February 1998
President's Message
Congratulations to Bob (KA3VKU) Phillips (reelected) and Steve (KA3ZLY) Larson on their election to the Board of
Directors at our January meeting. As members of the Board, they will contribute their time and talents to help
our club become an even better organization. We had a slate of four very qualified candidates for the two elected
board positions- let's hope the interest our members have in running for elected positions continues as we approach
our annual May election of club officers. A sincere WARC thank you goes to outgoing Director Gail (N6LUL) Russell
(who chose not to run again due to her work schedule) for her contributions over the past two years.
THE ANNUAL CLUB AUCTION will be the February general meeting program, and it's always lots of fun! Come see the
talents of our immediate past president and auctioneer extrodinaire Tom (WA3TQJ) Michaud. Bring stuff to donate
and money to buy more stuff. Please support our efforts to make a significant deposit to the club's bank account
(and make our Treasurer, Al (KY3T) Folsom an even happier person!).
Because there are five Thursdays in January and we have a FEEDBACK Editor who gave me the latitude to submit this
message a little later than the "official" deadline, I am writing this AFTER the ARRL sponsored January
VHF contest that took place the weekend of January 17/18. It was wonderful hearing so many members participating
in the contest and talking about how much fun they had after it was over. As a general purpose club, one of our
goals is to encourage our members to operate this event. Please bring your logs- either paper or on disk (and dupe
sheets if you used them)- to the February 5 meeting so Joe (N3EMA) Bagnick and his committee can put together a
club score and submit them to the League.
The most consistent message I heard from those who participated was to do more preparation prior to next years
contest. For some it means adding equipment to operate on other bands and modes (operating SSB is very different
than FM simplex operation); for others, it's upgrading antennas and/or feed lines; and, for those with computers,
a desire to use Packrat (and ex-WARC member) Dave (W3KM, ex WA3JUF) Mascaro's excellent logging program.
But the thing that meant the most to me about this year's event was the wonderful spirit of cooperation between
our members. Lot's of radios, antenna's and feed lines were leant out. Questions about contest operating techniques,
technical matters and equipment were asked and answered on the club repeaters. Rules of the contest were explained
by those more familiar with them. What a wonderful way to learn how to be both supportive of others, and to feel
comfortable receiving support from others. That's a lesson that goes far beyond ham radio.
de Bill , K3MFI
Seeking WARC Alumni
Club Alumni Coordinator Burt Ludin (N3YVH) is putting together a listing of former members, who for geographical,
travel or health reasons can no longer be active members in the Warminster Amateur Radio Club. We anticipate publishing
a listing of Calls, Names, postal mail and e-mail addresses sometime later in the year. WE NEED YOUR HELP in updating
our records. Please contact Burt by telephone (215-441-4483), on the club repeater or at a Board or General Meeting.
THE FOUNDATION FOR AMATEUR RADIO, INC., a non-profit organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C., plans
to administer sixty-six (66) scholarships for the academic year 1997-1998 to assist licensed Radio Amateurs. The
Foundation, composed of over seventy-five local area Amateur Radio Clubs, fully funds nine of these scholarships
with the income from grants and its annual Hamfest. The remaining fifty-seven (57) are administered by the Foundation
without cost to the various donors.
Licensed Radio Amateurs may compete for these awards if they plan to pursue a full-time course of studies beyond
high school and are enrolled in or have been accepted for enrollment at an accredited university, college or technical
school. The awards range from $500 to $2500 with preference given in some cases to residents of specified geographical
areas or the pursuit of certain study programs. Clubs, especially those in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey,
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, are encouraged to announce these opportunities at their meetings,
in their club newsletters, during training classes, on their nets and on their world wide web home pages.
Additional information and an application form may be requested by letter or QSL card, postmarked prior to April
30, 1998 from:
FAR Scholarships
6903 Rhode Island Avenue
College Park, MD 20740
The Foundation for Amateur Radio, incorporated in the District of Columbia, is an exempt organization under Section
501(C)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. It is devoted exclusively to promoting the interests of Amateur
Radio and those scientific, literary and educational pursuits that advance the purposes of the Amateur Radio Service.
BATTERY BAGS
All sold!! We're putting together another order of "green bags" (which include 2.3 ah battery, charger
and cigarette adapter and fused plug) at a cost of $15. Contact Stu (K2QBU) Simon at (215) 345- 9295 if interested.
Spring Slush Road Rally
On Sunday March 22, 1998 the Warminster department of Parks and recreation will be holding a Spring Slush Road
Rally. The event will run from 9:30 am to late in the afternoon and cover central Bucks county. I will need at
least 20 operators to cover this event. Anyone who can help out with the event
please contact George Brechmann N3HBT at 443-5656 or see me at any of the next 2 club meetings.
Solar prognosticator
Tad Cook, K7VVV, Seattle, Washington, reports: Solar activity was only slightly higher over the past seven days
compared to last week. Average solar flux was up only about three points, but the average sunspot number was about
double from the week previous. Average solar flux for
the previous 90 days moved from 95 to 96 this week, but flux values were above 96 only two days out of the reporting
week. This observation is consistent with the relatively flat nature of recent conditions in the current solar
cycle. Solar flux for this weekend is predicted to be around 92, with some geomagnetic instability resulting in
a projected A index of around 12.Solar flux is expected to dip soon into the high 80s, then rise above 90 again
around February 3. This is all based on the previous solar rotation, so all HF operators can hope for are some
new sunspot groups to liven up the bands.
Sunspot numbers for January 15 through 21 were 46, 88, 89, 67, 88, 50, and 25, with a mean of 64.7.
The 10.7-cm flux was 97.8, 97.5, 95.9, 95.1, 93.5, 91.4, and 90.9, with a mean of 94.6, and estimated planetary
A indices were 3, 8, 5, 9, 4, 11, and 8, with a mean of 6.9.
The ARRL DX Bulletin notes this week that FT5X/FR5HR is active from Kerguelen Islands around 0200 UTC on 20 meters
and 1400 UTC on 17 meters. Conditions from most of the US to Kerguelen don't look good at those times on those
bands, but 17 meters may be possible from the East Coast. The further south one is in this hemisphere though, the
better the odds. Conditions to Kerguelen from South America and the Caribbean on 20 meters should be quite good
around 0200 UTC.
Courtesy the ARRL Newsletter
Winter Games special event:
Special event station 8NØWOG will operate from February 7 through February 22 during the XVIII Olympic Winter
Games in Nagano Japan. The station will be sponsored by the Japan Amateur Radio League and will be available for
operation by amateurs from any country. If you're planning to be in Nagano for the games, don't forget your Amateur
Radio license. 8NØWOG will be at the Nagano City Warm-Hearty (Fureai-Fukushi) Center, 1714-5, Midori-cho,
Nagano. Operating hours will be 0930 until 2100 JST. HF bands will include 160 through 10 meters, SSB and CW. The
station also will operated on VHF and UHF. For more information, contact Kimihiko Koyanagi, JAØTBJ, e-mail
ja0tbj@mx2.nisiq.net.--The JARL
News
Courtesy the ARRL Newsletter
Patty Loveless, KD4WUJ, tops Grammy nominations:
Having wowed the critics with her album Long Stretch of Lonesome, Patty Loveless, KD4WUJ, was rewarded with three
Grammy nominations. In addition to best album, she was nominated for best female country vocal performance for
"The Trouble With The Truth" and best country vocal collaboration for "You Don't Seem to Miss Me"
with the legendary George Jones. Loveless' three nominations make her country music's leading Grammy contender.
Courtesy the ARRL Newsletter
HAM RADIO SAVES THE DAY IN ICE STORM'S WAKE
Some ham radio emergency communication operations across the Northeast wound down this week as the ice storm disaster
moved from the response to the recovery phase. Telephone service and electricity are being slowly restored, but
in many areas ham radio remains a primary--and in some cases the only--means of communication. And barely more
than two weeks after the initial disaster, New Yorkers were bracing for the possibility of additional severe ice
storms. The story to date is one of a great ham radio response peppered with small acts of heroism and dedication.
Hams--in many cases working as ARES and RACES volunteers--continued to operate from emergency operation centers,
shelters, meals centers, and government offices throughout the region. In New York alone, more than 1000 people
are still living in shelters. ARES and RACES groups were cooperating with the American Red Cross, the Salvation
Army, and government agencies, including the National Guard.
Repairs to the utility infrastructure are expected to take months. Ice loading from the storm brought down utility
poles (one estimate said 180,000 poles in New York will have to be replaced), countless trees, and even steel transmission-line
towers. Several deaths were attributed to the ice storm, and damage estimates ranged in the billions of dollars.
Ham volunteers too numerous to mention mustered to help and many have been on the job for more than a week straight.
Simplex and HF became the rule in some areas as repeaters were brought down by a lack of power or storm damage.
Some repeaters were brought back up on emergency power. For a look at the storm response in New York, see
http://www.nysemo.state.ny.us/IceStorm98/teamwork/.
The initial response to the ice storm disaster would not have been possible without ham radio, according to Jim
Edmonds, WA1KPG, who lives near Syracuse, New York. "Everything was knocked out," he said. "I've
never seen a situation where everything was so dependent on ham radio." A Civil Air Patrol group commander,
Edmonds was called in January 8 by CAP and soon found himself at the Syracuse Red Cross office, training disaster
relief volunteers and coordinating ham radio efforts on behalf of the Red Cross. "The first request by the
Red Cross and the New York State Emergency Management office was, please send us all your hams'," he said.
His wife, Sue, N2GNN, also helped out.
Across the Empire State, other hams worked with Red Cross damage assessment teams. Steve Auyer, N2TKX, said many
hams in unaffected parts of the state took time away from work to help out in the disaster areas, staying in the
shelters for days at a time. Offers of help came from New York City ARES/RACES and from as far away as Minnesota,
where residents had to deal with floods and ice last
year.
ARRL PIC Viv Douglas, WA2PUU, in Syracuse reports that a number of hams from Western New York traveled from shelter
to shelter in hard-hit Jefferson County moving out health-and-welfare traffic. Ham radio was even able to get word
to a Naval officer at sea, concerned for the safety of his elderly mother who lived alone, that she was safe and
had been moved to a shelter. Edmonds told of how hams used multiple relays to dispatch an ambulance to an injured
elderly man in Potsdam, New York, who had managed to get word to his daughter via his almost-dead cell phone. The
whole process took ten minutes.
Douglas said ham radio became a focal point in the shelters, too. "When updated condition reports were being
given over the ham radio, people would run to cluster around. It became apparent that ham radio was the lifeline
to the outside world for communication," she reports. "Many watching asked how they could get into ham
radio so it would be available to them during times like this. It became a teaching experience."
As Jim Edmonds put it: "The guy on the street corner with the hand-held saved the day."
In some areas of New England, new snowfall hampered recovery efforts. That was the case in Vermont, where six northern
counties were declared disaster areas and more than a foot of additional snow fell in the ice storm's wake. Throughout
the region, stores quickly sold out of portable generators and other emergency supplies. Out-of-state line crews
were called into help restore electricity. In New York, National Guard generators moved from dairy farm to dairy
farm so herds could be milked--and thus saved.
All 16 Maine counties eventually were declared disaster areas. State RACES Director Rod Scribner, KA1RFD ("Ready
for Disaster"), said about half of the state's repeaters were not working after the storm, but the wide-coverage
KQ1L machine on 146.85 MHz in Dixmont stayed up and got a lot of use. It was that repeater that Vice President
Al Gore spoke over from RACES Headquarters when he visited the state capital to survey the damage earlier this
month. Scribner said parts of Maine are still without electrical power, and he praised the efforts of hams there
in dealing with the emergency--which he characterized as the most serious he'd ever seen in terms of the number
of people affected. "I think ham radio really did a yeoman's job in the areas affected," he said this
week. Scribner singled out for special mention Maine SM Michelle Mann, W1GU (who has an infant at home), as well
as Mike Smith, N1UHR, who camped out in the Waldo County EOC for a week and helped handle local, door-to-door health-and-welfare
checks on rural residents, and Max Jacques, K1MAX, who helped organize a Red Cross meals program in the Winthrop
vicinity.
Husband and wife Red Cross volunteers Connie Morrison, N1OCE, and Paul Shapter, N1SWM, of Worcester, Massachusetts,
just back from three weeks assisting in the Typhoon Paka recovery on Guam, were called in to help with ice storm
relief efforts in Maine. Morrison is an attorney and a registered nurse, while Shapter is an accountant. Although
her work did not involve disaster communication, Morrison carried along her dual-band H-T on both trips just in
case she needed it.
North of the Border, the Province of Quebec was especially hard hit with ice damage and power and telephone blackouts.
"The scope of this emergency is beyond the meaning of the word catastrophic'," said
RAC Quebec Director Daniel Lamoureaux, VE2ZDL. Hams in affected areas set up round-the-clock emergency nets and
assisted in the relief effort. Without Amateur Radio, "there is absolutely no way that many emergency and
support activities could have taken place," said The Canadian Amateur Editor Rob Ludlow, VE3YE.--This Week
in Amateur Radio; RAC; Albert Hayeck, N1EFR; and many others
Courtesy the ARRL Newsletter
WEB Watch:
Put a touch of the cosmos in your life at www.nasa.gov
Sneak onto the Net today and don't feel guilty about it. Surfing PBS is good for you. www.pbs.org
Taking a trip? Log onto MapQuest's site for door to door directions. www.mapquest.com
55 AND STILL GOING STRONG
WARC member Rocky Sheppard, KA3YVR and XYL Rose will celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary on February 17th.
They were married in the post Chapel at Fort Meade, Maryland in 1943.
The wedding party consisted of Rocky, Rose, the Chaplain and a soldier and his wife who happened by. The Chaplain
commandeered them as witnesses to the nuptials.
Rocky enlisted in in the Army in Feb. 1942 and was discharged in Dec. 1945.
Congratulations and best wishes for many more years to come.
The Warminster Amateur Radio Club
Announces Spring Classes
If you're interested in Ham Radio, or think you might be, this is your opportunity. Perhaps you'd like to learn
about digital communications, Morse code, VHF, UHF, satellite, or perhaps you'd rather sit down and chat with someone
in South Africa, Russia, Great Britain or in the space shuttle.
We'll help you learn the theory and practices that make for a most enjoyable hobby. There's no telling just how
far you'll go unless you make the first move and give yourself a chance to explore the world.
Classes are: Every Tuesday at 7:30 - 9:00 PM
March 10th thru May 26th
At The Warminster Recreation and Education Center
Little Lane, Warminster, PA
For info. altemus@gac.usa.com or call:215-855-3856 Ask for George
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