TheVHF Journal. Holiday Edition: December UW activity days. The Leonid Meteor Shower of 2001

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1 TheVHF Journal Scientia sine art nihil est Published by The Rochester VHF Group Holiday Edition: December 2001 UW activity days Well, I have received about 20 responses to the "request-for-opinion" regarding microwave activity days. It is clear that lots of hams support this idea. The results are kinda split between Saturday/ Sunday, and Monday/Thursday. For now, I think we should start out with only 2 days per week, one week per month. If activity is great enough, we can certainly add the other 2 days in there, hoping for the guys that couldn't make the other days in concert with the diehards who want to operate uwaves 7 days per week. I am recommending the following: Microwave activity days shall be Saturdays from 8AM until Noon..., and Monday evenings from 7 pm until 11pm. Object: Work as many guys as you can on all bands 432 es up. Activity Schedule: Start the first Saturday of each month (beginning 3 Nov, 2001), then operate the following Monday evening (5 Nov, 2001). Scoring: The guy with the most QSOs, in the most grids, on the most bands, over the best dx wins. (We will all be winners if we can generate some activity!) Reporting: All participants are encouraged to post your results to your favorite microwave reflector. (We will seek help from volunteers to make a central web page results summary available). Philosophy: Make QSOs, and make your results available to others. Try to find some of the rovers and help them try out new spots. Rovers are encouraged to travel to places where they can make QSOs with new guys who need encouragement, and some signals. Expose our DC-band brethren to the excitement of working real dx on uwaves. Encourage the inactive UHF es above hams to GET ON THE BANDS! Put forth a good image for microwave amateur radio when folks stop and ask what the heck you are doing (explain why this is fun). Test your stuff out before the night before the next contest. Find and fix problems. Find a few extra db in your system. Try some new stuff out and compare results. Get your friends with IC-706s and FT-100s to connect something horizontal to their 432 spigot. This hobby is a lot more fun when we work together! Make some noise! Make some skeds! Publish your plans! CU on the bands! 73, Bill W3IY p.s. Don't forget to listen for the weak ones! The Leonid Meteor Shower of 2001 What an event. With all the media hype surrounding it, I had to see just what it was capable of doing. And WOW - it far exceeded even my expectations as a MAJOR METEOR EVENT! I woke up at 4am Sunday November 18th. Walked outside, looked skyward and was greeted by some serious space dust flying into the atmosphere! I mean, dozens in a very short span. "Guess I need to fire up the radio..." was my thought fires up, the PA is warming in - and MY GOD, BEDLAM! I swear to you, the calling frequency sounded just like during a contest. It was incredible. W4/5/9/0 in one burn. Mmmmmm... this is gonna be fun. Moved to , called CQ. First call, K5SW (EM25 - thanks Sam!). Next burn was better - K0EKL and W0EKZ at once. This continues for about 3 hours at this pace! 42 QSOs in this time, with MOST being new grids! KS, MS, NE, IL, TN, KY, OK, MO, LA, FL, MN, WI, AL, AR... just a (continued on page 3)

2 VHFBILL I remember many years ago ( more than two decades ago, so I imagine the statute of limitations is up on this) being invited to Mike McHugh s place in Brighton to assist in checking January VHF SS contest logs (hint: these were the days before grid square had even been invented!). There we had about 20 different types of pens, colored markers, pencils, etc, and we d correct logs before they were officially submitted. We d have entire logs with all the QSO s and no times, so we d go through all the logs and find them on the other half of the QSO in someone elses log (bear in mind we are talking about 200+ RVHFG log submissions at that time). Others had no summary sheet, or dupe sheet over the threshold of 200QSO s. We d get to create them. A lot of hot chocolate, donuts, trips to Don & Bobs. A lot of chatter. Then, the task complete, the whole lot would be bundled up in an old Xerox paper box and mailed off with a return receipt postcard on the outside to verify that it had actually made it to Newington. Heck, FEDEX didn t even exist then. It was my job as a future contest chairman to pass this ritual on to the next lucky soul, and so on, and so on. Things are different now- everyone cross checks and dupes their own submission, nobody touches the logs once they are submitted, and I expect that 95%+ of logs are computer generated and mailed in directly to the League. These are all good things, and puts everyone on a level playing field, But I miss those days of hand logging and checking. Not for the act of pen on paper or the labor involved, but those cold weekends over many hot drinks and burgers twenty five+ years ago, which were really the point, after all- not the logs themselves. What I miss is that ritual, the continuity it brought, the secret methods passed on with the 20 pens from one contest chariman to the next, and the comaraderie that went with it. GL in the test, EH! Tom om VE3IEY FN14pd To Subscribe: Send your address ess,, call, address and $15 US funds for mailed copies(or $10 US for Web downloaded copies) to: The Rochester VHF Group,, PO Box 92122, Rochester,, NY,, You may elect WEB or MAIL delivery ery for the same price. You will be notified the very day it is available for download. If you elect delivery by mail, copies are in Black and White- sorry! -Commentary and articles: via to editor VE3IEY: tantonr@kingston.net. Use standard ASCII text, Corel s Word Perfect or send as regular . -Photos and drawings awings: via , and can be sent in any format that is available (JPG, GIF and TIFF are most common). EXCEPTION: We don t like MS PowerPoint (*.PPT) files! -Assistant Editor,, Printer rinter,, Membership & Data-Magician: Judy,, N2KXS -Production Czar and Supreme Downloader of the Wor ord: Fred, WO2P -Adv Adver ertising space is now available ailable in the Journal. Contact the editor for One thru Twelve month rates. Layout services are free of charge ge. -This publication is Copyrighted by the Rochester VHF Group. It has been created using Corel s Word Perfect 2000, Adobe Photoshop 6.0, Adobe Pagemaker 6.52, Adobe Image Ready 3.0, and Adobe Acrobat Distiller 5.0. It is designed to be read with Acrobat 5.0 Other NFP publications may excerpt articles herein ein provided subscription informa- tion (or www address) to the Journal is reprinted with it. THE VHF JOURNAL was compiled, edited, and typeset on Amherst Island, in Ontario,, Canada (FN14pd) It was published in Rochester,, New York, USA (FN13) The World s Image Capital The Rochester VHF Group * Club memorial call: W2UTH * Club Officers: Chairman: K2AXX Mark Hoffman (716) k2axx@arrl.net Vice Chairman: W2DYY, Russ Schroder w2dyy@rochester.rr.com Secretary: etary: N2JMH Jim Howard (716) n2jmh@arrl.net Treasur easurer er: N2IM Charles Barkowski, (716) n2im@juno.com Director (Even year): KB2VGH Jeff Luce (716) kb2vgh@amsat.org Director (Odd year): K2DH Dave Hallidy (716) k2dh@frontiernet.net Past Chairman: NS9E Tim Stoffel (775) lionlamb@servtech.com Appointees: Contest Chairman: N2JMH Jim Howard (716) n2jmh@arrl.net Awards manager: N2JMH Jim Howard (above) Club memorial Call Trustee rustee: N2WK Wayne King N2WK@arrl.net Banquet Chairman: WA2ZNC Len Gessin (716) wa2znc@juno.com Picnic Chairman: AA2WV Scott Ballou Journal Editor: VE3IEY Tom Richmond (613) tantonr@kingston.net Journal Publishing ublishing:n2kxs & WO2P (716) jstonehill@att.net Membership Manager,, Subscription Services vices: N2KXS (above) Internet Webmaster: K2AXX (above) Mailing list Majordomo in charge ge: KB2VGH (above) Adver ertizing tizing: VE3IEY (above) Jeff eff,, KB2VGH sez: There is only *one* mailing list [you ll ever need...] Rvhfg@vhfgroup.rochesterny.rochesterny.or.org It is set up to broadcast to all RVHFG members Literary Corner: Excerpt from The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart, McLelland & Stewart Ltd, publishers. p Visible from a distance of forty miles, the two massive, irregular pylons streching toward the sky like white bone needles or remarkable stalagtites, even the skeleton of the memorial had become a feature of the French landscape. The Italian carvers were beginning to work on the figures Allward had cast in plaster in his London studio. The names of the eleven thousand missing men were being collected and the complicated mathematics necessary to fit these names into the space available on the base was being undertaken. The most recent set of figures had suggested that it would likely take four stone carvers two years to chisel the hundreds of thousands of characters into the stone. Lines, circles, and curves corresponding to a cherished, remembered sound called over fields at summer dusk from a back porch door, shouted perhaps in anger or whispered in passion, or in prayer, in the winter dark. All that remained of torn faces, crushed bone, scattered limbs. The VHF Journal, November 1,

3 MEETING NOTICE Frida riday 14 DEC :30 PM Westf estfall Road Roc ochester hester, NY Continued from page 1 sampling! Go to meet K2DH for breakfast at 8am, and discuss the show! Man, they saw just what we did! Incredible. Hang out & chat for a couple hours - get home. 6m is wide open to Eu. Play a while - run across K5SW on Eskip! Sam tells me that 2m is still wild! Hmmm... go check BED- LAM ONCE AGAIN! Yep - this was the 2nd peak! N0LRJ calls me, we work. Takes me a second to write down DM89. Yep - DM89 is in Colorado! WOW - he's db. Immediately after, N5BLZ, with a signal on the PEG from Texas, gives me EL29. WOW. In all, 66 scatter QSOs, 46 Grids in 3 hours, 30 minutes. Did YOU play? Did you WATCH? I sure hope so - it may be one of the best storms you could have ever seen. I hope you got to watch and play. 50 MHz - the Magic Band Ok, I don't know where to start. DX, DX and more DX was to be had. I've heard old salts of the band comparing this to Cycle 19. For those of you who don't know what that means - it means TURN ON YOUR DANG RADIO AND PLAY! YOU MAY NOT GET TO DO THIS FOR ANOTHER 33 YEARS! With shouting for emphasis, let me explain. 6 meters has been, without question, phenomenal! The Solar Indices have been remaining quite high for most of the month of November. This somewhat translates to heightened F-layer propagation, in the range above 30MHz. Almost every morning (like clockwork), one can tune his receiver to , or MHz and hear the sounds of the European TV Video (weird sounding stuff). Between 7am and 9am - the MUF rises above 50MHz, and we can begin the task of wading through piles of European stations to work. In one 2-hour period, I've been fortunate enough to work almost 100 QSOs, in 16 countries and 60+ grids in Europe. AMAZING. I've heard AF2K, W2CNS, K2DH, K2CS and WA2BPE among the regulars feeding at the DX Trough. Some of the highlights of the month: 9G5AN, VP8DBL, E30NA, 9A5I, YU, DL, SM, LA, OH, OY9... the list is far too long. I've perhaps worked 50 countries all told in one month. ½ DXCC. SURGEON GENERAL S WARNING:Taking Tylenol and consuming ONE alcoholic beverage in the next 24 hours will cause permanent and irriversible liver damage. Now - for those of you missing states - be aware. Between 11am - 1pm Eastern - generally we experienced transcontinental openings. This means wall-to-wall W6/W7/VE6/ VE7 openings. Also in this time frame, KL7 tended to appear. Those of you missing some states need(ed) to jump on this.and by 2pm, the pacific window opens. V73, AH8, ZL/VK and P29 have been spotted/worked in this area. By close to sundown - we've heard the W8s working JA. Doesn't this sound JUST LIKE 28MHz? Yes, it does. When the solar peak is upon us, and the MUF treats us right - 6 meters acts like 10 meters. Grayline paths (sunlight paths preferred) are usually the long-haul periods (VK/ ZL, JA, UA and 4X1 for instance) to be concerned with. The VHF Journal, November 1,

4 SO - have I whet your appetites yet? I certainly hope so. TURN on the radios and BE READY. (Author note: By the time you read this, some of the phenomenal stuff may already be in the past. November is more often far superior than December - but with the way this cycle has progressed - anything is possible. Watch for up-to-date statistics and spots for 50MHz propagation. Check the solar indicators. USE your radios!) RVHFG November 2001 Meeting Minutes (As Recorded by Charlie, N2IM in my absence.) The meeting started at 7:35 pm with 20 members in attendance. The meeting began with a review of the Treasurer's report. It was moved to be accepted by N2OPW and seconded by N2RD. An overview of the Secretary's report was then given. Old Business: Charlie, N2IM, talked about the preamp order with DEMI. That night was the final night for payments for the order. Mention was made that PHEMTs are available from the club for $5. New Business: N2RD mentioned a possible FCC allocation of 2305 MHz. There is a possibility that power on that band would be limited to 5 watts ERP. Motion was made by N2OPW to have the club secretary write a letter to the FCC about our view on this possible allocation. It was seconded by N2IM. K2AXX brought up a deal being made by DEMI for their 10 GHz 2 watt amps. DEMI said that if we wanted 5 amps, they would cost $275, if we wanted 10, they would be $250 a piece. Single units would be discounted to $300. No immediate interest was shown. Regular Meeting: N2EH had a death in the family, so he was unable to present the evening's program. Our condolences to him and his family on their loss. Instead a night of casual rag chewing was held. TREASURERS REPORT by: N2IM 11/20/01 CHECKING ACCOUNT Previous Balance...$ INCOME: Mug Profits Dues DEMI Order EXPENSES: Postage Newsletter Supplies New Check Fee CURRENT BALANCE... $ SAVINGS ACCOUNT Previous Balance...$ INCOME: Interest EXPENSES: Transfer to checking CURRENT BALANCE...$ TOTAL:...$ The Contest Chairman Says: De: N2JMH In order not to start my ranting too early, I will be brief, but expect both barrels next month. What are you doing reading the Journal when there is still tower work left to be done? Less than 6 weeks till the BIG ONE. Don't forget that you need 2 meetings to eligible for the January Club Competition. Will this be the year we win a gavel? There is no reason why we should not with YOUR help. It is shaping up to be one of the most exciting contests in a few years: 6 fully equipped rovers ers,, maybe more and a few home stations should be on that have not been heard from in awhile. Start getting ready! I am scheduled to talk at the RARA meeting on Jan. 4th and the RDXA meetingon Jan. 15th about contest roving and the Rochester Cup. I encourage everyone to go to the meetings whether you are a member or not, in a show of support for the RVHFG or if you need to, to heckle me! :^) The VHF Journal, November 1,

5 ...Permission Denied... De N2JMH A very interesting topic came up this month at the regular meeting. In the wake of the September, 11th events it seems that ham radio contesting has taken a not so glamorous stare from the unknowing public. I guess this really applies to the rover aspect of this hobby, and all that know me realize I am going to jump right in with plenty to say. Although my words are not always the most eloquent, I feel this should be brought to the attention of anyone who enjoys this hobby. During the 10-gig contest, some of our fellow operators from 8 land were basically told to pack it up and move on. They were not given the chance to explain and were driven off. A local club member was denied access to Whiteface Mountain after going through the proper channels beforehand to clear his way. Everyone's favorite rover, that would be me, got interrogated by a Genesee County Sheriff during the RVHFG sprint after the law enforcement officer had received many complaints of suspicious activity. I do fully understand that everyone is a little edgy and it is expected. I am still undecided on how to handle this matter so I bring it up to you. Do we continue on as usual or try to make the public aware beforehand. This can be a double edged sword so choose your answer very carefully. With the big contest of the year rapidly approaching what should we do? On one side I believe I would rather explain my way out with ignorance. The problem with that is I will be working some DX on 10 gig and be so upset because I have to stop contesting that I will not do Ham radio justice with my explanation. Then I would probably still be asked to leave or worse. The other side says we try to make people aware of this event, what it is all about and why we do it with high publicity. Maybe get an article in the local papers or any other way we can get the limelight on us in a positive way. The problem with this is we get told beforehand that it is not advisable. With at least 6 fully decked out rovers running around this January we will be seen. How we are viewed is still not clear. So what should we do? smoked preamps "Jim Howard" <n2jmh@arrl.net> Gang, Here is a problem that I would like some opinions on. My 1296 ULNA preamp has not made it through a contest yet. Last time out I had a bypass relay on the receive amp dump to a 50 ohm load on transmit. It still did not survive. And to add insult to the matter the 903 preamp got smoked in September. The only addition to the rover was 50 watts on I realize my antennas are not optimally spaced apart (it IS a rover!!!) but I would like to come up with something to make these survive a contest. The relays on 903 and 1296 are Totsu CX600NL, the high power ones. Not the greatest isolation at 1 gig. Maybe switch to some kind of SMA relays? Which ones will handle 50 watts at 1 gig??? Am I going to have the same kind of problems on 2, 3, 5 gig with the new preamps? Any suggestions welcome. Thanks, N2JMH YOU JUST CAN T EXPECT TO FOOL WITH IT WITHOUT GETTING IT ON YOU -Ken Kesey The VHF Journal, November 1,

6 Meteor Storm Dana Shtun, VE3DSS Well looks like the Leonid lived up to its reputation this year...in the 33 years I've been on the band I've never heard M/S levels like I heard on Sunday...I heard many of the gang in there working stations and I'd be very interested in getting copies of your logs for TCA reporting for the March issue...jan/feb is done...ve4ma's 24 GHz article is featured in that issue...as a consequence Six Metres and Down is abbreviated...hi! I'm interested in 50 MHz thru 432 MHz contact information... (thisgoes for the Rochester area gang too eh??!!) Pse advise re your grid square, what antennas and gear (including power) you were using etc... I'll try to correlate it all...so swamp me!!! It was fun, worked a bunch of guys on 2 that I hadn't worked for many years and worked Manitoba and Colorado as well as a whole wack of 4's 5's 0's and 9's.. no 7's tho, ran with W1ILP in Wyoming for fun... 6 was amazing...ve2dfo works ZL yesterday... I think many worked AH8 and KH6 and KH7 too...73 Dana HAM RADIO FREQUENCY THERMOMETER/ CLOCK Tnx N2GKM & N2DHH I just picked up a neat clock you might be interested in. Here's why it's a ham clock: the outdoor temperature is obtained via a radio transponder that operates on Mhz. Gee that's right in the Ham satellite band (it has an FCC ID # that I am checking up on) I put the transmitter next to my HT and it never broke squelch, might be spread spectrum. Yo, check out the editorial in this month's QST. the FCC wants to make 425 MHz MHz a part 15 band. and UPS (yes, UPS again) wants to put stuff on this band in every truck. I sent my donation to the league this morning. OR-2800 Rotator hints 222WAS7 <ve3ax@rac.ca> Well, after doing this for the second time, I thought I'd offer some advice for OR-2800 users... Symptom: Rotator stops in one direction or another long before it meets the "end" stops. Everything else seems to work. Cause: The little bolt in the center of the exterior plate on which the mast clamp is mounted has come loose. This appears to hold the interior thrust plate in place, but if it is loose, the interior plate hangs down and triggers the limit switches early. Hint: Use Loctite or some other goop to prevent that one tiny bolt from coming loose. You just know that it will only happen in winter just before the January contest! Even with a lockwasher on there mine has worked loose twice. Took a year the 2nd time but spent 2 hours on the 222 MHZ tower in a 40 deg F wind last Sunday disassembling the rotator clamp and removing the rotator to get enough clearance under the mast. Hint #2: Leave ½" or more space between the bottom of the mast and the top of the exterior clamp plate so if the bolt does come loose, or you have to remove the rotator for other reasons, you don't get hung up by the head of that little bolt! 73 Peter VE3AX LETTERS, LETTERS- WE GET LETTERS! Yo Tom, eh! In answer to your question in the latest VHF Journal, I propose: The iconic statue that stands in front of the dish should be Zeus holding a element looper yagi instead of his bolt of lightning. EH! Joe N2GCZ And a six-pack of Dragon s Breath Pale Ale to Joe for his submission- - TNX!...ed. Canadians are going to help America with the war on terrorism. Canada has pledged 2 of their biggest battle ships,, 600 ground troops and 6 fighter jets. After the American exchange rate, the US ended up with 2 Mounties,, 1 canoe and a flying squirrel. The VHF Journal, November 1,

7 CIRCULATION FIGURES for NOVEMBER 2001: Judy N2KXS People who had web-only access to the Journal 59 members, 13 Academy graduates, 2 amateur radio clubs with whom we have a reciprocal agreement People who got the Journal in hard copy 34 members, 2 ARRL officials, 3 publications, 5 comps 1296 amp for sale Charles E Barkowski <n2im@juno.com> I am trying to sell a 2C39 tube amp. I bought it on ebay with the intentions of trying to incorporate it into a 1296 EME system, but I don't have the time or knowledge right now to build a power supply for it. (Not to mention I don't have a 1296 xvtr yet either:) I am trying to buy an IC-746, so that is one more reason I am selling it, I need the money! I have the paperwork on it, and I can bring it to the next meeting if you wanted to see it. Let me know! I will sell it for $60 or b/o. 73, Charlie N2IM (note: the tube on the right is NOT in this amp... ed) Preamp construction session news The preamp construction session on December 01 will NOT be happening. We can't get the gear to do it - sadly. HOWEVER - The December 14th 111 Westfall - we WILL have access to the gear! THEREFORE, if you ordered a preamp, built an xvtr or something similar - bring it along. If you are going to be constructing something, you need to provide your own soldering stick and solder + tools. We SHOULD have a Noise Figure meter available, and potentially other stuff as well. Sorry for the notice - but there's still PLENTY of time before January to get these things built, tested and working in time for the contest! GET A MOVE ON! Mark, K2AXX CME photo from the NASA website. This Solar flare eruption caused great VHF+ condix and visible AU in mid-november. The curtains of Northern Lights were seen as far south as San Franscisco, where 911 lines were lit up with inquiries about possible terrorist attacks, nuclear fallout, bad acid trips, spiked kool-aid, Alice B. Toklas Brownies, magic mushroom farms, and some really bad Starbucks coffee. Proposed RVHFG 861 Radiotron 10 G preamp device, using vacuum technology, and employing a Heater to raise the impossibly low noise figure so you can tell that the RX converter is actually working. Magnets are used to focus the received signal s beam (K2DH sez fridge magnets work best). It also provides a pleasant, warm glow on cold winter nights. Can be recycled for use as an attractive and useful snow globe when it goes west. The VHF Journal, November 1,

8 Meeting Notice: FRIDAY 14 DEC 2001, 7:30 PM 111 Westfall Road (Ho Ho Ho, eh!) The VHF Jour J ournal The Roc R ochester VHF Group Gr PO Box Bo Roc ochester hester, NY USA