THE ARLINGTON BEACON

Minutes of the February 15, 2005 Meeting of the Arlington Amateur Radio Club

President Jack, WA4FXX, called the meeting to order at 1937. Attending besides Jack were Vice President Dennis, W4PWF, Secretary Mike, NW3V, Treasurer Mike, KG4RKL, and Members Ian, KI4DTP, George, KR4MU, Jim, K9AUC, Mike, KA8OPJ, Rich, KI4FW, Keith, KG4UIR, Chuck, KI4DHW, Paul, KG4PXF, Paul, KA4KUU, Gary, KC7TNU (after the program started), and visitor Roy, AI4GO. WA4FXX asked Members and visitors to introduce themselves, and they did.

Minutes and Finances

The Minutes of the January meeting as published on the Web were approved (moved, seconded, and passed).

ARRL

Jack asked Dennis, W4PWF, to report on ARRL activities. Dennis said "Windsor Locks really got snow dumped on them. I left a day early. By the time we got to Baltimore, the snow, which had moved north, was gone. I can't tell you what we discussed on Sunday." Mike, NW3V, asked smirkishly, "What do we pay you for?" Dennis answered, deadpan, "I want to discuss that." Then: "We discussed regulation by bandwidth. Take this with the biggest grains of salt, but: at Dayton, they'll unveil what's called Deregulation II.

"At the League, we were in the black by $262K." Jack, WA4FXX, asked, "Losing members because of dues increases (I've heard)?" Dennis: "About 11,000 per year.... I was instrumental in trying to respond to requests of VEs [Voluntary Examiners] in Roanoke Division, who asked to be recognized a la PSHR [Public Service Honor Roll]. Giving two exams in Alaska is a big deal; in northern Virginia, it's not. " Rich, KI4FW, asked, "What do demographic studies show?" Dennis: "Studies show average age is increasing. Younger people aren't joining. No scientific studies of why have been done...."

Jack, WA4FXX, said, "[Activities Chair] Alan, KO4ALA, will not be with us. He's ill, with the flu. [ACPD] Captain Panther was once scheduled to be here, but the plan is in flux, and he begged off, and we graciously let him."

Inauguration

Jim, K9AUC, said "I can report on the Inauguration. Hams were to train non-radio people. There weren't many check-ins. I asked a number of people--they were professional [A]RC staff--no training was needed. There's a grant Sally Cooney has to train WMAC people over 55 [years of age] in radio.

"Alan [KO4ALA] has done a great job of making materials available.

"Net procedures were a bit different: ARC personnel would say, 'Go to your lead [supervisor].' ARES volunteers would say, 'Wait one...go direct.'

"Keith put handhelds on extreme battery save--ingenious." Keith, KG4UIR, corrected: "It was Steve who did that."

Jack, WA4FXX, asked, "Keith?" Keith, KG4UIR, replied, "Did I send you the After Action Report?" Jack, WA4FXX: "I didn't share it." Keith, KG4UIR, continued: "There are two radios, they look alike, but one is low-band VHF (vehicles use it), and one is UHF (handhelds). We also had ham rigs, and listened to public service. Those radios in the cache have every freq in the Metro area. FEMA's definition, etc. If you want the AAR (After Action Report), send me an email. "GMRS, 47.42, NexTel, etc., were blocked, but not the Public Service band. Regarding NexTels, some worked, some didn't. The farther you were from the flying-spot jammer, the better they worked. Next time we might do roll calls on freq."

Mike, KA8OPJ, asked, "Could we use PL or a special frequency to avoid jamming?" Keith replied, "I think next time we'll use public-service radios out of the cache." Jack, WA4FXX, said, "I suspect we'll have to develop mutual trust, and convince them we will monitor our own freqs. Also, I recomment contests and the ARRL EmComm course for training.

"Speaking of contests," Jack segued, "the International CW DX contest is next weekend, and the sideband contest is 5-8 March. The Virginia QSO Party is 19-21 March. The CQ Worldwide Prefix SSB contest is 26-27 March. The RTTY 'test was over the weekend. With a wire antenna in a tree, I managed to work about a hundred stations in four or five hours operating."

Mike, KG4RKL, said, "Going back to training, if anyone hasn't listened to 147.300, try it." Mike, NW3V, asked, "Did you hear KJ4S?" RKL answered, "No. About all they do is is EAN (Eastern Area Net)," and he rattled off some VHF and HF traffic net times and frequencies. Jack, WA4FXX, suggested monitoring the Maritime Mobile service Net on 14.300 MHz, and an international net on the same frequency. Jack said, "Our local net is 3.947 MHz at 6pm and again--the Virginia Late Net (VLN) at 10pm."

Field Day

Mike, KA8OPJ, warned, "The rules for Field Day are changing. There's a new rule that you have to have an op for each rig, or something like that."

Other Old Business

Jack, WA4FXX, said, "I sent out some spam regarding the River Run. Is there other old business?" [None heard.] "New business?" [None heard.] "In addition to the contests, Winterfest is coming. W4PWF brought us a 2004 Handbook" "Auction it off," suggested Mike, NW3V. "We'll auction off an older Handbook and keep this one", replied Jack.

Ian, KI4DTP, noted, "The Arlington County Library book sale is coming up." Jack, WA4FXX, added, "after 4:00, it's all you can carry in a bag..."

Adjournment

President Jack, WA4FXX, adjourned the meeting at 20:47.

Program

Jim, K9AUC, presented a program on Our New Radios which he had hastily put together after hearing of Captain Panther's cancellation. He demonstrated the IC-2720H in the context of it's grab bag (which he had assembled). The xcvr was connected to a battery ("we call it the red battery, because of the red tape. Maybe this summer we'll have white and blue batteries."). The battery was connected to a charger ("not automatic"), and Jim explained that "[normally] we keep the battery on a maintainer [auto-chrager] here." The xcvr was also connected to a mag-mount antenna on a pie pan, which provided a ground plane, or at least a counterpoise. Jim noted, "There are better antennas in the shack." and showed examples.

Jim's program was very instructive, and the more impressive because arranged on short notice.

Post-Program Discussion

Jack, WA4FXX, noted that "our 2m Ringo will work on 70cm--the third harmonic--but the 9913 feedline has degraded and is no good for UHF. Mike, KA8OPJ, and Jack then debated the merits of air insulation, which KA8OPJ favored, while WA4FXX said, "some say it's a water trap."

Respectfully submitted,
--Mike, NW3V
AARC Secretary

N8YSZ on RF Noise-Hunting and VHF Contesting