TROJAN A.R.C NEWSLETTER
W0WOB REPEATER 14G.22/.82
PACKET BBS WAOVJR.NWKS.KS.USA
MEETINGS 2ND THURSDAYS 7:30PM CDT CCC union #107
AUGUST 1994
NEW NAM TICKETS Congratulations to Debbie Hamme and Dennis Hull from Goodland who endured the tortuous FCC backlog. Debbie IS now KB0NOR (great digital call !) and will be on 2 meters soon. Weatherman Dennis has been showing up from the NWS rig. The licensing backlog has been running as high as 15 weeks! FCC had huge backlogs in ALL services. They had a huge processing week in mid July and got current to within a few weeks! The rulemaking issues on the FCC's 8th floor, seem to have come to a standstill. Many people perceive FCC Chief Commissioner Reed Hundt as a do--nothing playboy (look who appointed him, hi! ). While Private Radio chief Ralph Haller and a couple of his staff have been promising good things on enforcement and rulemaking issues, they have all been pulled away to other branches temporarily. On the good side WHEN the new computer is on line electronic application filings should REALLY speed licensing
MAXIM Birthday EVENT Hiram Percy Maxim, WIAW was founder of ARRL. His 125th birthday is being celebrated by having interested ARRL staff, elected officials and volunteers add "125" to their callsigns from September 2-12. Hams who work 25, 50, 75, 100 or 125 of the '125' stations qualify for a commemorative award . Those of you with ARRL appointments or positions are encouraged to be active those l1 days for giving out /125 QSOs and you others are invited to go for the awards.
FIELD DAY RUMORS Newton ARC operated WOBZN. They had better luck on cw than ssb and like us made hay with E skip on 6 and 10 meters, Their score of 4446 just edges our 4430, but it's believed they operated class 3A while we of course did our traditional 1A. Salina (class unknown? scored 3294, including 800 bonus points. A big factor for them was a sole Novice who rounded up 254 Qs an 10m! Great Bend didn't report their score in their newsletter, but lost 100 points when their generator quit in the wee hours Sunday and they switched to mains. Also their cw op didn't show. WOLB in KCKS made 455 on cw and 300 on ssb. THey didn't mention their calss or bonus points but they made A LOT of mention of intending to rise next year to the challenge issued by the Trojans (courtesy of K0BJ's big mouth) to all Kansas stations, via K0BXF's QST column. The Marais des Cygnes valley hams (2A-maybe) made 130Qs + Novice-Tech and 6m. Norfolk NE piloted NROA (class unknown) to a score of 2499.
APOLLO SPECIAL EVENT KF0MJ KBOJRW and KOBJ had fun on the 25th anniversary of Apollo 11 being in lunar orbit. Vlub station sfrom 12 NASA facilities were making QSOs and issuing commemorative cartificates. A total of 31 QSOs were made by the trio, counting some W0WOB contacts, with Johnson, Kennedy, Marshall, Goddard and Stennis Space Centers, Jet Propulsion Lab, Moffett Field. White Sands Range, Dryden, Wallops Island and Lewis Research Centers. The new Free Press reporter observed at Mike's staion, and is now studying the Novice and Tech material. Jim also discovered 'the joy of ssb', although he still prefers cw most of the time. K0BJ got to see and hear 16 of the Apollo astronauts at the Oshkosh airshow.
HAM LUNCH VENUE?:? Dano's is closed so we should decide what sort of method we want to determine Ham Lunch restaurants. Variety is nice, but difficult to remember in case someone doesn't have their HT along. When a new plan is worked out, it will be published here.
BANDSCAN Jim KB0JRW has pulled the Alinco 2m rig from his pickup
for use on packet. A new (ok, new to HIM) Heath HW-202 is being
re-crystalled, and will he his mobile rig. BT Hoxie HS sophomore
Sonya Cooper made her 2nd trip to History Day Finals in Washington
DC recently. Her slide show, while not as scholarly (har) as the one
on Amateur Radio, told the story of a Vietnamese refugee now living
in Quinter, who has become a minister. She placed 5th nationwide and
received some super judges' comments. Congratulations, Sonya! BT
Fleck KORXT suggests putting photos of member shacks in each issue
of the Harmonic. Any volunteers for first victim? BT How about all
the E-skip lately (sometimes helped by tropo)? California has been
working Hawaii on everything from 6 meters to 2300 Mhz, including HT
to HT and television QSOs. David NOTES was having a casual QSO with
mobile July 18, and it took a few overs for them to discover David
was in Colby and the mobile in central South Dakota! There were 38
calls on the CLBY nodelist that day -- far more than the usual 10-
12, but not quite equal to the 52 or more seen on rare occasions. BT
Larry N0ZTM. LEI now has a 13el Cushcraft beam up at 35' to
access the
.82 machine. With some luck that will give him a fairly consistent
path into the repeater. B T K0BJ and KF0MJ have been deducing their
exact coordinates for satellite and propagation software. A USGS
quadrangle map provided accuracy to an estimated 700 feet, within
the resolution on the InstaTrack software.
A portable GPS borrowed
from Chuck Roesch at Colby Airport agreed, but was only slightly
more precise. In addition to the purposeful scrambling of data done-,
b y the military " (reported t o trash accuracy from the theoretical 3-4' to about 120'), there was some periodic error that prevented
getting better than about 600' accuracy. BT KORXT's old Brimstone
rig that he's used on packet has been acting up lately, with squelch
problems. Seems as though a couple weeks' rest may have helped the
rig. BT KBOJRW's recent 40m CQ wear answered by former Trojan Jeff
KA0ARW. Back in at Leavenworth, Jeff relayed his hello to all
Trojans and was glad to have had his stint teaching at Colby H.S.,
but says it's great to be back east with his family in home
territory. BT Bruce KOBJ received his Friendship Award from ARRL_.
This one is within any ham's capability -- work 26 stations, one
each with calls ending in a-z, and get op. name and one other fact
in the QSO. Details and sample entry in November QST. BT Former
Trojan Dale NOKQX was busy building & installing antennas for a
Garden/Dodge City link, largely for NWS work. Good show! BT KBOMBS
and KOBJ have been thinking about 6m capability, and with FD fresh
in their minds, they are eyeing the Ten Tec tran xverter kit. They
hope to 'copy' WAOGBN's beam dimensions and homebrew one from their
scrap aluminum collection. BT Butch WAOVJR is trying to find a site
for his 444.6 Mhz repeater. Otherwise, it is about ready to go. BT
Dean NOOYN, the pro tornado chaser from Colorado (who sold wx
instruments at Colby swapfest), was featured in the Rocky Mountain
News Colorado and the West July 5 page 8A. The article focused on
ham radio, his spotting and videotaping activities, etc. B T K0BJ used his angstrom-band antenna (10 " telescope) to observe the dark
comet impact sites appearing on Jupiter recently. BT Tom NOXNO and
KF0MJ just installed a FT2400 in Tom's pickup. It's nice to have
A dedicated rig in the vehicle, and will help keep Tom active on the
repeater. BT The Wichita hamfest comes up Sep.30-Oct 2. It's at the Downtown Ramada.
NEXT MEETING AUGUST 11 ** CCC UNION ROOM 107 ** Note room change