TROJAN
ARC HARMONIC
|
Editor Bruce Frahm KØBJ Send articles to k0bj@arrl.org |
Publisher Mike Albers KØFJ Subscription requests to k0fj@arrl.net |
MEETINGS 2nd
THURSDAYS
HAM LUNCH
WORK NIGHTS AS
SCHEDULED
WØWOB
REPEATERS
146.22/.82
444/449.65
156.7 PL
WØWOB IRLP
Node #3608
145.65
156.7 PL
KØFJ-1Ø APRS I-Gate
WØWOB APRS Weather
Node
NØOXP APRS Weather Node
.82 ANTENNA
PROBLEM/HARDLINE WINDFALL Sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right
time. That was the case when K0FJ happened to see a crew out at our
repeater/cell site. They were removing, and destroying 1-5/8” Andrew Heliax,
for recycling! It was deemed unsuitable to repair on the cell antenna runs. Mike
talked them into leaving the lines alone and he and some city guys salvaged a
200+’ run and two 100’+ runs, and 3 end connectors! They got the stout stuff
onto a spool and it’s stored on city property. If we ever have need for a run
of very loss line, this stuff might just get “appropriated” to the club…… Now the bad news – the crew noticed that both
mounts on our .82 repeater antenna are loose, and were unable to tighten them.
K-N can provide suitable replacement clamps, and K0BJ is mulling whether he
would like to take on another 375’ climb…. This hardware problem is suspected
as the source of our noise during severe and windy wx.
CCC BASKETBALL
RECOGNITION K0QP K0BJ and their
XYLs plus Karlyn attended the college’s Jan. 7 CCC/Garden City basketball
games. N0OXP also attended the women’s game. The men’s match was an overtime
thriller, with Colby taking the victory. The Trojans enjoyed some visiting
during and between games. When the list of service organizations attending the
game was read at halftime, everyone in the group realized they could have
attended with at least one other group besides the TARC!
0N & 0X BUREAU
NEWS Our first work-through on the X
portion of the bureau went well. It is much smaller than the N bureau. AC0J has
built wooden boxes for both letters’ dead QSLs. In addition Jeff researched
emails and has been checking with potential clients without SASEs on file. K0BJ
also helped out by getting emails from the ARRL database for those calls whose
first emails bounced. This was a lot of effort but had a payoff as over a dozen
hams were unaware they were out of envelopes, or even unaware of the bureau,
and plan to get set up. Also a couple gave us the OK to destroy their cards.
The most distasteful part of doing buro sorting is seeing the ‘dead QSLs’ and
this cleanup operation will help.
*******IRLP NODE NEWS Lots
of progress has been made. The new controller is being bench-tested after
installation in chassis by N0XJ. The original setup is running at the .82 site
KOOD PUBLIC TV PLEDGE
NIGHT MARCH 6 The public tv
station in
SKYWARN RECOGNITION
DAY AFTERMATH Joy KC0QAV and Scott N0QE are working the
pile of certificate requests for SRD, which numbered in the hundreds. The MS
MailMerge program from last year was modified a bit and new photos added to
feature Hurricane Isabel, the western fires and May 17 tornado outbreak. A
logic-test field was added to each station category this year so if an
applicant achieved the “endorsement level” for that category, their certificate
gets a star added. This improvement was sorely lacking last year.
ARRL LICENSE
RESTRUCTURING PLAN This item has been
covered in the ham press. K0BJ was at the board meeting where ARRL’s plan was
adopted. ARRL’s Executive Committee
submitted a proposal which the board adopted. The decision had lots of
constraints, one of the big ones being FCC has said that any change needs to
involve no need to modify their ULS licensing database program. Another was to enfold proposals for voice
band expansion in the currently-pending “Novice refarming” petition. Bruce
feels the proposal does a good job of striking a balance between the pro-code
and anti-code testing forces, and would eliminate the so-called “legacy”
license classes of current Novices and Advanced licensees (where no test is now
given, but the license class remains). This involves “grandfathering” Novice to
new proposed Novice class, Advanced to Extra and Tech to General. While all
types of Techs have been tested on HF privileges, the newer ones have had
minimal HF testing and Bruce feels it would be ideal if they had more exam
exposure to HF before receiving General privileges, but that would be a very
“bulky” procedure. Having a true entry-level Novice class, eliminating the
legacy classes, giving significant no-code HF access and getting some movement
on refarming the underutilized Novice subbands are significant plusses that a
lot of hams see in this proposal. We’ll now see if the FCC will move, in a
timely way, on this issue.
K0BLU/K3RRY ANTENNA PROJECT We still need to help Gil and Char get their A3S over to
the tower at their Oberlin QTH. We’ll continue to look for a suitable wx-day to
complete this project.
APRS
CAPERS - DE KØFJ –
CONTEST CAPERS K0FJ
plans to host a CQ WPX RTTY contest multiop group at his QTH this weekend. If
you have some interest in the HF digital modes, come by and check things out.
Propagation seems down, so it’s good this contest involves a lot of stateside
as well as DX interest and multipliers. K0BJ plans at least casual work in the ARRL
DX CW test next weekend Feb 21-22. And he’s planning a multiop invitation for
the CQ 160 SSB. Bruce hopes to get more Beverages up if wx cooperates, in time
for this dark-hours contest the nights of Feb 27-28 and 28-29.
BANDSCAN K0BJ has
achieved a long-delayed goal by putting up a Beverage antenna for lowband
receive. He’s in the learning stage but the 500’ low wire performed well in the
CQ 160 CW contest and helped Bruce log 4 new countries on 160 Meters. He hopes
to eventually run 4 wires and terminate them with 50 ohm resistors, which makes
them directional rather than bidirectional. The first effort antenna favors the
South Pacific and to some extent
NEXT MEETING FEBRUARY
The Trojan Amateur Radio Club is a general interest
educational and public service ham club. We maintain 2M and 70cm FM repeaters, APRS packet digi and I-Gate and
IRLP link. Dues are $15/annually, payable to Mike Albers KØFJ