Jan 2015 - Yakima Amateur Radio Club

AT E U R R A
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YAKIMA AMATEUR
RADIO CLUB
GT
Ladder Line Newsletter
Club Founded in 1930
85 years of Continuous service to the Yakima Valley
ARRL Affliated in1931
Featured member
Inside this issue:
• Club Meeting
Tuesday Jan 13, 2015
7:30 P.M.
• January Social
Tuesday Jan 27, 2015
6:30 P.M.
• Featured member
• Mission Statement
• Voux Swifts .5 gram Tx
• Christmas Party
• Mr President
Feel free to email us and
complain, brag, make
suggestions, or write copy
for the newsletter.
Send your email address to
[email protected]
73
A Ham Club with it’s own Weather Man
Stu Seibel K0YQM when you go anywhere with Stu,
people
people remember that he was on TV or that he was the
weatherman and they always have something nice to say
to him. WB7WAM
It all started with a World War II surplus ARC-5 transmitter
with 40 watts of CW power feeding a 40 meter dipole. Put
that together with a Hallicrafters S-40 I bought from my
cousin and it was a 1957 amateur radio. . A high school
buddy and I elmered each other to get licensed and then
had to come up with all of $6.00 to get the ARC-5’s from
the surplus bins at Burstein-Applebee in Kansas City.
My buddy was intrigued with radar and ham radio gave
him the springboard to a career in the Air Force. My
interest was focused on a building across the street from
B-A where the inventor of the Top-40 radio format, Todd Storz, had the studios of his flagship
WHB. Little did I realize I’d be talking ham radio with him.
Having that ham ticket impressed the folks at a 500 watt daytimer in Leavenworth, Kansas,
into giving me a weekend job. A proposed power increase meant I had to get a commercial
First Class Radiotelephone License at 16 and after a few stops wound up at the Storz station
in Oklahoma City, the 50,000 watt KOMA. Following a move of the studios to the transmitter,
Todd Storz would often show up to study the huge Western Electric blowtorch, fascinated by
its Doherty amplifier with wide modulation and power capabilities. When he found out the kid
minding the place at night was a fellow ham, that meant ham talk.
An ill-fated experiment to automate format radio convinced me I wasn’t cut out for voice
tracking and prompted a move north to Wichita’s KLEO. A very good move because that’s
where I met Carol, my bride of 51 years. It was also the place where I was the only one who
got paid at a Beach Boys performance. The owner of a roller rink called to ask if I would help
promote and introduce a band he got for free. He said he got a call from Murry Wilson who
said his three sons were in a band he was managing and he was offering him a free show to
see if their California surfing style would appeal to landlocked Kansas. Somehow we got a
crowd that left as Beach Boys fans and Murry Wilson, a Kansas native, left thinking the band
just might make it beyond California.
Another milestone was at KIOA in Des Moines (Iowa) with music director added to my other
duties and the big question of why The Beatles could be a gigantic hit in Europe and get
nowhere in the U.S. with an early 1963 release of “She Loves You.” That is until one fall night
AT E U R R A
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YAKIMA AMATEUR
RADIO CLUB
Ladder Line Newsletter
Club Founded in 1930
85 years of Continuous service to the Yakima Valley
ARRL Affliated in1931
January 2015
Stu Seibel K0YQM (continued)
a Drake University student pounded on the studio window clutching a copy of the latest British album. European record charts
indicated the cut to play was “I Saw Her Standing There.” It was instant pandemonium and The Beatles conquered the Midwest.
A few months later Capitol Records released that cut as a single backed with “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.” To my amazement, the
Des Moines Register tracked me down last fall to confirm this urban legend and printed an extensive article on Iowa being a
beachhead in the British Invasion. In August of 1964, The Beatles embarked on their first U.S. tour and one of the stops was
Denver. The promoter immediately teamed up with the mighty KIMN, leaving little daytime challenger KDAB out in the cold.
KDAB’s management correctly reasoned that KIMN’s “hard news” news department probably wouldn’t put that much effort into
covering the arrival. The problem was, how could KDAB do that much coverage with no news department.
The answer was to get deejay friends from other cities to help them in return for getting access to The Beatles news conference.
It worked, KDAB stole KIMN’s thunder and the deejays got an interview where The Beatles asked as many questions as the
interviewers. This was their first trip to the Old West and Paul and John especially wanted to know more about Native Americans
they read about in England. That was one time this farm boy was glad he grew up on land between a couple of reservations and
when they found out my wife was part Cherokee, those city slickers didn’t have a chance.
Radio was very transient in those days and television was very stable. So, when it came time for family, it was a time to move to
television. Moving up to news director and program director in Colorado and Wyoming, we enjoyed stability until John Noel and
Dale Hazen called from KIMA-TV. Somehow they figured out I would be a good replacement for the retiring Jimmy Nolan and
agreed that I wouldn’t have to do weather or a children’s program, only carrying on as program director. Carol was thrilled. Finally
I could shed the weather duties and be home at night. After a few months, things didn’t work out as planned and Carol was
persuaded to let me do weather for no more than six months until they could find a replacement. Well, you know the rest of the
story, don’t you?
Ever since selling the ham gear for college tuition, other demands kept me from getting back to ham radio, until retirement. Caring
folks came up with all sorts of ways to keep the mind and body active, flattering, but not appealing. Hey, I grew up in the payola
years, need I say more. Then I remembered an old chief engineer friend who found the answer in ham radio when he retired. It
sounded like it might work for me, so I’ve now worked up to Extra Class, a V.E. and trying to solve low profile city slicker antenna
challenges. 73
CHRISTMAS PARTY
See if you can pick out
Santa
Bev KK7OE & Don KC7FFG with help from others do the 146.520 simplex net on Wendsday night at 8:30. They came up to the
Christmas party and invited everyone to the Lower Valley Ham Club Christmas party. We always enjoy Don & Bev, That’s why
we go to Lower Valley Club Christmas party so we can get to know everyone a little better. All you can eat Chinese dinner
now that’s Christmas.
AT E U R R A
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YA
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YA K I M
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WASHIN
YAKIMA AMATEUR
RADIO CLUB
Club Founded in 1930
85 years of Continuous service to the Yakima Valley
GT
Ladder Line Newsletter
ARRL Affliated in1931
January 2015
The Ultimate Bunny Hunt
.First you have to learn what you are looking for. A 4 inch long bird that flies at 100mph. Then you find out the transmitter weighs
. .5 grams and is attached to the birds back. You can buy a receiver for a $1000 and go to work. We are ham radio operators
“we don’t need no stinking wild life receiver”. Then you notice everyone that has a receiver has a hand held Yagi antenna. OK
now it’s starting to get a little harder.
First week we tried to receive a signal sent from a transmitter used for woodpecker tracking. Paul N7XOP had an idea using his
Ic7000. I took the transmitter to his house and just as we started to receive a signal. the battery died. I returned the transmitter
and was loaned 4 other transmitters that I could try to install a battery on and the first one I tried worked.
Now we had a transmitter with full power. To our surprise the IC7000 on 156.346 CW not only had a S meter reading, on CW it
had a tone, when they installed the transmitters on the birds. I was in the parking lot, receiving great signals from all six birds.
Larry Schwitter
Paul N7XOP, Linda K7LKH and I attended an Audubon meeting and met everyone and they had a
program.The speaker was Larry Schwitters. We got to know him as the "King of the Swifts" because of
his vast knowledge of the Vaux's swift. Larry had a fast paced PowerPoint presentation. Larry examined
Audubon's ongoing citizen science project, Vaux's Happening, launched six years ago to gather the
data necessary to make a compelling case for the preservation of a single chimney roost site in
Portland, OR. Vaux's Happening quickly expanded into an attempt to locate, raise awareness of, and
hopefully preserve the important roost sites used by this species all along their migratory path. In the
last twelve migrations the project has documented nearly six million Vaux's Swift roosting events from
San Diego to the Yukon. Larry will share images and information captured by the project's chimney
surveillance cameras and precision temperature recorders.
Last September, Yakima Valley Audubon Society member Lori Isley discovered
Vaux’s Swifts funneling into the Johnson’s Auto Glass Chimney on First Street just
after sunset. Over the next 21 days, 19 observations documented a total of 24,481
Swifts entering this chimney. On twelve occasions, the nightly total exceeded 1,000
individual birds with the high count of 1,595 tallied by Greg Bohn on Oct 2.
This fall, Larry, with the assistance of several Yakima Valley Audubon Society
volunteers, will attempt to mist net a few swifts and attach radio locators on them.
This will allow the tagged birds to be monitored to see how long they remain at the
Yakima roost and even better, monitors at chimneys to the south may be able to
track their migration route.
Swift Snips: These 4-5 inch long birds are the smallest and most numerous of the swift
species in Washington State. They spend much of their time in the air and forage,
eat, drink, court, collect nesting materials and mate all in flight.
Vaux’s Swifts prefer to roost in hollow old trees but frequently use brick chimneys as
a substitute. Vaux’s Swifts can-not perch because they have weak feet so they must
clutch the rough surface of wherever they roost upon, using their stubby tail as a
brace.
Prior to entering the chimney, the swifts often gather just prior to sunset in great
numbers and circle the chimney. As they begin to enter the chimney, they change
from their head-first direction and go in tail first. Once in the chimney, they overlap
one another in “shingle” fashion to conserve body heat. They often slow their
metabolism to a near-dormant state to conserve energy while roosting.
Transmitter in place
Now for the next challenge. Woodpeckers that have transmitters on them. They
have been monitoring them with no problem. The woodpeckers have started covering a lot more ground and they need help
locating them. They are in the Nile Valley & Bethel ridge areas.
The Vaux Swifts 6 transmitters are 159.103, 159.204, 159.304, 159.406, 159.506, 159.605
The woodpeckers transmitters are 159.100, 159.200, 159.300, 159.400, 159.500, 159.600
Ham in the park
Started a little slow, then it got so hot, no one wanted to be at a park. As the weather
started to cool the turnout started to grow. When it got too cold, I figured that ham in the
park would stop till spring. Everyone wanted to keep it going some how.
The group started ham in the shop. The groups first project was to get a Drake model 2-B
receiver working. The last time it was plugged in, was the early 70’s. This project started
with a tube radio activation program and this has been on going and we have many tube
radios to get up and running.
This has been very educational for everyone involved. We have coffee, donuts, pizza,
subway sandwich, fudge. We never know who will show up or what we will be eating.
Come join us and get to know a new generation of hams. Coffee is always on.
AT E U R R A
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YAKIMA AMATEUR
RADIO CLUB
Net Schedules
W7AQ Net
146.660 tone 123
7:30pm Monday
Ladder Line Newsletter
January 2015
Simplex Net
146.520 simplex
8:30pm Wednesday
From the President
W7AQ has started working on the HamFest. If you would like to help or have any suggestions
for the club or HamFest committee let them know.
Vendor friendly will be priority one. Vendors will have all the help they need going in and out.
Vendor tables will be handled a lot differently because of the comments made by the vendors
last year.
We have a solution to stop early sales and that will be implemented. Parking is an issue for
the vendors and that has been solved. Everyone will be very happy with the parking solution.
Vendor parking and Handicapped parking will be much improved. Attendees of the HamFest
will not have to walk a block or two. You will only have to walk across the street and you’re in.
One solution to the big crowd at the door, give everyone the opportunity to pay or get their
preregister started at 7:00 or 8:00, have their hand stamped. Then at 9:00am, show your hand
and walk in.
There is a small group on 147.300 every Friday night at 8:00pm. They call it the Subject Net.
Lots of fun, meet new hams, answer the question or pass it on. Check in and get on the list.
Net Control starts with a subject. Anyone can have a subject and anyone can be net control,
it goes around until it gets back to the net control. New subject and start all over. We try to
close the net at 10:00.
I must say the group of new hams have been participating in club member activities and have
been upgrading their license and have been participating and learning about radios and
antennas. Every day their stations are better and stronger and they have lots of ideas for the
future.
Insomniac Net
145.555 tone 100
445.875 tone 103.5
every night 11:00pm
Tech Net
145.555 tone 100 simplex
445.875 tone 103.5 simplex
Friday night 7:30pm
W7AQ Repeaters
VHF
146.660 Tone123
146.840 Tone123
147.300 Tone123
UHF
224.900 Tone123
Other Repeaters
VHF
147.040
Tone123
146.200 Tone ?
146.940 Tone173.8
Echolink
Connected to Ireland Conference
Nodes
145.555 simplex Tone100
445.875 simplex Tone103.5
I talked to many inactive hams at the fair booth. 10 days and every day I talked to a ham that
would like to get involved and get back on the air. I have noticed many of the hams I met at
the fair are showing up, and emailing me, and wanting to get their old radios on the air.
The last board meeting of the year was tuesday, the 30th. Joe KA7LJQ had a cough and should
have been home. Jo had spent the last three days putting together work books so Dave W7ICW
could handle the job of Treasurer. Jo walked Dave through all of his responsibilities.
Work the world with a handheld
Get ham news anytime 0016
Jo put together a great presentation to help Dave as much as possible, as he takes over as
Treasurer for 2015. Jo got all of us up to speed on what will be expected of us to make Dave
and Sharon’s job as Secretary easy as possible.
Ham Breakfast
Old Town Station
Every Monday 8:30am
Meetings of the Yakima Amateur Radio Club
are held on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month
2nd Tuesday:
Short Business Meeting with a Program 7:30pm
Red Cross building 302 S. 2nd St. Yakima, Wa
4th Tuesday:
Dinner Social 6:30pm
Power House Grill Restaurant
3807 River Rd. Yakima WA
2015 Officers
President
Vice-President
Secretary
Treasurer
Past President
Trustee
Robert Rutherford
Joe Ackermann
Sharon Fisher
Dave Hansen
Joe Ackermann
Mark Tharp
Board Members 2014 - 2015
Harold Hutchinson
Andy Thomson
Board Members 2015 - 2016
Stu Seibel
Keith Bowman
WB7WAM
KK7KI
KB7MKF
W7ICW
KK7KI
KB7HDX
KE7LA
W7CXA
K0QKM
N7TRN