SCCARA-GRAM 2012 June
Contents
1. SCCARA GRAM Santa Clara County Amateur Radio Association Volume 28 Number 6 June 2012 Flea Market SCCARA hosts the June Electronic Flea Market SCCARA has the privilege of hosting the June 9th Electronic Flea Market at De Anza College This has been the primary fund raising event for our club for many years With the recent purchases of a repeater and generator our coffers need an infusion of cash Come join fellow SCCARA members selling donuts coffee sodas and bananas yes we have bananas at the food booth Let s also sell SCCARA he flea market is two days prior to the June 11th club meeting Information will be handed out with every purchase inviting people to come to the meeting join our August club and participate in SCCARA s field day event Sign up to be part of this worthy enterprise Shifts are in two hour increments starting at 0500 hrs 0500 0700 0700 0900 0900 1100 and 1100 1300 You can reserve your favorite time slot s by sending a message to Lou at WA6QYS ARRL NET or by leaving a message at 408 241 7999 Lou WA6QYS President s Prose I finally managed to complete a project that I ve been thinking about off and on for many months Specifically how to mount and protect a small solar panel that I purchased from Weird Stuff Warehouse some time ago I had several schemes in mind but they all seemed unnecessarily complicated involving hinges with removable pins and box frames of some s2. a DXpedition scholarship to Costa Rica Fred AE6QL announced the SCCARA gram inputs are due to Gary WBO6YRU no later than May 28 2012 Standing Committee Reports Gary WBO6YRU reported the newsletter and BBS are going along nothing outstanding Wally KA6YMD reported the repeater and webpage are chugging along He brought pictures of the city antenna site to show He also reported the NARCC meeting did not hold a vote on any of the proposals the next potential meeting is in August Gary WB6YRU reported that he looked at the website rules they will publish anything online that is amateur radio related there is no size limit He got confirmation in email that we could put an archive of our back newsletters Gary and Goetz K6GKB will discuss offline how to capture the older issues Also Goetz needs to be put on the club re mailer Don K6PBQ brought the club station licenses for Viki to file He also sent QSL cards to the special event stations worked at the Stanford Pow Wow except the Shriner s which couldn t be found in QST He will have the station open the last Saturday of the month we will try to work the Golden Gate Bridge 75th anniversary special events station from 1pm Saturday to 3pm Sunday Special Committees Field Day Gregg KF6FNA summarized the discussions with the elementary school that was interested in us holding Field Day at their site The logistics turned out to be more complicated they needed us to have 5M
3. hall to the last meeting room on the left park here Free wireless internet 802 11b is available rr D O D m x pe D N N 9 lt San Jose Red Cross N 1st amp Plumeria Airport Page 1 The SCCARA GRAM is published monthly by the SANTA CLARA COUNTY AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION PO Box 106 San Jose CA 95103 0106 Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted provided the source is properly credited The deadline for articles is the last Monday of the month SCCARA was formed in 1921 and became a non profit corporation in 1947 SCCARA is an affiliate of the American Radio Relay League ARRL The club station is W6UW Web page http www gqsl net sccara OFFICERS amp DIRECTORS all officers are also directors President Don Steinbach AE6PM 867 3912 e mail ae6pm arrl net Vice President Fred Townsend AE6QL 263 8768 e mail ftownsend sbcglobal net Past President Secretary Viki Moldenhauer KI6WDS 738 8781 e mail vyym comcast net Treasurer Goetz Brandt K6GKB 259 7287 e mail goetz ix netcom com Station Trustee Don Village K6PBQ 263 2789 e mail donvillage7 yahoo com Director John Glass NU6P 257 1034 e mail john_glass att net Director Lou Steirer WA6QYS 241 7999 e mail wa6qys aol com Director Wally Britten KA6YMD 293 3847 e mail ka6ymd arrl net Director Greg Lane KF6FNA 393 5607 e mail kfofna comcast net Director Gary Mitchell WB6YRU 269 2924 e mail wb6yru 1x
4. is interested in Field Day can attend the main details are summarized here More details can be found on the ARRL s web site www arrl org field day Those interested in helping set up will meet at Clark Murphy s residence 1425 State St San Jose Alviso at 12 00 PM on Friday June 22 2012 Plans include loading Field Day equipment onto the antenna trailer and proceeding to our Field Day location several blocks away DIRECTIONS From Hwy 237 exit north on N Ist street becomes N Taylor St Turn right on Gold St proceed to Catherine St We ll be at the north east corner Si am wose Fire Dept Station 25 GET Alviso MSA a pii Wap Gabra N Tatap t ER u Alviso Branch 5 a ae rary Moffat St B y Pin High C Channel H ialf Center ede Suny Hs a Or T i F ka T Se Mortech aha ees o Substation Ce tan Cr eet pei Fortran Ct 40 weuuoy mm EET Le Pr Or Sakcresi Es rA Aal Sy As F H H Aire be hdotin Or mnmenand ran TRga A soumoey Gr Ta canta Clara PAL BMA Track The Enclave E ae Cir By Renaissance Marina A LA m Market ug 9 4 w a a wn O o ph gt RX 9 gt 005 i Catherine St Catherine St we AN Liberty Ct l a Elena s E of Alviso i D S ern A nS mS 0 XS m N Taylor St a re Lunch C g with Tony Aya o EN n amp D tf amp E 2 u wo G N Rosita s D o US Post lst 9 Basio De 2 Office amp M
5. no brainer the terminal blocks on the rotator and the control unit being identical One goes to one two to two and so on Eight conductor cable 2 larger six smaller wires are what are used Turns out on early models like the TR 44 two heavy and five lesser wires are used On later models with the break feature all eight are used These units are extremely easy to service Although I haven t read it the link below will take you to the service manual which might be helpful As for myself I come from a long line of Germans who don t need no stinking manuals www pestingers net PDFs Other_radios Rotators CDR_TR_ 44 pdf Goetz K6GKB Page 5 ARRL N ews The ARRL UHF Microwave Band Plan Committee has released for comment its draft band plan for 13 cm 2 3 2 4 GHz and welcomes comments on it The amended draft band plan for From the ARRL Letter May 17 2012 902 928 MHz 33 cm has also been released Read more at www arrl org news arrl microwave band planning ARRL MICROWAVE BAND PLANNING COMMITTEE committee releases draft band plans RELEASES DRAFT BAND PLANS Proposed Band Plan for the Amateur 13 cm Band 2300 2310 amp 2390 2450 MHz Analog amp Digital Weak Signal lt 50 kHz BW Band Analog amp Digital Paired lt 50 kHz BW Paired Non Amateur 2310 2390 MHz Analog amp Digital Experi Analog amp Digital lt 50 kHz BW mental lt 50 kHz BW Paired Paired Amateur Satellite Communicati
6. of liability insurance and send them an itinerary of our usage to be reviewed by a board etc so the Alviso site was chosen We can schedule a demo at the school Page 10 during the school year with more reasonable logistics The Alviso site is at the northeast corner of the intersection of Gold and Catherine Streets It is convenient to Clark s house we only have to tow the trailer 3 blocks it is a short distance to any forgotten equipment and we will likely have more people stop by than at Mt Madonna The site is partly paved partly dirt Don K6PBQ will cancel the reservation for Mt Madonna Lou WA6QYS will help with getting an accessible porta potty lined up regular ones are 125 handicapped accessible 250 We will need portable tables and chairs Gregg will send directions and a map to Gary WB6YRU for the newsletter The lot is used during the week as overflow parking for a restaurant we might want to put up a sign on Friday saying come back tomorrow for Field Day There will be a work party this weekend to check measurements for the antennas The trailer checkout will be next month Tasks include getting the green tower off the trailer and the new aluminum tower put on the other side Goetz has rebuilt a rotor for the lightweight antenna Last year the rotors were re wired and the cables checked For antennas we will have 2 Mosley antennas the dipoles the R7 and the Windom Last weekend Gregg Goetz Cla
7. our editor and out to the rest of the membership Don t be shy we want to know Goetz K6GKB MS Walk On behalf of Joan and I and the MS Society we would like to thank the following SCCARA members for providing radio communication for the MS walk on Saturday April 28th John Parks W6JPP John Felix KI6ANW Bill Staehle AG6EM John Westmorland AJ6BC and Ben Westmorland KJ6OGR Thanks again for your help and making this years walk a safe one 73 Don Village K6PBQ Meeting Minutes General Meeting May 14 2012 Kaiser Hospital 710 Lawrence Expressway Santa Clara CA 95051 Status Unreviewed Don AE6PM called the meeting to order at 19 34 Members and guests introduced themselves Announcements Gregg KF6FNA will pass around a signup sheet for people interested in helping get the club equipment ready for Field Day Don K6PBQ announced the club station will be open the last Saturday of the month It would be a good time to look at the club equipment at the Red Cross Station He also thanked all the club members who helped out on the MS Walk Lou WA6QYS mentioned the club station got set up at the Stanford Pow Wow and among other interesting contacts reached special event stations for the 405th Anniversary of Jamestown and the Golden Spike in Promontory Utah transcontinental railway meeting point He also sent around a signup for the June Flea Market which our club is sponsoring John W6JPP reported that Pacifico
8. projects I felt confident I could rebuild this unit Cornell Dubilier was the manufacturer the model number is TR 44 Its bigger brother was called the Ham M The service manual is dated 2 72 which makes this unit forty years old The tooling and manufacture was passed on to HY Gain who made ever larger versions and in turn sold out to MFJ which still produces them today The design is a testament to non precision engineering a concept developed in the United States The bell housing and base are made of die cast aluminum which provides the bearing races for the 50 ball bearings No steel inserts whatsoever The small DC motor drives a stack of tiny pinions and stamped gears that connect to a ring gear to produce the required torque to turn large antennas The rotating bell housing is connected to a stationary spiral rheostat that overlaps itself and gives 360 degrees of meter display The ball bearings are captured in two rows by nylon keepers that make them look like strings of pearls You simply remove four screws on the bottom and lift the bell housing straight up and everything is there on display Maintenance could not be simpler You remove the ants use Stoddard Fluid kerosene to wash the bearings and gears some tuner tonic on the rheostat re grease the bearings and gears then lower the bell housing back onto the motor base Timing is accomplished by bringing the ring gear and the rheostat to one extreme or the other Wiring is a
9. the luncheon for the Elders and as an added benefit have a ham radio station co located with the dining area This was my first attendance and I learned a lot John W6JPP brought his tennis ball launcher which allows antennas to be hung in the highest tree branches I should mention that we were just across the street from the Stanford Stadium in a eucalyptus forest with great immense trees John s launcher is made out of PVC pipe in an over under arrangement like a shotgun The bottom tube is the air tank that gets pressurized to 100 PSI by a pump attached to John s truck battery The top tube is the barrel that holds the weighted tennis ball Around the muzzle of this gun is a spool of monofilament nylon which is attached to the tennis ball John was able to shoot the ball over a branch at about the 60 foot level with a simple squeeze of the trigger Substituting cord for filament a fine large delta loop was hoisted into the air Beneath this canopy of trees and wire the club set up a canvas shelter with a table and chairs John provided his Icom 756 Proll an LDG antenna tuner a 4 1 balun attached to the delta loop and the station was on the air In the distance was the club s new Honda Generator silently providing the power The final touch was the club banner across the front of the table A second GSRV antenna was launched into the trees and an Icom 706 and its matching AT 180 tuner attached The GSRV s best was Kenya an
10. to replace lead acid batteries in motorcycles Here is what the literature said One Fifth the weight of lead acid batteries on average Zero sulfating for longer service life Will hold unloaded charge for one year without maintenance Military spec Carbon Composite Case Faster cranking for better starts No explosive gasses during charge no lead no acid Environmentally friendly Two Year Warranty I bought the 12 volt 18 ampere hour version and immediately began installing it into my IC 703 backpack It fit with room to spare For some reason I had an extra buddy pole style power cable with gold plated ring terminals on the end The battery is supplied with bolts which clamped this power cable to the battery lugs quite elegantly It all fit perfectly in the back pack except the cable was too long The battery had left the store just two hours previously and now I gave it its first stress test The continuity of thought broke down somewhere as I grabbed a brand new pair of Stanley side cutters and simply snipped off the excess cable Snipped is not quite the correct word There was an explosion and the excess fell to the floor The red and black insulation of the surviving wires was more like Jell O than Plastic It took 15 minutes for the wires to cool down and the insulation to firm up again The pliers had two deep holes cut into the pristine cutting wedges Clark KE6K XO who can no longer be surprised by my brilliance said the Stanl
11. I RFI WB6YRU Homebrew projects construction KD6FJI WB6YRU Computers older IBM PC WB6YRU Packet Network BBS forwarding WB6YRU Code operating and installations WB6EMR K6PBQ DX long distance propagation WB6EMR Emergency operating preparedness WA6QYS HF operating techniques SSB CW WB6EMR K6PBQ Legal FCC rules WB6YRU SCCARA club inner workings K6PBQ WB6YRU WA6QYS EchoLink KK6MX WB6EMR James D Armstrong Jr evening amp msg 408 945 1202 KD6FUI Lloyd DeVaughns 408 225 6769 e mail kd6fji arrl net KK6MX Don Apte 408 629 0725 e mail kk6mx aol com W6JPP John Parks 408 309 8709 e mail w6jpp arrl net K6PBQ Don Village 408 263 2789 e mail donvillage yahoo com WA6QYS Lou Steirer 408 241 7999 e mail wa6qys arrl net WB6YRU Gary Mitchell 408 269 2924 packet home BBS NOARY e mail wb6yru ix netcom com Newsletter Notes Thanks to Don AE6PM Viki KISWDS and our tber contributor Goetz K6GKB for the photos and articles it s a colorful issue this time We ve got a new Field Day location this year Gregg s directions indicate going up 1 St and that s certainly one way to go For those familiar with our board meeting location you can just keep going north But I ve found it just as easy to go up Gold St See the map on page 3 There are two ways to go on that One is to keep going north on Lafayette St which tuns into Gold St as you go under the 237 overpas
12. If renewing annual membership dues base rate are 20 Individual 25 Family 10 Student under 18 For new members If joining in January base rate If joining in February through October base rate x 11 month x 10 e g for June that would be base rate x 50 If joining in November or December free for November and December if paying the base rate for the following year Dues payment for J individual LJ family LJ student For family memberships at the same address please include a separate form for each family member I want the newsletter by LJ U S Mail L internet costs the club about 35 year Give this completed form or copy with payment to the Secretary or Treasurer at any meeting or mail to the club address Rev 4 2 2012
13. Saturday of August Gregg KF6FNA seconded the motion it was unanimously passed The picnic will be held in Mary Gomes park as usual Fred AE6QL adjourned the meeting at 21 14 Viki Moldenhauer KISWDS Secretary Packet Pieces Downloaded from the BBS packet network Date 24 May 2010 02 14 From W1GMF W1GMF To HJIMOR USA Subject Dating Dinosaur Bones Some tourists in the Chicago Museum of Natural History are marveling at the dinosaur bones One of them asks the guard Can you tell me how old the dinosaur bones are The guard replies They are 3 million four years and six months old That s an awfully exact number says the tourist How do you know their age so precisely The guard answers Well they were three million years old when I started working here and that was four and a half years ago Need Help Amateurs have a long history of helping each other An experienced amateur who helps another is traditionally called an Elmer If you have a question or problem you are encouraged to ask one of SCCARA s Elmers Below is a list of topics including who to contact for each If you consider yourself to be reasonably competent in at least one area of amateur radio and would be willing help others please fill out an Elmer form from the club secretary Antennas feed lines tuners WB6EMR W6JPP K6PBQ WB6YRU Lightning protection grounding WB6YRU Station set up equipment K6PBQ W6JPP TV
14. arket Y m Hoppe g Q w Alviso Healtt ter o There will be ice chests for stuff that should be kept cool There will be a table for pot luck food A BBQ will be available Saturday morning will have a pancake breakfast Don t forget to bring your folding chairs Hope to see you there Gregg KF6FNA Pow Wow For some years now Lou WA6QYS and Gwen KF6OTD have been instrumental in feeding the elders at the annual Native American Pow Wow held on the Stanford University Campus Some years ago Gwen s school was participating in a government sponsored program to encourage Native American Indians to pursue higher levels of education Her school was one of many around the bay area participating in this program and the American Indian Alliance decided to bring them altogether in a consolidated group An annual luncheon evolved organized by Gwen and Lou that honored the graduates The government program petered out and the annual event morphed into a dinner for Indian Elders Eventually it found a home at the Stanford Pow Wow This Pow Wow puts on display some of the finest ceremonial garments and festivities one can imagine The feathered head gear the beaded chest plates the beating of drums the dancing and the celebration of a glorious heritage are spectacles that draw a large crowd a i X Nw Wy uy A Jo l 5 a 7 aes Ce SOG Page 4 This has given SCCARA an opportunity to volunteer manpower to support
15. ck at Clark s house we serviced the generator with the Holy Oil and added some extraordinarily ordinary 89 octane gas Gregg gave four tugs and stopped I thought he had tired but in fact the generator was running something I could not detect with my tin ears After a five minute break in period we plugged in Clark s electric lawn mower and did the front yard can t quite bring myself to say lawn Judging by the constant RPM during this exercise we Page 7 surmised the generator had no clue what was going on at the other end of that extension cord Just an awesome piece of equipment The whole exercise of waiting till the last minute before the Annual Native American POW WOW at the Stanford University Campus was unnecessary The 90 day guarantee turned out to be a myth as t he unit come s with a three year guarantee The June issue of QST has a Consumer Report type review of similar generators and the Honda comes out on top The membership should be pleased with this purchase Goetz K6GKB Bad Antennas P T Barnum said You can fool all of the people some of the time you can fool some the people all of the time but you can t fool all the people all the time Well he never met me the seeker of the Philosopher s Stone Unfortunately my Alchemist s powers seem to turn noble metals into base metals and so it has been with ham radio I will restrict this confession to antennas so you won t know just how gullibl
16. d Indonesia The Delta loop brought in K9UXZ a Shriners Special Event Station in Illinois W7G a Special Event Station in Promontory Utah commemorating the junction of the transcontinental railroad at the site of the Golden Spike K4RC a Special Event Station commemorating the 405th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown Virginia Also of note were a couple of DX contacts VP5 W6NN a local ham Anna vacationing on Providencia Island in Turks amp Caicos and PJ2 DH2AK in Netherland Antilles All this and a luncheon with the Elders just a splendid event Photos by Viki Moldenhauer Goetz K6GKB Cat Radio You see wire telegraph is a kind of a very very long cat You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles Do you understand this And radio operates exactly the same way you send signals here they receive them there The only difference is that there is no cat Albert Einstein from the Array of Light book by Tom Schiller N6BT Inspired by Einstein to put the cat back into radio Her Royal Highness the Princess Pointy Ears studies for her Extra exam Viki Moldenhauer Rotator Our club was gifted a beautiful two section aluminum triangular tower light as a feather and extendable to 40 feet At the top was a rotator which after lying on the ground for some time had attracted an ant colony that was moving in Having demonstrated my mechanical instincts on several previous club
17. e I can be My first infatuation was with the B amp W BWD 1 8 30 MHz Broadband Folded Dipole It was recommended by HRO had favorable reviews on EHAM and B amp W themselves claim thousands sold to the military I strung it up between a tall tree and the house and spoke to it with 1 200 watts of power I was never heard from again I believe I could have done better if I flushed 100 feet of copper wire down the toilet That s when my ham buddies told me this thing was one of the better dummy loads on the market Talk about letting the cat out of the bag trying to get this thing rolled back up and into its box was almost impossible The wire has a memory and that includes being trapped in a box which it does not want to repeat One slight mistake and the resulting rat s nest is a Gordian knot that would have stopped Alexander s greatness It is now serving a life sentence in the original box from whence I will not let it escape Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me My second seduction was the COMET CHA250B broadband vertical antenna which amazingly covers 75 80 through 6 meters with no gaps Better yet it requires no radials So up it went on a 20 foot push up mast and 25 feet of coax to the rig I might as well have been yelling into a speaking tube which terminated in the engine room of a great cargo ship My utterances remained beneath the surface of the sea This thing is a dummy load w
18. e shade and be at approximately the same temperature Photo 1 Solar panel support frame taking shape on the workbench Photo 2 The finished unit folds shut for storage and transport Photo 3 The unit opens out like a book shown here opened 180 degrees Photo 4 When the legs are folded back about 270 degrees the panel is oriented for maximum sun exposure I spent the week before Memorial Day in the Phoenix Chandler Arizona area The temperature for the first two days was 108 degrees Finally on day five it cooled down to 88 degrees Meanwhile it snowed in Butte Montana I spend time both places and I hope the temperature cycling doesn t get to me eventually It s hard not to like the weather here in the Bay Area My plan a few years ago was to visit New Orleans I was actually on the way but Katrina got there first At the time I was in Bronson Missouri We all know what happened there just a couple of months ago Earthquakes seem pretty tame by comparison Voyager n gt klarane Catherine St a Last but not least congratulations to Viki KI6WDS our club Secretary for passing the Extra Class exam on the first try on May 19 Way to go That s it for this month Join Don K6PBQ and Wally If you have a KA6YMD on our 2 meter and 10 meter nets license you can be there 73 Don AE6PM Field Day Field Day will be discussed at the June 11 General Meeting Since not everybody that
19. er requests for information about the generator we used as well as who all was at the event Secretary s Report The April general and board meeting minutes were approved as published in the SCCARA gram Treasurer s Report Goetz K6GKB reported the account balances checking 1970 45 savings 500 07 cash 230 95 The 2 big expenses of the flea market fee and the generator purchase have lowered the checking account Vice President s Report Fred AE6QL announced the speaker for June will be Gregg KF6FNA speaking on Field Day In July Michael Wright KOFMW will give a talk on WiFi and ATV in the Valley Later in the fall Eric Swartz of Elecraft will come in Fred also announced that the San Jose EOC had saved some money even with the budget tightening to put towards RACES and possibly redoing antennas President s Report Before he left Don AE6PM notified the board by email Mailed a thank you letter to Mrs Mabel Teresi acknowledging the donation of a 40 aluminum crank up tower TET Model HB 43 SB 4 element beam and a CDE rotor with control box Mailed a thank you letter to Jeff Knopow acknowledging the donation of an ICOM IC 32AT dual band FM transceiver and an ICOM IC 28H 144 MHz FM transceiver This latter donation led to discussion on giving them to a school such as Wilcox High School in Santa Clara club member Karen Hardy is a math teacher there and held a ham cram class recently or Los Altos High where a student got
20. ey side cutters would now make excellent wire strippers Could possibly strip two wires at the same time It s good I bought the charger that goes with this battery as it restored the battery to its previous condition It should be pointed out that the battery can be charged with a lead acid battery charger which is what happens when installed in a motorcycle However the supplied charger connects to the individual cells and supposedly can stuff more energy into the battery than charging the whole thing in series My installation is complete everything works better than planned For those interested here is the web site http www shoraipower com Goetz K6GKB Our new generator The three amigos Clark KE6KXO Gregg KF6FMA and I K6GKB went to Daly City and consummated the deal Don AE6PM had set up with Mission Motorcycles A check for 1 084 25 allowed us to leave with a 2000 watt California certified Honda generator There was a slight confusion when they could not provide the genuine Honda Motor oil which comes with the unit but they substituted Kawasaki motor cycle oil and we were on our way I couldn t believe that I went with two wine snobs who actually thought this oil thing was critical but I went along with the program We took the long way home inspecting the new Oakland Bay Bridge from Treasure Island then on to HRO in San Leandro where we found a store far superior to our own in Sunnyvale Once ba
21. ith the Faraday Cage missing The best part is its construction out of purge dead soft aluminum which takes a bend with the slightest wind Time heals memories fade and new opportunities come along When Tom Schiller gave his presentation on antennas at our last club meeting I listened carefully I heard what I wanted and that meant empirical design amongst all the computer modeling required for today s antennas Of particular interest was his light bulb antenna with which he worked many countries So I built one using a 300 watt bulb a plug in outlet bulb adaptor and a bit of coax Tried checking into the Rhubarb net with a glowing light bulb and guess what Twenty below S ZERO Maybe worse as once again I wasn t heard by anyone Page 8 Goetz K6GKB Work in Progress Joe W6 SNV has finally achieved liftoff The antenna is up the rotator rotating and Joe ecstatically making contacts in all directions He used his new RigExperts antenna analyzer to confirm that all three bands are behaving perfectly Clark KE6KXO finally got his antenna tower mast saddle straightened Everyone might remember that some months ago we lowered the tower without disconnecting the rotator at the bottom Something had to give and the saddle that holds the tower got pretzelled and was pretty well destroyed The plate that sits atop the vertical axel was bent to hell and the ears were no longer vertical to the plate Anyway last week
22. n has put out the call for volunteers they will need 76 80 volunteers for all 3 days To volunteer send email to kj6pcm gmail com with a subject line of volunteer from SCCARA If you volunteer for more than 8 hours over the 3 days you will get your admission fee back Goetz K6GKB reported he had just made a contact in the parking lot with Mike VE6A0 in Calgary who said to tell everyone hello so he did Gary WB6YRU announced there were SCCARA grams available at the back of the room and Don AE6PM mentioned that recent back issues are available on the web site Gregg KF6FNA described the Field Day efforts There is one place in Alviso close to Clark s house that is large enough but they also spoke with the Alum Rock Mildred Goss Elementary school principal who requested we bring education opportunities to the school they could leave the restrooms open having a BBQ would be ok and we could get 24 hour access Gregg and John WO6JPP will meet with the facilities coordinator to discuss arrangements such as whether we can drive stakes are there sprinkler systems to worry about etc On the equipment front Don AE6PM Lou WA6QYS Clark KE6KXO and Gregg KF6FNA checked the club station radios and converted what wasn t already to powerpoles The evening s speaker was Tom Schiller N6BT founder of Force 12 antennas and author of the antenna book Array of Light He spoke on problems seen with antennas debugging the root cause of the issue
23. netcom com COMMITTEES Editor Gary Mitchell WB6YRU 269 2924 e mail wb6yru ix netcom com Repeater Wally Britten KA6YMD 293 3847 e mail ka6ymd arrl net N ARY BBS Gary Mitchell WB6YRU 269 2924 e mail wb6yru ix netcom com SCCARA REPEATERS SCCARA owns and operates two repeaters under the call W6UU 2 meter 146 985 PL114 8 70 cm 442 425 PL107 2 Phone auto dial and auto patch is available The two meter repeater is located at Eagle Rock near Alum Rock Park in the foothills of east San Jose The 70 cm repeater is located at the Regional Medical Center formerly Alexian east of downtown San Jose north of 280 and 101 SCCARA NETS On our two meter repeater Mondays at 7 30 PM not the second Monday our meeting night Coordinator Don Village K6PBQ On ten meters 28 385 MHz USB Thursdays at 8 00 PM Net control Wally Britten KA6YMD Visitors welcome N ARY PACKET BBS SCCARA hosts the packet BBS NOARY Mt Umunhum User ports 144 93 1200 baud 433 37 9600 baud telnet sun nOary org login bbs Sysop Gary Mitchell WB6YRU packet info www nOary org ncpa TELEPHONE NUMBERS SCCARA contact Clark KE6KXO ARRL VEC Silicon Valley VE group Morris Jones AD6ZH 408 262 9334 408 507 4698 Page 2 removed and co located with the battery so that the controller temperature sensor more closely reflects the battery temperature Ideally the battery and the charge controller should be located in th
24. ons Proposed Band Plan for the Amateur 33 cm Band 902 928 MHz Rev C Weak Signal Beacons amp Weak Signal Local Option From the ARRL Letter May 24 2012 AMATEUR RADIO IN SPACE AMATEURS ASKED TO LISTEN FOR HORYU 2 SATELLITE The Japanese HORYU 2 kitsat ele kyutech ac jp index e new html research satellite was launched May 17 at 1639 UTC as part of a mission that included the JAXA climate observation satellite Shizuku HORYU 2 was built by students at the Kyushu Institute of Technology KIT and it carries the call sign JG6YBW The satellite will conduct a variety of experiments including high voltage power generation and space debris measurements Amateurs have been asked to monitor HORYU 2 s Morse code and 1200 baud AX 25 packet telemetry at 437 375 MHz Telemetry decoding software is available for download at kitsat ele kyutech ac jp Documents ground_station Horyu2 20Data_ Analysis Program japanese zip To encourage hams to submit reports KIT will conduct a monthly prize drawing Details are available at kitsat ele kyutech ac jp Documents ground_ station english Receive competition eng pdf Battery Pack Things are still happening in the battery business The chemistries and resulting energy densities are still improving I decided that my new Icom 703 backpack radio needed a source of energy that would last and so the investigation began What I came up with is a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery that is designed
25. ort Then the June 2012 issue of QST arrived and an article by Richard L Huttinger AA4RH on page 32 had the solution I was looking for My implementation of his design is visible in the photographs Basically it consists of two 24 square panels with two legs attached to each One end of each leg from each panel is bolted together to form a hinge that was the method Richard used that I hadn t even thought of obvious as it is now Richard used J plywood for the panels but I used d pegboard thinking that the additional ventilation would help keep the solar array temperature down The two panels and legs close up like a book for transport and protect the solar panel In use they swing open approximately 270 degrees to expose the solar panel to the sun and allow it to be oriented at right angles to the sun My solar panel purchase included a charge controller so I stowed that on the inner face of the opposite panel where it would be at least partially shaded when the array is exposed to maximum sunlight The controller can be Calendar DeAnza electronic flea market We Host SCCARA General Meeting SCCARA Board Meeting San Jose Red Cross 7 30p all are welcome 6 22 24 Field Day SCCARA will be in Alviso General Meeting Monday June 11 2012 7 30 PM Kaiser Santa Clara Rm 196 Gregg Lane KF6FNA on Field Day Homestead Rd As you enter the Homestead West Lobby you ll be heading south Keep going south down the
26. rk and Lou put up fiberglass push ups for wire antennas Field Day purchases Viki KI6WDS passed around the flyer for Field Day merchandise if anyone wants in on the order please let her know Gregg KF6FNA reported on the transceiver test activity at the Red Cross on May 2 by Lou Don AE6PM Gregg and Clark Don AE6PM brought an Elecraft signal generator to measure the signal reports of the various club radios They also tested signal purity with a spectrum analyzer All were clean except the 140 it had spurious sidebands in the ham bands although they were down 30 40dB We will defer until Don AE6PM is back to clarify the issue There was some discussion as to which transceiver is easiest to use without menus The tuner that works but needs recalibration might not be ready by Field Day Generator purchase Gregg Goetz and Clark made the trip to purchase the Honda EU20001i generator They tested it mowing the lawn at Clark s house and it was used at the Stanford Pow Wow the plan is to use it to test some wire antennas in a park get it to 20 hours and change the oil before Field Day Gary will generate a single page writeup for the Flea Market oriented to hams maybe 30 50 copies and Field Day general amateur radio information and SCCARA club summary He ll also print up some SCCARA grams for handing out Electronic Flea Market Don AE6PM emailed questions discussed and resolved in the meeting Don AE6PM will make up ne
27. s The other is to take Great America Pkwy north from Hwy 101 just after you go under the 237 overpass take the Gold St Connector right turn then left onto Gold St Either way once on Gold St just keep going until you reach Catherine and there we ll be to the right For those wishing to stretch their legs Gold St continues north then curves to the west Just a few short blocks to the north west you ll reach the old Alviso Marina It s a park now with lots of hiking trails along the levies The new boat launch ramp is there too giving south bay boaters access to the Bay Don t forget SCCARA hosts the flea market this time second Saturday of the month We re supposed to have a table available for members if you just have one or two items 73 Gary WB6YRU editor Page 11 SCCARA Santa Clara County Amateur Radio Association PO Box 106 SAN JOSE CA 95103 0106 Affiliate of the ARRL A American Radio Relay League RER FIRST CLASS ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED SCCARA Membership Form for 2012 If none of your info has changed fill in name and call only Name Call Class E A G T N Address Licensed since yr City State Zip Licence Expiration SS Date mo yr Telephone L New Member L Renewal LI I m also a member of the ARRL E mail make sure your e mail is legible and correct if you want the newsletter by internet Memberships begin January and expire December 31
28. s and solutions He had slides of antenna installations from various DXpeditions and the more memorable tips were don t trust barrel connectors he s measured new ones at 1Kohm when debugging do simplest and easiest adjustments and corrections first make only one adjustment at a time make sure the ends of radials on vertical antennas aren t in contact with wood or flammable materials he s seen lots of sparks anchor end to the ground with a conductive spike for verticals put lots of cheap wire on the ground underneath even not connected to anything increasing the ground connectivity this way can give a 2 3 dB improvement The meeting ended after the speaker answered questions Red Cross Building 2731 N Ist St San Jose CA Status Unreviewed Board Meeting May 21 2012 The SCCARA Board Meeting was called to order by Fred AE6QL at 19 42 Attendance Vice President Fred Townsend AE6QL Secretary Viki Moldenhauer KI6WDS Treasurer Goetz Brandt K6GKB Trustee Don Village K6PBQ Directors Lou Steirer WA6QYS Gregg Lane KF6FNA Gary Mitchell WB6YRU Wally Britten KA6YMD Visitors Gwen Steirer KF6OTD Clark Murphy KE6KXO Absent President Don Steinbach AE6PM Director John Glass NU6P Announcements Fred AE6QL announced that Don AE6PM is Page 9 out of town and that the club s flea market is on June 9th Viki KI6WDS received an email from Mary Jane Cummings who stopped by the booth at the Pow Wow Viki will reply to h
29. w signs for the refreshment stand Will we have a table for members to sell their own items Yes what does SCCARA have to sell this time other than the electronic stapler that Gary WBO6YRU declared redundant we have not decided on what radios might be sold this was deferred to next year Will we have handouts promoting the club Yes BBS Visit Gary WB6YRU can arrange a visit to the Mt Umunhum with advance notice mid October was deemed a nice time of year to visit Beacon Gary WB6YRU raised the possibility of the club setting up a beacon to assist in detecting if the duct to Hawaii is open he has a radio available for 2m There was some discussion of siting the BBS site has room for more radios it might be best sited down near the shore but after discussion the consensus was that rather than take on a new project we should first finish some of the projects still lingering on such as adding a beam to the HF antenna Gregg KF6FNA reported that Archie Overton approached the club at the Pow Wow requesting help setting up a station at the Kindred hospital in San Leandro Archie had apparently talked to someone from our club in the past Gregg will email him and ask if he s found any help yet Lou WA6QYS mentioned that John Parks W6JPP heard from Pacificon that they need all kinds of help including on talk in to give directions The summer picnic was discussed Lou WA6QYS moved to hold the picnic on August 18th the third
30. we took it to an old friend one of the famous bay area racing bicycle manufacturers of the 60 s and 70 s He has a machine shop with lots of old beautiful lathes milling machines Bridgeports etc He took one look and before we could explain started straightening it out He put the axel into the chuck on one of his humongous lathes grabbed a PROTO four foot long crescent wrench and closed the jaws on the rotor plate Using lots of body weight at the end of the four foot long wrench he iteratively forced the whole thing back into alignment Several rotations of the chuck confirmed things were back to normal Clark simply needs to reassemble and things should be back in order Lou WA6QYS Viki KI6WDS Gregg KF6FNA Goetz K6GKB and Clark KE6KXO have been culling through all the lockers and the club trailer to qualify equipment for Field Day A second TR 44 rotator was found and rebuilt it now purrs like a kitten In addition Gregg has measured the selected area and prepared a template for where things will go Amazingly an island has risen from the mud flats in total denial of the melting polar ice caps This will be the site of our new lightweight aluminum tower Since field day will be held in Alviso on a vacant corner fronting the bay everyone should be able to attend Come and see what your club is up to If anyone has any projects worth sharing let me know We could discuss it and commit it to paper Then on to Gary WB6YRU
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