THE LOCAL OSCILLATOR - February 2003 TABLE OF CONTENTS COMING EVENTS PRESIDENT'S CORNER JANUARY MEETING BREAKFAST PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD DESIGN COURSE TECH CLASS INTERNET LOCAL OSCILLATOR HOMELAND SECURITY EXERCISE UNCLASSIFIED AD BACK PAGE COMING EVENTS Week days 6 m FM net 52.540 6:00AM Mon R&S Net 449.90 8:30AM Breakfast Wal-Mart 10:00AM Wed Net 146.64 6:45PM Jan 27 4th Mon Business Meeting Club House 7:00PM Feb 1 Saturday Breakfast Club House 8:00AM Feb 3 Printed Circuit Design Club House 6:30PM Feb 10 2nd Mon Social Meeting IHOP restaurant 6:00PM Feb 12* 1st Wed after 2nd Mon Directors at Club House 7:00PM Feb 13 Printed Circuit Design Club House 6:30PM Feb 20 Printed Circuit Design Club House 6:30PM Feb 24# 4th Mon Business Meeting Club House 7:00PM Feb 27 Printed Circuit Design Club House 6:30PM Mar 6 Printed Circuit Design Club House 6:30PM * Most likely correct. Check with President. # This date may be changed at the next club meeting. PRESIDENT'S CORNER AD5LJ 2003 PROPOSED BUDGET The proposed budget was reviewed, modified and approved at the 15 January board of directors’ meeting. The budget will be presented to the membership at the January business meeting for discussion and hopefully approval. The expected income and proposed expenses are presented in the following tables along with the actual figures for 2002. A more detailed handout will be available at the meeting. INCOME Category 2002 Actual 2003 Expected DUES $2320 $2300 Class Tuition 452 400 Breakfast 479 500 Caballo Rent 327 300 Bean Feed Food 171 250 Equipment Sales 3106 1500 Donations 225 200 Other 34 40 TOTAL 7144 5490 EXPENSES Category 2002 Actual 2003 Proposed Fixed Operating $2403 $2695 News Letter 291 100 Ham Classes 554 500 Food 491 510 Clubhouse Repair 2254 1000 Misc 366 500 TOTAL 6359 5305 Several points are worthy of note in the above tables. First, over 60 percent of the club’s expenses are fixed and independent of the number of members. That is, a drop in membership can significantly reduce our income but will not reduce the expenses very much. Second, the only expenses that are somewhat discretionary are the clubhouse repairs and improvements. If the club income drops, then this category is the only one we can easily adjust. NEW OFFICERS and DIRECTORS for 2003 The officers and directors for 2003 along with their email and phone numbers are listed below. PRESIDENT - Robert Bennett, AD5LJ, 382-0148, rbennett@zianet.com VICE PRESIDENT - Douglas Hicks, KE5FF, 522-2683, domad1@msn.com TREASURER - Rodney Davis, WK5I, 522-6833, rodstree@peoplepc.com SECRETARY - Robert Yearley, WA5ZGW, 524-3787, ryearley@zianet.com DIRECTORS COMMUNICATIONS - Karl Larsen, K5DI, 524-3303, k5di@arrl.net EDUCATION - Timothy Linn, KD5SSF, 521-0486, timlinn@sprynet.com REPEATERS - Brad Sacca, KC5SKE, 382-4380, shiekyerbouty@msn.com NEWSLETTER - Alex Burr,K5XY, 522-2528, aburr@aol.com SPECIAL EVENTS - Cash Olsen, KD5SSJ, 382-1917, casholsen@zianet.com GROUNDS and FACILITIES - Mike Homer, KC5SKF, ,kc5skf@zianet.com SURVEY RESULTS As most of you know, I conducted an email survey in response to requests from members to move the Monday night business meeting to a different day. The purpose of the survey was to determine the members’ opinion about moving the business meeting. I sent email questionnaires to 98 of our 117 members. The 19 that did not receive the email had either moved out of the Las Cruces area, did not have email access, or their email address was invalid. I received 51 replies to my email. The following is a tabulation of the replies. Some people checked more than one answer on the questionnaire and all their answers are included below. 1. DON”T CHANGE MEETING 9 16% 2. MOVE TO SATURDAY MORNING 7 12% 3. MOVE TO SATURDAY MORNING And COMBINE WITH BREAKFAST 29 52% 4. FIND A DIFFERENT DAY (not Saturday) 1 2% 5. NO OPINION 10 18% The replies strongly favor combining the business meeting with the first Saturday breakfast. If the people with no opinion and the ones who favor Saturday are combined, then 82 percent of the responding members should be happy with a combined Saturday breakfast and business meeting. At the January business meeting, we will vote on this issue. My recommendation is that we try the combined breakfast and business meeting for six months and see how it works out. I suggest that we hold the combined event on the first Saturday of the month and have a schedule as follows. The times can be adjusted as necessary. Breakfast 8:00-9:00 AM Break 9:00-9:30 Program 9:30-10:30 Break 10:30-10:35 Business Meeting 10:35-11:30. DONATION In November 2002, Bill Weed, K5BJW, donated a substantial amount of ham equipment to the MVRC. The club received four Rohn-25 towers (50,60,70, and 90 feet, two of which were taken down by John Beakley and crew), a sizeable mount of coax, assorted wire and cable, antenna rotors, and tower hardware. The club also received 10 single band antennas consisting of HIGAIN 10, 15, 2x20 meter beams, homemade 20 M beam, 2 M beam, 160 M vertical with loading coils, and dipoles for 80, 40, and 20 Meters along with a lot of Aluminum tubing. Much of this stuff has already been sold and generated almost $2000 in club income. INSURANCE UPDATE In the last issue of the newsletter, I discussed the problem we were having with our liability insurance. The problem was that the cost to renew our existing policy for 2003 had more than doubled over the cost in 2002. I have some good news. Thanks to the outstanding efforts by our insurance agent, Ruth Marston of Pat Campbell Insurance Co. we were able to obtain a policy with substantially the same coverage as our old one but costing a little less. So, the insurance issue has gone away for at least the next year. JANUARY MEETING KE5FF The program for the meeting Jan 27 will be presented by Sidney Goddard. "His reflections on some his fathers' accomplishments". BREAKFAST KD5SSJ On January 6, 2003 we held the first breakfast of the new year. We had 17 guests, really great attendence and we anticipate that it will only get better. A couple of new items, link sausage and hash browns, were offered and we'll keep them on the menu. The next breakfast Saturday morning breakfast is on Febuary 1, 2003 from 8 to 9. This is part of our fundraising projects. Thanks to George Kopp, KD5OHA, and Melanie Jack, one of 9 new Technicians, for their help. If you'd like to help with breakfast, please contact me, casholsen@zianet.com, 382-1917, or catch me on the air. PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD DESIGN COURSE KD5SSJ A Printed Circuit Board design course to be held at the MVRC club house. Thursday evenings for 5 weeks from 6:30pm until 8:30pm on February 6, 13, 20, 27, and March 6, 2003. The first session will teach the basics of schematic entry, the second session will teach the editing and creation of schematic symbols, the third session will introduce the creation of thru hole two layer printed circuit boards, the fourth session introduce surface mount design and the creation and modification of components (SM and Thru Hole), and on the fifth session we will try to pull it all together to produce a printed circuit board. For this session I would like every one to have a small circuit is mind that they would like to actually build, because I believe that we can actually afford ($5 each) to have a board manufactured (with multiple circuits). There is no charge for the course, otherwise. Five DOS workstations (provided by Dave Hassall) will be used for this training. The DOS version of the software is free for use by Amateur operators, and you can use it on you home PC's, a Windows version is also available. We can accomodate 5 students, more if you bring your on laptop computer. By the time you finish this class you will be able to design your own project boards and you'll be able to make your own single and double sided PCBs. Get in touch with Cash Olsen casholsen@zianet.com, 382-1917, or catch me on the air, as soon as possible, to reserve a workstation for the class. TECH CLASS KD2SSF The first class of 2003 was attended by 9 people with 10 successful exams completed. All 9 people in the class passed the Technician Exam and one of those also passed the Morse Code Exam. Several of these people have expressed interest in taking the General Class with one already having paid the fee for the General Class. It was a weekend of intensive study, and everyone had a good time learning. These students ranged in age from senior adult to 10 years old. The 10-year-old was a bright, enthusiastic student who was always wanting to get on the radio to make a new contact (with the assistance of a licenced ham). We thank Marnie, Cash, and Joe along with all the VECs for their help. Karl and Steve were two of the VECs, John and Sandy Hempfling were two more. INTERNET LOCAL OSCILLATOR K5XY This issue of the Local Oscillator will appear on the Internet at www.zianet.com/common/mvrc/index.html in a few days. If all goes well it will be available in a formated pdf form also. The link and other instructions will be in the html edition. Please look at it and tell your officers whether or not the extra work involved in creating a web and pdf edition is worth the effort. Your opinion can be easily transmitted via the form located on the feedback page. In any case the web edition will have a photograph or two. HOMELAND SECURITY EXERCISE WA2NIJ A full-blown multi-state Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) exercise will occur on August 22, 23 and 24. The schedule is this: Staging - 22 August (Starting at 1300 MDST) Operations - 0800(MDST} on 23 August to 1200(MDST) 24 August 03. That looks like a 28-hour day to me. We will have to schedule operators for shifts. The Idaho Bureau of Disaster Services organized this exercise. Many federal agencies will participate, including the National Communications System (NCS) - SHARES, FEMA Region 10 and Department of Homeland Security Coordination Center. State RACES organizations will conduct HF radio communications into and out of their State Emergency Operations Centers. This should be very enlightening for those of us who participate. This drill will be unique for MVRC, because we will be participating under RACES rules. Only amateur stations that have been properly registered with a civil defense organization may participate. I have been collecting RACES forms so that we can get many operators registered. I urge each of you to check the expiration date of your license and renew it if necessary. I have registration forms for RACES and will be contacting members who are not yet registered. Thanks to all who have registered so far. The draft exercise scenario and a digest of RACES rules can be found on the MVRC web page. Also you can find my Search and Rescue Communications Manual on the web at www.zianet.com/mvrc/sarman.htm. UNCLASSIFIED AD FREE: High Voltage Transformer. 7,000 volts @ 1 amp. United Transformer Corp. (UTC). Bill Johnston, K5ZI. 382-7804. 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 AD5LJ 382-0148 rbennett@zianet.com VPr Doug Hicks KE5FF 522-2683 domad1@msn.com Sec Robert Yearley, WA5ZGW 524-3787 ryearley@zianet.com Tres Rod Davis WK5I 522-6833 rodstree@peoplepc.com B'rd Alex. Burr K5XY 522-2528 aburr@aol.com Mike Homer KC5SKF kc5skf@zianet.com Karl Larsen K5DI 524-3303 k5di@arrl.net Timothy Linn KD5SSF 521-0486 timlinn@sprynet.com Cash Olsen KD5SSJ 382-1917 casholsen@zianet.com Brad Sacca KC5SKE 382-4380 shiekyerbouty@msn.com 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?