Dedicated to the Advancement of Amateur RadioNovember, 1999
THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Phyllis Dillman, NØMJB
I want to thank Chris Farmer, KBØYYL and John Blessing,
NØYRL for telling us how the KSU Solar Car Team used
Ham Radio on the Sunrayce last summer. They also
showed some of the race telemetry data from their 9600
baud, 440 MHz packet radio system. All of the team
members are required to have ham licenses to go on the
race. Their next race will be in Heartland Park
(Topeka) next May and they are planning on a 10-day
race next November in Egypt.
Our next meeting will be on Friday, November 12th at
the Red Cross Building at 2601 West Anderson in
Manhattan. The meeting is at 7:30 pm. We will have
election of officers for next year and a business
meeting. Then there will be an auction of donated
items. Don’t forget dinner at the Manhattan Sirloin
Stockade at 5:15 pm.
The XYL’s will go to dinner at Applebee’s on November
18th at 7:00 pm. Women with or without licenses are
welcome. The Christmas Party will be at Fred and
Nadine Stueve’s again. It’s on Saturday December 11
at 6:30 pm at 4280 Salzer Road just west of Wamego. It
will be a potluck. Watch for more information.
Happy Thanksgiving and Good Luck to the new officers.
NORM’S NOTES
Norm Dillman, NØJCC
November Auction
It’s time for another auction. In addition to the
annual election of officers, we’ll have an auction of
computer and ham items at the November 12 meeting.
Most of the stuff is surplus items from KSU but
everyone is welcome to donate items for sale to help
support the MAARS club The KSU Club voted to donate
all of their part of the proceeds to the KSØMAN club
station. Bring plenty of money and bid high. Jon Held
will be the ever-exciting, fast-talking auctioneer.
Tools for KSU
The KSU club is putting together a tool kit for WØQQQ.
If you have doubles or triples of wrenches, screw
drivers, sockets, etc. bring your extras to the
November meeting. KSUARC has an APRS station running.
Ask John Blessing, NØYRL or Daniel Soldan, KBØOTV for
more details.
KSØMAN Station
Once the auction items are cleared out of the station
we can get the station organized. The dual band
antenna that Lila donated is installed and the coax
connectors should be installed in the window by meeting
time. We still need some coax and many other items to
get on the air. The lightning protection for the
repeater coax is here and should be installed by
meeting time.
This is the last issue of Norm’s Notes. It’s time for
some new blood. Let’s have some articles about your
projects, experiments or interesting ham stories or
anything else you want to write about. Good luck to
the new officers. Let’s all work hard for the club.
SECRETARY’S MINUTES
Lenore Layman, NØTSN
Manhattan Area Amateur Radio Society
October 8, 1999
John Blessing and Chris Farmer from the solar car team
were our guest speakers for the evening, sharing their
experiences and journey of the race with us.
Dues – in order to vote at the November meeting dues
must be paid, $10.00 for a student, $20.00 for a single
member and $30.00 for a family (2 or more people).
WARN – meeting will be held Thursday, October 14th.
XYL – dinner at Applebee’s on Thursday, November 18th.
Brian Carter informed us on the cabinet and prices for
the club station. They are 2 1/2 ft wide, 6 ft tall
and 14″ deep the cost is $80.00. A motion was made and
second to purchase this cabinet. Brian would be
picking up the cabinet for us.
Nominating committee will consist of Jon Held (NØRYQ),
Mike Moore, (NØPVU), and Francis Sable, (WØEVJ). If you
are interested in running for an office or would like
to nominate someone, please contact one of the
committee members.
Christmas party will be held on Saturday, December 11th
at Nadine and Fred’s house. Pot luck dinner and a $5.00
optional gift exchange. More at the November meeting.
A poly phaser box has been ordered with gas cartridge
for $45.00.
A mention on the status of purchasing a 5KW generator
for the club was brought up and discussed. Kermit
Fairbanks knows of a Coleman brand generator with an
electric start for $499.00 plus tax. A motion was made
and second to purchase a generator up to $500.00 plus
tax. Fred Stueve and Kermit Fairbanks would look into
this and check back at the next meeting. It was asked
that the minutes be reviewed going back several years
and noted when the club voted to purchase a generator.
The annual club meeting and the election of officers
will be held on Friday, November 12.
NOMINATING COMMITTEE REPORT
The Nominating Committee, consisting of Jon Held,
NØRYQ; Mike Moore, NØPVU; and Francis Sable, WØEVJ,
presents the following current nominations for your
consideration:
PRESIDENT: Brian Carter, KCØDWX
VICE PRESIDENT: Bob Bartholic, KBØZWK
SECRETARY: Francis Sable, WØEVJ
TREASURER: Nadine Stueve, KØUHF
Additional candidates may be nominated from the floor
at the meeting. Self nominations are accepted.
Any member who cannot attend the meeting, but wishes to
participate in a vote, may give a written and signed
proxy document to another member who will be present at
the meeting. This proxy statement must contain
explicit instructions on how the proxy holder is to act
on behalf of the absent member.
MONTHLY MEETING:
November 12, 1999 at 7:30 PM at the
Red Cross Building, 2601 West Anderson, Manhattan, KS.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Nadine Stueve, KØUHF October, 1999
ARRL DUES
If you would like to become a member of the American Radio Relay League and receive the monthly issue of QST, your treasurer has a form you may use to apply. The club keeps $5 of each new member’s dues and $2 of each renewing member, so even if you are renewing, do so through the club. The main thing to remember is that if you join through the club, your check must be made out to MAARS. When the form is sent in, the treasurer writes a new check deducting the amount which the club is permitted to keep. They will not reimburse the club. If you are renewing, bring your notice for renewal along to the meeting or send it to the Treasurer at the MAARS address.
Dues will be due by Oct. 31 and are: regular membership $20, full-time student $10, family $30. Please complete the following when renewing your membership, even if you did so last year. Return to the Treasurer, at a meeting or to MAARS, P. O. Box 613, Manhattan, KS 66505-0613.
NAME _______________________________________ CALLSIGN ____________
MAILING ADDRESS____________________________________ DATE _____________
CITY _______________________________ STATE _____ ZIP CODE _____________
Dedicated to the Advancement of Amateur RadioOctober, 1999
THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Phyllis Dillman, NØMJB
Everyone had a good time and a lot of good food at the
annual club picnic in September. We voted to buy a
dual band (2m/70cm) antenna for the club station. Lila
Wrigley, KAØDAT, donated $100 to pay for it. THANKS
from the whole club, Lila. The antenna is here but not
installed yet. Our radio room is filling up with stuff
for the November auction. We have a lot of work to get
our club station running again but we’re making
progress.
Our next meeting will be at held at the NEW Red Cross
Building at 2601 West Anderson in Manhattan. This is a
new meeting location. We’ll have a lot more room for
the station and our meetings. The Red Cross is in the
upstairs of the building on the left as you go down to
Radio Shack. Enter on the north side of the building.
We’ll start of 7:30. The meeting will be about all the
ways that the KSU Solar Car Team uses Amateur Radio and
they’ll tell about their experiences in the 1999
Sunrayce from Washington, DC to Orlando, Florida last
June. Don’t forget to join us for dinner at the
Manhattan Sirloin Stockade about 5:15 p.m. before the
meeting.
The November meeting will be the annual election of
officers and an auction of computer and ham equipment.
Most of the items we have so far are surplus items from
KSU but you’re welcome to bring items to donated to the
club. We’ll have a list of things for sale in the next
news letter.
We need a nominating committee this month so consider
helping with that or running for an office. We’d like
to have at least two people running for each office.
The XYL’s went to dinner in September at Java and had a
wonderful time. We’ll go to dinner at Applebee’s in
Manhattan on November 18. All XYL’s (licensed or not)
are welcome.
NORM’S NOTES
Norm Dillman, NØJCC
We need to make some plans for the antennas at the new
club station. Here are some ideas to consider for
starters.
Install the new dual band vertical that
Lila (KAØDAT) bought on a 28 foot steel pipe that I’ve
donated and Mike ‘PVU hauled to the Red Cross. (I’m a
little concern about the high voltage line that runs
next to the building. I hope we can get “permission”
to put the antenna that close to it and I hope we don’t
get noise. We shouldn’t on FM.)
We also have a
copper, 2m J-pole that we can use as a backup 2m
antenna or APRS.
We also have a surplus “70 cm”
beam donated by KSU as soon as Jon ‘RYQ figures how to
trim it to the ham band. I think all the above
antennas will go on or near the pipe next to the window
to the shack.
For 40m and 80m (and maybe other
HF bands) I propose a Windom or similar wire antenna
with the feed point supported by an insulating pipe
near the center of the building and the short end
supported by another pipe on the north east corner of
the building. We should be able to get permission to
connect the long end to Radio Shack. (Dan Weir owns
the building that the Red Cross is in and the Radio
Shack building. He’s really been supportive of our
station.)
Eventually, I think it would be good to
have something like a vertical for 20, 17, 15, 12 and
10 meters. We have several offers of sections of
towers but I’m not convinced that a tower is a good
idea in this location. What do you think? Check it
out and share your thoughts with everyone. See you at
the next meeting.
SECRETARY’S MINUTES
Lenore Layman, NØTSN
Manhattan Area Amateur Radio Society
September 10, 1999
The September meeting was the club’s annual picnic held
at Tuttle Creek. A short business meeting was held.
Antenna – 2 meter 440 antenna can be put up at the new
Red Cross and club location. Radio Shack has an antenna
on sale for $90.00, Dan Weir owns both buildings and we
could extend wire to the Radio Shack building. The
current antenna belongs to Norm, NØJCC – a motion was
made to purchase the antenna and all were in favor.
Lila Wrigley, KAØDAT has donated $100 to the club to
purchase the antenna.
Repeater – the club agreed to leave the power supply at
batteries, and to get the charger up to the repeater
location. Walmart carries a poly phase 1 1/2 amp for
$15.00 this would protect the repeater from the antenna
if there would be a lightning strike. A motion was made
and second to purchase this protection for the
repeater.
A motion was made and second to put the club call sign
KSØMAN on the repeater.
All Kansas frequencies are listed wrong in the
directory, especially listen for people passing
through.
A notebook would be purchased and left at the repeater
site for updates, repeater parts and numbers.
Brian, KCØDWX will be checking on prices for a lockable
cabinet for the radio room at the Red Cross building
and will let us know more at the next meeting.
Don’t forget dues must be paid in order to vote at the
November election.
We will be needing people for the nominating committee
and/or if you are interested in running for an office.
Next meeting will be Friday, October 8th at our new
location.
CALHOUN’S CORNER
Myron A. Calhoun, WØPBV ARES Emergency Coordinator & RACES Radio Officer
From item six of THE AMATEUR’S CODE (written in 1928):
“The Amateur is Patriotic… His/her knowledge and
station are always ready for the service of community
and country.”
As ‘most anyone can easily imagine, a failure of the
telephone system, whether caused by a tornado, the Y2K
bug, or something else, creates a great potential for
loss of life of residents of our communities. In
anticipation of such a failure (“anticipation” in the
dictionary sense of “foreseeing and dealing with in
advance”), Riley County authorities want to position
AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS, with battery-powered white
strobe lights flashing atop their vehicles, at up to 25
key sites throughout the County to assist in
dispatching emergency responders, and they have asked
me (Myron, WØPBV) to coordinate this positioning.
Furthermore, because of the finite possibility of a
Y2k-bug-induced failure at midnight on 31 December,
1999, they want us to BE IN POSITION beginning at 11:45
PM on 31 December, 1999, and ending (if no failure
has occurred!) at 1:00 AM on 1 January, 2000.
Yes, I know that most people probably have other plans
for welcoming in the new year (I, for example, will
have to drag my wife away from a New Years Dance!), but
I hope that the call of duty and patriotism is strong
enough that you will volunteer (and thereby uphold the
honor and good name of amateur radio operators
everywhere).
If you are willing to help, please contact me (WØPBV,
mcalhoun@ksu.edu, 785-539-4448, or “Calhoun’s Corner” starting 19 October or thereafter).
Incidentally, the posts are (in this order; the list is
subject to change):
1. RCPD EOC (6th & Colorado)
2. Mercy Hospital on College
3. MFD/City Hall (11th & Poyntz)
4. County Courthouse (Poyntz)
5. Mercy Hospital on Sunset
6. MFD West (3300 Anderson)
7. County Shops (2711 Anderson)
8. Ogden Fire Station/Substation
9. Aggieville Substation
10. Riley Fire Station
11. Leonardville Fire Station
12. Randolph Fire Station
13. Manhattan Regional Airport
14. Keats Park
15. Bluemont Elementary School
16. Amanda Arnold Elementary School
17. Northview Elementary School
18. Farm Bureau Bldg. (new)
19. Candlewood (Dara’s Fast Lane)
20. Holidome (Shop Quik)
21. Hampton Inn (Dara’s FastLane)
22. Briggs Auto (Dara’s Fast Lane)
23. 17th & Anderson (Wildcat Amoco)
24. 17th & Ft. Riley Blvd. (Dara’s Fast Lane)
25. I-70 & 177 (Dee Dee’s 66)
(You will be assigned a post as near your place of
residence as possible.)
Thanks.
-Myron.
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Chuck Carter, AAØRI
Sorry I missed the picnic, it sounds like it was fun as
usual.
Thanks for the good information Myron, I hope you have
a good turn out. Sorry I had to remove your “cut here”
lines, but they just didn’t work with this layout. The
columns won’t line up without bad spacing either. Maybe
we need an editor who knows how to do this stuff!
Grace Ann has just returned from California where she
picked up 68 telegraph and radio keys. I had bought
them from an estate with the provision that they
wouldn’t ship them. If anyone wants to start a key
collection, I have several duplicates now, especially
J-37, J-38 and J-5-A military keys. Several are made
by Lionel, the electric train people including a J-36,
the WWII version of the Vibroplex “Lightning Bug”.
Lionel and several other companies made radio telegraph
keys, guns, etc. for the war effort and I think they
make for an interesting addition to anyone’s gun or key
collection.
I won’t be here for the meeting, but Norm’s antenna
suggestions sound good to me. If the club is
interested in putting up a tower, Billy Dickenson,
AAØYA, has just taken down a Rhon 25 tower thats 30 or
40 foot with a 5 foot top section. He is interested in
selling it.
73, Chuck …_._
TREASURER’S REPORT
Nadine Stueve, KØUHF September, 1999
ARRL DUES
If you would like to become a member of the American Radio Relay League and receive the monthly issue of QST, your treasurer has a form you may use to apply. The club keeps $5 of each new member’s dues and $2 of each renewing member, so even if you are renewing, do so through the club. The main thing to remember is that if you join through the club, your check must be made out to MAARS. When the form is sent in, the treasurer writes a new check deducting the amount which the club is permitted to keep. They will not reimburse the club. If you are renewing, bring your notice for renewal along to the meeting or send it to the Treasurer at the MAARS address.
Dues will be due by Oct. 31 and are: regular membership $20, full-time student $10, family $30. Please complete the following when renewing your membership, even if you did so last year. Return to the Treasurer, at a meeting or to MAARS, P. O. Box 613, Manhattan, KS 66505-0613.
NAME _______________________________________ CALLSIGN ____________
MAILING ADDRESS____________________________________ DATE _____________
CITY _______________________________ STATE _____ ZIP CODE _____________
Dedicated to the Advancement of Amateur RadioSeptember, 1999
THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Phyllis Dillman, NØMJB
FLASH
Kermit Fairbanks, KBØEEF has undergone quadruple bypass
surgery today, September 3, 1999 and is presently at
St. Francis Hospital in Topeka. We all wish Kermit a
speedy recovery.
Thanks to Chuck, AAØRI for talking to us about RFI
regulations at our August meeting. It looks like most
hams don’t have to worry about filling out the forms.
Thanks, that’s good news.
Our next meeting will be our annual picnic on Sunday,
September 12 at 4 P.M. Bring your own meat or main dish
and something else to share. The club will have coffee
and hot water available. We’ll be at the park below
the Tuttle Creek Dam north of Manhattan at shelter #2.
The RED CROSS has moved to a new location at 2601
Anderson on the west side of Manhattan. Our October
meeting will be there. We have a big radio room under
separate key and a nice meeting room that’s much bigger
than the old one. We need to start planning for
antennas and other station details.
The October meeting will be a program about Sunrayce 99
or a video on the history of radar. If you are
interested in serving as a club officer or on the
nominating committee, see one of the present officers.
The elections will be at the November meeting along
with an auction of some instruments, computers and ham
gear.
XYL dinner Sept. 23th. It will be at Java, 1219 Moro,
at 7:00 P.M.
NORM’S NOTES
Norm Dillman, NØJCC
Emergency Power for the MAARS Repeater.
A lot has happened with the planning for the emergency
power backup since the last newsletter. There is still
significant disagreement about what we should do so
I’ll try to give the facts as I know them and we can
vote at the picnic about how to proceed. Four ideas
have been proposed by club members:
a permanent motor/generator set with automatic startup.
Battery backup with portable generator available for long power outages.
Battery backup with photovoltaic assist.
Battery backup with no assist except for major, major emergency.
This first thing everyone needs to realize is that a
“12 volt” supply is all we need to operate the repeater
and the controller. The repeater has an internal AC
power supply that runs both boxes and keeps an external
battery charged. The battery automatically switches ON
to power the system when the power goes off. The power
requirement (for battery operation) is 4 Watts on
receive and 33 Watts on transmit. This corresponds to
0.34 Amp and 2.75 Amps. (This is one reason why I
don’t favor a 3000 to 5000 Watt motor generator and I
don’t want to be responsible for one that would operate
all the equipment there).
The key to determine how much energy we need is to
estimate how much time we’ll be transmitting during an
emergency. For normal repeater operation I estimate
that we transmit less than 10% of the time. The
Colorado Repeater Association actually monitors their
hourly usage per week and they have found that the
hours of use is significantly less during real
emergencies. People are trained to keep transmissions
short. To be very conservative, I suggest we use 30%
for our average use over several days of emergency.
It’s certainly less than that during storm watches and
during the flood of ’93. That figures out to an
average of 1 Amp average or 24 amp-hours per day.
We have some free, slightly-used electric vehicle,
valve-regulated, mat, Delphi (#19010704) lead acid
batteries. These have been professionally tested and
are at their full capacity which is greater than 60 amp
hours at low current loads. If we use three in
parallel (they’re matched so we can do that) we should
get a little over a week of operation. I have not
checked the price of large deep-cycle, replacement
batteries for comparison. It’s almost impossible to
get these mat-type, sealed batteries to outgas but if
they are overcharged at high currents they can give off
small amounts of hydrogen so we will vent them through
the hole where our ground goes outside. These
batteries never need to have water added but should be
turned upside-down once a year. (It’s recommended
that they stand on one end or the other).
Our home is on the same power system as the repeater
and our longest outage in the past nine years has been
about 3 days. A week would be a major emergency.
My concerns with a permanent motor/generator set are
it’s 100 times more power than we need,
fuel storage is a safety, liability issue,
switching into the grid is a safety, liability issue,
installation will be expensive and not easy and
to have reasonable reliability we’d need to do
frequent preventative maintenance.
A more popular proposal is to use a photovoltaic array
(solar cells) to extend the battery life. The cost for
a nice system (module and controller) that would extend
the battery life forever during the summer and give us
3 to 5 more days during a cloudy winter month is about
$500 plus the cost of mounting. In my opinion this
would be reliable, low maintenance and a fun,
educational project for the club. But it’s hard to
justify economically since it is VERY unlikely that we
would ever really need it at our present location. I
think I can arrange for the loan of a good module for a
year or two we elect to try this.
Irregardless of the plan we use, we should have a have
battery back up. The three batteries have been
installed so we have a one week backup supply already.
We do not need any permission from the radio station
to do this. We also have circuits designed and John,
NØTOK, has some of the controller already programmed
for the following features:
The repeater would immediately and automatically
operate with a different courtesy tone after each
transmission AND announce “emergency power” after
each ID when the AC power is OFF. When the power
returns, the repeater will automatically return to
normal operation.
We could turn the AC power ON and OFF remotely for
periodic testing.
The battery status would be announced with proper
codes to indicate the state of charge by measuring
the voltage range of the batteries; ex. “battery
warning” would be less than about 11 volts,
“battery low” would be from 11 v to 11.5 v , “battery
OK” would be from 11.5 v to 13 v, “battery charged”
could be above 13 volts.
With these features we could periodically test the
system without ever going up the hill. The parts for
this custom-built system will cost just a few dollars
and will be provided free of charge by Tim and Norm.
Anyone interested in learning how it works can help
build it.
The estimated repeater operating time on battery is
based on the battery capacity. Typically, DC
electronic equipment will operate at reduced voltages
similar to the battery minimum voltage. We do not know
at what voltage the repeater quits working. It’s not
in the manual. If it’s greater than the “dead battery”
voltage the operating time will be reduced. We can
determine this experimentally sometime soon.
I hope this information will allow everyone to make a
more informed decision. and let you know what is going
on.
SECRETARY’S MINUTES
Lenore Layman, NØTSN
Manhattan Area Amateur Radio Society
August 13, 1999
Chuck Carter, AAØRI was our speaker for the evening on
a discussion of radio safety frequencies.
Starting in October the new meeting location for our
club will be 2601 Anderson Avenue, Manhattan – the
upper part of the building as you enter the street
level floor turn left and go down the hall. Dan Weir
stated that there would be no problem with our
antennas, the room consists of one window, and a
lockable door.
Our club will need to renew the KSDB lease as our ten
year lease is over. Normally our club has been paying
$12.00 a year. A motion was made and discussed and all
were in favor of paying up to $50.00 a year possibly
$36.00.
Emergency preparedness – Myron approached the club with
a concern regarding midnight on December 31st, he would
like to have 20 hams think about helping emergency
preparedness “just in case”, a strobe light will be
provide for the top of your car. If you think you might
be interested, contact Myron WØPBV.
A 3 KW diesel generator with an automatic start has been
offered to the club at no cost – it will be used help
run KSDB or to be used at the Red Cross Building. This
generator was originally purchased for the new com-van
only it does not fit. The club would have to run the
generator at every club meeting, if for some reason we
might be unable to get this generator the club might
consider purchasing a 5KW generator – more at the
picnic or the October meeting.
One of the members of the solar car club works for a
company that makes batteries and he was able to get us
a battery. The battery is an electric vehicle battery
that puts out 11 watts it would be able to run the
repeater for at least 3 days we could add a few
circuits so the repeater can announce when it is going
down. The life span of the battery is 2-3 years and has
the same characteristics as a gel cell. A motion was
made and all were in favor to buy a smart charger for
the battery and spend up to $50.00.
Chuck discussed the new forms. Form 610 has been
replace by the 605 ULS (Universal license system) it
requires your social security number or tax payer
number, also vanity call changes can be made, on the
form when it tells you to sign your name you just need
to type in your name.
Picnic – Lenore will see if we can change the picnic
from Saturday, September 11 to Sunday, September 12 if
that date is unavailable we will change to picnic to
Sunday, September 19th – or if these dates are not
available then we will change the location of the
shelter. Any changes to the reservation will cost
$10.00. Listen to the Tuesday night net for the new
date of the clubs picnic. Bring your own meat and a pot
luck dish to share, starts at 4:00 p.m. Included in this
newsletter is a map of Tuttle Creek State Lake shelter
#2 the location of our picnic – this will be the same
location as our past picnics.
A mini auction may be held at the October meeting.
Dues need to be paid in October in order to vote at the
next election.
September 11 – hamfest in Columbia, MO
There is a test session in Salina on the second Monday
of the month at the Salina police station, you do not
need to register first.
There is no regular scheduled meeting in September, see
you on October 8th at our new location.
For a map of the Tuttle Outlet Park (site of the
picnic), click here.
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Chuck Carter, AAØRI
There will be a short business meeting at the club
picnic to discuss the repeater power backup plans.
Also we will discuss purchasing antennas for the club
station. We don’t have any radios at the station but
if a power supply and antennas were already installed
we could be open for business is a matter of minutes.
Bev, NØRKO, sent me the following URLs and information
for those interested:
There will be a Morse code class in Lawrence, KS
starting September 13th. The class will run for 8
Mondays and will be concluded with an exam session.
Classes are free. For more information contact Bob
Drake, NØTFU, (785) 842-5961 or e-mail
bobd@falcon.cc.ukans.edu, or Jim Canaday, N6YR,
(785) 841-1903, or e-mail n6yr@idir.net. The classes
are sponsored by the Douglas County ARC and will be
held at the basement of the Lawrence Judicial and Law
Enforcement Center, 111 E. 11th at 7:00 P.M.
Thanks for submitting this information Bev, I hadn’t
seen anything of it.
MONTHLY MEETING
September 12,1999
4:00 P.M.
annual picnic at shelter house #2
below the dam at Tuttle Creek
TREASURER’S REPORT
Nadine Stueve, KØUHF August, 1999
ARRL DUES
If you would like to become a member of the American Radio Relay League and receive the monthly issue of QST, your treasurer has a form you may use to apply. The club keeps $5 of each new member’s dues and $2 of each renewing member, so even if you are renewing, do so through the club. The main thing to remember is that if you join through the club, your check must be made out to MAARS. When the form is sent in, the treasurer writes a new check deducting the amount which the club is permitted to keep. They will not reimburse the club. If you are renewing, bring your notice for renewal along to the meeting or send it to the Treasurer at the MAARS address.
Dedicated to the Advancement of Amateur RadioAugust, 1999
THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Phyllis Dillman, NØMJB
Hello from Sunny California.
Since our brief return home from the Solar Rayce, we
have been visiting friends and relatives in Colorado
and California.
We may return in time for the August meeting but will
get home that weekend for sure. It’s been lots of fun,
but we’re looking forward to getting home.
NORM’S NOTES
Norm Dillman, NØJCC
Taking Down Towers
Every time I work on a tower or when someone else is
going to work on a tower I think back to a story I read
years ago about someone who took the guys off of a
tower and then proceeded to take it down. The bottom
of the tower is always the weak link and it’s where
it’s most likely to get rusty. In the story the tower
fell and the guy rode it to the ground. He survived
but had many broken bones.
I always assumed that it would be better to ride the
tower down and then push away from the tower at the
last second instead of just jumping off the top as it
starts to fall. I finally got around to “put a pencil
to the problem”. I have not had anyone check my
calculations yet so there might be a mistake. The
answer I got was the opposite of what I expected. It’s
better to jump and let the tower fall by itself.
The answer depends on the relative weight of the tower
compared to the person on the top. If the tower is
very light compared to the person it won’t make any
difference. If the tower weighs the same as the person
then you will be going 6% faster if you ride the tower
down. If the tower is much, much heavier than the
person you’d be going 22.5% faster if you ride the
tower down. To me the important conclusion is clear:
attach temporary guys to the tower just in case.
If anyone wants to check the answer here is the
equation I got. X is the ratio of the tower weight to
the weight of the person and Y is the ratio of the
velocity when you stay with the tower to the velocity
if you jump.
Y = sqrt(1.5*(2+X)/(3+X))
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Chuck Carter, AAØRI
Not too much news this month, everyone has been hanging
around indoors trying to keep cool. The PHD hamfest in
Kansas City was attended by a few of our members, I saw
Myron, WØPBV; Henry, WAØSWM; Cleve, KCØFWQ; Francis,
WØEVJ; and Kenny, KBØRPV. I’m sure there were more,
but memory fails me. It seems like that fest gets
smaller every year, there were rows and rows of empty
tables.
Henry, KAØSWM, our illustrious VP tells me that the Red
Cross has found their new building and we’ll have space
for a station and meeting room there also. The
building is just east of Radio Shack on Anderson. I’ll
have more details in next month’s newsletter. It looks
like our next meeting will be at the new digs. The
September picknic is still up in the air, the chosen
date Sept. 11 is also the date of KSU’s first football
game and several members will be at the game. We’ll
discuss it and make a decision at this month’s meeting.
Our meeting this month is still scheduled to be at the
usual Red Cross location, but we may need to move it
outdoors to the pavilion in the park. We’ll have that
information available at the “Eating Meeting” and will
also put it out on the repeater.
The program this month will be on RF safety and the new
FCC program for licensing amateurs.
Effective August 16, we will no longer use the form
610. We will be using the new Universal Licensing
Systems (ULS) form 605. We will be able to re-new via
the internet with the ULS, more details should be
available by meeting time. ARRL will supply their VE’s
with the new forms as soon as they are available. If
you need to renew your license before the new forms are
available you can still use the old form 610.
In the interest of reducing paperwork, the government
has issued 9 pages of instructions for the new simple
form 605!!
TREASURER’S REPORT
Nadine Stueve, KØUHF July, 1999
ARRL DUES
If you would like to become a member of the American Radio Relay League and receive the monthly issue of QST, your treasurer has a form you may use to apply. The club keeps $5 of each new member’s dues and $2 of each renewing member, so even if you are renewing, do so through the club. The main thing to remember is that if you join through the club, your check must be made out to MAARS. When the form is sent in, the treasurer writes a new check deducting the amount which the club is permitted to keep. They will not reimburse the club. If you are renewing, bring your notice for renewal along to the meeting or send it to the Treasurer at the MAARS address.
HAMFESTS
August 7 – SMARC Hamfest – Springfield, Mo.
August 22 – Kansas State Convention, SVARC Hamfest – Salina, Ks.
Dedicated to the Advancement of Amateur RadioJuly, 1999
FIELD DAY REPORT
Francis Sable, WØEVJ
MAARS members participated locally in the annual ARRL
sponsored Field Day event. The group gathered at the
shelter in Manhattan City Park shortly after 8:00 A.M.
Saturday, June 26. The setup of radio equipment and
antennas was begun. We put up a 20-ft. tower section
supplied by Mike, NØPVU. It was secured to the north
end of the shelter with clamps and guy lines. We put
together a 4-element 10 M beam antenna supplied by
Norm, NØJCC, and mounted it on the 20-ft tower.
Another was a multiband center fed wire supplied by
Kenny, KBØRPV. Some difficulty was experienced in
getting a line over a high branch of a nearby tree,
which was used to pull up the antenna center and feed
line. The ends of the wire were supported several feet
above ground by a power pole on the east end and
another tree for the west end, in an inverted V. A 2-meter
J-pole antenna was also erected for local
communication. The equipment setup was completed by
about 11:30 A.M. in time for a lunch break before the
official start of operation at 1:00 P.M. CDT.
We operated as a class 1-A FD station, one transceiver
on the Novice portion of 10 M SSB and the other mostly
on the 40 M band SSB. The 10 M band was open with good
propagation Saturday afternoon. We used computer
logging, using a logging program supplied by Chuck,
AAØRI, and computers supplied by Mike, NØPVU and Brian,
KCØDWX.
We composed a short message in formal message form
advising of MAARS participation in Field Day. Kenny
sent this to the Side Band Net on 3920 Khz at 6:30 P.M.
This message transmission allowed us to add 100 points
to the FD total.
During the night, Myron, WØPBV, and Henry, KAØSWM, and
others worked inside the city-owned former school bus.
They planned and put up in temporary form, by means of
card board and tape, a replica of possible interior
partitions and other furnishings that would convert it
into a mobile communications center.
About 4:00 A.M. Sunday morning a thunder storm moved in
and convinced Henry and Myron to cover the radio
equipment in the open sided shelter with canvas which
Mike had brought in his camper trailer for this
purpose. A good decision, since there was enough wind
to blow rain on to all the tables in the shelter.
The number of Field Day contacts made was approximately
160. The exact number was not yet determined at the
time of this writing. There was some operation Sunday
morning after the thunder storm cleared, on the 10-meter band. Band conditions were not as good as on
Saturday. At about 11:00 A.M. we began the take down of
antennas and equipment.
Big contributors to this FD operation were: Henry,
Chairman of the FD event, who was responsible for most
of the pre-planning, making sure the park shelter was
reserved, ordering the FD instruction and scoring info,
and many other chores. Mike was also on the scene
supplying the antenna tower section, a computer, the
use of his camper-trailer with air conditioning and
cold drinks and other equipment. He also prepared
hamburgers for the evening lunch. Lenore, NØTSN,
assisted with pre-planning and delivering the MAARS
banner to the field day site. Other equipment
suppliers were, Kenny, KBØRPV, Brian, KCØDWX, Francis,
WØEVJ, and Myron, WØPBV.
NORM’S NOTES
Norm Dillman, NØJCC
How to use Ham Radio in a really noisy place.
If you’ve been reading this newsletter you know that
all of the Solar Car Team is licensed and that we use
Ham Radio (KSØLAR) for many different things including
voice communication and 9600 baud telemetry via 440
MHz. We used APRS with mapping software on the race but
it tended to interfere with the communication with the
driver. And we had trouble getting SSTV to work right.
Another problem we solved for the race was hearing the
driver when the car was accelerating because of the
motor noise. The driver had trouble hearing us too.
Some padded ears phones and an HT with good audio
solved the drivers problem but we had to use a special
noise cancelling mike to hear him. Bob Heil, the world
famous audio guru, built us a special boom mike with
two of his cartridges connected out of phase and
pointing in opposite directions. The noise was greatly
reduced but the driver’s voice level was also
noticeably lower than the other radios. We built a
little audio amplifier with a dual CMOS op amp that
gave a gain to FOUR to balance the audio level. The
amplifier used two AA cells and only drew 32 microamps.
We figure the amplifier will run for months so we
didn’t even put a power switch on it. It really worked
great. If you ever need to use your radio in a noisy
place I’ll give you the little circuit. It’s easy to
build if I tell you all of my mistakes.
I listened for you all on Sunday morning of Field Day
but didn’t hear anyone. I only made one contact but
was thinking about you. I hope you had a great time.
SECRETARY’S MINUTES
Lenore Layman, NØTSN
June 11, 1999
In Phyllis Dillman’s (President) absence the meeting was presided by Henry Bachman, Vice President.
This was a short meeting to finalize plans for field day. Henry gave a report on Field Day they would have two stations: novice and HF. Generators would come from the EOC van and antennas were needed. Mike would be preparing breakfast on Sunday morning. Lenore would bring the banner. In spite of possible bad weather and the Country Stampede that weekend I am sure that field day will turn out successful.Set-up time will be at 8:00 a.m. and we will start at 1:00 p.m. The club’s call sign KSØMAN will be used for the HF station and Mike’s call sign NØPVU will be used for the novice station. The club will be using Norm’s beam for 10 meters. A logging program will be used to work on 3.1.
Lloyd passed around pictures of past balloon launches. The next scheduled balloon launch will be on Saturday, June 19th. The winner for the Kansas Amateur Of The Year will be decided at the Salina hamfest in August. We will keep you posted.
The next club meeting will be on Friday, July 9th at the Red Cross building on Poyntz.
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Chuck Carter, AAØRI
Sunrayce99 … Washington, D.C. to Epcot, Orlando, FL
Day one of the race began at the Mall in front of the
Capitol Building in the rain. Fred, KØTCS; Nadine,
KØUHF; Phyllis, NØMJB; Linda, NØOYE; Connor; and Grace
Ann were at the start line to cheer KSU as they started
the rayce. The finish of the day was at the University
of Virginia. Kansas State finished in 6th position and
had used up 1/2 of their battery capacity.
Day two began with rain forecast for the entire day.
The route took us to Raleigh, NC. Kansas State decided
that with 1/2 of their power used up and no sun in the
forecast to trailer all day to the finish line at North
Carolina State University. They figured that they
might be able to get some charging in at the finish
line while the competitors were depleting their energy
racing. We all thought that this was a good strategy
at the time and I am still sure that it was. We would
have had to trailer some part of the day anyway as we
had to travel about 200 miles and only had 1/2 a charge
in our batteries. The penalty for trailering is 8
hours plus 1.5 minutes a mile. The 8 hours was a
forgone conclusion, the 1.5 min/mile was the gamble in
strategy. As a result of the all day trailer ride we
finished the day tied with 4 other schools at 25th
place with an overall finish of 18th place.
We were able to do some charging that evening to help
our situation.
Day three began with overcast and the prospect of more
rain. The route took us to Lowe’s Motor Speedway in
Charlotte, N.C. Although it was cloudy it was bright
and our team finished in 1st place for the day. This
was even after a Kamakazi grandmother turned into
our solar car. We lost a full hour waiting for the
Sunrayce officials and police report. The first place
finish showed everyone we were for real. We were able
to charge that evening and in the hours before the
start at 10:00 A.M. on day 4. Charlotte was an
interesting stop, there were Winston Cup cars testing
on the track as well as a celebrity race in the
evening. We moved back up to 7th place overall and
thought we had a chance of finishing in the top 3 as we
were only 4 hours out of 1st place at that time. We
knew we had one of the fastest cars in the competition,
it just needed sun!
Day 4 began with SUN, we weren’t sure what it was by
then! The route took us to Clemson University at
Clemson, SC. We arrived in 2nd place for the day and
moved up to 6th overall. It was overcast again so we
couldn’t get much charge that evening. You wouldn’t
believe the size of Clemson’s football stadium … it
must hold 100K people.
Day 5 began in the rain, the teams were calling it the
no sunrayce by then. Spirits were really low even on
the teams doing well. Two minutes out of the starting
line, Ohio State’s trailer was involved in an injury
accident that stopped the entire race for about 1 1/2
hours. The race was re-started after the accident was
cleaned up and KSU ran well for several hours.
Eventually the clouds/rain slowed us up until we had
one of our batteries voltage drop to the danger point.
We had to back track with our trailer and pick up the
car for the rest of the day’s trip. Another 8 hours
plus in penalties. We finished in 14th position for
the day and dropped to 7th overall. Lots of teams had
to trailer which helped us hold our position. We had a
dual destination that evening, supper at Mercer
University with the cars to be sealed in the trailer
and transported to Georgia Tech on the other side of
Atlanta for the completion of day 5.
The next day was a rest day at GA Tech parking lot.
There was lots of sun in the afternoon and everyone got
a good battery charge as well as a few sun burns
running around.
Day 6 began in Atlanta traffic and went northeast to
Athens, Ga., then turned south to Mercer University,
Macon, Ga. for the evening. With a full charge, KSU was
able to finish in 3rd for the day but still 7th
overall. We were back to about 1/2 charge again, but
able to pick up a little sun between the clouds that
evening.
Day 7 began with (guess what) more rain. We started
out on time and passed a few cars. The rain got so bad
that there was flash flooding and the drivers couldn’t
see a thing. There are no wind shield wipers of
course. We had one battery give out again, so
trailered about 1/2 of the distance for the day
finishing in 7th place and still in 7th overall.
Needless to say almost everyone trailered some part of
that day. We got no charging that evening as it rained
until dark.
Day 8 began with bright overcast and our batteries were
in bad need of a charge. The team decided to charge as
long as the skies stayed bright then trailer in to the
finish line. The plan was to have a great sprint to
the finish line at the end of the race the next day.
Unfortunately the two cars that could catch us did so
putting us into 9th position overall at the end of the
day.
Day 9 began with dark skies, but it wasn’t raining.
KSU started in 23 position (cars start in 1 minute
intervals according to their finish the day before).
They passed the 22 cars in front of them and finished
1st for the last day of the race. After passing 22
cars, they finished 16 minutes ahead of the second
place car from Messiah College. KSU finished 9th
overall but without the hour lost waiting for the
officials during our 3rd day accident we would have
been in 7th place.
The race was one in which strategy played a very
important part. With more sunlight the outcome could
have been very different. Most of the better cars were
designed to be efficient at 50 mph with sunlight, the
winners were the most efficient averaging 25 mph.
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, KSU, MU and others
should have been at the top of the heap.
Fifty schools built cars for the race, 40 went to the
qualifiers and only 29 qualified. Everyone who raced
was a winner!
The top 15 finishers were on display at Epcot for two
days after the race. We had a nice banquet and award
ceremony at the U.S.A. Building on the International
Lake as well as having a front row view of the
fireworks/light display.
Dave Soldan, NØIN, Daniel Soldan, KBØOTV and I took
turns at driving the truck with the trailer. It was an
experience in itself – no muffler, no air
conditioner/defrosters and bad wiper blades. We
replaced the wiper blades and had the A/C repaired on
the rest day in Atlanta. The A/C worked 1/2 day after
spending $100 on it! Also there was no anti sway bar
for the trailer hitch.
Phyllis, NØMJB, Linda, NØOYE, and Grace Ann did the
laundry and lunches for the team. We all had a fun
time in spite of the lack of sunshine.
In June we paid $7.09 for having the newsletter printed
and $20.54 for the telephone bill, leaving a balance of
$20.00 cash on hand, $38.65 in the checking account and
$2,107.47 in the savings account.
ARRL DUES
If you would like to become a member of the American Radio Relay League and receive the monthly issue of QST, your treasurer has a form you may use to apply. The club keeps $5 of each new member’s dues and $2 of each renewing member, so even if you are renewing, do so through the club. The main thing to remember is that if you join through the club, your check must be made out to MAARS. When the form is sent in, the treasurer writes a new check deducting the amount which the club is permitted to keep. They will not reimburse the club. If you are renewing, bring your notice for renewal along to the meeting or send it to the Treasurer at the MAARS address.
HAMFESTS
July 10 – PHD Midwest Division Hamfest – Kansas City, Mo.
August 7 – SMARC Hamfest – Springfield, Mo.
August 22 – Kansas State Convention, SVARC Hamfest – Salina, Ks.
Dedicated to the Advancement of Amateur RadioJune, 1999
THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Phyllis Dillman, NØMJB
Thank you, John Blessing, NØYRL, for talking to us
about your plans to link repeaters in northeast Kansas.
Good luck with your proposal and keep us informed.
Our next meeting will be planning for Field Day. Our
meeting starts at 7:30 PM. It is held at the Riley
County Red Cross Building which is at 1410 Poyntz in
Manhattan. There is also an informal “eating meeting”
at the Manhattan Sirloin Stockade at about 5:15 PM.
Field Day is June 26 and 27. It will be held at the
shelter in the Manhattan City Park on Poyntz just east
of the Red Cross Building. Henry Bachman, KAØSWM, is
the chairman. Contact him for more information and
to help with the activities.
The next XYL dinner will be held on July 22. The
location will be announced later. Remember all women
are welcome whether they are licensed or not. We
always have a good time.
NORM’S NOTES
Norm Dillman, NØJCC
Listen for us on the east coast for Field Day. We’ll
be with the KSU Solar Car on the Sunrayce. Listen for
KSØLAR, NØJCC, AAØRI and NØIN. We’ll be listening for
you. We’ll be checking in on the nets on 14.300 or
14.313 MHz occasionally from June 13 to June 30. We’ll
also be sending slow scan TV pictures around 14.230 MHz
now and then. You should also be able to check our
progress by logging into APRS on the Internet. The
APRS and SSTV is the work of Daniel, KBØOTV. We’ll
have about 17 hams altogether on the KSU race team. If
all else fails link to the Sunrayce on the Internet at
http://www.sunrayce.com and find out what’s happening.
Phyllis and I will continue to be on the air during
July and early August traveling from Florida to
California and back to Kansas. It’s always great to
contact someone back home. We’ll be checking e-mail
also if you use dillman@ksu.edu or n.dillman@juno.com.
Did you know……a Class A amplifier runs cooler at
full signal than with no signal…….
A feedback amplifier with a gain of 1 is more likely to
have oscillation problems than one with a gain of
100…….
Field Effect Transistors were invented many years
before “regular” bipolar transistors but were not
commercially developed until many years after the
BJT…..
Most computer circuits today are made with Field Effect
Transistors ……
Larger diameter coax generally has lower loss because
the resistance of the conductors is less (bigger
area)…..from the moon, the position of the earth in
the sky never changes…….
There are two high tides on the earth at any time
because the moon pulls the water closest to it away
from the earth and pulls the earth away from the water
on the back side…….
You never have all the right tools when you climb a
tower and you always drop at least one nut…..most
people don’t really care about the above observations.
Have a good summer.
SECRETARY’S MINUTES
Lenore Layman, NØTSN
May 14, 1999
The president of QQQ, John Blessing, was the club’s guest speaker for the evening.
Field Day – Henry would have a meeting for the field day committee shortly to finalize plans for field day and they would be discussed at the next meeting.
If anyone is interested in getting information on the callbook on CD ROM, contact Nadine.
XYL – the XYL’s will hold their dinner at the Little Apple Brewing Company on Thursday, May 27th at 7:00 p.m. If you would like to car pool or need a ride, please contact one of the officers.
Mass Care Training will be held at the Red Cross Building on Poyntz on Monday, May 24th at 7:00 p.m.
The next club meeting will be on Friday, June 11th at the Red Cross Building on Poyntz.
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Chuck Carter, AAØRI
Norm wishes to thank all that helped with the solar
bike race in Topeka. The races were fun to watch, the
average speeds were up a little from last year and the
“S” class cars were lots faster. The designs/ingenuity
were interesting to see.
The “Newsletter” is lighter this month as I didn’t find
any interesting filler and we have no other contributions
from the members. Remember, this is YOUR
“Newsletter”. Please contribute to its content whenever you can.
Henry and crew have been working hard to get Field Day
off and running. I hope you all have a good time and
lots of success this year. I’m sorry that I won’t be
there but will be out of town attending the Solar Car
race. GO KSU.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Nadine Stueve, KØUHF May, 1999
ARRL DUES
If you would like to become a member of the American Radio Relay League and receive the monthly issue of QST, your treasurer has a form you may use to apply. The club keeps $5 of each new member’s dues and $2 of each renewing member, so even if you are renewing, do so through the club. The main thing to remember is that if you join through the club, your check must be made out to MAARS. When the form is sent in, the treasurer writes a new check deducting the amount which the club is permitted to keep. They will not reimburse the club. If you are renewing, bring your notice for renewal along to the meeting or send it to the Treasurer at the MAARS address.
HAMFESTS
June 12 – Macon ARC Hamfest – Macon, Mo.
July 10 – PHD Midwest Division Hamfest – Kansas City, Mo.
August 7 – SMARC Hamfest – Springfield, Mo.
August 22 – Kansas State Convention, SVARC Hamfest – Salina, Ks.
Dedicated to the Advancement of Amateur RadioMay, 1999
THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Phyllis Dillman, NØMJB
I want to thank Steve Robbins from Garmin for stepping in at the last minute to provide our program at the April
meeting. His informal talk about Global Positioning System fundamentals and new products was informative
and interesting. Steve is a recent KSU engineering graduate.
Our next meeting will be on Friday, May 14th at 7:30 PM at the Riley County Red Cross Building on 1410 Poyntz
in Manhattan. We have a short video from Collins Radio about pre-world war II transmitters. John Blessing,
NØYRL will also give an introduction to a proposal he is working on to create a repeater linking network in
North East Kansas. He is in the early stage of this project but would like keep us informed and get some
feedback.
The XYL dinner will be held on May 27 at 7PM. We’ll go to the Little Apple Brewing Company.
The Red Cross is offering a Mass Care Class on May 24th at 7 PM at the Riley County Red Cross Building. Call
the Red Cross if you are interested in this class.
NORM’S NOTES
Norm Dillman, NØJCC
Most of you have already heard that the KSU Solar Car
qualified for the 1999 Sunrayce. The first qualifying
event was held at the GM Proving Grounds west of
Detroit, Michigan. The car passed one full day of tests
of electrical and mechanical systems, handling, safety,
etc on Saturday May 1 and then drove 260 miles on the
2.18 mile track in less than 8 hours. To qualify we
needed to go 125 miles with an average of more than 25
miles per hour. We averaged about 35 miles per hour.
The final standings were not known at the time that
this was written because there is still another
qualification event on May 8 and 9 but we were in 4th
position at the end of the first event. The race is
from Washington D.C. to Orlando, Florida at the end of
June. All the KSU team members have ham licenses and
our 440 MHz , 9600 baud packet telemetry far
outperformed commercial systems costing ten times as
much. We’ll be driving the car around several times
each week between now and the race. Check out the neat
display if you get a chance. We’ll also be using APRS
and SSTV so you’ll be able to follow us from here.
Tune into 145.41- to hear what’s happening.
We have three sources of free or low cost batteries for
the emergency backup power for the club repeater. Two
offers of Delphi electric car batteries will require
some shipping and some very low cost Exide
cosmetic-reject, deep-cycle batteries are also
available. We’ll need some more information to make a
decision. The committee has not been able to get to
the repeater to check out the current and space
requirements because KSU has changed all of the locks
but we are making some progress.
SECRETARY’S MINUTES
Lenore Layman, NØTSN
April 9, 1999
Our regular scheduled guest for the evening was unable to attend, and Norm Dillman invited one of the people from Garmin, Steve Robbins, who was representing Garmin at K-State open house to speak to our club.
Field Day – City park has been reserved for field day, scheduled for June 25th and 26th.
The fee for the park will be $50.00. Henry, committee chairperson, will inquire as to whether they might leave the restroom open Saturday for our group. June will be devoted to field day with all the final preparations.
A discussion was made about purchasing Chuck’s (AAØRI) radio for the club station for $600.00. Filters have been added and the radio has just been serviced.
A suggestion was made that before the club considered purchasing the radio, we need to look into back-up power for the repeater. Replacing 2 new batteries was mentioned by Francis. A committee was formed to look into this: Jon Held, Frances Sable, Norm Dillman, John Best and Chuck Carter. They would report back to the club.
It’s time again to nominate KANSAS AMATEUR OF THE YEAR. This would consist of a amateur who has distinguished his/herself in the community, and our club nominated Norm Dillman, NØJCC. Our club would write a letter, and the solar car club, along with QQQ. These letters would be submitted to Wendell Wilson before June first. The officers will let you know of the results.
Picnic – The club’s annual picnic will be on Saturday, September 11th in place of the regular scheduled meeting in September. More information to come.
XYL dinner will be on Thursday, May 27th at 7:00 p.m. – Little Apple Brewing Company in Manhattan.
Next club meeting will be on May 14 in the Red Cross building on Poyntz Avenue.
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Chuck Carter, AAØRI
It’s interesting to note that the FCC has been cracking
down on amateur radio scoff-laws recently. The
following is a reprint from the ARRL newsletter.
OPERATOR WARNED IN K7IJ SHUTDOWN CALLED FOR RETESTING
The FCC has notified one of the figures in the K7IJ
repeater shutdown case–Timmy O. Sheen Jr, N6MZA, of
San Diego–that he must re-take his Technician Plus
amateur examination under the supervision of FCC
personnel. Sheen must complete the retesting by June
30. If he fails to appear for retesting his license
will be canceled.
Sheen was notified of the retesting call in a May 3
letter from the FCC’s Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH.
Earlier this year, the FCC issued a Warning Notice to
Sheen about alleged jamming and rebroadcasts of
cordless phones on the K7IJ Grizzly Peak repeater in
the San Francisco Bay area. Citing what it called “an
alarming and unacceptable lack of control over the
operations of these repeaters,” the FCC shut down the
K7IJ system March 2. Hollingsworth reports that he’s
still mulling over the response of licensee Bruce
Wachtell to FCC allegations that the repeater system
was not under the proper control of the licensee or the
designated control operator.
In an unrelated case, the FCC on May 6 set aside the
Technician class grant to Jeffrey C. Dressler of
Cypress, California. Dressler had been issued KF6VOT on
April 5. A letter from Hollingsworth said the FCC erred
in granting the ticket. The FCC is currently looking
into allegations of unlicensed operation by Dressler on
the W6NUT repeater in the Los Angeles area.
I also have some more of the humor sent to me by Bev,
NØRKO. Please don’t take these personally! I know I’m
guilty of some of these my self.
Note: This “Rusty Bumpers” column is from the May 1993
issue of “Solid Copy”, the Richmond (VA) Amateur
Telecommunications Society’s monthly newsletter. Most
of the examples used by “Rusty” have happened on the
local repeaters exactly as written, although some of
the items are exaggerated slightly for humor.
HOW TO SOUND LIKE A LID
by Rusty Bumpers, N4LID
On two meters lately, I have noticed a tendency of
people making a concerted effort to sound like a lid
(i.e. poor operator). Since this appears to be the new
style in amateur radio, I thought I would present this
handy guide to radio nerd-dom. The following is what I
call “How to sound like a lid in one easy lesson.”
9) Always ask involved questions of the person who
is trying to sign out. Never let him get by with a yes
or no answer. Make it a question that will take a long
time to answer.
10) The less you know about a subject, the more you
should speculate about it on the air. The amount of
time spent on your speculations should be inversely
proportional to your knowledge of the subject.
11) If someone on the repeater is causing
interference, you should talk about that person at
great length, making sure to comment on at least four
out of six of the following: (1) His mental state; (2)
His family; (3) His intelligence, or lack of same; (4)
His sexual preference; (5) His relationship to small
animals; (6) His other methods of self entertainment.
12) If you hear two amateurs start a conversation
on the repeater, wait until they are 20 seconds into
their contact, and then break-in to use the patch.
Make sure that it’s only a simple routine phone call.
It’s also very important that you run the autopatch for
the full three minutes. This way, once the two
re-establish contact, they won’t even remember what
they were talking about.
13) You hear someone on the repeater giving
directions to a visiting amateur. Even if the
directions are good, make sure you break-in with your
own “alternate route but better way to get there”
version. This is most effective if several other lid
trainees join in, each with a different route. By the
time the amateur wanting directions unscrambles all the
street names whizzing around in his head, he should
have mobiled out of range of the repeater. This keeps
you from having to stick around and help the guy get
back out of town later.
14) Use the repeater for an hour or two at a time,
preventing others from using it. Better yet, do it on
a daily basis. Your quest is to make people so sick of
hearing your voice every time they turn on their radio,
they’ll move to another frequency. This way you’ll
lighten the load on the repeater, leaving even more
time for you to talk on it.
15) See just how much mobile flutter you can
generate by operating at handheld power levels too far
from the repeater. Engage people in conversations when
you know they won’t be able to copy half of what you’re
saying. Even when they say you are uncopyable,
continue to string them along by making further
transmissions. See just how frustrated you can make
the other amateur before he finally signs off in
disgust.
16) Give out wacky radio advice. When a newcomer’s
signal is weak into the repeater, tell him he can
correct the problem by adjusting the volume and squelch
knobs on his radio. Or tell people they’re full
quieting except for the white noise on their signal.
Or….well, you get the idea.
17) Use lots of radio jargon. After all, it makes
you feel important using words average people don’t
say. Who cares if it makes you sound like you just
fell off of Channel 19 on the Citizen’s Band? Use
phases such as “Roger on that,” “10-4,” “I’m on the
side,” “You’re making the trip,” and “Negatory on
that.”
18) Use excessive microphone gain. See just how
loud you can make your audio. Make sure the audio gain
is so high that other amateurs can hear any bugs
crawling on your floor. If mobile, make sure the wind
noise is loud enough that others have to strain to pick
your words out from all the racket.
19) Be as verbose as possible. Never say “yes”
when you can say “He acquiesced in the affirmative by
saying ‘yes’.” (No kidding, I actually heard that
one.)
20) Start every transmission with the word “Roger”
or “QSL.” Sure, you don’t need to acknowledge that you
received the other transmission in full. After all,
you would simply ask for a repeat if you missed
something. But consider it your gift to the other
amateur to give him solace every few seconds that his
transmissions are being received.
21) When looking for a contact on a repeater,
always say you’re “listening” or “monitoring” multiple
times. I’ve always found that at least a half dozen
times or so is good. Repeating your multiple
“listening” IDs every 10 to 15 seconds is even better.
Those people who didn’t want to talk to you will
eventually call you, hoping you’ll go away after you
have finally made a contact.
22) Give out repeater FM signal reports using the HF
SSB R-S system (“You’re 5 by 9 here”). Sure it’s
considered improper for FM operation and you may even
confuse some people, but don’t let that spoil your fun!
23) Always use a repeater, even if you can work the
other station easily on simplex — especially if you
can make the contact on simplex. The coverage of the
repeater you use should be inversely proportional to
your distance from the other station.
24) If you and the other station are both within a
mile or two of the repeater you are using, you should
always give a signal report. (“I’m sitting under the
repeater and I know you can see it from there, but
you’re full quieting into the repeater. How about
me?”)
25) In the same vein as the previous step, when
monitoring a repeater, you should always give signal
reports as if the repeater didn’t exist. (“Yep, I’m
right under the repeater. You’ve got a whopping
signal. You’re S-9 plus 60. That must be a great
rig.”)
26) On repeaters with courtesy tones, you should
always say “over.” Courtesy tones are designed to let
everyone know when you have unkeyed, but don’t let that
stop you. Say “over,” “back to you,” or “go ahead.”
It serves no useful purpose, but don’t worry — it’s
still fun.
27) Think up interesting and bizarre things to do
to tie-up the repeater. The goal here is not to
facilitate communications, but to entertain all the
scanner listeners out there. Do something original.
Try to hum CTCSS (PL) tones. Sing pager tones. You’re
getting the idea.
28) Use the repeater’s autopatch for frivolous
routine calls. While pulling into the neighborhood,
call home to let them know you’ll be there in two
minutes. Or call your spouse to complain about the bad
day you had at work. After all, the club has “measured
rate” service on their phone line, so they get charged
for each autopatch call. Your endeavor is to make so
many patches in a year that you cost the club at least
$20 in phone bills. That way you’ll feel you got your
money’s worth for your dues.
29) Never say “My name is….”. It makes you sound
human. If at all possible, use one of the following
phrases:
A) “The personal here is….”
B) “The handle here is….”
Normally, handles are for suitcases, but it’s OK to use
them anyway. Don’t forget, this has worked just fine
for CBers for years.
30) Use 73 and 88 incorrectly. Both are already
considered plural, but add an “‘s” to the end anyway.
Say “73’s” or “88’s.” Who cares if it means “best
regardses” and “love and kisseses.” Better yet, say
“seventy thirds.” (By the way, 70 thirds equals about
23.3.)
31) Make people think you have a split personality
by referring to yourself in the plural sense. When
you’re in conversation and are alone at your radio,
always say “We’re” or “We’ve” instead of “I’m” or
“I’ve” (i.e. “we’ve been doing this…”, “we’re doing
that…”, “we’re clear”). Everyone knows you’re by
yourself, but when they ask you who is with you, make
up somebody important like Arnold Schwarzenegger or
Bill Clinton.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Nadine Stueve, KØUHF April, 1999
ARRL DUES
If you would like to become a member of the American Radio Relay League and receive the monthly issue of QST, your treasurer has a form you may use to apply. The club keeps $5 of each new member’s dues and $2 of each renewing member, so even if you are renewing, do so through the club. The main thing to remember is that if you join through the club, your check must be made out to MAARS. When the form is sent in, the treasurer writes a new check deducting the amount which the club is permitted to keep. They will not reimburse the club. If you are renewing, bring your notice for renewal along to the meeting or send it to the Treasurer at the MAARS address.
HAMFESTS
May 14 – 16 – Dayton Hamvention – Dayton, Ohio
June 4 – 5 – Iowa State Convention – So. Sioux City, Neb.
Dedicated to the Advancement of Amateur RadioApril, 1999
THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Phyllis Dillman, NØMJB
Jim Duncan was unable to join us for last month’s meeting because of the threat of bad weather. He was going to talk about APRS. He’s very active in Kansas City APRS activities. Our March meeting consisted of a mini-auction of some items from Doris Grosh, AAØDU. She has also loaned us several items for the club station, KS0MAN. Jon Held, NØRYQ, was our entertaining auctioneer. After that Norm, NØJCC, gave us an update on the KSU Solar Car and then several people went to the campus to see the car. It will be on display in front of Durland Hall at the KSU open house April 10.
Our next meeting will be April 9 at 7:30 PM. Jim Duncan is scheduled again to talk about what’s going on with APRS. We’ll have a video from Collins Radio to show in the near future. The meeting will be at the Riley County Red Cross Building at 1410 Poyntz in Manhattan. We will meet at the Sirloin Stockade for dinner about 5:15 PM before the meeting.
The XYL’s went to dinner this month. Nine of us enjoyed dinner at the El Cazador. Our next outing will be May 27. We had a great time.
NORM’S NOTES
Norm Dillman, NØJCC
HELP WANTED #1
Once again it’s time for the BOY SCOUT
MERIT BADGE JAMBOREE and once again we need volunteers
on Saturday, April 24 at KSU to help with the RADIO
badge. Phyllis and I are having out-of-state guests
that weekend but Tim Sobering, KCØBGB has agreed to run
the two sessions (AM and PM). I’ll help him get it set
up but he’ll need a lot of help to make it happen.
Many of you have helped in the past and know how
rewarding (and sometimes tiring) it can be. The
requirements have changed recently and are more
reasonable. Let Tim or me know if you can help for
part or all of the day. We’ve typically had about
eight people helping and the more we have the easier it
will be.
HELP WANTED #2
The 1999 Solar BikeRayce USA will be
held at Forbes Field in Topeka again this summer.
Events start on Friday, May 28 but most of the action
is on Sunday, May 30. Several Hams from MAARS and a
few from Topeka helped count laps and with
communications last year. I recently got an email
message from the officials asking if we could help
again. The Hams and KSU students got many compliments
from the officials last year. If you have any
questions just let me know. If you can help just
let Phyllis or me know. It’s a fun event. We also
plan to drive the KSU Solar Car to the race.
APRIL 9 MEETING
Once again we’ve scheduled Jim Duncan
to talk about APRS and once again there is a chance
that he won’t be able to make it. If Jim Duncan can’t
make it for the April meeting we will have a video
from Rod Blocksome from Rockwell-Collins in Cedar
Rapids. It’s called “The Early Years – A Look at
Pre-War Collins”. It runs about 1/2 hour and is
produced by a collector of Collins gear in California.
The next time Rod is in Manhattan I’ve asked him to talk
about a project he is working on. Here are his comments:
“In the middle of all this, I have gotten involved in
another very interesting extra project. Five engineers
here at Collins are working with a Company called
Nauticos that is going to search for Amelia Earhart’s
plane. We are supplying a study and analysis of radio
propagation and navigation aspects. During the trips I
read 8 books on her and all the different “theories”
about what happened to her and her navigator – Fred
Noonan. In spite of all this analysis, it is going to
be a very expensive search. The Pacific ocean around
Howland Island is very deep!”
Some engineers from Garmin, the GPS folks, will be on
campus that weekend so I’m trying to get them to talk
about global positioning systems, GPS. We’ll keep you
informed on the Tuesday night net about what is going
on. As usual, the meeting will be at the Riley County
Red Cross Building in Manhattan on Poyntz near 14th
street. The meeting is at 7:30 PM following the
“eating meeting” at the Sirloin Stockade on the east
side of Manhattan.
The following are some excerpts from the March 26
weekly “ARRL LETTER” that is distributed by email to
ARRL members. ARRL members can get this newsletter each
week. GO TO: http://www.arrl.org/members. There are
usually several interesting items each week.
SPUTNIK 99 TO LAUNCH IN APRIL
Sputnik 99, which likely also will be known as RS-19
and possibly as Sputnik 42, will be launched by hand
from Mir sometime in April during a space walk by ESA
astronaut Jean-Pierre Haignere, FXØSTB, of France. The
newest “baby Sputnik” was a cooperative effort of
Gerard Auvray, F6FAO, of AMSAT-France; Viktor Kourilov,
of the Astronautical Federation of Russia; and Sergei
Sambourov, RV3DR, of Energia and AMSAT-Russia.
Technical details of the latest Sputnik are not yet
available.
NASA PROVIDES SPACE QUALIFICATION FUNDING TO SAREX/ARISS
NASA has given a $90,000 boost to the cause of giving
Amateur Radio a permanent place in space. The money,
recently transferred to the US-based Space Amateur
Radio EXperiment (SAREX) team from NASA’s Education
Office will support the space qualification of Amateur
Radio hardware bound for the International Space
Station as part of the Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station (ARISS) program.
FCC INVESTIGATING TEXAS AMATEUR
The FCC is investigating information indicating that
Technician licensee Leonard Martin, KC5WHN, of Houston,
Texas, operated outside of the amateur bands without
a proper license. Field Office personnel in Houston
reportedly monitored Martin and located him using
direction-finding equipment on two occasions. On
February 27, he was said to be operating on 27.535 MHz
and 545 MHz. On March 15, he was said to be operating
on 27.370 MHz, a frequency between CB channels.
In other actions, the FCC sent Warning Notices to an
Illinois ham alleging broadcasting and on-air
harassment as well as transmission of profane and
indecent language. The FCC also warned a Texas ham
about causing deliberate interference on 40 meters, an
Illinois ham who holds a Technician ticket about
operating on 20 and 40 meters, and a North Carolina
Novice who’s allegedly showed up on 2 meters.
RESIDUAL NOISE POLLUTION IN MODERN PHASE-LOCKED LOOP RECEIVERS
THE PROBLEM
Do you feel that the bands are much noisier than they
used to be? Do you often turn on your rig and call a
station time and time again only to get no reply? Well,
the problem may be residual noise pollution. When you
turn your rig off, some of the signals you have been
copying become trapped inside the phase-locked loop of
your receiver and are unable to escape. One sure sign
that you are suffering from RNP is when you turn your
rig on after a few days and hear the same station that
you heard calling CQ immediately before you last
switched off. These rogue signals accumulate and will
remain inside the rig unless steps are taken to flush
them out.
THE CURE
The cure for RNP is fairly basic but the author can
obviously take no responsibility for clean-ups that go
wrong. Remember, there is no compulsion to try this.
This system works very well for an IC-706 and also an
IC-735 but some problems may occur when flushing out
stubborn signals from older, tube type rigs.
STAGE ONE
Remove all external appendages from the rig. This means
all knobs, buttons, connectors etc. Don’t forget to
disconnect from the power supply first!
STAGE TWO
Peer inside the case. If any obvious blockages can be
spotted, remove them with a bent paper-clip or with a
piece of gum stuck to the end of a pencil. Quite often
no problem will be obvious. This is because the rogue
signals are, to use a technical term, skulking.
STAGE THREE
Place rig carefully into a washing machine (a clothes
washer). Experience has shown that the best results are
obtained with a short biological pre-wash, a synthetics
wash, a warm rinse and a fairly long spin. Do not use
fabric conditioner. If in any doubt at all refer to the
washing instructions at the back of the manual for your
rig. If you have no washing instructions play safe and
wash on a delicate fabric setting.
You may find that the rig will dent the inside of the
wash-drum during the spin but don’t let the noise deter
you. The end result will be worth it.
STAGE FOUR
Obviously when dealing with electrical appliances it is
essential that they are absolutely dry before switch
on, so it is now time to tumble-dry the rig. A warm dry
for about an hour should do the trick. Remove the rig
and carefully check underneath any surface-mounted
devices to make sure there is no residual moisture. To
be absolutely sure shake the rig vigorously for a few
seconds and listen for sounds of water slopping around.
If some minor discoloration of the outside casing can
be tolerated, the rig may be dried out on top of a slow
barbecue.
NOW – THE RESULTS!
Replace all knobs, buttons and connectors. Reconnect to
power supply. Switch on. You will be amazed at the
difference! No noise! You have cured Residual Noise
Pollution. Your DX-ing will never be the same again!!
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Chuck Carter, AAØRI
The secretary’s minutes will be e-mailed to everyone on
the e-mail list and Lenore will print several copies to
hand out at Friday’s meeting for anyone who wants it.
Lenore has been very busy the past couple of months and
wasn’t quite ready for the deadline. I understand
that as I almost forgot to do this News Letter
myself.
You may think that the article by Al Cake sounds a
little fishy, but remember this IS April.
Speaking of April, I also have some humor sent to me by
Bev, NØRKO. Please don’t take these personally! I
know I’m guilty of a few of these myself.
…-.- de AAØRI
Note: This “Rusty Bumpers” column is from the May 1993
issue of “Solid Copy”, the Richmond, VA Amateur
Telecommunications Society’s monthly newsletter. Most
of the examples used by “Rusty” have happened on the
local repeaters exactly as written, although some of
the items are exaggerated slightly for humor. (step 35
was written before the 1993 “no business” rule change.)
HOW TO SOUND LIKE A LID
by Rusty Bumpers, N4LID
On two meters lately, I have noticed a tendency of
people making a concerted effort to sound like a Lid
(i.e. poor operator). Since this appears to be the new
style in amateur radio, I thought I would present this
handy guide to radio nerd-dom. The following is what I
call: “How to sound like a Lid in one easy lesson.”
1) Use as many Q signals as possible. Yes, I know
they were invented solely for CW and are totally
inappropriate for two-meter FM, but they’re fun and
entertaining. They keep people guessing as to what you
really meant. i.e. “I’m going to QSY to the kitchen.”
Can you really change frequency to the kitchen? QSL
used to mean “I am acknowledging receipt,” but now it
appears to mean “yes” or “OK.” I guess I missed it
when the ARRL changed the meaning.
2) Never laugh, when you can say “hi hi.” No one
will ever know you aren’t a long time CW ragchewer if
you don’t tell them. They’ll think you’ve been on
since the days of Marconi.
3) Utilize an alternative vocabulary. Use words
like “destinated” and “negatory.” It’s OK to make up
your own words here. “Yeah Bill, I pheelbart zaphonix
occasionally myself.”
4) Always say “XX4XXX (insert your own call) for
I.D.” Anything that creates redundancy is always
strongly encouraged. That’s why we have the Department
of Redundancy Department. (Please note that you can
follow your call with “for identification purposes”
instead of “for I.D.” While taking longer to say, it
is worth more lid-points.)
5) The better the copy on two-meter FM, the more
you should phonetically spell your name, especially if
it is a short and/or common one. i.e. “My name is
Al…Alpha Lima” or “Jack…Juliett Alpha Charlie
Kilo.” If at all possible, make up unintelligible
phonetics. “My name is Bob…Billibong Oregano
Bumperpool.”
6) Always give the calls of yourself and everyone
who is (or has been) in the group, whether they are
still there or not. While this has been unnecessary
for years, it is still a wonderful memory test.
To be continued in a future issue.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Nadine Stueve, KØUHF March, 1999
ARRL DUES
If you would like to become a member of the American Radio Relay League and receive the monthly issue of QST, your treasurer has a form you may use to apply. The club keeps $5 of each new member’s dues and $2 of each renewing member, so even if you are renewing, do so through the club. The main thing to remember is that if you join through the club, your check must be made out to MAARS. When the form is sent in, the treasurer writes a new check deducting the amount which the club is permitted to keep. They will not reimburse the club. If you are renewing, bring your notice for renewal along to the meeting or send it to the Treasurer at the MAARS address.
HAMFESTS
May 14 – 16 – Dayton Hamvention – Dayton, Ohio
June 4 – 5 – Iowa State Convention – So. Sioux City, Neb.
Dedicated to the Advancement of Amateur RadioMarch, 1999
THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Phyllis Dillman, NØMJB
Thanks to Beryl Adams, Director of the Riley County Red Cross for leading us through the Red Cross Disaster Relief
Training. It gave us a good idea about how the Red Cross deals with disasters and how we might help in the future.
Our next meeting will be March 12th, 7:30 P.M. at the Red Cross Building at 1410 Poyntz in Manhattan. Jim Duncan, KUØG, will give a talk on the many aspects of APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System). Jim will have an APRS system at the meeting. We hope that Daniel Soldan, KBØOTV, can have the KSU Solar Car APRS system to demonstrate. As usual, many of us will meet at the Manhattan Sirloin Stockade for the Eating Meeting at about 5:15 P.M. before the regular meeting. If there is enough interest and time there will be a tour of the KSU Solar Car. It’s not done but you can see the progress and get a good idea about how the new car is built.
The next XYL dinner will be on March 18th at 7:00 P.M. We’ll go to El Cazador. I hope a lot of XYL’s can join us and that you OM’s will let your XYL know about it. Hams and non-ham women are welcome.
NORM’S NOTES
Norm Dillman, NØJCC
NO-CODE CLASS
We are about through with the no-code class.
We only have three students but went ahead with the class. Chuck talked about RF safety for the Saturday February 27
class. He will also give us a program at a future club meeting.
SOLAR CAR UPDATE
Good progress has been made recently on the KSU Solar Car, Apollo #11. Qualification is at the end of April in Michigan and the Rayce is at the end of June. If we have time we’ll give a tour of the current progress after the next regular MAARS meeting. The team has made a lot of progress on encapsulating and testing the 700+ solar
cells on the car. The individual testing is almost done. The prototype of the maximum power tracker to get as much
energy possible from the solar cells is being constructed. Most of the data acquisition system had been built and the
two-meter packet link is working. We hope to have a 9600 baud/440 MHz system for the race. The motor and controller finally arrived. It’s a ($12,000) hub motor that is very efficient. We also have all of the race batteries and extra test batteries. We’re using special lead-acid batteries and not the $40,000 NMH battery pack made available by Ovonics. The composite frame is all done and all four wheels should be attached by the meeting. The main part of the composite body has been painted. If you have questions about the car just call “CQ Solar Car Team” on the 145.41- KSUARC repeater and you’ll probably get an answer. The team members are required to have a Ham license to go on the race. In addition to the APRS/GPS mapping in the lead car and two support vehicles we also use 2-meter and 440 MHz to communicate with the driver and each other; 440 MHz for data as already mentioned plus we’ll be experimenting with SSTV on HF.
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Chuck Carter, AAØRI
Because of illness in John and Lenore’s family, there won’t be any minutes in this month’s Newsletter. We will bring
you February and March minutes in the April edition as well as more of the old minutes.
I have an article that should be of interest to all of you as I know how serious some of you are in antenna lore.
Please let me know if you are interested in this type of material as well as the serious, as I seem to find it all
over the www pages. Most of the authors are willing for us to use their stuff in our Newsletter.
73 de Chuck …_._
AERIALS AND WHERE TO STICK THEM
by Al Cake, G3MOV
There are a great many types of antenna and most of them function best when they are erect. This is because of
‘standing-waves’ which produce energy in a vertical plane. Energy in the horizontal plane requires ‘lying-down waves’
and this is why most of the radiated and received energy is termed ‘ecstatic’ rather than ‘magnetic’. (Kirchhoff’s
fourth and fifth laws of self-immolation present a heated argument on this subject.)
One of the most famous aerials is the diamond-shaped ‘Ron Bick’ aerial, named after its inventor Ron Bick of Watford,
England. This aerial is very good but, because of its size, it has two main disadvantages – it is difficult to erect
vertically and it is of limited use in fast-flying jet aircraft.
Another aerial that deserves a mention is the Log Periodic – so I have mentioned it.
I will now move quickly onto the three ‘pole’ antennas, namely the monopole, the dipole and the tripole. The
last-mentioned can be disregarded as it is not now in use. The reason for this is fascinating, but I can’t remember
what that reason is. The monopole is very useful for LF, MF and HF but has limited usefulness at VHF frequencies where
one should use the stereopole if maximum enjoyment is required.
At this point the reader may feel that there has been some neglect of the technical aspect of aerials. This is true and
the author intends to deal with the dipole in depth technically, but at the same time try to satisfy the natural
curiosity of the non-technical reader.
The word ‘dipole’ is a composite of two Latin words, ‘di’ meaning ‘six’ and ‘pole’ meaning ‘sticks’. So it can be
easily seen, even by the most ignorant, that a dipole is made from six sticks. As the reader will already know from
my in-depth study of the Log Periodic, six sticks will have a much wider aperture than only one stick. Now we come to
the technical bit. Pushing these sticks into the ground at regular intervals will give a quasi-omniphysical deltoid
stub-matching line-of-sight high incident ground-wave. If three of the ‘sticks’ are coated with an intensely ionised
P material and the other three coated with un-ionised N material then Zowie! – it’s instant Receivesville man. (It
is hoped that the reader will forgive the author for occasionally lapsing into the vernacular, particularly when
excited).
Another thing about aerials that must be remembered is feeder independance. If the feeders of dipoles are spread
apart it changes the natural independance of the aerial from 75 Ohms to 250 Megohms. As is commonly known it is
impossible to hear anything with that sort of resistance in the aerial feeder. So best not to do it.
Other types of aerial in constant use are the ‘Beverage’ (called the ‘T’ aerial in Britain). This is also called a
long wire and is 1.5 inches long at 16 Ghz. The Inverted X is also famous but not much in use as no-one can decide
which way up it is supposed to be.
Finally, we move on briefly to microwaves where there are special considerations to be taken into account. Microwave
and satellite signals can ‘bounce around’ all over the place and can become what is technically known as ‘dirty’.
However, fortunately there is one aerial which can be used effectively to ‘clean up’ these ‘dirty’ signals. This
is, of course, the very well-known Carbolic Dish.
TREASURER’S REPORT
Nadine Stueve, KØUHF February, 1999
ARRL DUES
If you would like to become a member of the American Radio Relay League and receive the monthly issue of QST, your treasurer has a form you may use to apply. The club keeps $5 of each new member’s dues and $2 of each renewing member, so even if you are renewing, do so through the club. The main thing to remember is that if you join through the club, your check must be made out to MAARS. When the form is sent in, the treasurer writes a new check deducting the amount which the club is permitted to keep. They will not reimburse the club. If you are renewing, bring your notice for renewal along to the meeting or send it to the Treasurer at the MAARS address.
HAMFESTS
March 13 – Ararat Shrine Hamfest – KCMO
April 17 – Joplin ARC Hamfest – Joplin, Mo.
April 23 – Des Moines ARC Hamfest – Des Moines, Iowa
Dedicated to the Advancement of Amateur RadioFebruary, 1999
THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Phyllis Dillman, NØMJB
Thanks to Beryl Adams, director of the Riley County Red Cross,
for our meeting last month. It was our first meeting at the Red
Cross. Beryl gave us a lot of information about the Red Cross.
She also gave some examples about how hams have helped the Red
Cross and some ideas about what we might do in the future. Our next meeting will be
held there on Friday, February 12 at 6:30 P.M. NOTE: THIS IS ONE
HOUR EARLIER THAN OUR NORMAL MEETING TIME. Our program will be
the initial training to be involved with Red Cross disaster
relief. Norm and I have been through it and we think you’ll find
it interesting. It’s a combination of short videos and
discussions. You can either eat early or bring something to eat
during the videos. We’ll have coffee and tea for everyone. The
Red Cross is easy to find. It’s at 1410 Poyntz on the north
side of the street, just west of the Manhattan City Park. The
MAARS club station, KSØMAN will be on the air. If anyone wants
to operate the station some evening or during a weekend give a
call on the repeater for Chuck or Norm. The station’s TS-430 HF
rig is “sick” but they will bring a rig from home if they’re
available.
The last XYL dinner was at the Cowboy Cafe out on Interstate 70.
We all had a great time. We plan to go to El Cazador on March
18th. I hope a lot of you ladies can join us. Remember, you
don’t have to be a ham or club member for any of our activities.
NORM’S NOTES
Norm Dillman, NØJCC
There will be a free no-code license class at the Riley County
Red Cross starting on Saturday, February 6 at 9 AM to 11AM. There
will be nine classes plus an exam session. Because of other
scheduled events at the Red Cross, the day of the week for the
class will vary. If you know anyone interested in the class, tell
them to get a copy of the “Now You’re Talking” book at Radio Shack and
join us. We’re requiring a minimum of ten students to hold the
classes. Here are the dates:
1. Saturday February 6 9 – 11 AM
2. Wednesday February 10 7 – 9 PM
3. Wednesday February 17 7 – 9 PM
4. Thursday February 25 7 – 9 PM
5. Saturday February 27 9 – 11 PM
6. Wednesday March 3 7 – 9 PM
7. Saturday March 6 9 – 11 AM
8. Thursday March 11 7 – 9 PM
9. Wednesday March 17 7 – 9 PM
10. Saturday March 20 9 – 11 PM
Tentative exam date.
All of this information is on the KSUARC or MAARS web page,
thanks to Dave, KAØJPM. We’ll be using ARRL and other videos
plus Chuck, AAØRI, and Jon, NØRYQ, and I plus some others will be
helping with the class discussions and demonstrations. Licensed
hams are welcome to join us and share your experiences and ideas.
There will be a license exam session on Thursday, February 11 at
7 PM in room 274 in Rathbone Hall on the KSU campus. We plan to
give only Novice, Technician and 5 WPM code tests, but if you need
more advanced exams contact Dave Yoder, KAØJPM on the repeater at
least a week before the exam. We had an exam on February 21 and
now have six new hams and one upgrade to Technician Plus. It
was a good evening. Chuck, AAØRI, also gives exams in Wamego.
Check his schedule in this newsletter.
Several of the new hams are KSU students on the solar car team.
They are working very hard on the car and it’s really looking
good. The body and chassis are done and the wheels and
suspension will be installed soon. Plan on seeing the official
unveiling of the car at the KSU Open House on April 9 and 10.
The KSUARC will have a couple of HF stations at the open house
and plans to do some special things like SSTV or APRS. Stop by
and operate for a while. Back to the Solar Car, we must qualify
the car in Michigan at the end of April. The race is from June
20 to June 30 from Washington, DC to Orlando, Florida.
WIND CHILL
In the late 1940s, Antarctic explorers Siple and Passel
experimented with measuring the time it took to freeze 250 grams
of water in different temperature and wind conditions. They
developed empirical formulas relating these data to the rate of
heat loss from exposed human skin. They developed the following
formula which was used to determine the wind chill index. At
wind speeds of 4 miles per hour or less, the wind chill
temperature is the same as the actual air temperature.
Twc = 0.0817 (371 V 0.5 + 5.81 – 0.25 V) (T – 91.4) + 91.4 (wc is subscript, 0.5 is superscript) (e-mail can’t handle that!)
Where
V = wind speed in mph
T = temperature in F°
TWC = windchill
SECRETARY’S MINUTES
Lenore Layman, NØTSN
January 9, 1999
Our guest speaker for the evening was the Director of the Riley
County Red Cross, Beryl Adams, who spoke to our club on our
participation in helping with diasters.
Insurance equipment for the club station was discussed and it was
decided to send in a list of who owns what equipment, then it
will be added to the club’s policy at additional cost ($1.50 per
hundred dollars of insurance).
Henry Bachman, KAØSWM will be the chairperson for field day
committee this year, which will be held on June 26th and 27th.
Three possible locations, public access and the number of
stations will be considered first and will be discussed at a
future meeting.
After listening to our guest speaker it was decided to hold
training for disasters during one of our club meeting sessions,
and bringing a brown bag meal instead of eating at the Sirloin
Stockade so we could get an early start.
PAWS 440 will hold a Wednesday night net at 7:00 pm and will be
lead by Beverly.
The cost for the club’s post office box will go to $22.00 for 6
months.
XYL – Cowboy Cafe on Wednesday, January 27th at 7:00 pm.
Hamfests – January 16th in St. Joe, Mo. to be held at the Ramada Inn.
Testing sessions – pre-registration is required.
Mike, NØPVU knows of a 100 ft. tower if the club or anyone would
be interested.
No-code class may be starting in February if there is any
interest. See Norm Dillman.
Next club meeting will be on Friday, February 12th at the Red
Cross Building on Poyntz Avenue.
CLUB TRIVIA
Lenore Layman, NØTSN
In looking through the book of minutes, occasionally I will put
the “minutes past” in the newsletter. Enjoy!
November 8, 1988
The meeting was presided by the vice president, Monica Eaton,
NØGSP.
Discussed the repeater location. We have 4 choices (1) to move to
the top of KSDB’s tower, (2) to move to the top of KMKF’s tower
(3) to move to the just below the top of the short tower at
KMKF’s site, or (4) to stay where we are (on top of the city’s
building) until KMKF gets their new tower site and then move to
their new site.
After a lengthy discussion, Doris Grosh, NOØD moved that we move
the repeater to KSDB’s site. It was seconded and passed. It was
moved and seconded that the Repeater Committee spend the
necessary money to move the repeater to the new site.
Elected officers:
President: David Threewit, NØIVG
Vice President: Myron Calhoun, WØPBV
Secretary: Doris Grosh, NOØD
Treasurer: Denis Eaton, NØGIH
Tom reported that Dandy’s was willing to come and that they were
sending some information on how to have a hamfest and a list of
days of other fests. It was moved, second and passed that having
a swapfest be tabled indefinitely.
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Chuck Carter, AAØRI
Norm, NØJCC, is looking for copies of the Novice/Tech training
tapes from the ARRL. If anyone has the originals or a good copy
please bring them to the meeting, or give him a call at
(785) 539-1039.
Test sessions in Wamego are scheduled on March 20, May 15,
July 17, Sept. 18, and Nov. 20. All tests will be at 519 Lincoln
Ave., Wamego. Tests begin at 2:00 PM sharp and pre-registration
is required for upgrades beyond Tech Plus.
In Manhattan, contact David Yoder, KAØJPM to schedule a test.
73 de Chuck, AAØRI
TREASURER’S REPORT
Nadine Stueve, KØUHF January, 1999
ARRL DUES
If you would like to become a member of the American Radio Relay League and receive the monthly issue of QST, your treasurer has a form you may use to apply. The club keeps $5 of each new member’s dues and $2 of each renewing member, so even if you are renewing, do so through the club. The main thing to remember is that if you join through the club, your check must be made out to MAARS. When the form is sent in, the treasurer writes a new check deducting the amount which the club is permitted to keep. They will not reimburse the club. If you are renewing, bring your notice for renewal along to the meeting or send it to the Treasurer at the MAARS address.
HAMFESTS
March 5 – 7, 1999 Nebraska State Convention, Norfolk, NE
