PCARA Update Volume 9, Issue 5 Peekskill / Cortlandt Amateur Radio Association Inc. May 2008 Hunt the hertz Now’s a good time to practice those Spring clean- ing skills by dusting off those Yagis, attenuators, com- passes, maps and GPS units for the PCARA Foxhunt on Saturday May 10, 2008! This time ‘round Malcolm, NM9J will be the fox, so expect some creative hide-and- seek tactics. Registration begins at 2:30 p.m. on May 10th in the Beach Shopping Center parking lot on Dayton Lane (sounds appropriate for some reason) between Routes 6 and 202, near CVS and Radio Shack. As always, participation is open to members, non- members, the general public, and to anyone who has an interest in RDF. ALL ARE WELCOME! The hunt will kick-off Mike N2EAB and Karl N2KZ check out offerings at the at 3:00 p.m. and should last about an hour and a half. Orange County ARC hamfest on April 26. At the conclusion of the activities we’ll meet at a local watering hole of the fox’s choosing for supper, conver- in March 2008, for the February 2008 edition. This is sation, and the awarding of certificates. Hope to see all due to the tireless efforts of the PCARA Update you all there! Editor-in-Chief Malcolm, NM9J. Kudos Malcolm! Per Field Day 2008 is on the weekend of June 28-29th. ardua ad astra! On behalf of the PCARA membership, I We’re planning on operating at the same location as last offer a heartfelt Thank You and Well Done! year, which is Walter Panas High School at 300 Croton Our next meeting is Sunday May 4, 2008 at 3:00 Avenue in Cortlandt Manor, NY. Joe, WA2MCR is in the p.m. at Hudson Valley Hospital Center. Come join us process of finalizing the paperwork to obtain all the and share your thoughts, ideas, and fellowship in this necessary permissions. Watch the club homepage for wonderful hobby. finalized details (www.geocities.com/pcara2000). - 73 de Greg, KB2CQE For a third time the PCARA Update been chosen as Newsletter of the Month for the ARRL Hudson Division PCARA Officers President: Greg Appleyard, KB2CQE, kb2cqe at arrl.net Vice President: Joe Calabrese, WA2MCR; wa2mcr at arrl.net Contents Hunt the hertz - KB2CQE 1 Adventures in DXing - N2KZ 2 JetStream power supply - NM9J 4 PCARA Foxhunt Rules 5 The State of the States 2008 - N2KZ 6 Greg KB2CQE welcomes visitors to PCARA’s club table at Mt Beacon ARC Hamfest, April 13. PCARA Update, May 2008, page 1 reasonable pause. I Adventures in DXing jumped in and registered with the - N2KZ station immedi- ately. But what had I worked? It was W1EES (SK) Senegal. It was my It is with deep regret I announce the passing of very first contact Harold Chase, Jr., W1EES, of West Suffield, Connecti- with Africa and I cut. Harold was 91 years old and had held the same QSL card from 6W1SJ made it with five callsign since 1932 completing 76 years as a radio watts and a homebrew dipole. amateur. An extra class operator in every sense, Harold The fun had just begun. I rode the waves as long served on the Board of Directors of the Quarter Century as I could. During the opening I also caught IT9MUO Wireless Association from Italy, GI0KVQ Northern Ireland, EA1VOX Spain and 1998 through 2005 and was IK2DJV Italy. Not bad for five watts on a WARC band! active in the QCWA’s Yankee, Later on, I worked KP4DX in California. My transmit- Nutmeg and Pioneer Chap- ter? A Small Wonder Labs SW+20 at one measly watt ters in New England. The on 20 meters. What a night! QCWA requires that you Conditions must have been pretty good. Just two complete 25 years as an days before, on April 12th, John W9SE in Normal, amateur radio operator to be Illinois caught my attention on 30 meters answering my eligible to join. Harold had CQ. I heard his distant call to me which sounded far, far enough experience to qualify away. It took about four attempts, but we managed to three times over! touch base. The band improved and we had an interest- He also enjoyed check- ing conversation. At five watts, I was beyond QRO. John ing in to the Green Mountain embarrassed me! I was running way too much power Net on 75 meters. Many being received in Illinois with a 579. Using a 40 meter remember him by his saluta- Harold, W1EES delta loop up about 25 feet, John was running 200 tion “Gee gang, you’re all milliwatts, just one fifth of one watt! It was quite a looking swell!” (The Green Mountain Net is a very handshake, indeed! popular ‘phone net that meets daily, except Sunday, on 3933 kHz LSB.) Silencing Eve Electrical engineer was his profession for most of Canada’s CBC recently silenced their powerhouse his adult life. For example, during his career he worked on 1070 kHz: radio station CBA in Moncton, New on the development and installation of a missile and Brunswick. Living up to my reputation as a medium satellite tracking station and the Trident submarine wave DXer, I was compelled to listen to the frequency program. Harold was married for 53 years to his wife after the final closedown to see what might come in. Gladys who passed away in 1998. He was known as a Predictably, the country and western helpful Elmer with a great sense of humor. A finer sounds of CHOK in Sarnia, Ontario cut friend you could not meet. through, but there was another station He is survived by his son Hal, N1URW and his in there, as well. Initially, I thought daughter Cynthia. On a personal note, Harold was the the station was IDing as E-1070, but first person I ever worked as an amateur radio operator. later learned that it was actually We QSOed on January 1, 2000 on 3700 kHz 80 meter WTWK ‘Eve 1070’ from Plattsburgh, CW. He encouraged me to continue as a CW op. I took New York. I heard them consistently his advice. May he rest in peace. every morning before dawn. It didn’t make sense to me that there would be a WNWL: Africa! fulltime station authorized between the coverage areas Another edition of ‘Work Now Worry Later’: On of CBA and CHOK. There just wasn’t enough room! the evening of April 14th, I turned on my little 30 meter Maybe this was an old pre-sunrise authority QRP rig, an Oak Hills Research OHR-100A, and the grandfathered from long ago...but wait...PSAs should band was just loaded with activity as if a popular begin at 6 am not earlier. Eve 1070’s programming contest was going on. The first station I encountered could not be considered an engineering test. They were was being hammered with requests. 6W1SJ was work- running the syndicated Joey Reynolds show until 5:30 ing station after station and sending them all 5-9-9 am and then switching to their morning show, ‘Weekday reports. I listened for a couple of minutes waiting for a Warmup,’ complete with advertising and station PCARA Update, May 2008, page 2 promos. They were on the air quite formally with a purpose. What was going on? I went to the FCC’s on-line AM Query database and looked up WTWK. It was listed as a one tower non- directional 5 kilowatt station with daytime only author- ity. They shouldn’t be on the air before local sunrise. Is there something I’m missing? I looked at their website and sent an e-mail to the station seeking clarity. I heard from their Chief Engineer Mike Raymond: “Good to hear from DX’ers like you. WTWK has daytime author- ity only. WTWK transmits 5kW daytime and goes off the air during nighttime hours. The time schedule varies month to month and daylight savings shifts the hours of operation too. If you heard WTWK during the month of April, our turn on time would be 0730 hrs EST (DST corrected.)” What was he trying to tell me? I had to shake my head. My original e-mail specifi- April 7 switch off at CBA. cally mentioned that I heard them just after 5 in the CW Lore morning, not after 7:30. I wrote back and asked what File under the category: You will always learn their pre-sunrise power was. I explained that they something new... I recently came across a couple of seemed to be getting out very well and that I was tidbits concerning the history of CW operations. Many interested in low power operation as an amateur radio of us have heard the origin of CQ as being a part of the operator. Needless to say, I never heard back from Mike. original maritime distress call CQD meaning ‘Come I also never heard Eve 1070 again before sunrise! Quickly Distress.’ How about QSB? Originally, this did I don’t know how long WTWK had been broad- not equate to propagation fading. It actually meant casting overnight, but a sudden rash of reports from ‘Spark Bad’ going back to the primitive early days of distant listeners must have had quite an effect on them! radio transmission with a spark gap. Another one was Canada’s CBA was permanently off the air and now, shared with me by an old Navy op. I worked a couple of suddenly, listeners outside of the Plattsburgh area could weeks ago: TUSU.