Newsletter of the Silverado Amateur Radio Society

The next meeting of SARS will be on May 15^th, 7:30 PM in the Lee Lounge, at the Veterans Home in Yountville. Bring a friend.

The next License Training will begin September 1st. See the Links Below for details.

Looking Back. For many years SARS set up a booth at the annual Napa County fair in Calistoga to introduce Amateur Radio to the public. The following photos are from the 1974 fair and prominent in the display are many type of vacuum tubes, Heathkit equipment, and surplus teletype equipment. Two vintages of teletype can be seen from the old model-15 to the "modern" Model-75 page printer (circa 1954) A popular "gimmick" was the working Heathkit CW keyer sitting on the top of the display case for visitors to play with. This was all high tech from the last century. There were no personal computers yet, transistors were popular but primarily unijucntions and FETs, ICs had yet to be invented.
Despite the seemingly primitive technology, one popular use for teleprinting was sending pictures back and forth. They had to be printed out in order to view them but they could be pretty interesting. Christmas time was always a good time to send and receive RTTY-art. For an example of teletype art click here

Top row, l/r: Ken Grabenauer WA6BJW, WN6GSB, Tony Gomes W6UOQ, Harold Norlund WB6AMB, Harold again, Bob Hopton K6LQK
Bottom row, l/r (Gordon, it that you?), Visitors ogling the teleprinter, Hal Gwaltney W6HZK, Thais Grabenauer WA6TTD

W6CO to go digital. As announced last month, Ron has purchased a D-Star package to become part of the W6CO repeater system. There are still lots of details to be worked out such as where to put it, what frequency should it operate on, will I need to buy new equipment to use it, and where do we go from here. Be sure to attend the next meeting where all your questions will be answered and you will come away with lots of new ones! Read more

Meanwhile, a few Hams in the valley have "gone digital" including your editor. Read all about my learning curve (steep) below.

The Icom IC-2820H I'll have to give up golfing for awhile to pay for this thing but I just had to have it. It's not the big brother of the IC-2720H although the resemblance is unmistakable. This is a brand new radio. While it can be programmed by hand, just like you could dig your own swimming pool by hand, the software makes it a snap. For the D-Star programming, the Mt. Diablo group has made it easy by making up custom files for all the available D-Star radios such as the ID-91AD. Read more

D-Star is really packet radio reprinted from the NARCC newsletter. by George Burton K7WWA, we pick up the editorial here:
"D-Star and APCO P25 Digital Repeaters, Oh sorry that's right, the FCC said that they aren't really repeaters. Well they act like repeaters but until the FCC changes their mind, I guess they aren't repeaters. That means that they are not required to stay in the repeater sub band. Since they are digital they can go into the part of the band set aside for the digital operations. Since NCPA never really coordinated (Digital) packet operation and due to the demise of packet operation, it may be time for NARCC to pick up that portion of the band. NCPA did not coordinate anything; what they did do was set aside frequency channels for different type of packet operation. Such as 145.050 which is or was designated as a keyboard to keyboard chat channel. The packet frequency of 145.790 was used as a user's access port for BBS access. They did put out a list of who was using what packet (digital) channels but I never saw any type of coordination effort. So my concern is where do the D-Star 2-meter digital systems go? Right now the 3 systems that are on the air are operating in the underused or non used digital portion of the band. I think that is a good place for them unless the FCC decides they are really a repeater. Since the 2-meter band is FULL, I am glad to see a place for them to use but it won't be long before they will need some form of coordination effort to prevent interference. Is it time for NARCC to step up and do some actual coordination in what is know as the Digital section of the band? That should prove to be a very interesting topic at the meeting." (end of editorial)
The next NARCC meeting will be April 21st in Concord. We will be attending.

Okay, you've done it. Congratulations on your new license. Now what? You've got your radio, seems to work. Nice new antenna up in the air. Seems to be lots of stations on the air, where do you start?
This is a problem that every ham has faced at one time or another and some never get started. For every conversation you will hear on the air you can bet that there are dozens of listeners. On a good "hot" HF band there may be thousands! Folks who might love to jump in and say something but never or seldom do. Why is that? The excuse I hear most often is "I never know what to say." Here's a tip from an expert. My friend Dennis is one of those guys who "never met a stranger". People love talking to him and five minutes after you've met him he knows your life history. His tool kit is a bucket of question marks. It seems that every other sentence is a question. read more????