TROJAN ARC HARMONIC

JANUARY HOLIDAY PARTY Kathy N0XNJ has booked the Colonial Steakhouse in Oakley for a Holiday party similar to the one we had last year. This will be our regular meeting night January 11; meet at 6pm and order at 6:30. Kathy needs a preliminary count; please advise her of your plans via one of the repeaters or katndawg@colby.ixks.com ASAP

DUES According to K0FJ's records the following have NOT paid $10 dues for 2001 yet. If any discrepancies, notify Mike: KA0FBQ WA0GBN KC0BNV KB0OAT WB0USQ N0XNK

ARES SIGNUP - LAST CALL K0FJ needs to submit the Dist 3, Zone 39 ARES
membership to the county and the ARRL this month. If anyone has not yet filled out a new ARES form, they should contact Mike ASAP to finish this up. Thanks to all those who have registered.

70CM MACHINE KB0MBT and KC0JAO put the telescope on the Comet dualband antenna at KLBY and discovered the antenna is beat up. This is undoubtedly most if not all of our SWR problem on the 440 machine. A 440 monoband antenna is on order. Unlike the existing Comet, this is a single 107" fiberglass-encased unit costing $225. We are hoping to find a climber. There may be good news on that front, as KLBY needs some lights replaced in the near future; in fact, that's why the antenna was ordered as soon as the problem was found, in case a climb is scheduled soon. We're lucky to have gotten this machine in service with no expense to the club, but now to give it full potential we need to fix the antenna problem. We have pretty good funding in our account but don't want to deplete things too much as our scanner book sales have flattened. We'll discuss a possible funding appeal to cover the cost of the new 440 antenna.

NWS EVENT The NWS Special Event still doesn't have 16 or so of the participating offices listed, but we are maintaining our lead in states worked at 49 and other NWS offices worked (among NWS stations - some individuals have worked almost 60 NWS offices), and 2^nd place in total QSOs. The official results are at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/gld/

PACKET RACKET de Mike K0FJ - Are any of the members planning on using the KØFJ Packet BBS in the next year? I think Allen has been the only one to use it for quite some time. I may need to do some maintenance on the BBS computer. If no one is interested in checking into the BBS, then I may let it run till it quits and then shut it down.

BANDSCAN Congratulations to David K0KHP, ex N0TES. The new call is appropriate as Dave is patroling the roads of Sherman County with the Highway Patrol. Suppose anyone operating /m gets automatic 15mph leeway? BT Jim KC0HBR has just produced some sharp homespun QSLs featuring his patrol car and badge. The juicy DX HBR's been logging will now be getting QSL requests! BT The "J Twins" paid a visit to Fred WD0EBJ and xyl Hank northeast of Selden one recent afternoon. Mike and Bruce enjoyed seeing Fred's vast collection of operating rigs, antennas and his 'aluminum garden'. Listening to Fred work the keys (the ORGAN keys, that is) was part of the entertainment and the guys enjoyed swapping avariety of stories. BT A good time was had by a couple dozen Trojans and family at K0BJ's QTH for our Christmas party. Many great potluck dishes and some fun in the shack made for an enjoyable evening. Many folks remarked on how well MBT/XNJ, JAO and BJ's kids played together and policed themselves. BT K0FJ laments not getting the 'star' mounted on his tower this Christmas season. Seems a number of neighbors have commented on its absence. BT Marion KA0RID was recently in the area, working on microwave SCEDA links for Sunflower Electric. The 380KV line east of Colby occasionally has as much as 300A load on it! The line faults every few weeks, often due to eagles flying away with enough debris to short two phases. When this occurs the line is designed to trip off in 1/4 cycle -- 4 milliseconds! Pretty amazing stats. BT Bruce K0BJ recently picked up a used High Sierra screwdriver antenna. This is tunable from the cockpit and makes an awesome HF mobile ant, but is BIG. BJ is debating whether to install the screwdriver on his Explorer, or sell it to K0FJ for his IC-706/van. BT K0KHP had an eyeball QSO recently with Chet NS0O, while both were working an accident at the border of their jurisdictions. Dave reports that Chet's sheriff lost his job and as a result Chet is moving to Gove County to be undersheriff there. That'll put him just a bit closer and maybe we'll see him more often than just on the key at Field Day…. we hope! BT Jim KC0HBR has been having fun eyeballing some of his 2m contacts while patroling I-70. In fact, it hasn't been beneath him to come up alongside truckers he's been in QSO with and let them suddenly discover he's got one of those fancy county cars with the Hot Blue / Red lights on top. So far, apparently none of these eyeball QSOs have led to the issuance of any "special QSL cards".

The Trojan Amateur Radio Club is a general interest educational and public service ham club. We maintain a 2M FM repeater and a station at the NWS in Goodland. Dues are $10/annually, payable to Mike Albers K0FJ, 140 E. Cherry, Colby KS 67701. Material from the Trojan Harmonic may be freely copied; attribution is appreciated. News and free email subscription requests to KØBJ, PO Box DX, Colby KS 67701 or bfrahm@colby.ixks.com