[South Florida DX Association] The Poles Are Moving!

[Bill Marx]

>From the ARRL Rate Sheet (selected articles)

Steve NN4X posted a link (http://tinyurl.com/23hfh3) to an
interesting article on the movement of the Northern Magnetic Pole. 
It seems to be headed for Siberia and may actually be close to the
geographical North Pole by 2020 or sooner!  This will certainly
affect the location of the auroral oval, possibly improving polar
propagation from the western US and Canada to both East Asia and
Europe.  The South Magnetic Pole is also moving - also in a northerly
direction, towards Australia. This link
(http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Number=133295) discusses
both poles and has a very cool animated graphic showing the movement
of the poles since the late 1500's.

The Army Foreign Science And Technology Center has recently made the
classic book "Shortwave Antennas" by Ayzenberg, G. Z. available to
the public as a 714-page 49 Mbyte PDF file. Antennex publisher Jack
Stone has posted a copy
(http://guests.antennex.com/rooms/science/classics.htm) in the
Antennex Guest Rooms' "Antenna Science, Classic Works" section. It is
also available for $10 on CD from http://tinyurl.com/23yfgk  The book
covers many excellent antenna designs just as useful today as they
were as solar cycle 19 was just a pimple of the face of the Sun.
(Thanks, Steve K7LXC)

Dave KA1NCN notes that 2-by-4 calls from VK (VK#xxxx) are beginning
to show up in contest logs.
(http://www.geocities.com/vk4hjv/wafle.html) Don't be nervous, don't
be frightened, don't be scared...be prepared!

Dave N6NZ writes to let us all know about "rope grabs".  "These are
wonderful devices.  They are lightweight, secure, and less cumbersome
than the usual belts and rebar hooks.  A rope grab attaches to a life
line, and has a spring-loaded clutch mechanism such that the rope
grab will follow you up the tower, but must be held in release
position in order to descend. Here is a URL to a lifeline system
similar to the one I use
http://www.guardianfall.com/product.php?id=102 and many others are
available.  I have a second rope grab of a different design that I
use as a clutch on my haul rope.  Very convenient."

TECHNICAL URL OF THE WEEK -- Lee K7TJR has updated his popular
Receiving Antenna Comparison Web site
(http://www.k7tjr.com/rx1comparison.htm) with new information. This
includes Eznec file downloads for all the antennas in the chart and
azimuth plots for each. Just right for the bands open now!