Dixie Ham Radio Newsletter September

2017

Amateur Radio works… …when all else fails!

We are an ARRL Affiliated Club

Club Officers: President ....... .............. Harold Wells, KE7OZG Vice President ..................... Jim Ashby, K5JCA Treasurer ...................... James Moore, KG7VEI Secretary................ Lynden Kendrick, KG7SXQ Board Member.............. Deborah Porter, KE3FY Board Member ...Brady MacPherson, KD7AWJ

For information or comments send to: Lynden.Kendrick@gmail.com or

Text 801-598-1618.

Notice: Articles, statements and opinions are those of the authors. The Club is not responsible for accuracy of the information contained herein.

Ham Radio Special events:

The Dixie Amateur Radio Club meets on the 3rd Wednesday at 7 PM at the St. George Community Building. It is found at the Southwest corner of Washington County's Gayle M. & Mary Aldred Senior Citizens Center property, which is located at 245 North 200

West, St. George, Utah.

At the September Meeting, we will be starting the nomination process for 3 Board members. Lyn Kendrick and Debbie Porter will be serving out their 2nd year on the board--that leaves 3 open positions.

The WCARES (Washington County ARES) monthly training meeting is held on the 2nd Saturday each month at 9:30 AM. The September meeting will be at the Washington County EOC training room located in the basement area of 197 E. Tabernacle in St

George (or it might be an exercise in the field}.

Learn more or how to join Washington County ARES at http://ares-wc.org/blog/.

Whispers over the Wireless (Editor: "Whispers over the Wireless" is for qrp,

SOTA and cw related articles since these operators

often whisper using 2 to 10 watts)

Building Your Own Radio By Mike Cartmill, ACØPR

Things may have changed since the days you needed to build your own radio to get on the air, but there are still plenty of kits available to take up the challenge. There are numerous companies and individual hams who sell radios as kits, whether it’s SSB or CW, ones with nice cases or others you can put in an Altoids tin, some can be completed in an afternoon while others may take days.

Now here’s also a word of caution—there is a chance of disappointment as well. There are a

Page 1 of 8

few cheap Chinese knock-offs that may have troubles, or it could that the deciding moment that every homebrewer knows of—the “smoke test”—may not turn out as you hoped. What is that? It’s when you connect all your work to power and see if a capacitor or some other component “smokes” meaning something went wrong in your connections or soldering.

Most of these radios are simple, QRP, and often only work on one band or even one frequency, depending on the complexity of the radio. They range from $2.50 (seriously, there is a Chinese Pixie-knock-off one-frequency CW radio for that) to a couple hundred dollars.

I’ve tried two new ones recently—this is not an endorsement, just a report. The first, a 20 meter QRP CW radio on a set frequency by Pacific Antennas, the DC20B ($40). It took an afternoon to put together and is just the board with no casing. I put it in a Dollar Store plastic sandwich case. After a little testing I took it to the field for Summits on the Air. It puts out 2 watts—I was able to get into Quebec, New Hampshire, Vermont, North Carolina, Florida, etc. I was thrilled with the results.

Then I wanted to try a 40 meter radio as well, and decided to try something different, a Yosoo (Korean) Pixie kit ($10) also QRP CW, at a set frequency, placed in a clear plastic case, a few inches by a few inches is all. It puts out 1.2 watts (at 12 volts). Really fun to put together, can be done in an hour or two depending on experience. The first time out in the field it made 11 contacts in 10 mins. in Oregon, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California,

with the farthest being 992 miles. Not bad at all.

Building can be really fun and rewarding. There is a SOTA operator, Collin, M1BUU, who went to the extreme to finish his Mountain Goat award this year. He packed the tools he needed and once he was on top of the mountain, in January, he put together a radio kit soldering each part while in a pup tent, passed the smoke test (thankfully), made a CW key and antenna, and made his last required contacts using them. Very cool!

Few things are more satisfying than taking a radio that you put together part by part, grabbing an antenna you homebrewed yourself, going out to the field, getting on the air and making contacts with it. Find a radio within your budget on the band and mode you like, take your time and give it a try! You may find an exciting new phase of the hobby for yourself.

General Articles

Ham Radio to the Rescue again! Reported by Bob Vosper

Monday August 28th 8:15 AM a call for help came over the DARC linked system. "Help, Help, Help...can anyone hear me?" KI7JUA Daniel Black answered the call.

Page 2 of 8

Two individuals (Male 31 and Female 29) had broken down near the Mt Trumbull School House. Mr. L. (English 2nd language and we think Russian primary) used a Ham radio to call for help and Daniel took necessary info down. They were on day two of being stuck and had taken shelter in a cabin that was open not far from their car.

They only had about another day and a half of water. Daniel asked for a St George station to help him out with logistics. KZ1B Bob was able to contact Mojave County dispatch with situation and location info. Mojave dispatched an officer to their location.

On first request to Mr. L. did not provide Latitude Longitude coordinates. A later transmission he was able to obtain those for his location. KZ1B Bob updated Mojave County dispatch with the coordinates relayed to officer en route. KZ1B Bob made a call to Bar 10 Ranch office to see if anyone at the ranch could get on a quad and check situation out of this young couple. Bar 10 office is in St George and the ranch has no cell service but has contact with a commercial radio. They also have a Satellite Phone at the ranch and an airstrip for guests. The ranch was about 15 miles from the stranded couple.

Mojave County Sheriff arrived at their location at 11:30 MT and provided transportation back to St George. It seems that Mr. L. did not have a call sign yet but knew how to use the Ham Radio.

Several local radio operators offered assistance. KI7JUA Daniel, KF7KIN Mark, KI7HFR Bill, KF7SSB Scott, K7AHD Tom & future Ham Chris. It was a team effort indeed! Coordination behind the scenes. Some of the operators even offered to drive out to the couple which is significant. It's a long drive...3 hours on a rough road.

It's important to know the key items to ask individuals requesting help knowing that you might lose contact at any time. Here are a few important questions to ask: 1) Where are you? (Coordinates would be great) If loss of contact after question 1 at least you know where to send aid. 2) nature of request (situation or medical needs).

(Ed note: We found out Mr. L. broke into a cabin which had a base radio.)

Tire Trouble on the Arizona Strip By Alma Jessop, KG7FOT

It was a beautiful afternoon on July 24. I decided to drive out to Mt. Trumbull in my 1994 Ford F150. About 5 miles out I dropped out of cell phone service. I took the time to drive up some side roads along the way. I announced my presence on the 146.49 repeater a couple of times, but nobody came back but that's not unusual since people monitoring sometimes won't reply unless you report a problem.

While driving between the buttes on Clayhole Road, going about 50 MPH, I started to notice something was abnormal with my truck. When I

Page 3 of 8

pushed the throttle, it would act like the clutch was slipping, the engine would rev up but the truck would not go any faster. I slowed down to see what the problem was and as I came to a stop I could hear a flapping noise.

I had blown a tire. I was about 20 miles from home with no phone service. I had lost the repeater about 2 miles before this spot in the road.

My truck had a spare tire and a jack, but I had no tool to remove the lug nuts. I looked around the truck for any tools, but I didn’t happen to have anything. I decided that I would need someone to bring me a lug wrench.

I had two options: Walk quite a distance to the top of the hill with my handheld radio, or turn around and drive down the road a couple of miles until I could get into a repeater with the truck mobile. Surprisingly I could not access Blowhard from this location. I turned around and started to drive slowly down the road with a flat tire.

I had driven about 300 feet down the road when a friend came driving up from behind me on her way home (she had also been out on a drive). She offered to give me a ride, so I climbed in the back of her truck as the cab was full. We headed down the road, after about after about 10 or 15 minutes I was able to get into the .49 repeater and contact Daniel, KI7JUA using my HT. I told him that I would need a ride back out to my truck when I got back.

When I got back in Colorado City, I borrowed an old 4X4 truck from a friend and gathered up a few tools. I had two tires mounted on rims, so I took them so I wouldn't have to lower the one out of my spare tire holder. I picked up Daniel and Juston, K7HTL and we drove out to where I had left my truck.

It was getting quite late in the afternoon but I decided to resume my trip to Mt. Trumbull so that the effort wouldn't be wasted. Daniel and Juston decided to go with me. We got out there, but we had to turnaround quickly since trip was cut short because it got dark.

It started to rain very heavily. We knew that we would have to cross Clayhole Wash, and were concerned that it might be flooding and impassible. We drove back to the other truck, I drove it and had Daniel drive my truck back. I had my HT with me, and Daniel had the mobile in my truck, thus we were able to maintain communication with each other. Most of the way my mobile could access the Seegmiller and two Utah Hill repeaters. We had to drive slowly through thick mud all the way home.

We were concerned about not being able to cross Clayhole Wash, and were trying to decide what would be a good alternate route. We felt far more comfortable being able to communicate with someone via radio to let someone know we were ok or to call for help. When we finally came to Clayhole Wash, it had about 1 foot of water flowing through it, which we were able to ford. We finally made it home, muddy and tired, and Daniel was late for work (he works night shift).

This story may be disappointing to someone who wanted to hear that ham radio absolutely saved the day. Although help came at just the right time, if it had not been so then the only way I would have been able to avoid a 20 mile walk would have been my ham radio. It was a comfort to know that I had my radio for communications when I needed it, whether it was just to talk to someone, to tell someone that everything was OK, or to call for help.

Had someone not shown up that could give me a ride, my radio would have saved me from a long night on the Arizona strip, with no food or somewhere comfortable to sleep, just walking in the mud and rain.

Page 4 of 8

The Solar Eclipse QSO Party By Mike Cartmill, ACØPR

With the highly publicized solar eclipse on August 21st, the ARRL advertised the Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP) which would take place from 1400-2200 UTC—a few hours before and after totality. This activity combined a significant natural event, scientific research, and on-air radio contacts in a contest format. Thus, the WARC bands were not used. Participants exchanged callsigns, an RST report, and 6-digit grid squares. The results will be used to study the effects of an eclipse on radio propagation.

In practice though, it was a good excuse to get on the radio and make some contacts!

Personally, because of work, I could only be on for one of the eight hours of the activity, but I had a good time. The higher bands were pretty

quiet, but 20 meters had quite a few signals, and I heard nothing on 40. It was like a calm Field Day almost. In the one hour I only had 18 QSO’s, but in various parts of the country. On CW it was good practice to copy the grid square sent by other operators.

These types of activities pop up every so often, as special events present themselves.

Sometimes they last a year, a month, or in this case, just a few hours. They come and go, but they share in common the chance to connect with other hams and to get on the air and test your mettle as an operator. I never enter these types of activities to “win the contest” but rather the joy of the hobby comes in just participating, working a new callsign here and there, and getting a signal in the air. 73 all.

What would you do? By Justin Grenier, KE7JJG

A few weeks ago during a recent ARES

training check in the net control operator

(KG7SXQ – Mr. Kendrick) asked an interesting

question of the operators who has checked in

that evening. The question was; “What would

you do if the repeaters went down?” In order to

describe what was going on in my head at that

particular time, you have to imagine the

gameshow “Family Feud”, where the “most

commonly chosen” or popular answer is the

Page 5 of 8

highest on the board, and the next most

popular and so on.

So perhaps now you can imagine my surprise

when what I considered to be the most popular

answer was not given time after time as each

operator offered some very interesting and

clever options.

One operator even suggested trying to

broadcast on the repeaters output frequency.

By the time it was my turn to offer an answer, I

nearly blurted out 146.520, but caught myself

and calmly replied “the National FM Simplex

frequency”!

If you are traveling in a foreign country and do

not know the language, there isn’t much you

can do to communicate effectively. However,

thanks the “FCC Band Plan” when Amateur

Radio operators find themselves in a strange

place, or without a repeater, there is a

frequency for us to use in just this event.

Indeed on page 31 of the current 2016-2017

ARRL Repeater Directory is an entry labeled

“The Wilderness Protocol” which I have copied

below;

To my way of thinking, 146.52 is not just for the

Wilderness, but for anytime you are “lost”

whether it is without a repeater or wandering

about in the woods.

VHF is not the only band with a simplex

frequency; in fact most of the other bands have

a similar frequency such as the UHF frequency

of 446.00.

Like most of us, I carry at least one radio

around with me regardless of where I am and

all of my radios (except for my expensive

dispatch Motorola radio) have that ability to

monitor more than one frequency at a time.

This “dual watch” feature allows me to routinely

monitor the local repeater of my choice, and

either the VHF or UHF Simplex channel. So

remember, just in case you need to get out,

National Simplex is always there for you!

Page 6 of 8

Shoot an Antenna By Lyn Kendrick, KG7SXQ

It's easy to put up an antenna in a tree with a shooter. I've tried a fishing pole to throw a line but it wasn't very accurate and with my first attempts, I used a line that was too light, too. The wrist rocket seemed to be the way to go. My first creation used an old Mitchell 300 open face reel in front of the sling shot. It was scary because it was too easy to get tangled.

This is a picture of the sling shot with an "L" bracket and a cheap Zebco reel. I think it was about $12 bucks.

Jerry Sears, KG6SWI, Ken Marshall, KG7ZGO and I went up to the old airport and "shot" a 66 ft wire over a tree. I used a 14 lb line tied onto a small rope, in turn tied to the antenna wire. I used a 35 ft wire as counterpoise. It all seemed to work very well.

The wrist rocket, the 40m antenna wire, counterpoise wire, a 50 ft rope, sinkers (1/2 oz), Erickson wire "tuner," a BNC to UHF connector all fit in a handy orange ammo box. I tried a 1/4 oz sinker and a clear bobber but the 1/2 oz sinker seemed to work the best.

Page 7 of 8

After this trip, I made 40m dipole and a 130+ foot wire to take to Seegmiller mountain. Jerry, Tom Staten (K7XSO) and I drove to the top of Seegmiller but none of the trees were tall enough to "shoot" a wire over.

In addition, we couldn't use the 80m dipole because this dummy didn't wrap the two sides wires separately. It ended up in an awkward twisted ball. It took me 1/2 hour to untangle the 2 wires when I got home.

I guess that's why we try things out. 73, KG7SXQ

V.E. Team will use new Form 605 with “Felony Question,” beginning on September 20th By Gary Zabriskie, N7ARE, V.E. Team Liaison

The NCVEC Quick-Form 605 Application for Amateur Operator / Primary Station License, that the ARRL-VEC uses, will now ask a “yes” or “no” question as to

whether the applicant has ever been convicted of a felony. The FCC said this revision is “consistent with application forms for other Commission services.” The new NCVEC Quick-Form 605 must be used on and after September 7, 2017; the current Form 605 will become obsolete and no longer will be accepted. Our V.E. Team will provide the new form starting at our next session (September 20, 2017) in St. George. It is the applicant's responsibility to answer this question truthfully and this yes/no question cannot be left blank.

We will send in the completed application after you pass an exam element, but if you answered "yes" to the felony question, the FCC will not act on that application right away.

The FCC will wait until they receive an exhibit from the applicant in the form of a written and signed statement "explaining the circum- stances and giving the reasons why the applicant believes that grant of the application would be in the public interest notwithstanding the misconduct". Please note that your “yes” response will always be publicly viewable in the Commission’s Universal Licensing System.

While the "yes" will always be publically visible, the applicant may separately request that the actual exhibits submitted by the applicant to the FCC, giving the applicant's written and signed statement response as described above, be treated as confidential. In order to seek confidential treatment, the applicant must include a separate, written and signed request that the supplied material not be made available for public inspection. The request must contain a statement of the reasons for the request, and must identify the portion(s) of the exhibit for which confidential treatment is requested. It is not sufficient to simply mark a document as “confidential.” If the applicant does not request confidential treatment, the exhibit may be publicly viewable in ULS.

Much more detailed information about this entire matter including links to sample forms, etc., is found on our website on this page: http://www.dixieham.org/meetings.html

Page 8 of 8