The Dummy Load

Newsletter of the San Juan County Amateur Society November 2007 Next Monthly Meeting: Saturday, November 10, 11:40A On board the Inter-island Ferry, Saturday, November 10. Boardings: Orcas at 9:45A, Shaw at 10:00A, Lopez at 10:30A, Friday Harbor at 11:35A.

VE Session Huge Success Repeater Work Started Score Was Four for Four On probably the most beautiful day of the season By Dave Vandaveer thus far, Wayne Rankin, Peter McCorison and Dan Drath ascended the mountain on October 22 to start Four candidates showed up for the latest Volun- the long awaited repeater maintenance. Using a 38- teer Examiner (VE) session at the Friday Harbor Fire foot extension ladder, the system was re- Station on Sunday, October 21. And all passed their moved from high up in a tree and replaced with a tests with three upgrades and one new ham added to new Comet Model 333 Tri-band Vertical. Both the the list. UHF and VHF machines (do not ask me why they are Mike Sear (N7TLL), after procrastinating for machines) were disconnected along with the control- seven years, turned in a perfect score on the Extra ler and cavities, and removed to the QTH of Class exam. Congratulations Mike. WA6MPG where they will be reassembled and ser- Howard Sanburg (KD7MOS), even after studying viced. from an outdated General class manual, passed his Number one on the list of problems to be solved test and is upgraded to General. Good going Howard. is the loss in sensitivity the VHF machine has be ex- John Fleischer (KD7BTL), seemed to have stud- hibiting. Number two on the list is to improve the ied the correct material and also scored well on his audio quality. Number three is the buzz that has been General class upgrade. We’ll see you on the HF heard recently on the UHF side. In addition, control- bands John. ler changes may be made to give the digital voice re- Finally, Jeff Copeland of Friday Harbor sat for his corder more capability. Technician test and passed with flying colors. Look A temporary split site repeater is in place using for the new call soon on our repeater. the regular access (PL) tones on VHF. UHF may be The testers once again outnumbered the candi- used to listen to and reply to stations using the VHF dates, but only by one. They included Mike (I) repeater. Speece KI7YU), Charlie (I) Lindenberg (W7BXH), Tips for using the temporary system: Dick Rich (W6OPX), Jerry Swalling (WA7ZTT), and 1. Key your radio and wait a second or two before Dave (I) Vandaveer (K9MRQ). Special thanks to speaking. Mike Speece for jumping on the ferry at the last min- 2. The system must be identified to comply with ute so we would have three Extra Class examiners to FCC regulations the same way you identify test Mike (II) Sear. your station. “THIS IS (your call) THROUGH Great session. Mike Speece came over from Orcas so THE N7JN REPEATER” at the end of a QSO we would have three Extras on hand for Mike Sear. or at ten minute intervals. Another test session will be held in the spring. 3. No emergency call-up PL or LTZ tone will be Study those manuals and websites so you too can get generated by the system. upgraded and have HF privileges. 4. There are no user repeater controls available until the original system is returned to service. 5. There is a three minute timeout timer that is reset when the system carrier drops. The temporary machine sounds great and is an indication of what the VHF and UHF machines may sound like in the future.

Please send Dummy Load contributions to: [email protected] San Diego Area Hams "Day One: Is the fire near us? Where is the head of the fire? What directions are the heads going? Activated as Wildfires What are the winds doing? Should we evacuate? Ravage Southern What roads are closed? What about our animals? Where should we go? What should we take? What is California the route to avoid the flames? Can you help us find From ARRL Headquarters missing people or pets? Can you help us get barrels of water for animals? Can you help us find food and As fires raged through parts of the San Diego water? Can you get the police to deal with looters? area and other areas in Southern California, ham ra- "Unlike Katrina, the questions and answers did dio operators did their part to ensure the safety of not abate at night. It was nonstop. Terry K3PXX residents either affected or threatened by the fires. needed routing around the fires to evacuate his Ani- ARES groups in San Diego were activated on Mon- mal trailer. Terry reported on Fires as he drove day, October 22 and continued to assist their served through Poway and back to San Marcos EOC. agencies until early Wednesday morning. Sixty ROARS hams had evacuated Ramona and the 147.03 hams were called to service by the County of San repeater and were looking for help to be routed safely Diego's Emergency Medical Service. out of the area. Fires broke out in Coronado Hills in According to ARRL San Diego Section Emer- San Marcos. People needed to be evacuated. Brian gency Coordinator James J. Cammarano II, KG6R, KF6C asked where to evacuate his 4 children. San hams assisted at the San Diego Medical Operations Marcos EOC needed to be activated and FIRENET Center, six trauma centers and 16 community hospi- held the fort for them until they could get there and tals. Hams served as a resource, Cammarano said, became operational to evacuate San Marcos. George "to be used in case primary circuits to hospital com- KG6IDE tries to drive up to Ramona to evacuate eld- munications were lost due to either overload or erly parents but we turn him back to avoid the power interruptions." In addition to these 60 ama- flames... teurs, another dozen or so hams were activated by "0130 Tuesday: N9XF reports flame proceeding the Red Cross. down 76 from Fallbrook. Tom KI6IET, who is blind, ARRL Emergency Preparedness and Response but stays at his post as my backup net control, needs Manager Dennis Dura, K2DCD, learned that San to be evacuated. Evacuation arranged ok. Rob Diego ARES volunteers were activated and now WA3IHV calls from his office at Palomar hospital to they are in standby mode. "They are ready to go at a tell us his family was evacuated OK and horses sur- moment's notice, but there are currently no plans for vived... re-activation," he said. As in any emergency situa- "2100 Tuesday: FIRENET hams drive to Qual- tion, information can quickly change and the ARRL comm Stadium and load trucks with food. Dan leads will continue to monitor the situation and inform ham relief convoy with food and supplies to Mira members if the situation changes. Costa College. Fire victims at shelter express grati- As the fires started to spread, hams started a tude for first food delivery... FIRENET on the Palomar ARC 146.73 MHz re- "2350 Wednesday: KG6VVN signs off as net peater. Howard White, KY6LA, of La Jolla, who control as the 146.730 repeater runs out of fuel and was among those who served as net control operator goes off the air..." under extremely stressful conditions, disseminated a Orange County update: Acting Section Emer- preliminary log of his experience. Excerpts follow: gency Coordinator Cathy Gardenias, K6VC, provided "With flames starting to engulf the county and this update on the situation in the ARRL Orange Sec- no active single source of information, as best as I tion as of October 25: "Slide Fire/Green Valley is could determine Charlie NN3V stepped into the in- 17% contained; Grass Fire is 70% contained. Santi- formation vacuum to start the 'FIRENET' as an ad ago Canyon Fire was 50% but was reduced last night hoc operation on Sunday afternoon. Early contribu- as it turned and headed for the Riverside County bor- tors included Gayle K6GO and Gary W6GDK. Ini- der of the Cleveland National Forest. tial operations started by collecting fire information " operators have been utilized. The as to fire location, wind directions, shelter locations San Bernardino County Fire EOC has been using and initial evacuations. Hams provided eyes and ECS and ARES members in the EOC to monitor ears on the ground where the danger was. Soon communications and other jobs needed. At the com- however the fires seemed to be heading down to the mand post at the Rim of The World High School near Poway area so Charlie and the other Poway hams Lake Arrowhead, ECS and ARES members who needed to evacuate... have been fully trained in all ICS and S190 (bush

Page 2 training) are handling communications and other When All Lines Go Down needs. This is according to Jeff W6JJR DEC for ARES San Bernardino County and a Public Infor- in an Emergency, mation Officer (Miles) from the EOC in San Bernar- One Channel Still Remains dino. The EOC is at Level III at this time. "SATERN [Salvation Army Team Emergency By KOMO Staff Radio Network] Amateur Radio operators at all the shelters have been volunteering their time as non SEATTLE — Chaos broke loose at the South communicators, but as helpers for those who are in Seattle Community College, where experts and vol- need." unteers simulated a citywide emergency on Saturday As of Friday afternoon, CNN reported that 14 of during a drill aimed to answer the question - what do the nearly two dozen fires were under control. you do when all lines of communication are down? Nearly 800 square miles has burned in Southern The drill, which was run by Seattle utilities and California, and seven deaths have been blamed on Seattle Auxiliary Communication Service, proved the fires, with dozens of injuries. that ham are the answer. Ron Roberts, Chairman of the San Diego Board Ham radios are the little-known backup tool that of Supervisors estimates that 560,000 people were makes sure emergency crews know where they're ordered to evacuate their homes, and thousands needed most in case of a chaotic emergency. The more were evacuated in San Bernardino, Los Ange- ham radio operators with ACS can get messages les and Orange counties. across even when a storm knocks down trees and Firefighters received help from Mexico, the state floods the streets. and federal governments and even inmates from "It's critical because nobody else can do this California's prisons. About 7000 firefighters were work," said Don Diebert. battling the blazes, including 2300 inmates from Remember Morse code? Jim Hadlock is still flu- California's Department of Corrections and Reha- ent. "You can get through with morse code with less bilitation, according to Governor Schwarzenegger. power. It gets through better," he said. "It's President Bush visited the area on Thursday and easier to hear than a voice signal." declared a federal emergency for seven counties: And the entire command center is portable. Op- Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, erators can pass on critical information without even San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura. FEMA Ad- being plugged in. ministrator David Paulison said that the President's Most people don't know about the critical need action authorizes FEMA to "coordinate all disaster ham operators fill, but the lack of gratitude doesn't relief efforts, which have the purpose of alleviating deter the operators. the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency "This has been my hobby for 50 years and it's on the local population, and to provide appropriate important to me, and it's a way I can help the com- assistance for required emergency measures, author- munity," Hadlock said. ized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, And when the community needs them most, the protect property and public health and safety and operators will be there. lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe." Schwar- Seattle Auxiliary Communications is always zenegger estimated that at least $75 million in fed- looking for volunteers. Those who want to help do eral aid would be needed. -- Some information from not have to own a ham radio. For more information The Weather Channel and CNN on volunteering, visit the group's Web site. Find this article at- www.komotv.com/news/local/10130626.html From Across the Border New HF Privileges Industry Canada has announced full HF operat- ing privileges to Canadian hams holding Basic + 5 wpm code. Copies of the revised RIC-2 (Radio Information Circular 2) are available from the Industry Canada web site at: http://strategis.gc.ca/SSG/sf01226e. html

Page 3 working and a wireless printer for hard-copy output. DEM Funds Five Emergency Provision is also made for using the packet equip- Communication Stations for ment with the vhf transceiver for the purpose of trans- mitting standard email by radio to TELPAC stations San Juan County which are connected to the internet. The 220 MHz By Peter McCorison, EC transceiver is an Alnico DR235T Mk III; Packet ser- vices are provided by a Kantronics KPC3+ TNC. The San Juan County Department of Emergency Also included are a Dell Insprion Laptop computer Management has released funds to complete five and an HP 6980 printer with wireless connectivity. amateur radio stations to provide communications The laptop computer will be able to control both the among our islands in the event of breakdown of hf Pactor TNC and the vhf packet TNC. other channels. * Power for the entire station will be provided by Stations will be located at the County EOC At an ASTRON 25 ampere backed up by a Mullis Street Station and at the sheriff's office in Fri- 100 Ampere-Hour battery. day Harbor; at the Eastsound fire station and in the ICV on Orcas Island; also on Lopez either at Wood- Funding is provided for the construction of our man Hall or at the Lopez fire station. "luggable" station cases. Each station will be com- posed of two cases: one containing the radios, TNC's The stations, except for the ICV station, will be and antenna duplexer, along with power wiring, mi- self contained in "luggable" boxes. That is, portable crophones, headphones, and some control switching. in the US Navy sense of having handles. The ICV The second case will contain the power supply, bat- station, as many of you know, is contained in a sur- tery, and storage for cables and the printer. plus ambulance located at the sheriff's office in East- sound. Funding is provided to complete the existing The cases will be built by club members using station in the ICV to the capabilities described below. materials provided by DEM for that purpose.

Each station will consist of the following capabili- Also provided in the funding is the installation of ties: antennas, feedlines and antenna tuners in the perma- nent locations for the stations where they are not now * An hf transceiver complete with automatic an- in place. tenna tuner, microphone, headphones, and external speaker. This will be an ICOM IC-706 with an SGC- In the event that one or more of the stations need 230 Antenna tuner. The stations at the EOC and in to be relocated to serve their purpose, a spare tri-band the ICV will also be equipped with an SCS Pactor III antenna together with a transportable mounting base terminal node controller for communication with the and feedline is provided on each of the three islands. WINLINK radio email system .

* A dual-band vhf/uhf transceiver and antenna for voice communications within the county. This role will be filled by a Kenwood TMV-71A mobile unit and a Comet 333 triband antenna. Low loss feedlines for each station are also funded. An exception to this San Juan County Nets is in the ICV where the transceiver is the existing Submitted by Peter McCorison, EC ICOM IC-2720. The ICV is equipped with separate antennas for each band. All meet on Wednesday, local times given: 1900 SJC SSB net 3944 Khz +/-± for QRM. * A 220 MHz transceiver dedicated to packet op- 1915 SJC CW net 3710 Khz +/-. eration. At the request of DEM, this mode will be the 1930 SJC Diginet 145.63 Mhz packet. Resource us- primary means of backup communication in the ing Airmail peer to peer (this net is in its infancy) county. This transceiver will share the Comet tri-band 2000 SJC ARES Net 146.900 Mhz tone 131.8. antenna through the use of a . Each trans- 2000 SJC ARES Net 443.450 Mhz tone 103.5. ceiver will be equipped with a packet Terminal Node Controller and a laptop computer with wireless net-

Page 4 Some club members are experimenting address, however, must be known to the system as a with digital modes of communication using radio user or the message will be rejected. This sim- WinLink 2000. This article, taken from the ple Internet interface protocol has an added benefit web, is intended to introduce the subject. in case of an emergency where local services are Interested hams are encouraged to follow interrupted and the system must be used by non- the source. Ed Amateur groups as an alternative to normal SMTP . email. Connecting to any one of the WL2K publicly used PMBOs via HF (radio), or the specialized non- WinLink 2000 public ARES PMBOs, can immediately and auto- From http://www.winlink.org/features.htm matically connect a local amateur station to the Internet for emergency traffic. Using MS Outlook The Winlink 2000 (WL2K) radio-email digital or MS Outlook Express, the Paclink mini-email network system is intended to greatly extend the server can replace a network of computers (behind a ability of the Amateur Radio to provide a public ser- router) as a transparent substitute for normal SMTP vice to the greater community by linking to the mail. WL2K uses no external source for sending or Internet email system. The emphasis is to accom- receiving Internet email. It is a stand-alone function plish this while providing additional features that which interacts directly with the Internet rather than are of particular value to amateur users for use in through any external Internet service provider. emergency management and everyday use to those in the Amateur service who may not otherwise have Sophisticated Bulletin Distribution access to the Internet. It is a priority and commit- ment of the Winlink Development Team to provide To address the needs of mobile users for near these public services to the greater community real-time data, WL2K uses an "on-demand" bulletin through Amateur radio. Below is a discussion of the distribution mechanism. (Note that such bulletins are primary features of the system as it is implemented not the same as traditional AX.25 Packet Bulletins.) today. (If needed, a glossary of terms is available.) Users must first select requested bulletins from an

available "catalog" list managed in Airmail. When A Real-time View of the Winlink 2000 Network: bulletin requests are received by a PMBO, a fresh

locally cached copy of the requested bulletin is de- 1. Public (only) Common Message Server livered. If no freshly local cached version is avail- (CMS) System (and main menu) able, the PMBO accesses the Internet and finds the 2. Real-Time Monthly Network Statistics bulletin which is then downloaded to the PMBO and 3. Public (only) PMBO Real-Time Status then sent to the user. The Global catalog currently 4. Public (only) PMBO Real-Time Status MAP includes over 700 available weather, propagation, 5. Telpac Gateway Real-Time Status and information bulletins, including, instructions for 6. Telpac Gateway Real-Time Status MAP using the system, World news, and piracy reports. 7. Telpac Registration and Configuration All WL2K PMBOs support a single Global catalog 8. Winlink 2000 Reporting End-Users (only) in which insures users can access any bulletin from any Real-time* PMBO. Bulletins can contain basic text, graphic fax

or satellite images, binary or encoded files like *Click on the MAP Pin markers to obtain de- GRIB or WMO weather reports. Local processing is tailed information. For Positions, click on Pins, call- used to re-process images to sizes suitable for HF signs or GRID Squares to track the Winlink 2000 Pactor transmission. The system prevents bulletin user. duplication and automatically purges obsolete time-

sensitive weather bulletins and replaces them with Transparent Inter-working with Internet e-Mail the current version.

The primarily purpose of the Winlink 2000 net- The system also has the ability to contain bulle- work system is to assist the mobile or remotely lo- tins with attachment information which is local to cated user, and to provide emergency email capabili- each participating PMBO. This is especially useful ties to community agencies. Because of this, WL2K for the non-public ARES PMBO which may house supports a clean simple interface to the Internet valuable procedural information pertinent to com- SMTP e-mail system. Using its own , any message plex information or instruction needed by specific sent or received may include multiple recipients and agencies in any community emergency. multiple binary attachments. The radio user's email

Page 5 The ARES Net meets each Wednesday at 8PM on the San Juan County Amateur Radio Society Repeater 146.900 MHz; -600 kHz offset; 131.8 Hz tone and/or 443.450 ,MHz; +5 MHz offset; 103.5 Hz tone

Net Control Schedule Coming Events

Please arrange a substitute if needed. Sunday, November 4, Ham Computer & Electronic Oct 31—Howard Rosenfeld, N7FBC, 378-5788 Swapmeet, Maple Ridge Amateur Radio Club, Pitt Meadows, BC Nov 07—Charlie (1) Lindenberg, W7BXH, 378-6855

Nov 14—Caleb Pal, KD7KAB, 468-2820 Nov 21—Nancy Lindenberg, KD7IRD, 378-6855 Saturday, November 10, Monthly Club Meeting Nov 28—Jerry Swalling, WA7ZTT, 425-308-5565 November 22, Deadline for material for the next Dec 05—Mark Dawber, N6CSM, 360-452-9484 Dummy Load. Dec 12—Jerry (2) Gonce, KD6CWE, 468-4657

Dec 19—Dan Drath, N6AU, 378-5646 Dec 26—Lizzie Evans, N7NCS, 370-5060 Let the Editor know if you wish to be added to the Net Control rotation

The Dummy Load c/o Drath POBox 1460 Friday Harbor, WA 98250

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