THE local OSCILLATOR - June 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS Coming Events The New Local Oscillator President's Corner Saturday Breakfast Program License Renewal Bataan Death March Ham Classes COMING EVENTS Week days 6 m FM net 52.540 6:00AM Mon R&S Net 449.90 8:30AM Mon - Fri Breakfast Wal-Mart 10:00AM Wed Net 146.64 6:45PM May 27 4th Mon Business Meeting Club House 7:00PM June 1 Saturday Breakfast Club House 8:00AM June 10 Social Meeting Luby's Cafeteria 6:00PM June 13 1st Thur after 2nd Mon Directors at Club House 7:00PM June 24 4th Mon Business Meeting Club House 7:00PM June 22 Field Day Club House Classes General May 24-26 Code May 31 - June 1-2 Extra upgrade June 29, 30 July 6, 7 Call W4GEG at 523-5137 or w4geg@arrl.net THE NEW LOCAL OSCILLATOR K5XY The e-mail local oscillator was reasonably successful. There still are some bugs to be worked out to make it easy to produce, send, and be read. When you receive it, you will find that it will format best if you set your reader to a mono-spaced font such as Courier. Also it will often print in a better form if you set the margins as small as reasonable. PRESIDENT'S CORNER KB5WHP We had another very successful Bean Feed on the 28th of April. Over 100 people came to the event and we had about 90 people staying for lunch. The club's gross income for the event, including equipment sales and food was approximately $1700. I also received several complements on our new parking lot during the event. I would like to extend a special thanks to all who helped make this event a success. Special thanks to KD5OHA, K5DI, KA2FVO, KC5QHZ and Linda Hickey for food preparation and to N5WQ, NJ5Q, and WK5I for helping sell the club equipment. In just a little over three weeks, we have Field Day to look forward to. This year the MVRC field day activities will be at the clubhouse. The details are still being worked out but generally the following is planned. The clubhouse radio room will be open and available to anyone who wants to operate starting Saturday morning. The radios will be available all day Saturday and Saturday night if people want to operate. The radio room will also be available on Sunday morning if anyone wants to use it. I hope some of our new TECH and GENERAL licensees will take advantage of this opportunity to operate and gain some on the air experience. There will also be a meal at the clubhouse on Saturday evening and details will be announced at the May business meeting. I encourage all MVRC members to visit the clubhouse on Saturday, operate for a while and join us for dinner. SATURDAY BREAKFAST KD5OHA The next Saturday breakfast will be on the 1st of June at the clubhouse from 8 to 9 AM. Please join us for a hearty breakfast and some socializing with other amateurs. PROGRAM K5XY The program for May 27 will be on the last easy DX-pedition to Midway Islands. LICENSE RENEWAL K5di As you might know it's a pain to renew your Ham license. The changes in the form 610 (no longer used) and the new Form 605 that has 30 pages make renewal of your license a problem. There is a single page form 605vec which is easy to use is available from Karl Larsen at 524-3303. But if your not a member of ARRL use of this form will cost $10.00. And you need to come to my home. The best method is using the Internet. You can if you are using Windows 98, turn on the Internet to: http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls and hit the top button that says Register with ULS and get a FRN number. It will ask for your name and Social Security number, and address. This will get you a FRN number AND WRITE THAT, AND YOUR PASSWORD DOWN! Then return to the first page. Again hit the top button but this time click on add a callsign. You will need your FRN number and password. Next you will see a place to put 100 callsigns. Put your one callsign in space 1. Now return to the first page and click on the second button Files. Again enter your FRN and password. Next select Renew Only. A new page comes up. Go to the bottom and enter your name. It will appear at the signature. Click done and it will put up a new page thanking you for the renewal. If this is too much for you, call me with your callsign, name and address and social security number and phone number, and I will register you myself and give you by telephone your FRN number and password. Save this for the next time you need to renew or move. Bataan Memorial Death March K5DI On Sunday April 14, 2002 over 4,000 people went to White Sands Missile Range to run or walk the 26.2 mile course for the 14th Annual- 60thYear Commemorative Bataan Memorial Death March. At 5:00 AM at the missile in the pass on April 14, 2002, Brad KC5SKEhad 20 Hams milling around while he gave each of us car passes and arrangedfor people who already know how to get to "Water Points" to guide others totheirs. Since this was my first time to support this event I had no ideawhere anything was. Brad took 4 of use through the fortified MP check point that lets you on the Missile Range. Brad dropped us off in the dark saying "your points are around here". I drove around and by pure chance I saw a new sign that said Hermosa, Water Point #11, and that was my assignment. I was the only Human in the area for about an hour. Then 3 cars drove up and 6 people emerged and looked around. I met them and found they were all from the special school for troubled students. They found a large folded up tarp and some steel pipe that together we figured out how to put up 2 large shades. There were some tables we setup and with some big insulated jugs we mixed 10 gallons of Gator Aid at a time. We had tons of ice and thousands of cups and cookies and bananas and oranges and ... I got my Mobile 30 watt rig fired up on 146.54 MHz and also had my ADI HT which I loaned to Mike KC5SKF. I used my FT-817 all band radio as a HT. We had great communications all over the course with the Mobile but it was not the whole course with the HT. I helped put out 25 signs made by students of the school. They were really liked by the soldiers. About 10:30 AM I heard the first runners were getting close to us. I told everyone and they got ready with Gator Aid and orange slices in ice. The first 3 runners are from Las Cruces and they are 40 minutes ahead of the next person! As the day wore on we got more and more people coming to our point. By mid-afternoon well over 75% of the people had gone past us. I did a lot of passing out Orange slices and other food. We were ALL pitching in and having fun. The last 25% of the people were hurting. Many stopped in our shade and rested. Some got sick and were evacuated to a hospital. All communications between Hams worked great. The Army and Navy vehicles had radios but they didn't work. It got to be late and we had people waiting and resting. Got word that at dark the stragglers will be picked up. I got my stuff together and helped get the stuff picked up and the shade taken down. About 6:45 PM the last of the waiters were picked up and we all went home. HAM RADIO CLASSES W4GEG The Ham Radio Classes have started. The Technician Class was the week-end of May 17-19. The General Class will be the week-end of May 24-26. The Morse Code Class has started their home study and will meet on the week-end of May 31, June1-2. The MVRC is in need of Extra Upgrade Class sign-ups. This class is given over two week-ends June 29, 30 and July 6, 7. The Cost of the Extra Upgrade Class is $50, which includes Extra Class Manual, snacks and lunches and VE testing fee. For an Info/sign-up sheet contact: Henry Frink, W4GEG Phone: 523-5137 e-mail: w4geg@arrl.net TECH COURSE SUCCESSFULLY INTRODUCES EIGHT NEW HAMS KA2FVO Eight people turned up for the tech course held May 17, 18 and 19, and eight people successfully passed their FCC Tech level test on the last day. Their names are: Doug Bogart, Chris Kopp, Tim Linn, Sid Goddard, Brant Goddard and Denise Tohman. Their ages ranged from about 16 to about 65, their backgrounds and experience were extremely varied, but they all caught the bug and worked hard to be ready for the exam on Sunday afternoon. Teachers included Marnie Leverett, KA2FVO, Lead Instuctor, Bobbie Thomas, KA5TLR, Joe San Filippo, WZ5R, Lou Cabot, KC5IEC, and Joe Ostrowski, KI5FJ. Joe O. leaped in at the last minute to make up what the new video didn't cover on radiation safety. Our thanks go to all those involved, including the VE's who administered the test. Three other walk-ins took tests on Sunday with members of the tech class. They all passed, too. Among them was Don Depner, KC5KWN, who passed his Extra exam with flying colors. Congratulations to all. BACK PAGE The newsletter is always looking for articles and notes of interest to the members of the Mesilla Valley Radio Club. Please send them to Alex. F. Burr, K5XY, Editor, MVRC Local Oscillator, 695 Stone Canyon Drive, Las Cruces, NM 88011. Small personal ads from members will also be published. It would be helpful if submissions would be made in a machine readable form. MSDOS disks are welcome. Files can also be sent to the internet address aburr@aol.com. The club maintains a web site at http://www.zianet.com/mvrc. OFFICERS Pres Bob Bennett KB5WHP 382-0148 VPr Doug Hicks KE5FF 522-2683 Sec Ruth Barker KD5TBX 373-2838 Tres Rod Davis WK5I 522-6833 B'rd Alex. Burr K5XY 522-2528 Henry Frink W4GEG 523-5137 George Kopp KD5OHA 523-1758 Karl Larson K5DI 524-3303 Brad Sacca KC5SKE 382-4380 Fritz Wagoner KD5OGZ 521-0924 JOIN THE CLUB To join the Mesilla Valley Radio Club, renew your membership, or to support the repeaters, please complete the form below and send it with dues ($25 single, $35 family per year) to: Treasurer, MVRC, Box 1443, Las Cruces, NM 88004. Name: Address: Call: Class of License: Phone: E-Mail Address: ARRL Member? Yes? No?