TROJAN ARC
HARMONIC
MEETINGS 2nd
THURSDAYS 7PM PIONEER MEMORIAL LIBRARY
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
SEPTEMBER 2002
KØIFI SK Kermit Knudson KØIFI recently died at age
89 in Wichita, his QTH for the
last 15 or so years. Kermit was one of the numerous nwKS
Knudson hams, and his son Jay AAØDP of Great Bend carries on the
tradition. Kermit ran the Colby Motel and his rig was a National NCX-5. In the
late 60s this was the IC756 PRO of its day. Some ham begged Kermit to accompany
him to the Colorado Springs hamfest, and
Kermit sort of grudgingly agreed, only to come home with the NCX-5, the grand
prize!
WELCOME WXØGLD The rumor mill hit a home run, and the NWS
station did indeed pull down WXØGLD for their vanity call. This fits the
pattern established by a number of NWS stations around the country using WX,
the home call area, and 3-letter ID of their airport. The NWS guys are using
the call for the noon spotter’s
briefings on the 22/82 machine. Sounds great.
SCOTT CITY FEST/POTLUCK SEPT
22 This one is a great potluck meal
with plenty of eyeball QSOs and a couple short
presentations. $2 tables and $2 admission/drawing chances. Rod KØEQH of RevCom usually has a number of goodies on the door prize
table. 1-4PM at the Scott County 4-H building at
the north end of town. SHARC president and ex-Trojan Dale NØNQX invites hams
and families to attend this event. We’ll probably organize car-pooling prior to
noon on the .82 machine.
NICE ARES WEBSITE Godfrey Flax KCØAUH, EC for counties
around Dodge City has a webpage
with lots of useful Amateur Radio Emergency Service info. This is a good
reference tool and local EC KØFJ recommends we bookmark www.qsl.net/swkares
CREAMCAN DINNER OCT
13 This annual favorite will take
place the Sunday after our October monthly meeting. As usual, chopping of the
goodies will take place on the north side of Villa-Hi lake around 3 PM, and the
contents should be good and steamy about 5 PM. Usually a few attendees bring
side dishes or drinks, and we have a pretty good feast, especially when the wx cooperates with one of those crisp autumn late
afternoons.
NWS SPECIAL EVENT Just a reminder that the NWS Skywarn
Recognition Day takes place this year on December 7 (GMT). We’re assuming the
GLD office will again be inviting us over to help. With all the newer hams at
the office, we should have an easier time of manning the radios around the clock.
More on this as the time draws closer.
IRLP PROJECT Time-Warner has given some indication
they might be offering cable modem service after all. This is contrary to
earlier statements but a welcome development. There’s some chance they’d be up
and running by shortly after the new year and that could be our ticket to
getting the needed web audio and our hoped-for Internet Radio Link.
“RF EXPOSURE” FOR TROJAN ARC KØBJ is on the board of directors of Smoky
Hills PTV from Bunker Hill, and twisted arms of ACØJ KØQP and KØFJ to go with
him to the station for a pledge drive night when “Our Town: A Day in Thomas
County” was airing. Bruce’s brother Ken + Gerry and Curtis Fulwider
were videographers for the show and also helped out.
Bruce and 2 staff members did on-camera “pitching” Mike and Jeff ran studio
cameras, Jim, Gerry and Ken took phone calls and Curtis did both phone and
camera. TARC got a lot of mention during the
evening, and the program on Colby was a lot of fun to view too. Between pledge
breaks chief engineer Lloyd KØJKC showed off the various studio equipment. Bruce and the staff at SHPTV were thankful
for the club’s help on this project.
WAØVJR VISIT/TOWER LOSS.
Trojans were graced (?) by the presence of ex-Trojan Butch WAØVJR a few
weeks ago. Butch lives in Las Vegas, but maintains his home in Wallace.
It was lots of fun reminiscing about things. Darel WAØGBN brought Butch over
and David NØSEG and Anthony KCØARB Johnson joined the group. Sadly, the big storm from the north a couple
weeks ago was worse in Wallace than here, and Butch’s big extended windmill
tower bit the dust (along with a couple houses in town, lots of trees and 11
rail cars). NØXJ ACØJ and KØBJ trekked down to conduct a salvage operation but
all that was saved were a rotator, a few parts from Butch’s TH3 yagi, a 5/8 wave whip and some small sections of coax and
rotator cable. Butch’s HF6 Butternut vertical and a roof-mounted Isopole were left standing. The 3 Trojans toured the Ft. Wallace cemetery before the trip home.
TWO INTERESTING BEACON PROJECTS
Amateur Radio now has its name on a
mountain and a new solar powered beacon. Nodir,
EY8MM, reports that Vladimir, EY8HB, and two
other (non hams) reached the top of a nameless peak, 5,879 meters above sea level,
and operated as EY1ARP. Operations from the newly named Amateur Radio Peak lasted about one
hour from the top of the peak. This was
the third attempt to reach the peak. The team left a
reminder on the peak which Amateur Radio operators all around the globe can
listen for. The EY1ARP/B beacon is transmitting with « watt, solar
powered, on 28107.5 MHz. Special station EY2ARP will be QRV from August
28 to 30 from Dushanbe city to
commemorate the event. Full color QSL
cards with the picture of Amateur Radio Peak will be printed.
QSL via QRZ.COM or via the bureau. nformation from WA2VUY on transmissions from Argentinian (LU) buoys. The buoy, which is transmitting on
14026 and 28192.5, is apparently on a ship, the Balizador,
while it is in transit to where the buoy will be dropped in the ocean and will
drift with the
currents. While aboard ship it's undergoing last-minute testing of its
functions. It's an interesting project because the buoy will be interactive,
responding to hams with its position, weather, etc. W3UR notes that 14026
is a poor choice of frequency, being in a busy part of the band!
Reception reports are sought by LU5DZB, Carlos, at cuchin@speedy.com.ar. The latest is that the buoy will begin
transmitting on 10M then switch to 20, the sequence beginning every 15 minutes
with off-air periods within each 15-minute window as well, to conserve
batteries, which aresolar-panel-charged. The
transmissions are something like this: "VVV LUØARC/MM LUØARC/MM 21/08/02 1537 UTC 35.08 S
0 57.02 W 13.7 V LIGHT 098 TC 28.0 TW 20."
VICE DIRECTOR BALLOTING The heat is on and for the first time since he became ARRL
Midwest Division Vice Director 9 years ago,
Bruce KØBJ has competition for the seat.
Bill KØDEW of Lebanon MO is running. The pair got acquainted at the MO state
convention this spring. Bill is a fanatic Collins gear collector and an expert
on putting conventions together, and runs Lebanon’s convention center which includes
an Olympic pool, auditorium and huge floor exhibit area. ARRL members in KS NE
MO IA will receive ballots in about a month. BJ has the advantage of
incumbency, while DEW enjoys being local or near to a large number of League
members. This could be a horse race…
BANDSCAN Larry KB4GFT has built a
couple J poles for 2 meter activity over in Goodland. BT KØBJ has installed the
Ultimeter 2000 wx station and large LED readout for
his QTH, and is considering putting it on APRS. BT TI9M QSLs recently
showed for BJ and FJ. QSL manager AKØA from Kansas City had a show on the expedition at the
Salina hamfest. BT On
August 9 NØXNJ stood for grouNd Ø eXcess
Nasty Joules….. Gregg’s tower took a
direct lightning hit and he and Kathy had fried computers, satellite tv rx, and other items as well as
a nice fist-sized hole at the tower’s ground rod! At least the ham gear escaped
the barbecue. BT WØSZF’s
son Leland Francis is back in the county, teaching in Brewster. When Leland
lived in Colby, Moe a.k.a. Mr. CW Juice, joined us for Field Day with his ham
station/camper. Maybe we can get him down from McCook to join us again….BT NØQE upheld the club’s honor in the CQ
Worldwide CW contest last November. Results in CQ show Scott logged 104 QSOs and 50 countries.
BT KØBLU reports that the heavy
winds played havoc with his HF beam, and he needs to do a little refurbishing.
Gil is also on the lookout for a FT-100, which he thinks would be lots of fun
in his Chevy 4X4. BT Congrats to KØBJ who won the Midwest low power plaque in the Feb CW DX
contest with 1168 Qs and 268 countries. Bruce’s nearest division competitor was
friend Ken WØNXS of Topeka with 844 QSOs
and 241 mults. BT Pass the Kleenex to ACØJ – he’s going to
the nosebleed bands. Jeff snagged a Cushcraft
50/144/440 mHz yagi on a
web auction and wants to give the VHF/UHF bands a good inspection. BT NØXJ’s friend Dave
KAØKCI was impressed by the HV electricity demo at our swapfest
a number of years ago. So impressed, in fact, that he got Midwest Energy to put
it on at the Salina hamfest. The dazzling show is
expanded from the earlier version – they now fry mylar
balloons along with the hot dog and grapefruit. Maybe we should have them cook
hors d’oeuvres for our creamcan dinner…..???
BT KCØHBR is proudly using a…. Yaesola…..???
two meter rig. Hmmm….. actually, Jim’s
noisy 2m transmissions were isolated to PTT crud and a suspect mic element. The K-N crew performed a dericate
opelatioxxxx… oops – er, surgery
on the FT-90’s mic and the rig now sounds
great. BT Jeff ACØJ has been prowling the high HF bands for DX and has been
posting DX spots to the web. One recent evening he and KØBJ got into a pileup
on A9 from Bahrain. BT
KSU solar car advisor and WØQQQ trustee Norm Dillman NØJCC advises he’s
met the CW Wonder Boy of Roeland Park – KCØIWH. Mike
is a student at K-State this year and all bets are that he’ll keep the
equipment humming on top of Seaton Hall. Reminds one certain Trojan of his
glory days at old ‘QQQ some 30 years back…..BT
Tower transplants anyone? KØQPs house on Garfield has sold, contingent on Jim and
Carol signing on another house. They want to QSY to a one-story home. Trojans may have an(other) antenna party in
their future. BT NØXJ is among the
Trojans who have logged W2WTC, a Special Event Station that’s been operating to
commemorate the loss of about half dozen hams, plus many police and public
safety people, in last year’s terrorist attack. BT KØBJ has grudgingly joined
the 21st Century with DX4WIN computer logging. Actually Bruce is kind
of taken with the new ways and really likes mouse-click QSYing
when exotic spots come telnetting in over the web. BT As a cold front moved in, KC7SNO/R in Cheyenne was loud in our area August 22. Tropo season is here….. BT
NØQE has passed the Emergency Coordinator torch to KB4GFT over in Sherman, Cheyenne, Wallace etc. counties. Thanks to
Scott and congratulations to Larry. BT WØTM
got his XYL and daughter licensed, and took the occasion to donate HTs and acquire a new VX7R for himself….. pretty smart, Gary!
He’s especially looking forward to putting the 7R through its advertised
paces by working someone while swimming underwater. BT Yet another casualty to the big storm last
month. KCØAUH in Dodge City had an 82’ tower half up and
temporarily guyed, but it wasn’t enough for that bodacious storm. Godfrey now
has to go to Plan B. BT NØXJ/XNJ were in Salina the last weekend of August for
Marvin Lindberg’s surprise 70th birthday party. BT KØQP
got a one-way air ticket to the Bay Area of California, and will keep harmonic
Adam company on the drive back to Colby.
If Adam’s anything like he was ten years ago, the duo will be spending a
couple days in the desert collecting and examining snakes, scorpions and
spiders….. Meanwhile Michaela is heading
the other direction to nw EA-land, for a semester learning
Spanish from the experts. BT
NEXT MEETING SEPTEMBER 12 7PM Pioneer Memorial Library Goodland digi prospects, any fresh IRLP
developments and creamcan dinner plans will be discussed.
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 Kathy
Lindberg NØXNJ, 1872 County Road 15, 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
Club website at http://colby.ixks.com/~bfrahm/trojanarc.htm