THE LOCAL OSCILLATOR - March 2003 TABLE OF CONTENTS COMING EVENTS PRESIDENT'S CORNER LOCAL EVENTS OF INTEREST VISITING AMATEUR JANUARY MINUTES CW SOFTWARE 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 Feb 27 Printed Circuit Design Club House 6:30PM Mar 1 Saturday Breakfast Club House 8:00AM Program and business meeting 9:30AM Mar 6 Printed Circuit Design Club House 6:30PM Mar 10 2nd Mon Social Meeting IHOP restaurant 6:00PM Mar 12 1st Wed after 2nd Mon Directors at Club House 7:00PM Mar 15-16 Extra Class class Club House 8:30AM Mar 22-23 Extra Class class Club House 8:30AM Test 1:30PM April 27 Bean Feed Club House PRESIDENT’S CORNER AD5LJ At the January business meeting, the membership voted to move the monthly business meeting to the first Saturday of each month. It will occur immediately following the breakfast. The club voted to try the new schedule for six months. If things don’t work out, we will try something different after August. The following schedule will be followed initially. It may need to be adjusted if we are too short of time. Breakfast – 8:00 to 9:00 AM Short Break – 9:00 to 9:30 Program – 9:30 to 10:30 Business Meeting – 10:30 to 11:30 The first combined breakfast and business meeting will be on 1 March 2003. I hope to see you there. Our newly elected secretary was forced to resign due to his work schedule. We need a secretary! If you are willing to do this job, even for a few months, please contact me. Here it is the end of Feburary already! Before we know it, it will be bean feed time again. The board of directors has already started planning for the event. We need some volunteers to help before and during the event. Basically, we are looking for one or two people to help in the kitchen and two people to help sell donated equipment. Also, if you have equipment you would like to donate to the club, please bring it to the clubhouse. Finally, we will need two or three people to help clean up our lot and clubhouse before the event. If you can help in any of these areas, please let me know. The board meetings have been changed to Wednesday evenings (same week as before) at the clubhouse at 7:00 PM. The change was necessary because of schedule conflicts of some of the board members. LOCAL EVENTS OF INTEREST AD5LJ I received the following list of area events by email and thought that some of you might be interested. I am reproducing them as received. I have not attempted to verify any of them. Weekday regularly scheduled events At 6 AM in the Las Cruces area there is a 6 Meter FM net on 52.54 MHz simplex. At 10 AM there is coffee at Wal-Mart in Las Cruces, NM. Monday evening is the WTRA round table and Swap net on the 146.88 solar powered repeater (El Paso). Start time is 8 PM and Net Control is Cal, W5CAL. All hams are welcome to check in. Tuesday evening is the 10-X net on 28.440. Net control is Gus, KK5TU. The start time is 8 PM. Wednesday evening there will be a net on 146.64 at 6:45 PM sponsored be the Mesilla Valley Radio Club, NM. The PL is 100 Hz Wednesday evening there will be a net on 146.80 at 7 PM sponsored be the Alamogordo ARC, NM. The PL is 100 Hz. Wednesday evening several stations in El Paso have an informal round-table on 52.525MHz at 8 PM. Thursday evening in Deming, NM is the DARC Thursday Evening net on 146.82 MHz. The net starts at 7:30 PM. Listen for Paul (KW7D) as NCS. Thursday evening is the Multiplex net. Start time is 8PM. The net meets on 444.20MHz, 147.24MHz, 443.4MHz, 146.70MHz in El Paso, 145.23MHz (near Cloudcroft, NM) and the 442.825MHz, 442.95MHz repeaters (El Paso)of the Amigo link. All of these repeaters are now linked together. All licensed amateurs are welcome to check into the net, with or without comments. Guest net control will be Craig, KC7UXM. Feb 21 - Friday evening is the Program night at the Sun City Amateur Radio Club, K5WPH, 3709 Wickham Ave. Start time is 8 PM. Feb 22 Saturday the QCWA net on 3.933 MHz will start at 8:30 AM. All hams with the proper license are invited to check in. (QCWA membership optional). Saturday - Orange ARC Hamfest Contact: Joan Lexa, WA5LFT PO Box 232 Orange, TX 77630 Phone: 409-886-1892 (after 5 PM) or Email: WA5LFT@pnx.com Saturday is the El Paso ARC Hamfest http://www.qsl.net/w5es Click on the W5ES Hamfest link for more info and directions. Come visit with the West Texas ARRL Section Manager, John Dyer, AE5B. Gates open at 7 AM for tailgate set-up. Saturday at 9 AM, there is a ham breakfast in Ruidoso at La Perico Mexican Restaurant (behind Lawrence Brothers Grocery) in the 700 Block of North Mechem DR. Talk in on 146.920 Saturday is the Mexican Food Supper at the Sun City Amateur Radio Club. No one left hungry last year, this year you too can get your fill starting at 6 PM, 3709 Wickham Ave. Funds raised help pay the light bill. FEB 23- Sunday The W5ES clubhouse is on the air giving out El Paso contacts for the Worked All El Paso (WAE) certificate. Look for them on 28.440 MHz at around 9 am local. Sunday at 7 PM (6 PM Winter) local, is the Lincoln County ARES/RACES local net Sunday at 7:30 PM Mountain (0830 Central) on 3922 KHz is the Big Bend Emergency Net, open to all hams in Texas and New Mexico. Sunday Gila ARS, (Silver City, NM) on the 146.98 MHz repeater (103.5pl). Net Control is Harold, KC5ZDH and the start time is 8 PM. On the horizon -- 15 Mar 2003 - Brenham ARC Hamfest http://www.alpha1.net/~barc Contact: Dan Lakenmacher, N5UNU 10312 Highway 36 North Brenham, TX 77833 Phone: 979-836-8739 or Email: llakenmacher@yahoo.com 15-16 March - Midland ARC http://www.w5qgg.org/hamfest2003.html Contact: Joe Coldeway, KK5ZG Phone: 915-697-7846 or Email: kk5zg@caprok.net 22 Mar 2003 - ARC of Parker County Contact: James Adams, AD5KG 4500 Old Springtown Road Weatherford, TX 76085 Phone: 817-341-1979 or Email: ad5kg@arrl.net 3-4 May 2003 - West Texas Section Convention Key City ARC Contact: Peggy Richard, KA4UPA 1442 Lakeside Drive Abilene, TX 79602 Phone: 915-672-8889 or Email: ka4upa@arrl.net 20-22 Jun 2003 - ARRL National Convention Ham-Com http://www.hamcom.org Contact: Maury Guzick, W5BGP PO Box 12774 Dallas, TX 75225-0774 Phone: 214-361-7574 or Email: chairman@hamcom.org 19 Jul 2003 - North Texas Hamfest Committee http://home1.gte.net/wb5dcu/nortex00.html Contact: Gene Hodge, K5DPS 211 North Brinkley Sherman, TX 75090 Phone: 903-893-6082 or Email: kc5aft@gte.net 1-2 Aug 2003 - West Gulf Division Convention Austin ARC, Austin Repeater Org., & Texas VHF-FM Society Contact: Joe Makeever, W5HS 8609 Tallwood Drive Austin, TX 78759 Phone: 512-345-0800 or Email: w5hs@arrl.net VISITING AMATEUR AD5LJ I have been in contact with a ham back east, Joe Palmer (KS8M), who plans to visit Las Cruces 17 to 24 March. He is looking for a place in the sun to spend future winters and is considering Las Cruces. He would like to chat with local hams while in the area. I have sent him the frequencies of our area repeaters. If you hear him on the air, please say hello. Also, he works the West coast on 17 meters SSB every day starting at about 11:00 AM our time. He would welcome a call from a local ham. JANUARY MINUTES KD5SSJ The program was presented by Sid Goddard whose father was a radio operator / gunner on a Kingfish airplane during World War II. The plane went down on the Canada’s west coast while being ferried to Alaska. The pilot and Sid’s father survived the crash. They were picked up from the hillside the next day. The location of the crash become a landmark and thirty some years later became the object of a rescue mission to recover wreckage. The restoration of the plane became a project of the Vaught company, who brought back many of the machinist / craftsmen who originally worked on the production line of this plane. These men, came out of retirement for what became a labor of love, and painstakingly reconstructed the badly damaged plane, restoring it to near original condition. When finished, the plane, her pilot and Sid’s father were reunited for a video publicity piece. The short video was played for the club. The plane is now on permanent static display on the Naval ship / museum USS North Carolina. The budget, exhibit A, and Income Projections, exhibit B, for the year 2003 was proposed by Bob Bennett. Some member conversation followed. The motion to accept the budget was made by Carl Larsen, was seconded by Elaine Frink, and passed by a voice vote. Change of time for the Monthly Business Meeting. Bob Bennett presented the data from his survey of the membership to change the meeting time. The responding members were strongly in favor of moving the meeting time and the general consensus was for Saturday morning. Some member conversation followed. The motion to move the meeting to the first Saturday of each month and to follow the breakfast was made and seconded and passed by voice vote. The first meeting at the new time will be on March 1, 2003. Bob Bennett read the Treasures Report, prepared by Rodney Davis who was not present. Bob Yearly told the meeting that he was not able to fulfill the duties of Secretary, due to work schedule and that moving the meeting to Saturday made his fulfillment of duties more impractical. Nothing to report by the Vice President, Doug Hicks. Extra Class classes were moved to March 15-16 and March 22-23. This was done to avoid a conflict with the Bataan March, The club provides communications support for this event. Steve Huran needs some additional instructional help for these classes. The Bean Feed is scheduled for April 27, 2003. Cash Olsen proposed that a competition be added for side dishes to be served at the Bean Feed. Desert pies and cornbread have been mentioned as possible categories. It was decided that there would be no Club activities for Field Day this year, individuals may organize their own Field Day activities. The building still needs a second coat of paint, an appropriate time will be set during the next few months, when the days warm up sufficiently and when the dirt is not blowing. CW SOFTWARE K5DI Anyone wishing to learn the Morse Code and owning a computer with a DOS window can get Morse Academy from my web page and set it up on your own computer. Just follow the instructions and it should be easy. My web page is at: http://www.zianet.com/k5di/ On that page click on CW and that will get you to the software. 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?