THE LOCAL OSCILLATOR - November 2004 NOTE: An HTML version is available at www.mvrc.qzxservices.com. A pdf file of the web edition is available at www.mvrc.qzxservices.com/pdf/LO0411.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 TRANSMITTER HUNT MEETING TIME VOTE USE OF CLUB STATION MARATHON CLUBHOUSE UPDATE CLUB FINANCES BEAN FEED UNCLASIFIED BACK PAGE COMING EVENTS Week days 6 m FM net 52.540 6:00AM Mon WTRA Swap net 146.88 8:00PM Wed Net 146.64 6:45PM round-table 52.525MHz 8:00PM Weekdays Informal get together Mon Wed Fri Munson Center 10AM Tue Thur Wal-Mart E Oct 30 Socorro Hamfest http://www.socorroara.org Oct 31 Marathon Nov 6 Breakfest 8 AM Club House Nov 6 Business meeting 9:15AM Club House Nov 8 Social Meeting (2nd Mon) 6 PM Golden Corral Nov 10 1st Wed after 2nd Mon Directors at Club House 7:00PM Nov 11 Baylor Pass run PRESIDENT'S CORNER KD5SSF As the evenings get cooler and the nights get longer I start to think of indoor activities. One of the most satisfying activities associated with Amateur Radio is building your own equipment. Constructing a circuit or antenna and seeing it work gives you a feeling of accomplishment that few activities can match. This also provides us with opportunities to get to know other Amateurs. There is nothing like debugging a circuit with other Hams to get to know them better. This is in addition to the benefit of the learning that takes place when we work together. One of the most attractive attributes of Hams is their willingness to share their experience with others. On more than one occasion I was stuck and only finished the project because of a helpful Elmer. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have been such a help to me. I hope I can pass some of this on to others. TRANSMITTER HUNT KD5SSF Following the meeting on November 6 we will be having a transmitter hunt. You will need a radio (or scanner) that receives in the 2-meter band (144-148 MHz). A directional antenna for will also be useful. Maps of the area of the hunt will be provided. You may want to bring a compass for orienting the map. If you have questions, contact Tim Linn (KD5SSF) at 521-0486. MEETING TIME VOTE KD5SSF At the general membership meeting at 9:15 AM on Saturday, we will be electing officers and board members. The positions of President, Vice President, Secretary, and Communications Director are open. If you are willing to serve in any of these positions please contact Cash Olsen at kd5ssj@zianet.com or 382-1917. Make sure you attend so that your vote can be counted. USE OF CLUB STATION KD5SSF After the general membership meeting on Saturday, November 6, members will be available for anyone who wants to practice on or learn to use the radios at the club house. The club has two HF rigs and several VHF and UHF rigs will be available for use by those who are interested. MEETING PROGRAM KD5SSF The program for Saturday, November 6 will be presented by Captain Kevin Bottjen of the Salvation Army. He is the leader of the Las Cruces Salvation Army. He will be talking to us about volunteering. After the meeting on Saturday we will be having another transmitter hunt. Bring your 2-meter hand-held and directional antenna and be the first to find the transmitter. We will also open up the MVRC shack for those wanting to work with the club equipment. MARATHON KD5SSF The Mesilla Valley Marathon will run on Sunday, October 31 (Happy Halloween!). If you are willing to help with the communications for this event, please contact Tim Linn at 521-0486 or kd5ssf@arrl.net . The event will start at 6:30 AM and will end some time in the early afternoon. We will meet at the Field of Dreams just south of Mayfield High School. CLUBHOUSE UPDATE AD5LJ On 8 October, Richard (KC5EVR), Cash (KD5SSJ) and I spent the morning doing clubhouse maintenance. We drained the air conditioner and turned on the heater, washed all the floors, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom. We also dusted everything, knocked down all the spider webs and generally tided up every thing. The week before, I installed a heavy-duty set of shelves in the storage shed to hold some of our bean feed donations. All of our current bean feed donations are in the storage shed. Finally, five of the club chairs have broken and been replaced with new ones. CLUB FINANCES W5TLU Your club treasurer apologizes for not having put financial notices in the LO until now. We discuss finances at each business meeting but that doesn't inform those of you who can't attend. Next month I'll present some info on income and expenses but this month will be on changes and status. The major change this year has been to create an education fund that was started with the money Steve Horan got for his creation of a study guide for ham licensing. That work provided $2500 to create our fund. The money is used to buy materials and conduct our own classes. Of course we charge fees for those classes and have managed to basically cover the costs so far. The money in this account has been put in a separate local bank. Our other money is split between a savings account and a checking account, both at another local bank. The savings account provides miniscule interest but CDs don't look very attractive right now. The numbers as of 13Oct04 were as follows: Checking - $694.33 Cash - $347.79 Savings - $5148.43 Education - $2417.79 BEAN FEED AD5LJ The annual bean feed is only 5 months away! When I was moving our donations from the clubhouse to the storage shed, I noticed that the number of donations is substantially less than in past years. As equipment sales at the bean feed are the major money making activity for the club, we really need more donations. What we really need is serviceable ham radio equipment and accessories. Good condition vintage and antique radio gear also sells well. Components, test equipment and commercial radio gear does not sell well at the bean feed. If you have excess gear, consider donating it to the club. All donations can be used as a federal tax deduction. Please, don’t donate books, magazines and contents from your junk box. We usually end up giving this kind of stuff away or throwing it in the trash. UNCLASSIFIED FOR SALE: The club still has a pile of ½ inch and 7/8 inch Heliax hard line available. This coax is free to any club member who wants it. If nobody has removed it by the end of November, I will dispose of it as scrap. We have sold some of our excess antennas but still have available a 2-meter and 70-cm circular polarized satellite antenna system with rotators. The asking price is $100. If anyone is interested, please contact me. AD5LJ 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 Newsletter 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?