The Indianapolis Radio Club Newsletter Founded 1914 “The oldest continuously operating Amateur Radio Club in the United States” [][][]September 2007 Newsletter [][]Upcoming Meetings: October 12: Mobile Antenna “Shoot Out” in parking lot starting at 6:30 p.m. “D-Star Digital Radio Systems”, by Dale Schieman, WB9YCZ November 9: Meteor Scatter, High Speed C.W., Harry Wiliford, WB9IIV December 14: Holiday Dinner Meeting, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Speaker January 11: Annual Chili Cookoff [][]Highlights of the September 14, 2007 meeting: Club President Tom Chance, K9XV called the meeting to order. There were approximately 40 in attendance at this first meeting after our annual summer break of the Indianapolis Radio Club. After the introductions around the room, there was a show of hands of those that attended the picnic in August. The majority of those in attendance raised their hands. []Next, Tom introduced Ron Cooper, WB9DKL, who gave the details of the Mobile Antenna shoot-out coming up before the October meeting. A basic over view of the rules for this are: 1) the vehicle must be drivable with the antenna in place; 2) The top of the antenna must be less than 13' 6” from the pavement; 3) The antenna must terminate in a PL259 type connector; 4) The strongest signal received on a calibrated receiver on or around a frequency of 3.806 MHz wins. The competition will start at 6:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the ITC. The complete details of the event can be found on the IRC web site at http://indyradioclub.org/ircshootout-07.htm. []Tom next announced that a “refreshment coordinator” was needed for the October and November meetings. []At this point, Mike Palmer, N9FEB, representing the Marion County EMA Director, expressed thanks to those hams present that participated in the Ardent Sentry exercise that was held in May. Mike had passed out certificates of appreciation to those that were present that participated in the event. Mike then read the call signs of the participants. []Next, Tom announced that the ITC was in need of a new 40/80 meter dipole antenna for the roof. Steve Wendt, KB9RDS, volunteered an extra 80 meter Windom antenna that he has. []Tom said that Dale Schieman, WB9YCZ, of the W9ICE group would present a talk on the ICE group's D-Star repeaters at the October meeting, after the antenna shoot out. [][] Program.., Tom introduced the evening's topic of “antennas”. []Dave Miller, K9RTT, presented the “Hill-Hopper” portable 6 meter 3 element antenna that he had had for 45 years. He said that this antenna had around 10 dB of gain, and would be good for the IRC's next hill topper event. []Dave Jarvis, N9KZJ, next presented some information that Jim Rinehart, K9RU, had left for him, since he was out of town. Dave passed out a hand-out on a 6 meter/2 meter beam that has a J-Pole type of driven element. In this hand-out was also information on a “6 meter Rover/Vacation Beam”. Dave also showed a couple of good antenna reference books that he has used, one was “Reflections II”, by Maxwell, available through World Radio Magazine. The other was “Radio Antenna Engineering”, by Laporte, available through http://www.lulu.com/. []Next, Bob Osterhous, W9PSE, talked about some good deals on commercially available antennas. He said there is a 10m through 160m 140 foot dipole available from http://k1jek.com/ for $99. He also said that there were several interesting antennas available from http://parelectronics.com/. He passed out a hand out about an auxiliary antenna support based on a “drive in” mail box support. Finally, he gave some timely tips about conserving gasoline. []Steve Heininger, N9OI, next talked about his experiences with 6 meter Quad antennas. He has built a 4 element quad based on the design of Doug, VE5UF. This antenna is built out of PVC pipe, dowels, and wire. He has around $45 in materials for the antenna. It compares favorably to a 6 element beam, and has a narrow beam width. With 20 watts input, he has had +10 reports from the west coast. He plans to next build a 6 element Quad. []Finally, Tom, K9XV, gave his presentation, stating that the field of antennas is one of the few areas that a ham can still “homebrew”. He said he would like to see an annual program regarding antennas at the IRC. Tom talked about the MFJ line of antenna analyzers, saying that they are great tools, but they can throw you off, and give erroneous readings. He presented a series of slides and information on a 40 meter “Moxon” antenna that he and Mike Wetzel, W9RE, have been working on. They attended the antenna forum at Dayton, presented by W9NL, and came away interested in the Moxon design, that was originally designed by Les Moxon, G6XN. The antenna has a very good front to back ratio, and good gain. It also has great SWR over a 300 KHz bandwidth. He suggested to Google “moxon” on the internet for lots of info on the design. He also demonstrated the “S meter lite” program. He said that he and Mike are now getting into the optimization phase of the antenna design. [][]Next Bob, W9PSE, conducted the drawing for his usual great selection of door prizes. [][][]Ham Radio News: []INDIANAPOLIS VE Testing Schedule for the rest of 2007 This is the remaining schedule of testing sessions for the year 2007. Calling in advance to ensure testing availability is suggested but not mandatory. SPONSOR: Indianapolis Radio Club (W9JP) LOCATION: Indianapolis Training Center 2820 N. Meridian Street. CONTACTS: Liaison: Gale Wuollet, AA9WU (h) 317-849-8449 COORDINATING VEC: American Radio Relay League (ARRL) VEC, Inc. SCHEDULE: For Dates: Oct 6th; Nov 3rd; Dec 1st All testing at the Indianapolis Training Center starts at 9:00 am and the last test will be administered no later than 11:00 a.m. []46th Annual Hoosier Hills Hamfest Coming up Mark Sunday, October 7th on your calendar for the Hoosier Hills Hamfest. It will be held at the Lawrence County 4-H Fairgrounds, in Bedford, Indiana. Gates open at 6:00 am, and there will be a grand prize raffle drawing at 2:00 pm for a Yaesu FT-7800R Dual Band Mobile Radio. There will also be VE testing offered at noon. Point your browser to http://www.w9qyq.org/hamfest/ for more information. [][]REFRESHMENT COORDINATOR CHANGE Steve Gardner, N9XDT, prior to the September meeting of the IRC, asked to be replaced as refreshment coordinator for the IRC meetings. Steve has done an excellent job in that position, and deserves a hearty thanks from all for his outstanding service to this tedious detail for the past 2 years. Pete Pauley, W0VLL, has agreed to take up the position vacated by Steve for the next two months. The Club appreciates Pete “stepping up to the plate”! [][]INDIA ON 30 METERS The 30 meter band is temporarily allocated to Indian Hams through the end of September. The NIAR special event station AT60MY will be active mostly on 10.106 MHz in CW (operator VU2JOS). This might be an opportunity for a rare contact! []ARRL CONTINUES EFFORTS ON INTERFERENCE TO PAVE PAWS RADAR SITES On August 13, the ARRL began sending "specific mitigation reduction numbers" to 122 repeater owners, recommending that they reduce their signal anywhere from 7 dB to 56 dB, according to ARRL Regulatory Information Branch Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND. These reductions, requested by the US Air Force and the Department of Defense, only concern those repeaters identified by the DoD as affecting the PAVE PAWS radar system. Henderson stressed that any order to shut down a repeater will come from the Federal Communications Commission, at the request of the DoD. "This situation only affects those repeaters on the DoD's list in Massachusetts and California. It does not affect the everyday, casual user of 70 cm. This is not a wide-spread threat to the 70 cm band." [][]INTERESTING QSO PARTY COMING UP []October 5th through the 15th is the Automatic Link Establishment or ALE QSO party. ALE is a force multiplier for the HF operator. With the capability to call up a specific HF station, a group of stations, a net, or a networked station, ALE is a versatile system for connecting radio operators for voice, data, text, instant messaging, internet messaging, or image communications. Each ALE station uses their callsign as the digital address in the ALE controller. When not actively in communication with another station, the transceiver constantly scans through a list of frequencies, listening for its callsign. To reach a specific station, the operator simply enters the callsign just like dialing a phone number, and transmits a short digital signal burst. When the distant scanning station detects the first few characters of its callsign, it stops scanning and stays on that frequency. The receiving station, which was muted up until now, will typically emit an audible alarm and visual alert for the receiving operator of the incoming call. It also indicates the callsign of the linked station. The two stations' ALE controllers automatically handshake to confirm that a link is established and they are ready to communicate in any mode, such as SSB voice, text or image. Point your browser to http://hflink.com/ for more information on ALE, including how to get started in it. [][]AN EDITORIAL ON MENTORING In the September 15 ARRL Club news e-letter, there were several responses from readers regarding mentoring activities in their local clubs. There was talk of how a mentor teaches to a new ham what the test session material overlooks, or takes for granted. There was one response from a relatively new ham in Florida, that really got my attention. This new ham had been interested in ham radio all of his life, and had decided to take the time to study and go for his license. After testing for, and getting his license, he was “a little foggy” about how to actually get on the air. He says that he mentioned this to one of the VEs administering the test, and was told “just join our club, come to our meetings”. This new ham says that he needed some help, or mentoring, but was basically put off by how the guys were talking about “stuff that was way over my head”, and left discouraged. Long story short, this new ham invested in some gear based on reviews in magazines. He looked for help on how to get started at the radio store, but no luck. What he was wanting was someone to help him really get on the air. He had all of the ingredients necessary, but didn’t know how to USE the rig, as in what frequencies he could use (even though he had a frequency chart), power levels, etc. Basically this ham let his call go “dormant”. He eventually took down his antenna and put away his rig that had basically been unused. This is a terrible example of how the “system failed”. The VEs failed, by not really taking some time and showing some interest in this new ham, offering to work with him individually, if need be. The club failed by not having someone that could offer this new ham some pointers. However, in my opinion, the new ham himself failed, by thinking that everything would be “done for him”. He had purchased a rig. Surely he could have dug up a repeater listing for his area and started LISTENING. That is the best way to learn how to operate, listen how other hams use the repeater. Listen for call signs of the hams using the repeater, get to “know them”. Listen to, and check in to any nets that may be on the local repeaters. Then, make that first step. Wait until after a QSO is over, and call one of the stations that just signed. Tell them you’re a new ham. I have never heard a new ham treated discourteously on the air, if you tell folks you are new and just getting started. I guess everyone can learn from this, VEs, club members, and also new hams. There was a “silver lining” to this story. There was a note that this ham had been contacted and provided him with information on other clubs in his area. He reports that he has attended a club meeting and is currently studying for his General class license. Let’s all hope he does well, and listens! Ken, KC9GLQ [][][]SEND ME YOUR HAM RADIO NEWS If anyone has any items for the newsletter, please send them to Ken Bandy at kc9glq@arrl.net [][]Signals from the Past: From the September/October, 1953 Indianapolis Radio Club Amachewer: W9MEK, Ralph Bundy has been operating low-power single side-band and is now getting ready to put on a 400 watt amplifier and believes that this mode of communication is here to stay. [][][]Upcoming Area Radio Events: []* Greenfield Hamfest Sunday, September 23, 2007 at the Hancock County 4H Fairgrounds. Go to http://www.W9ATG.org for more information. []* Hoosier Hills Hamfest (Bedford) Sunday, October 7, 2007, opening at 6:00 AM Go to http://www.w9qyq.org/hamfest/ for more info. [[][]Current IRC Officers: · President: Tom Chance, K9XV - ..EMAIL k9xv@arrl.net · Vice Pres.: Dave Miller, K9RTT - ..EMAIL dmiller@ivytech.edu · Secretary: Ken Bandy, KC9GLQ - ..EMAIL kc9glq@arrl.net · Treasurer: Judy Gardner, AA9GW - ..EMAIL aa9gw@juno.com · Chief Operator: Dave Craig, N9QVO - ..EMAIL slough@svs.net · Dir. at large: Bob Osterhous, W9PSE - EMAIL rosterhous@iquest.net · Dir. at large: Tom Price, WB9UNG – EMAIL pricetr@comcast.net · Dir. at large: Hank Wolfla, K9LZJ – EMAIL hwolfla@insightbb.com