Short Skip Sep 1997

September 1997 Short Skip

SEPTEMBER 1997

Fremont Peak Contesting Adventure, October 4-5
Is THIS 1982 again?
PREZ SEZ
ARES Windjammers Wrap-Up
Simulated Emergency Test
CHATTER
RECYCLE your equipment
Will TCP/IP Save Packet Radio?
ARRL studies new eavesdropping bill
 
Fremont Peak Contesting
Adventure, October 4-5
By Tom Ginsburg, K6TG
If Field Day wasn’t enough to satisfy your need to be outdoors, do some
operating and camping too, then come on up to Fremont Peak on October 4th
and 5th. We plan on operating during the California QSO Party, as we try
to work as many stations as possible in the US and Canada. We will be in
San Benito County, which will be sought after by those in other states,
so the contacts should be plenty.
Not only will this be a great opportunity to hone contest operating skills
(we could use them next Field Day!), but we also plan on taking a break
on Saturday night to check out the Fremont Peak Observatory. If the weather
is clear, we will get a chance to check out the stars with their impressive
telescope. It should be a lot of fun.
For more information, please contact me at 479-1471 or on the repeaters.

Is THIS 1982 again?

The jury is still out as to whether this winter will be wet like 1982
but ARES is planning for the worst case as is our served agencies i.e. Red
Cross and city and county EOC [emergency operation centers].
Our number one priority should be making sure everything on the home
front is OK. Plans should be developed with your family for an evacuation
and rendezvous point, supplies stores i.e. food water, flashlights, radios
and lots of batteries. Make sure that your property has good drainage and
take steps to minimize erosion.
Be prepared for ARES activation:
Review the personal checklist on page 24 on the ARES Handbook [bluebook].
A copy is available on the KI6EH Packet BBS under WL. Check your battery
supplies and charging capability. When the heavy rains start listen to your
local 2-meter repeater when at all possible.
S E T November 8 from 09:00 to 16:00.
Mark you calendar for Sat Nov 8. A county wide Simulated Emergency Test
with a served agency will be held on that day. We will be using both voice
and packet. The best way to be ready is to practice. This is the biggest
drill of the year. Be there!
– Bruce, W6FKD

PREZ SEZ
September is time for most of us to think about having to go back to
school and work. Summer vacations are over. The tourists have been heading
home. Labor Day has passed. Fall is upon us. Time to prepare for the shorter
days and lower temperatures ahead. Time to get on the radio. There are some
forecasts calling for a wet, stormy winter season ahead due to ENSO (El
Nino/Southern Oscillation). Are our radio stations ready for this? Are we?
Are our homes and families secure? Will the roof leak? We need to take care
of our own security before we can help others. This doesn’t have to be a
big deal sometimes. Just warming up the radio from time to time will keep
it comfortable. Transmit and receive. How’s the battery supply? Got extra
food and water? You know the drill. Hopefully, we will think of our communities
with the satisfaction of knowing that we are well taken care of; that we
can help each other. Know who to call for assistance? Know how to do it?
(Do you remember how to dial 911 on the club repeaters? Remember how to
hang up the phone?) Of course you do, you’re a communicator; an amateur
radio operator! That’s a major purpose of our weekly HF, VHF and UHF club
nets. Communication practice. Transmit and receive. Practice, practice,
practice. HF propagation is getting better as Solar Cycle 23 finally starts
its rise. Are we ready? Checked the grounding system recently? Feedlines
gonna stay dry on the inside? I know your license is good at least through
the end of this year (the club checked)!. Are you going to get some good
use from it? Are we? We can talk about ENSO at the next monthly club breakfast.
These breakfasts are a different kind of eyeball session than the club meetings.
There’s more time to talk! More ham spouses have been coming along for fun
(a meal is more fun than a "meeting"). The most recent breakfast
at Jeffery’s Restaurant was very friendly and the food was good. I hope
to see you for breakfast at Baker’s Square Restaurant on Ocean Street in
Santa Cruz on Saturday, October 4 at 9AM. I hope to see you before then
too. Our regular club meeting is the third Friday of every month. Our club’s
board meeting is the Thursday after each regular club meeting. Both are
at 7:30PM. What do you say?
– Cap, KE6AFE

ARES Windjammers Wrap-Up

The 56th running (sailing) of the Windjammers Race was a huge success!
All the boats that started in San Francisco finished in Santa Cruz, and
the last boat made it in before daybreak on Saturday, both of which are
firsts as long as I have been involved with this race! I want to extend
a special thanks to all the ARES volunteers who made the forwarding of finish
data work (not always smoothly, but we worked it out). Those who helped
out were Rich Hanset, KI6EH; Ralph Evans, W6ENE; Myra May, KD6ZCJ; Frank
Carroll, K6BDK; Popi Lesti, KE6RNJ; and taking the graveyard shift was Bruce
Wade, W6FKD.
Thanks again, and ask them how much fun they had, Iím sure there
will be room for a few more volunteers next year!
– 73, Steve Smardan, N6TGM

Simulated Emergency Test

The Red Cross will have a disaster response exercise on Saturday, November
8th from 9AM to 4PM. The scenario will have Red Cross Personnel set up fou
shelters: Felton, Capitola and two in Watsonville. The Santa Cruz County
ARES groups will be participating in this exercise. Operations will include
the EOC station, the Santa Cruz Red Cross office and the Watsonville Red
Cross office. Multiple persons will be assigned to each location. This exercise
will serve as the 1997 ARES Simulated Emergency Test (SET).
For more information about the Santa Cruz ARES or how you can become
an ARES member, contact your local Emergency Coordinator (EC) or Rich Hanset,
DEC, KI6EH at 438-0615 or RHanset@NovaControls.com.

RECYCLE your equipment

ICOM IC- 28H 144mhz Moble Radio, Kantronics KPC-3 Packet Radio, Ringo
Ranger II Antenna, 12 vdc power supply all in good working order. $300 or
BO
Alinco EDC-34 Rapid Battery Charger Charges battery with a few hours.
used only 4 times $50
Call Andrew drew_lgca@pipeline.com
Amateur radio repairs. Dave Rowley, N6RZ. is a highly skilled technician
and guarantees his work. Rates are very reasonable.
He has the following items for sale:
1 Kenwood TS50, 100 watt HF transceiver. Good for Maritime Mobile. 160-10
meters, $625.
1 Swan 350A transceiver. 80-10 meters. Tube type, needs tubes but works
OK. 50 watts out on 10 meters. $75
Converted CB set for 10 meters. SSB and AM 6 watts out. Sears brand,
Road Talker. Call him at 426-6691.

CHATTER
By Art Lee WF6P

Installing a through-the-glass antenna? In Sacramento, I did, and made
a serious mistake. I followed the instructions meticulously and still fouled
up! (It can happen!) The antenna manufacturer did a fine job of explaining
the step-by-step directions for the hook up. The coax was top quality. I
found a routing for it (not an easy task!) through the overhead liner trim.
Stu Keller, K9WNU, and I carefully glued the antenna couplers -inside
and out – observing the stringent precautions concerning the avoidance of
in-glass heater elements and metallic sun screening of the rear window.
It was tough but we sandwiched it between these boundaries – it just fit
with about a 1/16th of an inch margin. I hid the coax across the top of
the rear window. It was a beautiful job. Absolutely beautiful. Nobody could
have improved upon it. We lined up the arrow markers precisely, matching
the outer element with the glued-on inner. The glass was prepared properly
with the glues provided. Nothing would pry it loose. When we checked the
SWR with Stu’s SWR analyzer, it was a straight 1:1 on K6BJ! Nice, nice,
nice. (Did I say, "perfect," yet?). The half-wave antenna put
out a fine signal, hitting repeaters all over the earth.
A few days later, I drove to the main library downtown, underground parking.
Clunk, clunk, clunk, went the vertical, striking every concrete beam at
less than walking speed.. It was flexible so should stay on. Right?
Wrong! A day later, while driving down Hwy 17, off it came. Gone – poof.
The antenna manufacturer sympathized with me and send me a new outside
coupler and antenna, no cost. When reinstalling the new coupler I found
that the arrow was suppose to point vertically, not horizontally. Why? So
that the hinge portion of the antenna would break away, in other words,
would fold backwards when struck. It’s back on again, correctly, but no
more underground parking garages for me.
My grand daughter Cheri, KE6BOP, is back in town. She transferred to
Cabrillo College from American River College in Sacramento. When she got
to the summit, she gave me a call. Jim, KD6YKL, heard her calling and gave
me a land line. Thanks Jim. A few days later, while at her new job, she
checked in on K6BJ saying, " this is KE6BOP monitoring." In the
space of a few minutes, four other operators came on, all giving their call
signs and saying, "monitoring." Nobody talked! She asked me why.
Heck, I don’t know.
Don Moore, (ex-WA6BJJ) put in for his old call and received it. He is
now W6IBN.
Boy did we have fun! Was visited by my CW pal of 18 months, Marsha Messer,
AB7RJ, and her sister Dee. They flew down from Washington state for an "eyeball."
They spent a couple of days with my family before flying up to Reno to meet
other hams. They enjoyed our cooler weather, the beach and boardwalk and
a meeting with some local hams here. Marsha plays the accordion and I the
organ so we had a nice music session or two.
Dreams! Boy can they be real! After watching the History Channel late
one night about WWI submarine communications. I dreamed that I was aboard
such a vessel, operating a primitive transmitter of that era. In my dream,
I had wired up the transmitter, key and antenna. As a demo, I was pounding
away on the straight key with excellent results when I noticed its lead
base
(there is no such thing) melting! Melting? That’s no good! What was happening?
Power too high? RF bouncing around and melting the lead? I remember shutting
down the overheated apparatus and remarking to the observers that I would
have to ask Gary Baker, N6ARV, or Al Marconette, KM6VV, about this strange
phenomenon. Then I woke up. Whew!

Movie Review. A Short Skip first?

I guess by now everyone has seen the
movie Contact. There was a nice intro scene where a YL was using the call
sign, W9GFO, (anyone look that up?) and sending out a string of CQs, and
asking, "Is there anyone out there?" She was operating a 1960s
Collins rig and made a DX contact from Ohio to Florida. As the story line
went, she wanted to reach China, the moon, or Mars. The YL became a scientist
in the SETI program (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence). There were
great electronics displays when they made contact in the general direction
of the star Vega. Go see it if you missed it.
Our club gave a local Volunteer Exam on August 16th in the County Comm
conference room at De Laviega Park. We had five examiners and two candidates!
Jan Wade passed her Advanced written exam and our Short Skip Editor, Ron,
Baldwin, KC6VJT, passed the written exam for General. The examiners were:
Team leader Bruce Wade, W6FKD; Al Marconette, KM6VV; Jamie Finch, WI6F;
Fran Adamson, KN6IV; and Art Lee, WF6P.
With The Writers: Wanna know how to keep your beer cold without refrigeration
or to take a hot shower with cold water? See my Boatkeeper Hints in the
August issue of Motor Boating and Sailing. Navy Times published my sentimental
article, "Sorting Through Pieces Of Time" in the August 25th issue.
A no-cost screening clinic will be held on October 25th at the Soquel
Pajaro Masonic Lodge to identify children under 18 who can benefit from
the orthopaedic and burn care provided at Shriners Hospitals. At the clinic
an evaluation will be made to find out if the children may be elegible for
free treatment at the new Shriners Hospital in Sacramento. Shriners Hospitals
treat problems such as: club foot, scoliosis, hand and back problems, bowed
legs, rickets, dislocated hips and problems associated with burns.