TROJAN ARC HARMONIC

WAØVJR.#CLBY.KS.USA.NA

ANOTHER AREA SILENT KEY Delmer Smith NØJUA ex WBØEEJ of Goodland, became a Silent Key last month. Being wheelchair bound, Delmer found hamming to be a great hobby to complement his accounting work, until other interests took his time. Although never a Trojan, Delmer was active in the old Wheat Belt club. One of his most memorable capers was the trip he took with CW WØAM ex WØINH and Naomi Wade up the Alaska Highway. Delmer and CW stayed in touch on the HF bands and allowed many of us back home to 'travel' along with them.

PERSEID METEOR SCATTER PACKET EXPERIMENT Bruce KØBJ is an astronomy buff and has tried sending 2m packets out during the Persied meteor shower the past couple years (with none SWLed back). Meteor scatter 's short "pings" are an ideal propagation medium for short packet bursts. The shower runs from about August 10-15. Now WA1LOU of QST's Packet Perspective has come up with a comprehensive plan for those who'd like to try this year to send/hear meteor scattered packets. Stan says that while 6m is much more suited to m/s, the large numbers of 2m packeteers may provide the key to success.

NEW INTERNATIONAL POSTAL RATES Those of you who are DXers should make note that letters to most countries are now $.60 for the first half ounce + .40 /additional half ounce. QSL postcards are .50 . Rate to VE Canada is .46 for a half ounce or .52 for a hull ounce. XE Mexico is now .40 for a half ounce or .46 for a full ounce, with QSLs at .35

FIELD DAY SCORE RUMORS The Central Ks ARC of Salina came down to 2A this year and claims 3236 points as WØKQU. Great Bend activated their brand new club call KBØSEV in 2A and, although they complain of Saturday afternoon storms cutting into operating time, they came up with 1026 QSOs! No claimed score was given, but unless they're low on CW contacts or bonus points, they're likely to beat us by a pinch. They were RICH in HF rigs, using TS430/440/450, as well as a 4el tribander and ladderline fed dipole. PHDARA in KC also fought storms and used NØTT. No word on score or classification but they made 1558 QSOs (they usually run 4-5A?). Many teams have commented on poorer propagation than last year, in contrast to our experience (except for the phenomenal 10/6 meter E skip last year). The PHD club benefitted from bandpass filtering this year -- something the Trojans might find worth considering. As a reminder, we scored 3650 this year, with 593 SSB and 370 CW QSOs.

MAXIM BIRTHDAY PARTY The 125th birthday on-the-air party for Hiram Percy Maxim W1AW, founder of ARRL, was such a big success it will be celebrated again this year. ARRL electees and apppointees will be on the air September 1-10 signing /126. You can get a certificate for working 25 of the special stations, endorsable in multiples of 25 up to 100. Local eligible /126 stations are KFØMJ Emergency Coordinator, and KØBJ Vice Director.

DID YOU KNOW? If pro and con are opposites, it must mean the opposite of progress is Congress!

$WAP TABLE FOR SALE: Heathkit SB104 solid state HF transceiver, antenna tuner and SGC amp. For details contact Rich Jewett, 1260 E. 8th, Colby 913-462-3485

BANDSCAN BT Allen KØMXU reports having "eyeball SWL" contact with the recent shuttle/MIR docking mission. The trick to seeing satellites is to view them in darkness, while they are still in sunlight -- in other words, in twilight shortly after dusk or before dawn. Allen reports the two massive objects were extremely bright and moving right along. BT Brad Wagoner, who purchased WAØDAV's 80 and 40 Meter singlebander rigs, reports doing some fun SWLing and is interested in putting up a tower with dipoles. We need to keep him on track studying for a ticket. Brad works at KØBJ's farm. BT Gerry KBØLGX is the proud owner of a new (to him) bass boat. It's a 16' tri-hull design with a 33 hp motor. The purchase included a broken throttle linkage which kept the motor in reverse, but a half hour's work put it in ship-shape condition. BT Jon KBØMBS got his Lexmark notebook computer back from the repair shop. Turns out the non-charging battery was due to having the wrong AC wall power unit supplied. The correct power adapter/charger has the computer up to speed at home or in the car. BT David NØTES has his new YL trap '88 Mercury Tracer hatchback decked out with the perfect accessory: a brand new ham license plate. Wonder how many 'civilians' will think he's a singer with a vanity plate? Oh well, if the shoe fits...... BT Gunter Rossel DGØOKJ and his XYL Angela have arrived back home in Garmany after their travels in the USA. It turns out Allen KØMXU was the first of only two people who they met up with who spoke more than trifling German. The Rossels report having a great time at all their stops on their travels in the central and southern states. BT Coming from the "FT101" age, Bruce KØBJ had the itch to have his TS50 fixed to transmit anywhere. After all his FT757 had been rigged that way, when he heard of the special switch behind the panel. The going rate of $75 at Dayton seemed a little steep, and it's good Bruce bided his time, as the ARRL Int'l VP told him to check his MODS directory on the QRZ CD ROM. Sure enough, BJ found the correct diode to snip and is now ready for MARS or emergency operation. BT Fleck KØRXT is a couple rungs higher on the cybernetic ladder these days, with a 486SX from CW Hamilton. With 4MB of RAM and VGA graphics, he's pretty pleased with the upgrade but claims this is the last time he'll ever spend any money on computer hardware! We'll see......... BT Butch WAØVJR and Linda are "where it's at" in Sharon Springs these days. They've set up an arcade in the front of their store, along with pop machines etc. Hey Butch, be sure to keep a computer with the ham question pool software running somewhere. Maybe you can get some of the hotfisted kids into ham radio! By the way Butch's G5RV antenna is refusing to get out properly. He has some metal on the roof and is hoping to get things working better.