Hello and Happy New Year!

Another New Year and another new president. I appreciate your confidence in me and I will work hard to warrant it. We had a busy year in 1998 and accomplished many good things. It was great to see many of you at the Christmas dinner. 1999 arrives with NKARC as strong as ever, and many more opportunities await us. I would like to encourage more use of our still new DX node, and look forward to using it for community service events in the coming year, as well. It's not too early to start thinking about Field Day and Hamfest '99, so give them some thought. There are also a few open ideas from last year including an emergency communications trailer. I look forward to your thoughts and suggestions. Remember that the Board works for you, but we need your input and participation. This is your club so please let us know what you want. I'm looking forward to another great year of informative and interesting presentations, community service, and fun events and projects. Most of all, I look forward to working with all of you. I'll see you on Wednesday the 13th.

73, Marcie, KC7DAT

"I DID read the manual and THAT is why I’m confused."

The annual North Kitsap Amateur Radio Club Christmas Dinner and election of club officers was held on December 9th at Annie’s Garden Buffet.

The following officers were elected by unanimous vote of those present:

President Marcie Stilwell KC7DAT

Vice President Charles Scharlau NZ0I

Secretary Burt Boyd W7IIT

Treasurer Susan Johnson AB7MD

Board Member Gene Johnson AB7LH

Board Member Bob Tomas N7KTP

Board Member Hugh Starkey AB7UK

A good time was had by all and the food was plentiful and delicious. There were a number of door prizes with the first prize, a Fluke multimeter won by outgoing president John Stilwell. He donated the meter to be used with the club’s portable station, Thanks John for the donation.

" If most people knew what they were talking about, they would be dangerous!:

A GOOD DAY – when you are the DX Station.

Having noted that quite a few club members own boats, I am wondering if we could drum up some interest in a boating function this spring. Perhaps a day trip or an overnight rendezvous at a nearby destination when the wx warms a bit. Non boaters could come along for the ride. Pt. Ludlow comes to mind as a possible destination, what with the NW boaters' net headquartered there.

Anyone out there with some suggestions or ideas? Contact Ron Sefton, N7EM (360) 779-5418; email: nrsefton@telebyte.net

On another subject that might be of interest to the club marine types, I had a chance recently to visit Doc Freeman's new store in Ballard. They have taken thousands of old goodies from the catacombs of the old store and marked them way down. Like DC circuit brkrs for $1 and good marine fittings (for antenna work) for similar prices. I bought a VHF thru-the-glass whip antenna for $10. (Good for 2M) This stuff is all out on clearance tables and probably won't last. For the uninitiated, Doc Freeman's for years, has been the place you go when you can't find it elsewhere. New store is just off the north end of the Ballard bridge, then a short block to the right.

73, Ron N7EM

Don’t forget to dispose of those discharged batteries in a way that helps our environment. Bring them to the meeting. John, KB7MKG, will make sure they are transported to the disposal site in South Kitsap County. ( at least until he goes back to sea). Lead acid batteries are excluded.

NKARC member, Les Kolb (KO3G), and his XYL, Sandy (NE7V), are at the South Pole working at the scientific station there through the Antarctic summer. Les is usually sleeping until 0200Z. The earliest we can expect to hear him is 0330Z and he is free until 0800 Z. The Antarctic station ,KC4AAA, can usually be heard on 14.243. Listen before you leap, because there are other operators who maintain contacts with their friends here in the U.S. Les has made contact with some of the NKARC members and he is glad to make a QSO and send the card to confirm. Watch the KC7Z DX Node for the notice of when he’s on the air. Les's e-mail address at the South Pole is kolble@CYPRUS.spole.gov

The newly built NKARC Portable Station has HF, VHF and UHF capability. The station features all this in two transceivers. It also includes a self contained screwdriver vertical antenna and a fan antenna that covers 10, 15, 20 and 40 meters. The HF antenna tuner can match almost any antenna and has a built in dummy load. The setup has a large deep cycle battery for portable use and a 25 amp switching power supply for fixed use. 12 volt jacks are available for powering a small lamp, or your handi-talkie, or laptop computer. The station is available for use by club members. If you are interested in using it contact the custodian Malcolm Mannan, KA6DXS, at 697-3877.

73, Malcolm

You woke up on Christmas morning and found that somebody made a mistake and left you with some new gear for the shack. As soon as you opened the box and started admiring the new addition, the XYL laid down an ultimatum that there is not enough room in the garage to store the equipment being replaced by that new toy.

What to do? You can donate to a worthwhile charity, but there is another option. Put a FREE notice in the Solid Copy. Since Solid Copy is put on the NKARC Web page, you also get nation wide advertising. Call the editor and let him know. It will stay in until he’s notified to pull it.

TALLYHO!

Furtive Fox says, "Start the new year out right, with a NKARC foxhunt!"

The new policy on scheduling foxhunts is as follows:

I will make every effort to support a foxhunt whenever two or more hunt teams commit to attend. I am open to hunts that take place any day of the week, any hour of the day.

You can help make a hunt happen by letting me know the date(s) you'd like to hunt.

Do you want to assure yourself of a hunt by choosing a date that another hunt team has already committed to? You can see the dates that others have chosen on the following web page:

http://www.sinclair.net/~cscharlau/cal1999.htm

Let me know your preferred hunt dates for any time in 1999, and check the web page calendar often to see when hunts are scheduled.

73, Charles Scharlau

Phone: Work: 425-771-2182 ext. 134
Home: 425-353-9277
e-mail: cscharlau@sinclair.net

Want your newsletter as soon as it comes out of the word processor? Send your e-mail address to bobtomas@sprintmail.com, and it will be mailed out right after the proof reading. Be sure to tell if you are using an Internet browser or an e-mail only account

NKARC sponsors VE testing at Olympic College,
Room T-114, Lincoln Avenue, Bremerton, WA
on the fourth Saturday of each month at 9:30 AM.
All exams, Novice through Extra, are given.
Contact Walt, AA7TL, at 360-692-8326.

Click on the handi-talkie graphic and you’ll get a list of links to other web pages giving you an opportunity to connect to the ARRL, FCC, Packet Radio Home Page, AMSAT and many others. Need the QTH of the station you just had a contact with? The QRZ call sign look-up form is available. The links also give the link to the information on the Evergreen Intertie.

John has added a whole new section on Fox hunting edited and managed by Charles Scharlau, NZ0I.

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From: Paul Rogers <rogersplp@yahoo.com>

To: bobtomas@sprintmail.com  Subject: Newsletter

Date: Monday, January 04, 1999 7:01 AM

Hi Bob

Picked your club site whilst surfing!! Do you have oversea members? Can I see your newsletter each month?

I've recently come back into the hobby and would like a regular sked with the US on all bands inc WARC. I run a TS 450SAT barefoot into a Carolina Windom at 16ft, it does the job ok. My callsign is G0SNW, QTH 200 miles north of London

73's Paul Rogers Otley, West Yorks

Visit my Homepage at http://members.theglobe.com/Rogers11/

Leave a message at http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/mbs.cgi/mb233815

You don’t think we’re international? Received this last week and thought I’d share it with you. Send him an e-mail wishing him well and set up a sked.. His name is going into our electronic mailing list for a copy every month.

The November 1998 Solid Copy published a listing of the most used user commands. This month let’s investigate a sampling of those commands. If your bag is to Talk (via keyboard, of course) to another HAM, he must also be connected to a node (any node) in the cluster.

"Users connected to node KC7Z - W7JP K7OM N7KTP (N7NN)"

If the target station is not connected, KC7Z will tell you "Callsign not currently connected." This message informs you that callsign is not connected to KC7Z nor to any other node in the cluster.

Typically, replies to this sort of message may come in from anywhere in the world because KC7Z is connected to VE7CQD via internet and VE7CQD is, in turn, connected to other clusters worldwide.

73 de N7OJ.

Change your address?............

Change your license class?..........

Change your call sign?...........

Be sure to notify the secretary, Burt -W7IIT- as soon as possible especially if you were fortunate enough to get that vanity call from the FCC.