Hellgate Static

Hellgate Amateur Radio Club

P.O. Box 3811

Missoula, MT. 59806-3811

April 2006

W7PX

http://www.users.qwest.net/~k7vk/

→→→Next meeting is April 10, 2006←←←

At: the Church of Latter Day Saints

3201 Bancroft Street

1900

HARC Board of Directors

Club President, N7GE, Jerry Ehli at jehli@modernmachinery.com
Vice-president, W7PAQ Frank Kisselbach at fkissel@direcway.com
Treasurer, K7PX, Steve Schlang at ripply1@msn.com

Secretary, AC7UZ, Lewis Ball at ac7uz@blackfoot.net

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Hellgate Amateur Radio Club

Meeting of March 13, 2006

President Ehli, N7GE,called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM.

The financial report was given. Income for the month at $314.00, expenses of $47.00, and a balance of $1,227.76 not counting the CDs.

The minutes were approved as presented. The motion passed.

Report of the repeater committee

The phone patch has been adjusted and is working properly.

Old Business

There are still tickets on the HT raffle. Buy one!

New Business

The River Bank Run will be April 29. Dennis Barthel will be the coordinator.

Griz Tri-Athlon will be on April 15. We are still looking for a coordinator.

TOSRV will be the 2^nd week in June. Bob Black will be the coordinator.

The need for weather spotters and establishing weather net was discussed. More net control operators are needed. Any one wishing to be a part will be trained to run the net and pass traffic.

Vick Applegate (K7VK) will be the assistant regional director for the northwest section ARRL. Congratulations Vick (ed.)

On May 6^th & 7^th , there will be a 7 land contest from 1300 Saturday to 0700 Sunday UTC (6 AM to midnight PDT the first Saturday in May). Please go to http://www.codxc.org and open “7QP” webpage. Some HARC activity looks to be brewing with N7MSU, K7VK, and K7PX going to Sweet Grass County! (ed.)

The meeting next month will be at Pattee Creek Drive & Bancroft St. at the LDS (SEE BELOW) radio communication station.

VE testing will be this Thursday 6:00 at the city-county library.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:41 PM

MAY MEETING

The May meeting of the Hellgate Amateur Radio Club will be located at the Church of Latter Day Saints, radio communication station. To find the meeting, it will be at Pattee Creek Drive & Bancroft St. at 3201Bancroft Street.

IT’S TIME TO HELP OUT THE MONTANA TRAFFIC NET

We still need alternate NCS (Net Control Station) stations for the Montana Traffic Net. Anyone who might be interested, please contact Jack, KD7HWV for assignments. We'll continue to need new stations as summer approaches and the propagation that we've enjoyed over winter fades. Conditions will become more
difficult. This is a great way to "get your feet wet" in the world of NTS and net procedures. The net meets every
night at 0030 hours GMT on 3910 KHZ.

MTN is supported by nearly 100 members, all meeting at net time to handle incoming message traffic for our state and pass outgoing messages to the world. Join us!

Your help is appreciated.
73,
Doug, K7YD

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LETTER FROM THE ARRL NORTHWEST DIVISION DIRECTOR

MARCH 25, 2006

Dear Northwestern Division Members:

Three months have passed since Northwestern Division Director Greg Milnes passed away. We certainly miss Greg's wit and presence at our meetings and hamfests. I certainly did not want to move to the Director position under these circumstances. However, one serves in a succession position in the event of such a loss. Since December, both Bill and I have been learning about the Director's and Vice Director's role.

Bill Sawders K7ZM was appointed by ARRL President Jim Haynie to serve the remainder of the Vice Director term. Bill is a former Section Manager in Oregon, and recently retired and moved from Bend to LaPine, OR. Bill attended the ARRL board meeting in January and is experiencing the political side of the amateur radio service. I enjoy working with Bill as we strive to serve the Northwestern Division amateur radio community.

During the past three months we:
1) Asked our Webmaster to begin a redesign of the Northwestern Division Web Site. This should be available soon.
2) Instituted a review of the Assistant Director roles and responsibilities. Assistant Director reappointments and invitations to serve are underway.
3) Created, with the assistance of ARRL HQ staff, an ARRL tabletop display for use at hamfests and other gatherings.
4) Began planning, with Section Managers and others, ways to enhance communication which we hope will result in members with information about programs and initiatives both at the Division level and at ARRL headquarters.
5) Were asked to serve on many ARRL committees.

At the board meeting in January, a number of items were discussed. These included the status of license restructuring, BPL updates, segmentation of bands by bandwidth instead of mode and the legislative action process. The board also elected Joel Harrison, W5ZN, as the 14th ARRL President. As this letter is written, there is still no indication when the FCC will announce a decision regarding CW licensing requirements and restructuring to allow an entry-level class with HF privileges.

The ARRL has been very active with BPL tracking and is requested that the FCC enforce its own rules when BPL interference disrupts our ability to communicate. The bandwidth proposal is controversial and will rely on following gentleman's agreements for band use should the FCC adopt this concept. A task force will be asked to review and
recommend a band plan that meets most of our needs. The Grassroots Legislative Action program is discussed later in this letter.   On a personal note, I was assigned to the Program and Services Committee, the Legislative Action Committee, the Ad Hoc Scouting Committee, as the board liaison to the DX Advisory Committee, and was elected as a member of the ARRL Foundation Board of Directors. After working on these assignments, I find I have little time left for hamming!

The following appointments are in effect for 2006:
DX Advisory Committee -- Dick Moen, N7RO
Contest Advisory Committee -- Ward Silver, N0AX
VHF/UHF Advisory Committee (a new committee) -- Jim Aguirre, W7DHC

In addition, I nominated WWA SM Ed Bruette, N7NVP, to serve on an ARRL committee reviewing the experience gained during and after the Gulf hurricanes in 2005. This committee is charged to both recommend and oversee implementation of changes to the League's emergency response plans, Memorandum of Agreements (MOU's) with served agencies and other topics relating to emergency communication.

The Grassroots Legislative Action Committee is designing a program that will simplify identifying, and communicating our needs with, elected officials in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.   During the past few decades, we have seen change from technically orientated decision makers to lawyers at the FCC. It is apparent that the FCC takes many of its marching orders from the Executive Branch and Congress. This new reality dictates that we must be proactive to insure elected officials know about amateur radio and the service we can provide. House Resolution 230 is important to us as we confront the BPL threat in local communities. This resolution, introduced by Representative Mike Ross, WD5DVR (R-AR) needs additional co-sponsors and supporters in the House of Representatives. The representative for
your congressional district is displayed on Members-Only portion of the ARRL Web Site. I'll focus on this important initiative in an upcoming Northwestern Division letter. During the next few months, I will appoint Northwestern Division members to serve as District Legislative Action Chair, Legislative Action Coordinators and Legislative Action Assistants.

The Hello program was just announced. This program is designed to acquaint the public with the amateur radio service. The April issue of QST and ARRL Web site has additional information about this program. There is hopeful news on the BPL front. Chip manufactures are talking to the League about notching in the ham bands. Can you imaging what the situation would be without the ARRL fighting the battle!

Please contact us with ideas concerning the amateur radio service and how I can best represent you as a member of the ARRL Board. Please write, e-mail or call with your comments and ideas. We'll be in touch again very soon.

73,
Jim Fenstermaker K9JF                                     Bill Sawders K7ZM
ARRL Northwestern Division                            ARRL Northwestern Division
Director                                                            Vice Director

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A.R.E.S. TRAINING DRILL

Good job with the training/drill Saturday morning. I posted two examples (links) on the website for a 72 hour pack and beyond, listed as equipment considerations. http://www.users.qwest.net/~k7vk/emergency.htm#Equipment%20Considerations

Let me know if you have additions. The next training session will be at the club meeting on April 10^th.

Thanks and 73,

Vick K7VK

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NWS Ham Radio Event with our 10th Anniversary Open House

Hi there,
We are going to be hosting a 10th Anniversary Open House for our forecast office on May 13, 2006 from 1800z to 0000z. Our local ham radio operators have requested and were approved for a special call sign for the event. It is W7G. We were a little late getting this into the ARRL magazine, but it will be on their website. If you could kindly forward this to any of your ham radio and Skywarn groups, we would appreciate it. The Valley Amateur Radio Club has also developed a special QSL card for the event as well. If there are any questions, they can be sent to Sam Moore (K7SAM) at navajomt@nemont.net

Thank you all!!
Tanja Fransen, WCM
NWS Glasgow, Montana

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A Busy Week for Amateur Radio License Examinations

The Hellgate ARC VE team held two examination sessions in one week, March 14 in Stevensville and March 16 in Missoula. Eight candidates were tested and one applied for an "instant upgrade".

Congratulations to KA7SNJ, Michael instantly upgrading to General and to four candidates passing Technician: Travis, KE7GZD; Adam, KE7GZE; Ernest, KE7GZF & KE7HBW, Deborah. Three 'long-distance' candidates are from Idaho Falls and Salmon Idaho, and Stevensville.

Thanks to volunteer examiners: N7FMW Ruth; K7VK Vick; N7TAE Wayne; K7BA Bob; WV7Z Mike & K7PX Steve.

Our next examination session is April 11, 6 PM at the Missoula Public Library.

73, Vick K7VK

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JEFF FOXWORTHY ON MONTANA

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 18 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in Montana.

If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights each year because Cut Bank is the coldest spot in the nation, you might live in Montana.

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March, you might live in Montana.

If you instinctively walk like a penguin for five months out of the year, you might live in Montana.

If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you might live in Montana.

If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you might live in Montana.

If your town has an equal number of bars and churches, you might live in Montana.

If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in Montana.
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COOL STUFF FROM THE ARRL CONTESTER'S RATE SHEET
8 March 2006
(Edited by Ward Silver N0AX)

The expected move of W1AW's 160-meter frequency from 1817.5 kHz has been postponed until later this year in order to find a frequency that will not conflict with an established calling or activity frequency.

The 2006 Field Day packet (available at http://www.arrl.org/contests.forms) contains an FAQ on the new Get On The Air (GOTA) station rules. The basic idea is that 50 Bonus points are awarded when a specific GOTA operator completes 50 QSOs and another 50 when they hit 100. Bonus points are doubled if there is a full-time GOTA coach present and mentoring. (No "pooling" of QSOs to reach a bonus level.) And there is a limit of 500 QSOs for the GOTA station. (Thanks, Dan N1ND)

We all know about Marconi's adventures in spanning the Atlantic, but where did he really invent radio? Why, in Salvan, the Cradle of Wireless, of course! Read all about it from his young assistant of the time in the February 2006 issue of Microwave Journal. (http://www.mwjournal.com/Journal/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_468)

Good advice! Just because someone knows Morse Code doesn't mean they're familiar with CW net operating procedures. There is a whole set of QN* signals and prosigns that are used in CW traffic nets not encountered anywhere else in Amateur Radio. A good description of how they work can be found on the Web at: http://www.qsl.net/n5lf/cw-nts.html There is a list of CW nets at: http://www.qsl.net/ki8du/netsked_5.htm. If you want to know a whole bunch of Q-signals, including those used in aviation, try http://www.wemsi.org/qsigs.html (Thanks, Scott W5ESE)

For heavy-handed operators (you know who you are) who can't keep a keyer paddle still, check out the Radio Shack "Jelly Sticky Pad" (part number 25-2516). At 4" W x 7.25" deep, it's the perfect fit under just about any paddle. (Thanks, Bob N6TV)

Whoops! You've got to get coax or a radial wire or ??? across a concrete walkway in your yard? How about a little water fun from Bob W9GE? "Build a water drill out of a piece of plastic pipe a bit bigger than what you want to bury. Use some fittings to connect a water hose to one end. Turn on the water and work your way under the walkway. When you reach the other side, just disconnect the water and run the coax or wire through the pipe that is now under the walk." Other contributors note that special nozzles are available for installing irrigation or sprinkler pipes in just this way. You'll also need to dig out a small sump pit on each end.

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