The Amateur Radio Newsletter

THE FEEDBACK Volume 02 Issue 01 January 2002 THE AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLETTER Laurel Amateur Radio Club, Inc. PO Box 1259Laurel, MD 20725-1259 http://www.larcmd.org email: [email protected]

Meetings and Nets:

 1st, 3rd, 5th Wednesdays: On-the-air Net at 8:30pm on 147.225+ PL156.7 (no tone required during nets)  2nd Wednesday: Informal/Social Gathering at 7:00pm – Tubby’s Restaurant; Rt. 198, 1 mile West of I-95  4th Wednesday: Monthly Meeting at 7:30pm - The Woman’s Club of Laurel, 384 Main Street, Laurel  Nightly: Informal Net/Rag-Chew from 9-11pm on 147.540 Repeater: 442.500+ PL 156.7 Hz UHF Simplex: 445.975, VHF Simplex 147.54

Laurel Amateur Radio Club, Inc. c/o Kevin Arber, W3DAD PO Box 294 Savage, MD 20763

FIRST CLASS MAIL

Next Meeting: January 23, 2002 The Feedback – January 2002 Page 2

THE LAUREL AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

Officers:

President: Jim Cross WI3N 301-725-6829 [email protected] Vice-President: HD (Frank Scott) K3HDM 301-773-0155 [email protected] Secretary: Ed Rummel KB3DVC 301-422-6963 [email protected] Treasurer: Jerry Siegel N3WSG 301-937-1174 [email protected] Past President: Pud Reaver W3YD 301-498-6293 [email protected]

Other LARC Positions and Contacts:

FAR Representatives: Dan Blasberg KA8YPY 301-345-7381 [email protected] Laurel VEC: Diane Cooperman AA3OF 301-937-0394 [email protected] LARC VE Testing: John Creel WB3GXW 301-572-5124 [email protected] AutoCall Reporter: Ed Rummel KB3DVC 301-422-6963 [email protected] T-MARC/D-MARC Rep: OPEN Public Information Officer: Pud Reaver W3YD 301-498-6293 [email protected] Youth Programs: Mark Doore K3RAM 301-572-2385 [email protected] Education and Training: Pud Reaver W3YD 301-498-6293 [email protected] Technical Specialist: Kevin Arber W3DAD 301-725-0038 [email protected] ARES/RACES Coordinators: Jim Cross WI3N 301-725-6829 [email protected] Official Emergency Station: Pat Gormley KK3F 301-864-4694 Official Bulletin Station: John Creel WB3GXW 301-572-5124 [email protected] Official Bulletin Station: Pud Reaver W3YD 301-498-6293 [email protected] Official Bulletin Station: Al Brown KZ3AB 301-490-3188 [email protected] Official Relay Station: Pat Gormley KK3F 301-864-4694 Official Relay Station: Pud Reaver W3YD 301-498-6293 [email protected]

LARC Special Interest Groups and Mentors:

Antennas: Kevin Arber W3DAD 301-725-0038 [email protected] Packet Radio/APRS: Mark Doore K3RAM 301-572-2385 [email protected] Repeaters: John Creel WB3GXW 301-572-5124 [email protected] Satellite/EME: OPEN

ARRL Field Organization:

Atlantic Division Director: Bernie Fuller N3EFN 814-763-1529 [email protected] Atlantic Division Vice Director: William C. Edgar N3LLR 814-362-1250 [email protected] MD/DC Section Manager: Tom Abernethy W3TOM 301-292-6263 [email protected] MD/DC Asst Section Manager: Jerry Gavin NU3D 410-761-1423 [email protected] MD/DC Emergency Coord: Mike Carr WA1QAA 410-799-0403 [email protected] Affiliated Club Coordinator: Tony Young WA3YLO 301-262-1917 [email protected] MDC Section Bulletin Manager Al Brown KZ3AB 301-490-3188 [email protected]

Items to be published in The Feedback should be submitted by the second Wednesday of the month. Email submissions may be made to [email protected] The Feedback is published monthly (except December) as the newsletter of the Laurel Amateur Radio Club, Inc.

Permission is granted to reprint from this publication provided credit is given.

Editor: Kevin Arber, W3DAD 301-725-0038 [email protected] Publisher: Dan Blasberg, KA8YPY 301-345-7381 [email protected] The Feedback – January 2002 Page 3 Editor’s Bit

Welcome to the January issue of FEEDBACK. The deadline for FEEDBACK is the second Wednesday, February 13, 2002.

Note the phone number change for W3TOM, our Section Manager. Also the MDC section has a web page: http://www.qsl.net/w3tom/index.htm

Interested in improving your CW skills? Try G4ZFE’s Pile Up trainer program at http://www.babbage.demon.co.uk/pileup.html. This program runs under MS Windows and is very easy to use. It is used at various DX/Contest gatherings as a competition tool. Callsigns are taken from the CQWW and WPX databases maintained at M6A and M7A. G4ZFE’s Pile Up also emulates DL4MM’s RUFZ ( http://www.darc.de/referate/dx/fedtrs.htm) program, a high speed trainer. Another pile up trainer is PED which is available at http://plaza16.mbn.or.jp/~masiii/. This program has a phone equivalent as well. PED is a DOS program. Both programs require a Soundblaster type sound card. G4ZFE’s program requires an ISA sound card.

I have obtained a small quantity of the male (female spade lugs) T-type OEM connector that attaches to name brand VHF rigs. This is the connector Bob K3OH was looking for at one time and is the connector that goes to the power supply. With it you can fabricate another cable for home use and then easily move the rig between the vehicle and home station. The cost is $3.50 each.

The LARC VE team conducts Amateur Radio Examinations on the third Saturday of each month (except December) at 9:00 AM at the Laurel Women’s Club building, 384 Main St., Laurel, MD.

LARC has agreed to host Potomac Valley Radio Club meetings for the PVRC Laurel region. See W3YD’s news item. These meetings are open to anyone interested in the PVRC and contesting.

President’s Ramblings Jim/WI3N

Well, it has been about 5 years since I did my last President’s Ramblings, so I better flex the rusty fingers and start rambling since I’m bumping up against the deadline.

First, let me wish all of you the best for 2002, the first palindrome year of the millennium and the last one I’ll see unless I can figure a way to keep going for another 110 years. This will be a fun year for the LARC membership and I’m looking forward to helping you make it happen. That’s right! You’re going to make it happen. One guy (me) can’t do it by myself, but all of us working together can. So don’t be afraid to throw your hat in the ring when we go looking for volunteers to help with the public service events and other opportunities that pop up.

The guest speaker for the first meeting will be Mike Martin/K3RFI. Mike has been mentioned in QST and ARRL bulletins for his work solving some tough RFI/EMI problems, both here and in other states. He works for PEPCO and is their main man when it comes to radio frequency interference. Plan to come hear him. For those of you who are interested in contesting, we will The Feedback – January 2002 Page 4 hold a short PVRC (Potomac Valley Radio Club) meeting after the regular meeting to qualify under their bylaws. Pud will have more on that elsewhere in this issue.

On Sunday, February 17, the club will work the President’s Day Marathon sponsored by the DC Roadrunners through the Beltsville Agricultural Center. This is a 26 mile event and because of the cold weather we could use a good turnout. Pud will be heading up this one (he hasn’t completely retired from life yet). We’d like to get firm commitments, particularly because we need to know who to call if they decide to cancel the race due to weather.

Besides working some contests this year, we plan to have a special event from the club station during the 4th of July festivities. This is the 100th year for the Laurel Volunteer Fire Department, the 50th year for the Laurel Volunteer Rescue Squad, and the 25th year for the 4th of July committee. It’s only fitting that one of the premier volunteer groups in the city do a special event to commemorate the nexus of these birthdays.

This year for Field Day, we’re thinking of running it from the club station. One of the reasons we have the station is for its availability to the city in case they need some emergency communications. With some good PR we can possibly endear ourselves a little more to our landlord.

We’ll be shortly coming up with some guidelines for use of the club station for any of you who would like to drop by now and then to work some HF. It’s there for your use. We’re planning to sell some of our excess assets and, by the meeting, should probably be able to let you know which ones and how much in case you are interested.

Looking forward to seeing you at the meeting. With your help, the Laurel Amateur Radio Club will continue to be a force in the community and a place to learn and grow in this fantastic hobby of amateur radio.

ARES/RACES

We closed out 2001 with a public service training event, a 10/20 mile run through the Beltsville Agricultural Center on December 29. Thanks to the nine folks posted around the course and at net control keeping an eye on the runners.

2002 promises to be a full year for us. Thanks to Mona Electric we now have 500 feet of LMR 400 for use as transmission lines. The order was given a couple months ago to purchase the antennas we need to put on the pole and I’m told that we should be actually seeing the antennas soon. As of this writing it appears that we will be doing the installation ourselves.

I was invited to speak at a meeting of the senior officials of the municipalities to explain who we are and how we might be able to help them during a disaster. I also met with the Health Department’s committee on bio-terrorism to discuss with them how we might fit into their planning. They are tasked with opening sites to dispense drugs should there be a bio-terrorism attack. We would be at those sites to help with their communications to link the sites with each other, the Health Department and the EOC. In the future we will be doing exercises from the sites to see what conditions we need to prepare for. There will be a meeting of representatives of the county hospitals to discuss planning for a disaster. In the Maryland Health & Medical WMD Response Plan the hospitals are charged with having a plan for “backup internal and external communications systems in the event of The Feedback – January 2002 Page 5 failure during disasters and emergencies.” I’m proposing that the hospitals provide a complete amateur radio station for our use with dual band rig and antenna, power supply, TNC and computer. I’m hoping we can set up a hospital net on 440 similar to that of Montgomery County.

This is serious business as recent events have shown. It is important that we are all well trained and capable of providing our served agencies competent emergency communications when we are called upon. To that end, we are devising some training modules that the membership will be expected to complete. During the year we will have training at the EOC on the operation of the radio room. We will also have field exercises, public service events, and the yearly Simulated Emergency Test (SET) in October. Our ARES net on 146.61 will continue to be held on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Tuesday at 2030. Once our antennas are installed we will be holding a concurrent county ARES exercise with the regular Statewide Communications Exercise (Comex) on the second Tuesday at 1930. The 4th Tuesday will continue to be our regular meeting at the Fire Service Building at 1930.

We now have 55 members on the books. If we have to staff six drug dispensaries, the Health Department, and the EOC with 2 RACES members at each site, that will be 16 people needed for the first shift. Assuming that 80% of all the members will be available to help, by the third shift we will be short-handed. Ask a friend to join. We’ll double our ranks if everybody does that.

Looking forward to an interesting and active year. (WI3N)

LARC JOINS PVRC

N3OC/Brian McGinnis, president of the Potomac Valley Radio Club, has officially recognized LARC as a regional member of PVRC, one of the premier unlimited contesting clubs in the country. To become a member, LARCers who are interested in contesting must attend two meetings (any PVRC meeting counts). They will then be voted into the organization and allowed to submit their scores for credit in most contests, when they also submit their scores to the sponsoring organizations (ARRL or CQ)

LARC had its first (organizational) meeting at the December banquet, and eight members signed the sheet. The next meeting will be after the January LARC meeting. We plan to meet after the first LARC meeting in each quarter, although other meetings are possible. After you attend two meetings your name will be submitted to the Central Club. You don’t have to be an Hfer, by the way … there are several VHF contests in which the PVRC participates, also.

There are no dues, but a nominal donation will be accepted. More information will be available at the January meeting. (W3YD)

UHF YAGI

If you are on the fringes of the club’s UHF repeater, you may want to improve your signal with a directional antenna. The two-element Yagi below will provide a nominal 6 dBi of gain and exhibits a beam width of about 130 degrees. Point it in the general direction of the repeater The Feedback – January 2002 Page 6 and you will be impressed with the results. I built this antenna to improve LARC repeater reception at my QTH in Savage. The signal went from about S 4/5 using a magnetic mount vertical to S9+ with the Yagi.

2 EL Yagi - 445 MHz Ref DE Balun

2 5/8 in

1/2 in PVC Pipe Boom

Balun & Feed DE - 12 in Detail Ref - 13 in 1/4 in Aluminum Tube 4 5/8 in long 4 in #16 Copper

8 5/8 in - RG-58C

50 ohm Coax - any length

The balun is 4:1, taking the 50 ohm unbalanced input to a 200 ohm balanced output. Any type of coax cable can be used, however, if a foam type is used (not recommended) the dimensions of the balun will change as the velocity factor for foam dielectric is higher than polyethylene (vf = .66). The balun is ½ wavelength and can be calculated from L = 492/455 x vf, where vf is the velocity factor of the cable. (vf of RG-58 foam = .79) The delta matching section is very forgiving in dimensions; if your dimensions are close it should work. You may experiment with different attachment points on the driven element to achieve the lowest SWR. I put terminal lugs on the end of the wires and drilled holes in the element for 4-40 hardware. If you experiment with different attachment points, clamp the delta section to the element while finding the best match and then drill the holes. (W3DAD)

W3LPL TOUR

I am organizing a tour for LARC members of the nearby world class multi multi contest station W3LPL, while they are operating in a contest. If you haven't visited it, LPL is quite a sight with six 200 foot towers each with beams (some with two), long line beverage spotting antennas, 6 operating positions (each on a separate band and each with two HF radios sharing a maximum legal power amplifier), sleeping quarters for off duty operators, networked computers for logging and dupe checking, and quite a QSL card collection. The entire walk-in basement is dedicated to Ham radio.

I am soliciting interest within the LARC club for a visit date. I have two options to propose: The Feedback – January 2002 Page 7 (1) Sat Feb 16, 10 am (during the February 16-17 ARRL International CW DX Contest) (2) Sat March 2, 10am (during the March 2-3 ARRL International Phone DX Contest)

Frank Donovan's station, W3LPL, is located only a short drive from Laurel in Glenwood, MD. We can carpool from a central location in Laurel or independently get there ourselves. LPL is affiliated with the PVRC club and welcomes visitors. It is likely LARC will be operating during the Phone contest, but we could slip away in small groups, keeping our station operating while some people toured LPL.

Please email me ([email protected]) or call me (301-490-0188) after Jan 26th if you are interested in visiting LPL and let me know which date you are interested in. If there is enough interest, we can probably visit on both dates.

For W3LPL reference please checkout: (1) http://andyz.k8gp.net/lpl/cqwwssb2k1/ (2) http://www.pvrc.org/w3lpl.htm 73, Toby/KB3BWR

FAR SCHOLARSHIPS

THE FOUNDATION FOR AMATEUR RADIO, INC., a non-profit organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C., plans to administer sixty-two (62) scholarships for the academic year 2002 - 2003 to assist licensed Radio Amateurs. The Foundation, composed of over seventy-five local area Amateur Radio Clubs, fully funds seven of these scholarships with the income from grants and its annual Hamfest. The remaining fifty-five (55) are administered by the Foundation without cost to the various donors.

Licensed Radio Amateurs may compete for these awards if they plan to pursue a full-time course of studies beyond high school and are enrolled in or have been accepted for enrollment at an accredited university, college or technical school. The awards range from $500 to $2500 with preference given in some cases to residents of specified geographical areas or the pursuit of certain study programs. Clubs, especially those in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, are encouraged to announce these opportunities at their meetings, in their club newsletters, during training classes, on their nets and on their world wide web home pages.

Additional information and an application form may be requested by letter or QSL card, postmarked prior to April 30, 2002 from: FAR Scholarships Post Office Box 831 Riverdale, MD 20738

The Foundation for Amateur Radio, incorporated in the District of Columbia, is an exempt organization under Section 501(C)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. It is devoted exclusively to promoting the interests of Amateur Radio and those scientific, literary and educational pursuits that advance the purposes of the Amateur Radio Service. (FAR Press Release)

HEMARC TECHNICIAN CLASS The Feedback – January 2002 Page 8 The entry level Technician class will begin Tuesday January 15, 2002. Anyone interested in becoming a ham is invited. The classes will be every Tuesday night for 10/12 weeks from 6:30PM to 9:30PM at the museum. For information and to register call Rol Anders K3RA at 410-796-4792 or Les Jamison WR3X at 410-787-0341. The plan is to repeat last years successful schedule and follow up this course with the General course and then the Amateur Extra course. (HEMARC December 01 Newsletter)

Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting Event

Ops on site operational at 3:00 PML, 01 Dec. Comms conducted on 147.540, then switched to the W3LRC repeater, 442.500-, which worked outstanding!

Conditions were warm, for this time of year. Highs were in the mid 60's and clear. A wonderful day of weather for outdoor Comms. The “gun” went off at 4:00 (+/-) PML. "Santa" fell off the wagon (so to speak) this year and was late for his post, but, the parade did go off, on schedule. Finish: 4:15 PML.

LARC Members participating in Communications: K3HDM-HD, N3WSG-Jerry, WI3N-Jim, N3JMK–Matt, W3YD-Pud, KA8YPY-Danny, KB3DVC-Ed, and from GMRA N3TTX-Cape.

Some of the Ops gathered at the Club Shack after the parade. HD/K3HDM installed a new contest logging program on the computer, Jerry/N3WSG, got it to work. (K3HDM)

Calendar

Feb 17 GW Marathon BARC Feb 16 VE Test Session 384 Main St. Laurel Hamfests

May 5 Hagerstown Hamfest 2002 Washington County AG Expo Center, Hagerstown For a complete HAMFEST calendar go to (http://www.arrl.org/hamfests.html#listing) Selected Contests

CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW 2200Z, Jan 25 1600Z, Jan 27 10-10 Inter. Winter Contest, SSB 0001Z, Feb 2 2400Z, Feb 3 ARRL Inter. DX Contest, CW 0000Z, Feb 16 2400Z, Feb 17 ARRL Inter. DX Contest, Phone 0000Z, Mar 2 2400Z, Mar 3 CQ WW WPX Contest, SSB 0000Z, Mar 30 2400Z, Mar 31 For a complete contest calendar go to (http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/contestcal.html)