NEWSLETTER OF THE
ST CLAIR AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
PO BOX 94 BELLEVILLE, IL 62222
DECEMBER 2002/JANUARY 2003
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MEETING HAPPENINGS
The November meeting
held on the 21st had a good turn out and an excellent impromptu presentation
by W9TJ on the health, diagnosis of problems and game plan to restore the
100% operational status of the clubs 2-meter repeater system.Lots
of work has been devoted to the interference problem and after thorough
bench checks of the equipment confirming it’s fully operational, the effort
proceeded to completely check antennas and to rebuild mounting devices.After
all that work, interference to the system is still a problem.Direction
finding indicates a possible source north to northwest of the system tower.With
improved weather, W9TJ and his work party will try to isolate the source.
Our next club meeting
is a holiday dinner event on December 12th at Eckerts Family restaurant,
951 South Greenmount Road outside Belleville.This
is a bring a guest activity.Be there
by 7:00 PM and order your choice from the house menu.No
advance reservation needed, so be there and make this a part of your holiday
activity.
The January meeting
is on the 30th and this is the month to nominate member candidates for
club offices.A term limit on the
presidents position will require a change at that level and other positions
are also open for change.The strength
of our club depends on participating members and dedicated officers.Over
the past three years, club membership has greatly increased.Keep
the ball rolling!Step forward to
help run our organization by taking on a club office.Officer
elections will be at the February 27th club meeting.
A new activity
is being promoted for the last agenda item of regular club business meetings.At
that time we will have a technical forum with a purpose for members and
visitors to bring up unanswered ham related questions and leaving it to
members with information on the subject to provide the answer.This
activity could be a very beneficial resource for new and seasoned hams,
and could generate enjoyable discussion.
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
For close to forty
years Red, WA9MGX has been licensed and enjoying ham radio.Red’s
early interest in the hobby was generated by his brother who was already
licensed.Red was first a member
of the club in 1967 and then after a lapse of membership, he came on board
again in 1991.In 1992 he was drafted
as the clubs Sergeant at Arms and has held that position continuously ever
since.Pursuing the position as more
than maintaining order, Red serves the club well by ensuring fresh coffee
is available for every club meeting, and providing food and drink whenever
needed for club activities.Most
notable is the great annual spread that Red provides to our club Field
Day site.Additionally, Red is totally
involved with the repeater committee spending many hours at the repeater
site with repair and upgrades.He
also is a involved every year providing check point communications for
the March of Dimes WalkAmerica and Shrine Circus parades.Red’s
operating interests include monitoring and operating through the clubs
2-meter repeater system and enjoying HF SSB activity on 10 and 20 meters.At
his Belleville QTH, Red has a triband beam and dipoles for HF, and for
2-meters an 11 element beam on the house and a J-pole on the garage.Base
station 2-metter rigs are available in both the house and garage giving
good opportunities to monitor and catch a lot of QSO time on VHF.For
HF, a Swan transceiver and Swan KW amplifier round out the home station
capabilities.Red truly enjoys the
activities and fellowship of our hobby, and serves our club outstandingly
giving his time to make club facilities and activities more enjoyable for
all members.Thanks Red for all your
contributions.
DUES NEWS
Annual club dues
for 2003 are payable now.Pay dues
to our treasurer, Bob Thurgood, WA9TUG in person or by mail to 5 Seven
Iron Court Belleville, IL 62220.Dues
are $25 for individuals and $30 for families.The
club provides the area with three VHF and UHF repeater systems that can
always use funds for maintenance and upgrade.Also,
significant annual recurring expenses run close to $1,000 for items such
as liability and equipment insurance, repeater control telephone system,
newsletter printing and distribution, checking account fees, Post Office
box rental, and activity refreshments.Timely
payment of dues certainly helps build a realistic annual budget for the
club.
It’s also time
for the club to renew our ARRL Affiliated Club status.It
takes at least 50% of our club members being ARRL members to qualify for
affiliated status.The status gives
the club special privileges and recognition we don’t want to give up.We
need to identify our 50% plus.Enclosed
is a list of club members that includes an ARRL membership status collected
at a recent club meeting.We need
an answer on the ARRL status for all members.If
you still need to pay dues and will pay this month, you could advise at
that time of your ARRL status or use the instructions on the enclosed list.
NEWS BRIEFS
Welcome to new
club member Ed Way K9WAY of Fairview Heights.
The candidates
for becoming a ham in the local area are decreasing since annual classes
were started in 1997.Hopefully this
is a sign that the club has well met demand rather than a reduced interest
in becoming a part of amateur radio.Only
three students, including one age 14, attended our class session on December
7th and they will test after a final review session on December 14th.In
1997 a high count of 30 students pursued the free class opportunity.K9HUH
has done a super job organizing this class every year.
2002 ARRL Field
Day results on page 101 of the December 2002 QST shows the clubs total
score of 3,020 placing well in the upper half of all Category 2A participants.
Winterfest 2003
is again close to home at the Gateway Center in Collinsville on January
25th starting at 8:00 AM.This is
one of the better local hamfests with lots of buying opportunities.
VE test sessions
are scheduled the second Tuesday of each month provided at least one testing
candidate makes a reservation well in advance.Without
a reservation, the session is canceled and those candidates planning to
walk-in are out of luck.In December,
no candidate made a reservation and a second Tuesday session will not be
held.However, walk-ins still have
a shot and could be accommodated along with the technician class test session
on December 14th.For information
and reservations, contact Ted, K9HUH at 233-1313 or 235-6152.Also,
in 2003 the ARRL VEC is raising the test fee from $10 to $12.
Information on
a great web site for owners of older ham radio equipment was passed along
during the clubs on the air meeting December 3rd.The
site is titled the Boat Anchor Manual Archive and the address is http://bama.sbc.edu/.
HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY SEASON: W9BP,
EDITOR