THE LOCAL OSCILLATOR - April 2003 TABLE OF CONTENTS COMING EVENTS PRESIDENT'S CORNER BEAN FEED CLUB DUES EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS EXERCISE CLUBHOUSE PAINTING CLASSES APRIL PROGRAM CODE CLASS MINUTES LOGGING PROGRAM 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 WTRA Swap net 146.88 8 PM Wed Net 146.64 6:45PM round-table 52.525MHz 8 PM Apr 5 Saturday Breakfast Club House 8:00AM Program and business meeting 9:30AM Apr 14 2nd Mon Social Meeting New China Buffet 6:00PM Apr 17 1st Wed after 2nd Mon Directors at Club House 7:00PM Apr 27 Bean Feed Club House 20-22 Jun 2003 - ARRL National Convention Ham-Com http://www.hamcom.org PRESIDENT’S CORNER AD5LJ On Saturday morning, 1 March, the club held its first combined Saturday breakfast and monthly business meeting. We served breakfast to 22 people, the largest crowd we have ever had for a Saturday breakfast. The business meeting, which followed, had 23 people present. As I expected, a few people came for breakfast but did not stay for the business meeting and also a few came only for the business meeting. I consider the combined meeting a great success. We did discover a few minor problems, which have been dealt with. I believe we have hit upon a winning combination to get better attendance at the club meetings. On Monday evening, 10 March, the club held its monthly social at the New China Buffet on N. Telshor Ave. Over 20 people attended. This is a very good turn out for a club social. Everyone seemed to have a good time and all were pleased with the restaurant. We will continue having the monthly social at the China Buffet until people want to change again. If anyone has comments or suggestions about any aspect of the Saturday breakfast, the business meeting, or the Monday social, please send them to me. BEAN FEED AD5LJ The MVRC annual bean feed and swap meet will be on Sunday, 27 April. The event will start at 8:00 AM and lunch will be served starting at 11:30 AM. The event will continue until everyone leaves, normally mid afternoon. We have enough volunteers signed up to support the event. However, we don’t have many stand-by volunteers. So, if you signed up to help and can’t make it for some reason, pleas let Cash Olsen or me know ASAP. We are still look for equipment donations for the club to sell at the event. If you have equipment you don’t want, please consider donating it to the club. Donations to the club can be used as a federal tax deduction. CLUB DUES AD5LJ I would like to remind everyone that club dues for 2003 are now due and will become delinquent on the 1st of April. If you have not yet paid, please send your dues to our treasurer, Rodney Davis. EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS EXERCISE AD5LJ Most of you know by now that the regional emergency communications exercise scheduled for August has been cancelled. Some thought is being given to holding a local or statewide exercise. No firm plans have been developed yet but the initial idea, distributed by email, is to staff the local emergency operations centers (EOC) with amateur operators and practice sending traffic on local VHF nets and a state wide HF net. No date has been set although field day has been mentioned (a bad idea). If you are interested in supporting this exercise, should it occur, please let Jim Leverett or me know. On the subject of field day operations, I would like to remind all members that the clubhouse radio room could be made available for use on field day. If you are interested in operating from the clubhouse on field day, please contact me. CLUBHOUSE PAINTING AD5LJ The clubhouse received its first coat of new paint last October. We have scheduled a workday to put on the final coat of paint on Saturday afternoon, 5 April. Assuming that the weather cooperates, we plan to start painting around noon on Saturday. If you have volunteered or would like to help, please be at the clubhouse by noon. Drinks and snacks will be provided. CLASSES KD5SSF Report for General Class February 7-9, Morse Code Class February 28 and March 2-3, and first weekend of Extra Class March 15-16. Seven people attended the General Class. As with the Technician Class, all those who said they were coming to the class attended. They were: Bud Costigan Billy Christly Don Brown Diane Brown Jonathan Brown Jerry Fields Kendall Mauldin All seven passed the exam. There were two walk-ins who took (and passed) the Technician exam Sunday afternoon. I did not get their names. In addition, we had one walk-in for the General Class exam who passed the exam, named Cash Olsen. We had only two who showed up for the Morse Code Class: Kendall Mauldin and Bud Costigan. Both of them had done their homework and were able to take and pass the exam with a minimum of review. We have completed one weekend of the Extra Class. All four students who signed up were at the clubhouse for the class. Congratulations to all the students who have worked so hard to pass the exams. It was a pleasure to meet each of you. I want to also thank all those who have volunteered to teach, give exams, or help out in a number of ways to make the classes a success. APRIL PROGRAM KE5FF The program for the general business meeting April 5,2003 will be presented by Cash Olsen, KD5SSJ, entitled "The care and feeding of batteries and when enough is enough." CODE CLASS K5DI The Club sponsors a Code Class every year for people wanting to get the General Class license. As is always the case, I explain that you must spend 30 minutes a day listening to the code and learning. There are always those who say they want to learn the code but can't bring themselves to study. This year was no exception. We met at the Clubhouse Friday and just two students arrived. Then, after some quick tests it was clear one student was ready to take the exam, and the other one had used the wrong study method and had learned none of the characters! So the unprepared person just quit and the other said he would be there Saturday. I came ready to have a test Saturday for the one trained person and knew we would have maybe another from TorC come down for the class. The fellow from TorC showed up and we gave him a practice exam which he passed! So around noon Saturday we held a VE Session and 2 people passed the code test. That ended the Code Class a day early. MINUTES (March 1, 2000 Business Meeting) KD5SSJ Brad Secca presented the program for the month, he discussed the location of the repeaters and some technical aspects of the repeater system. He gave some history of the system. Brad brought a field analyzer which he uses for alignment of the county radios and it's repeater system, which is his day job. Brad's presentation lasted about an hour. The meeting was called to order by Bob (AD5LJ) at 10:25 am. Twenty nine (29) persons were present. Bob asked for a volunteer to take over the Secretary position of the club. He asked for someone to take it on a temporary or permanent basis. This position is still not filled. Cash (KD5SSJ) is reporting these minutes. Volunteers for the Been Feed were sought and filled by the following members, Marnie (KA2FVO) and Melanie (KD5UZF) assistant to the cook (Karl K5DI), Charlie (W5TLV) and Billie (KD5UZJ) setup and cleanup, and John (N5WQ) and Cash (KD5SSJ) to handle sales. Tim (KD5SSF) had arranged for some public service announcements for the classes this spring and was asked if he would help, in a similar way, to publicize the Bean Feed. A club roster is being updated by Bob (AD5LJ) and Rodney (WK5I). Rodney (WK5I) and Cash (KD5SSJ) are working on a kit of parts and the printed circuit board, respectively, to program the memories used by the GE radios which were bought by club members. John (N5WQ) is helping with the logistics. Karl (K5DI) reported that the only race in April would be the RUN OLD MESILLA on Saturday the 12th of April. Volunteers are needed. Tim (KD5SSF) reported that one student had signed up for the code class and 8 students had passed the General Exam, one of those students Billie (KD5UZJ) has already passed the code test, so he immediately advanced to the General ticket. Congratulations to all of the students. Alex (K5XY) announced that deadline for submissions to the Local Oscillator is March 19. Mike (KC5SKF), not present, set a date of April 5 to start at about noon, for the second coat of paint to be applied to the club house. John (N5WQ), Tim (KD5SSF), Bob (AD5LJ), Melanie (KD5UZF) and Marnie (KA2FVO) volunteered to help. Rodney (WK5I) presented the treasures report. Minutes of the January (no meeting was held in February to adjust the schedule to the new meeting date) meeting were moved, seconded and approved, without change. Observation, the business meeting on Saturday morning following the breakfast seems to been very well received. Adjournment at 10:55 am. LOGGING PROGRAM N0OKS I am publishing a new QSO logging program, Paper Chasers’ Log, that should be of interest to your club members. Paper Chasers’ Log does much more than just track DXCC and a few other awards like IOTA and 10-10 numbers. Paper Chasers’ Log tracks more than 100 awards from all over the world. Full details are at www.n0oks.com. I am hoping that you might mention Paper Chasers’ Log at your next club meeting or forward this email to your club members. Please let me know if you have any questions. 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?