The Repeater (electronic version)
Newsletter of the Arkansas River Valley Amateur Radio Foundation
Russellville, Arkansas
April, 1999
Officers:
President: Nick Kennedy,
WA5BDU
Vice-President - Margaret Alexander,
KC5MCS
Secretary-Treasurer - Charles Hall, KC5CVG
ARVARF Board:
John Evans, WB5BHS
Dick Koski, W5VUB
Tom Hughes KC5VRI
Les Hendrickson KD5DKL
Dennis Schaefer W5RZ
Newsletter staff
Dennis Schaefer W5RZ
Melissa Schaefer KI5QJ
John Evans WB5BHS
Jonathan Setcer KC5BRY
Charlotte Stockton KC5CKQ
CALENDAR OF EVENTS:
April
20 - ARVARF meeting, Ryan's, Meeting at 7:00, those who want to
eat, come
at 6:00.
23-24 - Little Rock Hamfest -Little Rock Expo Center
27 - RACES meeting, 911 building. 7:00 p.m.
May
8 - VE test session, ANO Training Center
9:00 a.m.
Every Saturday at 0700-0800 - breakfast meeting at Perkins
Restaurant.
ARVARF Net - Every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. on 146.82 (except club
meeting night)
SHORTWAVE WINDOW TO YUGOSLAV ACTION
You don't have to tune very far from the amateur HF bands to find
different
perspectives of the current crisis in Kosovo. NATO air strikes
against
Yugoslav targets resumed March 26, and many overseas
correspondents have
been expelled from Yugoslavia by the Milosevic regime.
Larry Magne, editor-in-chief of International Broadcasting
Services Ltd
which publishes Passport to World Band Radio, says Voice of
Russia World
Service, Radio Tirana, Radio Yugoslavia, and the BBC World
Service offer a
variety of points of view on the current happenings in the
Balkans.
International Broadcasting Services keeps an ear on world
shortwave
broadcasts from its primary monitoring site in Paraguay.
"Voice of Russia is interesting because they've sort of
taken up the Serb
cause," Magne explained. "In a way, their reaction is
more important
because they have some clout." Radio Tirana, from the
Albanian capital,
supports the other side of the conflict in which ethnic Albanians
in
Yugoslavia seek some degree of independence, while Radio
Yugoslavia will
offer the perspective of the Milosevic regime. Magne said it's
hard to beat
the BBC World Service for a more neutral position.
Magne said he considered it a bit odd that Radio Yugoslavia, with
powerful
transmitters installed under the Tito regime, still was on the
air as of
March 25, but IBS monitoring indicated the station was active on
7115 kHz
0100-0130 UTC. The shortwave station is "typically, the
first thing they go
after" when bombing, he said.
Voice of Russia and Radio Tirana both can be found evenings
within the
amateur 40-meter band (the 41-meter international broadcasting
allocation).
IBS monitored Radio Tirana on 7160 kHz between 0245 and 0400 UTC.
Russia is
available on 7125, 7180, and 7250, as well as other frequencies.
IBS has
monitored Voice of Russia on 12,000, 12,020, 12,040, and 15,595
kHz during
the last 24 hours. Magne said the economic crisis in Russia has
made that
country's international broadcasting schedule a bit more
unpredictable than
in the days when it was known as Radio Moscow.
Magne says 5975 kHz is the best spot for the BBC World Service.
Croatian
Radio also has been heard evenings on 9925 kHz.
"Radio France Internationale, Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, and others
are adding transmissions to the Balkans, so it is not
inconceivable that
some of the international broadcasters with access to large
transmitting
facilities may add frequencies because of the Balkan
situation," Magne said.
(From The ARRL Letter)
DON'T BE LEFT OFF THE ROSTER!
This is your last chance to pay your dues and be included on the
official
1999 ARVARF roster. Those not paying by May 1 will be left
off and you
won't get your newsletter in May. Please check your
expiration date, just
above your address.
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
The Fort Smith hamfest had the feel of an ARVARF event, with
about thirteen
of our members in attendance. Although it seemed small
compared to ours
(OK, I'm a little biased ... ), it was pretty enjoyable.
The QRP Forum was
the tail that wagged the dog in Fort Smith and I was pleased to
see two
ARVARF members walk away with sophisticated QRP transceiver kits
as door
prizes. We talk of going to these hamfests to support
neighboring groups,
but I'll confess to a more selfish motive: I go because I enjoy
'em. Hope
to see you at the Little Rock hamfest in April.
I can't restrain myself any longer! It's time to talk about
Field Day.
Early input I'm getting from members makes me believe we're going
to have
good participation and some good ideas about maximizing both our
enjoyment
and our score. Last year we had quite a dialog going via
email, the
repeater and other channels that worked well in getting ideas out
and
reaching consensus. You can join in by making your
suggestions and
questions and desire to participate known to me or to any of the
other big
field day enthusiasts. (You know who they are.) As in past
years, we'll
hash things out face to face at the remaining three club meetings
before
the event.
Our April program will be presented by Allen Bradley of the
Russellville
Police. Hope to see you there.
73,
Nick, WA5BDU
LAWRENCE WILSON, KB5BSA, SILENT KEY
Lawrence Wilson, KB5BSA, of Russellvile, passed away on March
17. Lawrence
was a cousin of Ben Hillis, W5HH.
NEW VCR SETTING FOR 2000
With all the junk about Y2K flying around, here is something I
bet you
hadn't thought would be problem. Some, if not most, VCR's won't
be able to
use the programmed advanced recording feature. Do not throw
away your VCR
in the year 2000. Set the year on 1972 because the calendar
days of the
week and month will be the same as the year 2000. The
manufacturer will
likely not share this information. They will want you to buy a
new one that
is "Y2K compliant".
A "Y2K compliant" VCR! Isn't this getting ridiculous!?!
73, KC5BRY
MARCH MINUTES
Meeting called to order at 7:00 PM 16 March 1999 at Ryan's by
Nick Kennedy,
President. February minutes approved as printed in
newsletter. Margaret
Alexander gave a recap of the hamfest. Approx 500 attended.
Melissa
Schaefer recapped the forums. All were well attended.
John Evans gave a
salute to Les Hendrickson and presented him a repeater
manual for going
above and beyond the call of duty. All vendor tables were
sold. All flea
market tables were sold, and more were needed by some of the
tailgaters,
but were not available. Financial report was
approved. Hamfest report
was approved. Dennis Schaefer gave a report of the prize
winners. Upcoming
field day was discussed. The possibility was brought
up of presenting a
scholarship to an area deserving youth. Further discussion
will be at the
next meeting. Upcoming hamfests are:
Tulsa & Jonesboro 3/20, Bentonville 4/24, Little Rock
4/23-24. Thirteen
(13) ARVARF members attended the Fort Smith hamfest.
Charles Hall and
Steve Mercure won SW-40+ QRP transceiver kits. The Grady
Hudlow family
donated items that were sold and the proceeds donated to ARVARF.
Net
controls discussed. Ben Hillis will finish out March,
Margaret Alexander -
April, Melissa Schaefer - Sept.The other months are open
for volunteers.
Jim Einert KA5CHP was a visitor. ***********CLUB EQUIPMENT
******DO YOU
HAVE ANY? ***************IF YOU DO PLEASE NOTIFY ONE OF THE
OFFICERS OF
ARVARF. WE DO NOT WANT IT TURNED IN TO THE CLUB, JUST NEED
TO KNOW WHERE
IT IS LOCATED. Meeting adjourned at 7:22 PM.
Charles Shingleur KF5JH presented a program on EMWIN.
Charles Hall, KC5CVG, Secretary
FOR SALE
Lots of computer parts:
Club 14" Monitor - up to 800x600 ni
CTX CPS-1560 15" Monitor - up to 1024x768 ni (has a bit of
ghosting)
NEC 4D 15" Monitor - up to 1024x768 ni
IBM 345Mb IDE hd
Sony 1x External CD-ROM
Mitsumi 6x Internal IDE CD-ROM
Acer 24X Internal IDE CD-ROM
Promise Ultra/33 Controller
SGI Indy: 100Mhz R4600, 32Mb RAM, Extra S-BUS network card,
Mouse, IndyCam
, Irix 5.3 media, No keyboard, but it uses standard PS/2
keyboard. System
has something wrong with either the power supply
or the motherboard.
Motherboards - (All include specified processor(s):
Dual Pentium 100Mhz Intel Motherboard. Comes with 16Mb Ram
Octek Rhino-9 Motherboard with Cyrix 166+
2 486-33 Motherboards each with 8Mb RAM
Network cards: 3Com 3c509 10Base2 + AUI, WD8003 10Base2 + AUI,
NE2000 Clone
10Base2 + 10BaseT.
Video (All ISA) Unknown VGA, CGA/Mono + game port, Trident VGA
256k ,Everex
VGA
Misc: Golden Sound Card + Sony, Mitsumi, Panasonic CD-ROM control
(ISA),
MFM HD Controller (ISA), Parallel/Serial/Floppy IO (ISA), Floppy
Controller
(ISA)
Make an offer on any or all!
Andy Schaefer AA5DL ams@engr.uark.edu
NEW REPEATER FOR 146.820???
You may have heard me talking last fall about: "We need a
new repeater.
Ours is antiquated and doesn't work like it use to".
Well, after
consultation with Charles Shingleur and Tom Neumeier, our
present and past
repeater Technicians (the guys that actually work on the
machine), I was
convinced that our repeater is as good as a new one in some
respects, and
better than the new ones in other respects. Things like :
Tough-lightning
resistant. Paid for. Spare parts on hand. Familiar to the
guys that work
on it.
I HAD TWO REASONS FOR WANTING A NEW REPEATER. First, we
don't have the
ears we use to have. ( I believe this is a big part of why our
Tuesday
night net is not well supported. The HAMS from the surrounding
area can't
get in to our machine like they use to could).
However, Charles assures
me that our receiver is "2 db hotter than factory
specs.". Tom Neumeier
says: "The antenna Harness and connectors are probably
corroded. If someone
will take it down, I will
clean the harness and connectors." (Any Volunteers?)
My second objective was to have a nicer controller on our
repeater. One
that would make voice announcements, (i.e.: "NET TONIGHT AT
8 PM" or " CLUB
MEETING TONIGHT AT 7 PM AT RYAN'S"), tell the time,
etc. I was of the
understanding that a "fancy" Repeater controller would
not interface with
our "antiquated" repeater. However, Charles assures me
that we CAN connect
a "fancy" controller to our "antiquated"
repeater, no problem. There were
concerns that a "fancy" controller is much more
susceptible to lightning
than the old battle ax of a controller that we have now. That
should not be
a problem since Charles, and whomever helped him with the
project,
installed the "lightning protection stuff" nearly 2
years ago, we have not
had any lightning trouble. I have confidence that the
"lightning protection
stuff" will also protect a new "fancy" Repeater
controller.
CONCLUSION: I am convinced that with a cleaned
antenna and a "fancy" new
Repeater Controller we will again have a repeater that will serve
us well,
and satisfy our needs and wants.
Here is a web site that is dedicated to Repeater Controllers.
There are
links to several Manufacturers and lists of features etc.
http://www.kc.net/~bryonj/page3.html
If you are a web surfer, check them
out, educate yourself. Then when I finally get around to
bringing up the
subject at a club meeting, you will be well informed, and ready
to give
your input.
73, J. Setcer, KC5BRY
APRS EMERGENCY CALL BRINGS HELP
When Scott Ratchford, KC5JGV, witnessed a bad accident during a
snowstorm
on Pennsylvania's I-76 recently, he immediately grabbed his cell
phone and
called 911. When that--and several other possible
combinations--failed, he
tried an emergency call on 2-meters. Again, no luck. Two people
were
trapped inside an overturned vehicle, and Ratchford was getting
desperate.
"Here I am in the middle of who knows where, a huge
snowstorm, a serious
accident, folks needing help, no one answering on .52!" he
said in a March
8 posting about the incident on the APRS Special Interest Group.
"So, I
switch the MIC-E to 7, and hit the button." This sent an
emergency
mike-encoder signal out over the Automatic Packet Reporting
System (APRS).
Anyone with a packet station and a computer can access a
real-time map
display of participating stations. When used with a GPS
receiver it is
ideal for tracking moving stations.
Ratchford's emergency beacon was spotted by several stations who
immediately contacted the Pennsylvania State Police. But the cops
"don't do
latitude and longitude," said Dan Velez, W4DJV, in Virginia,
one of the
stations monitoring the call. Clay Owen, AA3JY, in Pennsylvania,
had better
luck. He also called the state police and was able to give them
references
to exits and route numbers, thanks to APRS+ and the Delorme
Street Atlas.
"I also gave them the name of the individual to be
contacted, thanks to QRZ
built into this program," he reported.
APRS developer Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, was among those noting the
emergency
call in the Pennsylvania-Maryland-New Jersey area. Bruninga notes
that
APRS-DOS will display the nearest mile marker on interstates but
"apparently I missed I-76 in the database." Unknown to
Ratchford, the
message was received and understood. "Little did I know that
the APRS
message was received, as a trooper had arrived within minutes of
my
transmission," he said. Only when the trooper asked for him
by name as he
was about to leave did Ratchford learn that APRS had delivered
the message
and that someone had called the police. "I left the scene
feeling very
happy about our hobby and especially our interest in APRS,"
he said.
(From The ARRL Letter)
TEXAS WEATHER EMERGENCY PROMPTS FCC DECLARATION
At the request of South Texas Section Manager Ray Taylor, N5NAV,
the FCC
ordered all but emergency traffic cleared from 3873 and 7290 kHz
for
several hours March 12 and 13, because of a weather emergency.
Taylor
reports the New Braunfels weather station alerted him to severe
weather on
March 12, and SKYWARN nets were activated on VHF and, later, on
HF because
of the wide area involved.
"We had large golf ball size hail, and nine confirmed
tornadoes touched
down," Taylor said, adding that some property damage as well
as phone and
power outages occurred, but no injuries. Flash flood warnings
were issued
as a result of the violent and slow-moving storms. He said the HF
circuits
worked fine until malicious interference erupted, and he
contacted the FCC
on behalf of the Texas Emergency Net. Based on the circumstances,
the FCC
resident agent in Houston supported the issuance of a
declaration.
"The Net tried working without the declared emergency but
received
intentional interference and requested FCC assistance," said
the FCC's Jim
Laraway. "We assisted." Taylor said that once the FCC
issued its
declaration--which was disseminated via a W1AW bulletin--the
interference
problems disappeared.
More than 150 hams in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas
participated
in the emergency nets. The FCC declaration expired at sunset
March 13.--Ray
Taylor, N5NAV
(From The ARRL Letter)
Editor's Note: It's this ham's opinion that it's a real shame
that people
have to have an official declaration from the FCC before they
will desist
bothering an emergency net. Maybe the new FCC emphasis on
enforcement will
take care of some of these problems.
HAM TRADER YELLOW SHEETS QRT
After 38 years in business, the Ham Trader Yellow Sheets will
cease
publication. The twice-monthly classified publication is being
absorbed
into the Amateur Radio Trader, according to an announcement in
the last
edition of the Yellow Sheets. "It has been increasingly
difficult to
continue to provide the reliability and low cost that we always
have in the
past," said a statement from Founder and Editor
Al Brand, and Publishers Dave and Barbara Brand Wixon. Yellow
Sheets
subscribers will automatically get an Amateur Radio Trader
subscription,
while the subscriptions of ART subscribers who also subscribed to
the
Yellow Sheets will be extended. Amateur Radio Trader of
Crossville,
Tennessee, is published by TAP Publishing.
(From The ARRL Letter)
LITTLE ROCK HAMFEST
The Little Rock Hamfest ("The Big One") will be held on
April 23 and 24 at
the Little Rock Expo Center, Exit 126, Interstate 30.
There will be over
50,000 sq. Feet of flea market space, over 100 tailgate spaces
available,
and many equipment dealers.
For more information, contact Jim Blackmon, K5VZ, at
870-246-7833. The
hamfest web site is www.aristotle.net/~ares/lrh99.html