The Repeater (electronic version)
Newsletter of the Arkansas River Valley Amateur Radio Foundation
Russellville, Arkansas
December, 1999

****** DECEMBER MEETING IS ON DECEMBER 7th! ******


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:

December

7 - ARVARF meeting, Ryan's, Meeting at 7:00, those who want to eat, come at
6:00.

There will not be a RACES meeting in December.  

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)

Net Controls:
December - WA5BDU

DECEMBER ARVARF MEETING ON SPECIAL NIGHT

The December meeting will be held on a special night due to the fact that
the regular meeting would be so close to Christmas.  The meeting will be on
December 7th at the regular time and place.

There will be a door prize!

CW ACTIVITY GROWING OVERSEAS

Is CW dead?  It seems inevitable  that CW activity in the U.S. will
diminish over time.  After all, this is the land of video games and the
internet in every home.  Young people are not very interested in ham radio,
finding it more interesting to "chat" with someone online who claims to be
a 16 year old girl, but is really a 50 year old man!  I don't get it, but I
guess that is part of getting older. 

Does this mean we should give up on CW because there will be no one to talk
to in a few years?  Not if the recent CQ Worldwide DX contest was any
indication.  There were solid CW signals from 28.000 to 28.300 on 10
meters, and from 21.000 to 21.200 on 15 meters.  The poor digital operators
who generally stay at the high end of the band didn't do much operating on
this weekend!    In 36 years of hamming, I have never heard this much CW
activity.    Even though it was a contest, plenty of operators were going
at moderate and slow speeds.

There were many  U.S. signals, but we must admit our ham population is
aging.  However, that is not as true in the rest of the world.  One
European after another was worked, and many of these are young.  In fact,
in Europe, high-speed CW is a nationally recognized sport, and operators
enjoy the same status as many other semi-pro athletes. 

So, if you think code is dying out, think again.  If U.S. activity dies
down due to other influences, there will still be plenty of QSO's to be
had.  Maybe you will even call CQ someday and have a pileup of Europeans
calling you because you're in a "rare" country!

73,
Dennis, W5RZ

NEW ARVARF OFFICERS FOR 2000

New officers for 2000 were elected at the November meeting. 

President: Nick Kennedy, WA5BDU
Vice-President: Margaret Alexander KC5MCS
Secretary/Treasurer: Charles Hall KC5CVG
Representatives: John Evans WB5BHS and Jonathan Setcer KC5BRY

Representatives Tom Hughes, KC5VRI, Les Hendrickson, KD5DKL, and Dennis
Schaefer, W5RZ will serve the second year of their term in 2000.

PRESIDENT'S CORNER

I'm still eating Thanksgiving turkey leftovers but I can see Christmas
closing in fast.  So I find myself having conflicting impulses to give
thanks for the many ham radio related blessings I already have, while
simultaneously wanting to hit up Santa for even more goodies.

First let's send that note to the North Pole.  Santa, how about one of
those neat little red transceivers like the Fort Smith crew showed us?  Or
maybe a new laptop.  And maybe you could have those elves come down and
assemble my tribander and put it up on the tower for me.  (I've been a
little too lazy, pressed for time and/or scared to do it myself.)

Now the thanksgiving part could take a bit longer.  Those of you that have
been in my shack have noticed first that it's a colossal mess, and second
that Christmases past have been kind to me.  A spiffy Japanese transceiver,
classics from Drake, Heath and Hallicrafters and a junk box that would make
Newark jealous are in evidence.    But there are intangible things too.
The fact that we still enjoy the same privileges (maybe more) as  we did in
my novice days is one.  And despite everyone's valid concerns, I find that
operators "out there" are still skilled and courteous.

On the local scene, I'm really grateful for the wealth of talent we have in
our ham community and the generosity with which it is given.  It's really
easy to take for granted the technical and organizational skills of all
these people, but at least for the moment I'll try not to.

Since this is the December newsletter, I do want to wish each of you a
Merry Christmas. Whatever nice toys you find in your stocking, I hope
there's one with coax connectors on it!

73,
Nick, WA5BDU

RACES/ARES PLANS

We will not have a RACES meeting in December because the normal meeting
night would be very close to Christmas. 

It has not been decided if the Pope County EOC will be activated on
December 31, but we have been asked to be on "standby" in case any Y2K
problems develop.   If the EOC is activated, we will have an operator
manning the ham equipment there.  In any case, we will have an informal net
on the 146.82 repeater starting about 11:00 p.m.  Any unusual occurrences
should be brought to the attention of the net control. 

There will be a statewide RACES/ARES "Y2K Net" on January 1 at 9:00 AM on
3987.5 Khz SSB and 146.52 FM.   They would like to have someone from each
county participate and report any problems.

NOVEMBER MINUTES

Meeting called to order at 7:03 PM 16 NOV 1999 by Nick Kennedy.  Minutes
for October were approved as published.  Ben Hillis reported that three (3)
passed at latest test session.  Officers and Board members were elected as
follows:
Officers:
President:  Nick Kennedy WA5BDU
V-President: Margaret Alexander KC5MCS
Secretary:  Charles Hall KC5CVG
Treasurer:  Charles Hall KC5CVG
Board Members:
John Evans WB5BHS
Jonathan Setcer KC5BRY
Hamfest was discussed.  Date is 19 February 2000
December meeting will be held at Ryans on December 7, 1999.  Meeting
adjourned at 7:16 PM.

Program: Joel Harrison talked about license restructuring and where Amateur
 Radio will be in the year 2000.

Charles Hall KC5CVG
Secretary/Treasurer

FAMILY RADIO SERVICE

You can communicate with those  little "Family Radio Service" radios using
your UHF radio. Below are the frequencies and channel numbers for the first
7 freq.'s that the General Mobile Radio Service and the Family Radio
Service share, and the other 7 freq.'s that are only allotted to the FRS.
This is an ideal way to mix licensed operators and non licensed operators.
However, this may not be technically legal. Here are the rules for the FRS
channels:
             
     Limited to one-half watt of effective radiated  power.
     Cannot have removable antennas nor can the antenna  that came with the
radio be replaced or                   modified
     Cannot connect to external antennas to increase  the  range of operation.
     Must be type accepted for use in the FRS.

 GMRS Interstitial and FRS Frequencies:
     Channel#          Frequency
     1--------------462.5625*
     2--------------462.5875
     3--------------462.6125
     4--------------462.6375
     5--------------462.6625
     6--------------462.6875
     7--------------462.7125

     FRS Only Frequencies

     Channel#         Frequency
     8--------------467.5625
     9--------------467.5875
     10-------------467.6125
     11-------------467.6375
     12-------------467.6625
     13-------------467.6875
     14-------------467.7125
* Channel one has been designated as the calling frequency.  You are most
likely to make a chance contact with a stranger on this freq.

73, J. Setcer KC5BRY

REMINDER

Avoid the Y2K bug!  Now is a good time to pay your dues!    ARVARF is Y2K
compliant.  (We think)