"The Barnstormers News"                                                                                                                                Volume 9 No.7, December 29, 2004

 

9^th Annual Barnstormer’s Christmas Party

 

It’s hard to believe we have been doing this for 9 years this year. Things have been pretty busy so I have not had much time to get a notice out sooner. The Party this year will be on Saturday, January 8^th.  As usual bring a dish to share and your favorite drink. Sleep over is fine. I have not heard hide nor hair from KE1LI so I can’t say we have any special brew.

 

We’ll start around 6:30 P.M. and play as long as someone is standing. There is no contest that weekend so no confusion as to what call to use.

 

It will be tough to find the recipient of The K1GX award as we have not had a terrible year equipment-wise. Also the operating though not as good as our competitors has been very solid. It will be tough to replace the flying squirrel winner of last year.

 

Please come and join in, expect to have some fun, and enjoy this mid-point of our contest season.

 

 

January VHF Contest – January 29-30, 2005

 

Kim has made some major changes, procurements, and improvements to the UHF/VHF station. The first real test is scheduled for this January contest. The “Tower of Power” might even be operational on all bands, full power.

 

This contest though slow at times can be fun. Right now KB1DFB, KB1H, and K1JN are on the operator list. Want to help out? We need operators!

 

 

 

Rumor has it…..

 

Dave, AA1CE, has been nominated and seconded for election into the A-1 Operators Club. Hopefully he has received his certificate and I am not spilling the beans here! I found that you get nominated onto an eligible list by an A-1 Club member and a second member has to second the nomination. I guess this makes mine on the wall more meaningful. Anyway, congratulations to Dave and well deserved.

 

 

Poor Chris, N1XS……

 

OK, the guy travels basically two days on a train to get here for CQWW and I stick him on 40 meters. He did not know if this was reward or punishment.

 

 

During the recent ARRL 160 Contest…

 

I played a few hours and Chris was listening from his apartment down in Texas. He actually heard NZ1U somewhat with a stinky little vertical and a FT-897 (I think). Chris was able to make about 40 QSOs and all I can say radio is radio. Any amount in any form is GREAT!

 

 

Noise Tracking

 

Some of you know we have had an on/off noise problem on 160. At last I was able narrow the source down to the Alpha. Either blower brush noise or some component failure. When it occurs, there is a S-9 noise level! As I write this the Alpha is laying all apart and hopefully we will get this fixed this weekend.

 

 

To do list:

 

The list is not that long but still needs to be taken care of as weather permits.

 

• The 40 Meter South antenna is pointing towards the ground this needs repair.
• The Alpha needs repair as explained above
• NB1U amplifier needs repair
• 80M and 160M wire antennas need the coax rerouted outside.
• What we call the Station #5 computer needs to be fixed or replaced. I do have two Compaq computers I got from work. We use this computer to print QSL labels and also surf the internet.
• My hope is that we will also use Station #5 computer to eventually get a webcam going. It was nice to see K1TTT add his running score to his webcam and I think we should do this as well. With my usual IT department moved south I need someone to step up and help out on this. A conversation with K1TTT might be helpful.
• Consider moving to N1MM Logger software.

 

 

Well, enough for now and I hope to see most of you on January 8^th at 6:30 P.M.

 

73 Dick – KB1H