We have four door prizes lined up for the annual banquet Wednesday, the 12th. They are primarily for the shack--two atomic clocks and two sets of 1600 mAh rechargeable Nickel Metal Hydride batteries with chargers. As approved at the November business meeting, these will be restricted to members.

I forgot to wish everyone a great Thanksgiving last month, so I submit my apology and hope everyone had a pleasant time with the family. Before I forget, I'm going to take this opportunity to wish all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

There are two DX stations I shall be looking for during the next few months: 4L4FN/P5 from North Korea, and VP8SGK from South Georgia. The later plans to be active 10-11 January and 4-6 March. I believe the 4L4FN operator has gone home and won't be back until late in January.

The picture QSL cards I ordered from Germany arrived and unless I forget, I'll bring a couple to the banquet. The picture was taken from Scenic Beach on Hood Canal with the Brothers in the background.

I hope this is in Bob's hands soon enough to be printed before the Special Event for the Friday and Saturday operation to commemorate the 7th of December attack on Pearl Harbor 60 years ago. I look forward to a good turn out. It will be a good training exercise and an excellent opportunity to provide exposure of amateur radio to the public.

For now best wishes from my shack to your shack, and hope to see you at Angel's Homestyle Buffet, 4111 Wheaton Way, at 6:00 o'clock PM the 12th.

73, Burt (W7IIT)

During the last weekend of April I worked a special event station commemorating submarines. W8ZHO, the Amateur Radio Council station of Muskegon, Michigan, operated from, or near, the USS Silverside (SS-236), a World War II submarine. Muskegon is about 100 airline miles northeast of Chicago on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.

I wondered at the time if the sail of the USS Sturgeon (SSN-637) or the control room of the USS Greenling (SSN-614) would qualify for inclusion in the contest. Both are located at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport. I can imagine the certificate with a photo of the sail with the museum in the background with all the data and acknowledgment of contact. Imagine a beam antenna atop the sail, and the club trailer nearby. Great public exposure!

At our April business meeting the club voted to order the ARRL "Club-Library-Challenge" set of books ($170 club net) for donation to the Kitsap Regional Library, to be placed in the Poulsbo Branch Library. Ron contacted the library and found that they were enthusiastic about accepting the offer. The set was ordered on the 27th of April.

Note: ARRL pays the shipping and the retail price would have been about $300.

The By-Laws committee will be meeting the 1st of May to review the changes that were proposed during the April committee meeting. The changes are such that it is almost a re-write. Susan will be presenting these at the May business meeting.

TMC John Wilson invited members from the club to his retirement from the navy. It was a very impressive ceremony, in fact, the most impressive I've attended. At the reception that followed, John had all of us assemble for a group picture. Other than family, it was the only group photo that I recall. It was an honor to have been invited, and I think this feeling is shared by all of us who were there. We also were served a delicious buffet meal!

John Stilwell is heading the Viking Soccer Tournament communications support committee and can use all the help he can get. If you are available and wish to serve over the Memorial Day weekend, contact John or Marcie at 697-2797.

Hope to see you at the May program meeting. Tom Sanders, W6QJI, will be giving us some hints on the construction of wire antennas and their effectiveness.

73, Burt. W7IIT

December 7^th, 2001 is the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. NKARC is conducting a special event station at the Naval Museum at Keyport, WA to commemorate this significant and historical date. The station will be on the air from 1600Z on December 7th to 2400Z on December 8th. The museum is open from 1000 to 1600 on those days and 2 stations are set up in the museum for the event. Two trailers with stations have been set up in the museum parking lot. Operations will be conducted in the trailers throughout the entire period including the time the museum is closed. If you receive this newsletter on or before the special event days, stop by and look it over. There is still room for operators. All license classes are invited to participate.

The museum director, Bill Galvani, has invited us to write and article describing amateur radio cooperation with the Historical Naval Ship Association Fleet. cation in the association’s publication, The Anchor Watch. An article is also being planned for QST magazine.

Bob, N7KTP

The December meeting will be the dinner meeting held at Angel’s Homestyle Buffet at 4111 Wheaton Way in Bremerton. The meeting will start at 6:00 PM with dinner followed by an election of officers. The member will pay $5.00 towards the cost of the meal for member and guest and the club will pay all costs over the member’s costs.

Come and enjoy a delicious meal as we enjoy discussions and conversations on what happened during the Y2K year. Mark the date on your calendar and be sure to include your wife, girlfriend or significant other as applies

Last month, we proved that if you qualified for a tech-plus or higher amateur radio license, you have some experience with digital communications because of your CW experience.

Digital communications took on a more sophisticated look when amateur radio operators changed the way RTTY was operated and transmitted pictures and photos with SSTV using PCs in the shack. Packet Radio and its HF counterparts of AMTOR and PACTOR are the amateur radio alternatives to Internet e-mail. Early configurations required a terminal node controller (TNC) to be placed between the computer and the transceiver to convert the analog signals to a digital mode. Hams used the PC sound care eliminate the TNC.

At the October presentation meeting, Clint Hurd, KG7UR, discussed Sound Card Interface Design and the latest trends in digital communications He gave a short history on the development of digital communications and the attempts to improve them. His presentation described the techniques to connect the PC sound card to your transceiver and the software programs available to use the various modes available to amateur radio. An interesting part of the presentation was his on-line QSO with another station using the PSK31 mode and the most elemental of stations setups. He emphasized that you do not need the latest high-speed computer for these functions. It could all be done with a computer with a100 Mhz Pentium processor.

If there is a computer in the shack, you have an economical way to become involved in a most exciting and interesting facet of amateur radio – digital communications. CW, RTTY, Packet Radio, APRS, PACTOR, AMTOR, SSTV, PSK31 and MFSK are all there to be used. Maybe it’s time to give the ears and throat a rest and let the fingers do the talking!!!

Club member Chas Richard presented a program describing the deep submergence vessellvessel, NR-1, in great detail relating some of his experiences while commanding officer of the vessel. Little has been published about this deep-sea rover so this was a golden opportunity to learn about it first hand.

In the first part of his presentation, Chas described how the US Navy uses deep submergence vessels (DSV) to conduct search, object recovery, geological survey, oceanographic research, and installation and maintenance of underwater equipment. NR-1 is a nuclear powered ocean engineering and research submarine. It maneuvers by four ducted thrusters, two in the front and two in the rear. It navigates the deep with planes mounted on the sail, and a conventional rudder.

The presentation further showed how the NR 1 can travel submerged at approximately four knots for long periods, limited only by its supplies. Its nuclear propulsion provides independence from surface support ships and essentially unlimited endurance. NR 1 can remain submerged and on station even when heavy weather and rough seas hit the area and force all other surface ships into port. It is used to study and map the ocean bottom, including temperature, currents, and other information for military, commercial and scientific uses. Some of its most prominent scientific contributions were on naval archeological expeditions with Dr. Robert Ballard.

NR 1 has sophisticated electronics and computers that aid in navigation, communications, and object location and identification. It can maneuver or hold a steady position on or close to the seabed or underwater ridges, detect and identify objects at a considerable distance, and lift objects off the ocean floor. In the second part of his presentation, Chas described how amateur radio was used to supplement the sophisticated electronics to provide better communications between it and its support ship. A most interesting experiment was when GPS communications and Amateur Position Radio System (APRS) was used to provide constant position reporting to the Naval Academy as it sailed down Chesapeake Bay for a visit to the institution. The signal transmissions were placed on the closed circuit TV system at the academy.

The US Navy uses deep submergence vessels (DSV) to conduct search, object recovery, geological survey, oceanographic research, and installation and maintenance of underwater equipment. We are familiar with the Navy’s first DSV Trieste II and its successor Deep Quest now on display at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, WA. The newest DSV is a nuclear powered ocean engineering and research submarine designated NR 1. It was launched at Groton on Jan. 25, 1969, and successfully completed her initial sea trials August 19, 1969. It maneuvers by four ducted thrusters, two in the front and two in the rear. The vehicle also has planes mounted on the sail, and a conventional rudder.

NR 1 can travel submerged at approximately four knots for long periods, limited only by its supplies. It can study and map the ocean bottom, including temperature, currents, and other information for military, commercial and scientific uses. Its nuclear propulsion provides independence from surface support ships and essentially unlimited endurance. NR 1 is generally towed to and from remote mission locations by an accompanying surface tender, which is also capable of conducting research in conjunction with the submarine.

NR 1 has sophisticated electronics and computers that aid in navigation, communications, and object location and identification. It can maneuver or hold a steady position on or close to the seabed or underwater ridges, detect and identify objects at a considerable distance, and lift objects off the ocean floor.

Now that we have your interest, you can learn more about NR-1 at the presentation meeting on November 14^th when club member Chas Richard will present a program describing the NR-1 in greater detail and some of his experiences while assigned to the vessel. The title of his presentation is "NR-1 and Amateur Radio".

There is no further description so it remains for us to be there and learn how this unique vessel is related to amateur radio. Little has been published about this deep-sea rover so this is a golden opportunity to learn about it first hand. I intend to go and find out if he has met Captain Nemo and his Nautilus while in the deep.

Last month, we proved that if you qualified for a tech-plus or higher amateur radio license, you have some experience with digital communications because of your CW experience..

With the introduction of PCs, digital communications has taken on a more sophisticated look and amateur radio is in the middle of it. PCs have changed the look of RTTY and allowed the transmission of pictures and photos with SSTV. Packet Radio and its HF counterparts of AMTOR and PACTOR are the amateur radio alternatives to Internet e-mail. Early configurations for digital communications required a terminal node controller (TNC) to be placed between the computer and the transceiver to convert the analog signals to a digital mode. Along came the PC sound card and Hams immediately started to find ways to used them in amateur radio and possibly eliminate the TNC from the shack.

NKARC members will have the opportunity to learn about the latest trends in digital communications at the presentation meeting on October 10^th where Clint Hurd will discuss Sound Card Interface Design. The presentation will describe how to connect the PC sound card to your transceiver and the software programs available to use the various modes available to amateur radio.

If you have a computer in the shack, this will introduce you to an economical way to become involved in a most exciting and interesting facet of amateur radio – digital communications. CW, RTTY, Packet Radio, APRS, PACTOR, AMTOR, SSTV, PSK31 and MFSK are all there to be used. Come and learn how to turn that PC into an important tool in the shack.

Anyone out there with a spare 2M rig gathering dust? Dave KJ7lJ has been short of work owing to some health problems. He's looking for a 2M loaner rig. Dave helped out with the hamfest, so lets see what we can do for him. Any ideas, contact Ron Sefton - N7EM email or ph: 360-779-5418.

Dec. 7th to 8th – Special Event Station KC7Z at Naval Undersea Museum, Keyport WA. Starts at 0800. See bulletin article for details.

Dec. 12th – Annual Christmas Dinner and election of officers – Angel’s Buffet – East Bremerton at 6:00 PM. See newsletter article for details.

No business meeting in December

No VE testing in December

Jan. 9th – Presentation meeting at 7:30 PM - Viking Park Clubhouse – Using the AO-40 Satellite Chas Richard, W4HFZ

Jan. 19th -- VE testing Olympic College, Room T-111, Lincoln Avenue, Bremerton, WA at 9:00 AM. All exams, Technician through Extra, are given. Contact Sue, AB7MD, at 360-697-9379. Contact Sue,AB7MD, at 360-697-9379

Jan. 23rd – Business meeting – 7:30 PM – Viking Park Clubhouse

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Don’t forget to dispose of those discharged household batteries in a way that helps our environment. This includes alkaline, ni-cad, and regular zinc carbide batteries. Bring them to the meeting., and they will be taken to the proper disposal site in Kitsap County.

Lead acid batteries are excluded from this collection. The disposal site on Hansville Road will accept lead acid batteries as part of the county-wide recycling project.

Want your newsletter as soon as it comes out of the word processor? Want to help the club keep the cost of the bulletin at as low as we can by minimizing the costs of printing and postage? Send your e-mail address to :

bobtomas@sprintmail.com,

and it will be posted 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.

Visit the NKARC Web Page at the URL

http://community.silverlink.net/NKARC/

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 web page master has been changed from Malcolm, NF7M, to the newly appointed page master Jeff Hasz, KS7H. Submit your comments to Page master, Jeff at

ks7h@home.com

and let him know what you think. If you know of any interesting links, let him know and he will look into them.

Thanks, Malcolm, for a job well done during your tenure. You helped put the club into the latest techniques of instant communications.

It’s almost time for the changing of the guard. The nomination and election of club officers takes place at the December dinner meeting. We are going into the eleventh month of the year and there is just a short time to think about who will lead the club next year.

The club offices are listed on the newsletter mailpage. Look over the list and think about the office you would consider or else who would make a good candidate. Malcolm, NF7M, and Russ, KI7PG, are working as the nominating committee for the club. If they or somebody else approaches you and asks you to consider a position, listen and give some thought to it. After all, they have confidence that you have the qualifications for the office you are being asked to consider.

NKARC is an active club with many interesting programs and presentations. Club members represent many diverse aspects of amateur radio and they are willing to share their experiences and expertise. The club has had exceptional leadership but the leadership must change to avoid stagnation and to introduce new ideas. Take an office and help continue the action.

Many club members have inquired about the availability of amateur radio classes to train those interested in entering the ranks of Ham radio. Discussions are underway to see how a program can be developed for the North and Central Kitsap areas. Until the training plan can be developed, announcements of classes in other areas will be posted in this newsletter. The following is the latest received.

The Burley Club will be offering a Tech License Class starting at 7 PM Dec. 16th at the club station (W7JQ) at the rear of the Burley Post Office. For additional info, contact Dave Brooks, N7HT, at 253.275.9893 or email:

dbbrooks@hotmail.com.

Course runs 12 to 14 weeks. CW will be taught if there is demand.

If you changed your address or call sign, please notify the club secretary to update the roster. This will insure that you will get the latest news via the club newsletter. Either notify Horace at the meeting or drop a card to NKARC at PO Box 2268, Silverdale, WA 98383-2268.

WASHINGTON, DC, Apr 4, 2001 (NASA)--The sun has blasted one of its largest flares in 25 years from the same region harboring the largest sunspot of the current solar cycle. Now reclassified as at least an X-20, the huge flare April 2 appears to be the biggest flare on record. The region, designated active region 9393, has continued to rotate with the Sun and is no longer in line with Earth, so most of the flare's energy was directed away from the planet. However, radiation from the flare temporarily disrupted radio communications, and flare-related events generated a storm of high-velocity particles that--in greater numbers and energies--can affect sensitive electronic equipment in space.

The flare erupted at 4:51 p.m. EDT Monday, and produced an R4 radio blackout on the sunlit side of Earth. An R4 blackout, rated by the NOAA SEC, is second to the most severe R5 classification. The classification measures the disruption in radio communications. X-ray and ultraviolet light from the flare changed the structure of the Earth's electrically charged upper atmosphere (ionosphere). This affected radio communication frequencies that either pass through the ionosphere to satellites or are reflected by it to traverse the globe. The explosion, near the sun's northwest limb, was associated with an eruption of a cloud of electrified gas--called a coronal mass ejection, or CME--into space, but apparently not directed towards Earth.

Solar ejections are often associated with flares and sometimes occur shortly after the flare explosion. CMEs are clouds of electrified, magnetic gas weighing billions of tons ejected from the Sun and hurled into space with speeds ranging from 12 to 1250 miles per second. Depending on the orientation of the magnetic fields carried by the ejection cloud, Earth-directed CMEs cause magnetic storms by interacting with Earth's magnetic field, distorting its shape and accelerating electrically charged particles (electrons and atomic nuclei) trapped within.

The article above is condensed from the ARRL newsletter of April 5, 2001

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The Wayback Machine – Part 19

Start with Chapter 14 for May article

Mention November 22 to many people in the US, and they will immediately associate it with the date that President John F Kennedy was assassinated. But for amateur radio operators, especially those licensed for more than 30 years, it means something totally different: INCENTIVE LICENSING. In a three- stage process starting on November 22, 1967, and ending on November 22, 1969, the FCC instituted "incentive licensing," ostensibly designed to encourage amateurs to upgrade, but in reality a process under which most amateurs lost up to 50% of the frequencies they usually operated. Incentive licensing (or incentive punishment as some have called it) has been blamed for the demise of many American amateur radio equipment manufacturers such as Hammarlund and Hallicrafters, a temporary decline in the number of licensed hams, and bitter feelings against the ARRL and FCC that last to this day. As we approach the 30th anniversary of incentive Licensing, let's take a look at the events that led up to this controversial decision. In order to do so, we must go back to 1951.

Prior to 1951, a rather simple license structure existed in this country. Amateurs had a Class A, Class B or Class C license.

Class A conveyed all amateur privileges on all frequencies, including exclusive access to the 75 and 20 meter phone bands. Class A required passing a comprehensive theory exam, and a 13 WPM CW test, which included sending as well as receiving.

Class B conveyed all CW privileges on all bands, and allowed phone operation on 160, 11 and ten meters in the HF spectrum, and on all VHF/UHF frequencies. Note that 75 and 20 phone operation was limited to Class A hams. What about 40 and 15 meters? Well, 40 at that time was CW only. And as for 21 Mc, It wasn't a ham band back then! 15 meters was given to us in 1947 in exchange for the 14.35-14.40 mc segment of 20 meters, but the 15 meter band actually wasn't available to hams until 1952. In addition, 160 meter access was severely restricted at that time because of LORAN Radionavigation and 11 meters was a secondary US only allocation, with limited popularity, so the Class B ham who wanted HF phone action went to ten meters by default. Class B hams passed the same 13 WPM code test as Class A, but a less comprehensive written test.

Class C gave the exact same privileges as Class B, but the exam was given by mail, under the supervision of a Class B (or higher) license, to those who couldn't walk the 175 miles (uphill both ways through the snow to a quarterly FCC examination point.

In 1951, the FCC reorganized the entire license structure. Class A was replaced by the Advanced, Class B by the General, and Class C by the Conditional. Three new licenses were created at that time, the Extra, Technician and Novice. The Extra (actually "Amateur Extra") had a 20 WPM code requirement and a written exam more difficult than the old Class A. In order to qualify for the Extra, one needed to be licensed as a Class B or General for at least two years, in addition to passing the test. However, if you held a Class B, or General license (or higher), and you were licensed prior to April, 1917, you could get an Extra with no additional test. Technicians had to pass the General theory and a five WPM CW test. They had privileges above 220 Mc only. Novices had a basic 20 question written exam, the five WPM code test, and limited CW privileges on 80, 11 and two meters, as well as voice privileges on two meters. This was a one-year, non- renewable license. The Advanced was available until December 31, 1952, for upgrades/new licenses, at which time it was withdrawn from availability. Those holding Advanced class licenses could continue to renew, but no new licenses were issued. In 1952-53, the FCC also dropped a couple of other surprises -- phone operation was allowed for the first time on 40 meters, 15 meters was finally opened, the 14.35-14.4 Mc segment of 20 meters was removed from the amateur service, and, in the biggest bombshell of them all, Generals (former Class B) and Conditionals (former Class C) were given access to all former exclusive Class A phone frequencies. Now, Conditional, General, Advanced and Extra Class operators had the exact on-the-air privileges. During the 1950s, Novices were given 40 and 15 meter CW privileges in addition to their 80 meter segment and 11 meters was removed. Technicians got six meters in 1955 and the 145-147 Mc segment of two meters in 1959. Technicians could also hold a Novice class license simultaneously.

Many amateurs were unhappy with this structure. Extras complained that they had to go through a two year waiting period as a General or Advanced, had to pass a difficult test, and yet received no exclusive frequencies for their efforts. Advanced class amateurs were upset with the "limbo" status of their licenses, the fact that they no longer held the highest class license, and the fact that they no longer had exclusive use of 75 and 20 meter phone. General, Advanced and Extra class amateurs complained that Novices should not have been given 15 meter CW. The General, Advanced and Extra class hams were also opposed to increasing Technician class privileges, for reasons we will see in our next installment.

In summary, although the vast number of hams were satisfied, a small minority had complaints. And the ARRL listened. In 1963, acting on complaints they claim they received from members and operators in other countries, the ARRL proposed "Incentive Licensing." In an editorial, the ARRL implied that perhaps it was a mistake when the Class B and Generals were given the 75 and 20 meter phone segments. The ARRL's stand was now clear. Exclusive frequencies must be restored to the Advanced and Extra class amateurs in order to give the Generals an "incentive" to upgrade. Of course, what was left unsaid was that in order to do so, frequencies would have to be taken away from the General class hams.

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

The DXCC chasers will be interested in the following comments taken from the ARRL Newsletter of Nov. 30, 2001. Go get em…..

* ARRL approves Afghanistan operation for DXCC: The ARRL DXCC Desk reports it has received acceptable documentation for YA5T in Afghanistan and has approved it for DXCC credit. Afghanistan is among the top 10 "most wanted" countries. The license, which authorizes operation on all bands--including 6 meters--was issued by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan government that's still recognized by the United Nations. YA5T will be operated by Peter Casier, ON6TT, as well as by Mats Persson, SM7PKK, Robert Kasca, S53R, and Mark Demeuleneere, ON4WW. All work for the UN World Food Program. YA5T will be on the air as their schedules permit. The DXCC documentation is for contacts made on or after November 20, 2001. No other call signs or operations have been approved. For more information, visit the YA5T Web site managed by Bruce Richards, WD4NGB <http://www.qsl.net/ya5t/>.

When asked to describe radio, Albert Einstein is said to have provided an eloquent description: "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head meows in Los Angeles. Do you understand this?" Einstein then continued: "Radio operates exactly the same way---you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."

War was a card game?

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirins?