Presidents Message. Possible New Amateur Band on the Horizon?

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1 Issue #7 JULY, 2005 Presidents Message 2005 DUES GCARC dues for the year 2005 are due. The annual dues are $20.oo. Please send your checks directly to the treasurer, Bob Krchnavek, (K2DAD) at 50 Eastwick Dr., Gibbsboro, NJ Well, I wanted to include a brief summary of Field Day, which is now history as I write this. Murphy basically took a vacation it would seem, since everything ran quite smoothly for the participants, many of whom are veterans of many previous Field Days. The antennas went up without a problem and WK2W, Chris, this year added a rapid-deploy tower for his fishing pole yagi for 20M CW. The 40M CW crew decided to simplify this year, opting for a full-wave delta loop over the 2 element yagi they used in previous years. The generator fired right up, and ran smoothly through the whole event. The food and friendship was great, and everyone there had a great time. Even the weather cooperated to a degree, when on Saturday evening the 93 degree heat subsided to a pleasantly cool overnight breeze, which lowered the humidity substantially, and by 6AM made things cool enough to turn off the fans. Of course, we could use more operators for next year! If you ve never participated, come on out and join the fun! If you haven t participated in awhile, why not come out and see what s going on? Some of the stations were short of operators and could use a break, even if only for a couple hours. We entered in the more competitive 7A category this year, so it will be interesting to see how GCARC finishes in the standings. Hope to see all of you there next year and I am looking forward to another successful event! Darrell, AB2E Possible New Amateur Band on the Horizon? The ARRL has applied to the FCC for a Part 5 Experimental license on behalf of a group of radio amateurs interested in operating in the vicinity of 500 khz. The twoyear Part 5 license would permit experimentation and research between 495 and 510 khz--just below the Standard AM Broadcast Band--at power levels of up to 20 W effective radiated power. Modes would be CW and PSK31. ARRL Member Fred Raab, W1FR, of Burlington, Vermont, would manage the project, which calls for 23 discrete fixed sites across the US. The license application requests authorization for experimental stations at Raab's QTH in Vermont as well as at sites in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. More information on this can be found at: 1

2 DX Dope By Doug Gehring, WA2NPD Well, another Field Day is now history, and a great time was had by all. Even the weather cooperated well, mostly, I guess. More about this event elsewhere and a full report is expected next month. One subject came up in one of the many ragchews at the site and that is the future of Morse Code. With the 5 wpm level now expected for exam passage, one has to wonder what the future holds for CW. In checking through the various code primers available (Carron, Farnsworth, etc.), one obscure fact regarding Morse Code seems to be missing, overlooked, etc. which your scribe here feels is most important to anyone desiring to learn Morse Code. It is the question of how soon will I forget it after passing the test? Or, how often do I need to use it to keep from forgetting it? How often have you heard some guy (ham) say, hey, I used to do about 25 wpm, now I have forgotten almost every letter. And, if subjected to a brief test, they surely don t remember at all! Well, just like riding a bicycle, or touch typing, once you have learned Morse Code, the human brain will always remember it, you will never forget it! But there is a catch; you have to have passed the 13 wpm level in receiving! Anything short of about 13 wpm, and, in time, you will forget the entire alphabet unless using Morse Code with some regularity. But if you have mastered 13 wpm, or faster, like touch typing, you can ignore Morse Code for 20 years, etc., then, listen, and you will be copying 13 wpm (or greater) within minutes after the restart! It s simply the way the human brain operates, like never forgetting how to ride a two-wheeled bike. This is why, years ago, the speed for the General test was established at 13 wpm. Up to about 10 wpm, the brain is separating individual dits and dahs to identify the letter sent, but the brain cannot do this quickly enough beyond about 10 wpm. Between say 10 and 13 wpm, the brain begins to hear the entire sound of a morse letter, and identifies the letter based upon the entire sound, not the combination of dits and dahs. And this is true regardless of the method used to learn Morse Code. This transition is not easy, takes much practice, etc. But, once you hear the entire sound, you will never forget it! Hence, the guy who used to copy 25 wpm, but now forgets all, really never got beyond 10 wpm, if that, etc. So what s up for this month? STATION DATES FREQ/MODE RARITY* COUNTRY CY0AA 7/26 8/5 (1) All; All 3 Sable Is. A52EGV Now till 8/ ; SSB, CW 4 Bhutan PZ5JR 6/30 7/11 NA; NA 2 Suriname H/C/3DA0 7/8 7/18 (2) 160 6; All 3 Swaziland HB9QQ/HB0 7/14 7/17 6m; CW, SSB 4 Lichtenstein SU8BHI July Dec. All; All 3 Egypt HI7/HB9OAB 6/25 7/ ; SSB, CW 2 Dominican Rep. SV9/S59W 7/25 8/ ; SSB, CW 3 Crete T69G Now 3/06 All; CW, Digit. 3 Afghanistan 5H3RK Now 7/ ; CW 3 Tanzania J3/K5AND till 7/3 6 2; CW, SSB 3 Grenada V31IV till 7/6 6m; CW 3 Belize * Nr. 5 is rarest. (1) Major DXpedition (2) 3 Opr. DXpedition Tnx to Weekly DX, 425 DX News, W2YC, AA2WN, K2JF, WA2LET 2

3 Field Day Preliminary Report If you did not come out and participate in Field Day this year, you missed a great time. Everything came together for a great weekend of operating in the field. The bands were not greatest but everybody still had a great time as the weather cooperated, there was lots of great camaraderie among the participants and the food was outstanding. Thanks to all who worked to make the weekend so much fun. A special thanks to Ray Schnapp for keeping the generator working most of the time and to Pinky and Wayne Wilson, WA2LET, for an outstanding job with the food. I heard nothing but raves over the food we had the whole weekend. I missed the breakfast on Sunday Morning but I also heard that Pinky really did a fine job preparing pancakes for everyone. Band conditions were on the poor side but 6 meters had a few good openings that made operation in that band very interesting. Chris Heller, WK2G, had a great beam for 20 meter CW that had Doug Gehring, WA2NPD, jealous all weekend. Doug had to settle for a Delta Loop on 40 meter CW instead of his beloved beam but his group still managed to make the most contacts for any band/mode. The award for comfort goes to the 20 meter Phone and 15 meter phone guys. They both operated from air conditioned camping trailers the whole weekend. Congratulations to all who participated for a job well done. We had a safe and successful weekend. I am sure that there will be more about Field Day in the next issue of Crosstalk. Preliminary Contact Count 80 meter CW meter Phone meter CW meter Phone meter CW meter PSK & RTTY meter Phone meter Phone 54 6 meter Phone and CW MHz and 440 MHz combined 49 Congratulations The W2YC team finished in 9 th place overall for all W/VE teams in the High Power/Multi-operator class in the 2005 ARRL RTTY Roundup. Congratulations to Dave, W2YC, Ken, N2CQ, and Wayne, WA2LET, the members of the team. Estate Sale The following items are from the estate of WA2ED, Ed Wargo, and are available for sale. Please call K2PQD, Charlie, at for further information about the listed equipment. Kenwood TS-37A Transceiver MHz 25 Watts $ 70 Kenwood TS-731A Transceiver Dual Band MHz 25 Watts $125 Radio Shack Power Supply 2.5A $ 25 Kenwood PS-53 Power Supply 15A $125 Kenwood PS-50 Power Supply A $125 Kenwood TS-520S HF Transceiver 100 Watts $140 Nye Viking MB-V-A Antenna Matching Network 3KW with Balun $350 Kenwood TS-850S HF Transceiver 100 Watts $400 Kenwood TL-922A RF Power Amplifier 1 KW with Balun $750 3

4 Chris, WK2W-20 meter CW Cool Set Up in the Shade-40 CW Ken, N2CQ-40 meter CW Field Day Chairman, Rob, KC2NLM 40 meter Delta Loop with leaning tower Field Day

5 JULY conducted by N2SS 2005 c WARC BANDS c 30 Meters 17 Meters 12 Meters W2YC. 296 N2SS WØMHK309 N2SS WØMHK N2SS WØMHK..261 W2YC W2YC AA2WN K2JF K2JF WA2NPD..166 WA2NPD. 142 N2CQ AB2E AA2WN AB2E K2JF N2CQ WA2NPD N2CQ AB2E AA2WN When the same call heads all 3 WARC bands we will have that elusive, undisputed K I N G O F W A R C 160 Meters W2YC AA2WN WØMHK K2JF AB2E WA2NPD N2SS N2CQ... 9 W2YC roars into the role as undisputed Top of Top Band. Have some totals to add or updates? You can reach me as follows: home: cell: n2ss@n2ss.com RTTYf Digital W2YC K2JF AA2WN N2SS N2CQ MOBILE DX W2YC WØMHK N2SS AA2WN K2JF Looks like Dave and I have spent entirely too much time behind the wheel! 1.5K Club W2YC AA2WN N2SS K2JF WA2NPD N2CQ WØMHK AB2E Islands On The Air N2SS N2CQ W2YC Meter DXCC K2JF...94 W2YC...19 WØMHK...94 AA2WN...15 N2SS...55 GRID SQUARES WØMHK K2JF Rules for GCARC Honor Roll Listings Provide me with your total IOTAs worked, or countries (including deleted) worked for: WARC Bands, 160 Meters, Digital modes, Mobile, 6 Meters or your total for 80,40,20, 15 and 10 for 1.5K Club. Final category is Grid Squares just send me your total worked. Lastly, you do not have to participate in every category to be listed; just send me your totals for any of the categories listed.

6 July Birthdays Walt Ashton, WB2OYQ Ray Flanigan, N2WHL Tony Gargano, N2SS Edward Hankin, KB2ODJ Christopher Kelly, KC2PC Bob Krchnavek, K2DAD John Logan, KB2VSE Frank Messick, KC2JIW Art Strong, KA2DOT Alan Trueblood, N2FJQ Don Vincent, KC2LRK Crosstalk Submissions All submissions, queries, comments, editorials, etc. should be directed to: Gene Schoeberlein, AA2YO 401 Westwood Drive Woodbury, New Jersey (856) Submission deadline: 7/25/2005 President-Darrell Neron, AB2E Vice President-Wayne Wilson WA2LET Treasurer-Bob Krchnavek K2DAD Chuck Colabrese WA2TML Bob Krukowski KR2U Bill Blakeley WA2ADB Advertising-Open ARES/RACES-Chick WA2USI Awards-Jack K2ZA Banquet-Bob KR2U Budget-Bob K2DAD Clubhouse Site-Al KB2AYU Constitution-Open Crosstalk-Gene AA2YO Database-Ray WB2LNR DX-Doug WA2NPD Field Day-Bob KC2NLM Hamfest-Harry AA2WN GCARC Officers Board of Directors Committees Recording Secretary-Harry Bryant AA2WN Corresponding Secretary-John Fisher K2JF Al Arrison KB2AYU Gene Schoeberlein AA2YO Steve Blasko, W2TDS Hospitality-Ken N2CQ Membership-Ray WB2LNR Nominations-Art Strong KA2DOT Publicity-Open Repeaters-Chuck WA2TML Scholarships-Greg WN2T Special Services-Gene N2IMK Sunshine-Open Technical-Bob KR2U TVI-Open VEC Testing-Chick WA2USI 5

7 The W2MMD Repeaters /18 Mhz- Pitman (CTCSS 131.8Hz) / Mhz-Sewell 447.1/442.1 Mhz - Pitman (CTCSS 131.8Hz) Nets ARES/RACES Sunday 20:00 Hrs (147.78/18 and / repeaters) 10 Meter- Sunday following the ARES/RACES Net ( Mhz) GCARC Meetings General Membership 8 pm 1st Wednesday every month Pfeiffer Community Center Williamstown, NJ Board of Directors 8 pm 3rd Wednesday every month GCARC Club site Harrison Twp. 4H Grounds 1 mile south of Mullica Hill on RT77 July Meeting Program Socializing Gloucester County Amateur Radio Club P. O. Box 370 Pitman, NJ