The Dummy Load. July 2009 Newsletter. No Meeting in August SJCARS Annual Picnic, Saturday August 8th Midday Odlin County Park, Lopez Island

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1 The Dummy Load July 2009 Newsletter In this Issue Thanks Dan N6AU 1 No Meeting in August SJCARS Annual Picnic, Saturday August 8th Midday Odlin County Park, Lopez Island New Ham s First Field Day 1 SJI Marathon 2 CW the Original Digital 3 The CallSign Challenge 3 Lighthouse Weekend 4 From The Editor 5 Dummy Load Copyright SJCARS Editor N Lindenberg KD7IRD nrlindenberg@ Rockisland.com Distribution D Hoyer KE7TLE KE7TLE@ arrl.net A Heartfelt Thank-You to Dan Drath N6AU Nancy Lindenberg KD7IRE To our President of many years, and Editor of the Dummy Load for even longer, we offer our humble thanks. You kept this group going, pushed us into making calendars and planning ahead, and made all our meetings interesting. You spent hours cooking delicious turkeys, planned barbecues and picnics, found the perfect spot for our Field Day, and kept us in the community spotlight. You provided an excellent model for Net Control many times. Your sense of humor kept things light and enjoyable. When a competent person takes over a job, and does it well, time after time, it is the easiest part of human nature to become complacent, take it for granted, and assume that this comfortable arrangement will go on forever. But as time goes by, we learn based on our own experience that we can go from satisfaction to routine to overload, and in all fairness we should recognize when the same thing happens to our leaders. So, as wonderful as it has been, we rejoice when a generous leader decides he has had enough and hands the job back to the group. Any group that wishes to pursue its goals, whether modest or ambitious, will function much better if the work is spread around. Now, we hope Dan can relax and enjoy hamming as always. We're fortunate to have a new, energetic president, so let's each step up and do our bit, and keep the volunteer aspect of SJCARS at a comfortable level. Well done, Dan! A New Ham s First Time Experience at Field Day Clare Kelm KE7WQY June 27th was the first time I attended an ARRL Field Day, having just gotten my license this past October. The weather couldn't have been better and the food was delicious. Bryan (KG6GEU) was a master of the BBQ, cooking dogs and burgers to perfection. The setting up of equipment was just as interesting as the later operating. A little generator supplied the power and the antennas went up all over the place, some held in place by guy wires. The 2M/220/440 meter antenna was on a tripod weighted down by a 5 gallon gas can filled with something. Umbrellas and canopies provided shade. Curious onlookers arrived early and asked questions.

2 Actually operating was a very different procedure from anything I normally do, talking to hams around the islands, or even talking on the Wednesday night net. On Field Day a ham uses the club's call sign and needs to talk fast and listen carefully to get in and make contact. The 6 and 10 meter bands were pretty dead until about 4:00 p.m., then 10 meters opened up, netting contacts in BC, Southern CA, and Arizona. Dan's (N6AU) 20 meter antenna made a number of far away contacts, like Massachusetts and Vermont, and with the help of Mike (N7TLL) and Jim (K2SON) coaching me on the procedures, even I reached Georgia. In all we contacted 22 states and 2 provinces. It was a very fun and special day for a new ham. A year ago I would never have guessed I would be participating in Field Day. Thanks to all 29 hams who showed up, and especially to those who helped out this enthusiastic but still neophyte ham! Field Day 09 by the Numbers Hams In Attendance : 29 20m Contacts SSB: 30 CW : 13 White Box Contacts 6m : 5 10m: 10 States/Provinces 24 Hot Dogs Consumed: 32 Hamburgers Consumed: SJI Marathon Frank Beatty KD7IRE We began with breakfast at The Hungry Clam at 7:00 to finalize plans for this legendary marathon communications event. For the past seven years, SJCARS members coordinated for event communications. This year, Bob Brunko (as K7NHE), at the very last minute, provided a very well calibrated 10db gain two meter antenna for the marathon midpoint at Whale Watch Park, the turn around point for the full marathon runners. This signal astoundingly could be heard on all station points on both the marathon and half marathon courses. Thank you, Bob, K7NHE, for your careful efforts to provide good gain for our course events thereby making our events integrity, because of your personal participation, legendarily safe. After breakfast, we transported ourselves to our stations on the course. Each ham arrived on station, before the anticipated start of 8:30 A.M. PDST Upon arrival on stations, runners were reported already on the course. Reports continued to filter into net control of runners already on the course prior to the official start of the race. Dani (KE7TLE) at the start/finish line conferred with the race committee. which verified opening the course to eighteen selected runners at 7:00 A.M. Nonetheless, with everything still covered on event day, net control found itself with a true medical emergency, the first one in seven years of our organization s coverage of the event. Three hours into it; at around 11:30 am.; medical assistance was requested. Within five minutes an ambulance was immediately connected with the victim who suffered ankle or foot trauma. This is solely attributable to the prowess of our operators. Flexibility in rotations to stations in the event by Dani (KE7TLE) and Ed (KD7TUN) provided coverage of the course until the last marathon runner crossed before course closure at 2:30 p.m. A first in seven years... having the last runner complete the course before it closed. Net control for the 2009 SJI Marathon honestly believes, that this year s event was one of the best ever. Radio communications were Accurate, precise, and pertinent. After the event, net control received outstanding comments from both the Sheriff s office dispatchers and race committee. Because of our efforts the officers days were quiet by comparison. The race organizers were in awe of our integrity when we delivered a lost and found item, a nylon jacket, to it s owner because of the thoughtfulness of Monte (N7TAU), just as the runner finished the marathon. To: Bob (K7NHE), Bryan (KG6GEU), Ed (KD7TUN), Dani (KE7TLE), Wayne (WA6MPG), Fred (KD7VSJ), Dave (K9MRQ), Claire (KE7WQY), Nancy (KD7IRD), Charlie (W7BXH), Monte (N7TAU). Net control, the Sheriff s office, and the race committee would like to thank you for your support of this event, before, during and after. It was an absolute pleasure working with each and every one of you. Thank you for working with me. Page 2

3 The Original Digital CW Lindenberg W7BXH A sign in Kelly s Skunkworks at Lockheed Aircraft says Simplify and add Lightness. The more complicated, the more chance for failure. Simplicity shines in maintenance -- ever replace surface mount chips? Consider operating in the CW mode. With its very narrow bandwidth it will punch through the QRM, because its energy is packed into its small RF envelope rather than in wide sidebands sometimes splattering over into adjacent conversations. There are such things as key clicks but a small capacitor usually quiets them down. A CW transmitter is several times more efficient than a single sideband transmitter which means less power drain on your emergency battery pack. And you never know when you might need emergency communications, as did a group of teenagers hiking in the Cascades. One of the boys fell and broke his leg. Another boy had a small transistor radio modified to listen on the 80 meter ham band He d built a small crystal controlled transmitter powered by two flashlight batteries. A roll of magnet wire was his antenna. antenna) you need a laptop computer with monitor and the necessary software installed, along with the equipment connecting the transceiver to the computer. Now calculate the necessary power required for a portable battery source, or if you have a small portable gasoline-powered generator, even better -- and more to haul. Compared with a simple transceiver with antenna, telegraph key and headphones and a smaller power supply, you have a simpler and very effective emergency setup. And if security is a problem, consider that anyone can read a computer screen over your shoulder but few can copy even five words a minute of CW. Finally consider digital. You push a light switch up and the light comes on. Push it down and it goes out. You have just provided a path for electricity to reach the bulb. It s either on or off. High or Low. A plus voltage or ground potential. It s the essence of simplicity and with so little to go wrong, quite reliable. Operate a telegraph key and you digitally generate letters and numbers in Morse code. And for digital aficionados CW predates computer-generated information. In fact, CW is the original digital mode. Using Morse code he sent an SOS call to a brand new SSB net which was operating at that moment. The net control said This net does not recognize CW. Another net member quickly broke in saying it was an emergency and asked permission to contact the boys. Net control agreed and they got the necessary information. Simplicity and Reliability go hand in hand. Had he lacked a telegraph key he could have sent a CW message by tapping the red wire to the positive post on the battery. Simple and efficient. Digital communications offer on-screen readouts with the ability to print the information. But for emergency and remote operation they can get cumbersome when along with the actual transceiver (with The CallSign Challenge Bryan Hoyer KG6GEU In 2000 when I received my Tech license I actually passed the General test at the same time. As code was still required at that time I didn t receive my General License until I retook the test in 2008, after the code requirement had been dropped. You see, I m a code wimp, but as I was chatting with Charlie about the effort he makes every Wednesday to run the CW net a thought came to me. I told Charlie we needed to lower the barrier to Page 3

4 entry for getting on the net, so we came up with the Callsign Challenge I agreed to learn to copy and reply to my Callsign when it came up during roll call on the CW net. I practiced, using a web program that would interpret my code as I tapped it out on the button, repeating my call sign until I was consistently being correctly recognized. Here s the link for the site I used: Once I felt proficient, I tuned in to 3555KHz on Wednesday night at 7:30. Sure enough Charlie was calling roll, and although I couldn t copy most of it, I recognized my call sign and responded. The monitor program on my PC (CWGet) came back with a very slow: W E L C O M E A B O A R D Don t let learning code keep you off the CW Net! Take the CallSign Challenge and join Charlie and me this Wednesday. International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend Bryan Hoyer KG6GEU From the Ayr Amateur Group Website: It all started in 1994 during a wet wintry evening when two members of the Ayr Amateur Radio Group, John GM4OOU and the late Mike GM4SUC, after a club meeting were talking about creating an event in the summer when club members could get out on a sunny weekend and play radio. Various themes were considered; ports, airports, historic Scotland sites, the Firths of Scotland, castles etc. but it was finally decided that lighthouses of Scotland would be ideal. This event has grown over the past 15 years to include lighthouses and lightships from all over the world. It is an event that helps raise public awareness of lighthouses and their historic significance. Now is the time to add San Juan s own Lime Kiln Lighthouse to the list. Ed, KD7TUN, and I will be testing our setup in late July to make sure we are not interfering with the recording equipment run by the Whale Museum. We ll be operating a multi-band vertical and an Icom-706 with tuner. Setup will begin on Friday August 14th at 4:00PM local time. The official event starts at 5:00PM and goes for 48Hrs. We will operate until park closing at sunset (~8:30PM) unless we can obtain permission from the State to operate longer. This will be a lot of fun. For those of you new to HF, this is not a contest, and everyone wants to talk to a lighthouse. So unlike field day where you re trying to be heard amidst the crowd, we ll just pick a clear frequency and the world will come to us. We ll be operating as N7JN Lighthouse. For more information: This will be our first time participating in this event. If things go well and the interest is there, we can consider working more Lighthouses such as Turn Point on Stuart next year. Please plan on packing a picnic supper, cruising down the west side of the island, watching for the whales and joining us to tell the world about our very special lighthouse. Lighthouses with Wet Basements Charles W Lindenberg "As you stare across the six miles separating you from the rest of the world, you sweep the shoreline with powerful 7x50 binoculars, hoping for a glimpse of bright colored cloth to remind you that there are girls out there somewhere..." To read this previously published article go to: Page 4

5 From the President Bryan Hoyer KG6GEU This month s Dummy Load has a new look which is a compilation of Dan s fine format along with our recently approved club logo and a few additions from Dani s June issue. Nancy has volunteered to be our new editor and will be hard at work digging up content, while Dani will handle final production and distribution. A newsletter is only as good as it s content, and I must say that we ve had some great contributions lately. I will be tapping all of you for everything from a quick paragraph on an interesting ham event to a detailed article on antenna construction. I look forward to working with you. The CodeWord for July is: ODLIN ODLIN From the Editor Nancy Lindenberg KD7IRD Happy July! I' ll be taking over as Editor of the Dummy Load. Dani Hoyer will be in charge of production and distribution. Please send your thoughts and articles to me at nrlindenberg@rockisland.com. This newsletter should be a reflection of all our members, so you are invited to contribute a paragraph, report or suggestion as often as you can! Isn't it time for you to take a turn as Net Control? Just ask! I really enjoy having my ham radio in my car, and keeping in touch with my husband and other friends on any trip off-island. My experiences in providing emergency communications during drills and public events has always been rewarding. Both as a hobby, and an easy way of doing Community Service, amateur radio has given me just enough challenge to keep me involved. When I was ten years old, at the end of World War II, my brothers and I lived on Bainbridge Island. We had a set of small tin telegraph-style keys, with Morse Code printed on the front, and the ability to sound a buzzer, flash a light, or make a loud click. We strung wires between our bedrooms and sent many secret messages across the hall floor, in the dead of night, using the tiny light bulb. It was great to have our own language... or so we thought! After I married Charlie L., and spent many hours hearing Code echoing down from our loft, I decided to work for my Amateur Radio License, and as (Morse) Code was required, it was easy to learn. Code is simple, and it never fails. (See Charlie's article, The Original Digital ) In addition, Charlie found a clever system of music, called The Rhythm of the Code, using musical rhythms to teach the letters. What could be more logical? We just sent for a second CD of the program. The most fun of all is HAM UNIVERSITY. ( It's a Windows program that includes sections on the written FCC exam, sections on Morse Code, and a game called PENTODE, which helps you master the code without really trying. The Code section includes Lessons and informal Exercises that you go through at your own pace, once or twice a day. You can listen to the exercises and translate them, or set up your own messages. You can transcribe on paper, or type what you hear. My favorite part is Morris, the Cat! At the end of your session, if you do well, you hear a deep voice saying, VERRR-RR-Y GOOOD!! SJCARS is a volunteer organization, where we meet people who are young at heart; full of opportunities with lots of encouragement and help, so make the most of it. We share a great hobby that is rewarding to any age. Remember, as long as there are more beginnings than endings, we will never grow old! So, if you have been thinking about learning Morse Code, now is the best time to do it. You will have plenty of help from a number of fellow members. Page 5

6 The San Juan County ARES Nets Every Wednesday - Local Time 19:00 - SSB Net 3944 KHz +/- QRM 19:15 - Digi Net MHz contact K2SPR for more info 19:30 - CW Net 3555 KHz Check-in! Take the Callsign Challenge 20:00 - VHF Net MHz, -600 KHz offset, tone , +5 MHz offset, tone In the event of repeater problems we shift to: First: Repeater Output MHz simplex, tone Second: TAC MHz simplex, tone Net Control Schedule Jul 15 Nancy Lindenberg, KD7IRD Jul 22 Jerry Swalling, WA7ZTT Jul 29 Mark Dawber, N6CSM Aug 5 Dan Drath, N6AU Aug 12 Dave Vandaveer, K9MRQ Aug 19 Wayne Rankin, WA6MPG Aug 26 Bryan Hoyer, KG6GEU Sep 2 Peter McCorison K2SPR Please arrange a substitute if needed Aug 8 Aug 14 Oct 10 Upcoming Events No Club Meeting in August SJCARS Annual Picnic Odlin Park Lopez Island International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend Ham Testing 11:30AM FH Fire House The Dummy Load c/o SJCARS Distribution PO Box 1513 Friday Harbor, WA First Class Mail