September 1997

September Meetings

The September meeting of the University of Texas Amateur Radio Club will be held on Thursday, September 18 at 7:30 PM in RLM 5.118 on the UT campus. A video of the recent Dxpedition to Heard Island will be shown. Talk in on the 147.18 MHz repeater.

The last meeting of the club occurred in April. At that meeting officer elections were held. The current list of officers can be found on the last page of this newsletter.

Interested in getting your Amateur Radio license? A no-code Technician class will begin on Saturday, September 6 at Murchison Middle School (off of Far West Blvd.). The class will meet weekly on Saturday from 8:30AM-12 noon through October 25. Tests will be given on November 1.

For more information please contact Gwen at 414-2873 or Steve Sparks at 255-6753.

In addition classes will begin next year from January 17 through February 28 with testing on March 7.

The University of Texas Amateur Radio Club rented a table at the 1997 Austin Summerfest Amateur Radio Convention and swapfest. While not as large as Arlington's HamCom, Summerfest provided the perfect opportunity for the club to dispose of some old, unused equipment and random junk and raise money so we can acquire some new equipment. In preparation for the weekend, the club purchased a table-front banner that was handled by our Secretary/Treasurer Michael KD5AAD. Club vice-president Jill KC5OJK made many photocopies of both a general-purpose informational handout about the club and the membership application, many of which were distributed to the hordes of interested visitors.

The club was extraordinarily successful in its efforts to sell off useless stuff. Among the items liberated from storage for this purpose were three smashed-up 2m beams, two sections of Rohn 25 tower, the Lambda 12VDC power supply, the slightly-dysfunctional Kantronics KAM with v.2.0 firmware, two computer cases, one 80486SX motherboard, a box of random older ISA cards, an XT keyboard, the dead VGA monitor, a beat up speaker, a dead desk lamp, two 35MHz Motorola FM radios, three boxes of junk wires and useless computer bits, a Clegg 99'er 6M AM radio, twelve miscellaneous floppy and MFM hard drives, a homebrew transistor tester, a seriously-incomplete Heathkit Oscilloscope Accessories project, a TV rotor control head, about 15 feet of seriously weather-damaged RG-8 coax, and one very popular Heathkit HF SWR meter. The club's Icom IC-290H 2M all-mode radio, unfortunately, did not sell, much as most of the other vendor's higher-priced items failed to sell. (It was sold later in the summer though, for $350!)

Early on Saturday, Jim WB5PCV, a founding member of UTARC several decades ago, came by our table and gave to us a portion of Ron Johnson WA5RON's estate. Ron was also a founding member of UTARC, who has passed away from a heart attack. WB5PCV felt that Ron would have appreciated knowing that a portion of his estate was going to help support the club. This included a Johnson Tempo synthesized 222MHz FM HT, which was sold at Summerfest, and a Kenwood TH21AT synthesized 2M FM HT with many accessories, which did not sell despite the heroic efforts of Kevin Mandaville KT5I.

In addition to selling stuff, the club officers took the opportunity to purchase a Tokyo Hy-Power 430-440MHz solid-state amplifier with GaAsFET preamplifier built-in. It has a 10 watt input and puts out 50 watts, as verified by George K5TR's Bird wattmeter. This amplifier essentially gives us the same output power as the amplifier that the club had been borrowing from George K5TR, plus it gives us a preamplifier on receive, which we've never had before for 70cm. The unit looks brand new, like it's never been used, and has excellent, smooth T/R switching and nice linearity on SSB.

In summary, the club grossed just shy of $250, a net of $163.25 after the purchase of the amplifier and reimbursements for photocopying and table reservations. The only two items that did not sell were the Kenwood TH21AT 2M HT and the Icom IC-290H 2M all-mode mobile radio.

UTARC club officers Jill KC5OJK, Michael KD5AAD, and Ken KM5FA spent many hours at the swapfest table helping out the club. Kevin KT5I (ex-KG5KI) also came by and spent a couple of hours near the end of Saturday's session demonstrating his high-power salesman capabilities: "Do you remember that old Heathkit smell? You can have that again. It's just two hundred pennies. You probably lose that many in a week. Hey, I'm not through with you yet..." Kevin also kindly loaned $20 toward the purchase of the 70cm amplifier, which he later recouped when he helped make change for us. Club members George K5TR and Bob AB5N also visited the UTARC table.

In addition to the swapfest, club members and officers went to several of the seminars and forums, including a very interesting slide presentation by the leader of the XZ1N DXpedition to Myanmar (Burma), a presentation by Tom McDermott N5EG on Spread Spectrum and the TAPR Special Temporary Authority, and the QRP forum.

During the last academic year, the club held a referendum vote on what its top priorities for station improvement were. Over the course of two club meetings, three items became clearly identified as of high interest to the club membership. Of those three, two have finally been accomplished this summer: the acquisition of a high-power amplifier for the 6M band, and the acquisition of a 70cm all-mode radio.

The club's new 6M amplifier is a converted Johnson high-power signal generator. It belongs to club member George K5TR, who is generously allowing the club to use it on extended, semi-permanent loan. It was acquired along with a batch of several identical units that George and Bryan W5KFT discovered. The unit is based on a 3CX800 tube, contains its own built-in 220VAC power supply, meters for current and voltage, integrated Bird wattmeter elements and meters for forward and reflected power, and was originally tuned for 40MHz. It is in the process of being converted to amateur use through the addition of a Dowkey T/R relay and appropriate switching circuitry, with some retuning it to place it in the 50-54MHz range. This conversion is being done by George K5TR. The amplifier should put out puts out somewhere between 500 and 800 watts.

In other 6M news, the club also has a Kenwood VOX-3 accessory unit donated this summer by Kenneth KM5FA. This box provides VOX on SSB and FM and semi-break-in keying on CW for the Kenwood TS-600 all-mode 6M transceiver. Kenneth also put up a 6M vertical antenna that the club has owned for some time but never put into service.

The club's other VHF gear saw radical improvements over the summer as well. Thanks to a donation of a lightning-damaged Astron RS-35M power supply from Trey N5KO, the old Lambda power supply the club had been using was removed from service. The RS-35M was repaired at minor parts cost to the club by Bob AB5N. The club officers were presented with and followed through on a fantastic deal on a used Yaesu FT726R, a 2M/70cm dual-band all-mode base-station transceiver. This purchase cost $600 and was arranged through K5TR and W5KFT, and financed through the sale of the club's old Lambda power supply and Icom IC-290H 2M all-mode mobile rig in August, and through monetary donations by Kenneth KM5FA and Robert KA5WSS. The new rig puts out 20 watts on 144MHz and about 10 watts on 432MHz, includes dual VFOs, good intermod rejection, and tuning controls superior to the 2M mobile rig it replaces. Accessories for this radio that the club might be interested in acquiring are the satellite plug-in board (which allows full-duplex cross-band operation), a narrow CW filter, or an additional band module for 440-450MHz, 50-54MHz, or 21-29.7MHz. Presently, the club is borrowing a long-boom yagi from K5TR until we can find a suitable replacement. The new radio has been used on both bands for several contest efforts this summer.

Finally, coax switches were acquired for both the 2m and 6m antenna systems, so that operators can quickly switch between vertical omni-directional antennas and the horizontal yagis. This is useful both for contesting and satellite work.

Unfortunately, the third major improvement to the club station equipment has yet to materialize. Last January, the club voted to join TAPR, the Tucson Amateur Packet Radio organization, and petition to join TAPR's Special Temporary Authority (STA) from the FCC to experiment with Spread Spectrum in the amateur bands above 50MHz. The club did both. At the time, it was believed that TAPR was going to be able to offer a group purchase of spread spectrum radio modems to its STA members, several of them located in Austin, and the club authorized the officers to spend up to $500 to acquire one so the club could participate in the local network-building effort and offer high-speed digital services to our members. Unfortunately, a deal with Freewave that TAPR had negotiated fell through and to date no other purchases/kits/plans/etc have materialized. In the meantime, however, the club has managed to scrounge sufficient parts to get an 80386 PC together, running Linux, that along with a TNC and 2M radio will put W5EHM on the local 2M TCP/IP frequency. If and when a spread spectrum plan for Austin comes to fruition, the computer will be up and running ready for it. Most of the computer parts come care of Robert KA5WSS, and the 2M radio from Paulus N5SNN.

Finally, the club's operating computer saw additional upgrades, including an 80486DX4/100 motherboard and CPU donated by Jonathan KC5UGK, additional RAM donated by Jonathan and Kenneth KM5FA, a new VGA monitor (donated by Kevin KG5KI, which has since died and needs to be replaced) by George K5TR, a new 101-key keyboard donated by Kenneth KM5FA, and a 2x CD-ROM and sound card care of Jill KC5OJK.

In addition to radio equipment, several water leaks in the club station were repaired early in the summer. During a particularly windy storm, nearly six liters of water were captured in a bucket from a leak in the roof near the seam between two layers of the concrete below the bulkhead where the coax is routed.

Repair consisted of asphalt roofing compound to seal the leak on the exterior side. New plywood and caulking was also used to seal the area around the air conditioner unit and window better.

The club replaced its air conditioning unit in the shack in late July. Over the course of late last summer and this past summer, the old unit produced cold air less and less frequently, instead just blowing the warm air around. Apparently, the old unit was determined to be beyond repair. The replacement of the unit was coordinated by club Treasurer/Secretary Michael KD5AAD, and was done at no cost to the club.

The club participated in numerous contest efforts this summer, including the June VHF QSO Party, the SMIRK 6M QSO Party, the IARU HF Championships, CQ World Wide VHF, the ARRL UHF Contest, and the North American QSO Party, phone. Most of these efforts were casual in nature, mainly with an interest in working new grids for the club on VHF+ bands, and giving new contesters some needed experience on the air.

Several members participated in Field Day, although the club itself did not put on much of an effort. It was operated as a 1D station briefly on 2M SSB by Kenneth KM5FA at the beginning of the event, and on HF CW by Derek AA5BT near the end of the event. George K5TR operated for about an hour from the club station using his own call, as well. Most members toured or supported the efforts of other, larger Field Day efforts, such as the Austin ARC W5KA QRP operation, the Williamson County ARC N3BB operation, or the McKinney ARC operation.

The club had a table at this year's Summerfest at which volumes of club surplus was sold in a fantastically successful couple of days. In short, over half of the junk in the back room of the shack and in the crawlspace above the shack were sold off, at a gross profit of a little less than $250.

The club officers took the opportunity to purchase a new Tokyo Hy-Power 10-watt-in-50-watt-out 430-440MHz brick amplifier at $75, and after reimbursements for photocopying and table cost, the club still netted $163.25! The club later sold the Icom IC-290H 2M multi-mode radio for $350.00 to a ham in Colorado.

Also in finances, the $1200 that the club raised for tower and antenna replacements following the September 1995 storm that blew over our old tower, has finally been routed through all the necessary administrative channels and been paid to Robert KA5WSS, who graciously loaned the club that amount so that replacements could be acquired and put into service by April 1996.

At this point, the club is now completely debt-free.

The University of Texas Amateur Radio Club now has a new radio at the club station, W5EHM. The club officers were presented with the opportunity to purchase a clean, used Yaesu FT-726R 2M/70cm all-mode radio at a great price and decided to go for it. The acquisition of all-mode gear for the 70cm band was voted by club members as the top club station expansion priority in the November 1996 club meeting (the second highest-voted for priority was a high-power amplifier for 6M, which is a club project currently in the works.) To help recover some funds for this new radio, the club will be selling its Icom IC-290H 2M all-mode transceiver and Lambda 12VDC power supply at Summerfest.

The club's new Yaesu FT-726R rig has already arrived at the club station. George K5TR, who brokered the acquisition through Bryan W5KFT on behalf of the club, brought it up Friday night and we hooked it up and tried it out. The very first signal received on the rig once we got it plugged in was HR2KOS calling CQ from Honduras in Central America on the 435MHz downlink of FO-29! Later in the evening, George QSO'd with KA5VMC in grid square EM20, just due north of Houston, on both 2M and 70cm SSB and things seem to be hopping! I used it briefly to give out a few 2M QSOs at the beginning of Field Day. The rig is physically very clean and very solid feeling.

The rig's band modules are spec'd to put out 10 watts each, although the 2M module seems to put out nearly 20, which according to George's Bird wattmeter drives our 160 watt 2M brick amp to full output. The 10 watts on 432MHz seems to drive the 100 watt 70cm brick amp to around 50 watts output. Both brick amplifiers also now have direct keying lines from the rig, bypassing the RF-sensing T/R switching circuitry in the amps and ensuring smoother T/R switching operations than we have had before.

The rig unfortunately does not have the optional satellite board installed in it. What this means is that the rig cannot receive at the same time it transmits, which makes it difficult to find your own downlink signal and know where exactly to listen for other stations calling you. In theory, though, if one has a good satellite-tracking program that can compute Doppler shifts, this might not be a huge problem. But it might be. I dunno. I've never tried it. Our antenna systems, also, are not really well suited to satellite operation. W5KFT is keeping his eyes open for a satellite board for the rig just in case we want to buy one in the future.

This is an excellent deal and the rig looks and feels great. It is much more intermod resistant on 70cm than was the transverter that the club had been borrowing from George K5TR, and even seems more intermod resistant on 2M than the old Icom IC-290H.

Right now, the club is still borrowing from George K5TR a 70cm brick amplifier and a 70cm long-boom yagi antenna. The club officers are investigating opportunities to acquire a 10-watt-in-100-watt-out 70cm brick amplifier, some hardline coax with connectors, and a 70cm yagi antenna.

Special thanks go to George K5TR for helping the club acquire this new radio.

We didn't work any randoms, but then we didn't spend more than about 45 minutes total on 144.200. The strangest thing about this shower was that, unlike last year on the Perseids, with the exception of the skeds we completed, we didn't hear a single ping on any of the other skeds. All three of our successful skeds were on 144.133MHz.

Final Score = 10836 points.

The club was on the air informally for a few other contests this past summer.

Derek (AA5BT) and Robert (KA5WSS) activated W5EHM for the 1997 IARU HF Championships in July. Conditions improved during the time in which the station was active with an opening to Europe starting near noon, local time. W5EHM had little problem working anyone heard, except for the pileup for D25L in Angola, which attracted much attention.

The QSO and zone count were lower than last year’s effort but the much higher HQ multiplier count made for an effort that surpassed last year’s score by about 2K points.

Robert (KA5WSS) took a few minutes away from the HF station to work some stations in the CQ WW VHF Contest. The new 432 MHz radio proved to make operating more interesting as most stations contacted could be moved from band to band for new contacts.

W5EHM just received in the mail its IARU Five-Band Worked All Continents (5BWAC) Award, issued July 25, 1997. The envelope also has a big black on gold sticker with a diamond in which a couple of hemispheres and "3.5 MHz" are featured. I'm not sure what the point of the sticker is, really, as it's nearly 2" x 4" big, and I though 5BWAC kind of implied 80M was involved, so what is the point of an 80M endorsement sticker, really?

The W5EHM club station has recently received a newly-refurbished Astron RS-35M dual-meter 35A peak, 30A continuous 13.8VDC power supply, which replaces our old Lambda 12VDC power supply. This unit comes as a lightning-damaged donation from club member George Fremin K5TR, and was repaired at minor parts cost to the club by Bob Nagy AB5N. Special thanks go to both George and Bob for their generous contributions!

The Kenwood VOX-3 accessory that I bought for the club is now in service. To remind people, this is the accessory that plugs into the back of the Kenwood TS-600 all-mode 6m rig and provides VOX on SSB and FM and semi-break-in keying on CW. I got it out of the box and set it up and it seems to work as advertised. And after scrubbing on it for a half hour or so with some Endust to get all the slimy yellow tobacco build-up off it, it actually looks relatively clean. I'm going to see if I can try to build a new cable for it, though, as the one provided exposes all the contacts (who builds cables like this?!?! Drives me nuts...) and is also coated in tobacco grime. It has three knob adjustments for VOX, anti-VOX, and delay.

George "Zeke" Harvey W5NFC, club station trustee, is newly active on 6M with 100 watts of power into a stacked two-antenna yagi system at his home QTH in south Austin. The club this summer received QSL cards from him for QSOs made on 6M, 2M, and 70cm. Zeke is mainly active on the digital pacsats.

Kenneth KM5FA, club president, received his mixed-mode Worked All Continents

(WAC) certificate this summer.

Robert KA5WSS, club newsletter editor, has not only been a TAPR Spread Spectrum STA member station, but has been serving as the STA Secretary since May 1997.

President: Kenneth Harker KM5FA 467-8724 kharker@cs.utexas.edu

Vice President: Jill Francis KC5OJK 448-1263 kc5ojk@mail.utexas.edu

Secretary/Treasurer: Michael Evans KB5AAD mlevans@mail.utexas.edu

Newsletter Editor: Robert Barron KA5WSS 837-4051 ka5wss@qsl.net

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: KM5FA

Box 170, Texas Union

Austin, TX 78713