HUNTSVILLE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

Huntsville, Alabama Volume 43, Number 2 February, 2003 Huntsville Amateur Radio Club Information Club Officers President: Tom Duncan, KG4CUY Duncan1@ds-s.com Vice President: Tim Cunningham, N8DEU Tim_cunningham@mindspring.com Secretary: Rolf Goedhart K4RGG. k4rgg@arrl.net Treasurer: Heath Thorson, KC4HRX, 722-0250 hthorson@knology.net The club's ad dress is Box 423, Huntsville, Ala. 35804. Meet ings are held each Fri day night at 7:30 P.M. at the Amer i can Red Cross Build ing, 1101 Wash ing ton Street. Dues are $12.00 per year, fam ily mem ber ships are $15.00 per year. The club main tains a Web Site at http://www.harc.net The North Alabama Repeater Association operates repeaters on 146.34 / 146.94, 147.78 / 147.18, 223.34 / 224.94and 448.5 / 443.5. NARA dues are $16.00 per year and may be sent to NARA at P.O. Box 18941 Huntsville, AL 35804-8941. The club's packet radio interest group, HUNTSPAC, maintains an extensive packet network for the Huntsville area. Dues for use of this network are $15.00 per year, and can be paid through the HARC Secretary-Treasurer listed above. The club's ATV special interest group, TVATV operates an ATV repeater. It's input frequency is 439.25 MHz and its output is 421.25 MHz. A voice coordination repeater is operated with output frequency of 145.33 MHz, input 600 khz down. The Vox is pub lished the third Fri day of each month ex cept for August. Edi tor of the Vox is Frank Emens, W4HFU, 3714 Lake wood Cir cle, Hunts ville, Ala. 35811 or fe mens@hiwaay.net. Ma te rial of in ter est to the HARC mem ber ship should be sub mit ted to the edi tor by the sec ond Fri day of the month of publication. Vox, Vol 43, Nr 2, February, 2003 A Newsletter published monthly except for August by the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club, P.O. Box 423, Huntsville, AL 35804 Marconi 100th An ni ver sary The 100th an - ni ver sary of Marconi s first trans mis sion from the United States (Cape Cod) to Eng land was this past Jan - u ary 18th. The S had been trans mit ted from New found land and re ceived by the same sta tion in Poldhu, Cornwall only a lit tle over a year be fore. The sub stance of the trans - mis sion had cer tainly in creased: a 54 word greet ing from Teddy Roo se velt com pared to one let ter sent re peat edly. At least two spe cial events sta tions, KM1CC and WA1WCC, com mem o - rated this event. There are nu mer ous web sides chron i cling both the 1901 and 1903 events which searches marconi poldhu 1901" and marconi poldhu 1903" yield. Some of these have sounds of code re ceived from spark-gap trans - mit ters: quite loud, but barely de ci pher - able - I d give them a 1-9-1. While these sig nals lacked clar ity, they cer tainly made up for it in band width! A few ex - per i ment ers even ap plied mod u la tion to this very raw RF to pro duce the first AM phone sig nals, which must have pro duced sig nif i cant side bands 100 khz away. Be yond their wild est dreams, spark gap pi o neers were us ing the spec trum! We need to do the same (but let s not use spark gap), to help us keep it. It was com fort ing to hear at the Jan u ary 10th HARC/NARA Joint Mem ber ship meet - ing that a 1.25m re peater out age caused a stir, when con ven tional wis dom says there is no ac tiv ity on the band. Let s try to fill up the huge 10m and 6m bands when con di tions per mit - a lot of room re mains there for FM, full car rier DSB AM, and any thing else that s le gal. In other words, make waves! 73, Tom KG4CUY Page 1 HUNTSVILLE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB CQ Old Timers Check your VOX cal en dar: Fri day, Feb ru ary 28th is Old Timer s Night. We re look ing for ra dio lore, per sonal ex pe ri ences, and tales of all de scrip - tions from those who have been around ham ra dio for a while. Plan to come and have a good time! NARA Elec tion Re sults: Pres i dent: Ron Shaffer W4VM Vice Pres i dent: John Zeiler WD5GOZ Sec re tary: Char lie Em er son N4OKL Trea surer: Todd Free stone KD4ALP Tech ni cal Ad vi sor: Ralph Ho gan W4XE HARC Li ai son: Don Tunstill W4NO 94 Con trol Op: Don Tram mel AI4CW Web Page Cu ra tor: Cliff Goehagen: W4CSG From the new NARA pres i dent We had a great turn out at the HARC / NARA kick off meet ing on Jan u ary 10th. It was more then a re peater meet ing alone we heard a good over - view of all that HARC does as well. The re sults of the NARA elec tion can be seen else where in this edi tion of the Vox. Ku dos to out go ing NARA pres i - dent John Zeiler for his work in keep - ing NARA roll ing on all fronts for over 2 years. The re cent re-work of the 94 PL deck, the Joint mem ber ship drive and the 03 kick off meet ing all went CAVEC Amateur Radio Li cense Ex ams Exam sessions are held the first Sat ur - day of each month unless a hol i day causes the session to be de layed for one week. Up coming sessions are: Sat ur day, Febru ary 1 Sat ur day, March 1 For in formation con tact: Larry Frost, KR4GU, 536-4154 kr4gu@hamfest.org Or Don Tunstill, W4NO, 536-3904 dontunstill@hamfest.org

February, 2003 smoother with John s contributions. John will con tinue to help as a very able Vice Pres i dent. A very sin cere thanks also to Don Tunstill for all his hard work as NARA sec re tary for sev eral years. Some may not re al ize that there is not only a lot of be hind the scenes work with the NARA data base but with the me chanics of in - ter ac tion with HARC as well. The Joint mem ber ship drive, Field day Hamfest & SET are just a few ex am ples of this. Be - cause Don is so ac tively in volved in both or ga ni za tions, I have asked that he con - tinue func tion ing as a li ai son because he makes more of the HARC meetings then I do in my ef fort to bal ance hobby & fam ily ac tiv i ties. The list goes on and on for all who have helped in NARA s suc cess so I ll hit a few & go on: Ralph W4XE - his tireless tech ni cal work in keep ing our machines in tip top shape, Don AI4CW - handling all the speed di als, an nouncements and pro gram ming on 94, Cliff: W4CSG - do - ing a fan tas tic job with the NARA web page (www.qsl.net/nara) (by the way, we have adopted the NARA logo cre - ated by Cliff), Todd KD4ALP for his long stand ing tire less ef forts in keep ing our trea sury straight, Char lie: N4OKL for his work as vice pres i dent, help in re - pair ing 18 and for jump ing in as sec re - tary this year and al ready do ing a lot of da ta base work, Leigh WD4CPF for keep ing 18 up and run ning, Ernie WA4BPS and Carol N4QPE for host ing 2 re peat ers with lots of wires! Doug W4PS and Danna K4RPS for host ing our sec ond UHF re peater and Frank: W4HFU for a moun tain of work in mak - ing the joint mail out hap pen. Thank you very much to all the folks at Gigaparts for con trib ut ing SIGNIFICANTLY to the door prizes at the meet ing. We all need to re ally sup - port Gigaparts in both ra dio and com - puter pur chases! I know I may have for got ten some one & I ll re mem ber af ter I turn this in to Frank but please know that I speak for all who are part of NARA when I con vey a heart felt thanks to each of you - named and un-named. Speaking of un named - thank you to who ever came up with re fresh ments at Vox the meet ing since we did n t plan or bud get for it in our haste. Who ever you are, if you d pass the hat my way, I d like to con trib ute.. grin. Now, what about cam paign prom - ises? I make none the elec tion is over.. grin. But you know Ralph and I and oth ers will get the stuff done on the tech ni cal side! I think the first pri - or ity is to fol low through on the 18 re - place ment quickly and hope fully say goodby to our crackle. Part of that plan is to wean our selves from the 18 patch and rely more on patches on 94, 443.500 and planned patches on 145.33 and 224.94. In ad di tion, I en cour age the use of the patch on 147.10 and pos - si bly a planned one for 147.30. This would free up a link ing an tenna sys - tem for ex cit ing new in ternet link ing modes which has be come very pop u - lar. It will also al low us to save costs in re plac ing an ag ing set of UHF link ra - dios cur rently ded i cated to the patch. If you have thoughts or ques tions on this, send me an e-mail. HARC ACTIVITY CALENDAR FOR Feb ru ary, 2003 Sunday Mon day Tues day Wednesday Thursday Friday Sat ur day 26 27 28 29 Repeater Net19:00 30 31 Auction Come ex - change junk box contents 1 CAVEC Exams, 0900 RedCross Bld Jackson, MS Hamfest, 1-31 & 2-1 g 2 3 4 5 Repeater Net19:00 6 7 8 DisieFest, Memphis, TN Feb 8/9 9 10 11 12 Repeater Net19:00 13 14 Vox night 15 16 17 18 19 Repeater Net19 00 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Repeater Net19 00 27 28 Old Timer s Night - Come here about our history! 1 CAVEC Exams, 0900 Red Cross Bldg -- This Week In Amaterur Radio, +442.775 8 PM Sat ur days Page 2

Vox February, 2003 T he next pri or ity is to fin ish deploy - ment of the 6 me ter ma chine. There has been a lot of in ter est in this and we hope to do it early this spring. About equal pri or ity is the East 94 re mote receiver. My apol o gies for not men tioning it in the haste of the meet ing but it is pro - gress ing along thanks to ef forts by John: K4JCH, Paul KF4TTB and others. I hope we can fin ish this up as soon as warm weather al lows tower work. One other thing to men tion before I close: As one who not only works to main tain Club re peat ers but several re - peat ers of my own, I have come to ap - pre ci ate the work and cash flow of oth ers who do the same such as Harlie: KB4CRG and Ralph: W4XE and Steve: WA4OUE and Scott W4SSW just to name a few. These folks keep lots of re - peat ers go ing on far less of a budget then NARA and just as much work. With that in mind I be lieve it fosters a much better Ham com mu nity to look for ways to work to gether with these folks and en cour age them rather then com pete with them. I see only benefit to all in volved with this kind of posture. With that in mind let me say how much I en joyed the re cent 24 re peater meet - ing and con tinue to pledge what ever sup port I can. I hope you will do like - wise. You will hear me on nearly all of the Huntsville re peat ers, NARA and oth ers alike but most times if you shout on 10 I will an swer there. In this same spirit, look for in for ma tion about an up - com ing W4VM /W4EX re peater group meet ing else where in this is sue of the Vox. Well, I m get ting a rather long ar ti cle so I ll save the rest for fu ture NARA notes and the 2003 NARA news let ter. One other think I d like to men tion is Stay tuned and I ll see you on the air 73, Ron Shaffer, W4VM NARA Pres i dent (w4vm@comcast.net) W4VM / W4XE re peater meet ing Jan u ary 30th. The us ers on the 147.10 re peater have been talk ing about a get to gether for some time now. Since Ralph: W4XE and I work to gether on most all we do with re peat ers we de cided to have a com - bined sup port meet ing for us ers of both Page 3 groups. Ralph: W4XE op er ates the 145.23 Al a bama Inter City Link (AICN) ma chine on Monte Sano as well as the 443.625 re peater (127.5 tone) on Monte Sano and the 444.300 re peater (103.5 tone) on Green Moun tain. This Green moun tain site is where the Trans mit side of the new 6 me ter re peater will be. The pend ing 53.21 ma chine is a joint ven ture with W4XE and NARA with NARA sup ply ing por tions of the an tenna sys tem and Ralph sup ply ing most of the RF equip ment. The AICN ma chine took a mas sive light ning hit last sum mer which de stroyed most of Ralph s equip ment but it is fi nally al - most ready to re-de ploy. W4VM op er ates the 147.10 re peater in Weedon Moun tain RSA in a joint ven ture with the North Al a bama DX Club (NADXC) and the Mar shal Am a - teur Ra dio Club (MARC). W4VM sup - plies most of the equip ment and MARC sup plies the patch / phone line con trol. The 147.10 ma chine took a light ning hit a year or so ago but stayed on the air thanks to the NADXC back-up equip ment and help

February, 2003 from in di vid u als who are part of the Huntsville Cave Res cue Unit to get the dam age re paired. W4VM also operates a UHF ma chine on 443.475 with a 103.5 tone which has a patch and part time HF re mote base. A sec ond UHF machine: 443.150 is in the works to support Internet link ing and the W4VM IRLP node 4950 op er ates on 446.200 Mhz with a 100 Hz tone and is open to all. Ron also main tains the 147.30 flag ship repeater for the NADXC. In ter est ing projects with this ma chine to spur in terest in the DX club will also be dis cussed at the meet ing. The meet ing is at 6:30 PM on Thurs - day Jan u ary 30th at Papa Lovettis on Uni ver sity Drive at the Northwest cor - ner of Sparkman and University. All who are in ter ested in these facilities are en cour aged to at tend and hear about them as well as meet oth ers who fre - quent these re peat ers. 73, Ron Shaffer, W4VM The Giggle Box HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EVERYBODY THAT WAS BORN IN FEBRUARY!! A note from Gig gles: The other day, I was talk ing to a hope fully, prospective ham, who made me glad that I write the Gig gle Box. The ar ti cle gave them an ex - cuse to pick up the VOX and read it. While read ing the Gig gle Box, I hope that some thing catches the reader s eye and causes them to read the rest of the VOX. I ad mit that if you aren t a ham than you don t un der stand what you are read ing and it is a lit tle dull. Before be com ing a ham, I would never have picked up the VOX be cause it didn t in - ter est me, but now that I am a ham, I think the ar ti cles are in formative and fun to read. Be lieve it or not, I do read the VOX from cover to cover, do you? I also have been known to put some error in my ar ti cle, just to see if someone actu - ally reads the VOX. And you thought I was n t pay ing at ten tion. ;-) If I do make a mis take, I want you to come to me and tell me about it and we will both know that at least the G Box is being read. Don t get me wrong, I m not saying that only the Gig gle Box is worth reading and I m not pat ting my self on the shoul - der. I m just glad that I can contribute to the VOX and make some one giggle and laugh at my ar ti cle. Don t forget to buy your val en tine a sur prise for Valentine s Day. A Joke or Two Just Repairs Mrs. Davidson s dish washer quit work ing, so she called a re pair man. He could n t ac com mo date her with an eve - ning ap point ment, and since she had to go to work the next day she told him, I ll leave the key un der the mat. Fix the dish washer, leave the bill on the coun ter, and I ll mail you the check. By the way, don t worry about my Do ber - man. He won t bother you. But, what - ever you do, not un der any cir cum stances talk to my par rot!" When the re pair man ar rived at Mrs. Davidson s apart ment the next day, he dis cov ered the big gest and mean est look ing Do ber man he had ever seen. But, just like she had said, the dog just lay there on the car pet watch ing the re - pair man go about his busi ness. How - ever, the whole time he was there the par rot drove him nuts with his in ces sant curs ing, yell ing, and name-call ing. Finally the re pair man could n t stand it any lon ger and yelled: Shut up, you stu pid ugly bird! To which the par rot re plied: Get him, Spike! Diary of a Snow Shoveler December 8: 6:00 PM. It started to snow. The first snow of the sea son and the wife and I sat for hours by the win dow watch ing the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven. It looked like a Grandma Mo ses Print. So ro man tic we felt like new ly - weds again. I love snow! De cem ber 9: We woke to a beau ti ful blan ket of crys tal white snow cov er ing ev ery inch of the land scape. What a fan - tas tic sight! Can there be a more lovely place in the Whole World? Moving here was the best idea I ve ever had. Shoveled for the first time in years and felt like a boy again. I did both our drive - way and the side walks. This af ter noon the snow plow came along and cov ered up the side walks and closed in the drive way, so I got to shovel again. What a per fect life. De cem ber 12: The sun has melted all our lovely snow. Such a dis ap point - ment. My neigh bor tells me not to worry, we ll def i nitely have a white Christ mas. No snow on Christ mas would be aw ful! Bob says we ll have so much snow by the end of win ter, that I ll never want to see snow again. I don t think that s pos si ble. Bob is such a nice man. I m glad he s our neigh bor. Page 4 Vox De cem ber 14: Snow, lovely snow! 8" last night. The tem per a ture dropped to -20. The cold makes ev ery thing spar kle so. The wind took my breath away, but I warmed up by shov el ing the drive way and side walks. This is the life! The snowplow came back this af ter noon and bur ied ev ery thing again. I did n t re al ize I would have to do quite this much shov el ing, but I ll cer tainly get back in shape this way. I wish I would n t huff and puff so. De cem ber 15: 20 inches fore cast. Sold my van and bought a 4x4 Ex - plorer. Bought snow tires for the wife s car and 2 ex tra shov els. Stocked the freezer. The wife wants a wood stove in case the elec tric ity goes out. I think that s silly. We aren t in Alaska, af ter all. De cem ber 16: Ice storm this morn - ing. Fell on my butt on the ice in the drive way putt ing down salt. Hurt like heck. The wife laughed for an hour, which I think was very cruel. De cem ber 17: Still way be low freez - ing. Roads are too icy to go any where. Elec tric ity was off for 5 hours. I had to pile the blan kets on to stay warm. Noth ing to do but stare at the wife and try not to ir ri tate her. Guess I should ve bought a wood stove, but won t ad mit it to her. I hate it when she s right. I can t be lieve I m freez ing to death in my own liv ing room. De cem ber 20: Elec tric ity s back on, but had an other 14" of the stuff last night. More shov el ing. Took all day. Snowplow came by twice. Tried to find a neigh bor kid to shovel, but they said they re too busy play ing hockey. I think they re ly ing. Called the only hard ware store around to see about buy ing a snow blower and they re out. Might have an other ship ment in March. I think they re ly ing. Bob says I have to shovel or the city will have it done and bill me. I think he s ly ing. De cem ber 22: Bob was right about a white Christ mas be cause 13 more inches of the white stuff fell to day, and it s so cold it prob a bly won t melt till Au gust. Took me 45 min utes to get all dressed up to go out to shovel and then I had to a na ture call. By the time I got un dressed, took care of busi ness and dressed again, I was too tired to shovel. Tried to hire Bob who has a plow on his truck for the rest of the

Vox February, 2003 win ter; but he says he s too busy. I think he s is ly ing. De cem ber 23: Only 2" of snow today. And it warmed up to 0. The wife wanted me to dec o rate the front of the house this morn ing. What is she... nuts??? Why did n t she tell me to do that a month ago? She says she did but I think she s ly ing. De cem ber 24: 6". Snow packed so hard by snowplow, I broke the shovel. Thought I was hav ing a heart attack. If I ever catch that guy who drives that snowplow, I ll drag him through the snow by his hair. I know he hides around the cor ner and waits for me to fin ish shov el ing and then he comes down the street at a 100 miles an hour and throws snow all over where I ve just been! To night the wife wanted me to sing Christ mas car ols with her and open our pres ents, but I was busy watching for the snowplow. De cem ber 25: Merry Christmas. 20 more inches of the #$%&*!! slop to - night. Snowed in. The idea of shoveling makes my blood boil. I hate the snow! Then the snowplow driver came by ask - ing for a do na tion and I hit him over the head with my shovel. The wife says I have a bad at ti tude. I think she s an id - iot. If I have to watch It s a Wonderful Life one more time, I m going to kill her. De cem ber 26: Still snowed in. Why did I ever move here? It was all HER idea. She s re ally get ting on my nerves. De cem ber 27: Tem per a ture dropped to -30 and the pipes froze. De cem ber 28: Warmed up to above -50. Still snowed in. SHE is driving me crazy!!! De cem ber 29: 10 more inches. Bob says I have to shovel the roof or it could cave in. That s the sil li est thing I ever heard. How dumb does he think I am? De cem ber 30: Roof caved in. The snow plow driver is su ing me for a mil - lion dol lars for the bump on his head. The wife went home to her mother. An - other 9" pre dicted. De cem ber 31: Set fire to what s left of the house. No more shov el ing. Jan u ary 8: I feel so good. I just love those lit tle white pills they keep giving me. Why am I tied to the bed? Did You Know: You can rub your comb and hair brush with a sheet of fab ric soft ener to hold down static in your hair. The Thought for the Month of February He fell out of the ugly tree and hit ev - ery branch on the way down Solve the puzzle: HWNE A KCCLO SIGRYNUH IT SOEG ACKB 4 CDSSENO. 73, Peggy Bell (Giggles), K4EGB Do you know what the word FAMILY means? FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU? The Editor s Wastebasket I hope ev ery body was able to en joy the hol i days and got their fill of tur key and foot ball. It s pretty hard to set tle down to the some what dis mal pros pect of Jan u ary and Feb ru ary af ter all that. I ve al ways fig ured if there was a month among the twelve that we could dis - pense with it would be Feb ru ary. It seems to have no re deem ing fea tures other than short ness -- and it s easy to see why it was picked for the short est month. Apol ogies to KG4CUY for spring ing the photo on him. I hope it sur vives the Xerox pro cess safely. Other reg u lar con - tri bu tors to the Vox might find some - thing sim i lar in the fu ture. Gee, I hope that does n t scare off any con tri bu tors! Speaking of scar ing off con tri bu tors, some thing seems to have done that both last month and this month. Last month I fig ured it had to do with the fact that ev - ery body was dis tracted by their hol i day do ings and did n t get to write any - thing, I hope it was not a con ta gious or chronic prob lem. We ll have some short Voxes if it is. Maybe it s time to re mind ev ery body --I m not the Vox writer. I put the news let ter to gether from ma te - rial sent to me by the mem bers. No ma - te rial, no Vox. I d sure like to see a pro gram on IRLP. It sounds like a po ten tially fas ci nat ing pos si bil ity and I d like to un der stand more about it. In fact, it be came ob vi ous dur ing the NARA/HARC joint meet ing that the re peater sys tem has got ten com plex enough that you can t be gin to tke ad van tage of its ca pa bil i ties by just mon i tor ing 94 any more. Am I the only one who d like to see a pre sen ta - tion on the op er a tional as pects of the sys tem? 73, Frank Emens, W4HFU Area Hamfests January 31 - February 1, 2003. Capital City Hamfest, Jackson, Mississippi See www.jxnarc.org or con tact ab5wf@arrl.net. Hours are 8 to 4 on Sat ur day. Free park ing. Talk-in fre quency is 146.76 MHz.. February 8-9 2003. Tennessee Section Convention, Memphis, Tennessee. See http://www.dixiefest.org or con - tact Ben Troughton, KU4AW at 901-372-8031 or bktrough@bellsouth.net. Hours are 9 to 5 on Sat ur day and 9 to 2 on Sunday. Ad mis sion is $5.00. Parking is free. Talk-in fre quen cies are 146.82 and/or 146.88 Mhz. 73, John Farr, KC4ZXX CAVEC Test Sessions - Huntsville & Athens The CAVEC test ing ses sions for this area are as fol lows. 1st Sat ur day at the Huntsville Red Cross at 9:00 am 3rd Sat ur day at Intergraph in Mad i son at 1:00 pm. Bldg. 15 in the back door. Odd num bered months only. 3rd Sat - ur day at Ath ens EOC on Mar ket st. in Ath ens at 1:00 pm. Even num bered months only. The only ex cep tions are when the date would fall ex actly on a hol i day or the week of the Huntsville hamfest. Bring a pic ture ID, a copy of your am a teur li cense, any cer tif i cates of suc cess ful com ple tion that you may have, and 10 dol lars. IF you ve got any other ques tions just give me call. Home phone 461-7905. Cell phone 603-0049. BTW I typ i cally mon i tor 147.240 on the 3rd Sat ur day and 146.940 on the first Sat ur day. C U there. Bob Hudson W4RKH Page 5