THE LOCAL OSCILLATOR - November 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/LO0611.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 RIO GRANDE MARATHON APRS FOR YOU INCOME/EXPENSES OCTOBER BUSINESS MEETING OCTOBER BOARD MINUTES 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) 10 AM TTH Informal get together Wal-Mart E (Walton) 10 AM Nov 4 Breakfast 8 AM Club House Nov 4 Business meeting 9 AM Club House Nov 8 Directors meeting 7 PM Club House Nov 11 Baylor Pass run Nov 23 Turkey Trot PRESIDENT'S CORNER N5PK This will be last of our visits using this forum. It's been a good two years and we've accomplished a lot of positive things together. The meeting attendance is up by three times over the past several years,the programs have been consistently well presented, on amateur radio related topics and of interest to most members. Club membership is on the rise as well as participation in club related activities. Our future is to continue to build on these successes and to encourage our members, new and long time, to broaden their participation in all club projects and activities. I can't say enough about the leadership team that I have been privileged to work with these two years. Each officer and director has provided me with sound council and support through out. They have always focused on "what is best for our club". John B. and Dave H. came on board early in 2006 when called upon to fill the gap. We all owe our entire leadership team a great deal of thanks. As I look back on these two years, the only negative I see is our lack of developing new leadership to serve our club in the years ahead. As I have always believed, the buck stops with me and I must accept the lions share of the responsibility for this. I am sorry that I didn't work harder toward that goal. As a result of this, we face the new year with an incomplete slate of officers and directors. This will cause an extreme hardship on those we elect to lead us forward in the coming couple of years. If you have meaningful ideas on solving this crisis, see me or another board member at the November meeting. I look forward to seeing you all at the meeting of November 4th. We need you there! RIO GRANDE MARATHON WK5C Thirteen club members supported the 5th annual Rio Grande Marathon held at the Field of Dreams on October 19. The games also included a half marathon run/walk, and a 5 kilometer run/walk. Just over 401 runners/walkers participated without incident. Near the end of the race, one runner got a slight case of road rash but it didn’t need medical attention. Henry was able to call it in real time and it was reported to the local LCFD members. Runners came from Las Cruces, Albuquerque, El Paso, and more than a dozen other states. The race started in the Field of Dreams and went west to the Rio Grande River, then proceeded south along the levee road past Old Mesilla and return. The full marathon winner came across in at 3:12:29. The women's winner set a new record of 2:29:47. The club’s 146.64 repeater was used with no problems. Thanks to AD5FE Henry, WM5Z/KD5ZGY Steve and Val, WA5DJJ Dave, KC5VHS Perry, KD5SSJ Cash, KB5TPV Dennis, K5DI Karl, KC5SKE Brad, KC5EVR Richard, N5PK Jack, KD5SSF Tim, KD5OHA George, and WK5C John. The race started at 0700 and we closed up at 1400 hours. Of special note was Tim on his bicycle. This was of extra value due to the large distances between radio operators and the numerous slower walkers. Tim was able to notify all of the positions of these walkers. The next scheduled race is the Baylor Pass 10k (~6 mile) run on Saturday, 11 November. The starting gun on that race is at 1000 hours. APRS FOR YOU Part 1 of 4 parts K5DI Cash Olsen showed us his stuff for an APRS system but not very much detail. I was passed two of his units and they looked fine but so what? I did not have a full understanding of APRS and bits of information are just MORE confusing! But Cash had the right gear to show and today I will tell you to just forget all the complicated things and get going on APRS from your car. This is cheap (if you already have a VHF radio) and you need nothing but some wire and solder to make plugs to your radio. You want to buy the TNC and the GPS which, when built and set, up are a complete APRS System. You will put these in your car with your VHF radio and when it is turned on you will be sending your position identified by your call sign around the area you have set up in the TNC. You want to point your browser at this site where you will buy all you need. http://www.byonics.com/ You want to buy the TinyTrak3Plus and the GPS which will cost $99.00 plus about $6.00 for Priority mail. Also get the instructions from that web page. The .pdf seems to be very complete and it includes a little program you will run on your Windows computer. This program lets you set up the TinyTrak3Plus with your call sign and many other things. Buying the GPS is a good idea because it will come set up to plug right into the TNC. So you will provide 12 volts DC to the TNC and it will supply the GPS the power it requires. When it all arrives you have all it takes to send APRS data! It is a small package and makes it's use in the car easy. There is the set-up and testing and such that will follow in Part 2. While waiting for the equipment look over the instructions in the .pdf file. Also get used to using the Internet APRS system that lets you see your mobile station in action. This site is: http://www.findu.com The best way to learn how to use this webpage is to play around with it. An important factor to APRS is how you tell your packets how long to live. A wonderful discription of this is at: http://webs.lanset.com/wa8lmf/DigiPaths/ Read this and you will learn we want to use Wide1-1,Wide2-2 in our TNC. This is a detail we needed to solve once. Now we know what to use. How to Use findU It's not very easy to figure out how findU works. At least it was very hard for me. I would use this basic plan to set up findU for your use. They are experimenting with Google Maps so expect that. So bring up your Web Browser and put in the address I provided. This is: http://www.findu.com/ and when it comes up you see nothing of value. Go down the page and you see this: Weather reports Position reports Long term vehicle tracking Telemetry Messages You want to click on Position reports. After you do this you will see in the place where you put in http://www.findu.com/ now has a longer list of things. It is now on mine: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=k4hg-8&terra=4m And it now shows you a lot of things about k4hg and has a map of this k4hg-8's travels. But we are not interested in this guy's data. To get to our area we must use a call sign of someone nearby. The college has a APRS repeater that is there all the time with the call W5GB-2. Change the line above to this and your looking our way in Las Cruces: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=W5GB-2 Looking at the map your seeing Las Cruces were we are most of the time. To see who has been on or is on now click on Nearby APRS activity and you get a list of the local APRS stations some of which are days old. Others might be active now. To save this map and have it come up just like now make it a favorite or save it. To find another station you know about that is out there somewhere all you need to do is put the call sign in place of W5GB-2. This is how it works and it lets you set up your own car's APRS system. It will be a big help. INCOME/EXPENSES Mesilla Valley Radio Club Income/Expense September 1 through September 30, 2006 Beginning Balances MVRC Checking Account 4450.17 MVRC Savings Account 4122.15 MVRC 1 year CD 5000.00 Education Fund Account 2160.03 Cash on Hand 50.00 Balances Total 15782.35 Income Breakfast & Drinks 50.00 Dues 9.00 Equipment Sales 492.00 Interest Income 1.40 Education 405.00 Total Income 957.40 Balances + Income 16739.75 Expenses Breakfast 37.95 Club House 51.24 Utilities Electricity 29.86 Telephone 29.04 Water 11.29 Education Classes 245.38 Club House Project 6733.00 Total Expenses 7137.76 Balances on hand, Sept 30, 2006 9601.99 Ending Balances MVRC Checking Account 108.79 MVRC Savings Account 2123.55 MVRC 1 year CD 5000.00 Education Fund Account 2319.65 Cash on Hand 50.00 Balances Total 9601.99 Sandra Hempfling Treasurer SEPTEMBER BUSINESS MEETING The MVRC met at the clubhouse on September 2 for the regular business meeting. The meeting was called to order by President Jack Lemons (N5PK) at 9:00 am. Visitors were welcomed and members introduced themselves. Reports: Judy Davis (W5JRD) Secretary – Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved as read. Sandra Hempfling (KJ5Q) Treasurer – There is a total of $15,782.35 in all accounts as of July 31, 2006. Current membership is 91. Bob Bennett (AD5LJ) Clubhouse – A general cleanout of the clubhouse is underway in preparation of the remodeling project. If anyone would like to buy any equipment this would be a good time. Cash Olsen (KD5SSJ) – Volunteers participated in the Hatch Valley emergency project during the recent floods. The response was favorable and the outcome was successful. The club has been asked by the Las Cruces Fire Department to assist in the training and use of ham equipment. Joe SanFilippo (WZ5R) – The upcoming tech classes will be held on Sept. 8,9, and 10. The new manuals have been received. Planned improvements to the club house are handicap ramps, suspended ceiling in meeting room, and tile flooring in meeting room. The project needs to be scheduled to avoid interference with club meetings and license classes. So far we have informal bids of $7800 and $6000. Bob Bennett made a motion to accept the lowest responsive bid and Charlie Welch (W5TLU) seconded the motion. The motion passed. A nominating committee consisting of Marty Campbell (N7CYY) Chairman, Marnie Leverett (KA2FVO), and Karl Larsen (K5DI) was appointed. A resolutions was proposed by Jim Leverett (WA2NIJ) and seconded by Marty Campbell to amend Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution to eliminate the two term limit on club officers. A vote on the resolution will be taken at the October business meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 10:02 am SEPTEMBER BOARD MINUTES Board members in attendance were: Jack Lemons (N5PK) Tres Campbell (KD5ZHI) Sandra Hempfling (KJ5Q) Judy Davis (W5JRD) John Beakley (WK5C) Cash Olsen (KD5SSJ) Alex Burr (K5XY) Bob Bennett (AD5LJ) President Jack Lemons called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm Reports: The minutes were read by Judy Davis and approved as read. Sandra Hempfling read the treasure’s report - The club has $15,782.35 in all accounts as of July 31, 2006. The report was accepted. Cash Olsen – The new repeater can be set up to provide phone patch service using the old phone patch circuit boards and mounting them externally to the repeater. After a discussion it was decided to look into the cost and availability of a new phone patch card made for the new repeater. The 146.760 Mhz repeater is ready to install at Caballo. Bob Bennett – Final cleanout for the remodeling will take place Sunday Sept. 10 at 3:00 pm. John Beakley - There will be a race on 23 Sept in connection with the Whole Enchilada Fiesta. Seven students are expected for the upcoming tech classes. Kim Johnson was present and presented his bid on the clubhouse remodeling project. After discussions, it was decided that this was the lowest responsive bid and it was accepted. The bid amount was $6733.00 total including tax. Motion to accept the bid was made by John Beakley and seconded by Sandra Hempfling. The Meeting was adjourned at 8:01 pm. 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?