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1 Issued March 2014 Issue No. 51 Club Website: S-Meter Club Repeater: Output MHz; Input MHz, No Tone Next Meeting Friday April 18 th 2014 Meeting QTH is: Walnut and Hawthorne Street in Colville (Across from the city park and Colville Junior High School) CLUB NET: Sunday Evenings 8:00p.m. Local

2 The President s Corner I would like to thank all who came for our annual clean out your Ham Shack Auction. It was a great success, as Randy should update us on at our next meeting April 18 th I m sure everyone has been following the mud slide that happened on the west coast of our state. This disaster should be a good reminder of just how important our Radio Sport is when it comes to emergencies. ARRL has reported that Ham operators have been handling the communications because the slide wiped out everything. We need to keep our skills sharp and up to date for operating our radios, so we are prepared when a disaster happens in our area we are ready! Hopefully with spring like weather moving in we can get around and inspect some of these cables and connectors for any needed repairs. Again I would like to remind everyone with club equipment to submit a list to either me or Bruce KC7H. Have fun and keep on transmitting. 73 Tom Howe KE7TEG Announcements The Rookie Roundup returns to Phone on Sunday, April 20, 1800 UTC through 2359 UTC. This is a great opportunity for new operators to get on the air and learn the skills of contesting. "Old Timers" should also take note of this event. Consider opening your station up to a rookie (or two) and become an Elmer. Remember, the more operators are on the air, the more fun the 'Roundup will be for everyone. Be sure to read the rules before the event. It is also helpful to be familiar with the logging and submission processes ahead of time. We hope to hear you on the air! 2

3 Treasurer's Report $9, Highlights from our March meeting. Welcome newcomers introductions were made. Auction night Tom asked everything to be short. Attendance: 22 ARES The WA state ARES Net is on 3985 every Saturday at 9:00am and Mondays at 6:30pm. Participation is encouraged. Dave tabled his discussion about a monthly ARES meeting until next month. PARC Net George Absent no report. Board Report - Bruce KC7H mentioned there is an open Secretary position and asked that someone step forward. Announcements Randy N7CKJ has club patches and ARRL raffle tickets available. Gimmie has a walker and crutches available. Tom has a 6-week Technician class at Spokane Community College Colville starting 4/14, testing will be on May 21 st. Old Business The testing and coordination of the repeater issue has been held up by weather conditions. Edison of the Republic Ham group will follow-up. The link has been down for months. It was blown up by lightning and there has been no time to work on it; needs assembly by owner, Carl Shumaker. Dave will undertake this issue with Carl. New Business Jim Tills W7JWT would like the club to set up radio stations at the local high schools to get students interested in Ham radio. Jim offered to loan equipment to the school. Jim W7JWT made a motion for the club to donate $500 toward setting up the radio station. Discussion followed as to whether there is really an interest by staff and students and who would set up and monitor the station. Motion was tabled. Dave WD7K volunteered to check with Kettle Falls High School to see if the staff would support putting up a station and verify the interest by students. Meeting was adorned and let the auction begin! There was a wide variety of items, from a basketball to radio antennas. Seemed like everything was sold and everyone seemed to have a good time. Be interesting to see what the club made at our next meeting April 18 th at 7:30pm. Submitted by Jim Frees, WW7DD See at our next meeting April 18 th 3

4 ARES Report by Dave - WD7K ARES Net is every Sunday at 7:45pm local. The Stevens County ARES net can be heard on the repeater located SW of Colville on Monumental Mountain and, when linked, the repeater (which has a PL tone of 77.0) located NW of Spokane on Lookout Point. The Washington State Emergency Net (WSEN) anyone with HF privileges is welcome (encouraged) to check in, when Stevens County is called. Saturdays at 0900 on 3985 khz and on Mondays at 0530 also on 3985 khz. Dave Klimas - WD7K Stevens County ARES Emergency Coordinator H (509) C (509) wd7k@gotsky.com PARC Sunday Night Net Thanks for another great year on the PARC Sunday Night Net. We had lots of good sessions and look forward to many more this New Year. During the long winter months we tend to have more participation, since more members and visitors are spending Sunday nights at home. Come on, get on the air and join your friends discussing club and other ham activities. A special thanks to all the Net Control Operators who greatly supported the Sunday Night Net during They include Cynthia WW7CA, Jim WW7DD, Courtney KE7ZDL, Donna KF7UIM and Karl WX7DX. If you want to give your hand a try at Sunday night Net Control send George an at audax@gotsky.com 4

5 PARC BIO March 2014 sorry nobody stepped forward this month. Where is he? Okinawa Japan Dispatcher and Shop Supervisor And with half the base gone to South Korea, Alberto has been busy putting in 12 hour days, but he still managed some R & R Updated Mailing Address: CPL Gomez, Alberto 3D MLG CLR- 37 MT HQ Unit #38404 FPO AP Zamami Island Off the coast of Okinawa A 20 minute ferry ride to a remote little paradise. 5

6 Looking out from highest peak on the Island Whales? 6

7 The Radio Corner by Jim W7JWT The Drake TR-3 and later TR-4 Transceivers. Last month it was all about the Collins tube type transceivers. Now it s back to their main US competitor, R L Drake. If you remember I had an article about the Drake 1-A Receiver. After this receiver, they came out with the Drake 2-A, and later 2-B receivers. (They will be covered at a later time). Rather than produce a transmitter to match the 2B, Drake designed a new line of equipment beginning with a SSB transceiver, the TR-3, in This was the first competition to the Collins KWM-2. The TR-3 was designed as a complete SSB station in a small package, (similar to the KWM-2). Other design innovations included crystal bandwidth filters and a permeability tuned oscillator (PTO) capable of extremely linear, stable tuning and a dial resolution of better than 1 khz across all amateur HF bands (again, similar to the KWM-2). The power supply was in a separate chassis, connected to the transceiver with a multi-conductor cable. The AC-3 power supply could be installed inside a matching speaker cabinet, later designated the MS-4. An optional remote VFO (PTO), the RV-3 could be added to the system to enable split frequency operation (i.e., transmitting on a frequency different from the receiving frequency). The RV-3 contained a speaker and could also house the power supply. The TR-3 was superseded by several versions of the TR-4. The TR-4 series really just built on advancements realized as time went on following the TR-3. The big open T/R relay was replaced with enclosed versions. The tube complement was slowly changed. Transistors gradually made it into some circuits such as audio, ALC, etc. Probably the most important change included a 500 khz filter, added for CW selectivity, that was put into the TR-4 CW version. The last version, the TR-4 CW/RIT, included a clarifier to change the receive frequency slightly without changing the transmit frequency. This came out in 1978, the last year for their tube type radios. This was the last transceiver made at the Miamisburg, Ohio plant. Beginning with the TR-3, Drake adopted a scheme for illuminating tuning dials and panel meters on its equipment using small incandescent bulbs behind greenish-blue transparent plastic filters. This lighting color became one of the most recognizable and distinguishing features of Drake radios. It made for a relaxing color in a darkened room that enhanced the warm glow of the tubes glistening in the moon light. OK, I went too far. For some hams, this was as romantic as it got. The TR-3 and early TR-4s had copper plated chassis. They really looked sharp until they started to corrode and rust. When you could find one with good copper you bought it. Everything else could be fixed. Remember, electronics can be repaired, but ugly goes down to the bone. This brings me to my Drake TR-3 Transceiver. I found it on E-Bay and bought it primarily because of its good copper. It had two rust spots, but compared to others from its 1963 vintage, it looked great. I mentioned last month that Ron Baker, WB4HFN, checked out my KWM-2. I also had him work on my TR-3. He had a process 7

8 to carefully remove the corrosion and then reapply a lacquer coat over the copper surface. It was the failure of the factory applied lacquer that caused all the corrosion. Ron had it shining like new. He also had to unsolder the crystal filter bandwidth enclosure box and replace a couple failed crystals with some parts unit crystals. I then had him repaint the cabinet. With a little more cleaning and alignment, it was back to me. The following pictures show how it came out. That s about it for this month. CUL 73s Jim W7JWT Original received condition of the TR-3 chassis. The cleaned up re-lacquered version of the TR-3 chassis. Drake TR-3 with matching RV-3 external VRO 8

9 Drake TR-4 with matching RV-4 external VFO Drake TR-4 CW/RIT with matching external VFO. This has the 500 KHz CW filter and Clarifier. This unit is relatively rare and commands a high price today. 9

10 4-H Sensational Saturday March 8 th 2014 Randy N7CKJ and Diane KC7WQB Grandson Joe Jones participated in Stevens County s Sensational Saturday. Joe is shown here getting a quick lesson on the Irish Fiddle. Tom KE7TEG did a presentation on Ham Radio s. George W7WBN talked about the changes that he has seen with Ham Radio since the early 1950 s. The lecture was about 45 minutes long and four adults were in attendance, as various students came and went. A big thank you to Tom KE7TEG and George W7WBN representing our fine sport. 10

11 Calendar of Events 2014 April st April Fools Day! 3 rd SARL 80m QSO Party 3 rd Spokane DX Club Meeting 7:00pm Argonne Library Spokane Valley 5 th Turkey Banquet Colville 5 th SP DX Contest 6 th Sunday Night Net Net Control Operator Cynthia WW7CA 12 th Junk Drunk Antique Sale Ag-Center Colville 12 th EU Spring Sprint, CW 12 th Yakima Ham Fest at Selah Civic Center visit for more info 13 th Sunday Night Net Net Control Operator Jim WW7DD 14 th Radio Class at Community College starts runs 6 wks 15 th Open Testing Lincoln Heights Shopping Center 7:00pm th PARC Club Meeting 7:30pm in Colville Snacks by Bert Kilmas KE7MAK 19 th ES Open HF Championship 20 th Sunday Night Net Net Control Operator George W7WBN 20 th Rookie Round-up good one for newbies 20 th Easter Sunday 25 th Idaho State Convention in Boise 26 th SP DX RTTY Contest & Int. Spring Contest, Digital 27 th Sunday Night Net Net Control Operator Donna KF7UIM May rd Spring CW Contest 3 rd Indiana QSO Party 4 th Sunday Night Net Net Control Operator Courtney KE7ZDL 7 TH Conservation Tour for 6 Graders 9 th WA SAR Conference 10 th Armed Forces Comm ns Test 10 th 50 MHz Spring Sprint 11 th Sunday Night Net Net Control Operator Karl WX7DX 11 th Mother s Day 16th PARC Club Meeting 7:30pm in Colville Debbie Snacks 16 th Dayton Hamvention Dayton Ohio 17 th Arden Ole Timers Rodeo 18 th Sunday Night Net Net Control Operator Cynthia WW7CA 22 nd NAQCC Monthly QRP Sprint 25 th Sunday Night Net Net Control Operator Jim WW7DD 26 th Memorial Day 26 th MI QRP Memorial Day CW Sprint 31 st Habitat for Humanity Annual Spring Gala Ag-Trade Center 31 st Worldwide EME Contest UpComing: June 6 th June 28 th Seapac in Seaside Oregon Field Day o Calendar of events will be an ongoing part of the news letter, submit your dates to parcnews@hotmail.com 11

12 Deviled Eggs for Easter! I m really digging these colored eggs they are dying them with the shell off!! So Cool! 12