THE
SPARK GAP
November 1997
President
Report:
Good Evening to all once again.
I hope everyone got lots of candy while Trick or Treating and gets
fat like me.
At the November club meeting the club voted to put lightning
protection in line with the club 146.700 Repeater for a little
extra protection. Hopefully this will keep us safe and on the air
in the event of a direct lightning strike.
Also mentioned was the possibility of getting together for a
Christmas meal at the Magnolia Restaurant the first Sunday in
December. Listen to the Tuesday night net for more info on this.
73's Dennis KI5FW
Vice President
Report:
VP corner - Hi from down south. Hope everyone had a good
month. Had beautiful weather and nothing too bad. The fair is
over, new mall is open and trick or treat is done. Hope everyone
had safe ones. Montgomery hamfest next weekend. Ocean Springs
hamfest Nov 21/22. KB5BRZ's 444.1 repeater is back on with tone
131.8. All reports good coverage. Hope everyone has a safe and
Happy Thanksgiving. 73's CP 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.
Editor's
note:
Also mentioned at the November meeting was the
election of officers for 1998. Please try to be present at the
December business meeting on December 6th to elect new officers
for the coming new year. If you have any articles, items for sell,
wanted, or to trade that you would like published in The Spark
Gap please call 485-7568. This is your newsletter. Your input
is appreciated. 73's Darrell W5MAV
The Day the Sprinklers Sent CQ
by Steve Altig, N7IF
What an afternoon. Sending CQ with the sprinklers doesn't get a
ham very far. It only gets strange looks from the neighbors, and
the occasional curious earthworm. But, you need a little
background.
After discussion with my wife, with retirement just a few years
away, and a pending move to the country we reached the conclusion
that it would be a good idea for me to rejoin the ranks of Amateur
Radio Operators. I had held a General class license (WA6ISW) back
in the '60s, but it had expired while I was in the Army, and then
family and career became time priorities.
So, I bought a copy of Ham University(c) and began to study the
code and technical elements, hoping to get my Novice license and
later upgrade to General. The more I studied, the more I began to
think I would try to take all the elements qualifying me for a
General instead of working up to it.
The big day, March 1, 1997, arrived. There was a big crowd taking
various Amateur Radio tests on this day, my day. An entire Scout
troop, a group from a school, and an assortment of others, of
which I was one.
"We are going to begin with the code tests, and after they begin,
no one can leave the room." said the Volunteer Examiner in charge.
"Who is taking the 20 wpm test?", she asked. The fellow in the
seat next to me raised his hand. After some more instruction, the
test began. I listened to the 20 wpm code test, copied about 1/3,
and began to worry. When the 13 wpm test began I breathed a sigh
of relief when words flowed from my pencil to the paper.
"Anyone want to go for one minute of solid copy," asked the
Volunteer Examiner. I raised my hand. He took my paper and began
to go over it in detail. "Looks good," he said and gave my paper
to the other VE s at the table. "One minute solid copy," he said.
They looked up at me and looked back at the paper. After a few
minutes they were also nodding and saying things to each other
like, "Start here" and "Looks good" and "No problem." Then they
looked at me and said, "You passed." What a relief. Element 1B
passed. Now on to the technical elements.
Element 2. PASSED. Element 3A. PASSED. Element 3B. Waiting and
sweating. PASSED. What a feeling. Walking out with my CSCE showing
completion of all required elements for a brand new General class
license felt great. Now to get equipment, antennas, and all of the
other necessary "stuff" to get back on the air. My license came
from the FCC a few days later and I was now KC7UXA.
How things have changed! It's a long way from a Heath kit DX-40 to
a modern solid state transceiver. Scary stuff! My biggest problem
though was how to deal with the homeowners association
restrictions on
antennas. I convinced myself that a random wire antenna, nailed to
the eaves of my house was the way to go.
Everything was connected. Power supply, transceiver, antenna tuner
and key all ready to go. I was ready. Power on, tune the antenna
and try an 80 meter CQ. Out to my shack comes my wife. "There is
something wrong with the plumbing," she cries. "Come quick. The
pipes are banging and crashing"
I went into the house and listened but heard nothing. She insisted
they had been making horrible noises. I stood in the doorway of
the house and had her key down a few times and she was right, as
usual. Sounded like someone was pounding on the pipes. This was
disaster. All my work and study, not to mention money, and now
this.
After some thinking and discussion with other hams, it turns out
the RF from the transceiver was activating the solenoids in the
sprinkler system for our yard. I asked my wife to go watch the
sprinklers while I transmitted. What a sight for the neighbors to
see water spurting out of the sprinklers to the rhythm of "CQ CQ
CQ."
In the end it all worked out and now I am back on the air and have
worked 13 states in the weeks since everything came together. Oh
yes, I do get the occasional "hi hi" when I tell other hams that
my antenna is a random wire nailed to the eaves of my house 12
feet off the ground. But the best part is IT WORKS..
P.S. Since this story was originally written in April, 1997, the
writer has upgraded to Extra and is now AB7VZ, and now has new
vanity call N7IF.
Happy Thanksgiving
What am I thankful for? - Thanksgiving 1994
While the obvious ones are easy:
1. I am thankful for my wife
2. I am thankful for my five children
3. I am thankful for living in a free country
4. I am thankful for my God and my religion
5. I am thankful for health
There are others, which are not obvious:
1. While I'm not thankful for my wife's illness, I am thankful for
the lessons, which can be learned from that living experience. The
lessons concerning the real meaning of love, compassion, respect,
dignity, fear, responsibility, God, friendship, dedication,
humility, sacrifice, racism, judgment and a whole host of
others.
2. I am also thankful for her love and compassion for raising our
children, and her success in doing so, without the outward signs
of being able to walk and do things for them. Her love for her
children, her ability to talk to her children and just being here
has meant a lot to them.
3. I am thankful for the lessons my children have learned over the
last 21 years of her illness, they are better people for it, and
they have been formed with qualities, which will always be
ingrained in them.
4. I am thankful for the person I am today, much better and much
wiser than anything I thought I could ever be, because of the
experience.
5. I am thankful for the knowledge of looking beyond the outward
signs of suffering and sickness and looking inward for the lessons
and meaning of those sufferings, and the understanding, as best I
can of the true meanings.
6. I am thankful for the understanding of the phrase "No greater
love has any man, then he gives up his life for another". While I
always
thought this meant death, I now realize it is
sacrifice, which may or may not be death.
7. I am thankful to God for the other night when my son's fever
continued to rise regardless of the medicine, the showers, the
baths, I had given him. With one prayer, his temperature dropped
from 103.5, in less than 1 hour to normal.
8. I am thankful for a wife, who through all the
pain and suffering over the years still has maintained her humor,
her friendship, her desire for life. She has taught me a lot, and
has helped me become a better individual.
October 1997
In summary, while I am not sure what the future will bring, as a
result of me preparing to leave my job to take care of my wife, I
do know that all my thanks to God can be stated through, "I have
looked into the face of Death, and I have found Life, I have found
Love and I have found God."
Francis D. Ross
The Early Christian
An early Christian was being chased through the streets of Rome by a hungry lion. After reaching a dead end alley, the Christian fell to his knees and prayed, "Lord, please make this lion a Christian." Suddenly the lion stopped, got down on his hind legs, raised his front paws, and began to pray - "Lord please bless this food for which I am about to partake."
FCC OPENS VANITY GATE 4
Christmas will arrive a bit early for General, Technician Plus,
Technician and Novice Class hams. The FCC has announced that
vanity call sign program Gate 4--the last vanity gate--will open
December 2, 1997, for General, Tech Plus, Technician and Novice
class hams to request a vanity call sign on or after that date.
The potential number of applicants from these four licensee groups
is huge--well over a half
million hams!
Applicants may use either the electronic Forms 610V and 159 on the
Web or hard-copy Form 610V and 159 -- but not both. Both
versions -- plus fact sheets and answers to frequently
asked questions -- are available at
http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/amateur. The application fee is $50,
payable by check (to "FCC"), bank draft, money order or credit
card. Do not send cash. The FCC gives processing priority
to electronically filed Forms 610V for which the filing fee and
Form 159 have been received. The FCC now requires all vanity
filers to include a Form 159, which must be mailed to the FCC with
your fee.
It's up to applicants to make sure that their applications do not
arrive before December 2, 1997. The FCC will return all
applications that arrive early. All other vanity call sign gates
will remain open, and
Amateur Extra and Advanced class operators continue to be eligible
to file for vanity call signs under those filing gates.
Any call sign requested must be appropriate for the class of
license you hold. This means that Technician, Tech Plus, and
General class licensees may ask for a Group C (13) or D (23) call
sign. Novice class licensees may only request Group D call
signs.
Electronic filers must mail the Form 159 Fee Remittance Advice to
FCC, Amateur Vanity, PO Box 358994, Pittsburgh, PA 15251-5994. The
Form 159
and the fee must be received within 10 days of electronically
filing your Form 610V or your application will be dismissed.
Those filing on document Forms 610V and 159 must mail the
application package containing a completed Form 610V with a copy
of your license attached, Form 159 and the proper fee in a sealed
envelope to FCC, Amateur Vanity, PO Box 358924, Pittsburgh, PA
15251-5924.
For general information, call the FCC's toll-free National Call
Center, 888-225-5322 (CALLFCC).
SURVEYS SHOW TECHNICIAN
LICENSE MOST POPULAR
A survey of ARRL Volunteer Instructors shows that most teach
between one and two classes a year and the vast majority of
students obtain their Technician tickets. The survey revealed that
classes average eight students. Graduates are 5% Novice, 88%
Technician, 5% General, 1% Advanced, and 1% Extra.
Approximately 11% of the more than 2000 Volunteer Instructors
responded to the survey. Of that group, 90% reported they use
Now You're Talking in their classes. The instructors said
that 80% of their students join the ARRL.
In another survey, ARRL-Registered School Teachers reported that
their students' favorite ham radio activities, by far, were HF
DXing, taking part in licensing classes, radio club activities and
VHF/UHF operating. The 108 teachers who returned their surveys
(approximately 11% of the total) say they introduced nearly 8800
students to ham radio. The teachers said that about 60% of their
licensing classes prepared
youngsters for the Technician license and 40% for the Novice
ticket. Most teachers said they use ARRL study materials.
Volunteer Instructors and ARRL-Registered School Teachers were
polled last spring. The ARRL Educational Activities Department
recently compiled the results of the two surveys. --Rosalie White,
WA1STO
Have a great month
