Newsletter of the Silverado Amateur Radio Society
W6CO
An ARRL Special Service Club
Updated 11/12/06
Welcome
to the Silverado Amateur Radio Society (SARS) online newsletter. We
hope to provide you with the latest happenings in the Club and in
Amateur Radio in general in a timely manner. Our objective is to
provide a "live" newsletter that will be updated throughout the month
as events occur. When an item is added it will be flagged with this
symbol:  All contributions (news, not monetary) will be gladly accepted. Submit your offerings via email to: John, N6XN's email Do you have a photograph you'd like to share? An item you want to sell? An announcement of an upcoming event? We'd like to hear about it. Naturally, we prefer Ham Radio oriented material, but other genres might be considered.
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Featured in This
Issue: A Look Back: The early days of SARS and Amateur Radio By N6XN Digital Modes: PSK and EMCOMM by N6XN Tech Talk: Antenna Gain The tech committee ECRV. Emergency Communications Response Vehicle. by KE6O WinLink 2000 (WL2K) Another digital application for VHF. by KE6O NARCC Report. by N6XN, NARCC ORGREP Pacificon Review and D-Star overview. by N6XN Fire Safety Day. A Photo Essay of the first annual FSD, St Helena. by KG6YRY Repeater Report: Photos of the new cabinet. by WA6BIS Project Mercury: Not your ordinary box radio! by N7NXS Omnibus Update: ARRL Report Field Day 2006. Scores posted |
Calendar of Coming Events
The next meeting of SARS will be on November 21st, 7:30 PM in the Lee Lounge, at the Veterans Home in Yountville. Bring a friend.
Technician Training November 11th at the Senior Center on Jefferson St.
Testing, all classes, Sunday November 12th, same location.
Informal Breakfast get-togethers:
- Friday mornings, 7AM, EmmyLou's Diner, Riverpark Shopping Center
- Saturday mornings, 8AM Bakers Square, Soscol Ave at Gasser Drive
- Sunday mornings, 9AM EmmyLou's Diner, Riverpark Shopping Center
- Fox Hunts: every-other Tuesday, beginning at 6:30 PM and ending 8PM. Suspended during PST months due to early darkness.
Nets:
- Monday evenings: 8:00 PM. VIP net, 147.18/.78 linked to 441.800/446.800 related to CDF fire prevention. PL 151.4 Hz.
- Wednesday evenings: 6:30 PM. RACES quick call pager test. Related to emergency services in Napa County. Followed by Napa County RACES net roll call at 7:00 PM. Visitors and out-of-area check-ins welcome. Same freqs as above.
- Thursday evenings: 7:00PM North Bay Amateur Radio K6LI/W6CO. 145.31/144.71 linked to 441.800/446.800 VHF PL 88.5Hz. UHF PL 151.4 Hz.
- ARRL weekly news: Friday evenings 7:00 PM 441.800, W6CO repeaters system.
Now in it's third year of continuous broadcasts!
OCTOBER MINUTES BY KO6FR
Meeting called to order by Mark KE6O. Rich KO6FR gave treasury report. John N6XN talked about buying a Power Point Projector. It would be used in the Meetings and in the tech. class. It was seconded and passed by all who showed up for meeting.(1)
Ken WB6IVK gave VIP report and said the person who has been setting fires was caught. He was volunteer fireman. Ken also said RACES will have drill in November. Check Nets for date. Com-Van needs more money to fix it up.
John N6XN gave repeater report. The repeater in Felton is doing testing at new location, so let John know if you hear it.(2)
Ron WA6BIS asked who uses 441.900, several use it. He also has radio to be put at John’s house with antenna. He has ordered new voter and has 900mhz splitter.(3)
Dave gave a talk on fire day in STH., we were well received and are invited next year and will have different location. Dave stored all left over hand outs and banner for next year.
Mark had a copy of the 1965 ?? by-laws for Jean KG6OQG.
Meeting adjourned and raffle held.
73
Rich KO6FREditor's Notes:
(1) The projector was purchased October 18th and will be recorded as property of the SARS, Custodian KE6O(2) For additional details of this story see article below.
(3) The equipment is an upgrade to existing equipment at this location. This gear provides one of several voter inputs to the Mt. Veeder system.
Beginning with this issue: A Look Back. The early days of SARS and Amateur Radio. by N6XN The first meeting, newsletter and the origin of W6CO
Continuing our series on Digital Modes, we look at an unusual application of PSK31
This month we finish up our series on gain with a discussion about gain antennas and how they affect signal strength.
Next month we will look at feedlines and how to improve your signal or hide it completely.
From KE6O, a jaw-dropping display of photos of the Red Cross emergency communications van.
From KE6O Winlink 2000
(WL2K) Another application of the digital modes for EMCOMM. Must read!
Winlink
2000
Hearing voices? Don't reach for that aluminum foil just yet. There could be a simple explanation. From time to time we hear unfamiliar signals on the local repeaters, usually scratchy and they tend to fade in and out. If you go to the NARCC web page A repeater directory for Northern California you will see all the repeaters, sorted by frequency. Checking on 147.18 we see that there are 3 other repeaters operating on this frequency. One is in Crescent City, one in Felton (actually the south side of Loma Prieta) and one in Oakhurst. The latter is the one most often heard in Napa and surrounding area. This repeater is located high in the hills east of Fresno near Sequoia Nat'l forest and it can be heard clearly in many parts of Napa. The callsign is W6WGZ. There are places in the Fresno area as well where they often hear the Mt St Helena repeater. This is manageable interference but illustrates the importance of maintaining our coordinations.
If you look at 441.180 in the NARCC directory you will see that there is another repeater on that frequency identifying as N6LYE. This repeater is located in the same place as the 147.180 machine and it too can be heard in many parts of Napa on a regular basis. As a matter if fact I have used it from Napa, of course I was on Mt Veeder at our repeater site at the time.
Looking at 441.900 you will see an uncoordinated repeater in Santa Cruz, a coordinated one in Coalinga, and a third in Felton. The latter is a recently installed machine in the same location as the 147.18 repeater and we tested the path before the coordination was granted. We were unable to hear each other. It's very unlikely that the Coalinga machine will be heard in Napa but you never know. Sometimes equipment is changed causing signals to change. For that reason it is vitally important for every user to be alert to unfamiliar callsigns. If another repeater is being consistently heard in our area, and your squelch is properly adjusted, then jot down the callsigns and let me know. As the ORGREP for the W6CO systems it is my responsibility to see that we don't interfere with each other.
73 from your NARCC ORGREP: John, N6XN's email
Pacificon 2006.
The event is past and a good time was had by all. (or not). From the editor's perspective it was definitely worth attending although there were a number of criticisms heard that were probably valid. First, it seemed like the crowds were way down this year. The past few years it had been difficult to walk from one end of the display area to the other without waiting for people to move. This year one could practically cut a straight line without a single "scuse me".The number of vendors attending was down from previous years. Conspicuous in their absence were the big antenna mfrs such as Steppr and Force-12 although Comet had a very nice display. The big 3 radio vendors, Yaesu, Kenwood, and Icom were there and had top notch displays. In the hallway, we had the usual vendors selling batteries, and lots of eye candy such as LED flashlights, callsign name tags and license plate frames and the like. New this year was QRP Kits where I bought their Firefly Software Defined Radio Transceiver kit. This little gem is designed to operate on the 30 meter band and I expect it will be a perfect introduction to SDR radio if I can get it to work. I'll report on my success or failure in the near future but it won't be a slam dunk; even though I have built dozens of kits in the past, including a Heathkit 2 meter Handheld, this kit will definitely tax my abilities.
The choice of Seminars at this year's Pacificon was definitely down from past years. There was an excellent one on propagation which was geared for post graduate or PhD level audiences but never the less had some good information. Another forum, listed as "pneumatic antenna design" was actually featuring a modified "potato gun" used for launching a tennis ball over 200 foot tall evergreen trees for a field day antenna. Not much practical use for anyone I know but a fun seminar anyway. I gotta get me one 'o them.
A forum on Sunday which I missed was on Icom's D-Star radio. From what I heard from those attending the information presented is available online from the Icom website. The more I hear about this system the more interested I become. I've put some notes together as well as some links on the following page:
Please send us your impressions, good or bad. Also interested in additional details on D-Star. Wiki anyone?
Fire Safety Day, St Helena
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Letter of Appreciation
1 Ken WB6IVK
5 David KG6YRY,Ken,David KI6FQM
9 David
2 Kerry KI6ATU
6 Kerry
10 David
3 Mark KE6O, Ken, David
7 Mark, David
4 David, Mark
8 David
Repeater Projects.
You may have heard about any of several proposed projects involving
the W6CO repeater system. A couple that come to mind are the WiFi
project and the possible inclusion of D-Star. Not much can be
done however, before some changes are made to the existing cabinets
at the 441.800 transmitter site. Here are some photos that
Ron, WA6BIS took of a cabinet that he is working on for the site.
The Cabinet Project
Box Radios.
Here's a web page that Greg N7NXS has put together to further the art
of building the ultimate in box radios. You won't find cardboard and
duct tape here! Check it out at:
Project Mercury
Omnibus R&O Update:
The Deadline extended to
accept members' input on "omnibus" Report and Order (Nov 1,
2006) -- The ARRL has extended the deadline to receive members' input
concerning the FCC's "omnibus" Report and Order (R&O)
in WT Docket 04-140, released October 10. The immediate effects of the R&O,
once it is finalized is the refarming of the HF bands. Some very significant
changes are pending. See the latest information here including a PDF
format of the proposed bandplan.
Read
it here in plain english
If there is a particular topic you'd like to see discussed, or better yet, a topic you'd like to present, please let the editor know. Contact me at: John, N6XN's email
Links from the past:
Our Webmaster, KE6O has built a neat matrix containing all the past newsletter that are available. On the Home Page, click on "Newsletters" on the left side of your screen.
