UTARC News

The Official Journal of the University of Texas Amateur Radio Club

November 1996

November Meeting

The November meeting of the University of Texas Amateur Radio Club will be held on Thursday, November 21 at 7:30 PM in RLM 5.124 on the UT campus. Talk in on the 147.18 MHz repeater.

The topic of discussion this month will be VHF weak signal operations. With new antennas for 6M and 2M W5EHM has made a plash on the VHF bands this summer. Come learn how to work DX on these bands and take advantage of the club's new capabilities.

You'll also have an opportunity to find out how the club did during the phone portion of the Collegiate Championship (Sweepstakes) and how W5EHM stacked up to other college clubs.

Last Meeting

The October meeting topic was contesting. About 15 attendees watched George (WB5VZL, now K5TR) give a great talk on how to compete and improve one's score. An emergency officer election was also held to fill the vacant spot of Secretary/Treasurer. New member Kourt de Haas (KB5PRZ) was elected to the post.

New Members

The following people have joined UTARC for the 1996-1997 year:

Name Callsign

Jonathan Currie KC5UGK

Cathy Delemater KC5DSS

Jill Francis KC5OJK

Kourt de Haas KB5PRZ

Matt Horstman

David Weisz KB5ULI

Welcome aboard! If you have not yet joined UTARC get in touch with one of the club officers soon. The shack combination was recently changed. Rejoin to get the new access code!

West Mall Bust

The fall UTARC West Mall demo, scheduled for Wednesday, October 16, never got off the ground. And unfortunately for club President Tom (SQ9DDZ), that's where he ended up.

Kenneth (N1PVB) was the only person to show up at the designated spot in order to help set up at 9:30 AM. Earlier Tom was involved in a motorcycle accident that broke his leg. This sent him to Brackenridge for treatment which of course prevented him from assisting in the West Mall demo. Tom is already on Poland for the rest of the semester to recuperate and will be back at UT in the Spring.

So there was no West Mall demo this semester. The demos are not only a good way for the club to recruit new members but it's also a great deal of fun to talk about Amateur Radio with others. If the club decides to hold another demo in the spring please volunteer to help. The club needs everyone's help!

KVRX Tour

Several members were treated to a tour of the transmitter site of the student broadcast radio station, KVRX. Bob Nagy (AA5PB), the station's engineer gave the tour on November 7.

While the studio resides on the UT campus, the station's transmitter is located in an industrial area to the east near Tracor on Hwy 183. The studio's audio is fed to the transmitter site on a 900 MHz dedicated link.

The transmitter is the only fully solid-state broadcast transmitter in central Texas and is surprisingly small. The entire site's electronics package fits into one rack mount cabinet with some room to spare. The amplifier is composed of 6 hot pluggable modules that combine to output about 2 kilowatts.

KVRX shares the 91.7 MHz channel with KOOP. They also share the transmitter site. KOOP's programming comes in on a different set of 900 MHz receivers. The station switches between the two 900 MHz receivers at predetermined times automatically. What did Bob use to control the switching? A generic garden timer used to control lawn watering, slightly modified to suit the task at hand.

Bob also told the group about the new digital emergency broadcast network being implemented and showed off the two Amateur Radio repeaters that he maintains on the roof of RLM. Thanks for the tour Bob!

Hams for Pumpkin Head

de KB5PRZ

No, it's not a trip back to the barter system. Every year the Austin Rowing Club hosts the "Head of the Colorado" (a.k.a. "Pumpkin Head") regatta on Town Lake. Due to the length of the course (4,200 meters), the rowing club has special communications requirements. While line of sight contacts were made with the rowing club's Motorola Radius radios, UTARC volunteers Robert Barron, KA5WSS, Kourt de Haas, KB5PRZ, and Lloyd Clark, AG4D (from Williamson County ARC) handled the remaining traffic on the 147.180 MHz repeater.

Kourt, who is also an Austin Rowing Club member, spent eight hours on a floating barge just west of Longhorn Dam conveying information from the starting line. In turn, Robert spent equal time at the finish line on Auditorium Shores, while Lloyd remained at the boathouse with the race coordinator. With flaky cellular phone and Motorola Radius radios, the regatta officials soon realized how important the hams were to maintaining smooth communications between critical points on the lake.

For their efforts, the volunteers received generous thanks, free regatta T-shirts, and invitations to volunteer for future events.

Callsign Changes

UTARC's application for the W5TX callsign was not selected in time but a few UTARC alumni now have new callsigns:

Name Old Call New Call

George Fremin WB5VZL K5TR

Trey Garlough WN4KKN N5KO

In addition the Austin Amateur Radio Club secured a new callsign for their station located at the Emergency Operations Center downtown. It now uses W5TQ. The Red Cross station continues to use W5KA.

Figure 1: N5RAJ and AA5NC operate W5EHM during the 1990 Phone Sweepstakes

First W5EHM Moonbounce Contact Elusive

de N1PVB

On the evening of October 26, during the ARRL International EME Contest, Ken Harker N1PVB attempted to make the club's first 2m EME contact during moonrise. One station near Houston was heard, but it was later determined that this had to have been the result of tropo-backscatter rather than an Earth-Moon-Earth path. Major problems for the club station include only a marginal equipment setup for EME and lots of local solid-tone harmful interference in the low end of the 2m band, sometimes reaching S5 or higher levels. Dave Weisz KB5ULI was also present for the attempt. The second weekend of the EME contest is November 23rd and 24th.

Operating Notes

Awards

The following announcement was made by the local ARRL Awards Manager and passed along for publication to the AARC/Over newsletter:

QST: VHF/UHF Century Club (VUCC)

Award for W5EHM

Kudos to Ken Harker, N1PVB, and the W5EHM Club!

On 12-Oct-96 I was pleased to verify 100+ QSL cards for the University of Texas Radio Club's VHF/UHF Century Club (VUCC) Award - all on six (6) meters.

While the award goes to the UT Club, most of the QSOs (and QSL work) were made by Ken Harker, N1PVB.

Richard M. Kriss, KD5VU

ARRL Awards Manager

Austin, Texas

The club's VUCC certificate was delivered and is now on display in the club station, on the wall just above the 6M radio.

Contests

The preliminary final results of the CQ WW VHF Contest have been published and W5EHM won a certificate. Kenneth (N1PVB)'s operation was the only entry in the 5th call area. Most of the activity for this contest centered in California. More wallpaper for the club!

Several UTARC members operated the club station during CQ WW in October. However the club's old computer locked up while logging so the effort turned very casual.

Shack Status

Work Done

Derek (AA5BT) took the club's TS-830 HF rig to have the external VFO problem fixed. He found a local Ham, Robert Helms (AF5Z), who diagnosed the problem (which Kenwood was not able to do) and the rig is back in the shack.

The problem was with the external VFO connector in the 830. A switch on the connector which let the radio know that an external VFO was in place was not properly functioning. Derek ordered a replacement part which AF5Z installed. Thanks Derek and Robert!

Work To Be Done

If you would like to help with some of these items, contact one of the club officers.

The club's old TNC continues to pick up noise when transmitting on the HF radio.
The rotator control box on/off switch is broken.
The 2M multi-mode power supply generates a large amount of RF noise.
Determine if donated shelves will fit into the shack's operating positions.

Web Tool

Amateur bands are a precious resource that must be protected. To learn more about attempts to reallocate the Ham bands check out the Ham Radio Spectrum Defense Bulletin at:

http://www.hams.com/Defense/

UTARC Census

Based on the 20 paid members this year so far. The following snapshot of the membership this year surfaces:

License Class  Number

Technician     6        

General        1        

Advanced       3        

Extra          9        

None           1

How            Number   
Associated              

Student        9        

Faculty/Staff  3        

Alumnus        5        

None           3

ARRL Member?   Number

Yes            10       

No             6        

No answer      4

10 Ways to Optimize Your Effectiveness in Public Service Events

de AB2CA and "RF Musings", newsletter of the Schenectady Museum ARA

Make sure your radio is in top operating condition. Small problems (such as loose antenna connections, bad microphones, intermittent operation, etc.) may be just annoying during casual operation, but WILL cause major grief under the continuous/severe service of net/emergency operation. If your radio's not in 100% top shape, buy, beg, or borrow one.
Don't operate your handheld with it hanging on your belt. Using the radio while it's strapped to your waist reduces your effective radiated power by more than 10 dB. That's a 90% reduction in power! Hold the radio in your hand, with the antenna in the clear.
Regarding antennas, those 3" rubber dummy loads may be cute, but you're throwing away 3-6 dB of power when using one. (If you're REALLY into math, compute the loss of a 3" rubber dummy load used on a beltclip). A telescoping half-wave has a gain of as much as 10 dB over a 3" rubber duck and a quarter-wave provides a 4-6 dB improvement. Even a 12-15" rubber duck will boost your signal by 3-6 dB over the 3" ones. Remember that one dB can mean the difference in whether or not a critical message gets through.
Have charged batteries and spare battery packs! If you also have a dry cell battery case, fill it with alkaline batteries. Make sure you have enough batteries with you to carry you through, even on high power.
Use headphones or an earphone rather than a speaker/mike. Most earphones will plug directly into your HT. Low cost stereo headphones are widely available and will work perfectly with your HT using a mono to stereo adapter. The headphones also have the advantage of concentrating the communications in your ears, while partially shutting out the outside noise. Headphones will also prolong battery life by allowing the radio to operate at lower audio output. A speaker/mike is the worst thing you can use--it doesn't cut the outside noise, it doesn't save batteries, and where is that HT while you're using the speaker/mike?? (Hint--see #2!)
Speak slowly and clearly when transmitting! You may take pride in your ability to run your words together and mumble, but the station on the other end may be in a noisy environment and may not receive your message.
Check out your ability to use simplex. Even if the operation is being conducted on a repeater, there may be "dead spots", the repeater may go down, or, sad to say, there may be jamming. Even if you can only work the 2 or 3 stations closest to you, a message can still be relayed. To maximize your simplex range, please reread #2 and #3.
Listen to net control and direct all communication through him/her. Identify your station when calling net control and keep all communications direct and to the point.
If you must leave the radio or the area to which you have been assigned, first seek permission and acknowledgment from the net control station, make your "time off" as short as possible, and check back in with NCS immediately upon your return.
Project a good image to the non-hams around you that are part of the event/emergency. This means acting professionally, using basic hygiene skills, etc.

Members On The Move

Kenneth (N1PVB) will soon have yet another article in the Linux Journal. Ken's latest piece is entitled, "Satellite Tracking and Linux," an article reviewing one of the freely-distributable applications that predicts and displays satellite, space shuttle, and Mir orbits.

Kenneth also had a letter to the editor published in the November issue of QST. In his letter Kenneth argues that the ARRL not change their code proficiency certificate requirements.

Three UTARC members/alumni were mentioned in the November issue of QST's article about the World Radiosport Team Championship held in California this summer. Participants Trey Garlough (WN4KKN, now N5KO) and Randy Thompson (K5ZD) were featured and comments from UTARC member Derek Wills (AA5BT) described the CW operating capabilities of the participants that he heard on the air.

Misc.

Clay (KF4EYL) would like to find out what frequencies are used by the UT Police Department and other departments of the University. If you know contact Clay at clayj@owlnet.rice.edu.

A new Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel has been set up for discussion emergency communications via Amateur Radio. The new channel's designator is #ares/race. A "net" is held every Sunday at 10:00 AM Pacific time.

UTARC Officers

President: Tom Orzechowski SQ9DDZ

Vice President: Kenneth Harcher N1PVB 467-8724 kharker@cs.utexas.edu

Secretary/Treasurer: Kourt de Haas KB5PRZ 445-4759 kourt@mail.utexas.edu

Newsletter Editor: Robert Barron KA5WSS 837-4051 barron@liant.com

UTARC Web Page URL: http://www.utexas.edu/students/utarc/

Mail Reflector: utarc-l@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu

UTARC News is published by the UT Amateur Radio Club, a registered student organization. UTARC News is not an official publication of The University of Texas at Austin and does not represent the views of The University or its officers. This newsletter was not printed with state-appropriated funds.

Newsletter Contributors: KD5VU, KB5PRZ, N1PVB, AA5BT, AB2CA

Join or renew your membership to the ARRL through the club. It costs you nothing more but UTARC gets a portion of the membership fee!

Got a project idea for the club? Let the officers know!

The University of Texas ARC

Box 170, Texas Union

Austin, TX 78713