[CVRC] The ARRL Letter for October 15, 2009
ARRL Web site
memberlist at www.arrl.org
Thu Oct 15 17:47:19 EDT 2009
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October 15, 2009
Editor: <mailto:k1sfa at arrl.org>S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
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* + Three Killed While Erecting Antenna
* + Public Service : Ham Provides Rescue Support at Utah Marathon
* + Operating : Team Leaders Selected for WRTC 2010
* Operating : Get Ready for JOTA This Weekend!
* + Operating : After False Starts, Midway
Island DXpedition off to Good Beginning
* Hints & Kinks : Altoids Times Two
* + Did You Know? The Wouff Hong
* + Events : Dayton Hamvention Crew Readies for 2010 Show
* This Week on the Radio:
* The ARRL Letter : HTML vs Plain Text
* Organizational : ARRL Membership
Newsletters, Bulletins and Notifications
+ Available on <http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/>ARRL Audio News
+ Three Killed While Erecting Antenna
At approximately 8:40 PM on October 12, a man,
woman and their 15 year old son were killed while
trying to erect a 50 foot vertical antenna at the
home of the man's mother, Barbara Tenn, KJ4KFF,
in Palm Bay, Florida. The deceased were not
licensed amateurs. According to police reports,
Melville Braham, 55, Anna Braham, 49, and their
15 year old son Anthony were putting up an
antenna -- Tenn's second -- at night when they
lost control of the antenna and it crashed into
nearby overhead power lines. The impact sent
13,000 volts of electricity through the pole that
the three were holding. A family friend, a 17
year old boy, was on the roof at the time of the
accident. He and the couple's daughter, who was
in the house at the time, were not injured. Click
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/13/11135/?nc=1>here
for more information.
+ Public Service: Ham Provides Rescue Support at Utah Marathon
Brian Plumb, KE7HNW, was at the right place at
the right time with the right equipment.
While not as well known as the Boston and New
York City Marathons, Utah's
<http://www.stgeorgemarathon.com/>St George
Marathon draws more than 7000 runners to the town
of St George -- located 300 miles south of Salt
Lake City, near the Utah-Arizona-Nevada border --
each year. The race, now in its 33rd year, uses
shuttle vans equipped with Amateur Radio
operators and medical personnel to provide any
help and support needed along its course. On
October 3 -- race day -- Brian Plumb, KE7HNW, was
driving Shuttle #3, with Kathy Hutchinson, a
nurse at a local hospital, by his side. Click
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/15/11141/?nc=1>here
for more information.
+ Operating: Team Leaders Selected for WRTC 2010
After a grueling selection process, the
organizers of the 2010 World Radiosport Team
Championships (<http://www.wrtc2010.ru/>WRTC)
have selected team leaders representing all six
continents. Of the 76 applications submitted, 44
were selected as Team Leaders; these Team Leaders
will now choose a partner. WRTC, held every few
years, takes place during the IARU HF World
Championships, July 10-11. In 2010, WRTC will be
held just outside Moscow. Click
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/13/11133/?nc=1>here
for more information.
Operating: Get Ready for JOTA This Weekend!
For more information on JOTA,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQIHdml8inU>check
out this video featuring QEX Editor and Staff
Liaison to the ARRL's ad hoc Scouting Committee Larry Wolfgang, WR1B.
When Scouts want to meet young people from
another country, they usually think of attending
a quadrennial World Jamboree. But each year, more
than 400,000 Scouts and Guides "get together"
over the airwaves for the annual
Jamboree-on-the-Air (JOTA). This year, JOTA
celebrates its 52nd anniversary. JOTA follows a
48 hour schedule beginning at 0000 local time on
Saturday, October 17, continuing through 2400
local time on Sunday, October 18. Click
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/15/11142/?nc=1>here
for more information, including suggested
frequencies, satellite operations, available
resources and
more.<http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=al&t=i&i=2009-10-15&p=0>
+ Operating: After False Starts, Midway Island DXpedition off to Good Beginning
After the airplane scheduled to take the K4M
DXpedition team from Honolulu to Midway Island
developed engine trouble, there was doubt as to
if the team would even make it to the island. But
Murphy didn't get in the way -- mechanics found
the necessary parts to get the plane in the air
safely. After a four hour flight, the team
arrived on Midway at 0700 UTC on Monday, October
12 to start operations. Originally scheduled to
be on-the-air for 10 days (beginning October 9),
the team might not be able to extend their time
on the island, due to US Fish and Wildlife
Service (USFWS) regulations. Click
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/13/11137/?nc=1>here
for more information.
+ Operating: Hams On-the-Air to Support National Wildlife Refuge Week
The KP1-5 Project -- organizers of the 2009
Desecheo Island DXpedition -- is pleased to
announce that Amateur Radio operators will be
operating in observance of the 2009 National
Wildlife Refuge Week, on the air October 10-18.
This event features scores of festivals and
special events that help connect people with
nature at the country's 547 National Wildlife
Refuges. Click
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/14/11139/?nc=1>here
for more information.
+ Operating: ARRL DXCC Desk Approves FT5GA Operation
ARRL DXCC Manager Bill Moore, NC1L, reports that
the FT5GA operation on
<http://glorieuses2008.free.fr/index-e.htm>Glorioso
Island -- September 14-October 8, 2009 -- has
been approved for DXCC credit. Until this
operation, Glorioso sat at number 4 on
<http://www.dxpub.com/>DX Magazine's Most Wanted
list; five operators operating for 23 days made
more than 50,000 QSOs to make this rare one available.
Hints & Kinks : Altoids Times Two
Sam Green, W0PCE, of St Louis, Missouri, has a
different take on those ubiquitous Altoids tins:
The finished device, all closed up and ready for travel.
Many of us mount compact circuits in cases that
previously contained mint candies. My friend
Matt, W0XEU, suggested packaging more complex
circuits in multiple Altoids tins by mounting
them back to back, a simple yet elegant idea.
I built this circuit in a "double-wide"
arrangement because I needed somewhere to put the
A view of both tins open. Notice the copper tape
shielding on the right-hand tin.
batteries. This offered the added advantage of
providing a means to filter bench power during
development and testing so I wouldn't leak
ambient RF signals into the main compartment with
its very sensitive circuitry. I simply drill a
hole near each corner to screw the boxes
together. If you are careful with the placement
of the holes you can even turn the arrangement
around later to reverse the way the covers open.
Otherwise, plan ahead. I feed power between
compartments via a threaded coaxial feed-through
<http://www.mouser.com/tusonix>EMI
(electromagnetic interference)
<http://www.tusonix.com/filters.html>filter, with
additional bypass capacitors for this very
sensitive application. The threaded filter
A look at the interior of the shielded side with
the copper tape along the edge and inside to
eliminate RF interference. All photos by Sam Green, W0PCE.
serves in place of one of the screws that hold
the cases together. I use conductive
adhesive-backed
<http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/1376464-tape-copper-foil-1-x-18yds-1245-x-1.html>copper
tape as a gasket to minimize leakage into the
shielded compartment that contains the sensitive circuitry.
You can extend this method to additional
compartments where you might want many stages of
gain and you need to isolate and control the
coupling between them. This is a very simple and
effective way to prototype more complex circuits
before you have to worry about customizing the
packaging. Matt and I hope you will find this
method useful. -- 73, Sam Green, W0PCE, 10951 Pem
Road, St Louis, MO 63146, <mailto:w0pce at arrl.net>w0pce at arrl.net
+ Did You Know? The Wouff Hong
The Wouff Hong - a "fearsome instrument for the
punishment of amateurs who cultivate bad operating habits."
Every amateur should know and tremble at the
history and origins of this fearsome instrument
for the punishment of amateurs who cultivate bad
operating habits and who nourish and culture
their meaner instincts on the air. The
<http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/history.html#hong>Wouff
Hong was invented -- or at any rate, discovered
-- by "The Old Man" himself, just as amateurs
were getting back on the air after World War I.
The Old Man (who later turned out to be Hiram
Percy Maxim, W1AW, co-founder and first President
of ARRL) first heard the Wouff Hong described
amid the howls and garble of interference as he
tuned across a band filled with signals that
exemplified all the rotten operating practices
then available to amateurs (considering the state
of the art as they knew it). As The Old Man heard
it, the Wouff Hong was being used on some hapless
offender so effectively that he investigated.
After further effort, "T.O.M." was able to locate
and identify a Wouff Hong. The Old Man never
prescribed the exact manner in which the Wouff
Hong was to be used, but amateurs need only a
little imagination to surmise how painful
punishments were inflicted on those who stoop to
liddish behavior on the air. The Original Wouff
Hong is on display at ARRL Headquarters. Find out
more about this dreaded instrument of torture
<http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/history.html#hong>here.
Amateur Radio in Space : Columbus Antennas to Take to the Skies
Click
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1efXlL75dvA>here
to see video highlights of the AMSAT-NA
Symposium, held October 9-11 at the Four Points
Sheraton Hotel near the Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
In February 2008, the new Columbus module --
built by the European Space Agency (ESA) -- was
attached to the International Space Station
(ISS). When ESA first announced its intentions
for the module a number of years ago, the ARISS
International team began planning how to get ham
radio integrated. While ESA's blueprints were
being drawn, hams made serious inquiries and gave
presentations, eventually winning approval to
have antenna feed-through connectors added to the
module. ARRL ARISS Program Manager Rosalie White,
K1STO,
<http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2009/10/05/11110/?nc=1>discusses
the latest developments.
+ Events: Dayton Hamvention Crew Readies for 2010 Show
Organizers of the 2010
<http://www.hamvention.org/>Dayton Hamvention® --
May 14-16 -- are gearing up for one of the
largest Amateur Radio gatherings in the world.
According to Hamvention Assistant General Chair
Michael Kalter, W8CI, a new online program for
taking and tracking online orders has been
implemented and all volunteer committee chairs
and assistants are in place. Kalter said that the
theme of the 2010 Hamvention is Amateur Radio
Clubs Worldwide: The Lifeline. "We all recognize
how much Amateur Radio clubs and organizations
contribute to the service, Kalter said. "We all
see this in how clubs pull together in disasters,
Field Day, contests, working with youth, teaching
classes and sponsoring hamfests; in parts of the
world, the club truly is the communication link
to the world." Kalter said that Hamvention
organizers are asking hams to submit photos of
your Amateur Radio club and the activities that
the club participates in. "We would like to use
some of these on the front and back cover of the
Hamvention program for 2010," he said. "We are
also looking for stories of interest from your club.".
This Week on the Radio:
William Fisher, WB2SIH, of Armonk, New York,
makes a QSO via AO-51 from Lake George, New York (grid square FN33).
This week, look for the
<http://www.arrl.org/SCR/>School Club Roundup
October 19-23. There's an NCCC Sprint October 16.
The Iowa QSO Party, the Feld Hell Sprint and the
Microwave Fall Sprint are October 17. On October
17-18, check out the New York QSO Party, JARTS WW
RTTY Contest, the Stew Perry Topband Challenge,
the Worked All Germany Contest and the W/VE
Islands QSO Party. The Illinois QSO Party is
October 18-19 and the Run for the Bacon QRP
Contest is October 19. Next week, you'll find
another NCCC Sprint on October 23. The CQ
Worldwide DX Contest (SSB), the CW and Digital
runnings of the10-10 International Fall Contest,
and the 50 MHz Fall Sprint are October 24-25. The
SKCC Sprint is October 28. All dates, unless
otherwise stated, are UTC. See the
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/>ARRL Contest
Branch page, the
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/update/>ARRL
Contest Update and the
<http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/index.html>WA7BNM
Contest Calendar for more info. Looking for a
Special Event station? Be sure to check out the
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/spev.html>ARRL
Special Event Station Web
page<http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=al&t=i&i=2009-10-15&p=2>.
ARRL Publications : Check Out the November/December Issue of QEX
The November/December issue of
<http://www.arrl.org/qex>QEX is coming soon, and
it is full of theoretical and practical technical
articles that you don't want to miss. Click
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/14/11138/?nc=1>here
to discover what's inside this upcoming issue.
QEX is edited by Larry Wolfgang,
<mailto:lwolfgang at arrl.org>WR1B, and is published bimonthly.
The ARRL Letter : HTML vs Plain Text
Many people have asked how they can continue to
read The ARRL Letter in a plain text format. ARRL
IT Department Manager Jon Bloom, KE3Z, has
provided
<http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/about.html#plaintext>instructions
to do just that. According to Bloom, most e-mail
reading programs provide some means of accessing
the plain-text version if you want it.
Unfortunately, we are not able to send out plain
text versions (like the ones prior to October 1)
of The ARRL Letter. If you like the look of HTML
(including pictures and videos), but do not want
to receive the Letter in HTML format, you can
access current and archived editions
<http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/>via the ARRL Web site.
TAPR Elects New Officers
At the recent ARRL and TAPR Digital
Communications Conference
(<http://www.arrl.org/?artid=9182>DCC) in
Chicago, the <http://www.tapr.org/>TAPR Board of
Directors of selected a new slate of officers and
named Dr David Toth, VE3GYQ, President Emeritus
of TAPR. Dr Toth served as TAPR President from
2005-2009 and as a member of the Board from
1987-1993 and 2004 to present. The new TAPR
officers are: Steve Bible, N7HPR, President;
Scott Cowling, WA2DFI, Vice President; Tom
Holmes, N8ZM, Treasurer; and Stan Horzepa,
WA1LOU, Secretary. TAPR recently elected three
new members to their Board of Directors: Scott
Cowling, WA2DFI; John Koster, W9DDD, and Mark
Thompson, WB9QZB. -- Thanks to Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, for the information
Silent Key: Mathias Bjerrang, LA5NM/JW5NM (SK)
Noted DXer Mathias Bjerrang, LA5NM/JW5NM, passed
away October 11. He was 67. While in Svalbard,
Norway, Bjerrang slipped and fell while walking,
hitting his head and was later found Sunday
morning, cold and unable to speak. He was brought
inside where he later stopped breathing; he was
unable to be resuscitated and died. A native of
Norway, Bjerrang went on many cold weather
DXpeditions, including the North and South Poles.
Many times, he provided the sought-after double
multiplier of Zone 40 and Svalbard in contests.
Bjerrang earned
<http://www.arrl.org/awards/was/>WAS as JW5NM and
<http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/>DXCC as both
JW5NM and LA5NM; he was previously on the DXCC
Honor Roll as JW5NM. Thanks to
<http://www.dailydx.com/>The Daily DX for some information
Organizational: ARRL Membership Newsletters, Bulletins and Notifications
Did you know the ARRL offers more newsletters
than just The ARRL Letter? One of the many ARRL
membership benefits includes other newsletters,
such as the
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/update/>ARRL
Contest Update (a bi-weekly contest newsletter),
the
<http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/>ARES
E-Letter (sent monthly, containing public service
and emergency communications news), the ARRL Club
News, the ARRL Instructor/Teacher E-Letter and
the VE Newsletter, to name a few. You can also
elect to receive news and information from your
Division Director and Section Manager (keep in
mind that not all Divisions/Sections send
notices), as well as W1AW bulletins that relate
to DX, propagation, satellites and Keplerian
reports. The ARRL also offers a free notification
service to members, letting them know when their
membership and license are due to expire. Sign up
for these newsletters, bulletins and
notifications on the
<http://www.arrl.org/members-only/memdata.html>Member
Data page of the ARRL Web site.
ARRL Continuing Education Course Registration
<http://www.arrl.org/cep/student/>
Registration remains open through Sunday, October
25, 2009, for these online course sessions
beginning on Friday, November 6, 2009: Amateur
Radio Emergency Communications Level 1; Antenna
Modeling; Radio Frequency Interference; Antenna
Design and Construction; Ham Radio (Technician)
License Course; Propagation; Analog Electronics,
and Digital Electronics. To learn more, visit the
<http://www.arrl.org/cep/student>CEP Course
Listing page or contact the
<mailto:cep at arrl.org>Continuing Education Program
Coordinator<http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=al&i=2009-10-15&t=r&p=0>.
----------
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