Hono Amateur Radio Club

Volume 7, Issue 5 An ARRL Affiliated Radio Club May 1, 2003

MAY IS A HARC MEETING MONTH!
Mark your calendar - PLEASE ATTEND!
Saturday May 17, 2003
0900-1100
ZIPPY'S on Vineyard Blvd
Corner of Vineyard and Mauna Kea Streets
Entrance on Maunakea Street

Inside This Issue
1 President's Message de K1ER
2 ARRL Dicision Director - Next Issue
3 W5YI VE Session after HARC Meeting
 4 Meeting, Construction Article, Photographs
5 FCC Amateur Radio Enforcement Log
6 Calendar of EventsFCC News
 7  News of Interest

President's Message

Here we go again

John D. Peters K1ER

President HARC

I hope you managed to attend our January 2003 meeting to hear Peter Demmer KH6CTQ show and tell what you can still build, for fun, with currenty available things. Peter demonstrated variable capacitors created from old CDROM (did you know the litte metal coating under the plastic surface makes a good moving plate for a CAP?) Peter showed the construction technique and how a simple, and historic, early radio receiver can be made just for fun. This is the type of project that would still interest kids. Hands on and no TV or video game involved.

Peter will continue his show and tell for such construction projects at the May 2003 meeting.

If you want to see the crowd for in January when Peter gave his first talk this year, you'll find photographs in this issue. One page of photos from our January 2003 HARC meeting and one from a typical Tuesday Morning breakfast. If you are an active ham in Honolulu, you are missing THE active ham event if you don't get out on Tuesday morning.

The club repeater KH6WOR on 146.1878 is the club repeater. Try it. The club beacon station is receiving SWL reports from all around the world. KH6WO (beacon) is part of the NCDXF world wide system and you can read all about it on the internet. http:www.ncdxc.org and click on beacons. Want to know which bands are open to any area, this is one way to find out. I have requested permission from the FCC to change the KH6WO (beacon) to include the 12, 17 and 30 meter bands. This aid to the study of HF propagation has been a boon to radio operators world wide. Only the KH6WO repeater has not had permission to operate on the WARC bands and I expect FCC permission. The station license for KH6WO has been renewed for another ten years.

73 John

HAVE FUN! GET ON THE AIR!

New ARRL Pacific Division Director

Bob Vallio W6RGG is our new ARRL Pacific Division Director following the unexpected Cerebral Hemorrhage suffered by Jim Maxwel W6CF. Luckily Bob is extremely well Qualified for the task. I have known Bob since 1966, when we were young, handsome, striving DXers and Contesters in the Northern California DX Club. Bob has always been a high speed CW operator and sent the W6TI high speed CW DX Bulletins for many years. His column with remarks to our members will appear in the future.


 

FCC Amateur Radio Enforcement Log

April 6, 2003
FCC Enforcement Logs


A representative listing of recent reports on Amateur Radio eiiforcement-related actions from the flIes of the FCC
Enforcement Bureau:
NOTE: Issuance by the FCC of a Warning Notice indicates that the FCC has what it believes to be reliable evidence of
possible rules infractions and not necessarily that the recipient has violated FCC rules. The FCC has the authority, pursuant
to §97.519(d)(2) of the rules to readminister any examination element previously administered by a volunteer examiner. This
Enforcement Log is representative of recent Warning Notices, Notices of Violation, calls for retesting, and other FCC
communications to licensees invoving possible serious rules violations. This log is compiled monthly. It is not a
comprehensive listing of FCC Amateur enforcement actions.

Mr. Mark Hanson
217 N. 6th Avenue
Wausau, Wl 54403

SUBJECT: Warning Notice--UNLICENSED RADIO OPERATION

Dear Mr .Hanson:
The Commission has information that you have been operating radio-transmitting equipment without a license on frequencies
in the Amateur Radio Service bands.
Please be advised that operation of radio transmitting equipment without a license is a violation of Section 301 of the
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. Section 301and will subject you to fine or imprisonment, as well as an in rem seizure of radio transmitting equipment, in cooperation with the United States Attorney for your jurisdiction. Fines
for this violation normally range from $7,500 to $10,000.

You are requested to contact me at 717-338-2502 to discuss this matter.


January 2003

HARC Meeting At ZIPPYS.

See you in March and May and so forth


Lee Wical KH6BZF and WSYI VE watch 4 people get licensed.


January 2003 HARC turnout fills four large tables and three booths. Peter Demmer KH6CTQ spoke on a construction project and antennas


These photos were taken early in the Jan meeting. We filled these tables and booths. We'll have a speaker again at the May meeting


Ted Chemin KH6GI Receives the QCW A Distinguished Member Award for over 70 years Licensed Amateur from President John Peters KlER


DXer and other Hams at breakfast every Tuesday morning from 0730 to 0900 at the Sizzler at Pearlridge. Left to Right, Joan KA4DPW, Peter KH6CTQ, Lee KH6BZF, John KlER, Phil 9M6CT ex VS6CT, Ray KH6IEL, Joe KH6JF , Norm, KH6???, Ray WH6ASW. (Norm can't remember your ca1lsign. ) Middle and Lower add a pair of visiting hams from AZ and Don KH7V, and Willy NH6XD

This was a typical Tuesday Morning. We are always the majority of the customers in the restaurant and certainly the noisiest. All topics are open, opinions welcome, jokes galore, have a thick skin and a good sense of humor or stay away. WE HAVE FUN! EVERY TUESDAY!

All of these photos were taken at the same Tuesday Ham Breakfast. You'll notice people drift in and leave as their schedule requires. We add more tables and chairs to accommodate any size crowd. Order from the menu and Neal and Helen know everyone by name. Tuesday morning is for Ham Radio! We have local hams, mainland hams, overseas hams, wanna be hams. REAL HAMS (DXers), sorta hams (echo link), old timers, MARS, newcomers, you name it you'll find it on Tuesday. Come join us, EVERY TUESDAY. Take Bus 11 to the corner of Moanalua and Pali Momi if you don't have wheels.


STAYING IN THE LOOP

Click for larger image

A CONTINUING SAGA OF SMALL LOOP ANTENNAS BY PETER L. DEMMER KH6CTQ

As you may recall from last month's HARC meeting, the material published in the news letter and presented in a fast moving show and tell was about the how-to of radio loop antennas and recycled CDs. In this article, I will present a working application using those two devices.

The CD disk capacitors have a unique property. In that they are variable, they have no lousy friction wiper contacts and therefore introduce no mechanical iffy resistance inefficiencies into the applied circuit. Said another way,
there is no oxide scratchy shot noise. This, of course, spells a much better signal to noise ratio.

In that the loop antenna derives it's efficiency from it's very high "Q" radio circuit it in itself, it also has a very low radio circuit resistance (RR). From an efficiency (E) standpoint, any poor or loose connection plays out as a Big "Q" killer. This is because; E = Radiation Resistance RR RR+ Resistive Losses (RL). Again it looks like this; E = R RR+RL.

Bottom line, don't waste efficiency on non-metallurgical bonded connections. To achieve metallurgical bonding requires welded soldered andor silver brazed joints. This includes the loop tubing (copper preferred), connections, no wiper contacts and no non-welded rotor and stationary plates that are not found in the typical garden variety capacitor.

There is another approach other than the CD capacitors presented last month. Try to find some all welded plates, common rotor, dual section variables capacitors. Like hens teeth, rots-o-ruck even with lots of bucks.

Why these stringent requirements you may ask? Well it's a no-brainer to figure out the current (1) and the voltage (E) when you are pushing 100 watts into a circuit that exhibits a DC load resistance of less than 1 ohm.

Just for drill, at 100 watts of RF, on a dry day, your loop antenna, will develop nearly 40,000 volts across the capacitor plates. And you're not going to believe the amps. Believe me it's a lot more then you think. So for transmitting duty, we build them robust with lots of surface area. For more explicit worldwide information about and the how-to and how-not-to build and test a Small Transmitting Loop, (STL) check out the URL home page of DJ3TZ. There in you will find a vast amount of practical information on the numerous links he has listed.

And now for the receiving loops. The fore-mentioned strict metallurgical connections bonding stuff still applies. However, for the receiving loop, you can use smaller tubing or nice fat wire as in RG58 or better yet, RG8 coax. Just make sure the inner and outer conductors making up the loop antenna ends and any and all of its circuit and components are really clean and joined by the married-seized and soldered technique. No cold oxidized (dirty) sort of soldered connections allowed. The lost efficiency trade-off in a non metallurgical bonded or just a metal to metal vis-a-vis, soldered junctions, as measured results when you are generally receiving at micro-volt signal levels is greater than the barrier junction of the typical medium Hfe transistor. Think of this as the great barrier to just capturing and getting the signal into the box before RF amplification and detection.

For application, how about a look back at the little schematic. Some of you may have thought, Ahaa! a crystal set circuit. And some of you perhaps thought perhaps that old CTQ is in mental retrograde. Perhaps, but Ahaaa! where is the tank circuit? Look again good people. In that case the series tuned, loop antenna is the tank circuit. Think not! Think again have some fun and try it.

So check out the hot as in Schottky carrier diode detector circuit and come to the March meeting to see and hear how it plays. The recommended (best) diodes for this application are HP5082 or the HP2835 referred to as Agilent. In May 2003, we will move on to describe and do a show and tell on how to employ what has already been presented for you to roll your own, whole different kind of receiving loop antenna. The mega- marvelous electrostatically shielded loop antenna. To hear one of these antenna's breath new life in yee-old receiver is enough to make Marconi swing from the yard arm.

One good inexpensive source for these and many other small parts is at <www .Dan's
Small Parts.com> Check out his web page. the piddley prices will fracture your gourd and not your wallet (:>)=

 

The "Considerate Operator's Frequency Guide"


The following frequencies are generally recognized for certain modes or activities (all frequencies are in MHz). Nothing in the rules recognizes a net's, group's or any individual's special privilege to any specific frequency. Section 97.1 01 (b ) of the Rules states that "Each station licensee and each control operator must cooperate in selecting transmitting channels and in making the most effective use of the amateur service frequencies. No frequency will be assigned for the exclusive use of any station." No one "owns" a frequency.
It's good practice--and plain old common sense--for any operator, regardless of mode, to check to see if the
frequency is in use prior to engaging operation. If you are there first, other operators should make an effort to protect you from interference to the extent possible, given that 100% interference-free operation is an unrealistic expectation in today's congested bands.

DID YOU NOTICE THE CHANGE IN THE FEBRUARY QST, PAGE 59

The ARRL Guide finally recognizes the KH6 SSB window 7075-7100 And recommends "data" 7080-7100 and unattended (QRM) data stations only 7100-7105.

I guess 5 kHz free of data QRM is better than none.

2003 Member Application Form

New or renewal, same form. The best way to learn what your new license can mean is to chat with the old timers who've been there. Mail a check to HARC. Mail a check to HARC.

Name __________
Callsign __________
Address __________
City __________
StateZIPCODE __________

ARRL Member? (Yes) (Life) (No)

Dues for 2003 are due and remain $15
Mail to:

John D. Peters K1ER
98-1547 Akaaka Street
Aiea, HI 96701-3051

 

HARC WANTS YOUR INPUT!

What do YOU want HARC to do?

What would YOU like to do in HARC?

I need material for this Newsletter. Do you want me to copy material from the Pacific Division ARRL Newsletter? ARRL Bulletins? Why don't YOU write something and send it?

W5YI VE Session at HARC Meetings

The W5YI VE team is headed by Lee Wical KH6BZ.

The VE Session will follow the HARC Meeting. If you have any question, contact Lee. The fee is set by the FCC. You need your current license and a copy of it, plus a photo ID, if you plan to upgrade.

HARC, John D. Peters K1ER
98-1547 Akaaka Street
Aiea, HI 96701-3051
USA