THE LOCAL OSCILLATOR - December 2003 - NOTE: An HTML version is available at www.zianet.com/common/mvrc/index.html For this issue a pdf file of the web edition is available at www.zianet.com/common/mvrc/LO0311n.pdf. It will be easy to print that edition. If you do not have the free pdf reader you can get it at www.adobe.com - TABLE OF CONTENTS COMING EVENTS PRESIDENT'S CORNER CHRISTMAS PARTY OFFICERS FOR 2004 CLUB ACTIVITIES FOR DECEMBER 2003 AND JANUARY 2004 ELMER SESSION ANNUAL BAYLOR PASS RUN CLASSES COFFEE CLUB GENERAL BUSINESS MEETING COMING EVENTS Week days 6 m FM net 52.540 6:00AM Mon WTRA Swap net 146.88 8 PM Wed Net 146.64 6:45PM round-table 52.525MHz 8 PM Weekdays Informal get together Mon Wed Fri Munson Center 10AM Tue Thur Wal-Mart Dec 8 Christmas Dinner 6 PM Jan 12 Social Meeting 6 PM New China Buffet Jan 14 1st Wed after 2nd Mon Directors at Club House 7:00PM Feb 7 Breakfest 8 AM Club House Feb 7 Business meeting 9:30AM Club House PRESIDENT'S CORNER AD5LJ Adios, Au Re Voir, Arrivederci and Shalom. This is my last president’s corner article for the local oscillator. As I look back at my two years as president, I find the whole experience to have been very worthwhile. Most of the activities I undertook were fun, some were a pain and a one or two fell just short of being a disaster. I learned a lot about running a club and got to know many of the club members quiet well. I send my sincere thanks to the many of you who supported me. Now that I am no longer an officer, I hope to have more time available for on-the-air activities. However, I will remain active in the club and help out wherever and whenever I can. The Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holiday season is here. Everyone have a happy and safe holiday season. CHRISTMAS PARTY KD5SSJ In place of the regular scheduled monthly social (normally the second Monday of the month) this December 8, 2003 we will hold this years Christmas Party. The festivities begin at 6:00pm at a newly opened restaurant, Chilitos at 3850 Foothills in Las Cruces. This new location is in the new developments east on Lohman between Telshor and Roadrunner. The new Scoopys is at Roadrunner and Foothills. The club has negotiated a $10.00 (not including tax and gratuity) menu for a choice of three Mexican dishes or three American dishes, drink, and dessert. The new club officers and board members will be introduced and awards and plaques will be presented. We currently have thirty members planning to attend, reservations are not required, but you can contact me for planning purposes. Cash Olsen, 382-1917 or KD5SSJ@zianet.com. OFFICERS FOR 2004 AD5LJ The following MVRC members have been elected as officers and directors for 2004. President - Tim Linn, KD5SSF V. President - Bob Deal, KC5PPP Secretary - Carleton Talbot, KC5MRM Treasurer - Charlie Welch, W5TLU Communications - Karl Larsen, K5DI Education - Joe San Filippo, WZ5R Special Events - Cash Olsen, KD5SSJ News Letter - Alex Burr, K5XY Repeaters - Brad Sacca, KD5SKE Facilities - Bob Bennett, AD5LJ CLUB ACTIVITIES FOR DECEMBER 2003 AND JANUARY 2004 AD5LJ December 8, 2003 – MVRC Christmas Party. There will be no other club functions in December. January 12, 2004 – Club Social January 14, 2004 – Board of directors meeting February 7, 2004 – First Saturday breakfast and monthly business meeting of 2004. ELMER SESSION KD5SSJ On Saturday November 8, the club had the first Elmer Session, an event planned following the October Technician classes. The session went from 1:00pm and 6:00pm. Karl K5DI, demonstrated the use and utility of CW QRP. Rodney WK5I, had a APRS demonstration from his car and also demonstrated connecting to the internet via cell phone and showed the APRS tracking programs. David WA5DJJ, brought several builders group projects, including a complete 40m transcievers in an Altiods tin. We adjourned to the field (just outside the club house in this case) where David demonstrated an almost universal HF homemade antenna which he erected in about 15 minutes. As soon as the antenna was up ... Richard KC5EVR, connected it to a kit built transciever which is one of his favorite radios. Richard also demonstrated and discussed his bicycle mobile 2m & 70cm rig. Richard and his wife Charolette KC5TWD put thousands of miles on their bicycles each year and stay in contact with each other using headphones and boom mikes. Richard has worked out many bugs involved with this form of mobile communications. Bob AD5LJ, had a 2m ground plane erected with a mast that could be held down by a car / truck wheel or used in a trailer hitch receiver. Bob AD5LJ, also present information on the use of the local repeaters and the MegaLink. Bob passed out a multiple page handout with frequencies and maps. Several others contributed ideas and instruction to the classroom portion of the day. Tim KD5SSF, had a Direction Finding project and included the chip and article. Thanks to all of the others who contributed to the success of this first attempt to follow up after the Technician classes with a practical introduction to Amateur Radio. Jack N5PK, encouraged everyone to use the HF phone facilities of the club and got most of us to sign into the Roadrunner Net that evening. At least 5 new Technicians were present for the day. At 6pm, Cash KD5SSJ, served a chicken / beef fajita dinner to a group of approximately 12. ANNUAL BAYLOR PASS RUN WK5C The MVRC provided radio support to the 33rd annual running of the Baylor Pass, conducted by the Mesilla Valley Track Club. In near perfect weather, the winner crossed the rigorous 6 mile course in just under 48 minutes. W5GB was represented by Steve AC5RI and 5 volunteers who assisted Jack N5PK, Jim WA2NIJ, Marnie KA2FVO, Charlotte KC5KWI, Richard KC5EVR, Lou KC5IEC, WA2UCZ, KD5SSF, Karl K5DI, Bob AD5LJ, George KD5OAP, Cash KD5SSJ, Steve WM5Z, Val KD5ZGY, and John WK5C. A medical emergency near the finish line was quickly coordinated with Steve WM5Z being the first ham on scene and providing communications back to Val who notified NASA medics stationed at the finish line. As a result the patient was quickly administered to and transported to an area hospital. CLASSES K5DI October 4 and 5 of 2003 are days when I, as the Liaison Volunteer Examiner (VE) found out how well two classes trained their students. On October 4th Joe KI5FJ, Henry AD5FE, Con W5GEQ, and Karl K5DI motored over to the James Canyon Fire Station at mile 23.5 on highway 82 where Reg Duncan W5UWY had 11 students he had trained using our ARRL video trainer tapes and Steve Horan's new book for the new Technician question pool and the old video. After the exam there were 8 new Technician Class Hams in Cloudcroft. Sunday at noon we arrived with Steve AC5RI replacing Con at our Clubhouse where 14 people wanted to take the Tech exam, and 6 tried the General exam too. Three of the people tested are college students of Dr. Steve Horan. It turned out our teachers here, and the students too were serious about passing this exam and 100% did pass! Two also passed the General written exam. I learned there is an error on one of the questions on some of the Tech exams. I told the ARRL VEC and a stick on correction is being mailed to me. Next spring I expect there will be some interest in my CW Class. We will be using the code learning software called "Code Quick". It includes some flash cards and instruction on there use. Steve Horan learned code at 20 wpm using this method but cautions that it takes a personal commitment to code learning to succeed. I have been teaching code for several years. If your interested in code you can start now to learn the 40 characters you will need to copy when sent at 5 words per minute. Success with the code means no more code exams and only multiple choice exams to reach the General and Extra Class. COFFEE CLUB K5DI There is a very successful informal group that is meeting for coffee or whatever MWF at the Munson Senior Center and the old Wal-Mart TT. These people are all Hams and some are paid up members of MVRC like myself. It is often that this group never mentions Ham Radio. Age and doctors and computers and housing and jokes are common. This group meets at 10 AM so you pretty much must be retired. I hope that next year we can get more of the regular members of this group to attend the MVRC monthly meeting. It costs very little to drink coffee with us so please feel free to come along. GENERAL BUSINESS MEETING SATURDAY, November 1, 2003 The meeting was called to order at 10:30 a.m.by the President, Bob Bennett, AD5LJ, following a presentation on tower climbing given by John Beakley, WK5C. A quorum was present; see attached attendance sheet. Introductions were made. Bob said the first order of business would be the election of new officers and Board members. He invited the candidates present to introduce themselves and to tell what they hoped to accomplish if elected. Ballots were then explained. There are two ballots. One is for officers only. The other one is for Board members, and will be distributed after the election of officers, since its makeup will depend in part on the outcome of the officer's election. There were no nominations from the floor. The Officer ballots were distributed and Ted Hipkins, W3FFB, and Jack Lemons, N5PK, tallied the results. Tim Linn, KD5SSF, was elected President, Bob Deal, KD5PPP, was elected Vice-President, Charlie Welch, W5TLU, was elected Treasurer and Carleton Talbot, KC5MRM, was elected secretary. Then the Board ballots were distributed and collected. Bob Bennett was elected to the Board for buildings and grounds chairperson and so was Jo San Fillippo, WZ5R, to replace Tim Linn as education chairman. Bob announced that, due to the death of Nancy Jo Swain, N8UCZ, the club now has a mobile dual band radio with voice capability for the visually impaired. He asked if anyone knew of someone who would benefit from this to please let him know and asked everyone to keep it in mind. Treasurer's Report: Rod, WK5I, gave his report which is attached. The club has financial assets of $8018.51. Secretary's Report: Marnie, KA2FVO, referred everyone to the last month's minutes which were in the Oscillator. George Kopp, KD5OHA, moved and John Beakley seconded that the minutes be approved as printed. The motion passed. Bob said there would be no meetings in December. The board meeting will be cancelled as well as the regular business meeting. And the Christmas banquet will be the night that the social dinner usually takes place. There will also be no general business meeting in January as it comes too close to the holidays. The first general meeting of the new year will be on February 7. There will be a social meeting and a board meeting in January. Cash Olsen told about the Elmering meeting to be held November 8. It will include time for informal discussions from 1 to 3 p.m., followed by a demonstration time from 3 to 5 when participants will be given opportunities to try several different kinds of equipment and to get on the air in a variety of ways. This will be followed by a fajita dinner. A sign up sheet was passed around for people willing and able to come as well as people who can help by receiving and responding to messages at home. Cash also sent around a sign up sheet for the Christmas dinner. It will be at the new Chilitos on Foothills off Roadrunner on December 8. Cost will be $10 plus gratuities. Karl Larsen announced that we already have enough volunteers for the Baylor Pas run. Volunteers for the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot were requested. Cash will manage the run. There were a number of volunteers.. Bob Deal offered to put together a soup supper as a special event for the club some time this year. The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 a.m. Respectfully submitted by Marnie Leverett, KA2FVO 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 maintained by WA2NIJ at http://www.zianet.com/mvrc. OFFICERS Pres Tim Linn KD5SSF VPr Bob Deal KD5PPP Sec Carleton Talbot KC5MRM Tres Charlie Welch W5TLU Board Communications Karl Larsen K5DI Education Joe San Filippo WZ5R Special Events Cash Olsen KD5SSJ News Letter Alex Burr K5XY 522-2528 k5xy@arrl,net Repeaters Brad Sacca KD5SKE Facilities Bob Bennett AD5LJ 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?