THE LOCAL OSCILLATOR - November 2008 NOTE: An HTML version is available at www.mvrc.qzxservices.com. A pdf file of the web edition is available at http://www.mvrc.qzxservices.com/pdf/LO08010.pdf. It will be easy to print that edition. If you do not have the free pdf reader, you can get it at http://www.adobe.com TABLE OF CONTENTS COMING EVENTS PRESIDENT'S CORNER MVRC OFFICER ROLES RACES EXTRA CLASS TWO METER DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS QST ON LINE 500 KHZ SIGS INCOME AND EXPENSE PROPOSED BUDGET BACK PAGE COMING EVENTS Sun CW net 3.565 MHz 5:00PM M-F 6 m FM net 52.540 6:00AM 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 1 Breakfast 8 AM Club House Nov 1 Business meeting 9 AM Club House Nov 14-16 Extra Class Class Club House Nov 15 Baylor Pass Run Contact KD5OHA Nov 21-23 Extra Class Class Club House Nov 27 Turkey Trot 5K Contact KD5OHA PRESIDENT'S CORNER KD5ZHI Hello All, I would like for everyone to do their best to attend the next regular business meeting for the annual elections. We still need several positions to be filled. A short synopses of the positions are as follows. The duties of the officers and directors are in the by laws posted on the club web page. President- Conducts the meetings, answerers various email from other clubs, organizations, reads and answerers various mail, ensures the by laws and constitution are followed, appoints committees, ensures committees are working to ward there goals (bean feed, field day, ect.) Vice president, fills in for the president when needed, in charge of the club property, and very importantly reponsible for getting a program for each meeting. Secretary- records all club meetings minutes, keeps track of important club documentation, make and keep track of changes to the constitution and by laws. Treasure- is responsible for our money, keeps a spread sheet of our accounts, pays bills timely, checks the club mail box, responsible to make the club aware of the budget at all times. I hope this helps if you are interested in an position. We still need people to serve. Please consider and, if you like, call me or any other board member. ARRL has so much to offer on their web site at well for guidance and help with these positions as well. Cash is into another month with the builders group. Another project will be coming soon. George is organizing all of the races and there are lots this time of year. Hope to see you next meeting in November. MVRC OFFICER ROLES N9OG The Election Ballot committee is seeking nominations for officers for 2009. So here is a brief summary of the duties and roles of the main officers of the club. The four main officers of the MVRC are the President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary. These officers are necessary to maintain the MVRC in the ARRL and to keep its status as a non-profit organization. The President is the leader of the club and coordinates, directs, and monitors the activities of all other officers and committee chairs. He/she is the “face” of the club and presides over regular club meetings, board meetings and functions of the club. The President represents the club to the public, the ARRL, and government and civic organizations. The Vice President serves in place of the President if he/she is not available for these duties and also arranges regular speakers for the club meetings. The Treasurer handles the clubs finances, taking in dues and other income and paying the bills for the club. He or she keeps the financial books of the club, regularly presenting income/expense reports and budgets to the other officers and club members. The Treasurer also keeps and distributes the club roster. The Secretary records and maintains the minutes of club meetings and board meetings, presenting them to the club and the officers at their respective meetings. There are in addition to these officers, heads of the various committees such as Communications, Club-house, Repeaters, Education, Special Events, and Newsletter, whose duties are not covered here. RACES KD5OHA Up coming communication events for The Mesilla Valley Track Club include the Baylor Pass Mountain Run at 5.9-Miles on Novvember 15 on Saturady. Also the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5K Run and Fitness Walk with a 1-Mile Kids Run For more informationa nd to hel-p provide communications contact KD5OHA. EXTRA CLASS KD5SSF There will be an extra class in November on the two weekends of 14 - 16 and 21 - 23. Please contact Tim Linn at 521-0486 or KD5SSF@ARRL.NET if you are interested. TWO METER DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS KI5FJ I propose the creation of a new weekly simplex net. This net would use the MT-63 digital mode and prepare our local radio operators for accurately handling sensitive emergency information. A simple interface between your PC and your 2 meter radio is convenient but unnecessary. This mode will interface with local Army MARS operators. The MARS network can take the traffic out of the area. The MT-63 digital mode is simpler to transmit than other modes. Although inconvenient, to transmit you can hold your radio microphone near your PC speaker. The receiving (decoding) path (radio to sound card) can be via a simple audio transformer or into the sound card via a PC microphone. The data consists of data, 1s and 0s, in the audio range from 500 to 1500 Hz. There are several free software programs, MT-63 terminal, Multi-PSK. My favorite, although costing about $60, is MixW. If you are interested contact me via email : ki5fj at arrl.net QST ON LINE ARRL members can now access the online QST magazine archive . This new benefit -- a service of the ARRL Technical Information Service (TIS) -- provides PDF copies of all QST articles from December 1915 through December 2004, enabling members to view and print their favorite article, project and more. Access to the new online digital QST archive is free for ARRL members, and is for their personal use only -- material in the archive may not be freely distributed or copied. 500 KHZ SIGS ARRL's 500 kHz Station, WD2XSH, wants to hear from you: Fritz Raab, W1FR, coordinator for ARRL's 500 kHz Experimental Station, WD2XSH , reports that fall has brought lower static and good propagation, making excellent conditions for the 500 kHz experimenters. The experimental license, issued in September 2006 , has more than 20 active stations. Raab said that last year, a second US experimental license -- WE2XGR, with five participants -- joined the project, as well as experimenters in the UK, Germany, Sweden and the Czech Republic. These stations' operating modes include CW, QRSS, PSK-31 and others. Contacts have been achieved at distances up to 1234 miles, with signals received from all over North America, Alaska and Hawaii; trans-Atlantic reports are not uncommon. "The 500 kHz experimenters are experiencing excellent propagation conditions," Raab said. "The best time to listen is between sunset and sunrise." The operating frequencies are: WD2XSH -- 505.2-510 kHz; WE2XGR -- 505-515 kHz; UK -- 501-504 kHz, and SM, DL, OK -- 505.0-505.2 kHz. Raab requests that listeners file reception reports at the experiment's Web site so that they become part of the station's data base . Additional information can be found at the experiment's Web site and also in the July/August 2007 issue of QEX . INCOME AND EXPENSE FOR SEPTEMBER INCOME Breakfast & Drinks 40.00 Contributions 150.00 Dues 35.00 Total income 225.00 EXPENSES Clubhouse 44.96 Repeater 121.42 Utilities 59.91 Total expenses 226.29 Cash and Bank Accounts as of 1Oct08 MVRC Checking 4903.90 MVRC Education Fund 2113.98 MVRC Savings Account 0.00 MVRC CD 5130.16 MVRC Petty Cash 50.00 TOTAL Cash and Bank Accounts 12198.04 PROPOSED BUDGET The budget is difficult to place in a text file. It is available on the web and pdf forms. See http://mvrc.qzxservices.com/body.htm In any case it is almost identical to the current budget. 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 nternet address k5xy@arrl.net. The club has a web site maintained by WA2NIJ at http://www.zianet.com/mvrc. OFFICERS Pres Tres Campbell KD5HZI 373-2008 trscam@netscape.net VPr Dennis Shepan KB5TPV 522-7466 KB5TPV@zianet.com Sec Jack Lemons N5PK 526-9428 Treasurer Charlie Welch N5CWW 496-3901 cwwelch@usa.net BOARD Communications Henry Schotzko AD5FE 526-1922 schotzko@comcast.net Education Tim Linn KD5SSF 521-0486 KD5SSF@arrl.net Special Events 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?