CIRCUIT. The El Dorado County CIRCUIT. In This Issue

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1 The El Dorado County CIRCUIT CIRCUIT Newsletter of the El Dorado County Amateur Radio Club January, 2018, Vol.12, No. 1 In This Issue Page 1 President s Message Page 2 Past President s Message Page 3 Tube of the Month Page 4 Cal Mobile Command Center Rally Page 5 Meeting Notes Page 6 Holiday Party Pictures Page 7 Club Information Page 8 Sierra Foothills Hamfest Submitting Material to the Circuit Material may be submitted for publication by sending it directly to the editor. This can be done by US Mail, or via the Internet (preferred). The deadline for each issue is the Thursday, one week before the monthly meeting. by mail Bob Hess, W1RH 5020 Glory View Drive Placerville, CA January Meeting Thursday, January 25th 7:15 PM Federated Church, Placerville Joe, N3CKF, will present on what it was like to be deployed as a ham to a Big Disaster Puerto Rico, 2017 FROM THE PRESIDENT Greengs and welcome to I hope everyone was able to enjoy the holiday season and their New Year is off to a good start. First, I would like to thank Michael for presiding as president of the club for the past couple of years. Second, I would like to thank all of you for elecng me as president for this year. I ll do my best to keep the club running strong. I believe this is my fourth me serving as your president. I have been a member of the club since 1998 when Nancy and I moved to El Dorado Hills from Rancho Cordova. I ve had my license and call KE6GLA, since My wife Nancy, KG6PNP, got her license shortly a5er we moved to El Dorado County and became acve in the club. Our Daughter Natalie got her cket, KJ6NLD, when she was 10 at a Ham Fest at the M2 Antenna factory. We are sll working on Dennis, but he does like to parcipate in Field Day. We live in on a small lot and don t have any tall towers for the antennas. Most of my antennas are wire and are supported by trees or small poles. Even with that limitaon I m able to work some DX and parcipate in few contests when me permits. I enjoy just about all aspects of the hobby and love to experiment with new modes or gadgets. I also enjoy building antennas and nkering with so5ware. Recently I have been trying my luck at working the new satellites that AMSAT has put up in the sky for us to use. I ve learned to do these things in Amateur Radio with the help of our club members. Which brings me to my final thought. The greatest asset club membership can offer you is its members. There is a wealth of experience and knowledge contained in our club membership. Our members can help with anything from programing memories in your handheld radio to installing a tower. All you need to do is ask and I sure someone will be willing to help you. That s if for now I look forward to seeing you at meengs and club acvies. 73, Jay, KE6GLA THE AG6AU REPEATERS YOUR DONATION TO THE REPEATER FUND WILL KEEP US COMMUNICATING!! IRLP Node 7195 and the AG6AU-R Echolink node are available for use on the 440 and 2 meter repeaters. Autopatch available on the 6M repeater BAND FREQUENCY PL 6 Meters MHz Hz 2 Meters (local EDH) MHz 82.5 Hz 2 Meters (wide area) MHz 82.5 Hz 1.25 Meters MHz Hz 70 Cenmeters MHz 82.5 Hz 33 Cenmeters MHz Hz 33 Cenmeters MHz Hz

2 FROM THE (PAST) PRESIDENT We held our annual club elecon at our November meeng. Please welcome our 2018 officers: Pres.: Jay KE6GLA VP: Jordan WC6J Secty: Aaron W6CK Treas.: Nancy -- KG6PMP Past Pres.: Michael K6MLE Board members: Dave K6KNS Don KG6YST Phil KK6YYD Don AF6ND Our Christmas dinner/meeng was on Saturday, December 9 th at C.T. European Café, in Shingle Springs. We also welcomed two new members Bill Ress (N6GHZ) and Alan Thompson (AJ6AR). It has been my honor to serve as your President during We have seen our club grow to over 100 members and explored new technologies! It was nice to see everyone at the Christmas Dinner! 73, Michael, K6MLE REPEATER TIDBITS Bob, W1RH Here s a few codes you might want to jot down: 2#111 Punch in this code on 2 meters and the repeater will respond, RADIO CHECK READY Key your microphone, say a few words, release the mic, and hear your signal as it is recorded at the repeater. 4#111 Punch in this code on the 440 repeater and the repeater will respond, RADIO CHECK READY Key your microphone, say a few words, release the mic, and hear your signal as it is recorded at the repeater. 6#111 Punch in this code on 6 meters and the repeater will respond, RADIO CHECK READY Key your microphone, say a few words, release the mic, and hear your signal as it is recorded at the repeater. 2#112 Will play back the date and time on 2 meters. 4#112 Will play back the date and time on #112 Will play back the date and time on 6 meters Enter this code on 6 meters to link 6 meters to 2/ Enter this code on 6 meters to un-link 6 meters from 2/440 January 2018, Vol. 12, No. 1 2 El Dorado County Circuit

3 TUBE OF THE MONTH Norm, N6JV Visit the Museum: n6jv.com A First Tube Love Affair In about 1962, I was at a meeng of the Tulare County ARC when I was asked if I wanted a KW+ amplifier for $50. The story was that a5er WWII, government agencies, including counes, could get masses of surplus electronics for a penny a pound. Tulare County sent some hams to the distribu- on center and they returned with enough power supply and RF components to build a 2 KW AM broadcast staon. Before commercial FM was used to dispatch police patrol cars, they used AM transmipers just above the 160 meter ham band. The Tulare unit had push pull 304TLs modulated with another pair of 304TLs. It weighed over 600 pounds. I bought the amplifier and hauled it home from the Fresno Air Terminal with a service truck equipped with a bomb hoist. I needed it. It also came with a large box full of spare 304TL triodes. They were very beauful and tube collecng had its start. I wanted to use this amplifier and its driver stages on 40 and 20 meters, but it was designed for 2 MHz. The monstrous tank coil was replaced by some copper tubing coils of about 8 inches in diameter. The driver stages were redesigned and I was ready to test. Five, 300 wap, light bulbs were mounted on a 1 X 6 board for a dummy load. When the switch was closed, nothing happened unl I hit the key and tried to dip the plate. The bolt of lightning seemed to fill the rear of the amplifier as the RF choke sucked its layers together and everything went dark. The amplifier had one big power supply for both the modulator and the RF output stage. When the class A modulator was disconnected, the high voltage soared to over 3000 volts. The 304TL tubes like about 2200 volts. I didn t have a variac to lower the voltage, so I went to Fresno and bought two, 3 KVA pole pig transformers. When I wired them back to back, I could use the taps to lower the line voltage to a safe level. We hadn t heard that PCB caused cancer. A modern, high frequency, plate choke was obtained from a local ham and the next experiment lit all the 300 wap lamps. A life filled with red hot tubes and serious DX chasing had begun. El Dorado County Circuit 3 January 2018, Vol. 12, No. 1

4 January 2018, Vol. 12, No. 1 4 El Dorado County Circuit

5 EDCARC BOARD MEETING MINUTES NOVEMBER 16TH 2017 Jordan, WC6J BOD meeng started at 18:34 Aendees: Nancy KG6PNP Jay KE6GLA Don AF6ND Aaron W6CK Michael K6MLE Jordan WC6J Treasurer s Report: A5er all bills and expenses have been paid, the Club has a balance of $1, New Business: Michael K6MLE: the ARRL sent the Club a thank you leper for the $100 donaon we sent the Ham Aide Fund for disaster relief. New members have been approved by the Board: Bill N6GHZ and Alan WV6ZHL(previous call). Old Business: Jay KE6GLA will confirm with the Coloma State Park regarding the Club s Special Event in January. Nancy KG6PNP will contact the European Grill to confirm that the locaon will be suitable to hold our raffle a5er the Holiday Dinner. BOD adjourned at 19:15. General Mee#ng / Presenta#on Board of Directors Elec#ons for 2018: President: Jay KE6GLA Vice President: Jordan WC6J Treasure: Nancy KG6PNP Secretary: Aaron W6CK Board Members: Michel K6MLE Dave K6KNS Don AF6ND Don KG6YST Phil KK6YYD El Dorado County Circuit 5 January 2018, Vol. 12, No. 1

6 THE EDCARC 2017 CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY PARTY Pictures Karen Hess January 2018, Vol. 12, No. 1 6 El Dorado County Circuit

7 DUES The dues are: Member: $15.00 / Spouse/Assoc. Member: $7.50. There are three ways you can pay your dues and make a repeater donaon. 1. Through PayPal. Go here: hpp:// membership.shtml and scroll down to the PayPal bupon. There is a slight handling charge. 2. By mail, send a separate check for the dues and repeater donaon. Club dues check to be made out to "EDCARC" and repeater donaon check to "AG6AU Repeater Fund". You can mail the checks to: EDCARC P.O. Box 451 Placerville, CA, In person, bring your checks (see #2) to the next EDCARC meeng. If you have any updates to your personal informaon, e.g. address (residence or ), phone #'s, etc. then fill out an applicaon form here: hpp:// El_Dorado_County_ARC_Membership_App.pdf and either mail it to the address in #2 or bring it to the meeng. Thanks to everyone for supporng your club! 73, Nancy, KG6PNP, Treasurer THE EDCARC TUESDAY NIGHT NET HAVE YOU SAID HI TO NANCY LATELY? WILL YOU BE CHECK-IN #20? 8:00 PM EVERY TUESDAY HAM RADIO LICENSING TESTING MARCH 10th, :00 AM THE AMERICAN LEGION POST GREENSTONE Rd. PLACERVILLE, CA FEES ARE $14.00 (Subject to change) CONTACT: KEN VOGELE, W6KWV (107.2) (82.5) (82.5) (82.5) (127.3) Or Echolink El Dorado County Circuit 7 January 2018, Vol. 12, No. 1

8 January 2018, Vol. 12, No. 1 8 El Dorado County Circuit

9 El Dorado County Amateur Radio Club PO Box 451 Placerville, CA Post Office Will Not Deliver Without Proper Postage First Class Postage Club Information 2018 President Jay Harmor KE6GLA Vice President Jordan Heichman WC6J Treasurer Nancy Harmor KG6PNP Secretary Aaron Tassin W6CK Board Member Dave Sanders K6KNS Board Member Don McCallum AF6ND Board Member Michael Pico K6MLE Board Member Phil Mosbacher KK6YYD Board Member Don Brooks KG6YST Repeater Trustee Bob Hess W1RH Newsletter Editor Bob Hess W1RH Webmaster Jay Harmor KE6GLA Meeting: Club meetings are normally held on the 4th Thursday of each month (except for June and November), 7:15 PM, at the Federated Church, 1031 Thompson Way, Placerville El Dorado Club County Nets: Circuit Tuesday evenings, 8:00 PM, on the AG6AU repeater, MHz / MHz January / MHz 2018, / Vol , No. 1