TROJAN ARC HARMONIC
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Editor Bruce Frahm KØBJ Send articles to k0bj@arrl.org |
Publisher Mike Albers KØFJ Subscription requests to k0fj@arrl.net |
MEETINGS 2nd 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
WØWOB IRLP Node #3608
145.65 156.7 PL
KØFJ-1Ø APRS I-Gate
WØWOB APRS Weather Node
NØOXP APRS Weather Node
FIELD DAY IN THE GUNSIGHTS The big operating event of the year is June 28-29. At our last meeting the opportunities and limitations of operating the new Class F at the ECC tower west of town were discussed. The discussion continued on the Trojanarc reflector and numerous members were concerned about some of the downsides of operating from the location – the need for an operating tent, ‘facilities’, rigging new types of antennas etc. Permission to operate from the tower site has not been pursued further, and would be problematic and doubtful at this stage. Our main objective for the June meeting will be deciding on a location to hold Field Day. Two obvious possibilities that have been discussed on the reflector are the airport location of the past few years, and our previous site at Phillips Park. The airport probably provides the best operating conditions, while Phillips gives easiest access and has good kid activities. With commercial activity at Colby Plaza at a standstill, there is reason to hope for better RFI conditions at Phillips than in the past. If you plan to be around during Field Day, please come and join the discussion to settle on our FD site for 2003. Good news on the CW front – Mike KC0IWH plans to come out, and Chet NS0O has been showing some interest…..
BIG BALLOON LAUNCH SATURDAY Edge of Space Sciences, of Denver and the Front Range, is planning a multi-balloon launch at Deer Trail this Saturday, starting at 8:00 AM MDT. K0FJ and K0BJ heard some of the plans for this event at the EOSS forum at the Rocky Mtn. convention and have tentative plans to travel to the launch site early Saturday with mobile APRS gear. We’ll be discussing this event during the meeting. The ARRL June VHF contest starts the same day and runs through Father’s Day. These two operating events will provide VHF ops in our area ample opportunities to pursue some fun on-air activities.
IRLP UP AND RUNNING – Things have happened in a hurry once our firewall problems were solved, and the Colby IRLP node #3608 is operating on 145.65 simplex from Colby City Hall, with a 156.7 PL tone required to access the node. Numerous node to node and reflector (“roundtable”) contacts have been made with our node and by all indications, the audio performance of our link is exemplary. Big thanks go to K0FJ and N0XJ for working on our software and RF issues with this node. We’ve had interesting incoming IRLP linkups with Nova Scotia, England, Olathe, and the Twin Cities, and outgoing QSOs have been established with England, South Africa, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Antarctica and other locations. K0BJ has been declared “Mr. Windbags”, managing to time out repeaters in nearly all continents via IRLP! Info on how to use this nifty QSOing opportunity will be shared at the June meeting. Some simple touchtone commands and a few timing issues to keep in mind will give anyone – Techs included – the chance to conduct QSOs with hams around the world!
APRS CAPERS - DE KØFJ –
LATEST QSL BUREAU SHIPMENT IN Thanks to Jim N8AU, we have a fresh batch of “ØN” QSLs to be sorted for our bureau clients. We’ll work this batch of cards following the June meeting. For those of you who haven’t experienced this – we sorted cards for over an hour after the April meeting, and had lots of fun looking at exotic cards, and of course gossiping while doing the sorts. Jim, who lives in Raymore MO, picked up the cards from bureau manager KB0U before heading out on vacation to Colorado. His XYL is from Mingo, and they also delivered ‘ØK’ QSLs to N0KV in the Denver area. Thanks to the K-N gang for fronting this operation and providing the space to be of service to our fellow Zeroland hams.
GREAT CONVENTION IN ESTES PARK K0FJ N0OXP and K0BJ joined ex-Trojans Dale and Nancy Urban N0KQX/OXQ of Garden City at the Rocky Mtn. division ARRL convention in Estes Park May 30- June 1. This was a true CONVENTION, with no swap tables and a few vendor tables, and LOTS of high-quality forums. In addition to the EOSS ballooning forum mentioned above, sessions were held on Russian involvement with hamming from the space station, ARES and the Colorado fires, how to pick a QTH for optimum HF performance, APRS, Antarctica, HF propagation modeling, and much more. ARRL president W5JBP attended and conducted an informative forum as well as an inspiring speech at the banquet. A DX breakfast and hospitality suite featuring a Dayton-style cw pileup contest and left-footed cw sending contest helped round out activites throughout the nights as well as day sof the convention. N0OXP/Q did some semi-serious damage to credit cards in Estes Park, and Patti even rode horseback for an hour in the beautiful mountain setting. Not to be outdone in the dollar-dinging category, FJ and BJ did some biz with HRO (see Bandscan for gory details).
Bruce came to the confab via a scenic ride along Trail Ridge Road, preceded by some serious 6M E-skip hamming with N0KE (a sidekick of Gary W0TM) from the Vail area, where Bruce’s family had been vacationing. BJ found his way back to Colby by hitching with FJ/OXP.
BANDSCAN The “original J-Twins” KØs BJ/FJ both fell victim to cutthroat pricing and couldn’t turn down snarfing up Yaesu’s do-all tri-band VX7-R HTs at the Rocky Mtn convention. BJ has managed to lock his new toy in XMIT on a couple of occasions. These fancy, waterproof rigs come with an imposing learning curve, but in theory the guys should be active with them at some point, when they’re sufficiently educated to operate the little beasties. BT Word is that Allen K0MXU has hired a tree-trimmer, and has plans to get his Mosley tribander back into shape and tickling the ionosphere with some HF radiation. BT A little mouse tells us that Mr +33 may be trying Field Day from the Mideast…… the mideast of Kansas, that is. Alan W0NO of Beloit is looking to Field Day to provide a shakedown for his antennas and networked software as a precursor to the expedition he and K0BJ are pulling off for late July’s Islands On the Air contest from Block Island RI. As engineer of Alan’s WriteLog-based network setup and with some hot operator skills, Mike K0FJ has been asked to join Alan and his standard contesting partners K0WA and AB0S for the big event. Last this mouse knew, Mike wasn’t positive, but was leaning heavily toward making the trip. Big Joke, who has the most to gain from the exercise, being a member of the IOTA-expedition crew, plans to stay close to home for Field Day in case harvest activities take center stage for awhile. BT Among the treasures the visitors to the Rocky Mtn convention pulled down are three new VHS tapes which will be suitable fodder for movie nights. One of them was screened at the convention’s DX Breakfast, and is K4UEE’s look at the humorous, and scary aspects of 5 DXpeditions voted “DXpedition of the Year”. This atypical look at expeditions is sure to leave a smile on your face and sweat in your armpits. The other 2 shows should be equally entertaining. BT Don’t be too surprised if some local shows up with a screwdriver HF mobile antenna soon. K0BJ bought a used screwdriver from W0CEM of Junction City 3 years back, and has recently managed to REDISCOVER all the components for it. Intermittent SWR problems led to CEM’s sale, but Bruce and Mike K0FJ think they can solve the problem with a little Never-Sieze. One of the duo is likely to put the tunable antenna on his mobile rig in the near future.
NEXT MEETING JUNE 12 7:00PM K-N COMMUNICATIONS Field Day site / plans, Deer Trail balloon launch, IRLP overview, movie night schedule, ???. Post-meeting activity will be bureau QSL card sorting.
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 linkl. Dues are $15/annually, payable to Mike 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://www.carrollsweb.com/bfrahm/trojanarc.htm