Emma Wood State Beach in Ventura. They have a couple of group camp sites. We are trying to secure one of them. I feel the net is going quite well. Check-ins are up, and we have new people checking in each week. I am pleased that some of you have volunteered to take the net for me when I am unable to run it. The Amateur Radio test dates in 1996 are as follows: January 20 March 16 May 18 September 21 November 16 Other dates to put on your calendar are May 3 & 4. This is the Rim of the World Rally. Judy, WD6FWZ From the Editors' Desk By Angie, KC6TWO & Dr. Bob, AC6AV We thank all of you for your articles. We realize that submitting to the N6ENV newsletter is another form of volunteer effort. Many thanks to all of you for all your fine work and personal sacrifice. Submitions for this article were all done digitally! Everything came over the modem with only two exceptions, and they came to us on diskette. The job of developing and editing the newsletter is much quicker now. Submitions should be sent to: E-Mail : AC6AV@AOL.COM WWW : http//www/instanet.com/~scratchi/n6env.html Diskette : Word perfect or word processor that I can convert to word perfect. Ascii text will always work. Call us if you need clarification at 818-368-4570 Fax : 818-368-6170 Packet : AC6AV@WB6WFH 73 Angie & Bob Christmas party for the N6ENV Repeater Group By Anne, N6BOP, Social Chairperson Date: Saturday, Dec.16 Time: 1:30 P.M. Place: The Lakeview Cafe, 2099 E. Orangethorpe, Anaheim Hills. Location is 1/2 block off 91 freeway at corner of Orangethorpe and Lakeview. Manager Dimitri welcomes us. We have a separate banquet room seating up to 60. Order from menu, and they will do separate checks as needed for families or individuals. We have the room for free. Ask for the N6ENV Repeater Group when you get there. Merry Christmas, Anne, N6BOP Radio news by Tony Buttitta KD6AJG Not too much in the scanner world has changed since the last newsletter. There haven't been any new scanner models that have come out but I have had a chance to play with the new Radio Shack base scanner. The Pro 2035 is a 1000 channel, alpha numeric base/mobile scanner. The intermod on it is nil or none under most conditions even with an external antenna. They are priced pretty reasonably too at just $389.00. That's pretty good considering just a year ago the Pro 2006, 400 channel scanner was priced at over $400.00. The Pro 2035 is physically a little big for mobile operation unless you drive a big truck and have plenty of room to mount radios. I am in the process of talking my work into buying me one, and if that happens I will be able to test it more extensively and give a better report on its performance in the next newsletter. Now for some commercial radio news! If you remember reading my article in the last newsletter, I was awaiting arrival of a new Motorola Astro Saber handheld radio. Well, I finally got it and love it. It is by far the best radio I have ever owned. Just to recap what it is for those of you that don't remember. The "Advanced Secure Tactical Radio Operations" or ASTRO Saber is now in use by most divisions of the L.A.P.D. The radio has the capability to transmit and receive both analog as well as digital signals. The latest plan that I have heard is for the L.A.P.D. to have digital repeaters up and in operation sometime in 1996. They will keep all of their 506 to 507 Mhz frequencies and start using some frequencies in the 484.00 Mhz range. The 484.00 Mhz frequencies will be used for digital voice communications, which means that your scanners will not be able to decode the digital signal. All you will hear is a burst of static mixed in with what sounds like packet radio data being transferred. When I get into this discussion with people about how their scanners won't be able to hear L.A.P.D. anymore, most of them are convinced that some scanner manufacturer will come up with a digital scanner that will be able to pick up L.A.P.D. just like the companies that invented radar detectors to pick up police radar. What they don't understand is that Motorola is the only one that knows what logarithmic code is being used to transmit the digital signal, and they are not about to let that out to anyone, let alone a scanner manufacturer. If that code was ever released and scanners were able to detect ASTRO communications, you can bet that L.A.P.D., as well as all the other government agencies and police departments around the country that have purchased the very expensive ASTRO radios, are going to want their money back and probably file lawsuits against Motorola. Motorola has guarantied that these are the most secure radios available and will stay that way for years to come. They also forget that the ASTRO can go encrypted in the digital mode. Not all of L.A.P.D.'s transmissions are going to be in the digital mode. From what I understand, all dispatches will be done in the clear or analog format. Their tactical or "rover" frequencies will be either analog or digital. For example, Tac 5, 507.2625, will remain an analog frequency while Tac 5X, 484.8875, will be used as a digital tactical frequency. Eventually, when all the digital repeaters are up and operational, L.A.P.D. may give up the 506-507 Mhz analog frequencies and go to a full digital system, but that won't be for a few years. The mobile data terminal or MDT frequencies in the 155 to 159 Mhz range will remain the same. Tac 5X and 6X are active almost every night in the West Valley and Hollywood areas with simplex narco and vice traffic. The digital signal does some strange things when the signal gets weak. It is very hard to copy and understand unless you are receiving a pretty strong signal. Weak signals sound distorted, almost encrypted, but as you start to get closer and receive a stronger signal, it starts to clear up. Hope you enjoyed this article and I'll talk to you on the air. 73... Tony, KD6AJG Happenings By Dave, KC6WFS Well Cindy, KE6FPP and myself Dave, KC6WFS are moved into our new house here in Saugus. We still have a lot of little things to do around the place, but not much! We got the ham shack working, and thanks to Bob, AC6AV, I have enough coax for all the runs of coax. I am also looking forward to getting my tower up around Christmas. I just put up a 37-foot crank-up tower. Katelynn is still growing like a weed. Her vocabulary is up to 5 words. MAMA, DADA, BABA, CAT, PP, and packet... hehe. Just joking.. She is now 1 year and 2 months old.... Well, time is short so I have to go.. 73 to all and hope everyone has a good holiday....... 73 de Dave, KC6WFS; Cindy, KE6FPP; & Katelynn The N6ENV Repeater Group is on the Internet World Wide Web! by David Bartholomew, WB6WKB On the west side net on October 22, 1995, Bob, AC6AV, asked for assistance in writing a web page because he was interested in creating one for the N6ENV Group. I got together with him by phone and we had a web page up by the next weekend. Our first official announcement was on October 29th. So far the page is a success and we look forward to making it even better in the future. To connect to the N6ENV WWW Page, use your web browser and go to "http://www.instanet.com/~scratchi/n6env.html" What's on the page? We have the list of repeaters, including their frequencies and locations. We have a list of club officers, with links for sending email to those who have Internet access. There is a list of club members with Internet addresses and/or home pages, and we have some general ham radio links, including other ham radio pages and call sign lookup. There are a number of on-line services and bulletin boards, like the L.A. Freenet, GEnie, Delphi, and BIX, which don't have web access, but do allow Internet email. Even if that's all you have, go ahead and send us your email address. This way, those who do have web access can contact you using the web page resources. When you first connect with your web browser, you'll need to type in the URL (http://www.instanet.com/~scratchi/n6env.html). Admittedly it is somewhat cumbersome, but once you've connected, just save the location in your hotlist or bookmark file, then you can easily return to it in the future. The page will be a very useful resource to club members because it will provide an easy way to submit articles to the newsletter, as well as get important information in between the newsletters. We plan to add back issues to the page later. If you have information to add to the page, suggestions, or other updates, send them in to Bob, AC6AV, at "ac6av@aol.com". 73.. Dave, WB6WKB scratchi@instanet.com Home page: http://www.instanet.com/~scratchi/ Frontier: http://www.instanet.com/~scratchi/frontier.html Ham Radio: http://www.instanet.com/~scratchi/hamradio.html IS THIS THE RADIO OF THE FUTURE? From the internet ComFocus Corp. Introduces A Digital Communications Receiver Shortly after the doors opened on the 1994 Dayton "Hamvention" it became obvious something was "going on" over on the next isle. There was a mob of people milling around in front of one booth. During a lull in talking with people, I wandered over, elbowed the women and children aside and made my way to the display table. What I saw was truly astounding. A real honest-to-goodness digital receiver called SoftWave(tm). The SoftWave receiver combines the fascination of shortwave and VHF, the horsepower of digital signal processing (DSP), and the user friendliness of Microsoft Windows. Each SoftWave package contains a receiver module, a DSP card for a standard PC slot, and program disks, along with a cable and an easy-to-read manual. Six different radio "personalities" await the user. With a click of the computer mouse the user can choose from a standard AM radio, a communications (HF) radio, a VHF receiver/scanner, a world radio, a time synch radio and even a spectrum analyzer. Each personality has its own characteristics. SoftWave TM is actually several separate receivers in one package, and because the radio personalities are completely under software control, new features are as easy to install as copying a floppy disk. The communications radio looks like the front panel of a high end shortwave receiver, with one major difference: in the top right corner of the screen a spectrum analyzer shows the received signal in real time. The screen allows you to tune continuously (with 1 Hz precision), from 0.5 to 30 MHz (HF) and 108 to 174 MHz (VHF). Completely digital controls such as blanker, squelch and AGC provide incredible flexibility. Digital audio controls include volume, high and low filters (treble and bass). Perhaps the most interesting feature of the communications radio is the spectrum analyzer. Both the signal and the IF filter are displayed in real time. Adjust the IF filter to one of 46 settings from 11 kHz to 56 Hz, set the tunable notch filter to knock out those stray signals. This is fun! And we're just getting started! The VHF radio tunes continuously from 108 to 174 MHz. You can load your favorite stations into one of the scanning groups provided by ComFocus or create your own. SoftWave's scanning database will store up to 5000 stations, identified by name, number, frequency or any other ID method you choose. Split and priority stations can be identified or changed with a few clicks of the computer mouse. The world radio for the novice shortwave enthusiast or even those who don't know exactly where to find Radio Moscow at 0100 UTC, SoftWave's World Radio solves the problem. By selecting this personality, a world map appears on the screen. Use the mouse to point and click on a particular continent and SoftWave gives you a list of all the stations currently on the air broadcasting from the selected location. SoftWave's digital signal processor tunes up to 100 stations per second and indicates the reception quality for each right on the screen! You can ask the database what's on the air in an hour (or two) or select from news, sports, general interest or user priority. Point and click again and the radio automatically tunes to the selected station. Or select "auto tune" and scroll through the stations, listening to each. The Time Synch Radio displays all the frequencies on which WWV is transmitting. SoftWave will automatically show the signal strength for each. can select the strongest signal and even reset your computer clock to the correct time. The Wide Band Spectrum Analyzer, a separate personality, displays all signals in a bandwidth up to 5 MHz. This is especially useful for finding new signals. SoftWave also includes a very sophisticated Morse Code decoder. Called the Morse Code Translator, this window displays the text as it is received. It also shows the words per minute, the error rate of the transmission, the relative quality of the transmission and the relative confidence of the digital decoder. By selecting the options you can also decode Q signals and commonly used abbreviations. SoftWave even has Word Guess-, a proprietary method of "guessing" the word that is being received when the signal conditions are poor. By clicking on the Zoom button, SoftWave automatically narrows the IF filter bandwidth and centers the signal. Since most of SoftWave's computations are done by the DSP chip, the computer is free to run other Windows applications. You can actually tune to your favorite station and play Jet Fighter at the same time (not at work, of course). Perhaps you want to type a letter on Microsoft Word-. No problem, can share the screen with any Windows programs. This allows you to click the mute button when the boss is coming. SoftWave includes a complete database which is accessible to all of the personalities. Current program schedules from shortwave broadcasters throughout the world are pre-installed. You can select from one of SoftWave's stations or add your own. Perhaps one of the most unique features of SoftWave, if there aren't enough already, is that all power to the receiver module is provided by the RS-232 cord from the PC. That's right, no power cords! This means that you can locate the receiver module under the desk, in the closet or anywhere within the length of the provided cord. Try to imagine this: a shortwave receiver, VHF scanner digital signal processor, spectrum analyzer, Morse code decoder, and database of worldwide programming in your office and nothing on your desk except for a computer monitor. As expected from a digital receiver, SoftWave has world class performance: Noise figure of 9 dB (HF) and 11 dB (VHF), Dynamic Range of 97 dB, HF Sensitivity of -l30 dBm/(0.14 uV) (CW at 300 Hz, 10 dB SNR), IF Rejection of 8 5 dB, and a Notch Filter Attenuation variable up to 40 dB. If you would like more information on SoftWave, contact ComFocus at 1-800-SOFT-WVE (763-8983) or by writing Christopher Olson, ComFocus Corporation, 6160 Lusk Blvd., Suite C200, San Diego, California, 92121. I saw This software demonstrated at the Queen Mary Hamvention. It got my vote as best of show.... Dr. Bob "WRITTEN ONLY GENERAL" Class License Test Proposed By Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF This past Sunday Oct. 29, I was a guest on the talk program "Ham Radio and More" on the TalkAmerica Radio Network. The entire national hour (the show originates from KFNN in Phoenix Az and is two hours in duration in that market) was devoted to my interviewing the program host, Len Winkler, N7LPW, about a proposal he has for a second, alternative path to obtaining a General Class license. Winkler calls it the "Written Only General" and obtaining it will require an applicant to pass all written elements for the Novice, Technician, Technician Plus, General, Advanced and Extra class licenses. The additional test elements would be in lieu of passing a 13 WPM code test. In other words, an "alternative path" to General that is in many ways harder to study for than the 13 WPM CW test. Winkler says, and I have this on tape, that if his audience (estimated at several hundred thousand radio hobbyists nationwide -- not necessarily all hams -- but all with an interest in personal communications) write enough letters of support, that he will write a "Request for Rule Making" and submit it to the FCC. What makes this very unique is the forum used to make the proposal public and carry it along; ie: 66 commercial radio stations and 1 international shortwave station all simulcasting the program. Never before has a "no-code HF proposal" had such an immediate and wide an audience, and one that not only includes hams, but other radio hobbyists as well. In other words, Len Winkler's "Written Only General" class license proposal has the potential of garnering wide spread support from outside of the ham radio community from those wishing access to the community with immediate wide-ranging high frequency operating privileges. These will be people who do not want CW, but who are willing to put in the same effort or more in study and examination by passing the additional theory test elements. Anyone wishing more information on the "Written Only General" or wishing to comment directly to Len Winkler can send him e-mail via the Internet to: lenwink@indirect.com Or packet to: N7LPW@N7MRP Newsline will have a complete report on the Winkler "Written Only General" proposal in our November 3rd bulletin (Number 951). de, Bill/WA6ITF/Newsline@WB6YMH.SOCAL.USA Free Antenna Handbook From the internet Write to the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), and they will send you a free Antenna Handbook. It's 18 pages, 14 chapters. It describes many antennas and how to construct them. Whip antennas, vertical, marconi inverted "L" antennas, windom, half-wave dipole, folded dipole, triple dipole, vertical dipole, fan vertical antenna, long wire, "V" beam, rhombic antenna and antenna accessories. Write: Radio Canada International C.P. 6000 Montreal, Canada H3C 3A8 Available free in English and french versions. de Dr. bob, AC6AV How to Know If You're A Ham From Rich KD6IPC You Know You Are A Ham When: 1. The only time you get up at 6:00 am is for a Hamfest. 2. You know you can run all your home appliances on your personal back-up power. 3. You have breakfast with a guy in England every morning. 4. Your ARES/RACES bags are always packed. 5. The cute girl with the KISS T-shirt asks what bands you like and you answer two and 20 meters. 6. You live in a shack. 7. A clerk asks you to spell your name, and you do so phonetically. 8. In a conversation, you wait for the courtesy tone before speaking. 9. You hear a scraping sound when driving through the fast-food restaurant window lane. 10. A band opening is more important than a grand opening. 11. Sight-seeing amounts to looking at rooftops for antennas. de Rich, KE6IPC 9-1-1: Help Us Help You By Mark, KC6UIH A poem "Into every life a little rain must fall," and nine-one-one may be the number to call. We know you're upset and know that your trying, you can help us by not screaming and crying. We're trained to handle calls that may result in death, so try and remain calm and take a deep breath. And if you're in danger, please stay on the line until officers arrive and we know you are fine. Please don't abuse nine-one-one for everyday strife, it's for imminent danger to property or life. It's not for when a neighbor illegally parks, nor for when his dog consistently barks. It's not for loud music nor parties and the likes, nor for reporting abandoned vehicles and bikes. And please report emergencies without any delay; it's hard to find bad guys from the previous day. To apprehend suspects from where they last went, we'll send perimeter units with canines for the scent. To make arrests, your services we'll recruit to provide information to the officers in route. While you're saying our questions are just wasting time, no details are relayed regarding the crime. While responding, the units can't be held to blame, if they drive by the suspects - wouldn't that be a shame? We are not there, so you must be our eyes we'll need the suspect's race, his age and his size. Also the vehicle description and license state, and as much as is possible of the license plate. Try to observe the suspect's direction of flight; your details are relayed, no matter how trite. When it all comes together it really does seem, that we've all joined together to make a great team. And if you dial nine-one-one by mistake, advise us of the error for everyone's sake. When we receive a hang up and hear no voice, it may not have been by the caller's choice. Procedure mandates that we call you back first; if we don't reach you, we assume the worst. We'll send an officer to knock on your door to make sure you haven't collapsed on the floor. And when there's an earthquake or your power fails, we have no access to power nor, Richter scales. When acts of God strike, as they sometimes do, we have no more information than you. This is when our phones will ring at their peak; listen to the radio for the answers you seek. The resulting emergencies will be coming in series, and we'll be too busy to handle your queries. Nine-one-one can be accessed by the young, the hearing impaired or those of foreign tongue. When a child is taught to call us for aid, we can help if he's alone and afraid. Transferring to TDD's* is an asset, or for translation - another useful facet. The system constantly improves and strives to maintain its goal: to assist in saving lives. TDD is Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf. (Author unknown) de Mark, KC6UIH (Mark, KC6UIH is a 911 operator out of the Malibu Sheriff's station he is the station to ask questions regarding emergency traffic, or operations on the N6ENV Castro Peak repeater). The Art Of Short Wave Listening From the internet Many hams started out as SWL's -- Short Wave Listeners. It is easy to understand why. No license is required, there are no exams to take, and you can discover the thrill of listening to what's going on in other countries by the citizens themselves. Once SWL's discovered that some short-wave broadcasters issue their own QSL cards, they were hooked! Thank you for listening. Why do SW broadcasters bother to send out reception reports in the first place? Overseas mail isn't cheap. The primary reason is to build a reputation for being a good responder so that listeners will tune in to their programs. Religious stations are therefore highly responsive to QSL requests. Another reason is to build a good statistical record of reaching United States listeners. Such statistics help the station manager to prove the success of his broadcasts and to justify his budget requests (some things really are universal!). Therefore, anything you can add to your report that indicates your sincere interest in the station's future broadcasts or in the country itself may make a supreme difference in whether or not you receive an answer. Where Do I Start? The SWL's bible is the latest issue of World Radio TV Handbook. It is available at larger bookstores and through mail-order. It lists shortwave stations and, more importantly, their policies on reception reports. These days, QSL policies change about as often as your underwear. There may be a shakeup in management, personnel, or the country itself. An additional tool in SWL'ing is a tape recorder. When the announcer recites the station's QSL address, he or she may go too fast for you to write it down directly. A tape recorder helps a lot when you're listening to a foreign language in case you need to translate something. The best time to listen to a foreign-speaking station is when some important world event takes place like the Olympics, the election of a president, an assassination, an earthquake, etc. It's easier to pick out prominent names and places this way. Give Them What They Want When you write for a QSL card, your report should include three basic elements: the frequency, the date, and the time you heard the program. Then prove that you heard the program by giving some details, like the name of the song, the topic of the news broadcast, and so on. SW stations use UTC time just like hams do, so be sure to use it in your report; also remember that the time shift could change the date you heard it. Also include the make of radio receiver and type of antenna you use. Tell how well you received them. The more information you give, the better your chances of receiving a response. If you really want to get into SWL'ing, you might want to try pre-printed reception reports. These have several advantages over a letter. First of all, everything is already in place, so you can't forget to fill in all the necessary information. Also, the forms are printed in several languages so the mail clerk in lower Slabobia doesn't have to decode what you're saying. If a station thinks you're genuinely interested in listening to them, they might be more responsive. Ask for their schedule. This indicates that you plan to tune in again and that you're not just a "card chaser." When Will It Get Here? Finally, be patient in waiting for a response. We often knock the U.S. Postal Service, but it's really light years ahead of post offices in other countries. Overseas mail is very slow. In one instance, the staff of a post office in a foreign remote area took a week off for a religious celebration. When they returned to a mountain of undelivered mail, their solution was to burn it all. (How's that for an excuse to the I.R.S.?) received from AOL written by, Matt J. McCullar, KJ5BA (This article was taken from the N6ENV WWW page) How To Fix Your Soldering Mistakes -- SLUUUUURRRRP! Unless you are one of those rare creatures like Frosty--who never makes a mistake soldering-- you need a solder sucker right next to your soldering iron and roll of Kester 60/40 solder. What's a solder sucker and why do you need one? That's the common name for a "desoldering pump." Let's say you are building a new kit. You slap the solder on the resistor leads and then discover you put it in the wrong pad hole. The Hexacon desoldering pump comes to your rescue. You press the plunger to cock it, and hold the teflon tip near the solder connection as you heat the junction with your iron. Then press the release on the side and--sluuurrrp--your mistake is sucked into the aluminum stomach of the desoldering tool. If you are a "builder" and want to avoid solder frustration, you can pick up the device at your local radio store for approximately $15.00. For more information, contact The Tool Resource, P.O. Box 116, W. Dundee, Illinois, 60118. (This article is taken from one of the many resources you can find on the N6ENV Web Page on the internet.) de Dr. Bob, AC6AV FORMER MEMBER NEWS Gary Andary - N6UU It was great to talk to Bob Wasson, N6JDH, our former repeater group Vice-President. Bob was out visiting family and friends here on a trip from his home in Iowa, and surprised several of us on the Keller and Oat 220 systems. We usually rely on Howard, KC6IMW, for updates on Bob. Bob was an original repeater group member and lived in Westchester. Greetings and best wishes to all from Celina, KB6RLQ and her husband Everett, formerly of San Bernardino, but now enjoying retirement in Meadview, Arizona. Celina is waiting to get a tower up so she can work some of the long-range VHF systems. In the meantime, they have become public service advocates for their community. They donated an area on their land so that a landing pad could be constructed for the Medi-Vac emergency helicopter. Everett completed volunteer training to work in emergency search and rescue efforts for Lake Mead. SAREX School Information From the Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment School Application For More Information, Please Contact: The American Radio Relay League Educational Activities Department 225 Main Street - Newington CT 06111 Phone: (203) 666-1541 FAX: (203) 665-7531 This application should be electronically mailed to ARRL EAD using any of the following electronic services: Internet: ead@arrl.org MCI Mail ID: 215-5052 CompuServe ID: 70007,3373 Prodigy: PTYS02A America Online: HQARRL1 ARRL BBS: (203) 666-0578 open to the public. (14,000/9600/2400/1200/300 N-8-1) Additional information on SAREX can be obtained from the NASA Spacelink Electronic Information System. The direct telephone access number is (205) 895-0028 and the data word format is 8 data bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit. Callers with Internet access may reach NASA Spacelink at the following address: spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov HOW DO I SUBMIT A SAREX SCHOOL APPLICATION FOR A SCHEDULED CONTACT? If your school is interested in a radio contact for a future SAREX mission, you must complete a SAREX school application and write an educational proposal. ARRL collects applications and proposals, and then forward them to the SAREX Working Group who makes the final selection in collaboration with the astronauts. All grade levels and type of schools (rural, suburban and particularly urban) are encouraged to apply. Applications may be returned to ARRL by mail or email. From the Shack of AC6AV By Dr. Bob, AC6AV Hello everyone. It is nice to know Christmas is just around the corner. Having just had Thanksgiving, the holiday season is upon us again. I always look forward to this time of year. I hope your holidays are full of the spirit that holidays bring Angie, Nicolle, Robby, and myself. Since the last newsletter, the N6ENV system has grown. Frosty has put in many hours designing the system and building it. All the volunteers that help him make the system really aren't mentioned enough. The volunteers that help on the work parties, especially with the move to Oat mountain is a shining example of one of the many times that members gave of their free time and time away from family to play radio, and be a ham in a capacity that is rewarding to the volunteer and the users of our excellent system. My hat off to them all. Has anyone noticed how big the net has gotten on Sunday night? Lets let Judy know how much we appreciate her when we check into the net. Keep up the good work Judy! The N6ENV World Wide Web page became a reality in late October with Dave, WB6WKB, answering my call of yet another volunteer to help with hypertext markup language. Dave has spent as many hours doing his magic as any volunteer ever has. Many hours went into the production of the page, and Dave has many more hours doing constant upgrades. I don't hear him on the air much, but he certainly deserves a lot of credit for being a volunteer and a talented one at that. If you have web access you must see his art work. Included in the page is a member list that gives us the ability to click on a call sign and leave email. There are several links to different places, including several call servers, and ham resources. The N6ENV WWW page is a one stop place for information about the whole ham community locally and around the world. Members are also encouraged to list their own web pages on the member list. All you have to do is click on their web page next to the call sign and you will be transported to the web page of that member. We have several members that have their own page up and each one has good links to other web sites. The web page is a good place to get to know all the members of the N6ENV system because all repeater sites are gathered in one place. The next time you drop by the web page, leave mail to someone you haven't met before and send a friendly message. I did that and have developed relationships with east side members. It's kind of like the friendships you develop on the air with people that you didn't know and the friendship grew. We as hams have all experienced that great QSO and hope to run into that person again. In the shack I have made some changes in my digital communications. I converted my packet station to tcp/ip packet, and I am now in the middle of another big learning curve. I put a 200 watt 2 meter amplifier on the 9 DB gain omni, and I am blasting my way out of the valley and beyond! The HF bands are showing that they want to come back. Pactor on 20 and 40 meters is testing the ability of my Kenwood TS940S to filter out QRM.. It is busy out there! For the record: I'm in favor of a no- code General ticket I have my reasons. Lets talk about it on the repeater and get everyone interested in HF radio Finally, my family has also gone though some changes. Nicolle turned 13 years old on November 21, just a couple of days before Thanksgiving, and Robby turned 1 on December 2nd, two hallmark birthdays. Angie still gets irritated with my "stupid radios," but for some reason she still tolerates my volunteer time. In fact, she even volunteers by editing the newsletter. Thanks to all of you for making my radios worth listening to. Talk to you on the air! 73.... de Dr. Bob AR SK NNNN