THE
SPARK GAP
March 1997
President
Report: Hello again to
all. I hope February was a good month for everyone. I would like
to say tnx to Mr. John Davis W5DEJ, Bill KB5ASR, and Mel N5JCG,
for volunteering to serve on the committee to head up Field Day
1997 this June 28-29 at Lake Okatibbee. Anyone with any ideas or
willingness to help; please contact one of these hams. During the
March 1st meeting it was brought up to the club about possible
linking into the National Weather Service in Jackson during bad
weather. This could be helpful and benefit all hams across the
state. And finally, as the local VE examiner, April 12th
(Saturday) at 12 noon VE exams will be given again at MCC. So
study hard and upgrade. 73's Dennis KI5FW
Vice President
Report: Hello from south of town. We sure are wet down
here. We need some sunshine. My feet
feel like they are webbing. Ha. I talked to Peter Budnik KB1HY
from Burlington, Ct. One of the ARRL Headquarters staff, at the
Jackson Hamfest. The question about when to ID has been brought up
that is on the test in a ARRL publication. ID every 10 minutes and
some thought you could bring up the auto patch without ID. He said
we should use the common sense approach. We always ID at
the beginning of a QSO and every 10 minutes and the end. He said
of course we have to ID at beginning of Auto Patch operation
regardless of time in between. It is time for bad weather. Hope we
don't have any. 73's and 88's C P. W5OQY
Secretary
Report: Don't forget to check into the Tuesday
evening 2-meter net at 7 P.M. each week on 146.700. Any
announcements, emergency traffic, or a simple hello and 73 can be
passed along to others. Let us know how you are doing. Bill
KB5ASR
Treasurer
Report: Please mail your dues to: Mr. John
Davis, 2215 28th Ave, Meridian, MS 39301.
The ARRL - WRC - 99 planning committee ask you to comment on their
suggestions to the proposed changes in the Amateur Radio licensing
structure. These proposed changes can be found in your monthly
issue of QST magazine,or on line under the ARRL web page. Please
send your comments to: Rick Roderick K5UR, P.O. Box 1463, Little
Rock, AK 72203 or K5UR@arrl.org John W5DEJ
Supporting the "home" repeater
-by Wayne C. Williams, K4MOB
So what's the home repeater you might ask ... and what do you mean by supporting.?
A home repeater is generally the repeater you hang around
most of the time. Everyone has one. It's the one your friends know
you can be reached most of the time.
Support is like a "tip." If you go to a restaurant, and the
waitress gives you good service you leave her a little something
(in cash).
Over the years, repeater ownership has taken changes. In the '70s
most repeaters were owned by individuals. They pieced together
that old Motorola, made up some control circuits, and the expense
was tubes, electricity and telephone lines. It was always a
"gentle man's agreement" that if that was your home repeater, you
dropped $10, $20, $30 or so in the mail to the owner each year
(unsolicited) to help defray the expenses. Since most all
repeaters then were being actively supported by users, your
donation to your home repeater was justification for using other
repeaters and their auto patches free, since someone else was
supporting that repeater as their home repeater.
Today, in the '90s, things have changed drastically. Today's
repeaters can represent as much as $10,000. Most of today's
repeaters are sponsored by a club. The club gets operating
expenses for the repeater(s) through membership, special fees for
special capabilities of the repeater, conducting Hamfest and other
fund raising activities. In turn, sometimes, repeaters don't like
"strangers" coming by and using the features of their machines...
which is sad. The point we're trying to make today is that if you
operate FM and you use repeaters, find out how they are funded. If
you like the repeater, join the club, participate, do whatever is
required to carry your load in supporting the club's
repeaters.
If the repeater you hang around is privately owned, find out how
the owner gets support to pay the bills. (DON'T ask him on the
air). When you find out, support him in whatever way he suggests,
whether it be participating in a repeater activity, monetary
donations or whatever. Repeaters and wonderful to have around. But
someone has to pay the bill. Someone has to keep them operating.
The responsibility lies with the users. They should see that the
machine is secure financially and can operate in a way in which
they want to see a repeater operate effectively, without problems.
It's payback time, fellow hams. This wonderful stuff we have is
not free. It doesn't operate without cost. Do your part as a good
ham. Join the club, participate, support the repeater in whatever
way you feel is needed.
HAM RADIO GROWS IN 1996
Good news: The number of licensed Amateur Radio
operators in the US rose by approximately 1.9% last year! FCC
statistics show that ham ranks increased by 12,207 from December
1995 to December 1996. During 1996, 28,854 new licenses were
issued by the FCC, while another 13,926 hams upgraded their
operating privileges.
Not-so-good news: During January 1997, the total number of
hams dropped by 641 (possibly due to the cancellation or
expiration of the licenses of deceased hams). The number of new
and upgrading hams also was off slightly last month compared to
the month previous.
Bad news: The number of applications forwarded to the FCC
by the ARRL-VEC for new and upgraded licenses during 1996 was down
by 5198 over the previous year. That represents a 16%
drop--consistent with what
other VECs are reporting.
Propagation Forecast
Due to very little solar activity these last few weeks, I
thought this would be a good time to include an article to help
explain what all those numbers mean.
The sunspot number is not simply a "count of sunspots." Rather, it
is a number based on the size, count, and grouping of sunspots.
For example, on January 30, the Sunspot number was 15. This meant
that the number, size and grouping of all the observable sunspots
worked out to a reference number of 15. The "mean" is merely the
average of the Sunspot numbers for the seven-day period.
We measure solar flux on 10.7 cm because this particular band
happens to give us very good references for UV and X-ray
intensity, and radio noise from the sun.
The term "Planetary A Index" is a measure of small variations in
the earth's geomagnetic
field. Now, this index is what happened the day "before." It is
not necessarily an indication
of current geomagnetic activity. On one day, the A index could be
low; on the next day it might be high. If the A index is, say 6,
we can expect there to be quiet conditions. If it happens to be
33, then we can expect there to be instability in the geomagnetic
field.
These numbers are very important because radio communications are
directly affected by changes in the geomagnetic field, and in our
ionosphere. If we didn't have this solar information, we would not
be able to predict how radio communications may be affected.
(Of course, radio communications are also affected by tropospheric
activity and other
phenomenon, but those are other subjects.)
73, Joe, NJ1Q
W1AW Station Manager
VE exams, will be held
Saturday, April 12th
Meridian Community
College
Time: 12 noon
NEW WATTS NUMBER FOR HAM INFO FROM FCC
The FCC has designated a new, toll-free (WATS) number for
Amateur Radio license inquiries--including inquiries about vanity
and new call signs. The new number, 888-225-5322, will connect
callers to the FCC National
Call Center, handled by the FCC's Consumer Information Bureau.
Callers to the old consumer information number will get a message
referring them to the new number.
The Meriden (Connecticut) Amateur Radio Club
observes its 50th anniversary this year. The club's "in memoriam"
call sign, W1NRG, formerly was held by Ed Bisschert, a club member
and World War II Navy veteran radioman who died in 1952. The
100-member club has
one 50-year member--Frank Darmofalski, W1FD. MARC members are
active in public service communication and operating events. Bill
Wawrzeniak, W1KKF, is the current president.
Hams donate community service time: Amateur Radio
operators in the Lincoln, Nebraska, area calculate they donated
nearly 4700 hours of public service to the Lincoln-Lancaster
County community during 1996. Spring and summer storm watches
accounted for some 630 hours, while the remaining 4000-plus hours
were spread out over two dozen events where hams were able to make
an important public service contribution.
--Lincoln Amateur Radio Club Inc
Largest Ham Family under one roof in the World?
N1LU announces completion of
family project and six new hams!
What do you do to compensate for the lack of useful education
in our public schools? How do you get the kids away from the video
games and into some kind of activity where they might actually
learn some- thing besides how to traverse the levels of Duke Nuke
'em? Well, you guessed it. Ham Radio!
First job was to get an assistant. Vicki, the XYL, got things off
to a quick start when she attended a weekend course for a
Technician License at the Framingham Radio Club and became N1XYA.
We started with one hour sessions every night after dinner. It was
tough at first, especially for David (age 7) because his reading
vocabulary was much smaller than required. In the first week we
discovered Anthony (10) seemed to have difficulty reading. A quick
trip to the eye doctor and he was right up to speed with the best
of them! I guess they thought his performance was "normal" in
school! Their older sisters were quick studies when we could get
them off the phone, but it wasn't until we reminded them that with
ham radio they could talk ad infinitem that they really buckled
down. It was fun working out the metric system and watching the
puzzled looks slowly turn into enlightened enthusiasm. "Now I get
it!" became a pretty common phrase as we went from picofarads to
microfarads to henrys to ohms law to millivolts and micro volts
and kilovolts and wavelengths and so on. Suzanne, age 13 was the
first to pass Technician and she became N1YFT. She was followed
two weeks later by Laura, N1YGB, and Kristina, N1YGC ages 16 and
13 respectively. A week later, Anthony, age 10 entered ham radio
as N1YHL. He was followed the next day by David who became N1YHO
at age 7.
The most important thing to come of the entire effort, which took
about 10 weeks start to finish, was the exposure of these young
minds to some real technology at a level where some knowledge
about how it works and why was imparted. Reading skills and
comprehension soared for all of them and their vocabulary
increased as well. You probably have tried to get your kids
interested in ham radio before and are hoping for some secret
trick. After all, it's hard to compete with VGA graphics, stereo
sound, touch-tone phones, and MTV! So here's the trick. The secret
is motivation and time, especially 1 on 1. In my case the kids had
been after me for a trip to Disney World for years. I really can't
afford it (there are 7 of us!), but decided that we'd find a way
to go if they all got their tickets. It worked. The bottom line is
that you can get your kids interested in ham radio but it will
cost you - not only an incentive but some time - however it might
just be one of the best learning experiences they or you will ever
have! Disney World here we come! 73, Len N1LU
