The Q-FIVER Vol 42 # 7 Cincinnati OH July 2000 1st of 3 *********************NEWS FLASH *********************** *************THE JULY MEETING WILL BE ON THURSDAY, JULY 6********** ******DUE TO INDEPENDENCE DAY HOLIDAY FALLING ON TUESDAY THIS YEAR****** ************************************************************************ Hello!!!! By the time you all read this, Field Day 2000 will be just a memory, and here we are already in July! Hopefully everyone who was there has recuperated from one weekend of fun and hard work, and believe it or not, those two terms (work and fun) can exist in harmony, depending who you ask! All said and done, thanks to all who came out and participated in the one of the best Field Day outings in the area. My heartfelt thanks goes especially to Dick Arnett WB4SUV, our Field Day 2000 chair, and Phil Smith KG8AP, our Field Day 2000 Picnic Chair. Thanks for a job well done! Time is flying and just around the corner nears the 3d Annual Oh-Ky-In ARS Hamfest. With two years of a successful Hamfest, we have two feathers in our cap. I am proud of all the folks who have made so much effort to make this work for Oh-Ky-In. There are few clubs who take upon the effort to have a hamfest, and we are now one of the few. However, there is a tremendous amount of work to be done (as in every other year) of preparation, coordination and the work on the actual day itself. I make a plea to all members, please take one day of the year and see how much you can get involved in an event that is crucial to the club and interest in amateur radio. Anyone who would like to be involved in the Hamfest, please call Lynn Ernst WD8JAW, 657-6161 or myself at 598-1659. At this time I would like to announce that Oh-Ky-In will hold its annual picnic at Mitchell Memorial Forest, Saturday, August 19. Please come out and join us for a day of great fun, food and games. Please keep your eyes and ears open for more details. Short and sweet I hope... and Happy (muggy) Summer! 73, Eric N8YCL Next meeting The next meeting of the Oh-Ky-In Amateur Radio Society will be held on THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2000 at the Western Hills Church of Christ, 5064 Sidney Road, one block from Glenway Avenue. The meeting program will consist of two parts. The first will be an update from Lynn WD8JAW on the final preparations for the our upcoming Hamfest. Also, Brian KE4HOR will give a brief presentation on MIC-E, what it is and how you can use it. To get to the club meeting, coming from town on Glenway, pass Ferguson Road and turn left on to Sidney between the BP station and Sebastian's restaurant, just before the Frisch's, then turn right at the light into the drive down to the church parking lot. The entrance is at the back of the church building. Plenty of parking is available. 73, Rick KD4PYR Minutes of members' meeting, Tuesday, June 6, 2000 Eric N8YCL called the meeting to order at 7:37 PM with the Pledge of Allegiance and self-introductions. There were about 30 present. Guests included a young man from PY Brazil who's staying with Lynn WD8JAW, and Anthony recently moved in from Pittsburgh declared he intends to join. Lynn WD8JAW announced that there are now 176 current members. He also promoted ARRL membership (our Special Service Club status depends in part on this). Gene N8KOJ noticed a discrepancy in the financials; this may be something for the audit committee. Lynn WD8JAW continued for the Hamfest that it's been possible to hire out the 8400-flier mailing. Jo KD4PYS spoke to the printer about folding the fliers, also to a mailing service that will tab, address and bar-code if given a file in a proper format for only $100 more. Lynn observed that this should remove fears of service on the Hamfest committee! When asked for help, please agree, buy a ticket, brings friends and talk it up. Of 130 club packets sent, only one came back undeliverable. The June 15 Hamfest meeting is off, since the mailing is hired out; there'll be one more before the Hamfest. Dick WB4SUV reminded those present that Field Day setup starts at 2 PM Friday, June 23 and encouraged members to sign up for 20/80 and 15/40. The club's streamlined operation takes more advantage of the 24-hr setup allowance. Pneumatic masts are 3.5" diameter, 36' tall, weigh ~30 lb. Teardown is accomplished in an hour, as opposed to into Monday years ago. Novice station will offer CW and 10m. Lots of operating time is available (usual is 1 hr operate, 1 hr log) as well as computerized logging. Dick commented it's best to stay on a frequency and let others come to you. The generator is dedicated to run the stations; want air conditioning, bring your own generator. Anthony the guest said he's worked Field Day in Pittsburgh; is looking to buy a reasonably priced 2m HT. Picnic will be at 6 PM Saturday; those on the schedule to operate at 6 are first in the chow line. Phil KG8AP is chairing the picnic; club provides meats, members please bring a covered dish. Phil's also taking orders for Field Day participation pins at $5 each. There'll be an unofficial "midnight grill", bring your own steaks. Eric N8YCL announced that the club now owns a good grill. Harry WA8LOJ should put it into the club inventory. Gene N8KOJ announced that he's been approved to field check DXCC. Only 1 checker required under new rules, may check all current entities. Lynn WD8JAW said 8 are signed up to go on the DXpedition full-time, Brian KE4HOR part time. Brian also has tickets for the NKARC Ham-o-Rama. Program adjourned ~8.25 PM, business meeting convened at 8:41 PM. Susie N8CGM mentioned the Delta Kings show on Father's Day weekend, in which Bob W8JSO and Brad WD9HDZ will perform. Ev KC8JR issued a plea for Hamfest parking help. He needs at least 3 to work from 6:30-9 AM. Eric N8YCL thanked the Haltermons for staffing the hospitality table. Dick WB4SUV talked up the Millennium Award (no pens to give low achievers this time). He had his certificate for this in a week. Eric N8YCL summarized the treasurer's report: income year-to-date $2968.89, expense $4286.73, net -$1317.84. Charitable foundation filing and fee have been sent. Dick WB4SUV reported for the last foxhunt that Bob WA6EZV was the last fox and did an ARDF-style hunt. There were 5 transmitters in French Park. Battery failures made it interesting! New member Don KB8BME won; Dick will call him and will hide next time if Don prefers not to. Dick and Bob WA6EZV have been to Georgia 3 times in qualifying runs for the US team to go to China in October. They've been doing well; placed very well in LA recently with Bob first, Dick second 13 seconds back. It's looking good for the China trip. Joe Moell ran a recent hunt; Bob and Dick got and will get some good ink from that. The first day there was a disaster; no one found anything, all were disqualified! There was great variance in altitude. There were no additions or corrections to the minutes of last meeting as printed in the Q-Fiver, approved by general consent. Gene N8KOJ had no Silent Keys to report. Harry WA8LOJ reported there's a gang of 8-10 regulars on the SSTV net, 2 from Hamersville (out east on SR 125 en route to Georgetown). This is one of the few SSTV nets on a repeater. Bruce N8FWA announced that Tech Talk still needs check-ins and queries. A recent net had queries still going at 10 PM, all before the news tapes. Brian KE4HOR reported for the Technical Committee that repeater upgrade work was week before last. They got the .925 and .775 controllers done. Much of the work is accomplished, but there's still a lot to do. .925 is now identical to .67, to .775. Only .67 has DVR. 440 still needs help, they hope to do that this weekend. Committee meets next Tuesday at 7:30 PM at Brian's. Eric N8YCL announced that the July members' meeting has been moved from Tuesday the 4th to Thursday the 6th. Carol WA8YL said the classes meeting will be in late July after the Hamfest. Teachers may all be on the DXpedition! Harry WA8LOJ reminded those present that club gear needed for Field Day needs to be brought there. Sam KJ8K appears to have the TS-120. Gene N8KOJ commented that the gear list was reviewed at the Field Day meeting. Bruce N8FWA asked what about the Honda generator: it wasn't used last year, but Dick WB4SUV will bring it anyway. No ARPSC or WARN reports, liaisons were not present. Stu KC8HQT reported that QCEN needs 9 more communicators for the MS 150 this weekend. William Goodrich W8NLL would have won the attendance incentive had he been present. As he was not, the July amount will be $75. New business: Dick WB4SUV had Brian KC8FJN's "I Wanna Be a Foxhunter" certificate from the awards dinner to present. Brian KC8FJN then won the $16 in split-the-pot. Judd N8RVR moved to adjourn at 9:11 PM, Phil KG8AP second, motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Susie Scott N8CGM, Recording Secretary DX Extras July 2000 Seems like forever since I have been home long enough to turn on the HF rig, too many other things happening. Hope everyone is still active trying to work 100 countries for the Millennium award. Here are some upcoming operations thanks to QRZ, 599 and ARRL. I hope everyone took the opportunity to come out to the Field Day operation and join in on the fun. 7P8AA Lesotho -- Look for this operation from July 4 to 22. KH5K Kingman Reef -- Still on schedule for October. This one currently ranks 21st on the DXCC most wanted list. FR/T Tromelin Island -- Look for a French operation from July 31 to August 16. ARLD025 DX news -- made possible with information provided by Tedd KB8NW, the OPDX Bulletin, The Daily DX, DXNL, The 599 Report and Contest Corral from QST. MOZAMBIQUE C9. Brian C91DC is working in Maputo until the end of September. Look for him between 0500 to 0530z around 28490 to 28495 kHz. DJIBOUTI J2. Jean F5LDY is active as J28EW. Check around 21008 or 28008 kHz. QSL to home call. JORDAN JY. Pete JY9NE is QRV every day during the month of June mainly on 20 or 17 meters from 0230 to 0330z. QSL via N3FNE. PALMYRA AND JARVIS ISLANDS KH5. Mike KH6ND/KH5 has been QRV on 14029 kHz just after 1500z. QSL via K4TSJ. VANUATU YJ. Stuart, YJ8UU, has been QRV on 18165 kHz around 0800z. QSL via ZL2HE. QRT -- 5H3US is QRT from Tanzania. Dave Heil 5H3US, A22MN, 9L1US, J52US, and OH/K8MN is QRT and on his way back home. Best of luck to Dave on his stateside operations from West Virginia. 73 and Gud DX till mext month. Bob WA6EZV Contests July 2000 1-2 Canada Day Contest 8-9 IARU HF World Championship CQ WW VHF Contest 15-16 Six Club Six-Meter Sprint Pacific 160-Meter Contest, North American QSO Party, RTTY 22-23 GA QSO Party 29-30 RSGB Islands-On-The-Air Contest Flight of the Bumblebees QRP Contest If Field Day wasn't enough, here are a few more contests. for more information see QST, CQ, or http://www.arrl.org/contests/ 73, Dan KF4AV New guidelines: DXCC Field Card Checking * Gene McCoy N8KOJ has been appointed DXCC Card Checker. Applicants may contact Gene, by phone or e-mail, to arrange a mutually agreed meeting (date, time, and location). Phone: 513=541-6935; e-mail: n8koj@arrl.net. * Only ONE Card Checker is required for applications. * All CURRENT entities on the DXCC List are eligible for field checking, except DELETED entities, 160M contacts, and contacts older than 10 years from the date of field checking. These ineligible cards must be sent to the DXCC Desk at ARRL HQ and are considered a separate submittal, unless the application and all cards are sent to HQ as a single submittal. * A current DXCC Award Application must be completed, signed and dated by the applicant. The form can be downloaded from . DXCC Record Sheets (for listing QSLs) may also be downloaded here. * DXCC Record Sheets, listing all QSLs to be checked, must be completed strictly in accordance with the sorting and listing directions at the top of the form. Sort first by band (80M then 40M, etc.) then by mode within each band (SSB then CW). A computer generated list, following the same directions and using the same header columns as the DXCC Record Sheet, is acceptable. Each QSL must be consecutively numbered. Cards must be in the exact order as the list. Cards with multiple QSL's are to be placed at the end, listing each contact on a separate line. * Applicants should make any desired copies of the Application and Record Sheet(s) before field checking. * First time DXCC applicants must present at least 100 ACCEPTABLE confirmations from the list. The application must not contain QSLs that are not eligible for field checking. * Fees are listed on the DXCC Award Application form. Be sure to check the date of your last award application to determine the proper fee. An additional fee of $0.15 per QSL will be charged for the first annual submission in excess of 120 QSL's and for subsequent submissions in the same calendar year in excess of 100 QSL's. Fees must be paid at the time the application is checked. Checks or Money Orders (payable to ARRL DXCC), or Credit Cards (Visa, MC, Discover/Novus, and AmEx) are acceptable. * The applicant shall provide to the DXCC Card Checker a stamped No. 10 envelope (business size) addressed to DXCC Desk, ARRL HQ, 225 Main Street, Newington CT 06111. The Card Checker will forward the approved application to ARRL HQ. 73, Gene McCoy N8KOJ Tally Murphy? For the June foxhunt, I decided to hide near the Ohio river, but stay on the Ohio side. So I decided to use Riverside park, located in Saylor Park, right on the river. The main transmitter controller I planned on using wouldn't start, so I had to use voice (sorry to those listening). There were a total of four transmitters scattered around the park, and the combination proved somewhat tricky. The results were: WB4SUV & Janie 1 hour 20 minutes 17.4 miles W8EH & Elaine 1 hour 21 minutes 19.2 miles WA6EZV had to drop out due to time N8ASV had to drop out due to time 73 and hope to see everyone next month! Brian KE4HOR >From the Technical Committee: The new 146.925 repeater is not on the air. The upgrade project is about 90% completed, with the new controller and radio playing quite well. Also, the MIC-E is working great! It's nice to be back on the cutting edge technology with the club! I would like to hear reports on both the 146.925 and the 442.775 repeaters - coverage, accessibility and audio reports. Please let me know via radio, email or phone. We will be having another committee meeting in July, on the 11th, 7:30pm at my house. Anyone with questions, comments or just who wants to learn more, please attend! Thanks and 73 - Brian KE4HOR Our ARDF heroes! If you haven't seen the write up and pictures of WA4SUV and WA6EZV in their latest Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) adventure in California, take a look at http://members.aol.com/joek0ov/qr00res.html. Our boys did real good! Congratulations Dick and Bob! 73, Ken N8ASV from oh-ky-in-ars@qth.net (club reflector) * ULS registration can protect your license record: Registering now on the FCC's Universal Licensing System can be a big benefit even if you don't have any plans to file an application anytime soon. The FCC's Steve Linn N4CAK told those on hand for the Dayton FCC Forum that ULS registration "protects your call sign within the system" and could prevent it from inadvertently being deleted or reissued due to a filing error. He also pointed out that amateurs wishing to make a change of address should file an "administrative update" (AU) and not request a "modification." The ULS will not renew an amateur's license unless it is within the 90-day window of expiration (or within the two-year grace period after expiration). The same applies for those upgrading their tickets under restructuring. Linn said the FCC continues to work out the bugs in the ULS. He said that support for the Mac platform and other browsers, such as Internet Explorer, would be coming along soon. The FCC in late April opened the ULS to Web filing. Linn advised filers to use the on-line system whenever possible, since it helps users to avoid errors that will not get trapped when filing on paper and could lead to delays or errors in your FCC record. Visit http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls for more information or to access the ULS. -- ARLB027, 5/26/00, The ARRL Letter, Vol 19 #21, same date NA-112 DXpedition The DXpedition group is scheduled to leave Greater Cincinnati early Saturday morning, September 23 for the drive to Top Sail Island NC. We will leave Top Sail Island early Saturday morning, September 30 for the trip home. We estimate the drive time to be 12 hours. Seven (7) people signed up for the full week of operation: Eric N8YCL; Carol WA8YL; Ken N8ASV; Phil KG8AP; John WD8NMV; Mike AC4XS, and Lynn WD8JAW. Brian KE4HOR plans to drive to Top Sail Island with us on Saturday, September 23 and will stay for a few days. Brian will leave Top Sail Island PM on Tuesday, September 26. Since he can only stay a short time, it requires him to drive. This is a perfect opportunity for anyone who has limited time to join in on the fun. Brian could use some companionship for the drive back and he promises plenty of operating time during the trip each way. Anyone interested, please call Lynn WD8JAW. Of course we still have room for anyone interested in the full week of operation. 73, Lynn WD8JAW Locals go to Bahamas for IOTA contest W8GEX, WA8LOW, N9NS & K9AJ [[local Southwest Ohio DX Assn members]] will be QRV from Berry Is, Bahamas (NA-054) from July 28-31, including the IOTA Contest. Two stations will be QRV on 40m-6m, CW and SSB. The team will sign C6DX during the contest and C6AJR outside the contest. QSL to W8GEX. 73, Mike K9AJ --submitted by Joe Pater W8GEX to the Oh-Ky-In Reflector, May 26, 2000 Our Hamfest As you all know by now, the 3d annual OH-KY-IN Hamfest is scheduled for Saturday, July 22, at Diamond Oaks. We need everyone's support. Buy an advance ticket at $4, come early and stay for the grand prize drawing at 1 PM. Volunteer some of your time to help the many committee chairs when they ask for help at the July 6 club meeting. I know we need some help selling tickets at the gate -- contact Bruce N8FWA, some help in the parking/flea market area -- contact Ev KC8JR, and talk-in -- contact Eric N8YCL. I have a special request for help Friday evening 7/21, 5 -7 PM and Saturday morning 7/22, 6 - 7 AM. Work will involve helping vendors carry their goods to their tables. No heavy lifting is involved. Most vendors have carts and Diamond Oaks has an elevator to avoid the steps. Also, I need one (1) person from 5:30 AM till 7 AM to stand at the entrance to Diamond Oaks on Saturday morning to keep attendees out of the vendor area until we open at 7 AM. Talk it up and buy a ticket, even if you cannot attend. (One of our members who must work weekends won a major door prize last year.) Next Hamfest meeting will be Thursday, July 13, at 7:30 PM at Carol WA8YL's. This will be the last meeting before the fest to tie up any loose ends. The automated mailing and labeling was completed without a hitch! Support your club! 73, Lynn WD8JAW Membership We plan to publish a directory for 2000. If any of your information has changed since the 1999 directory, please advise Susie N8CGM or myself, Lynn WD8JAW. 73-