The VALLEY HAM NEWS
The Voice of the Yuba Sutter Amateur Radio Club
A
Web Page: www.ysarc.org E-Mail: k7ppm@hotmail.com
APRIL 2007 Edition
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UPCOMING EVENTS
APRIL 7 Possibility: Saturday, MS
Walk. Contact
Paul, N6XVL, for details
14 Saturday, Bike Around The Buttes Contact Herb, W6HBU
21 Joint Club Meeting with OARS for lunch @ Gold Country Casino NOON
25 Board Meeting Wednesday @ Manna’s QTH 7:00 PM
MAY 5 Saturday, VE Testing session 9:00 PM
12
20 NHRC SWAP Call-in Freq,
23 Board Meeting @ Steve’s QTH
(N6YCS) 7:00 PM
JUNE 9 Second Saturday, Club
Breakfast Meeting Location TBA 9:00 AM
16 Saturday–Kids Day, show
a kid ham radio
23 & 24 Field Days (Saturday
and Sunday) Location TBA
JULY 7 Saturday, VE Testing EV Free Church @
21 Club Picnic, Saturday Location TBA 11:00
AM
AUG. 11 Saturday, Club Breakfast Location TBA 9:00
AM
22 Board Meeting Location
TBA 7:00 PM
SEPT. 8 Saturday, VE Testing EV Free Church @
11 Club Meeting, Winlink Program @
26 Board Meeting Wednesday Location
TBA 7:00 PM
OCT. 6 Cal QSO Contest? Great DX
Fun
9 Tuesday, monthly meeting
with Program @
St. Andrews PC, YC 7:00 PM
12 thru 14, Pacificon Ham Fest–Bigger/Better @ San
Ramon Marriott
24 Board Meeting Wednesday
Location TBA 7:00 PM
NOV. 3 Saturday, VE Testing @
EV Free Church 700
3 Saturday LOVER (
13 Second Tuesday, Election Of Officers, & Pie! @ St. Andrew
PC YC 7:00 PM
DEC. 11 Christmas Party Potluck
& Prize Drawing @ St. Andrew PC YC 6:00 PM
Weekly
Activities:
Monday Night
YSARC Net – 7:00 PM on WD6AXM Repeater.
146.085 (out), 146.685 (in) PL
127.3.
Wednesday
Morning Gathering. Local eateries and
arranged weekly during Monday night net.
Thursday nights
YSARES Net at 7:00 p.m. on WD6AXM repeater.
Other Activities:
ARRL SECTION
NET: Second Wednesday night each month, at 7:00 PM on WD6AXM repeater.
No-so-daily,
12:00 (noon-ish) – Lunch Bunch.
Details arranged daily on WD6AXM repeater.
Remember to use
443.85+ repeater (PL 127.3), the Voice of the Sutter Buttes. See The Valley Ham News for updates.
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PRESIDENTS REPORT
Submitted By
Bob McClard W6OWH
The
Month of April begins with a day of public service for our club members
with about 17 people helping provide much needed communications for The Bike
Around the Buttes on Saturday April 14th. This is a great chance for
newcomers to bring out their new/used rigs and antennas for a day of public
service. This has been an annual club supported event for about 20 years.
Springtime in the Buttes is a wonder time and members will enjoy the drive and
chance to be a part of an event that draws about 1000 bicycle riders from all over
northern
We
had fifteen new hams pass or upgrade licenses on March 3rd. When
you hear some of the new calls jump in and greet them with a friendly hello,
how was it taking the test, and do you know about our Monday and Thursday night
nets. We always have room for more. Throw out the welcome mat. Those first few
contacts will be set in their memories FOR LIFE. It is our responsibility to
make them pleasurable and fun so they will want to come back on the air. It can
be very uncomfortable to get on the first few times… intimidating to be sure so
don’t embarrasses them if they make a small faux pas. (I have heard old timers
correct new hams in a tactless manner and the hams have not been heard on our
system again. I have heard this happen three times in the past year and this
should not happen again.)
Our
membership reaches from South Sacramento to
Is
this only a repeater club like some other clubs? If you check out the
Schedule of Events elsewhere you will see that we are much more. If you like to
socialize, work mobile, DX, VHF, UHF, contest, perform public service, operate
Field Day, or make antennas you will find others in our club to share with you.
Today I saw this: Jerry and Melinda drove to the Jack-in-the-Box with three other
I’m still
getting up to speed on all the things going on behind the scenes. Did you know
the club has a trailer with a tower for Club use? Did you know your board was
asked to submit a volunteer for the Sutter County Grand Jury? Did you know two
or three of our board members have served on the Grand Jury? Did you know one
of our members owns a helicopter that he uses in agriculture spraying?
Remember
we meet with the OARS club on Saturday April 21st at HIGH NOON
at the Gold Country Casino, Oroville. We have done this before and all had a
great time. We meet at the Buffet upstairs inside the new Casino. This is a
smoke free dining area. This gives our club an outreach to our northern
members. The cost for complete lunch with drink is about seven dollars. Hope to
see you there. 73 Bob W6OWH
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TREASURER’S REPORT
YUBA SUTTER
AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
TREASURER’S
REPORT
MARCH, 2007
CHECKING
BALANCE: FEBRUARY, 2007 $2,592.12
RECEIPTS
DEPOSITED
3/5 DUES: KI6BKL/KI6CSM - $22; VEC - $210; RETURN
CASH: $41 $ 273.00
3/7 VEC: 28.00
3/12 DUES: KG6PNH 18.00
3/27 DUES: W6HUK/K6RQC (Jose/Rae Cosea); KI6IND
(Chuck Murphy)
N6YZP (Mark Parker); KE6ITK (Michael Lesnewsky)
76.00
TOTAL $ 2,987.12
BILLS:
1068 PIP - newsletter $ 23.62
1069 CASH - return of money for change for VEC
session: 40.00
1070 POSTMASTER - Olivehurst - 40 stamps 15.60
1071 ARRL VEC: 238.00
1072 CWNET - web site fee
121.88
TOTAL $ 439.10
CHECKING
BALANCE: checkbook/bank statement agree $
2548.02
Less Repeater Balance $690.80
“
VE “ 125.10
TOTAL: $815.90 LESS: $ 815.90
CLUB BALANCE: $1,732.12
SUBMITTED BY: CLARA ANSLEY KC6JPP TREASURER
____________________________________________________________________________________________
We are unable to provide the YSARC Club Roster with The Valley Ham
News this month. It will be distributed
with next month’s newsletter. You may go
to the club web site at ysarc.org/ to print a hard copy for immediate use.
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QST-QST-QST Check-in Monday Nights at 7:00 p.m. with YSARC!
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MINUTES OF THE BOARD MEETING
YSARC Board Meeting
March 28, 2007 Ron Murdoch’s Residence
Meeting brought to
order at 7:10PM
Officers in
Attendance: Bob McClard, President
W6OWH; Don Fair, Vice President KB6RHJ; Clara Ansley, Treasurer KC6JPP; and
Manna Whelchel Secretary KG6PNE.
Board Members in
attendance: Ron Murdoch W6KJ; Herb
Puckett W6HBU; Steve Sweetman K6YCS; David Wainer WD6SCD. Members absent: Lee Sheffield KC6MCI.
The Secretary Manna read the Minutes of the last Board
Meeting held at Herb‘s residence. Ron
made the motion that the minutes be approved as read and Clara seconded. M/S/P
Clara read the Treasurer’s report. Members and new members are sending in their
dues. Yeah!! The Club current balance is
$2,548.02. Ron made the motion that the
Treasurer’s report be approved as read and Herb seconded. Printed elsewhere in
the VHN. M/S/P
Bob read the mail: 1.The
Club received a questionnaire from Superior Court of CA,
2. The Club received a
bill from the DMV for trailer registration.
Ron said the club had a trailer which is up at Pete Visali’s place. The trailer has a tower that could be used
for field day and other club uses.
3. Bob read a letter
from Sid Padrick - N6OTW: He has a new
computer and radio programming capabilities for Yaesu FT 170 and FT-2800. Club members are welcome to contact him if
they would like to program their rigs. He has made the offer to have this
equipment available to club members for no charge. Bob W6OWH has a similar
program and free programming offer for the Icom handheld … IC T7H.
VE Session, March 3rd: 15 of 17 passed! March 3rd
with 15 passing. Herb reported the VE
session ran out of General exams. As far
as we know, all test takers have received their licenses. Herb stated that there is a lot of enthusiasm
going on now in the ham radio field.
BOK KAI report: Ron.
There were six ham operators there.
All felt a few more operators would have helped. He said the parade was temporarily stopped
due to a rope falling off a wire. We had
bands, clubs, horses, fire engines and a dragon to make for an entertaining
parade. Working the staging area was preferable to working the barricades. We
had no unruly drivers to deal with.
FIELD DAY INFO: Bob,
Pat and Dave went to look at the 2007 site and felt it was great. Dave said Mark’s ag spraying area is open to
us for a Field Day site. We can set up
poles, trailers, tents and run generators without disturbing anyone. Mark is very open and willing and enthused to
have the Ham club field day there on his property. Ok to BBQ; There are mowed lawns; helicopter
pad for setting up equipment. Ron made
the motion to approve the expenditure of $50.00 for supplies. Herb seconded. M/S/P.
Members to bring the potluck stuff…… yum!
BOB made the announcement that Leo will be the interim
Newsletter editor. When sending articles to
Leo for the newsletter, save in Rich
Text format, or Word Perfect. When
sending photo’s please send as jpeg compressed.
Again, FEEL FREE to submit an article or picture to Leo. (address: k7ppm@hotmail.com)
Thank you Sean for your past diligent work on The Valley Ham
News and continued presence as our web page editor.
Discussion re Domain name and web site hosting: Our web site was down for a few days but is
up and running again. Our check was
received for the annual web- hosting fee but seemed to be not credited as
paid. We expect the issue to be resolved
soon.
Club Trailer: Steve brought up topic of a Club trailer that
we have had for years. This was a
surprise to many board members and officers. It has been stored at Pete’s in
Dobbins for about 5 years. Before that
it was at Robbie’s. Ron made a motion
that we: 1) move and store trailer at
Steve’s place; 2) Have Secretary send thank you note to Pete
for his storage of our trailer; 3) Trailer to be used for Field Days and other
events. Herb seconded the motion. M/S/P
Much discussion re Bike Around the
2. Herb would like to see people use actual
mobiles with higher power. Handheld rigs have limited range with their lower
power and can be difficult to copy at times.
He has mobile rigs and mag-mount antennas to lend just for this special
event. If in need, contact Herb or a
quick call to HRO can bring that shiny new mobile tomorrow… Hi Hi.
YSARC Repeater: There was a discussion relative to
organizations wishing to use the YSARC repeater for an extended period of time
for a purpose other than open communication.
This was a follow-up on the discussion Don brought up at the February
Board meeting. No consensus was reached so the discussion was tabled till next
month.
Meeting adjourned
approx 9:15PM.
Respectfully
submitted, Manna Whelchel
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WHO AM I
I live in the foothills and often travel to far off places
to work, like
Find out next month who I am.
Answer to
March Who Am I
Old timer Sid Padrick N6OTW of Linda.
He started in radio with the military in 1942. He was assigned to several
locations installing radio stations. He spent six years on the African
Continent. Now a very active retired senior. His station is a model of
organization and efficiency.
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EDITOR’S RAMBLINGS
This is my first effort
with The VALLEY HAM NEWS. I have agreed
to this effort on an interim basis, and if it works out for me I will make this
a long term effort. I can use assistance.
If you are interested or have experience, please contact me. With the wealth of experience in this
club, members with specific amateur
radio related interests, are encouraged to submit an article (or articles!) to
be included in the newsletter.
I will use this
opportunity to thank the Yuba–Sutter Amateur Radio Club Board Members for
giving me this opportunity to serve you in this capacity.
Leo K7PPM
REFLECTIONS ON
DIRECTION FINDING
|
RON STANDING BY HIS VEHICLE WHILE PRESENTING DIRECTION FINDING TECHNIQUES |
Submitted
By
Ron,
W6KJ
Saturday,
March 17th, had a dozen or so stalwart YSARC members out in Linda
near the Fire Station at the old Peach Tree Mall. We gathered there for a scheduled
event to introduce the club’s existing direction finding gear, and demonstrate
techniques for finding a transmitting station.
It has
been over a decade since we started this effort. We used mobile tracking
stations to find and identify multiple sources of interference, both
intentional and accidental. Since then we have not had an active group of
df’ers, and it is time that we get people active.
Many club
members have equipped themselves with portable radios, attenuators, and
antennas capable of quickly determining the direction of a transmitted signal.
The club has four Agrelo DF Jr. Doppler direction finders to aid in this
effort. Two of them are stored in my garage, and that is two too many. They
should be deployed to members who can get them on the road in a hurry.
The stuck
transmitter is the most common offending signal source. It is in the same
category as an accidental source, like a malfunctioning cable TV junction, or a
repeater amplifier that has malfunctioned. These sources are capable of holding
open our repeater with a signal on the input frequency sufficient to activate
the Carrier Operated Relay and turn on the repeater’s transmitter. A constant
source will time out the repeater and require us to find the source. I call
this a compliant signal. It is there long enough for us to eventually
find it.
|
HERB AND THE GROUP ARE TAKING IT ALL IN |
Jammers
have bothered repeater operators around the country. Intentional jamming
stations try to disrupt normal repeater operations for the same reason vandals
tear down what others have built. Jammers are not capable of building anything
themselves and so get there kicks by ruining or trying to ruin what others have
built. This is a non-compliant signal. Besides jammers, there are some wandering
signals that are unintentionally generated but still cause interference. These may or may not stay on the air long
enough for searchers to find.
Most
jammers know exactly what they are doing and so will vary their periods of
transmission and move frequently to frustrate efforts of direction finding
stations. What is required is discipline by the direction finders to field a
team if necessary to locate and identify the offending transmission.
At this
point, let me suggest a strategy. First determine if the signal is compliant or
not. Second, if you have a directional vhf or vhf/uhf beam antenna for your
home station, invest in a rotator than can be referenced to True North. (Line
the antenna up with the North Star, Polaris, on a clear night when you can see
both the antenna and the star. Then make sure your antenna rotor control
indicates True North, 360 degrees.)
Third,
take part in direction finding activity and learn the basics of this skill. It
will come in handy, if only to entertain you and keep you in touch with new
stations as they appear on our repeater. You can listen to the input of the
repeater and figure out from which direction they are transmitting. If you have
the rotor and antenna properly lined up, then equip yourself with a good local
map (or set of maps) so you can get an idea where the bearing of a signal comes
from and relay that information to another df’er.
Relay
should occur off the repeater for obvious reasons. Other bands or means of
communication should be used to relay this information, especially if overt
jamming is suspected.
Even a
hand held three-element yagi can be used to get a source signal direction if
you can hear it at ground level. You may want to start in your back yard then
progress to a more open area away from houses and tall buildings. Remember to
note down the direction of the signal and the locations from which you are able
to hear it. Time and signal quality is good information too.
The club will
hold more direction finding events if there is interest. Nice weather is a plus
for this as is daylight. It is nice to be able to see what you are doing.
73, Ron, W6KJ
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A Note From
Sid -- N6OTW
I now have a computerized program for the Yaesu FT 2800M,
and for the Yaesu HT VX-170.
If anyone withes to use either of these programs they are
welcome to come over and use them as much as they like.....No charge of
course. Call Sid at 742-6811. If he is not in, leave a message You can also
reach him on his cell phone, 531-5059.
Thanks Sid for this very thoughtful offer.
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NEXT MONTH’S
ARTICLE
CAN ANYONE HEAR
ME?
By
Don KB6RHJ
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2007 CLUB OFFICERS 2007
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President:
Bob McClard, W6OWH Ron
Murdock, W6KJ
Vice President: Don Fair, KB6RHJ Herb
Puckett, W6HBU
Treasurer: Clara Ansley, KC6JPP Lee Sheffield, KC6MCI
Secretary: Manna Whelchel, KG6PNE