[K6BW] Current Events

Thu, 31 Jul 2003 09:37:48 -0700

Bill, the Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club has a mailed newsletter.  But to
save costs they email it to all members except those who request a "hard
copy."  At least half the club gets the email version.  118 were mailed last
month out of around 300 members.  It is emailed as a .pdf file.  So much for
MDARC.

For HWA it's fine if someone wants to take it on.  Emails are working fine
so far.  What counts is reaching out and touching someone far far away.
That's 95% of ham radio.  The other things are nice.

To everyone else on the reflector, I just had my second CW qso last Saturday
night with a ham in Idaho.  My first was with BillMT last September.  (Yes
we exchanged qsl cards.)  Otherwise, I have now confirmed 45 states on mixed
bands.  Are there any confirmed sightings of Delaware and Rhode Island hams?
Need Nevada, Wyoming and Mississippi, also.  I'll brag about my DX stats
next time.

73 de Harold AE6FC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Smith" <[email protected]>
To: "HWA QTH Reflector" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 1:26 PM
Subject: [K6BW] Current Events

I guess this is something akin to a newsletter.  What do you think, should
we have a mailed club newsletter ?   Negatives are it is a lot of work and
is surprisingly expensive.  Positives are it is something "in hand" and
tends to bring the membership together.  Is there anyone who would like to
work on this project?

MARS Conference

Our clubhouse was the site of the 2003 Northern California Mars Convention
again this year.  We had about 25 Navy MARS members from all over Northern
California in attendance.  Of special mention was the participation of HWA
member Doug Sekishiro.  Doug has recently returned from Kuait (did I mean
Kuwait?) and stated the need for MARS communications in the Gulf Region.
That message has been routed up the chain of command, and could have an
impact on the whole system.

TOWER

The tower update:  Jack Troup has been working very hard on the project and
we are seeing real results of his efforts.  We have determined a way to
erect the tower, it will be positioned on the ground parallel to the north
side of the building, and nearby trees (that is saying a lot!) can be used
to first hoist the antenna from horizontal, then pulled into a vertical
position.

Jack has built and installed a base plate.  With that major hurdle overcome,
we are now looking at digging one hole and installing a guy anchor.  The
other two guy points are in place, one at the top of the driveway, the other
the telephone pole at the back of the building.  We think we can use an old
cement support that used to hold steam-heat piping as an anchor to guy the
back of the telephone pole.

We had a good work party last Saturday.  Alan Best, Jack Troup, Lars
Williamson and myself were there.  Several members indicated they would like
to help, but couldn't meet the schedule.  Lots of things were done in
preparation of the "big event" - raising the tower, which is now much closer
in sight.  If we can trim the trees, we have a good chance to get it up
before the rains start this fall.

Jack has taken the crank on the tower for cleaning and repainting.  He also
discovered the rotor contains several badly damaged internal parts.
Thankfully, we have two others.  Jack plans to carefully inspect each and
choose one to put back on the tower.

We estimate we need nearly 200 feet of rotor cable.  We need the same length
of coaxial cable.  Jack is planning a trip to Mike Quinn Electronics to see
if there is any surplus rotor cable, and will be on the lookout at the next
Livermore Swap.

CIVIL AIR PATROL

Separately, I attended a Civil Air Patrol meeting last night.  A new Novato
chapter has been formed, replacing an older one, and is active in search and
rescue.  At the meeting, also met a Commander with the Coast Guard
Auxiliary.   I was delighted to discover the Commander is studying Morse
Code!

Each group has specific activities for which they volunteer.  They primarily
use VHF and have extensive repeaters on government frequencies they use for
communications.  The CAP uses HF frequencies also, and the Novato chapter is
looking to acquire that capability.

We discussed the possibility of establishing links between our groups.  At
the moment it seems that we could best help each other by offering our
ability to volunteer for special projects as they occur.  At the moment,
that luxury (volunteer resources) seem a bit limited, but with the
enthusiasm shown last night to work together, am sure something positive
will come out of our correspondence.

73 de Bill, AB6MT
[email protected]

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