THE LOCAL OSCILLATOR - March 2004 - NOTE: An HTML version is available at www.mvrc.qzxservices.com. NOTE new URL. For this issue a pdf file of the web edition is available at www.mvrc.qzxservices.com/pdf/LO0404.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 MIG-17 SEARCH at T or C BREAKFAST BEANFEED A DIFFERENT BUILDER'S GROUP UNCLASSIFIED ADS 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 April 3 Breakfest 8 AM Club House April 3 Business meeting 9:15AM Club House April 12 Social Meeting 6 PM New China Buffet April 14 1st Wed after 2nd Mon Directors at Club House 7:00PM Apr 3 Run Old Mesilla Apr 16, 17, 18 General Class Club House Apr 18 Triathelon Apr 25 Bean Feed Elmer Session May 7 - 9 Extra Class Club House PRESIDENT'S CORNER KD5SSF The search for the crashed MIG-17 near T or C points out the value of Amateur Radio. (Some of our club members were there helping with communications.) Paul Harvey also highlighted Amateur Radio in a recent broadcast where he told about Amateurs who helped during a natural disaster and many more who stand ready to help whenever needed. We do have a lot of fun in our hobby, but we have a valuable resource that is hard to duplicate. In my EMT training we learned that some departments were considering the use of cell phones by emergency personnel, but that the cell system is liable to being swamped and practically unusable during a disaster, just when you need it the most. This is where Amateurs come in and quietly do what we do best -- communicate over long distances when nobody else can. Thanks to all our members who help in emergency preparedness and in actual emergencies. Contact Jim (WA2NIJ) and Marnie (KA2FVO) Leverett to learn how to get involved. MIG-17 SEARCH at T or C WA2NIJ As you may know from reading the papers, a MIG-17 aircraft fell off the radar the morning of Thursday, March 25. The pilot was flying from Roswell to Phoenix. He had declared an in-flight emergency. He reported having trouble balancing his fuel tanks. The last known coordinates were near Truth or Consequences. I received a call from the Search and Rescue Incident Commander Thursday requesting communications support. This is the first time MVRC has been called out other than by MVSAR. Marnie and I drove up to the T or C airport Friday morning. Friday was aerial search only. MVSAR and other groundpounders were on standby. We communicated with the State Police helicopter, N606SP on the state SAR frequency, 155.160 simplex. We also talked to the Civil Air Patrol planes on their repeater, using a borrowed transceiver. We also had the use of an aviation radio on 123.1 mHz, but there was nothing on that frequency. Our incident base was having trouble communicating by telephone with the CAP mission base in Alamogordo. Jim O'Leary, N7DRB drove out to the CAP hangar to establish ham radio contact. John Hempfling, N5WQ and Sandy, KJ5Q, relieved us in the afternoon. John Beakley, WK5C arrived with his trailer in the evening. Charlie Mabry, K9AQH arrived for Saturday duty. Next day, Saturday, the groundpounders, ATVers and horse people arrived. By 2:45 P. M. the crash site had been found. The Albuquerque radar track showed that the plane had broken up into more than one piece. The NMSP helicopter took the family out to view the crash site. As was reported in the newspapers, MIG-17's do not have ejection seats. Steve Friis, WM5Z and John Beakley did base communication from Las Cruces. Jack Lemons, N5PK and the Hempflings were on standby to serve on Sunday but did not have to come. BREAKFAST KD5SSJ Join us for breakfast at 8:00 am on Saturday, April 3. New members Leslie and Mike Morrell have volunteered to assist with breakfast. BEANFEED KD5SSJ It's Spring and the weather is great. That should give you good reason to be working on the shack. Spring also is associated with cleaning, so while your in the shack start looking at the stuff that no longer serves you. Then make a pile and bring it to the club house as a donation or bring on Sunday, April 25 for tailgating. We'll start the tailgate at 8:00 am (but unofficially when ever the first two of you arrive). We've added three racks of equipment from a TVRO Satellite Earth Station. Lunch will be served at noon, the main fare is chile with beans and coleslaw. I need volunteers to assist with setting up for the Beenfeed, please contact me to tell how you would like to help. A DIFFERENT BUILDER'S GROUP K5DI In past years we have had as part of the Mesilla Valley Radio Club MVRC a Builders Group. This has been a lot of fun and many members have built various electronic devices. This new Group will be formed to do kit building, and you will end up with a nice looking small radio that works! The radio is a QRP radio, that is, it transmits with 5 or less watts. It is a CW only radio. This means you need to get your code speed up to a good speed. What can you do with a QRP radio? Last evening I talked to Dan in Oregon and Al in New York. My antenna is a 40 meter ground plane. You can hook your finished kit to a random wire and work with others in town who have done the same thing. The source for the least expensive kit called the SW+40 is at: http://www.smallwonderlabs.com/ and this kit costs $55.00. A nice cabinet is $35.00 for a total cost of $90.00. The source of NC40a kits is at: http://www.fix.net/~jparker/wilderness/nc40a.htm and this is for the nc40a radio which I recommend from a cost point of view. You can get this kit complete with the case for $129 plus $6 shipping for a total of $135.00. There is a keyer kit (LC1) that is nice and it costs $45 plus $4 shipping for $49.00. The source for the Wilderness Sierra kits is at: http://www.fix.net/~jparker/wilderness/sierra.htm and this is the radio I recommend if you can afford it. To equal the NC40a it costs $245.00. With 6 bands 80 through 10 meters it's $369.00. This is a real quality radio which can have all bands if you can afford it. You can build any of these kits in the MVRC Kit Builders Club. We will meet twice a month. Each member will buy their own kit. Most of the building you will do at home. At the meeting I and other people who have built kits will help you with ANY problem. I have the papers used in the Elmer 101 Class which used the SW+40 kit as the model, and teaches you about basic electronics and the parts of the radio that make it work well. If your interested in this Group please call Karl Larsen at 524-3303 so we can get started. The exact dates of the Classes will be announced. We will meet at the Clubhouse. UNCLASSIFIED ADS WANTED: New Mexico ham radio callsign license plates for my collection. Will buy or trade. 505-382-7804, K5ZI@arrl.net, Bill Johnston, P.O. Box 640, Organ, NM 88052-0640. 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 has a web site maintained by WA2NIJ at http://www.zianet.com/mvrc. OFFICERS Pres Tim Linn KD5SSF 521-0486 kd5ssf@arrl.net VPr Bob Deal KD5PPP bob-verna@zianet.com Sec Carleton Talbot KC5MRM (915)877-3538 kc5mrm@zianet.com Tres Charlie Welch W5TLU 524-3412 cwwelch@usa.net Board Communications Karl Larsen K5DI 524-3303 k5di@zianet.com Education Joe San Filippo WZ5R 521-7574 sanfilippo@zianet.com Special Events Cash Olsen KD5SSJ 382-1917 KD5SSJ@zianet.com News Letter Alex Burr K5XY 522-2528 k5xy@arrl,net Repeaters Brad Sacca KD5SKE 382-4380 sheikyerbouty@msn.com Facilities Bob Bennett AD5LJ 382-0148 rbennett@zianet.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?