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 Previous: Ham Radio Aids Rescue on the High Seas |  Next: ISS Expedition 2 Crew Tries Out Ham Gear; School QSOs Set |
March 22, 2001
(In alphabetical order:)
AMSAT-NA 2001 Annual Symposium issues call for papers: The first call for papers has been issued for the AMSAT-NA 2001 Annual Symposium, set for October 5-6 in Atlanta, Georgia. Papers may be presented by the author during the symposium or simply offered for inclusion in the Symposium Proceedings. Subject matter should be of general interest to Amateur Radio operators involved in satellite communications. Suggested topics include operating techniques, antenna design and construction, spacecraft design and construction, current mission status, proposed satellite missions, telemetry acquisition and relay, satellite microwave projects, etc. An outline abstract of the proposed paper should be submitted as soon as possible. The final date for abstracts is June 30, 2001. Completed papers must be received no later than August 15. Electronic submittal is preferred. The format must be either MS Word-compatible or plain text. For security purposes, Symposium Chairman Steve Diggs, W4EPI, asks authors to condense the document file and send it as an e-mail attachment to w4epi@amsat.org.--AMSAT News Service
Array Solutions acquires RF Applications marketing rights: Array Solutions has acquired the exclusive marketing rights to RF Applications VFD, P-3000 and P-5000 wattmeters and the IBS-1 Intelligent Band Switch. RF Applications will continue to manufacture and support these products and will honor all existing warranties. "We are excited that Array Solutions has elected to add our products to their product line," said RF Applications President Bruce R. Knox, W8GN. "We feel that our products need better exposure to the marketplace, and Array Solutions' market presence is a perfect answer to that need." Array Solutions President Jay Terleski, WX0B, said the RF Applications' power-measurment devices will be an important part of the company's vertical array-phasing products it's introducing this year. RF Applications has announced that it no longer will manufacture its P-2000A, P-5000A and P-2000CW wattmeters. The WinWatt will continue to be marketed and sold exclusively by RF Applications.
California ARES team gets into a stink--and the nose knows! (This is not a story for the squeamish, so if you're of a sensitive nature or just ate, perhaps you should just skip to the next item--Ed.) Amateur Radio Emergency Service members in Ventura County, California, recently got into a stink--quite literally. As Ventura County ARES District Emergency Coordinator and RACES Radio Officer Dave Gilmore, AA6VH, explains, this story may sound like just so much horse manure--and you'd be right. Three and a quarter acres of it, 15 feet deep, and all on fire. Manure from an area race track is mixed with hay and used to compost mushrooms. The compost piles have been known to spontaneously combust, and that's what happened recently. "The smoke and smell even traveled to Los Angeles County to our west and south, and to Santa Barbara County to our north, Gilmore said. Fire officials asked Ventura County ARES/RACES to help determine the direction of the smoke cloud. "Unfortunately, it was foggy and hazy, making it hard to determine where the smoke ended and the haze began," Gilmore said. "The only way to tell was by sniffing the air." Hams were sent out to sniff various areas and report back. Gilmore says that those on "sniff patrol" periodically were forced to refresh their olfactory capabilities. "After a couple of whiffs, most people get used to even foul odors and can mistakenly believe the odors have gone when they actually have not," Gilmore explained. In addition to fire officials in two jurisdictions, air pollution and health officials got into the act. For a variety of very good reasons, it was decided the best way to put out the fire was to cart off the burning manure to a nearby field to disperse and extinguish. "Unfortunately the dispersal and movement of the fuel would cause a temporary increase in the amount of smoke produced by the fire," Gilmore said. By the second and third days, ARES/RACES members were stationed to report when the smoke and smell became intolerable, so that operations could temporarily halt until the smoke level decreased. After the weather cleared, one operator was stationed atop a nearby hill to observe the smoke trail and direct the operators around as the smoke plume shifted. By the third day, Gilmore said, enough of the compost had been moved to decrease the smoke level to the point where it no longer posed a problem.--Dave Gilmore, AA6VH
HRO Vice President Robert (left) and President (and Robert's father) Bob Ferrero, W6KR and W6RJ, flank HRO-Anaheim Manager Janet Margelli, KL7MF, as she cuts the ceremonial ribbon to signify the return of HRO to its original location at 933 North Euclid in Anaheim. [K7JA Photo] |
Crowd welcomes HRO-Anaheim back to original location: A huge crowd was on hand to celebrate the return of Ham Radio Outlet to its original location at 933 North Euclid in Anaheim, California. That location was destroyed by fire in January 2000 and the store has been in nearby temporary quarters since then. Representatives from Alinco, ARRL, ICOM, Kenwood, NCG, Pryme, RF Parts Co, Sangean, US Tower, and Yaesu were busy showing off their latest wares, Gordon West Radio School handed out Amateur Radio leaflets to passers by. HRO-Anaheim is the largest Amateur Radio store in the Los Angeles area. Ham Radio Outlet has 12 stores throughout the US, five in California. "It was great to welcome so many of our local customers to our Grand Re-Opening event," said HRO-Anaheim Manager Janet Margelli, KL7MF. "Their support through the long and arduous rebuilding process has been greatly appreciated by all of us in the HRO organization."
Dayton Contest Dinner tickets on sale: The North Coast Contesters have announced that tickets for the ninth annual Dayton Contest Dinner now are on sale. Sponsored by CQ magazine, the master of ceremonies will be CQ Contest Editor John Dorr, K1AR. Featured speaker will be WRTC-2000 Chairman Tine Brajnik, S50A. The names of 2001 Contest Hall of Fame inductees will be announced by the CQ Contest Editor Bob Cox, K3EST. The dinner will be held Saturday, May 19, 6:30 PM, in the Van Cleve Ballroom, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Fifth and Jefferson streets (next to the Convention Center), in downtown Dayton. Tickets are $30. Seating is limited to 300, no reserved seats. For tickets and additional information, contact Craig Clark, W1JCC, Radio Bookstore, PO Box 209, Rindge, NH 03461; Place orders by telephone weekdays 10 AM to 6 PM Eastern, 800-457-7373 (toll-free) or 603-899-6957, or by FAX 603-899-6826 anytime, or via e-mail to nx1g@top.monad.net. Credit cards are accepted but no CODs. E-mail orders must include charge card, call sign and return address information. Tickets will be sent via first-class US Mail no later than May 8. Deadline for ticket orders is May 7, 2001.
EMCOMM 2001 is March 31: The second annual Emergency Communications Conference will be held Saturday, March 31, 2001, at Bishop Quinn High School in Palo Cedro, near Redding, California. The all-day event begins at 9 AM; registration gets under way at 8 AM. EMCOMM 2001 will include seminars and workshops on topics such as search-and-rescue radio communications, emergency antennas for VHF and HF, choosing batteries and emergency power sources, public relations and working with the media, an overview of the incident command system and SEMS, "mutual aid" practices, and handling formal traffic. The National Weather Service will offer a presentation on SKYWARN. EMCOMM 2001 is sponsored jointly by ARRL Sacramento Valley Section Amateur Radio Emergency Service and the California Office of Emergency Services Auxiliary Communications Service. Anyone interested in volunteer emergency communications is welcome. For more information, visit the Sojourners Net Web site, http://www.qsl.net/k6soj or write EMCOMM 2001, c/o D.W. Thorne, K6SOJ, PO Box 16, Macdoel, CA 96058.--Donna Ferguson, N6SVV
FCC chairman touts "enforcement model": Speaking at the CTIA 2001 Wireless show in Las Vegas, Nevada, this week, FCC Chairman Michael Powell said the FCC is rethinking its business model. According to an Infoworld.com report Powell told the gathering that the FCC is "reviewing the optimal organization and structure" with an eye toward a more-responsive FCC. "We are putting increasing emphasis on an enforcement model as opposed to a regulatory model," he said, in order to speed up the FCC's decision-making process. "When you cheat, we'll get you at the back end." Powell also said there's a delicate balance for agencies such as the FCC between fostering innovation but not imposing it.
The 10-foot tall, two-inch diameter IFA antenna on N9ZRT's jeep. [N9ZRT Photo] |
First QSO reported between ionic fluid antennas: The Live-Wire Group has recorded the first liquid antenna-to-liquid antenna contact on Saint Patrick's Day, March 17--and that's no blarney! The Live-Wire Group currently is experimenting with the liquid antenna concept. Participating in the 17-meter SSB contact were WH2AAT in Orange Park, Florida, and N9ZRT in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Both stations were using 10-foot tall by two-inch wide "columns of ionic fluid" (in this case, concentrated saltwater). Also participating in the QSO was W8ZU in Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, who was using a conventional antenna. Members of the Live-Wire Group have been experimenting with the Ionic Fluid Antennas (IFAs) for more than six months, and they report excellent results on the antenna's performance. In most cases the liquid antennas are operated in the vertical position. The RF is fed into the base of the antenna through several three-inch long copper probes that are exposed to the conductive liquid. Live-Wire members continue to experiment with this antenna concept in various forms including liquid dipoles and "pumpable-to-resonant-length" verticals. For more information, contact the Live-Wire Group, http://www.wireservices.com/livewire.html.
M0BMU wolfed in Massachusetts: There's more transatlantic news on the LF front. John Andrews, W1TAG, has successfully copied a WOLF digital signal from Jim Moritz, M0BMU, in the UK. "WOLF has successfully crossed the pond," Andrews exulted in an e-mail to the LF reflector after only a day of listening. Andrews reports receiving "two lines of clean copy" between 0135 and 0200 UTC on March 19 just below 137.5 kHz. Moritz also was pleased. "Many thanks to John for this report and his perseverance," he said. "Now QRSS is not the only way to get across the pond on LF!" QRSS is very slow-speed CW that's been used for LF contacts, while WOLF is a robust digital mode. Moritz reports using a Racal-Decca 5501 Class D power amplifier (1200 W PEP output) with a Racal 9084 signal generator as a synthesizer plus homebrew phase-keying, waveform-generating and amplitude modulator circuits. His antenna is a 40-meter long inverted Vee, 16 meters high in the center and 9 meters off the ground at the ends. He estimated his ERP at 1 W. "I also received a report from ON7YD, who was able to obtain perfect copy on my signal from a short recording," said Moritz, who plans to run additional tests on 137.500 kHz.
National Weather Service gets a MARS station: For unstinting public service by Amateur Radio there's no better example than the SKYWARN partnership between hams and the National Weather Service. But even that wasn't enough during the 1998 ice storm that knocked out telephone communications across large areas of the Northeastern US for up to several weeks. During that emergency the NWS forecast office in Taunton, Massachusetts, outside Boston, lost contact with the NWS office in Gray, Maine, near Portland. Although dozens of SKYWARN members were activated throughout the long outage, their normal mode is VHF, and Gray is way out of VHF range of Taunton. Thus Taunton was unable to access Gray's vital weather data from northern New England. The Army Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) and NWS have taken a first step in avoiding such problems in future. Army MARS has licensed a club station at the NWS forecast office at Albany, New York, AAT2CAA. This facility will make it possible for hams with MARS licenses to operate directly from the forecast office when links are needed beyond VHF range. As 1998 proved, it happens. All three MARS services--Army, Air Force, and Navy-Marine Corps--participate in the National Communications System's Shared Resources system linking federal agencies. Even if another NWS office lacks a MARS presence, Albany's traffic can now be relayed either by voice or digital mode through some other federal agency when needed.--Bill Sexton, N1IN
New address for VK4 incoming QSL bureau: There's a new address for the incoming VK4 QSL Bureau. It's GPO Box 199, Wavell Heights, 4013 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Pacific Section to hold first-ever section convention: The Pacific Section will hold its first ARRL-sanctioned Pacific Section convention in Honolulu, Hawaii, October 13, 8 AM to 4:30 PM (gates open at 7:30 AM), at Pearl Harbor Community Park, next to the Arizona Memorial visitor entrance. Tickets are $2 each ($5 for family). All clubs will be given space for a display for the cost of paid admission tickets for all exhibitors. Tables will not be supplied. There will be a picnic area, vendors, flea market, displays, technical talks, amateur exams, and a lunch wagon. Several forums are scheduled, including an ARRL forum with Pacific Division Director Jim Maxwell, W6CF, and others. For more information, visit the Koolau Amateur Radio Club Web site.--Bob Schneider, AH6J
SETI@Home tallies 593,000 computing years: The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence@home project has completed its 593,000th computing year. SETI@home analyzes radio signals from space for signs of alien signals and uses idle PC time to do the processing. Users install the software on their home computers, where the program works in the background--exploiting the computer's processing power when its owner isn't. SETI@home is able to marshal the power of hundreds of thousands of PCs, processing more information than any supercomputer. The world's most powerful computer, IBM's ASCI White, runs at a speed of 12 teraflops, or 12 trillion floating point operations per second, and costs $110 million. In contrast, the SETI@home project runs at about 15 teraflops and has cost only $500,000. No conclusive evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence has been found, but project scientists say there are signals that may prove to be extraterrestrial. The answer, of course, is out there. For information on SETI or to obtain a copy of the software, visit the SETI@home site, http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/.
Southeastern VHF Society Conference set: The Southeastern VHF Society holds its fifth annual conference April 20-21 at the Holiday Inn Select-Brentwood, Nashville Tennessee. The program includes presentations by antenna specialist L.B. Cebik, W4RNL, VHF author and QST columnist Emil Pocock, W3EP, and EME enthusiast Bob McGraw, K4TAX. For more information, visit the SVHFS Web site, http://www.svhfs.org/.
This image of Hiram Percy Maxim is from a 16-mm movie frame taken at George Eastman's home at the introduction of Kodacolor movie film in 1927. It's one of the few images that depict Maxim laughing. |
TV program on HPM scheduled to air: The life of Hiram Percy Maxim will be profiled in original films and interviews Tuesday, April 3, 7:30 PM, on Boston TV station WCVB-TV5 on the Chronicle news magazine. The program deals with recently discovered early films of New England. "Few people today realize that Hiram Percy Maxim was not only the founder of the ARRL but also the founder in 1924 of the Amateur Cinema League," says program producer Art Donahue, KA1GGG. "He chronicled his own life in hundreds of 16-mm movies from 1924 until his death in 1936." Donahue says the films were donated by his daughter, Percy Maxim Lee and his grandson, Hiram Percy Maxim II, to the Hartford, Connecticut, Public Library and Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, Maine. The program uses this footage along with interviews with Percy Maxim Lee, Perry Williams, W1UED, the ARRL's former Washington, DC, representative, and David Weiss of Northeast Historic Film. Also shown is Maxim Memorial Station W1AW at ARRL Headquarters. The program also can be seen on many cable systems throughout New England and the Canadian Maritimes.
Visalia International DX Convention contest dinner set: The Third annual International DX Convention contest dinner will take place Friday, April 20, 8 PM, in the Oak and Maple rooms at the Holiday Inn-Visalia, 9000 W Airport Drive, Visalia, California. (Note: This is not the main banquet on Saturday evening, and the fee is not included in the convention registration cost.) Prime rib, $29; chicken princess, $23. No reserved seats. Tickets are available only from Champion Radio Products, 888-833-3104 (toll-free); Fax 530-758-9062; e-mail dinner@kkn.net; or write Champion Radio Products, 1816 Poplar Ln, Davis, CA 95616. Credit cards, checks and money orders accepted. Credit card users should supply card number, expiration date, and name as it appears on credit card. Deadline to order is Friday, April 13. No tickets will be sold at the door. Tickets will be mailed only to those supplying an SASE with their order; otherwise, pickup at the door. There will be a short program on contesting, guest speaker, and door prizes.--Bernie McClenny, W3UR
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