We had a special visitor, Bob, VE4RMM from a small mining comunity in the wilds of Northern Manitoba, FlinFlong I believe he said it was. 600 miles north of Winnepeg (which for those of you which have never been there is WAAAYYYY far north to begin with!). He started off the self introductions. John Silby was another visitor welcomed at the meeting. Howard WH6CLZ had daughter Stephanie along. For a meeting that minutes before starting time looked like it was going to be quite lonely, a couple of late arrivals made the total 20 in a very short time. We captured two renewal checks from members as well Before the meeting was over, our VE4 visitor even joined the club
Sid, AH6HH gave a report on the status of AO40 and its recovery from its little command accident which put the satellite in jeopardy about 3 weeks into its initial operation
First business was an announcement by Sid that the "donations" table, that nifty place outside at the HamFest in October where people left stuff the club could sell, and people could pick up something they thought would be useful and drop a bit of money in the bucket, had raised a surprising $126.44! Putting our HamFest effort even further into the black this year
Clem KH7HO said we raised over $330 from door receipts. There were
recommendations that we push forward with the ARRL club insurance
application which is pending and also work harder to promote extra
ticket sales just before the door prize drawings. Also trying to
have more than just one drawing at the end, at least a second one
in the middle of the HamFest next time.
Reservations have been made with more excellent help from Shep for the same place for the HamFest next year, but this time to include the outdoor pavillion. It was recommended that we try to have a PA system of some kind to facilitate announcements and door prize drawings etc. Jan WH7Y suggested we consider getting a club T-shirt printed up that we could sell at the HamFest.
We discussed our Field Day results which were published in the December QST. We did quite well for a number of reasons which can mostly be summed up as "group effort", a good example of a club project with lots of people contributing in one way or another to make a score we could be proud of! Mike Gibson's fine CW operating at that event was noted it was unanimously voted that the club take the unusual action of sending him not only a thank you message from the club, but a special invitation to become a member.
Alternate site for the FD next year at Kualoa Beach Park. The special FD Site advisory committee of Lee Wical, who this week was using the callsign KH6RAT, Mike AH7R and Walt AH6OZ launched an extensive onsite visit right after the meeting complete with photo-recon. Initial results look promising.
Sid and Lee said that testing on Oahu may become harder to find as a
series of changes sort themselves out locally. They have agreed to take
turns so they can offer testing after each KARC meeting instead of just
every other month.
Show and Tell finished off the meeting. Lee had a strange hybrid wrench
to show off. It is a crescent wrench, but with a latch that pops the
jaws open and closed a bit, somewhat like a Vise-Grip, not to be
confused with da Vice Grip. Mike showed off a completed version of
a current measuring shunt which he described at a previous meeting which
is useful for documenting current demands of your ham rigs under various
conditions and settings.
Greg cited recent failures in his ESP technique and that he needs to hear more from the membership and officers at PO Box 1325, Weaverville, CA 96093 or at his email wb6fzh@arrl.net He said he would like to have photos of meetings and activities, articles by members, or even suggestions for articles. He said that many of the calls were on the 20th of the month, the deadline for the issue. He noted that if information is received after that date, and misses an issue, it will be always considered for the next month'sor future issue.
On board are; William Shepherd, Expedition commander, KD5GSL;
Yuri Gidzenko, Soyuz commander (unknown call);
Sergei Krikalev, flight engineer, U5MIR; The Russian Module call sign: RZ3DZR / R0ISS. Other club call signs ISS used: NA1SS, DL0ISS and ALPHA
Bill Shepherd, has very recently made some individual contacts to hams on earth on a random
basis, and a few scheduled School contacts have recently started. Their workschedule has already resulted in "missed" contacts, that will be rescheduled soon. It was hoped that the packet and digipeater functions would be on the air soon, but as of the time of this story's writing, no packet from space yet This is the same 1200 baud AX25 packet you use on earth! No special equipment is required to digipeat to ISS. It will be much the same procedures as with MIR.. We can also look forward to
SSTV again.
In '99, AH6HH, Sid and Greg- WB6FZH were a couple of the handfull of Hawaii Hams that were digipeating from Hawaii to MIR to Hawaii...The long way from Kaneohe to Kailua. Greg was also lucky enough to QSO/digipeat to California with N6CO, Doc. The window of opportunity was roughly 20 seconds long with the angle above the horizon of less than 2 degrees on both ends. When Doc saw the FZH Beacon, he replied "Hello Hawaii", with a couple seconds to spare!.
Remember, here in the Pacific, there are not hundreds of packet users all trying at one time to contact ISS.. We are very lucky, you have a better chance to work the space station on voice or packet from paradise than North America or Europe with hundreds of stations in the footprint at one time....
The Worldwide DOWNLINK for voice and packet: is 145.800, The Worldwide packet UPLINK 145.990, The Region 1 VOICE UPLINK (Europe) is 145.200, The Region 2 & 3 VOICE UPLINK (Hawai/Pacifici, N & S America) is: 144.490. LOOK and LISTEN FIRST to avoid QRM to other stations and especially consider the crew on ISS, their problem is they receive too well...all at one time, on the same frequency. Be patient, be courteous.
ISS information will be added to a new "Hot Topic" on the KARC Homepage soon for your reference use. They will include frequencies including DOPPLER variations. You can download a FREE satellite prediction program, PREDICT, from the KARC Hompage, Hot Topic Section on "EasySats", that has the frequencies for AO-27 and UO-14 and some other good informational links.
In a few weeks, a better antenna for Amateur use will be mounted on ISS during a spacewalk. Eventually, Slow Scan TV, and more frequent voice and packet operation will be coming from ISS, but for now, they are very busy just trying to keep to their schedule making the station functional as more and more hardware and supplies arrive.
The KARC testing webpage is one of the very few in the entire Pacific Division, that are linked from the ARRL website. Many members of KARC are credentialed by both the W5YI and ARRL VE Testing Programs that make it possible to have the required number of testing personell present for tests.
Editor's NOTE: Congratulations to Mel, KQ6EB who recently up-graded at a testing session to Extra Class. Mel passed the written element and was awarded a CSCE last March and worked hard to get that last element completed. Thanks to all the members of the testing team that through their donated time and training, make it possible to have enough personnel to have the tests.
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Consider participating in a radio contest at low power. You will never have an easier way to try the excitement of QRP operating. Just think, you have other skilled operators listening for you intent on pulling you and your information through. They often have great antennas, high-tech equipment and great operating skills all designed to pull your signal through
This article contains a few ideas that you might try at any power level, but will be particularly helpful when running 5 watts output or less.
The writer of this article, Greg, KH6/WB6FZH at the edge of Kaneohe Bay armed with a vertical and G5RV wire antenna hanging from a 25'Coconut Palm, has been running QRP (less than 5 watts) in the major ARRL and CQ WW Contests. He has won the QRP Pacific Section or Hawaii divisions since his arrival in 1994. Often he won because nobody else entered... Other times he made the top 10 world-wide and won the Oceania Division, so there is some skill involved too..This is the subtle reach for some credibility
Greg entered his first ARRL Sweepsteaks as a Novice at 15yrs old in 1963 and was the over-all national winner for Novice Division. (He thought he was some kind of super-contester..turns out his 2 Element Quad, Hilltop Location, and Luck were probably responsible for the win..) Over the 36 years since as time and circumstance dictated he operated in many events. Presently he is content to let others set the records, and mostly operates for the fun and comradery. These ideas are based on his experience and many similar suggestions that have appeared in print written by others through the years. Now for the hints, they are not in any particular order.
Before you start, remember, you are not out to win the contest, just to have fun and see if you like contesting. Most contesters are patient and considerate, like in anything there are some idiots too. Contesting is not "Rocket Science" but you will hear some stations that clearly have a gift
Now that you know where to look, start listening...have your printed references located in a handy place, incase you need them later. When all else fails, read the rules. Lots of scratch paper and your favorite writing instruments are a must. If you want to have a soft drink or water at your operating position, use a container that if it spills over will not make a big mess. Put the pizza on a TV dinner tray..to the side, etc. Lots of napkins..
This should inspire all KARC members to find time to serve their club as an officer or other position.. As we all know Jerry Mulherin, WH6BKQ, has worked so very hard for years for KARC, he currently is our official mailing address and telephone contact point as Membership Chairman. He is often Field Day Chairman/BBQ Chef, and has held many club offices through the years. Jerry has found time to fit this in to a very busy work and family schedule. (Thanks Jerry!)
Jerry is interested in many of the many aspects of Amateur Radio, but most of you would have no way of knowing that he has had a big problem for years, his station location at home has aparently been ground zero for about every kind of interference you can think of. The presence of AC line noise of every type you can imagine makes HF operation very difficult, the buzzing, poping, hum, the whole nine yards. No doubt a very discouraging situation...no wonder he likes Field Day, it is probably the only times he has been able to listen to the bands clearly.
Well, here comes the link to the title of this article...Jerry has done what he can through the years to reduce this AC distribution line interference at his location, but it is ofcourse the source that needs to be repaired to ultimately reduce the interference. I am sure he has lamented, hoped for miracle noise limiting advances in technology and the like. I am certain he must have prayed for devine assistance, it would only be natural to look to a superior power to solve this problem.. Well, our secret source of information for this article has just related information about an Official Telecommunications Miracle... in Kaneohe.
Jerry's neighborhood aparaently had a brief power outage recently, and a short time afterwards Jerry turned on his transceiver as he often does. He had the most bizzare experience, HF signals were audible above a very low noise level on his SSB rig. We can all imagine Jerry's simultaneous confusion and delight...here for years, he has to deal with this horrible high noise level, making amateur radio operation very difficult from home and it is suddenly gone. In our mind's eye, we can see Jerry sitting in front of his rig at that fateful moment, turning on the power, and starting to tune receiver up and down the band... undoubtedly he initially thought his radio was broken, speaker defective, something had to be very wrong, he was not hearing the usual high noise level, and the signal or two struggling to make it through.
Now, can you imagine the shock and dissorientation when he heard moderate to weak signals moving his "S" meter that actually went up and down, not pinned at some high noise level. I can just see him looking up at the ceiling, then at the radio, then fiddling with a dial or control, still in shock.afraid that it is some kind of dream. The noise was gone...so far it has not returned to the original degree.
Eventually the realization that he is actually going to be able to enjoy operating his station from home more must be very exciting to Jerry. I can not help but believe that Jerry's tireless promotion of Amateur Radio and KARC must have been part of this miracle. I am almost certain that this is in some way God's way of thanking him for his dedication to KARC.
I guess it is OK to pray for noise reduction, DX, successful completion of a complicated construction project, passing another element of your FCC license test, that you are able to purchase that new piece of gear, have luck finding hidden transmitters, good health or for world peace or whatever you want, clearly it works! That is IF you find a way of serving KARC as an officer or help with one of the many on-going projects. Clearly this is the message of this wonderful miraculous situation. I am sure that there will be more VHF and UHF antennas in the parking lots of religious institutions all over Oahu soon on a regular basis now. This was a miracle, as any of us that have endured years of electrical noise can attest.
NOTE: As an alternate to prayer if you have a high noise level at your station, it might be a good idea to learn many of the simple steps to access the nature of your problem found in ARRL handbooks and publications. Then then contact Hawaian Electric and advise them (Be sure to exaggerate a bit too) that it is interfering with your ability to operate your licensed Amateur Radio station. Electric companies value these reports as often these noises are actually a forcast of something that needs repair in their system. They have special devices to pinpoint the sources of these unlawful emissions into the radio spectrum and can patrol your neighborhood to locate them. Congratulations Jerry! please remember take time out from operating to come to the meetings.
Note: It is not the intention of the editor to offend anyone's religious values with this hopefully entertaining story, and I hope the subtle message of bringing you individual talents to help KARC was not lost either.
MEMBERSHIP & Field Day CHAIRMAN- Jerry Mulherin, WH6BKQ,
235-3042, email:jerham@aloha.net
MAILING ADDRESS- KARC c/o J.Mulherin, 45-145 Mikihilina St., Kaneohe, HI 96744