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 tone
DUMMY LOAD
December 2003 Newsletter of the San Juan County Amateur Radio Society
Please send editors’ e-mail to
WEB Address - www.mccorison.com/sanjuan/ares (all Dummy Loads may be found here)
HOLIDAY PARTY
Christmas Potluck Lunch
12 to 3 / 1200-1500
at the American Legion Hall in Friday Harbor
Saturday, December 13
Athlene, KD7TUO, has reserved the hall. She and Nancy, KD7IRD, sent out invitations to the Skagit Valley hams of which Anacortes is a part. Charley, W7HND is bringing paper goods, Babs & Peter will provide Field Day Juice. Nancy Lindenburg will do decorations. We’ll need some hot dishes, a couple salads and, of course, desserts. Call Athlene, 378-0808 and tell her what you’ll bring, ask questions, make suggestions. Come and join the fun!
HAMS at the Swapmeet, November 8
Dan, N6AU; Charley, W7HND, Athlene, KD7TUO & Sid, KD7PKB; and Dave, K9MRQ graced the Mt. Baker ARC Hamfest/Swapmeet in Lynden WA. They had a wonderful time and came home with lots of goodies.
From Dan, N6 AU: The Lynden Hamfest Adventure
I particularly like the early morning, so getting up for the 6AM ferry was not a big deal. The air is clean and crisp, sure lots of people are yawning. I arrived at the ferry terminal with 10 minutes to spare to find Dave Vandeveer in his righteous red truck. He had promised he could haul hundreds of pounds of purchases back to the island, and he was prepared.
Charlie Ratcliffe obligingly agreed to sit in the back seat, leaving the front passenger side for me. We rumbled off into the early morning up I-5 all in anticipation of the wonders to behold on the bargain tables. The drive took about 45 minutes. With the maps drawn using “Streets & Trips 2004”, navigating was a snap. We arrived ten minutes before the official opening time. Already buyers were straining at the gates.
With appropriate ceremony, the opening bell was sounded and the press of buyers descended upon the various 40 foot long rows of tables. So what is the big deal one might ask? Well, let me tell you. I like to go to see the old junk that I played with when I was a kid. Just to pick up an old air variable capacitor, or a transmitting vacuum tube, is a thrill. There on one table was a Viking II transmitter, one of the Cadillac pieces of the 50’s. This all band (well back then 160 meters through 10 meters was all band) all mode (CW, AM phone and RTTY) transmitter was way above my reach with my paper boy income. Here one was for sale for $50. And it might even be in working condition.
Other tables had more modern equipment, VHF transceivers, computer cards, ICs, the list goes on and on.
The parking lot was a museum of its own with many cars equipped with mobile equipment and lots of antennas. The prize winner in the radio-equipped-car category was one very special VW bus. Inside there was room for one person (the driver). All the other space was occupied with radio apparatus, from 160 meters all the way down to 14 cm (2 GHz) horns. The vehicle had been especially equipped to participate in VHF/UHF/SHF radio contests from mountain tops. The antenna array above the roof was something in Rube Goldberg complexity. We had a chance to talk with the owner who remarked the antenna array had reduced the maximum speed of the VW bus on the highway 20 mph, and 60 was as fast as the bus could go. Equally astonishing was the fact that the driver had never been stopped by a law enforcement officer. On the back of the bus was a bumper sticker that said it all. “Honk if something falls off.”
After much schmoozing with other hams at the event, we moved on about mid-day to beautiful downtown Lynden and the Dutch bakery for late morning coffee/early lunch.
KD7PKB, KD7TUO, N6AU, W7HND, K9MRQ visited the Antenna Farm!
Note from Charlie, W7HND:
We spoke with John Rollman, our DEC, met Dawn and Dan from Seattle who had made our badges, and met up with Sid and Athlene. After lunch we drove back to Bellingham; but instead of getting on the fearway immediately, we ducked into Costco, then opted to go to the Radio Museum at 1312 Bay Street downtown. That was an hour and a half of pure joy and nostalgia for us. Vacuum tubes, parlor radios from the 20s and 30s, the first radio detector: a “coherer”, some high voltage demos, only one TV (with a round picture tube), and a theramin from the 1950s. Also a nearly completed vintage news broadcast room, equipment that came from the sister ship of the Titanic, thus was an identical radio shack to that of the Titanic, and finally a tour of the place including the unfinished part next door. All you can say is WOW!
Jonathan Winter co-curator of the American Radio Museum in Bellingham. Check out their web site: www.americanradiomuseum.org or, better yet, go there yourself. Now, that’s a Tube on the left!
From ARRL NEWSLETTER:
ON-LINE LICENSING COURSE, LOBBYING KIT PART OF ARRL'S 2004 PLAN
An on-line Amateur Radio licensing course--possibly bundled with ARRL
membership--plus additional Certification and Continuing Education courses
<http://www.arrl.org/cce/> are among the strategic objectives of the League's 2004 Operational Plan. The League also plans to evaluate its existing ARRL on-line class offerings. The item was among several the ARRL Executive Committee (EC) designated to include in next year's plan when it met November 9 in Irving, Texas. Work on the licensing course already is under way, and the ARRL expects to announce its availability in the near future. Thank you Peter McCorison, K2SPR
The Field Day 2003 Results Are In!!
The San Juan County Amateur Radio Society had the highest score of any 2 station EOC in Western Washington! How about that? We had 1020 points with 76 QSOs and 10 participants.
Nationwide, we scored 38th out of 62 for the 2 station EOC category. Not bad for a group that hasn’t performed in Field Day for a number of years.
Those who get out the magnifying glass to view the results section will note that other groups may have had more QSOs, but our group paid attention to the fine print and made sure we got all the extra bonus points we could. Examples were origination a message for the NTS station and convincing Chief McLaughlin to exercise the station emergency power system. The Chief and the Sheriff helped us score bonus points by showing up at the center to view our operations. Thanks Bill and Bill.
Operationally, we contacted the state EOC during the contest. Prior to the start, we conducted an experiment with the Snohomish EOC, which is an important center for operations in the northern part of WW. We used a repeater to make the initial contact, and then tried simplex 2 meter FM. To our amazement, with an antenna only 10 feet up, we made direct contact on simplex. This is good news for the future, and was the real part of the exercise by ARRL. Field Day was also recognized at state level as an authentic exercise and training operation.
Hopefully, we can build on our experiences and do even better next year. We certainly have the support of all county emergency officials, which is what the group is all about. Thanks to all who helped out and made this a great Field Day. Thank you Dave Vandaveer, K9MRQ
DUMMY LOAD CLASSIFIED
Wanted: KWM 2/2A Collins transmitter by Jim Tyrrell, KA7LJZ,
“With a Heathkit “Fair” condition budget, I’m looking for Collins CCA “Mint” condition gear. I most want a serviceable KWM 2/2A and related accessories, not looking for heirlooms, some restoration acceptable, even hoped for. I’m still saving, so those of you who have unused space-hogging gear and haven’t made up your minds have time to think it over. Let’s talk about putting it back in service. Give the old girl a new chance, Especially if you have KWM 2 SN 13403. “
Editor’s note: Jim is a Sheriff’s Deputy on Lopez and lives on his boat – no phone.
ARES NET CONTROL sked for Dec. 2003 - Jan. 2004
December 3 – Charlie, W7BXH (378-6855)
December 10 – Athlene, KD7TUO or Sid, KD7PKB (378-0808)
December 17 – Dan, N6AU (378-5646)
December 24 – Dave, K9MRQ (368-8306)
December 31 – volunteer, anyone?
January 7 – Peter, K2SPR (376-2404)
If you can’t make the assigned date, call another Ham and swap!
If you would like to be Net Control, let Babs, KD7CIN, 376-2404, know.
DUMMY LOAD
P.O. Box 214
Eastsound WA 98245