January 2001 President's Message I hope you are all enjoying this holiday season and that it allows a little extra time spent to enjoy family and friends. Speaking of family and friends, it was great to see the turnout we had at our club's annual Holiday Dinner. I think I can safely say we all had a very nice time. Berni, N3RJD, and Doug, N3RJE, again did a great job organizing the dinner that was catered by Lindinger's Delicatessen. We had an abundance of good food and desserts. Fred, WA3KIO, provided us with festive background music. Burt, N3YVH, in his continuous effort to outdo himself each year, provided quite an assortment of door prizes and gifts for the attendees. Much work goes into making the dinner a success and I thank all who contributed their efforts. Look for your ballot in this issue for upcoming election at the January meeting. We will be electing two people to fill the elected director positions and electing a secretary. Please remember to bring your ballot to the meeting. Don't forget the ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes on January 20 - 23. This is one of the club-supported contests in which you can participate with very modest equipment. Since it is local communication, the more that participate in a local area, the better the chances for a good club score. Let's get on the air and have some fun! Brian, N3EXA, will be at the January meeting to give us the details and pass out some information. See you at the next meeting. Rocky, N3FKR January Meeting Presentation VHF Contesting It is hard to believe that the first year of -- arguably -- a new century is almost over as I write this. Our annual holiday has come and gone and, as always, it was a great success and fun for all. Many thanks go to Burt, Doug and Bernie for the effort they put in to make this a success. They key to WARC's stamina over the years has always been its members willingness to go that extra distance and devote a little of their personal time to the club. Brian Taylor N3EXA will be our speaker at the January meeting. Brian is a member of WARC and Packrats as well as a dedicated VHF contester. He will give us some secrets to successful VHF contesting for the smaller station that many of us have. WARC enters two contests each year as a club and one of them is the January VHF contest sponsored by the ARRL. The tips and ideas that Brian presents will not only be helpful to our club score but that of the Packrats who are the perennial favorites to do well in the contest. So why don't you come out to the meeting and join us. Also, even if you only have FM, your participation in the contest will help the club's score. And if we should manage to beat the Packrats, I am sure they will demand a recount ;-) February is our annual club auction. Tom Michaud WA3TQJ will once again be our esteemed auctioneer. If you have any radio related items that you no longer need and would like to donate to the club for auctioning, please bring them with you. Also, do not forget to bring some cash as Tom will make sure you buy something. Finally, Rick from HRO in Delaware will be talking to us in March about the retailing side of amateur radio. Rick made this presentation several years ago and it was very interesting and eye opening. He will again present the side of ham radio that few of us see as well as bring along several of the newest radios. I hope to see you at all of these meetings. Until then, 73, Mark - N3GNW Vice-President Minutes of WARC membership meeting & December 2000 This being the annual Holiday Dinner meeting, a formal meeting was not conducted. There were several items of business which were required to be brought before the members, however. The President opened a short business meeting at 7 PM at which time he informed the members that the Board at it's recent meeting approved the action that W3NTD, Jack Jones would assume the position of Secretary. In addition the President announced that the nominating committee reported that the following persons were nominated for offices as listed. For Secretary, Jack Jones, W3NTD..for Director Mark Hinkel, WA3QVU.. Burt Ludin, N3YVH.. Bob Phillips, KA3VKU.. George Brechmann, N3HBT.. A ballott will be enclosed in the January 2001 Feedback. Jack Jones W3NTD NEWS RELEASE The January 24th dinner meeting of the Delmont Radio Club will have as its speaker Dr. Charles Fulp, K3WW. Charlie is a contestor extraordinaire who was featured in a February issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer. His antenna farm, in Perkasie, was shown on the cover of the January 1999 issue of CQ magazine. Charlie is a member of the Frankford Radio club and has his own web page which gives a history of him and his station. The Delmont Radio Club invites you to come and hear Charlie talk about contesting and antennas. For dinner reservations, at $18 ea., call Keith McCallum, N3PQZ, at 215 884 4226. The Delmont Radio Club meets at Williamson's Restaurant in Horsham, PA. Dinner is at 7:00 PM. Please address any further questions to me, Keith: n3pqz@juno.net 73, Keith. ARES-RACES Team Members Attend Presentation on Domestic Terrorism The Bucks County Amateur Radio Emergency Service - Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service Team attended a presentation on "Domestic Terrorism" on Thursday, November 9th in the training room of the Air Force/ANG Fire Station HQ at the WGJRB located in Horsham. This was the fourth in a series of training/ educational sessions sponsored by the Team since last May. Despite the poor weather and a few presentation glitches, the program went on and was well-attended. Chris McCormick(N3JHR), a Philadelphia Firefighter and member of the their HAZMAT Response Unit, provided the Team with useful awareness information on HAZMAT and explosive incidents. The presentation included a video on a multi-jurisdictional response HAZMAT drill conducted in Philadelphia several years ago. In addition, a video on the phenomena of the "secondary device," which included actual footage from the Centennial Park and Abortion Clinic bombings in Atlanta, was shown and discussed. There were many positive comments about the program and the need for amateur radio operators to become informed about these types of incidents. In light of the bombing of the World Trade Center building, the Alfred P. Murrah building and the many incidents which occur annually nationwide which never make the headlines, it seems to me to be a matter of "when" and not "if" we might someday be unfortunate enough to experience an event linked to domestic terrorism. THANK YOU to those who attended! As amateur radio operators involved in ARES and RACES, our primary mission in any disaster-related response is most likely to be to provide communications. However, if we desire the knowledge to provide effective communications services AND the respect of emergency services, emergency management and other agencies to whom we might have to provide services; it is our responsibility to educate ourselves and become involved in "their system." The pre-planning and preparation of today determines the character and efficiency of the response(and the RESPONDERS) to tomorrow's incident. While our particular region of the state continues to remain essentially unscathed by most natural and man-made disasters/ incidents, proactive preparation (rather than retrospective head-scratching and finger-pointing) should be the order of the day. Mike Patton W3MJP Emergency Coordinator(Certified) Bucks County Amateur Radio Emergency Service www.voicenet.com/~ikemay/ares.htm buckscountyares@home.com BACK