There was a hope that there would be sufficient attendance at the meeting on January 26^th to finish the election of officers and the club could proceed on to the planning for the new year. It is a sorry report but there were less than 10 members present and most of those were club officers stepping down from last year’s offices and three of the four officers elected for the current year.

The success of a club depends a great deal on the leaders and their ability to develop programs and keep the membership interested in participating. Most of the officers from last year had been in their position for at least two years or more. There is a danger in having a group stay in office too long and the club recognizes this. The club by-laws specifically state that no member can stay in office for more than three consecutive terms.

These offices must be filled by members who will lead the club into the new millennium. Planning must begin on the ARRL Field Day in June. Work must be done on the Hamfest scheduled in October for which we are committed to the county and to the vendors and others who participate. The amateur radio world here in the United States will be undergoing major changes starting next year and new ideas are needed to keep up with these changes. License advancements for techs and tech plus with lower Morse Code requirements will be available after April 15^th. The club has built a communications trailer available for events and public displays. If you want to recommend somebody for one of the offices, talk it over with the individual. Urge him or her to consider the post and offer your support and assistance. Come to the meeting on February 9th and participate. Come forward and submit your name or nominate somebody you feel will fill the office and then vote.

The operations and procedures of the North Kitsap Amateur Radio are set down in the Constitution and By-Laws. As a non-profit organization, state statutes require that the club have these documents and that they be on file in the state capitol. The state office monitoring non-profit organizations recommends that these documents be reviewed and revised periodically to reflect the organization’s changing requirements and operating procedures.

The club’s constitution and by-laws were last revised and took effect on 1 November 1991. The club officers present at the January 2000 meeting discussed the constitution and by-laws and decided that it was time for review and revision. The procedure leading to the revision is involved requiring that all proposed revisions be submitted to the membership for review and approval. At the same time, the club membership has changed a great deal including many who are not familiar with the current documents. The decision was made to send a copy of the NKARC Constitution and By-Laws to every member on the roster on December 31, 1999 and any new members who joined after January 1, 2000. The documents will be sent in the mail in a separate mailing to insure that everybody has a hard copy. The members are requested to review them and to submit recommended changes to the Board of Directors. The recommended procedure is to submit the proposed changes in writing, but the club will consider any changes brought from the floor at a regular meeting. First discussions will be held at the meeting on 23 February 2000.

Once the revised documents are made final, the by-laws require that they be submitted to the membership at least thirty days before the vote is taken at a regular meeting of the organization. Absentee ballots will be available, but the member’s presence at the meeting is preferred. Please review the documents; think of the changes you would like to see; submit them to the Board for consideration; attend the meetings for discussion; and vote on the final documents.

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 in order to get the right format. Most e-mail only accounts only accept ASCII text format and we oblige with a text only format for them.

I have a couple of rigs for sale. A Kenwood TS-520S and Realistic HTX202. Accessories for the Kenwood: SWR meter, key, mic, clock, logbook, blank qsl cards. Accessories for the Realistic: clip mic/speaker, car antenna, rubber ducky car extension, good long range antenna, charger, and AA battery pack. Both come with manuals. Also, I've got the ARRL code tapes from start to finish. All this for a beginner, or the club to buy for a discounted price for promoting young hams. I will sell the whole setup for $500 to an individual, or to the club for $400. I can be contacted at 360-779-6844 or on e-mail at jonathanwymer@juno.com 

Jonathan Wymer

As an incentive to come to the next meeting (Feb. 9th) the club is offering free coax. Some local cable TV workers were replacing coax (probably with fiber optics) and thought it would be a great idea if the scrap 50 to 100 ft. cable lengths they had laying around, would just go away. The cable is about the size of RG-8 and is probably low loss 75ohm. Foam dielectric. It has a 1/8 inch steel support wire molded adjacent to the actual coax. (Free guy wire?) The stuff has a very tough jacket and this makes it rather stiff. But given the price, an enterprising ham should be able to put this to good use. About 5 lengths available.

Ron, N7EM

Come to the meeting on February 9 and find out where Silverdale is located. Burt, W7IIT, has accumulated a large number of slides showing the development of Silverdale. He started his collection when Silverdale was a crossroads junction on the road from Bremerton to Poulsbo. He will take us through the history showing scenes that would be hard to imagine considering what the area is today. From farms to a major commercial area of Kitsap County.

Feb. 9^th – Presentation meeting at 7:30 PM –Viking Park Clubhouse – Silverdale – Past to Present - Burt Boyd, W7IIT

Feb. 23^rd – Business meeting at 7:30 PM – Viking Park Clubhouse, Poulsbo

Feb. 26^th -- VE testing – VE testing - Olympic College, Room T-114, Lincoln Avenue, Bremerton, WA at 9:30 AM. All exams, Novice through Extra, are given. Contact Sue,AB7MD, at 360-697-9379.

Mar. 8^th – Presentation meeting at 7:30 PM – Viking Park Clubhouse – To be announced

Mar. 22nd – Regular meeting at 7:30 PM – Viking Park Clubhouse, Poulsbo

Mar. 25^th – VE testing – VE testing - Olympic College, Room T-114, Lincoln Avenue, Bremerton, WA at 9:30 AM. All exams, Novice through Extra, are given. Contact Sue,AB7MD, at 360-697-9379.

Amateur Restructuring is Here: Three License Classes, One Code Speed

Starting April 15, 2000, individuals who qualified for the Technician class license prior to March 21, 1987, will be able to upgrade to General class by providing documentary proof to a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator, paying an application fee, and completing FCC Form 605. If you qualify for an upgrade under these provisions and need assistance in filing or determining qualification, contact a club officer.

Visit the NKARC Web Page at the URL : http://www.silverlink.net/nkarc.

There is a wealth of information and capabilities to anybody that checks in. After you get connected, you can get the latest copy of the club newsletter -- "SOLID COPY"..

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.

The page master is John Stilwell, KK7SV

and let him know what you think. If you know of any interesting links, let him know and he’ll look into them. Give it a try. We are now available world-wide.

The American Lung Association is recruiting ham radio ''communicators'' to assist in its Big Ride Across America 2000. The 2000 ride--only the second to use ham radio operators--is the third annual event to raise money and awareness for the American Lung Association's fight against lung disease.

It's a 3500-mile bicycle trek from Seattle, Washington, to Washington, DC, from June 19, 2000 to August 5, 2000. More than 850 cyclists have raised in excess of $7.2 million during the previous rides.

Details are available at http://www.bigride.com. Volunteers can sign up for the entire Ride or choose from one or more segments of the country. The direct link to volunteer information is http://www.bigride.com/Get/get.html. The Crew Registration Form on that page lists the segment dates and locations.

To volunteer or to obtain more information about volunteer responsibilities, contact Volunteer Support Manager Mark Ewert, KB1ECH, bigride@lungusa.org or call toll free at 877-BIGRIDE (877-244-7433)

If you carefully scanned the February 2000 issue of QST magazine, you would have found a HINTS AND KINKS article written by Bruce McAffrey, N7OJ, describing a "simple" repair technique for headsets with damaged cords. Bruce has consented to publishing the article in "Solid Copy". Congratulations to Bruce for his new found fame. The article is reprinted below.

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Headphones need not be scrapped just because metal-on-nylon cords are difficult to solder. Repair using readily available junk-box materials without soldering is simple. Clean off the insulation carefully leaving the metal-on-nylon conductor intact. Form a "crimpable" ferrule by removing the ring from a small (#18 AWG) crimp lug/termination. Slide some heat-shrink tubing over the headphone cord and move it well away from the joint area. Insert the clean conductor-on-nylon into the ferrule. If the joint is at the plug end of the cord, insert a short length of flexible bare stranded wire into the ferrule at the opposite end. Crimp the joint. (I prefer the type of crimping tool that dimples rather than squashes the ferrule.) Slide the heat-shrink tube over the ferrule and shrink it. You can now solder the bare stranded wire to a phone plug without fear of damaging the fragile nylon core. If the break is somewhere in the middle of the headphone cord, omit the bare flexible wire and slide the other broken end of the metal-on-nylon into the ferrule and crimp as before. Sometimes it helps to tightly fill the ferrule with short lengths of bare stranded wire. Either way you have a good electrical connector that will survive many years of use.

The Kitsap County ARES/ACS is prepared to provide emergency communications when required by the county government. The group conducts networks on Sunday night to allow members to check in and be brought up to date on topics related to the system. The HF net meets on Sunday nights at 1900 local on 28.330 Mhz. The VHF net meets the same night on the AB7Y repeater at 1930 local. The repeater is on 145.43 Mhz with a negative offset. Packet radio fans can send a message to N7IPJ-1 on 145.01 Mhz to check in to the system. Tune in and get the latest on emergency preparedness.

The P.R. blitz paid off. By September, 1914, there were 237 relay stations appointed, and traffic routes were established from Maine to Minneapolis and Seattle to Idaho. Realizing that long distances on 200 meters were not possible at that time, even with a regenerative receiver, Maxim got the Department of Commerce to authorize special operations on 425 meters (706 kHz) for relay stations in remote areas.

Boosted by the publicity, the number of amateur stations, as well as the relay stations in the ARRL, continued to grow. By 1916, there were 6000 amateur licenses, (of which 1000 were ARRL relay stations) and 150,000 receivers in use. The emphasis in the ARRL was on the word RELAY; ARRL stations were expected to handle traffic on the 6 Main Trunk Lines (3 North/South and 3 East/West) that served more than 150 cities. And there was traffic. The general population (to whom phones were a luxury, long distance an exotic concept, and telegrams expensive) flocked to the idea of coast to coast free messages. As a P.R. exercise to test the system nationwide, on Washington's Birthday, 1916, a test message was sent to the Governors of every State, and President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, D.C. The message was delivered to 34 States and the President within 60 minutes. By 1917, the system was so refined that a message sent from New York to California took only 45 minutes. To deal with the increasing number of relay stations, the ARRL started a little magazine, which they called QST. Other amateur activities in this period brought favorable publicity to the hobby. In March 1913, a severe windstorm had knocked out power, telegraph and telephone lines in the midwest. Battery powered amateur stations handled routine and emergency traffic until regular service was restored. This was the first documented emergency communications in amateur radio history. In 1915, amateur station 2MN determined that the powerful Telefunken station (see August 1996 issue of "Popular Communications" magazine) at Sayville, Long Island, was sending information concerning Allied and neutral shipping to submarines at sea.

Thanks to the work of this amateur, the government took over the station.

However, the war in Europe was getting closer. In April, 1917, based on continued violations of our neutrality and unrestricted submarine activity, Congress declared war against Germany.

With the U.S. now in World War I, a message went out from the Secretary of Commerce to all private stations. By order of the Chief Radio Inspector, all transmitting AND RECEIVING stations were to be closed AND DISASSEMBLED, and all antennas taken down. Complete radio silence was to remain until the war ended and the order was revoked. Amateurs by the thousands packed away their stations and marched off to war. The 200 meter band was silent. In September 1917, with no radio activity permitted and 80% of the amateurs at war, QST ceased publication.

By the time World War I ended in November, 1918, almost 5000 amateurs had served in uniform, with many giving their lives overseas. Amateurs had proven themselves to be invaluable to the war effort. The Army and Navy were faced with an absolute lack of trained radio officers, instructors, operators, and even state of the art equipment. Amateurs stepped in and provided the knowledge, men, and sometimes even the equipment necessary to help win the war. An interesting example of this was the case of Alessandro Fabbri, a wealthy yachtsman and radio amateur, who had top notch stations on board his yacht and on Mount Desert Island, Maine. The Navy commandeered the stations (and the yacht), made Fabbri an ensign, and placed him in command. Largely with his own money, he expanded his operation and improved his equipment. Fabbri's station was used to pass most of the official communications between the battlefronts in Europe and Washington. The traffic often amounted to 20,000 words a day, most of them in cipher. Captain (later Major) Edwin Armstrong, whose regenerative receiver was being used worldwide, was in charge of the Signal Corps' Radio Laboratory in Paris, where he developed the superheterodyne receiver. Thousands of amateurs served as Navy radiomen and Signal Corps operators. It would seem from the information above that amateurs had conclusively proven their worth and that the Navy would return the amateurs' frequencies back to them once the war had ended. Sadly, this was not the case. A string of events conspired against the amateurs and almost eliminated all privately owned stations.

The villain in this play was the Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, a puritanical landlubber and teetotaler, whose opinions often got him into trouble. He was the type of individual that H.L. Mencken and Sinclair Lewis satirized as "one who is terrified that somewhere, someone is having fun." For years, he had demanded that the Navy have exclusive control of the radio spectrum. Now, it appeared, he had his chance.

The effects of the first modern global war, along with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, had temporarily turned the country extremely conservative. It was in this mindset that the Espionage Act of 1918 and Prohibition were passed. Hundreds of suspected communists and anarchists were deported in the "Red Scare." Even the great Socialist Eugene V. Debs was imprisoned for disagreeing with the government. Seizing the opportunity, Secretary Daniels urged the passage of legislation giving the Navy a monopoly on radio communications. As a result, the Poindexter Bill was introduced in the Senate, and the Alexander Bill in the House. Political observers gave both bills an excellent chance of passing.

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This article may not be reprinted without the express permission of the author -- Bill Continelli, W2XOY

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73 es cul…..Bob, N7KTP