The Repeater (electronic version)
Newsletter of the Arkansas River Valley Amateur Radio Foundation
Russellville, Arkansas
October, 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:
October
19 - ARVARF meeting, Ryan's, Meeting at 7:00, those who want to
eat, come
at 6:00.
25 - RACES meeting, at Red Cross, 7:00
p.m. Note - this is on a Monday,
and will be combined with the Red Cross disaster volunteers
meeting. Butch
Baker will present a Plans Review class and issue ID cards.
November
13- VE Test Session at ANO Training Center, 0900
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:
October - WB5BHS
November - KC5BRY
OCTOBER ARES AND RACES NEWS
At the September combined meeting of Red Cross and RACES, Dr.
Karl Sandberg
of Ola gave a very interesting talk about Y2K
concerns. He has done a lot
of research on Y2K possibilities, particularly in the medical
field. He
does not believe hospitals and nursing homes have a good handle
on the
situation. In last week's Democrat-Gazette, I noticed that
the Arkansas
Hospital Association said there was no problem. They said
that over 75 %
of Arkansas hospitals were at least 75% finished ASSESSING Y2K
problems.
Think about that - it's not very reassuring.
A friend witnessed the first actual Y2K failure that I know
of. He went to
a Russellville business, which is a branch of a national
company. This was
on October 6th, and the business was unable to enter his
information into
their computer. When their fiscal year "rolled
over" to 2000 on October 1,
computers company-wide stopped working. They acknowledged
that this was a
"Y2K glitch". Six days later, they were still
getting reassurances every
day from headquarters that the system would start working
"tomorrow".
The October RACES meeting will again be combined with the Red
Cross meeting
on October 25. This is a MONDAY. The reason for the
combined meeting is
that Butch Baker of Arkansas Nuclear Planning Response will
present the
Plans Review course. ID cards will be given to those
attending. This is
the standard ID card used by RACES members and other emergency
workers in
this area. Attendance at RACES meetings has been very small
and this is
the reason the meetings will be combined.
Don't forget the Simulated Emergency Test on October 16 and
17. I will be
monitoring the 146.82 repeater during the 24 hour period starting
at 1:00
pm on Saturday. If you would be willing to participate,
give me a call..
You can call before the SET and we will get you set up with some
messages
to send, or just call me on 2 meters during the SET and we will
do it on
the spot. Even if you don't want to handle
traffic, call in if you hear
activity. We get points for each station participating, and
bonus points
for new hams and stations operating on emergency power.
Emergency power
includes mobiles.
The packet project is coming along nicely. Kevin Manzer,
AC5DK, made all
the cables for the TNC's and did the modifications to the radio.
We now
have the 6 meter radio, antenna, tower mounting bracket, and coax
cable.
All we need is to make sure we have enough DC power for the 3
nodes. Daryl,
N5HNX, made an antenna mount for us at a very reasonable
cost. The 6 meter
antenna needs to be over 4 feet from the tower to keep from being
too
directional, so a sturdy mount is required. Charles, KF5JH,
has the 145.01
NEBO node going and is working on a problem with the TNC on the
147.495
NEB495 node (formerly POPECO). We appreciate all his
efforts.
Thanks to Kevin Paddock, WQ1B, who donated another
MFJ TNC to the club.
This will be used for a node or as a backup.
Dennis W5RZ
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
You just look up from your work and realize another month is
gone. And the
blessed relief from the heat makes you realize that a season is
gone too.
Hams who favor the HF bands are going to want to get their
antennas in
shape to take advantage of low noise conditions on 160 and 80
meters.
Others, regardless of HF/VHF/UHF preference are considering what
projects
to take on as winter drives them back indoors.
Speaking of projects, weren't those kit radios displayed by the
Ft. Smith
guys at the September meeting impressive? If you think kit
building and
the availability of high quality kits died with Heathkit, think
again. But
the most impressive thing about last month's program was the
enthusiasm
those guys had for their theme. It got me and a few others
thinking about
what we could do here to stir up a little excitement. Don't
worry, I'm not
thinking of another big, work-intensive project. (Field Day
cured me.)
But maybe some little thing we could try at our own pace,
individually and
together.
John Evans recalls that the club had success with a couple of
hardware
projects back in the 70's--a power supply regulator board and a
keyer. What
do ya'll think might be fun to try? A simple transmitter,
receiver,
transceiver? Keyer? Microphone pre-amp? SWR
meter? Gel-cell/nicad
battery charge controller? Just something to think about.
One nice thing about doing a project these days is the
availability of
support. Because Murphy always strikes at some point, and
when he does
there's a need to air out the problem with others familiar with
the
project. We don't have to turn to the internet, though.
We've got ARVARF!
OK, back to soldering. 73,
Nick, WA5BDU
K5ZU, SILENT KEY
We are saddened to report that Bobby Serrette, K5ZU, became
a silent key
last month. He was the father of John Serrette, KA5KID.
HAVE YOU SEEN THE ARVARF WEB PAGE LATELY?
http://www.cswnet.com/~arvarf/
Go look at what our Webmaster, Phil Morgan (N5RQD) created to
give ARVARF a
very respectable presence on the World Wide Web.
Thanks, Phil.
SEPTEMBER MINUTES
The meeting of September 21, 1999 was called to order at 7:02
P.M. by Nick
Kennedy. Minutes of August meeting were approved as
published in the
newsletter.
Repeater committee recommended CAT300DX repeater at a cost of
$594.00 and
it was approved to purchase.
Discussed web page. Phil Morgan volunteered to put
newsletter on web page.
Nominating committee needs to present names for next
years officers and
board members at the next meeting.
Margaret needs to know those that are working on the hamfest and
what areas.
Meeting adjourned at 7:23 P.M.
Program - A very good program was presented by Jay
Bromley and Kelsey
Mikel. The subject was QRP. They has several
QRP rigs to show and set up
a couple to be used by some of the members. Nick had
a blast.
Picnic 23rd October - Jay invited us to attend a
picnic with their club.
I quote from Jay's e-mail: "The place for the
picnic is at Bell Park in
Greenwood, AR. The place is rented all day long and
the eats will be
around 4:pm-ish. By noon we hope to have the QRP
stations set up. So
come anytime between then and dark. Most people leave after
the eats,
hihi. Will be listening on 146.64 while we are
setting up in the morning
and in the afternoon also. Here is how you get there
if you are going
west on I-40 from Russellville.
Take the I=540 West exit before you get to Van Buren.
Right before I-540
goes into Oklahoma you will exit off onto Hwy 71
south. As you exit turn
left and go under the overpass and stay on Hwy 71 south for
8.4 miles
which comes to a set of caution lights. This is Spur
10 and you will turn
left and go 2.7 miles to downtown Greenwood. At this
point you ar at Jct.
10 stay to
the left and take Hwy 10 .3 of a mile. Turn left at the
light before the
square and head north 1.1 miles on North Main Street. You
will go through
two stop signs and see a high school on the right. Bell
park is on the
left on top of the hill. As you turn into the park, go all
the way back
till you get to the pavilion which is also the highest place in
the park.
Hope to see you guys and gals there.
73 de w5jay
Secretary/Treasurer
Charles Hall KC5CVG
UALR CALLSIGN SERVER QRT
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has shut down its
Amateur Radio
Callsign Lookup Page "for an indeterminate time" and
probably for good. An
announcement on the page cites the FCC's new database
format and
location--necessitated by the switch to the Universal Licensing
System--as
the main reason for the closure. The UALR site was among the
first--if not
the first Web-based call sign servers. Up-to-date FCC amateur
licensee and
call sign information now is available from the ARRL at
http://www.arrl.org/fcc/fcclook.php3.
(From The ARRL Letter)