TROJAN ARC HARMONIC

JANUARY 2002

Editor Bruce Frahm KØBJ Send articles to k0bj@arrl.org

Publisher Mike Albers KØFJ Subscription requests to k0fj@arrl.net

MEETINGS 2^nd THURSDAYS 7PM K-N COMMUNICATIONS

HAM LUNCH NOON FRIDAYS MONITOR .82

WORK NIGHTS AS SCHEDULED

WØWOB REPEATERS

146.22/.82

444/449.65 156.7 PL

KØFJ-2 APRS DIGI 144.39

WØWOB APRS Weather Node

WØWOB-10 APRS IGate

HOLIDAY PARTY JANUARY 9 Our regular meeting night is the time for our SECOND party of the season. This one is at the Colonial Steakhouse, west I-70 Oakley exit. We’ll meet starting 6PM and eat from the buffet or menu at 6:30

SKYWARN RECOGNITION DAY AT NWS GOODLAND The Dunestar bandpass filters worked their magic and we had a good session for SRD 2002. KØBJ ACØJ KØFJ KCØHBR and GLD MIC NØQE were ops for the Goodland event. Two NWS employees tested for and passed their Techs during the event. So far the effort in Goodland is 3^rd best of the over 100 offices participating, as we made 879 Qs and contacted many offices. KØBJ is working on the certificate which the Goodland office will send on request to SRD participants.

OFFICE	QSOs	States	NWS offices
Des Moines	1535	49	79
San Antonio	1083	38	39
Goodland	879	49	72
Pueblo	636	47	58

IT’S DUES TIME $15 individual member dues are payable. A devil pact was made and the officer list announced last time has shuffled a bit. Mike KØFJ is the new treasurer and is accepting dues payments..

NWS-Goodland METEOROLOGY CLASS – The National Weather Service Crew is offering a 1 credit hour class at CCC this semester. NØOXP reports over 10 people registered already. This will be a basic Meteorology class meeting on Thursday evenings starting January 23^rd, 2003. This will be a great class for any of the SkyWarn Crew. Contact Patti NØOXP at CCC for more info or to sign up. 785-462-3984 Ext 206.

SUCCESSFUL DECEMBER PARTY We had a group of 18 for the Christmas Potluck at KØBJ’s and had a nice evening. The serious highlight was awarding John WAØCAL life membership in the club in recognition of his status as Chief Food Supplier for every event we’re involved with that spans more than 2 hours, as well as giving gifts of vintage gear to many area hams who have enjoyed receiving it. In keeping with last year’s gag gifts, we had a couple laughs too. The first was at the expense of KØFJ. Known for his liberal use of THE BEST electrical tape and nylon ties for even the most temporary jobs, Mike received a sample bandelero in the style of a ‘jump kit’, which should keep him in supplies for at least…. well…., in his case….um, a Field Day or Special event or two. The handy-dandy item came courtesy of a mystery company that rumor says ACØJ might hold some stock in. The second victim was KØQP, who has endured some ribbing about the possibility of using “Kewpie” for phonetics. Seems Jim received a shipment of WIMPY QSLs featuring a cute, chubby, rosy-cheeked and quite naked Kewpie Doll. His explanation to Carol musta been interesting……. Again, the rumor mill was floating and speculation holds that KØBJ had a hand in arranging for WIMPY to print the suspect cards.

John WAØCAL made a TARC Life Member	KØMXU reads The Letter sent to KØFJ

APRS HAPPENINGS DE KØFJ – The Denver APRS I-Gate Hub failed on Friday Jan 03. I was able to reconfigure the I-Gate to use AHUBWEST in the message only port and restart the I-Gate. The Gate was down for approx. 4 hours. Many new APRS programs are available on the Internet. A Sound Board program will act as a TNC. Interested Hams can purchase a cheap 2-Meter radio and be on APRS in no time! Look for an APRS update and Demo at one of the TARC meetings in the near future.

BANDSCAN Jim Corder WØFT ex-KØMRI of Quinter, who used to live in Selden, is a Silent Key. Jim was manager of QKS Kansas cw net for many years, and was Kansas Amateur of the Year in the early 70s. BT Congratulations to Joey Nickols, son of NØXNO, who was married recently. BT KØBJ’s TM-D700 mobile rig has been suffering from ‘memory Alzheimers’ for awhile, dropping the split freq info on certain stored repeater channels. Bruce found a workaround to work the 440 machine, but when his .82 went on the fritz things got even more serious. NØXJ came to the rescue – Gregg used a laptop and D700 programming software to rewrite the rig’s firmware, with the necessary corrections. BJ’s rig is fine again, although things musta got real messy for a while…. KCØHBR reports Bruce was beaconing his QTH as Pennsylvania during the holidays, while he never left nwKS! BT FJ J and XJ were a VE team recently which tested Stephen Higdon, the son of new NWS ham Gerald KCØOQN. Pop had a deal with him that if he beat his dad’s score he’d get $50…. Well, that didn’t quite happen, but a new ham ticket is prize enough! BT KØFJ recently battled yet another round of shackitis, and has moved to the nw basement room which has a bit more space than the old digs. Mike has a nice cable access, but had to do some clever saw and grunt work to get 220VAC into the shack for his thermonuclear SB-220. Of course carpet replacement, painting, new suspended ceiling, lighting, etc. was part of the deal too. Mike and KØBJ baptized the room properly last weekend in the RTTY Roundup contest, making exactly 1000 QSOs in a solid effort with fair to good propagation. BT Another ham on the horizon? Rick Horinek (SK) NØXNM’s 12 year old son has a school IEP which includes ham radio study. He’s getting Now You’re Talking and we may have another young’un in our midst soon. BT KØQP’s daughter Michaela has completed her semester of study in nw Spain, and completed an excursion around Europe. She’s back in the USA now after a number of interesting experiences. BT

NEXT MEETING JANUARY 9 6PM COLONIAL STEAKHOUSE Our Christmas potluck. No program, just a gabfest…. Bring kids, DX lies, etc.

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 Michael Albers KØFJ, 145 E. Cherry St. Colby KS 67701. Material from the Trojan Harmonic may be freely copied; attribution is appreciated. News requests to KØBJ, PO Box DX, Colby KS 67701 or bfrahm@colby.ixks.com. Subscription changes and requests to KØFJ k0fj@arrl.net. Club website at http://colby.ixks.com/~bfrahm/trojanarc.htm