May 2001 President's Message As May arrives, we know the best hamfest in the area is about to occur! WARC Hamfest 2001 is scheduled for Sunday, May 6th. This is the club's big annual event in which we encourage all members to participate in some fashion. Our hamfest co-chairs, Tony Simek (N3YNH), and, Roy Conners (K3TEN), have been working very hard on the preparations with the help of Vahan Shahinian (KB3DHU) and other club members. Many hands will be needed Sunday as well as Saturday for setup. If you have not already, please sign up at the next meeting or contact the chairpersons to help make this event a success. The WARC hamfest has long standing tradition of passing out buttons with an amateur radio related slogan. This year the contest was won by John D'Onofrio (N3RIA) with "MY GIGA HERTZ!" Thanks to all who submitted an entry. WARC officer elections will be coming up at the June general meeting. Please consider supporting and directing the club by holding office. You will get all the help you need. If you are interested in serving the club in this capacity, please contact Mike Patton (W3MJP) or Bill Strunk (K3ZMA) of the nominating committee to let them know you are interested. The 147.09 repeater has been relocated! Still in the township building and in preparation for the new tower, the repeater now resides in the basement below the police station. I think it will be safe! This is a cooler environment and closer to the proposed new tower. Thanks to Brian (N3EXA), George (N3HBT), George (KA3WXV), Tom (KA3FQS), and Mark (WA3QVU). Field Day 2001 is not far off. This year it falls on June 23-24 and this year we are planning to combine the club picnic on Saturday afternoon. It will be a chance to bring out the family to experience the field day set up and enjoy some good food and fun activities. The events will be held at The National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa. Details of the picnic will follow. Contact Stu Simon (K2QBU) if you would like to be a band (not musical) captain. See you at the next meeting, Rocky, N3FKR May Meeting Presentation Digital Modes for All Thanks to Irwin KD3TB for his presentation on DX'ing for the everyday ham. I have put several of his ideas to use including watching the WWV reports and using the PacketCluster network to snag a few new ones. With 100 watts into a vertical I am definitely not a big-gun station. Fred Rice WA3KIO will be our speaker at the May meeting and he will be talking about the digital modes you can do with your computer and its sound card and how to set everything up. It used to require a lot of dedicated equipment to get on RTTY or SSTV amongst other modes. Plus there are many new modes that have only existed in software such as PSK-31. Now you can do any of them with the computer you probably already have in your shack and free or low cost software. Plus with just one computer you can hop between the different modes with very little effort. Last night I decided to try out the RTTY program I recently downloaded and found a station calling CQ. Since everything was already set up for PSK-31, I gave him a call. Everything worked perfectly and I had a great first RTTY QSO. Next week I may try another mode. May is also our hamfest month and in recognition to all of the club members who lend a hand to make it a success, the club traditionally throws a pizza party at the first meeting after it. Therefore our June meeting will be pizza night. There will not be any real program other than the club's usual great fellowship. I hope to see you at both of these meetings. Until then... 73, Mark Kempisty - N3GNW Vice President April Minutes Meeting called to order at 7:41pm by Rocky N3FKR Guests: K3FGD Dave New Members: Son and Father: Alex Kb3gka Ed kb3gjz Minutes were accepted as printed in April's Feedback President: June officers elections need names for ballot. Contact W3mjp Mike Patton, Bill Strunk nominating committee members Slogan for hamfest buttons were solicted by Rocky Grange Fair: August club will have a special events station on Saturday k3mfi and n3uqp have volunteered to coordinate the station. VP: Irwin will talk about DXing for everyday ham. WA3KIO will talk about new digital modes for May meeting June annual pizza night....and social evening. Treasurer's $6115.00 in the bank Membership: 144 active and 62 inactive members Classes: KA3WXV 3 students at last class George is looking for someone to publicize the classes via newspaper, cable tv, visit schools etc. Next classes start in September 2001. Repeater Report: N3EXA new receiver on 440 repeater working great, transmitter is having problems. .09 repeater is being moved to another part of township building 10:00am April 21, 2001. N3EXA needs help to move equipment on that day. Mark:Programming for time has been updated on 440 machine automated announcements are coming to this machine. Hamfest 2001: Tony N3YNH: Asked for volunteers and corrections to exsiting volunteer list. Flyers were distributed to be passed out at hamfests and events during the month of April. May meeting will be before the hamfest and final preparations will be announced then. ARES WA3MJP: Sky warn program certification April 16 at WGNAS 19:00 Marc Bjorkman AA3VT. FEMA may be holding a training program for certification check www.FEMA.gov/emi/cert Chalfont parade on April 28 ARES has been asked to help with communication KZ3zzz WW3Y for more information. ARES is always looking for new members contact Mike Patton if interested. RACES N3VKU is now Buck county RACES coordinator. Public Service: March of Dimes: Walk a thon April 29 Peace Valley Park, Quakertown, and Core Creek Park. Need help with any of the sites, contact Doc W3GAD, George N3HBT, for more information. Warminster memorial Day parade is on May 28. Operators are needed. George N3HBT circulated a signup sheet. Warminster hole in one competition will be on June 7. 10 operators are needed as officals on each hole. Adopt-a-Highway - cleanup will be done on April 21 (rain date April 22). Meet at Wal-Mart, Warminster, 8:00am. Contact Hugh N3SOQ for more information. Good and Welfare Rocky's son Allen Shepard requested the club visit his father who is diagnosed with Altzhiemer's. His mother needs relief with the care of his father. My Giga Hurts was voted as the slogan for Hamfest 2001 button the slogan was submitted N3RIA and won the $25.00 gift certificate from Radio Shack. Doug WA3DSP is on the board of directors of NGA (Needlework Guild of America). The organization has built a new nation headquarters building on Newtow Rd. in Warminster. Open house will be April 20 and 21 10:00am to 4:00pm. Building is on Newtown road north of Street Road. The charter is to give new clothing to the needy. web site is www.nga-inc.org Motion to adjourn......8:50pm Submitted N0ACO Public Service This is a list of the public service events for the forseeable future. Saturday, April 28--Chalfont Day parade, contact Steve WW3Y Sunday, April 29--March of Dimes wlaks in Quakertown, contact Bob KA3VKU, Doylestown contact Doc W3gad, Langhorne contact Ellen AA3AI, Temple Ambler campus contact Steve WW3Y Sunday, May 6--WARC Hamfest Monday May 28--Warminster Memorial Day Parade contact George N3HBT Thursday June 7--Warminster chamber of Commerce Golf outing contact George N3HBT Sunday June 17--Ford antique Car club show contact George N3HBT Saturday/Sunday June 23-24---WARC Field Day and club picnic contact Doc W3GAD or Mark N3GNW mid August---Grange Fair and special event station contact Frank N3UQP Saturday/Sunday September 8&9---Willow Grove air show Hope this helps. 73 Repeater move On Saturday, April 21 the 2 meter repeater was moved into its new and we hope permanent home in the basement stairwell of the Warminster police station. Brian N3EXA led the following members in moving the repeater, Tom KA3FQS, Mark WA3QVU, and George KA3WXV. The repeater was off the air for around 2 hours during the move. The new location allows a cooler environment for operations as well as a shorter run for the hard line. After the repeater was put back on the air it was found that the WRDV radio station was getting into the output signal on the repeater. Brian and Tom then went back to the police station and installed a good ground on the system, which cured the problem. We are now set for the installation of the new tower late this spring and we hope the club will soon be enjoying greater service from the repeater system. My greatful appreciation for all of the members who have help make the club repeater such a great system. George N3HBT Adopt-A-Highway The turnout could have been better, but thanks to the following people giving their all we successfully made a very positive impact on Jacksonville Rd. in less than 2 hours. George-N3HBT Eline-N3TMP Mike-N3MJP and last but not least Al-WI3Z BACK