Northern Colorado Amateur Radio ClubP.O. Box 272956

Fort Collins, CO 80527-2956

The TribanderThe monthly Newsletter of the Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club

Club Meetings are held on the 3rd Saturday of each month.

Firehouse Restaurant1164 W Main St Windsor, CO

All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

NCARC Club Information

Club Officers

President Dan Magro W7RF (970)295-4200 w7rf@radiodan.comVice President Tom Jungmeyer K1TJ (970)484-8329 tom@completetowing.com

Secretary Dave Langenberg KC9FOO (773)612-8435 dave@thelangenbergs.comTreasurer Membership

ChairWillis Whatley WA5VRL (970)407-6599 whatley@frii.com

Interference Coordinator

Larry Arave W7LRY (970)206-1281 larv@outdrs.net

Newsletter Chris Howard W0EP (970)493-2309 chris@yipyap.comTechnical Chair Eric Slutz N0EAS (970)282-3752 eric@redginger.com Hamfest Chair Matt Kassawara KG0W (970)433-2123 battery@writeme.com

NCARC RepeatersW0UPS: 145.115 MHz – (144.515 MHz Input) 100 Hz CTCSS Subtone (1* on, 0* off) Autopatch Echolink Node 4236(40-32.926N, 105-11.898W, 7229 ft) Horsetooth Mountain, west of Fort Collins, CO

W0UPS: 447.275 MHz – (442.275 MHz input) 100 Hz CTCSS Subtone Autopatch(40-32.926N, 105-11.898W, 7229 ft) Horsetooth Mountain, west of Fort Collins, CO

W0UPS: 224.520 MHz – (222.920 MHz input) 100 Hz CTCSS Subtone (40-32.926N, 105-11.898W, 7229 ft) Horsetooth Mountain, west of Fort Collins, CO

W0UPS: 146.625 MHz – (146.025 MHz Input) 100 Hz CTCSS Subtone(40-50.266N, 105-3.017W, 5600 ft) SW of the Rawhide Power Plant, 17.5 miles north of Fort Collins, CO

W0UPS: 146.850 MHz – (146.250 MHz Input) 100 Hz CTCSS Subtone (1* on, 0* off)(40-18.310N, 104-35.884 W, about 4985 ft) SE of Greeley, CO New location

W0UPS-5: 144.390 MHz – APRS Digital Repeater(40-32.926N, 105-11.898W, about 7229 ft) Horsetooth Mountain, west of Fort Collins, CO

W0UPS: 448.025 MHz – (443.025 MHz Input) 100 Hz CTCSS Subtone ARES Rptr(40-26.650N, 104-59.370W, about 5192 ft) Budweiser Event Center on I-25 at MM259

Nets

ARES District 10 Information Net Thursday 7:00 pm 145.115 MHzARES Statewide Net Sunday 8:30 pm 145.310 MHz

Central Colorado Traffic Net Daily 7:30 pm 145.310 MHz220 MHz Informal Net Monday 7:00 pm 224.520 MHz

Tech Net Wednesday 7:00 pm 145.115 MHz

Web Page

http://www.ncarc.net

mailto:w7rf@radiodan.comhttp://www.ncarc.net/mailto:battery@writeme.commailto:eric@redginger.commailto:chris@yipyap.commailto:larv@outdrs.netmailto:Whatley@frii.commailto:Dave@thelangenbergs.commailto:tom@completetowing.com

Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club October 2009Notice: NCARC Name Badges are available for only $10 each.

Just send your name; as you want it on your badge to W5WIW Willie Williams, 434 Magnolia Ct, Eaton, CO 80615, W.I.Williams@msn.com. It can be your full name, your first name, or your nickname and your call sign. Mail your payment for the Name Badge(s) to the NCARC P.O. Box (or bring it to the club meeting) and allow 3 to 4 weeks for processing. To view a sample of the name badges, just come to the club meeting. Willie also has shirts, patches, mugs, caps, jackets and other NCARC goodies available.

Repeater News

* The 220 MHz machine is back up on Horsetooth . * I now have my own repeater at KCØRBT's house near Horsetooth on 1283.550 MHz, negative offset, pl 100

also remember his repeater 147.450 MHz, negative offset, pl 123 both are open access. * This month's presentation will be on APRS presented by Louis, KCØVJE

'73Tom Jungmeyer K1TJ

Editor's Notes

• I've enjoyed my tenure as the NCARC newsletter editor. In about two weeks I am moving to Columbus, Mississippi, which is located in north eastern Mississippi, south of Tupelo and west of Birmingham, Alabama. I'm expecting a bit of cultural shock going from Front Range Colorado to the Deep South. One of differences will be a pronounced diminution in the number of licensed Radio Amateurs in that neighborhood. But that just means I'll be the rare county and grid square. (And, no covenants and no building permit needed for a tower. )

• Ham History – Having boxed up my radio station, taken down the antennas, I'm somewhat bored these days. So I found a stack of old QST's in the closet and have been reading some of them. An article in, I believe, a 1994 edition covered the history of callsign assignments up until that time. The article was written before the advent of our current vanity callsign system. There was even a long period about then when the FCC gave out no new club callsigns. It happens that the article in question is available on the ARRL web site at http://www.arrl.org/members-only/tis/info/pdf/9405054.pdf

• Another odd distraction – An advertisement on the www.craigslist.com classified ads web service for a schematic tracing job led to a couple of evenings of interesting work. A guy with an early 1970's vintage guitar amplifier wanted someone to produce a schematic for him. There are a lot of old amp schematics already available on the internet, but this particular one was not. So I had some fun tracing it out and drawing a picture.

• And one more – Aaron, N0WAR, had given me some stuff that came from the estate of W0BBE in Glen Haven. Included were some 1930's vintage training materials from the Central Radio and Television School in Kansas City, MO. Central was a technical school that covered a number of subjects in addition to radio and TV and was eventually absorbed into the DeVry technical school in Kansas City. The interesting part is that the state university in KC has a special collection of materials from Arthur Church, an early radio station pioneer in Iowa and Missouri who ran some radio stations and started the technical school. I just today shipped off another packet of stuff for their collection. They seemed glad to hear about my find and pleased to accept the contribution. It took a bit of Googling to figure out who might be interested. But I think it was worth the effort.

October Meeting – Club Officer Nominations

October's business meeting brings the annual nomination of club officers. Check out the list of positions on Page 2 of this newsletter for the positions involved. An active club requires active membership. You don't have to be “newsletter editor for life”. But how about trying something for a year?

http://www.craigslist.com/http://www.arrl.org/members-only/tis/info/pdf/9405054.pdfmailto:W.I.Williams@msn.com

Dues Schedule Changes

Willis, WA5VRL, our treasurer and membership officer has reminded us of the change in dues schedule. We are in the middle of a transition period which will continue for the next 15 months.

As was approved in a vote earlier this summer, we will be shifting to a dues schedule where everyone pays in January for the whole year. New members that come along during the year will pay a pro-rated $2.09 per month for the remainder of the year then pick up with the annual schedule.

During the transition everyone will need to pay a bit of a year at the pro-rated amount to pick up with either January 2011 or January 2012, depending on your next due date. If you don't know your next due date, contact Willis using the contact information given on Page 2.

Picnic Pictures by K0OJ

A beautiful September day at Boyd Lake State Park in Loveland, CO

Above: Tom, K1TJ, cooked brats and burgers. They were Yum!

Left: Dan, W7RF, buys a lot of doorprize tickets.

Below: Hmm, who will win the doorprize?

Shake Up Your Hamfest. By Bob Bastone, WC3O radiofreebob@att.net (from ARRL Club News email newsletter)

A hamfest is a perfect opportunity to try something new. Ideas don't have to break the budget but they can be something that offers the crowd something just for making the trip to the show. Here are a few suggestions that we have used at the Skyview Radio Society's < http://www.skyviewradio.net/ > events. Feel free to use them at your club's next event.

Car Show – Our club has been doing this for a few years now. Some have classic cars, hot rods, bikes or whatever. Leave some preferred parking for them as incentive to bring their fancy car to your fest. Folks really enjoy looking over these between looking at that old GE receiver card and that old, busted, early Palm Pilot with no docking station for $10.00. Depending on your hamfest situation it doesn't cost you anything extra to do and people really enjoy it!

Jam Session – Many hams are also pretty good musicians. Why not advertise on your hamfest fliers for folks to bring their instruments. This has been great fun every year at our hamfest some time now. Wait until later in your fest to get started. Promote it on your PA system. Try it, you'll like it.

Culinary Delights -- Do you do your own cooking for your hamfest? Try something different. Come up with a signature dish and give it a cute hammy name. At our fest we have the Skyview Burger and the Skyview Dipole Hotdog. Both are spicy and sloppy. Most folks will break a sweat so much that when you're done eating them you normally need a shower. Folk love them! Here is a tip: Don't buy low quality generic food. Get the good stuff and charge for it. People don't mind paying extra if they feel they are getting something special for their money. Taste is a very strong sense and emotion. They will be back to your fest next year, with friends.

Paparazzi – Take lots of pictures of your event especially pictures of people having fun. Crop out unnecessary background images and post the pictures on your club web site soon after the event. It's not as good as getting you face on the cover of QST but it's nice to see your smiling mug on a web site.

The hamfest season is just about over here in the northeast so this is a good time to plan for next year. I hope some of these suggestions might help your club with its next hamfest. They have worked well for us. Use your imagination. You know what you have to work with. The idea is to shake it up. Let's get some young folks interested and make your fest much more memorable for everybody. Good luck and I hope that old rusty D-104 you got from that box on the ground works out for you. I think you got a good deal on it.

mailto:radiofreebob@att.nethttp://www.skyviewradio.net/

Northern Colorado

Amateur Radio ClubInformation/Application Form

____ I would like more information on Amateur Radio.

____ I want to join the NCARC. My payment is enclosed.

____ I want to renew my membership. My payment is enclosed.

Annual Dues:Family Membership: $25.00Full Time Students: $5.00

BEFORE FILLING THIS OUT, READ THIS MESSAGE -------------------------------------- ↓Name: __________________________________Callsign: ______________________________Street: ________________________________City: __________________________________State: _________________________________Zip: ___________________________________Telephone: _____________________________License Class: _________________________E-mail Address: ________________________

Receive Newsletter by E-mail? YES NO

Student? YES NO

ARRL Member? YES NO

Please mail this form to: NCARC P.O. Box 272956 Fort Collins, CO 80527-2956

You only need to fill in your name or callsign and anything that has changed. Any items left blank will be assumed to be correct in the NCARC database.

If you would like to receive the newsletter by E-mail, please indicate so here.