The News Fuse

The NY Hall of Science Amateur Radio Club Newsletter

December 2004

Next Meeting Tuesday December 14^th 7pm

Shack News

Two significant milestones were reached in the shack rebuild project during November. The station is now well past the halfway point in terms of functionality being restored and more is being done almost daily.

On November 11th and 12th, two massive work parties were called and much of the roof and grid work was completed. Among the projects finished were new LMR-400 cable was run from the HF beam to the Ameritron switchbox and all coaxial cables were terminated in the grid area below the roof. The Cushcraft R7 vertical was connected into the antenna switch, and the 40/80m dipole was just connected up on the afternoon of the 19th. All radios now have at least one live coax/antenna going to them.

Two West Mountain Radio RigRunners were deployed for DC power distribution and all power cables have now been terminated with Anderson Power Pole connectors. Every radio has been tested and the results look pretty good so far!

Our new Kenwood TS-850 is connected to three different antennae at present, although we still have some serious SWR issues to work through. A six meter vertical is inline and so far it looks good, though with six, of course, it's hard enough to find anybody to work to see just how well it's performing (hi hi). Both dual-band radios are alive, and once the computers come back online next week, the TM-D700 will be good for APRS and other advanced FM techniques, and the Icom 2500H will be good for repeater work. The Icom is hooked up to a dual-band beam and the D700 is going to a vertical. We also have a Discone antenna connected to a Bearcat 780XLT scanner, which has been loaded with a wide variety of NYC-area public safety frequencies.

In the coming week or two, Tom, N2YTF and Steve, WB2KDG expect to finally have the two satellite antennae connected and the rotors installed. The satellite array blew down in a fierce storm last year and a special bracket was destroyed. That bracket has just been replaced and the azimuth and elevation rotors should both be wired up and tested by the time you read this. If they all check out OK, and if the weather holds, the Hall of Science should be good to go for 2m/440 satellite operation in early December with manual control and eventually with full computer control once the second PC has been successfully rebuilt.

In the shack itself, everything was taken out to facilitate the dirty ceiling work that needed to be accomplished, and now that that's been completed, the slow and steady work of re-installing all the gear will take place. Although the room is still a work area and a job in progress, it's coming along very switfly and I hope to have it fully operational by the end of the month.

At this point, I would like to thank the many members who've answered the all-too-frequent help calls for work parties between September and now. Your generous offers of time and effort are tremendously appreciated and have gone a very long way to getting us back up and fully operational. I'd like to express my sincere thanks to Jim Shannon N2BAL, Tom Golero KC2CBA, Tom Tumino N2YTF, Bernie Stein K2ZIR, Steve Greenbaum WB2KDG, Joe Hernandez K2MVR, Frank KC2MBV, Wally Wentworth KC2MNV and probably a few other members who I may have left out as this article was being written.

By Peter Dougherty W2IRT

President's Corner

Tom Golero KC2CBA

e-mail: tomflushing3@aol.com

phone: 718.886.3175 (Evenings Please)

Hello to all!

I want to thank all of the club members and guests who turned out for our November meeting. We were forunate to have Pete W2IRT as our guest speaker. His topic was “the art of QSL'ing” He shared many of the techniques he uses to increase his return rate. Pete has achieved a 90% return rate for the QSL'ing he does. For those of you who don't send out cards 90% is phenomenal. I have been the QSL manager for WB2JSM and I can tell you my return rate has never been greater than 60-70% If you need any additional help with QSL'ing please feel free to contact Pete. He has agreed to be available for anybody who wants to learn more. The cost of QSL'ing may seem high but I believe that it is worth the price. We live in an age when anyone can send an instant message or e-mail almost instantaneously around the world, however I am still thrilled when I receive cards through the mail. To know that another amatuer is taking his or her time to have a card produced filled out and mailed to me is the final courtesy of every contact. I strongly suggest no matter how much you operate that you design your own QSL card. At our meeting I showed a card from an air-mobile contact from a pilot of a 767 who invited me to tour the aircraft he flies in trade for a tour of our shack. So you never know what your cards will bring you, and you never will if you don't QSL.

During the business portion of our meeting a discussion on a motion to raise our annual dues was held. The consensus among members present was that a motion to raise the adult annual dues to $30 with seniors and students remaining unchanged be voted on at the December meeting as per our constitution. These changes would be effective March 1^st 2005, if passed. Allen AE2J also suggested that any seniors who could afford it should voluntarily increase their dues also to $30.

Additionally at the November meeting nominations for the board of directors was closed. A slate of unopposed candidates has been drawn up and will be accepted by 1 vote cast by the Secretary at our December meeting.

This Presidents corner will be my last and I want to thank all of those club members who made my 2 years as President a pleasure. I hope you will support our new president Alan AE2J as much as you have supported me. I hope to see all of you at the holiday party.

73's Tom Golero KC2CBA

DX at the shack

This months selection is a 15m sideband contact with VQ9LA

Station located on the island of Diego Garcia, Chagos Archipelago. The call VQ9LA belongs to Lary Arneson an American who is either a US Serviceman or a contract employee to the military. I couldn't tell from his web-site but his QSL address is deffinetly a military address.

Diego Garcia is an island in the indian ocean. The US maintanes a naval base on the island, as do the British. It also serves as a communication center and a refueling stop for ships and aircraft. Diego Garcia is a U shaped coral island called an atol. It's about 15 miles long and 7 miles wide. Diego Garcia came under the UK's control in 1814 and until 1965 was administered as a dependeny of the British colony of Mauritius. In 1965 Diego Garcia has become part of the newly formed British dependency called the British Indian Ocean Territories. The US base was built in the 1970's by 1973 the British authorities had moved all the inhabitants of the island to Mauritius and Seychelles. Since 1982 Mauritius has claimed the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia. During the Persian Gulf war of 1991 the US used Diego Garcia as a base of operations for strategic airstrikes into Iraq. Today the base again is being used for the same purposes in the present conflict in Iraq.

By Tom Golero KC2CBA

HOSARC Membership

Number of HOSARC members 80

Members at last general meeting 36

Guests at last general meeting 3

Where were you?

Need a lift to a club meeting?

Please contact Tom Golero if you can give a ride to the HOSARC meeting, or if you need a ride to the general meeting. Tom will match drivers to riders.

Tech Tips

New User Tips for VHF-UHF Operation

by Dave Schultheis WB6KHP
San José, California

Be sure the frequency (or "channel") is "clear" before you transmit. Think how you would like it if someone interrupted your conversation.

• Recommendation: when you turn to a repeater or a simplex frequency, listen for at least thirty seconds before transmitting.

Using Q-signals too often is bad form. Although Q-signals have a very valuable place in Amateur Radio, they are not universally accepted on F.M. voice channels. Using them during EVERY TRANSMISSION is really annoying.

• Recommendation: use Q-signals sparingly. Once in a while. Not very often.

Using the phrase "clear and monitoring" is not really necessary. Neither term is required by the F.C.C. or anybody else. If you call another amateur, using his/her callsign and yours, and that person does not answer, it is not necessary to advise "clear." You have already identified your station and any other identification is superfluous.

• Recommendation: use "clear" only to mean that you are shutting down operation and will not be there to answer any subsequent calls. Under normal circumstances, when you are finished with a contact but will continue listening, it is sufficient (and just right!) to merely say your call sign.

• Contrasting Recommendation: If you attempt to contact someone and there is no answer, you can notify others that you are finished by saying, "KF6xxx clear," or "no contact, this is KF6xxx clear W6ABC repeater." This allows someone who may have been standing by to go ahead and make his or her call.

Be sure to learn the usage, protocol and/or policies of repeaters you are using. Just because a repeater is "there" does not mean that you are welcome to switch to it and use it for long, extended rag-chews. Some repeaters welcome newcomers, some do not. A sensible person does not want to spend time where s/he is not welcome. Even though your license allows you to operate on any frequency within the bounds of your license class, a wise amateur avoids "closed" repeaters and repeaters that are operated by small, unfriendly groups.

• Recommendation: listen to a repeater for a while before you make a decision to use it. You might even ask someone on the repeater if you are welcome to use it for occasional conversations.

Using the term "for I.D." is not necessary. There should be no reason to transmit your call sign other than to identify your station. Identification is required every 10 minutes during a conversation and at the end of a conversation or series of communications. Conversations need not come to a halt while you identify. ("Stand by, everyone, while I say my call sign.") Simply say your call sign once within 10 minutes.

• Recommendation: while talking, say your call sign once every ten minutes. Don't say "For I.D., this is KF6xxx." Don't say "For license preservation purposes, this is KF6xxx" more than once or twice per year. Identify properly, but do not over-identify.

• Contrasting Recommendation: if you hear someone say "for I.D.," they may be trying to gently remind you that 10 minutes have passed and you should identify your station. Take the hint and say your call sign the next time it is your turn to talk.

Long ago, F.C.C. rules required mobile hams to not only say their call sign, but to say where they were operating, giving both the city and the call sign area. You may hear some hams saying, "...mobile 6" or "...mobile 3" after their call sign. This means that they are operating "mobile, in call sign area 6" or "mobile, in call sign area 3." This is no longer required but it is sometimes good to know. When leaving their home state, some hams will keep track of what call sign area they are in, and say, "...mobile 7," or "...mobile 1," or whatever.

• Recommendation: it's not necessary, but it's not wrong.

Certain types of jargon are easily recognizable as being "CB" terms. "What is your personal?" when you mean "what is your name?" "I'm on the side," when you mean you are "listening" or "monitoring." Although there is nothing "wrong" with CB, these terms are neither generally used nor appreciated on Amateur Radio frequencies.

• Recommendation: avoid CB-style jargon and terms. Generally speaking, plain English is better: "my name is xxxx, what is yours?"

Different repeaters handle emergency communications in different ways. A general guideline is this: if you are on an unfamiliar repeater and you have emergency traffic, say so! Example: "Can someone help me contact the Highway Patrol?" or "I need help contacting the Fire Department." Asking "is anybody monitoring?" may sound like an attempt to start a casual conversation. On many repeaters, you could be ignored. However, if you state that you have emergency traffic, people on many repeaters will drop what they are doing to help you. Note: if you are monitoring a repeater and someone asks for emergency assistance and you cannot help, BE SILENT! There are few things stupider than someone breaking in to say that they would help except that they forgot the codes, or that they left their radio with the Touch-Tone (tm) pad at home, or that their home phone is busy so they can't make the call for you.

• Recommendations:

  • If you have emergency traffic, say so immediately.

  • If you can help, please do.

  • If you cannot help, do not transmit.

In this day of scanners, scanning mobile radios, scanning portable radios, dual-, triple- and quadruple-band radios and multiple radios in the car or shack, you could miss making contact with someone because your radio is scanning several channels or bands. If you know that the person you are calling is sitting next to the radio waiting for you, you can make your call very simple: say his/her call, then your own. However, if your friend has a scanning radio or listens to several radios, it is possible that he/she could miss your call. You should call twice: say the other station's call twice, then your own. Pause for a half-minute or so and try again. It might also be a good idea to try again in 4 or 5 minutes, in case the called person's scanner was stopping on a long, drawn-out conversation. And if you know that the called station is listening to more than one frequency, you can call and say "on [such-and-such] repeater" to give them a hint as to which microphone to pick up or which band to select.

• Recommendation: call twice.

You may hear people using the term "73," meaning "best wishes." There is no "s" in the salutation "73." (Other hams may use the term "88," meaning "love and kisses." Typically used between husbands and wives.) These shortcuts were developed years ago as a way to communicate common thoughts quickly. You will hear others saying "73s" and "88s" (wrong!) You might even hear someone saying [cringe!] "threes and eights and all those good numbers!" Yecch! Negative!

• Proper usage would be similar to this:

  • Voice: "OK, Dan, seven-three and I will talk to you later. (pause) WA7AII."

  • Voice: "73 for now, WB6KHP clear."

  • CW: "W2EOS de K8JW CUL OM 73 SK."

  • CW: "N6xxx de KB6xxx 73 88 SK."

There is no specific requirement for keeping logs of the use of your amateur radio station except for International Third-party Traffic. However, a good way to keep track of your communications is to use a Log Book, available at some amateur radio dealers.

• One method is this: make an entry in the "date" column for each day you operate your station. Each time you contact a "new" station, make entries for call sign, name, frequency, mode and any other information you think necessary or interesting. You probably have no need to make log entries for people you talk to every day, with the possible exception of logging emergency traffic that you may handle for others.

Sometimes while talking to another station, it is necessary to ask the other person to "stand by." This may be caused by (a) a driving situation needing immediate attention to avert a crash, (b) a spouse or child walking into the "shack" with a message, (c) placing your order at a drive-up window, etc. The proper response, when requested to "stand by," is silence. Generally it will only take a moment and the other station will be back. If you feel it necessary to say something, then say, "[call sign] standing by." If you respond to "stand by" with a long, drawn-out acknowledgement, it serves no purpose and the person asking you to "stand by" is not listening anyway.

Keep in mind that when you are operating in a noisy environment, you do not have to be able to hear yourself talking. There will be those instances where you are helping with emergency communications for a disaster, or communications support for a parade, or you are at an airport or other noisy place. If you shout into the microphone loud enough to hear yourself, you are distorting the signal so badly that the person on the other end may not be able to hear or understand you. Instead, practice speaking into the microphone in a normal tone. It can be very difficult to operate under these conditions (loud background noise), but it is a skill that you would do well to learn.

One of the most important things for new hams to learn is to "K-H-T." That is "key, hesitate, talk." You must consciously learn to push the microphone button, pause slightly, and then begin speaking. If you push the button and speak simultaneously, the first word or the first part of a word may be cut off. This does not facilitate effective communications. Hopefully, if you learn to do it correctly from the first day, it will become subconscious and you will do it automatically. If this is the case, you will earn the respect and admiration of your peers. If not, you will be forever labeled as a sub-standard operator.

Try to keep your language polite. Profanity and discussions of bodily functions should be off limits - not because of government rules, but because it's the right thing to do. Generally, other hams and their family members do not want to hear conversations that are not of the "G-rated" variety.

Thanks to KA6TGE, NT6S (formerly KB6LUC) , KI6NI and the West Valley Amateur Radio Association. Adapted from a version revised on April 9, 1990.

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David W. Schultheis, San José, Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County, California, USA