THE LOCAL OSCILLATOR - August 2006 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/LO0608.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 FIELD DAY AUGUST MEETING T SHIRTS INCOME/EXPENSES BACK PAGE COMING EVENTS Sun CW net 7.142 MHz 4:00PM M-F 6 m FM net 52.540 6:00AM Mon YL Rise & Shine 449.9 8:30AM Mon WTRA Swap net 146.88 8:00PM Wed Net 146.64 6:45PM M-F round-table 52.525 MHz 8:00PM MWF Informal get together Wal-Mart W (Valley) 10AM TTH Informat get together Wal-Mart E (Walton) 10AM Aug 5 Breakfast 8:00AM Club House Aug 5 Business meeting 9:15AM Club House Aug 5 Summer Fun Fun Buena Vista Park Aug 9 Director's Meeting Club House 7:00PM Aug 5 Summer Fun Fun Buena Vista Park Aug 25-26 Duke City hamfest Sept 8-10 Technician Class Club House Oct 27-29 General Class Club House PRESIDENT'S CORNER N5PK Hello all, trust all is well with you and yours. I am sorry to report the passing of Manny Blumkin, K5JEB, long time friend and supporter of our club as well as a long time personal friend of mine and of many of our members. He was in Austin TX at the moment of his passing and will be greatly missed by many folks here. Remember in your prayers, the family members who are sad and mourn their loss. The most precious resource many of us enjoy is time. It seems there is scarcely enough time to go around for all the things we need to do and those things we like to do for family and others. Along that line, in June I received an unexpected call from Steve, WM5Z seeking three teams of volunteer ommunications help in support of the Grant County fire. With little effort, I was able to enlist three teams, two on each team to cover communication relay needs from a remote Red Cross shelter set up in a school into the event center in Silver City. Alex K5XY and Robert AD5LJ were team #1, Dave WA5DJJ and Larry K5LUI were team #2, Claude KE5ALP and his grand father were team #3. Even though team #1 was the only team called out, it was very gratifying to me to find folks willing to give of their most important resource, TIME, for the help and benefit of others and to do so unselfishly. Thanks very much guys for making a difference. My personal thanks to all those who participated in our field day event this year. We were small in numbers and mighty in performance. This was the first year that I've not called "CQ Field Day". It was different and at the same time rewarding to serve as coach to the GOTA station. I already look forward to next year, hoping the bands will be in better shape! Hope to see each of you at the meeting on the 5th of August, stay safe FIELD DAY WA5DJJ The Mesilla Valley Radio Club did very well on our Field Day outing on June 24th and 25th. Here is how the scores broke down. CW station had an even 200 Contacts. The HF phone station had 231 contacts. The VHF/UHF station had 18 contacts. The GOTA station had 157 contacts. Running all of this through the calculations gave us a total of 1,612 Contact points. The Bonus points were as follows: 100% emergency power (two stations) 200 points, Setup in a public place 100 Points, Information booth with displays 100 points, Copying the W1AW Field Day Message 100 points, Youth Participation (5 Operators under age 18) 100 points, GOTA BONUS (100 contacts by an operator with GOTA Coach) 200 points, Media Publicity for newspaper article in Las Cruces Bulletin 100 points, Submitted entry on the WEB 50 points. Total Bonus points was 950 points. Our Grand Total should be 2,562 if all our bonus points are credited. Well done to the 25 operators that made this all happen. We got all the antennas up and down without one hangnail. We operated all the stations for the 24 hour periods with very little down time. I know there were some tired folks when the last vehicle left the field of honor but be proud that we met all the challenges and kept on going. Now comes the planning for next year. Each of us who was there will have some ideas on how we can improve our operations and make it even smoother. I do want to take this opportunity to praise the GOTA Station and their operators. They accounted for 157 HF contacts, 200 GOTA bonus points, and the youth operators got us another 100 bonus points. Their score alone was 614 points. That was a great start for the GOTA station under the new rules. I did feel sorry for the VHF/UHF station who was faithfully listening for that 6 meter opening that never really came. Maybe next time guys. You just never know how that one would have worked out. But it was good to know that we were ready if it had come. The HF CW and Phone stations hung in there and dug in to get the needed points with both new and old timers operating. The new ones learned some new tricks and the oldtimers reserected some of their old ones. A Well Done goes to the antenna crew who practiced early in the game. It really helped to get all the antennas up on time and made the startup easy. My thanks to the operators who showed up in the wee hours of the morning and filled in the operator's schedules as that really kept us on the air. The weather held off until after every thing was done, packed up, and stored away. Just can't ask for anything better than that. WELL DONE GANG!!! ( ED Note: Pictures of Field Day are at http://mvrc.qzxservices.com/06fd.htm) AUGUST MEETING KD5HZI August guest speaker will be Bob Bennett. Bob will speak about wire antennas. Please bring your thoughts, questions and input. Thanks in advance Bob. I thank all of you that have made a contribution to the monthly speaker in the past THANK YOU. I hope this is one of several good reasons to attend the monthly meeting. If you have a suggestion on a topic you would like to hear about, please contact me. If you would like to contribute time to be a speaker or presenter please do so. T SHIRTS KD5HZI I still have some shirts that have not been picked up. They were ordered as requested. Please see me for pick up and payment. The shirts have been paid for by the club and we need your payment. The following are the call signs. N5XRP, KE5JWC, KE5ALP, KC5WCY, AD5NT, W0WGA. INCOME/EXPENSES Mesilla Valley Radio Club Income/Expense June 1 through June 30, 2006 Beginning Balances MVRC Checking Account 4505.69 MVRC Savings Account 4116.84 MVRC 1 year CD 5000.00 Education Fund Account 2491.03 Cash on Hand 50.00 Balances Total 16163.56 Income Breakfast & Drinks 43.50 Equipment Sales 160.00 Dues 70.00 Interest Income 2.55 Total Income 276.05 Balances + Income 16439.61 Expenses Breakfast 54.72 Club House 14.44 Utilities Electricity 29.35 Telephone 29.03 Water 11.59 Total Expenses 139.13 Balances on hand, June 30, 2006 16300.48 Ending Balances MVRC Checking Account 4640.06 MVRC Savings Account 4119.39 MVRC 1 year CD 5000.00 Education Fund Account 2491.03 Cash on Hand 50.00 Balances Total 16300.48 Sandra Hempfling Treasurer 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 k5xy@arrl.net. The club has a web site maintained by WA2NIJ at http://www.zianet.com/mvrc. OFFICERS Pres Jack Lemons N5PK 526-9428 n5pk@zianet.com VPr Tres Campbell KD5HZI 373-2008 trscam@netscape.net Sec Judy Davis W5JRD 522-6833 judy@davis-domain.com Tres Sandra Hempfling KJ5Q 373-1166 kj5q@arrl.net BOARD Communications John Beakley WK5C 522-7078 wk5c@arrl.net 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 Clubhouse Bob Bennett AD5LJ 382-0148 rpbennett1@comcast.net Repeaters 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 ($35 single, $45 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?