January 2010 ( P.O. Box 1765 Hayden, ID REGULAR CLUB MEETINGS: Help Needed... President s Message:

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1 January 2010 ( P.O. Box 1765 Hayden, ID REGULAR CLUB MEETINGS: Monday, January 11 Search And Rescue Building Hayden, Idaho Topic: Winter Driving Presenter: ISP Monday, February SAR Building Topic: Vintage Radios Presenter: Jack McElroy, K7JMC SOCIAL EVENTS: IN THIS ISSUE Help Needed address concerns raised by the regional organizations and Membership some membersocieties. Application There has been a movement in the last several years to try to identify centers of activity frequencies across all three IARU regions that can be used in disaster relief operations. It has at President s Message: Your new 2010 KARS Board wishes each of you a healthy, prosperous, and satisfying year (and a decade) of inspiration and fulfillment with family, friends, and continued enjoyment of amateur radio. Here s a New Year secret for all: ham radio keeps you young and spry. So we challenge you to select a ham activity (from thousands of them) and engage yourself fully towards achieving a HRG (a ham radio goal). We re fortunate in having a depth of expertise in so many areas of our hobby as members of KARS. The trick is finding and engaging them in small interest groups. Not only will these activities expand your personal horizon, it will also serve yet another KARS venue of sharing program subjects with the membership at our monthly meetings. Nothing could be more representative of this activity than our February 2010 program presentation offered by Jack McElroy, K7JMC, long time KARS member and former board officer. How you can enjoy ham radio through the restoration of carefully selected vintage yet fully functioning radio equipment at significantly less cost should bring a moment of nostalgia to us oldsters a.k.a. the QCWA (see logo) and more importantly to newly licensed hams wanting to get on the air on a budget. In addition to demonstrating that those super-rigs in the $1000 s, we see every month in our catalogues and publications, may yet have some competition from the well designed and bullet-proof rigs of a few decades ago. Jack s trek to a reliable all-mode 2 meter transceiver is exciting and is a testament to Jack s determination and interest in rehertzing older ham radio equipment. He ll be demonstrating his ideas and modifications along with several recommended vintage transceivers and rigs on display in a program you won t want to miss. In our first Propagation comments, how could one not acknowledge the former Board for their outstanding service to the club? In particular, the culmination of a year of activities and participation with the annual KARS Christmas Party, chaired by Jeff Wall, KB7TIC, former KARS VP, and his family crew, Leanne, XYL; John Jolicoeur & Desiree Harvey; along with Secretary Megan Barrett, KE7RCD, and many others (see the photos taken by Larry Telles, K6SPP). The facilities were superb thanks to Vicki Harrison, Director of the Senior Center, who incidentally was delighted at the added generosity of the bucket-passing that netted an additional contribution to their Meals-on-Wheels mission over and above their modest rental fee for the delightfully decorated hall for our use. Their programs, like so many others in the area, took a major hit this year with the economy and the reduction in contributions. Even though we do not have a photo suitable for framing in the local paper with a super-sized check from a business or organization ten times larger than ours, please consider yourselves at the top of Vicki s list of concerned supporters of a well run local

2 facility and program for our community s mutual benefit. Treasurer, Tom Richmond, NI7W, will have the official report at our next meeting but our thanks go out to each and every one of you supporting this effort in the KARS name. As a side bar to our uniquely well-attended and enjoyable party K6SPP took several global photos of the hall for use in perhaps promoting private Christmas parties & fund raisers in the future. Be assured that Vicki will hold our priority reservation for this year s 2010 Christmas party and perhaps a few other activities such as the new home for our Highway Clean-Up Light-Lunch event now in the planning stages. There is a lot to enjoy in this issue of the Propagation now going to 40 or more area hams in the Northern Counties. This one is a keeper and thanks for the memories John Hollar, N7JU, 2010 KARS President Assistance Needed: I am looking for a Yaesu FT-101 series HF rig to display at our February meeting. If any member has one, or knows where we borrow one for the meeting please contact me via . The radio does not have to work it will only be on display. Jack McElroy, K7JMC, k7jmc@yahoo.com 2009 KARS President Ed Hannigan, KE7FOW, discovers he has to serve yet another year as immediate Past President and advisor KARS CHRISTMAS PARTING SHOTS Incoming 2010 KARS President N7JU Honors Board Members 2Incoming Treasurer, Tom Richmond, KI7W, honored with a FREE LUNCH Long story ask him! In prayer? no, just trying to picture a Smith Chart he s never seen. KARS newest member KC4YTZ, Richard, takes a crack at a standard Extra exam, missing the mark by just 1 question. Jerry Hooper, KA7RNX, Senior VE and K7ID Trustee, reads the questions and the Answers prior to Richard s selection. Mitch Killibrew, KB7BYR, VE scoring supervisor, pre-selected an Extra exam with the least number of diagrams and pictorials for a reasonable accommodation, but there were just too many in the standard exams. Accordingly, the ARRL VEC, Assistant Manager, Perry Green, WY1O, was contacted and immediately provided the KARS VE team with an approved ARRL VEC Extra exam for the sight impaired. Richard, will be re-taking the Extra on January 11 th 2010 at the SAR building (and the exam fee will be on the VE team). Good luck Richard!

3 PHONETICS Did you ever try to have someone on a cell-phone circuit try to spell out an address phonetically? WHEN THEY DON T KNOW standard phonetic words? It s a Hotel Oscar Oscar Tango! After all, T and E and B and C and D and G and P and V and Z all sound the same. Who designed our alphabet anyway? Here is a neat cut-out for the shack. for low power transceivers or fixed portable use. Many designs were suggested (with a few being constructed and are in the process of testing). In the photo below, Dan Wilkins, KE7UYO, along with KARS Vice President Gary Beaudreau, KE7UQM, not shown, work on a Kars kopper-kaper base station antenna. Although initially only a single band, the antenna is capable of running a KW before the solder melts. Below is a photo of Dan putting the final touches to the copper fittings down to a 1/8 inch. The matching portion of the antenna requires a mechanical slider and an insulated side mounting system. When we find one we can build for under $15.00 and able to complete and tune it up in an evening, we ll schedule a program and take reservations to have the parts (stuff) ready for prime time. Teams would be helpful in this project so send me an with your thoughts. Garry, KE7UQM Building a Prototype 2-Meter Base Station Antenna Last year the club was kicking around a low cost project that we could take out the door and build in a single evening at a club meeting. An objective of any project is that it be of some benefit to our various operations, and that hopefully we could learn something in the process. Among the many suggestions, a recurring theme was an inexpensive but effective VHF/UHF base station antenna (Continue on page 4) 3

4 Excerpted from the IARU November 2009 Newsletter: There has been a movement in the last several years to try to identify centers of activity frequencies across all three IARU regions that can be used in disaster relief operations. It has at times been difficult to arrive at a consensus on what frequencies should be used. The AC (IARU Administrative Council) noted that all three regions have now reached consensus on three global Center of Activity (CoA) frequencies for use in the event of emergencies: , and MHz. When no emergency operations are being conducted, these frequencies are open for normal amateur usage. However, GAREC-09 (more on GAREC later in this report) calls upon IARU member-societies, among others, whenever emergency communications are being conducted on frequencies that propagate internationally, to use any available real-time communications channels, including but not limited to bulletins, web-sites, social networking and DX-clusters to draw the attention of the largest possible number of Amateur Radio operators to on-going emergency communications, in order to avoid interference with emergency traffic. It would be helpful for each member-society to develop an effective method of notifying amateurs within their own country of any such emergency traffic being handled on the CoA frequencies, or elsewhere in the amateur bands. With the start of the new year, please remember to renew your membership with KARS. See application on next page. AMATEUR RADIO LICENSE TEST SESSIONS Coeur d Alene, ID ARRL VEC Contact: John Hollar, Jr., N7JU, phone: (208) vetesting@k7id.org Colville, WA ARRL VEC Contact: Karl Miller, WX7P, phone: (509) , (509) wx7p@arrl.net Spokane, WA ARRL VEC Contact: Mary Qualtieri, AA7RT, phone: (509) aa7rt@arrl.net Spokane, WA W5YI VEC Contact: Betsy Ashleman, phone: (509) n7wrq@aol.com Attention: Kootenai County ARES/RACES Members! Don t forget! The meeting location for the monthly KC ARES/RACES meetings remains unchanged: Civil Air Patrol, Sheprock Building, Coeur d Alene Airport. The start time remains 6:30 p.m., on the third Monday of the month. SPOKANE, WA - Register for ham license tests in Spokane by calling Mary, AA7RT at or AA7RT@arrl.net for dates, locations and times. Deadline for submitting articles, stories, reports, etc., is the 25th of each month for the following month s newsletter.

5 Kootenai Amateur Radio Society PO Box 17 5, Hayden, Idaho Please complete the entire form and return with your payment. Single Year Membership New Member $12.00 Renewing $12.00 Family Membership $18.00 Information Update Only Two Year Membership New Member $22.00 Renewing $22.00 Family Membership $33.00 Callsign Class Expiration First Name & Middle Initial Last Name Address City State Zip Code Phone Number Address ARRL Member May we publish limited Information Internal Use Only Cash Check Money order Roster Membership Card For Family Membership, Please complete an application and staple togeather. Signature K7ID.org Request Form First and Last Name Callsign Would you like your (callsign)@k7id.org to be forwarded to an existing account or would you like to access it through a web or post office protocol (POP) system? Please Forward to My existing Webmail Access POP Access (Please Complete the Bottom and Sign.) I wish to opt-out of K7ID.org Please Select a Please Select a Password For Forward Request Only Address Signature

6 KOOTENAI AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY P.O. Box 5222 Coeur d Alene, ID DIRECTIONS TO KARS MEETING: Take U.S. Highway 95 to Miles Avenue (Miles is about 1 mile North of Hayden Avenue). Instead of proceeding west from the corner of Miles and Ramsey, go north about ¼ mile, to the first building on the left (West) side of the road CLUB OFFICERS President: John Hollar, N7JU president@k7id.org Vice-President: Garry Budreau, KE7UQM vicepresident@k7id.org Exec. Director: Allan Campbell, KE7DFT excdirector@k7id.org Secretary: Megan Barrett, KE7RCD secretary@k7id.org Treasurer: Tom Richmond, NI7W treasurer@k7id.org Newsletter Editor: Gary Roth, KE7IAT ke7iat@comcast.net Repeater Trustee: Jerry Hooper, KA7RNX ka7rnx@arrl.net Repeater Tech: Jim Monroe, N7ESU n7esu@arrl.net Webmaster: Larry Telles, K6SPP ltelles@icehouse.net Past President: Ed Hannigan, KE7FOW naginnah@jrcda.com Notice Propagation is published monthly by the Kootenai Amateur Radio Society (KARS). The club is located in Coeur d Alene, Idaho and serves the North Idaho and the Spokane, Washington areas. All opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the individual contributers and not the radio club as a whole. KARS operates a voice repeater on and a packet repeater on Mhz. Anyone interested in Amateur Radio is welcome to join. Dues are $12.00 (individual) and $18.00 for a family membership. Contact the Treasurer if you wish to join. If you know of anyone interested in joining KARS, you can notify the newsletter editor as to that parties address. A copy of this newsletter will be sent with no obligation to join. Material can be submitted for publication in Propagation. The deadline for articles, etc., is the 25th of each month for the following month s issue.