HAM LUNCH continues to be a popular crowd-pleaser Friday noon’s at the CCC cafeteria. We meet in the "Rotary Room" if it's available; otherwise we find tables in the main lunchroom. The April 5 session had eleven hams and family attending.

WX SPOTTER TRAINING As usual the training was interesting, possibly more than usual this time due to the new presenter Scott NØQE. Scott stressed some of the dynamics of storms like up and down drafts etc. Video files included a run-through of how NWS GLD tracks a storm and issues warnings, and a car trying to traverse flash flood waters over a road. Among the good-sized crowd were KØMXU NØXJ KCØJAO KØFJ KØBJ KCØBNV KCØHBR KBØZIA. Gil and Char KØBLU/K3RRY attended in Oberlin, and were seen on KSNK Ch 8's footage of the class.

COP CONTINUING ED A good percentage of Trojans are involved in Law Enforcement, and two of our Boys in Blue (dare we say "Piggy Hams"???) have recently been far a field for training. Deputy Jim KCØHBR spent some time in Frederick CO (near Broomfield) . While out there he QSOed Tom WAØEAJ, who is a twice-annual user of our 22/82 machine as he travels down I-70. Gary NØXNK was sent to Orlando where he got field training in some fascinating IR imaging equipment. The nearly full agenda did allow time for a visit to Universal Studios, where XNK particularly enjoyed the "subway" ride.

DX BUGS Late March saw 2 big DXpeditions to the southeast Pacific. XRØY on San Felix and VP6DI from Ducie, the brand new DXCC country near Pitcairn Island. Ducie gave many hams their first taste of truly raging pileups as 'everyone' needed it for a new one. Most of the local guns and pistols logged both operations, often on more than one band. One night between 2M coordination and KCØJAO's mobile setup, XJ HBR FJ and JAO snagged the San Felix gang. Chad KCØIZV from Scott City was reporting success as well. A check of online logs revealed that over 30 of the two groups' 100K or so QSOs were made with Trojan and SHARC hams.

APRS CAPERS de Mike KØFJ – Mike will be making some programming changes to the Hoxie APRS KPC3 Digi on Wednesday to allow remote administration and configuration of the TNC. The Club is still looking for tower space in the Goodland and Oberlin area for APRS Digi’s. If anyone if aware of tower space that could be made available in these areas to assist the weather and APRS network, please contact KØFJ.

BANDSCAN KØMXU and KØFJ report via NSØO's exXYL that Moe WØSZF of McCook, is due for some follow-up surgery. He's looking good but is quite thin and needs some work on the digestive plumbing. Best wishes to Moe, who was our Field Day cw mascot for the early years at Phillips Park. BT KØBLU recently enjoyed a 20M QSO with a 5^th grade teacher and her class. Gil followed up the contact with 20 QSL cards -- one for each of the students. The teacher was happy to log Decatur County for a new one. BT No more duckie-holding in the window well….. KCØJAO has installed a 2m antenna at his house so he can use his IC-746 for 2M FM QSOs from the shack. Jeff got the antenna from NØXJ. BT KØBJ's cousin David KBØZUO from Malmo NE was recently in Colby taking well samples at the power plant site. Bruce and David dropped in on KØFJ, who was babysitting the city's water system along with KBØLGX, now that the water tower is being refurbished. David enjoyed seeing another SB-200 (he's got a 220 project underway) as well as hearing some war stories about past city radio and tech-related projects Mike's been involved in. BT

NEXT MEETING APRIL 12 NOON CCC UNION *** - We will have a project night on Thursday April 11^th at 7:00 PM to review setup and configuration of the Mobile Command Post (MCP). This was postponed from last month due to cold WX conditions. We will meet at the Public Works complex at 195 N. Sterling. Anyone interested in assisting with the MCP should attend.

The Trojan Amateur Radio Club is a general interest educational and public service ham club. We maintain 2M and 70cm FM repeaters and APRS packet digi. Dues are $15/annually, payable to Kathy Lindberg NØXNJ, Colby KS 67701.