Pat Dyer 5315 Silvertip Drive San Antonio, TX 78228 Deadline: 10th of month OCTOBER 1976 Hank Holbrook, 7211 Chestnut St., Chevy Chase, MD 20015 QSLed, GMT 5-31: 1904, N8029N 128.7 ov Salisbury,MD(Richard E. Gorkes; Piper Cherokee 140; 1-engine, 2-seat; 10 watts) 6-5: 1305, N77CB 127.2 ov Greenbelt,MD(Flight Watch, Inc.;Beech- craft Bonanza; 8500 feet) 1547, G-BOAA 126.1 vic Dulles Apt(British Airways Concorde;25w) 1554, N84828 126.0 10 mi se Wilmington,DE(North Jersey Aero Co.;Cessna 172;1-e,4-s;student solo flight) 6: 0021, N555RM 119.7 s of Ches.Bay Br(Ronald E. Marsh;Cessna 310) 15: 2050, N232R 133.9 ov L.I.,NY(Dart Industries, Inc.; Lear 24, 2-engine, 8-seat; 31,000 feet) 27: 0132, LVLGP 130.85 vic NY (Argentine Airlines; 707; NY-Miami) 2342, KIF 844 42.42 Lawrenceburg, TN (state police) ----, KIE 964 42.42 Signal Mountain, TN (state police; 350 w) 7-3: 2003, N6837A 133.5 20 mi e Lancaster,PA(American Airlines flt 672; 727; 25 watts) 2004, N6819A 133.5 ov Trenton,NJ(American 148;727; 25 watts) 5: 1548, WY-9430 156.525 1 mi e Columbia Beach(Noble Princess, Yacht,Owens Express Cruiser; 5 watts) 1731, N81HD 119.7 ov Annapolis(Austin Armacost,Jr.;Cessna 182) ---- ----, N4643J 119.7 e of Ches.Br.(Herbert Electric Company; Piper PA28-180 Cherokee Arrow;1-e,4-s;10 w) Martin J. Theil, 12 Princeton Dr. E., Holiday, FL 33589 (934-5843) Bearcat 101 with rod antenna; loggings for August 1976 KQI 316 33.90 Cincinnati, OH KLI 364 150.905 Tampa(auto club) KSA 994 39.50 Pekin, IL KII 218 155.37 Pinellas, FL KSO 592 37.10 DC(local govt) KUZ 385 161.80 Tampa,(USCG) KGA 361 33.86 Dist.Hts.,MD KAC 551 154.815 Tampa(helic.) KCA 695 33.78 Manchester, NH KSB 236 39.50 Effingham,IL KGC 676 33.80 Hagerstown, MD KSB 352 39.50 Morris,IL KSB 269 39.50 Watseka, IL KRC 613 33.94 Hudson, FL KIA 680 33.94 Brooksville, FL KIA 653 154.43 Tampa (fire) KXA 312 33.94 Spg Hill, FL - 162.4 St.Pete.(wx) KCG 344 33.94 Hanover, PA KDR 254 154.280 Clearwater(fire) KDP 419 156.03 Dunedin, FL - 152.69 Tampa(mo.phone) skip dropped off the last 2 weeks of August. Would still like to hear from other members with the Bearcat 101 regarding programming it. I have freq info for members on request for portions of DE, MD, IA, KS, NJ, MO, PA, NY, MI, OH Dave Cox, 2007 E. Brandywine Ct., Birmingham, AL 35216 sent along a clipping from the Sep 6 Birmingham News that details get- ting the Alabama network of 162.55 MHz weather stations on - delays in the delivery of coax cable have caused the planned start in September to be put off until probably early October. Current stations on in Hunstville and Mobile will be joined by Birmingham, Andalusia, Dothan, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Russellville, and Cheaha Mountain. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Solar activity continues to be on the low side. While several Cycle 21 regions have been crossing the disk, none of them has been very large, complex, or long-lived. The Swiss are still predicting a smoothed count for this December of 4. The last minimum (fall of 1964) hit bottom with about a 9. Thus, F2 prospects for VHF this fall now appear to be the worst since the period between Cycles 18 and 19 (i.e., 1954).
VHF UTILITY DX OCTOBER 1976 Now, my loggings. Hammarlund SP-600-JX-10, Hallicrafters SX-62, Allied A-2586; two 30' wires at 12' (ne-sw, nw-se runs). New are underlined. Es unless noted; * F2, bs-backscatter; GMT used 8-11: 2052, KAA 893 35.22 St. Louis, MO (tone pager) 14: 2039, KFL 936 35.58 (west) (tone pager) 16: 2105, 32.000 * 17: 2305, L Ang-a 35.38 Los Angeles, CA (mobile phone) S Diego-a 35.38 San Diego, CA (mobile phone) 18: 2000, KME 438 35.22 Orange, CA (tone pager) 23: 0742, KOE 257 35.22 Phoenix, AZ (tone pager) 2110, KFL 880 35.22 Greenville, SC (tone pager) 35.22 * 24: 2000, 32.000 * 30: 2215, 32.000 * 26: 2120, 32.000 * 9-2: 1950, 32.000 * 27: 2020, 32.000 * 9: 2320, 35.58 * bs 28: 2130, 32.000 * 10: 2025, 35.62 * bs addenda (from prior month) 7-12: 1510, KKL 437 33.70 Gretna, LA (county fire) 1702, KAD 756 37.10 Waterloo, IA (county police) 1708, KAD 821 37.10 Cherokee, IA (county police) KAB 223 37.10 Newton, IA (police) 1711, KAD 505 37,10 Garner, IA (county police) 16: 1909, KSA 877 39.46 Princeton, IL (county police) 17: 0712, KAA 979 37.10 Oskaloosa, IA (police) 29: 1749, "OZN" 109.8 St. George, UT (VOR, A2 code ID) the VOR was logged with an Allied 426 FM set and Archer V-100 @ 20' I now have on hand a recent computer print-out of nearly 1100 VOR's sorted by freqs and alphabetically by idents. I would suggest that those with good equipment for that range (108-118) consider trying to catch some during the upcoming winter meteor showers. The ID's come about every 15 seconds or so. ----- While attending the Central States VHF Society Conference (an amateur radio group) in Houston Aug 19-22, I took along my A-2586 and little Jet-Stream mini receivers. The most obvious thing in Houston on 30-50 is that they have pagers on 35.22/.58/.62 and you'd never know from that racket if the skip was in there or not. The various r.f. fields (at least in the Astroworld area) are so intense that the 108-136 receiver was a mass of FM broadcast spurious responses. I didn't take my hi-band VHF/FM set, and it would have been probably similarly messed up. ----- For sometime now there has been a sort of local pager on 35.22, with a fast A2 code ID, KUC 915. It is apparently the hybrid type which uses tones and voice messages - a tone burst, followed by a voice (with a telephone audio quality) directing the message. So far, this has been active a total of only a few minutes an hour so no great harm to the DX use yet. ----------------------------------------- In the submission of reports for this column, I really prefer that a date and time (even if only approximate) be included with the loggings along with call if known, freq (again, may be apx), and location. This is particularly desired with the DX (i.e., skip) loggings. Then other DXers (even those who never report) have something to compare with. As some already know, I do edit out things from time to time. 73, WA5IYX