[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] ARC Shorts - Jan 2006

[N4CWP at aol.com]

ARC - Shorts
VOLUME 06, NUMBER 1-- Jan  2006
Alexandria Radio Club Newsletter,  W4HFH at ARRL.NET
http://w4hfh.org

This is the Alexandria Radio  Club (ARC) Newsletter, published monthly for 
club information.  The ARC  meets monthly, second Friday, at 07:30 PM in the 
Alexandria Fire Training Center  which is in the rear of the Lee Recreation 
Center, please come to the far end of  the rear parking lot.  The weekly on-the-air 
meeting/net is 08:00 PM on  every Thursday.   Check into the club's repeater 
on 147.315+, which is  cross-linked to a second repeater on 444.600. Jim, 
WA4CCF, also operates a  six-meter repeater on 53.130 (cross-linked to 223.220).

Next Club  Meeting is 0730 PM, Friday the 13th, at the Alexandria Fire 
Training Center,  Alexandria, VA.
Remember this is time of the year to renew membership  ($15/year).  
Membership form is attached at the end of the news  letter.   There will be an auction 
of very valuable stuff that you  cannot do without, so bring your cash.  

President’s  Propagation

Welcome one and all to 2006! As I start my term as  President, I would like 
to extend a heartfelt thank-you to Andy Arnold, WV8AA,  ARC outgoing President, 
for his years of service to the club, and also to Ian  Keith, N8IK for 
filling in after the sudden loss of Alan Wormser, N5LF. I look  forward to working 
with everyone to achieve many exciting things, the first of  which is the 
revival of ARC Shorts! Our club is comprised from a wealth of  interesting people 
who have oodles of interesting things to share (that is  evident every time we 
get together) so please consider submitting an article to  Harry Jones, N4CWP 
and help to keep ARC Shorts an ongoing success.  

Another revival for 2006 is the return of the popular Tech Talks  to our 
monthly club meetings. 15 minutes of fun and learning are what Tech Talks  are all 
about. If you have an area of expertise that you would like to share,  
volunteer to give a Tech Talk and we’ll make you a star!

As you  pack away the holiday decorations and ponder your New Year’s 
resolutions, why  not consider a few ham radio resolutions, too? With the encroachment 
of cell  phones and Nextel-type two-way radios upon our hobby, the impending 
removal of  any Morse code licensing requirements, along with a general public 
opinion of  “Why ham radio?” it falls to each and every one of us to not 
only preserve our  hobby but to help it grow.  

This year, why not resolve to do  something for ham radio each and every day? 
Resolve to 100% QSL – your card may  be just the card someone needs. And 
while you are QSLing, resolve to use a cool  stamp. Resolve to up your code speed, 
or at least practice code once in a while.  Resolve to upgrade your ticket, 
try a new mode, homebrew an antenna or to learn  something completely new. 
Resolve to be an Elmer – you’ll be surprised at how  much you know! Resolve to be 
more active in the Club – attend club meetings or  check into the club net. 
Your support is welcomed and volunteers are always  appreciated. There are so 
many ways you can lend a hand!

Lastly,  resolve to have fun! Ham radio is supposed to be fun so resolve to 
fully enjoy  yourself in 2006. 

See you at the meetings!

Best 73,
de  Deanna, K7DID


NEW YEAR, NEW IDEAS

Here we  are at the beginning of a brand new year.  Hopefully we still have 
some  toys left over from the holidays that will be enjoyed during the upcoming 
 year.  I personally received an Arrow 2mtr/440MHz hand held satellite  
antenna and although I have not made a contact, I have tracked and monitored  
several passed of AO27 and a couple of the other sats.  I expect that this  will be 
an enjoyable toy for the next year for home use, field day use and for  
hidden transmitter/fox hunts.  

It has been quite a while  since our last Fox Hunt.  For those of you who are 
not sure what a fox hunt  is, the animal rights group would say it’s an 
inhumane game, usually played on a  Saturday morning with the wily fox trying to 
out-whit the hoard of pursing  trackers.  Actually, this is not too far from the 
truth for a ham radio fox  hunt.  The object of a ham radio fox hunt is for 
one ham to go to a certain  location within a defined geographic area, say the 
city of Alexandria, and  transmit a signal and the rest of the group tries to 
find him by determining  where the radio signal is coming from.  The first one 
to find the “fox” is  the winner.  The wily fox will use a number of tactics 
to avoid being found  and in the process cause undue stress on the pursuers.  
Hopefully we will  schedule a fox hunt sometime in the spring as the weather 
warms up and you can  enjoy being out in the sun.

Another toy is a Bencher Keyer.   I’m sure some of you who know me rather 
well are saying “Why, what a  waste”.  Well I agree CW is not my love of life.  
It’s slow, you have  to know how to spell, takes a lot of concentration and 
easy to miss part of the  message.  Contesters use unreasonable high speed, etc, 
etc, etc.  But  then, back when I got my Tech ticket, we were able to use the 
Novice HF bands  which consisted of a few MHz of HF spectrum on 80, 40, 15, 
and 10 mtrs, CW  only.  Since that was the only HF I had, I made the most of 
it, or tried to  anyway.  I used a straight key and a Virbroplex Bug with a tire 
weight on  it to slow it down to a reasonable speed.  Then I got my Advanced 
ticket  and voice on all HF and that was that.  So as Deanna encourages above, 
I am  looking forward to getting back to some CW practice and maybe even 
catch up to  some of the contesting guys, not totally in speed but at least fast 
enough to  make a contact or so with them.

New Publication

This  brings me to one more new event for 2006.  This may be the first ARC 
Shorts  you have received since the last one published was back in Dec 2002.  
The  ARC Shorts is the publication for the Alexandria Radio Club and the 
intention is  to publish one each month before the meeting.  I will be editor and  
publisher (internet/email) but I need input of articles on ham radio related  
subjects, equipment reviews, events, etc that may be of interest to the club  
members.  Examples of the previous ARC Shorts may be found on the W4HFH Web  
page.  Please provide your articles to me at N4CWP at arrl.net as a  
Word/WordPerfect or other doc attached to the email or text within the  email.

I would like to have articles on a variety of subjects or  even continuous 
columns on subjects such as Equipment Reviews, Contesting,  Chasing Awards, 
Antennas, Events, Rules and Regs, Training/Elmering.  Also,  I will take want ads 
from club members for ham related  materials.

Hope this becomes a news letter you enjoy and find  beneficial.

New Hams

A Trinity Hill High School  physics class in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania studied 
ham radio and the students got  their tech tickets.  As a class exercise the 
other night were trying to  make 30 contacts on EchoLlink.  A number of the ARC 
members responded to  their questions.  They requested that an e mail be sent 
to confirm the  contact for class credit.  Calls heard were KB3MVZ,  KB3MZXQ.

Happy New Year

Hope you have a Happy and  Prosperous New Year and all your hamming is  fun.

Harry/N4CWP


Alexandria Radio Club  Membership Application
Established 1954 

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