January 2009 Issue
The Hellgate Amateur Radio Club, http://www.w7px.org,
HARC meets the 2nd Monday of each month.
Next Meeting:
January 12 7:00
PM.
Amateur Radio License Examinations
5:30 PM
Location: Fire
Station No 4. 3011 Latimer
Street, just off West Broadway near Quality Supply.
Program: Digital
TV Conversion presented by FCC DTV Outreach
Coordinator, Leo Cirbo.
Interested publics are always welcome.
Hellgate ARC members attending this meeting have a chance to win the
door prize, a
2009 75TH ANNIVERSARY GLACIER-WATERTON
INTERNATIONAL HAMFEST CALENDAR
You must be present to win!
Upcoming Events
|
Every Wednesday |
Two-Meter Wednesday Night VHF
Net, 147.04 MHz (+ offset) 9:00 PM |
|
Every Saturday |
ŌHamĶ breakfast, Lucky Strike
Restaurant, 7:00 AM |
|
Every Sunday |
ARRL Montana Section HF
Information Net, 3880 kHz 8:00
AM |
|
Daily |
Montana Traffic Net, 3910
kHz 5:30 PM (00:30 GMT) |
|
January 12 |
Amateur Radio License Exams
5:30 PM
HARC Meeting/Program 7:00 PM |
|
February 9 |
Amateur Radio License Exams
5:30 PM
HARC Meeting/Program 7:00 PM |
|
February 28 |
Stevensville Hamfest, W8QMD
Argus Stevensville, MT |
|
March 9 |
Amateur Radio License Exams
5:30 PM HARC
Meeting/Program 7:00 PM |
2009 DUES are DUE! Please support our
area repeater system and Hellgate ARC activities. Annual membership is
$25.00 ($5.00 for additional family members).
(The Hellgate Amateur Radio
Club is a 501(c)(3) Non-profit Organization)
CONGRATULATIONS and THANKS
to CLUB OFFICERS
New Officers elected
at the business portion of the Christmas Party for 2009 are President WG7P
Elmer, Vice-president W4YMA Bill, Secretary KE7IZG Mike, and Treasurer
N7GE Jerry. NZ7S Eric
and NN8A Byron were elected for another two-year term on the repeater
committee. N7PAS Paul and W7XY
Donnie will serve through 2009. W4YMA
Bill as Vice president is the chairman of the repeater committee. Thanks all for your willingness to
serve.
Thanks KE7NO, Craig – Hellgate STATIC
editor
KE7NO, Craig produced fine Hellgate STATIC
newsletters over the previous 5 years.
Now, family and work duties have limited his availability. WeÕll miss CraigÕs excellent
newsletter preparation.
Happy New Year Craig. Many
thanks for your years of dedicated service to the Hellgate ARC.
Getting To Know
Our Club Members
Articles featuring club
members will appear each month as suggested by W4YMA Bill. If you would be willing to write a brief
article about yourself sharing some of your background and experiences please
let K7VK Vick or WG7P Elmer know.
This
month:
Club President
– WG7P, Elmer Myers
Elmer Myers WG7P got involved in ham radio after a
lot of encouragement from Phil Barnett KJ7Z and in November of 2006 got his
technicians license and passed the written portion of the General
requirement. In the spring or 2007
the FCC dropped the code requirement for the General as well as the Extra Class
license and in April he successfully completed the written test for the Extra
and was granted his Extra Class license.
After obtaining his license Jerry Reynolds KB7QQ took him under his wing
and provided a lot help and guidance, especially in putting up his tower and
antennas at his cabin. He operates
VHF/UHF from a 2 meter beam and a dual band Comet vertical antenna. He operates his Icom 735 using a
Cushcraft MA-5B mini beam and 160, and 80 dipoles and a 40 meter double bazooka
that Jerry KB7QQ constructed. The
beam and dipoles are attached to a 40 foot tower that cranks up and down using
a pulley system designed by Jerry.
Jerry and his sons, especially Dusty, did the physical labor of digging
the hole, pouring the foundation and setting the tower.
Elmer and his wife got involved with HARC in the fall of 2006 and have
enjoyed the various club activities and the making of many new friends. Elmer has learned a great deal from his
association with the club members and in January, 2009 will serve as club
president. He is looking forward
to working with the club to maintain their current repeaters and serve as a
communication tool during emergencies and for many of the Missoula area events.
Elmer hails originally from Pennsylvania. Elmer was born in Altoona, PA in 1940 and graduated from
Bellwood –Antis High School in 1958. He then attended Lock Haven University of PA and
received a B.S. degree in 1962 in biology and in 1964 received his M.ED in elementary education from Indiana
University of PA. After three
years teaching he became involved in educational administration working in
Northern York County, DuBois, and Corry and in 1979 became superintendent of
schools in the Pocono Mountain School District, Swiftwater, PA. He received his PhD in educational
administration in 1985 from the University of Pennsylvania and in 1986 became
superintendent of schools in Bradford, Pa where he remained for seven years and
retired after 30 years in education.
In 1993 he and his wife Liz WG7E came to Montana and Elmer served as
Superintendent of Schools for the Lolo School District. He served as superintendent for eleven
years and retired again in 2004.
His hobbies include hunting and fishing which he began at an early age
tagging along with his grandfathers.
He has continued those interests to the current day but for some unknown
reason with a little less vigor.
He, at one time did quite a bit of fly tying and reloading of
ammunition. Elmer now spends
a large portion of time riding his four wheeler in the Fish Creek area, along with his dogs who ride in a specially
built box with a roof to shed rain and sun shine. One of his current hobbies is entering his Golden Retriever,
Daisy in AKC obedience trials.
Daisy has earned her Companion Dog (CD) title and they are now working
on the Companion Dog Excellence (CDX) title.
He and his wife Liz WG7E spend the majority of their time at their
cabin up Fish Creek between Alberton and Superior. Their family includes six children scattered around the U.S.
and their dogs Daisy and Mandy and cat Phantom who rules the cabin. All of their radio activity takes place
at their cabin.
TRY
for the ALL HELLGATE AWARD by N7MSU, Bob
The All Hellgate Award is one of amateur radio's most exclusive and
elusive awards. It is an old award
that HARC established prior to 1980.
HARC re-established the award in April 2005 to encourage HARC members to
communicate with each other on the VHF/UHF amateur bands (originally it
included HF contacts). You
can earn it, but it won't be easy, and you'll need to start now to be
successful this year. K7VK was the first, and hopefully
not the last, club member in decades to earn the award.
Shortly after the club re-established this award in April 2005, several
ambitious hams set out to win it for themselves. But, the rules were tougher than they looked. In fact, one of the rules requires that
a club member must work 25 other club members, and 15 of the QSOs must be
simplex during the calendar year.
ThatÕs quite an achievement, considering there have not been many more
than 25 dues-paying members in recent years!
With
a little hard work and diligence you too can claim this classy little
award. Check out all the rules on
HARCÕs website, Awards at http://www.w7px.org/
and get started now! The Old Gatekeeper will be looking for your logs. Bob N7MSU
Happy New Year and Thanks to Hellgate ARC Members
ItÕs been a fun and fine 2008. Thanks to all the Hellgate ARC members
for their active support of amateur radio, emergency and public service
communications, and the Hellgate Amateur Radio Club.
Keeping in Touch - Relocated Members Doing Well
KA7LEB Frank is Ôoff the airÕ and in a care facility near
his daughter in Indianapolis, IN. W7DHB Dennis and
wife, June, are living near their family and friends in Valencia, CA. Both are doing well. Dennis is still ŌhammingĶ to us via
email.
Serious Weather in your
Area? Tune to 147.04 MHz SKYWARN could be activated!
Annual SKYWARN Recognition Day - Fun As Always by WG7P, Elmer
The annual
Skywarn Recognition Program held on December 5 and 6 at the National Weather
Service Forecast Office in Missoula was fun and exciting for those who
participated. Jerry N7GE, Eric NZ7S, Byron NN8A, Bill W4YMA and Lewis AC7UZ got
things put together for the annual event.
This year the club used an HF vertical and a 40/80 meter dipole for the
antennas instead of the clubÕs portable beam. There was some question as to whether the antennas were
radiating as well as they should have, but Saturday afternoon the vertical
seemed to working pretty well.
Hopefully we will be able to get some type of permanent antenna in place
for emergencies and the Skywarn program next year.
Later
in the evening Liz WG7E Elmer WG7P arrived to give a hand. Almost everyone took a turn at calling
CQ but band conditions did not lend itself to many contacts. IRLP was supposedly working but we
werenÕt able to communicate with those attempting to add WX7MSO to their list
of contacts. An attempt was made
to get Eco Link up and running but the local telephone connection wasnÕt
allowing that to happen. The
highlight of the evening was the arrival of the pizza that was enjoyed by all
those present.
Saturday
morning Jerry, Lewis, Eric and his son, and Donnie W7XY got things rolling and
started to collect a few contacts.
Liz and Elmer arrived in time to help with the muffins and whatever else
needed to be done. Mike KE7IZG and
Andy KE7SHZ showed up to give a try at adding additional contacts to the
growing list. Although the home
Griz game might have been a factor to the somewhat limited number of
participants it was important to support the home team that got a victory that
afternoon.
Evidently
band conditions got better in early afternoon as our contact number grew pretty
well. At one time during the
afternoon we were averaging approximately 50 contacts an hour. We were making contacts from as far
away as Williamsport, PA, to Texas and states in the South to the West
coast. We were able to make contacts
with 33 other NOAA weather stations and ended the day with approximately 175
total contacts. During the
afternoon a group of boy scouts arrived with their leader to listen to the
activity and give a hand at making some QSOÕs. Several of the scouts were able to operate the radio and
seemed to enjoy their turn at the microphone.
All in
all this yearÕs event was quite successful and a thanks to all who gave a
hand. Next year we will try to get
things set up at least a day early to make sure everything is working up to our
expectations and to man the radios the entire 24 hour period throughout the
night. Mark your
calendars for the first weekend in December so that you donÕt miss next yearÕs
Skywarn Recognitions Day. (for
more on SKYWARN see: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/hamradio/index.php)
COLD AFFECTS YOUR BATTERY! By K7VK
Cold means slow and heat means
speed for reptiles. ItÕs the same
for our carÕs lead-acid batteries and our radio-mobiling ability. That starter can get real slow in
winter. At 80F our battery
power is 100%, but at 0F it is only 40%.
How much energy is in that battery? An accurate voltmeter can be your gauge: 12.6v = 100%, 12.4v = 75%, 12.2v = 50%,
12.0v = 25% and at 11.8 v = 0%, a real dead battery. So much for the term, 12-volt battery? (More on batteries? See Emergency
Power for Radio Communications, by Michael Bryce, a good read from ARRL
Publications 2005.)
CHRISTMAS PARTY/MEETING
ENJOYED BY THOSE ATTENDING by WG7P
This
yearÕs Christmas Party/meeting was held at the Montana Club on North Reserve. Dinner started around 6:00 PM with
chicken cordon bleu and the sirloin steak being the favorites for the
evening. The food was very good
and even included a dessert that was enjoyed by all. There were 33 in attendance including 20 members.
John
Vugtaveen W7KNT presented a slide show of his DXepedition to the South Sandwich
Islands in Antarctica. His slide
show was spectacular showing the animal life and beautiful scenery of that
area. His description and slides
of his adventure was quite exciting as he discussed the extremely cold
temperatures, surviving a hurricane, and various encounters with local
wildlife. It was a great
presentation but might have cast a doubt on his good judgment? Thanks John for this fine
presentation.
The
evening concluded with a gift exchange that was fun and exciting for all who
participated. The valuable gifts
range from an antique head set to ceramic decorative houses, miniature tool
sets, various books, etc. Rules
for the gift exchange have already been reviewed and will be clearly explained
prior to next yearÕs festivities. (The
only business was election of officers for 2009.)
Mark
your calendars for December 14, 2009 as you wonÕt want to miss next yearÕs
Christmas Party!!
MEETING PROGRAMS,
PRESENTERS and STATIC EDITOR IDEAS, Please
We are looking for Hellgate ARC
meeting program suggestions and presenters, and articles/editors for the
Hellgate STATIC. If you have
ideas, contacts and/or volunteers, please contact WG7P, Elmer.
Remember, the January 12 meeting
door prize is a fine 2009 75TH
ANNIVERSARY GLACIER-WATERTON INTERNATIONAL HAMFEST CALENDAR See you at the meeting.
The HELLGATE STATIC Needs You!
We need members to share editing of the Hellgate
STATIC. If you can
assist, please let us know. Even
for one month will be a big help.
Hellgate Amateur Radio Club Officers/Committees
|
President |
WG7P Elmer |
|
|
Vice-President |
W4YMA Bill |
|
|
Secretary |
KE7IZG Mike |
|
|
Treasurer |
N7GE Jerry |
|
|
Repeater Committee |
W4YMA, Bill (Vice-President NZ7S, Eric; NN8A, Byron (Thru 2010) N7PAS, Paul; W7XY,
Donnie(Thru 2009) |
|
|
Awards |
N7MSU Bob |
|
|
Exams VE Contact |
K7VK Vick |
|
|
Membership |
WG7E Liz |
|
|
Newsletter Editor |
K7VK Vick |
Rotating Monthly - Volunteer! |
|
Webmaster |
KE7IZG Mike |
Is amateur radio important to you?
SUPPORT THE ARRL, our greatest advocate for amateur radio.
Become a member. http://www.arrl.org/
Hellgate Amateur Radio Club
PO
Box 3811
Missoula,
MT 59806-3811