Podunk Hollow News The office ial Newsletter of the Egyptian Radio Club, Incorporated

June 2008

FIELD DAY RESULTS

Our Field Day venture was chaired by Bill Bell, W9BEL. These are the results of the Egyptian Radio Club’s effort in the

American Radio Relay League 2008 Field Day contest.

Thanks to K7RMJ the CW contacts were up from 107 in 2007 to 142 in 2008. The phone contacts were up slibhtly from 126 in 2007 to 132 in 2008. Bonus points were up 100 from last year, thanks to Tim Waterhouse, KC5LFD, with his solar

panel for 6 additional contacts via VHF; Our thanks this year to Bob Heil, K9EID for the media publicity points on the

Shortwave station WCBQ. We had a large number of club members working the 2 stations we had on the air. The Egyptian Radio Club and the Field Day committee wish to express our thanks to each and every member who helped out;

both those on the air and those behind the scene who gave valuable support to the “one the air” effort.

Here is a recap of our points. We ran 2 stations on generator/battery power at 100 watts which gives us a power multi-

plier of 2 for each contact. Thus, all contacts were in category 2A-IL.

We had 142 CW contacts, which gives 142 X 2 = 284 CW QSO points. (CW points get an immediate X 2) We had 132 Phone contacts, which gives 132 = 132 Phone points.

Total of QSO Points 416 Total QSO Points QSO Points X 2 for power less than 150 = 832

Now, we add in the BONUS Points:

100% Emergency Power 200 points Media Publicity 100 points

Set up in a Public Location 100 points

Natural Power QSO (Solar cell) 100 points Submitted results to ARRL by web 50 points

Total BONUS Points 550 Total BONUS Points 550

Total Points submitted to ARRL 1382 Points

The breakdown by band is as follows:

MODE CW Digital Phone

BAND meters QSO Power QSO Power QSO Power 160 m. 0 150 0 150 0 150

80 m. 0 150 0 150 18 150

40 m. 101 150 0 150 26 150 20 m. 41 150 0 150 82 150

15 m. 0 150 0 150 0 150 10 m. 0 150 0 150 0 150

6 m. 0 150 0 150 0 150

2 m. 0 150 0 150 6 150 via Solar 1.25 m. 0 150 0 150 0 150

70 cm 0 150 0 150 0 150 33 cm 0 150 0 150 0 150

23 cm 0 150 0 150 0 150 GOTA 0 150 0 150 0 150

Total contacts 142 CW 0 Dig 132 Phone

AMATEUR ACTIVITIES CALENDAR

Two meter net Every Tuesday night 8: PM

Weekly 10-10 Net Every Wednesday night 7: pm MONTHLY DIRECTOR’S MEETING Monday before membership meeting Next director meeting NEW DATE August 11, 2008

Monthly MEMBERSHIP meeting First Thursday of each month Next monthly meeting

August 7, 2008 ,

Field day 2008 southwestern Illinois college Granite City LAST FULL WEEKEND IN JUNE

June 28 & 29, 2008

Send information on your planned amateur radio ev-ent to the Podunk Hollow news at the email address w.l.wise@mindspring.com

Post Office Box 562, Granite city, Illinois 62040

WaLLY’S WONDERINGS

This summer is the time for visits from old friends. I had the pleasure of hosting a visit from Ed Wiegand, WA9QOD on July 8. Ed lives in the Phoenix

area after retiring from his teaching position in Wonju, South Korea. Many local area hams may remember WA9QOD as living in Bunker Hill, IL

and being a Bunker Hill High School teacher. Ed was a member of the Egypt-

ian Radio Club in the 1970’s. Now add 30+ years and you will

still recognize him. He has a bit more wrinkles; but still has the same full

growth of hair. That is something most of us cannot say.

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We did, and had a ball. More attendees from club members and even got

publicity on a nationwide shortwave station, WCBQ, 7415 KHz; thanks to Mr. Robert Heil, K9EID. Heil Sound was one of their sponsors and Bob was able

to give all the particulars about the W9AIU Field Day setup. I understand he had a 45 minute interview with the host of the “Live from Field Day” program,

Ted Randall, WB8PUM. WCBQ covers the United States from their location in

Monticello, Maine. WBCQ broadcasts 50,000 watts on each of its four inter-national shortwave transmitters on 5.110, 7.415, 9.330 and 15.420 MHz.

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I still encourage every club member to talk up our 2009 Egyptianfest. Not only will we have a great hamfest; but we have lined up, Special Counsel for

the Spectrum Enforcement Division of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau Riley

Hollingsworth, K4ZDH -- the man who has come to embody Amateur Radio Enforcement. Riley will be a strong draw to the hamfest and we are

attempting to contact additional vendors to round out the commercial end of Egyptianfest 2009.

Before joining the FCC, Hollingsworth, a South Carolina native, graduated

from the University of South Carolina and Wake Forest University School of Law. While in high school, he worked as a disc jockey for WRHI, an AM

station in Rock Hill, South Carolina. "It's a funny thing," Hollingsworth said. "They once held a beauty pageant in Rock Hill and nobody won!" In the mid-

1970s, he was a "Nader's Raider" and worked on brown lung disease in the North and South Carolina textile mills. Saying it has been a "privilege to work

with and for the Amateur Radio licensees and the land mobile frequency

coordinators," Hollingsworth said that he is "extremely fortunate to work for two wonderful groups of people: Those at headquarters in the Enforcement

Bureau, and for the Amateur Radio operators." (Credit to the ARRL Letter for information above)

W9AIU Field Day 2008 photos N0RSP Photo

Marsha Wilson, KC9KTS, and son, Charlie.

K9EID Photo

The infamous W9AIU Communications Trailer is still do-

ing yeoman duty.

K9EID Photo

75 and 40 meter Dipole and the weather is coming in.

. WA9BRQ Photo

Setting up the VHF Antenna for the solar power station. K9EID Photo

W9AIU VHF antenna, completed and working.

K9EID Photo

HyGain vertical at W9AIU Field Day.

N0RSP Photo

Thanks to Bob Heil, K9EID for the extra publicity for the

W9AIU Field Day on WCBQ.

N0RSP Photo

Chef Bill Dusenbery, N9OQK, accepting advice on brat-

wurst cooking from Egyptianfest Chef Bill Bell, W9BEL

WA9BRQ Photo

Nolan explains the proper way to eat those brats.

The Egyptian Radio Club uses only Heil Headsets and Microphones.

WAS9BRQ Photo

KC5LFD, Tim Waterhouse, brought his own camera; but

the club furnished the Coca Cola.

WA9BRQ Photo

Mike Phillips, N0RSP brought his camera, too. Mike was

the official Egyptianfest photographer.

WA9BRQ Phyoto

Tim brought his own cargo trailer and generator. With

the price of gasoline, we made some service station rich.

WA9BRQ Photo

The food was difficult to stay away from. Good Food,

Good Friends and Ham Radio, What more can you ask

for?

K9EID Photo

Frank Shears, K7RMJ at the W9AIU key, working some

rare DX.

K9EID Photo

Tim, KC5LFD, is an avid CWer, also. However, here he is

working 20 meter phone

WA9BRQ Photo

W9BEL, Bill, logging for KC5LFD, Tim.

WA9BRQ Photo

We have a great spot for a Field Day picnic; but we don’t

seem to get the big Field Day score.

K9EID Photo

A full house of hams. Frank, K7RMJ, Marsha, KC9KTS

and Tim, KC5LFD, doing their best to rack up a big score

for 2008 ARRL Field Day.

New Discoveries at Mercury From Science @ NASA—submitted by Mike Phillips, N0RSP

July 3, 2008: Mercury's magnetic field is "alive."

Volcanic vents ring the planet's giant Caloris

Basin. And Mercury has shrunk in on itself more

than previously suspected. These are just a few of the new discoveries by

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, which flew past

Mercury on January 14, 2008. The results are

described in a series of 11 papers published in a

special July 4th issue of Science magazine. Six of the papers in Science report studies of

the planet's surface--its colors, mineralogy, and

the shape of its terrain. For instance, the color

enhanced image below reveals evidence of

volcanic vents along the margins of Caloris basin,

one of the Solar System's largest and youngest

impact basins:

Above: A color image of the Caloris basin and adjacent

regions. Orange hues just inside the Caloris basin rim

mark the locations of features thought to be volcanic.

Courtesy of Science/AAAS

"By combining Mariner 10 and MESSENGER

data, the science team was able to reconstruct a

comprehensive geologic history of the entire

Caloris basin interior," says James Head of Brown

University, lead author of one of the Science

reports. "The basin was formed from an impact

by an asteroid or comet during a period of heavy

bombardment in the first billion years of Solar

System history. As with the lunar maria, a period

of volcanic activity followed, producing lava flows

that filled the basin interior. This volcanism is

responsible for the comparatively light, red

material of the interior plains intermingled with

[newer] impact crater deposits." Finding volcanic vents around Caloris resolves an old debate among planetary scientists: Are smooth plains on

Mercury, such as the interior of Caloris basin, caused by erupting lava or some other process? Lava has won the

day.

Above: Near the rim of Caloris basin, this broad, smooth

dome or shield-like feature is interpreted to be a volcano.

The bright halo surrounding the kidney-shaped

depression is probably an explosive volcanic eruption

deposit. Courtesy of Science/AAAS

One of the most exciting results announced in

Science involves Mercury's magnetic field. Until

Mariner 10 discovered Mercury's magnetic field in

the 1970s, Earth was the only other terrestrial

planet known to have a global magnetic field.

Earth's magnetism is generated by the planet's

churning hot, liquid-iron core via a mechanism

called a magnetic dynamo. Researchers have

been puzzled by Mercury's field because its iron

core was supposed to have cooled long ago and

stopped generating magnetism. Some research-

ers have thought that the field may have been a

relic of the past, frozen in the outer crust. MESSENGER data suggest otherwise: Mercury's

field appears to be generated by an active

dynamo in the planet's core. It is not a relic. "MESSENGER's measurements indicate that,

like Earth, Mercury's magnetic field is mostly

dipolar, which means it has a north and south

magnetic poles," says lead author Brian Anderson

of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics

Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. "The fact that it is

dipolar, and that we did not find the signature

shorter-wavelength anomalies that would signify

patches of magnetized crust, supports the view

that we’re seeing a modern dynamo. We are

eager for the October flyby and the year in orbit

to see if this is the case elsewhere on the planet

and confirm that the field comes from the core." Mercury's core makes up 60% of its mass,

which is at least twice as large as any other pla-

Above: A crater deformed by a lobate scarp. Click to

view. Courtesy of Science/AAAS

net. Cooling of this outsized core has led to a

remarkable contraction of the planet, revealing

itself in the form of cliff-like "wrinkles" called

lobate scarps (pictured right). MESSENGER

Principal Investigator Sean Solomon, at the Car-

negie Institution of Washington, explains: "The dominant tectonic landforms on Mercury

are lobate scarps, huge cliffs that mark the tops

of crustal faults that formed during the con-

traction of the surrounding area. They tell us how

important the cooling core has been to the

evolution of the surface. After the end of the

period of heavy bombardment, cooling of the

planet's core not only fuels the magnetic

dynamo, but also led to contraction of the entire

planet. And the data from the flyby indicate that

the total contraction is a least one third greater

than we previously thought." The flyby also made the first-ever observations

of charged particles in Mercury's unique exo-

sphere. The exosphere is an ultrathin atmosphere

where the molecules are so far apart they are

more likely to collide with the surface than with

each other. Material in the exosphere comes

mainly from the surface of Mercury itself,

knocked aloft by solar radiation, solar wind

bombardment and meteoroid vaporization: "MESSENGER was able to observe Mercury's

exosphere in three areas—the dayside, the day/

night line, or terminator, and its 25,000 mile-long

(40,000 km) sodium tail," says author Bill

McClintock of the University of Colorado. "Atoms

of hydrogen, helium, sodium, potassium, and

calcium have been seen in the exosphere, and

many other elements almost certainly exist

there. These atoms are accelerated away from

Mercury by solar-radiation pressure and form a

long tail of atoms flowing away from the Sun. But

their abundances differ depending on whether it's

day or night, effects from the magnetic field and

solar wind, and possibly the latitude." ”Mercury's exosphere is remarkably active," he

marvels. Another significant scientific surprise involves

Mercury's magnetosphere--the bubble of

magnetism surrounding the planet. Thomas

Zurbuchen of the University of Michigan explains:

"Mercury's magnetosphere is full of many [kinds

of charged particles], both atomic and molecular.

What is in some sense a 'Mercury plasma nebula'

is far richer in complexity and makeup than the

Io plasma torus in the Jupiter system." The

composition of the nebula doesn't match that of

the solar wind, leading researchers to conclude

"that this material came from the planet's

surface. This observation means that this flyby

got the first-ever look at surface composition." NEW

"When you look at the planet in the sky, it

looks like a simple point of light," remarked

MESSENGER Project Scientist Ralph McNutt, of

APL. "But when you experience Mercury close-up

through all of MESSENGER's 'senses' seeing it at

different wavelengths, feeling its magnetic

properties, and touching its surface features and

energetic particles, you perceive a complex

system and not just a ball of rock and metal." "It's remarkable that this rich lode of data

came from two days of imaging, just 30 minutes

of sampling the planet's magnetosphere and

exosphere, and less than ten minutes carrying

out altimetry and collecting other data near the

time of its closest approach," adds Solomon.

"MESSENGER's flyby was a huge success." And it was just the beginning. Two more flybys

are scheduled for Oct. 2008 and Sept. 2009.

Then, MESSENGER will actually go into orbit

around Mercury in 2011. Exciting times lie ahead.

Stay tuned to Science@NASA for updates.

Post Office Box 562, Granite City, Illinois 62040-0562

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

Your Full Name_________________________________________Your Call_________________ Your Address__________________________________________License Class______________ City____________________________________State_________________Zip_______________ Your Home phone__________________________________Date of Birth______/______/______ Your email address_____________________________@_________________________________ Are you a member of the ARRL?__________ARES?____________MARS?____________________ If so, give call Class of membership desired: Full Senior (must be 65 or older) (circle one)

I hereby apply for membership in the Egyptian Radio Club, Inc. and agree to accept and follow its By-Laws. Further, I agree to operate my Amateur Radio Station in accordance with the Rules and Regulations of the Federal Communications Commission Part 97, of the United States of America.

Signature of applicant__________________________________________________________

EGYPTIAN RADIO CLUB DUES STRUCTURE

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Payable annually at $36.00 per year or quarterly at $9.00 per quarter, in January, April, July, and October.

I am enclosing $__________ for my first year dues.

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Secretary_________________________Dated____/____/______