TROJAN ARC HARMONIC
MEETINGS FRIDAY NOON CCC ROOM 106
WORK NIGHTS 2nd THURS OF THE MONTH 7:00PM CT
PIONEER MEMORIAL LIBRARY
WØWOB REPEATERS
146.22/.82
444/449.65 156.7 PL
KØFJ-2
APRS DIGI 144.39
JULY 2002
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IRLP INFO MEETING THURSDAY AT CITY HALL 7PM
Our “work night” this month will actually be an informational
meeting on the Internet Radio Linking Project. Things have happened fast and KØFJ
has the Linux machine and IRLP interface card up and running, waiting
downloading of the IRLP software. NØXJ and KCØJAO are working on interface
cabling for the radio we’ll use. For those not up to speed on this new
technology, IRLP marries local VHF simplex or repeater machines with multi-port
audio streams from other such amateur stations AROUND THE WORLD! By activating
the system with Touch Tones, a user here can bring up one of over 400 systems
worldwide and get into a DX QSO with nothing more than a HT getting into our
local machine! There are some operator skills involved in the deal, and that’s
largely what this work night will be about.
Ours
is probably going to be the first Kansas repeater on the system.
There are a few ramifications and opportunities to repeater operations,
and the more users that are aware of the restraints and possibilities, the
better. This includes voice announcement capability, potential for linking
through IRLP with other area repeaters both for wx
spotting and general use, and other stuff.
WX SPOTTING
After a long dry
spell, weather spotting came upon Trojans hard June 19. Some hams were out well
over 2 hours. An odd tornado north of Levant
was called in to NØQE at NWS by us about 7PM.
KØBJ KCØHBR and NØXNK
got digital photos or video of the feature. Others spotting that day included NØXJ
KØFJ KØBLU KBØLGX NØQGB KØMXU KCØJAO.
FIELD DAY The paperwork for our 2002 Field Day effort is in. We had some
fun with a balky ‘new’ Alliance rotator, NØXJ’s
crank-up 70’ tower, a couple good 6 meter openings, good eyeball QSOs and plenty of wind (at least the mosquitoes stayed
away…) Here's how we did
statistically:
455 cw QSOs
664 phone 1119
total 790 bonus 3938 score 20
participants
prior years:
2001
1224 4452 26
2000 1567 4866 16
1999 1024 3406 12
Our bonus performance this year was down from the norm
-- we missed the satellite and non-traditional demo (despite some attempts by
FJ) among others. Anyway a nice effort and much fun.
No word yet from the NOMADs; they had a change of
venue and were missing some key ops from previous FDs.
There have been some mumblings about considering a scaled-down FD entry next
year, or something else rather different from the fairly competitive 2A
operations we've been mounting. Let's discuss this and see if a consensus
develops.
TIGERTRONICS TRACKERS FIRE SALE The weather mod. people in Lakin bought a number of APRS send-only tracking units,
which they are now selling. These, along with a GPS and 2M rig, set your mobile,
wx station, etc up to send (but not rx) APRS data. The guy @ the wx mod site in Lakin who has the Tigertronics trackers wants $50.00 bucks each. They run
over 100 bucks new. Ex-Trojan Dale Urban NØKQX, can
get anybody interested in these in touch with the right person. deunju@juno.com
BANDSCAN KØFJ KØBJ and family enjoyed the Midwest convention/Hamboree
on the banks of the Missouri River in Sioux City again this year. The best highlight
was an evening boat ride on the Mighty Mo, and a second was meeting Nick KØPCG.
An attorney from Des Moines, it turns out Nick is one of the
ringleaders of the Des Moines NWS Special Event station that keeps waxing us in
the December on-air event. BT Dale NØKQX ended
up on High Plains Public Radio’s local feature the day before Field Day. He
explained the SHARC operation in Lakin and the
philosophy of FD for about 8 minutes. BT
Congratulations to KCØJAO who passed his Extra in a June 28 VE session at Mike’s officel. Despite
squeaking by in online practice exams, Jeff nailed the real thing with quite a
few to spare. The rumor mill says that KBØLGX and NØOXP may be among the next
people to test through the Trojan Ve’s. A reminder --
call CVE KØFJ if you're interested in arranging a ham test. BT Normally you
don't want to get hosed by a mechanic, but it worked out great for KCØIWH. Mike
was leaving Colby after Field Day and was suspecting a clogged EGR valve for
his pickup's doggy performance. Gregg NØXJ got in on the repair caper and
discovered a disconnected vacuum hose. Getting hosed really did work out well
for IWH, who continued on home the next morning after a night at the KØBJ QTH.
BT Allen KØMXU copied one of the Manhattan super-launch balloons July 7. He
copied it from 45K feet to 80K, and back down to 25K before losing signal. The
balloon ended up south of Abilene. BT KØFJ and NØOXP traveled to Denver and Mike ended up with a nice VX5-R
HT. He’d had his eye on the VX-7 but it was cleaned out at HRO. BT Bruce KØBJ has traded in his old
computer for a new (to him) Gateway with a little more speed and agility. BJ is
now running DX4WIN logging software. BT KCØIWH is also a new recipient of the
Extra Class license. Congratulations Mike! Actually he’s still waiting on the
paperwork, but has the CSCE to prove he passed. BT KØBJ’s
cousin David KBØZUO was back in town checking wells from the company he works
for in eastern Nebraska. David also dropped off his
cantankerous SB-220 amplifier. It and KØBJ’s
one-owner version of the same amp may be the subjects of an upcoming work
night.
NEXT MEETING JULY 11 7PM Colby City
Hall – Technology Office. We will discuss the IRLP project. Don’t forget - see you Friday at Ham Lunch.
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 soon to be IRLP node. Dues are
$15/annually, payable to Kathy Lindberg NØXNJ,
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 Online archive of some past issues at http://colby.ixks.com/~bfrahm/trojnls.htm