‘Tis soon to be St Patrick’s Day and it's a grand time for the Irish! The Spirit is in the air. So too for us hams, as Hamfests are now upon us—electronic celebrations. We have our committee working hard on ours (October 9^th), and one coming up this Saturday (The 6^th at W WA Fairgrounds, Puyallup) and several more coming in our area.

I, personally, enjoy them and can’t wait to see old relics of a bygone era, and rigs I once owned and now wish I still had them as the antique value has increased much. I not only look for the needed items, but also enjoy people watching. Stories are shared, and friendships made. Judging from the box of goodies going out the door, everyone is happy with bargains galore. Some can’t wait to get home, and get the new rig on the air. It’s so nice to hear those 20 over 9 reports from far away places with "strange sounding names."

Years ago, it was kits that were the rage. All went well until the smoke test, and then spirits became lower, and back to the drawing board we went. It was a learning experience and many of us miss the excitement and challenge.

Now we are experiencing a new proposal for license structuring, and hopefully, it will provide a shot in the arm for Amateur Radio. Maybe more "hamfests" are needed to increase our interest and get more hams on our rosters. Maybe each of us becoming an "Elmer" might help, and would increase attendance at our meetings.

Speaking of meetings, our next one on the 10^th should be most interesting. Details will be in the Newsletter. Hope to see all of you there, and bring a friend, neighbor or ham relative. See you looking for bargains too at the local hamfests.

73 and agn tnx.

Jerome "Jerry" Turner, K9CCZ.

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April is the birthday month for the US Navy Submarine Force. Every year, the Submarine Museums and Amateur Radio forces join together to run a Special Event to commemorate the contributions of "Silent Service". This year, the event will be on April 24th and April 25th. Kitsap County is the home of the Bangor Submarine Base and it is appropriate that a Special Event be run during this period.

A Special Event is an opportunity to operate with a group of fellow Hams in an atmosphere away from the home QTH. It is a way to learn how to operate with just the bare essentials – something we would have to do in an emergency situation. It is also an opportunity to show Amateur Radio to the community and make people aware that we are there to serve. We are there to provide alternate communications in times of an emergency or disaster at no cost to the taxpayer.

The Naval Undersea Museum at Keyport has invited NKARC to run a special event station any time we could find a reason. The possibility of running a "Submarines on the Air" event was discussed and quickly endorsed by the museum. The NKARC board has approved the event and preliminary plans are underway. Bob Tomas, N7KTP, has volunteered to coordinate the event with the museum staff. Plans are to operate two stations within the museum. Setup will be on Friday afternoon, April 23rd.

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When I was growing up, there was a fire station considered to be the second busiest in the city of Chicago. Rarely a day went by that they did not have to answer a call. In those days, a majority of the calls to the Fire Department were to put out a fire that could be small like a garbage fire or a major multi-alarm fire in an industrial facility. The siren would sound and the red truck would roll out of the barn with a bunch of us running to watch the fireman at work.

Days have changed and the range of services provided by the firefighters have increased to include many previously considered not within their scope. We many not be aware of the new firefighters and the services they provide to the community. On March 10^th, North Kitsap Fire District Chief Paul Nichol will present a description of the North Kitsap Fire District – the equipment available to the firefighters, the services they provide with a surprising overview of the type and number of calls they have responded to in recent months.

Come to the Viking Park Clubhouse on Wednesday at 7:30 PM to hear about one of the most significant public services in the North Kitsap area. Bring a friend – the coffee pot will be brewing.

Last month we reported that club member Jack Thornton, N7OYR, is seriously ill undergoing treatments for stomach cancer. He can be heard occasionally checking into the county wide nets but it is becoming an effort for him to get to his shack.

It was suggested to send him a note or a card to let him know that he is remembered and in our prayers. Your editor had a lapse of finger dyslexia resulting in the wrong address to Jack being given. The correct address is:

Jack Thornton, N7OYR

P.O. Box 425

Keyport, WA 98345

Are these the same items? Depends on whether you studied electronics or radio theory. Years pass, the names may change but they are the same physical item.

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Mar. 10th -- Presentation meeting at 7:30 PM– Viking Park Clubhouse -- To be announced

 

Mar. 20th -- VE testing Community Room, Poulsbo Library, 700 NE Lincoln St., Poulsbo. Doors open at 9am. Picture ID, original and photocopy of current amateur radio license and pending CSCE's needed. Cost of session is $12.00. Questions please call Susan, AB7MD at 360-697-9379.

 

Mar. 24th – Business Meeting – 7:30 PM – Viking Park Clubhouse

 

Apr. 14th – Presentation Meeting – To be announced – 7:30 PM – Viking Park Clubhouse.

Apr. 17th – VE testing Community Room, Poulsbo Library, 700 NE Lincoln St., Poulsbo. Doors open at 9am. Picture ID, original and photocopy of current amateur radio license and pending CSCE's needed. Cost of session is $12.00. Questions please call Susan, AB7MD at 360-697-9379.

 

Apr. 23rd – Subs On The Air Setup – Keyport Museum – 1:00 PM

 

Apr. 24th –25th – Subs On The Air Special Event – Keyport Museum – 9:00 Am to 4:00 PM

 

Apr. 28th – Business Meeting – 7:30 PM – Viking Park Clubhouse.

We have had a number of changes to net times due to band conditions. Now all the nets are moving back to their "normal" times. So, you can find;

WA Amateur Radio Traffic System (WARTS) at 1800 daily on 3970 kHz.WA State Net 1 (WSN) at 1845 daily on 3658 kHz.

WA State Emergency Net (WSEN) at 1830 Mon. and 0900 Sat. on 3985 kHz. (Effective 1 Mar.)

 

The Washington State ARES/RACES web site has moved to

http://www.wastateares.org.

Please visit the site and review the improvements web master Bill, W7ARC has made.

The PIC (Public Information Coordinator) Bruce Miller, KC7IAY has a new web site up at

http://www.arrlwwpic.org.

Public Information Officers and others interested in PR are invited to visit the site.

The remailer that Bruce ran for WWA ARES has been shutdown and has been replaced with a new remailer. Membership is open to all WA Hams with an interest in emergency communications. Sign up at

This year's Communications Academy will be held 20 and 21 March in the Shoreline Conference Center (same place as last year). A listing of scheduled sessions is available under the link to CommAcademy 2004 at

http://www.commacademy.org/.

Registration is open on the web site too. The committee that put together CommAcademy 2004 has done a wonderful job! Come out and enjoy the fruits of their labors.

For those involved in SAR activities, the Washington State SAR conference will be held this year in Lewis county on 21 to 23 May. Pre-conference classes will also be held during the week. For more information please visit the Lewis Co. SAR web page at:

Many of our ARES/RACES folks are involved in SAR, and this is an excellent training opportunity.

As always, up to date news can be found on the WWA Section News page (www.arrl.org/sect/wwa).

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ARRL Western Washington Section

Section Manager: Edward W. Bruette, N7NVP

n7nvp@arrl.org

Received the following e-mail message requesting assistance for the MS Society Walk. Tom, W6QJI, is known to many of us and is a past president of NKARC. Some have already agreed to participate. Let’s join him in this project. We have notified him that NKARC will participate. Call me at 638-1659 or notify me at the e-mail address on the mail page if you will participate.

Bob, N7KTP
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Hi Bob --- I received a call from the MS Society to provide communications for the MS walk on Thursday, April 15th at the Fair Grounds. I will probably need about eight operators --- probably simplex -- 62 machine for backup.

They called me because one of their members participated in the Hot Foot 5K run for the Fire Volunteers last year.

Since the event is in the North end of the County, I thought it might be easier to find the operators from the NKARC.

I'd appreciate it if you would ask around for me. There is a staff meeting on Mar. 8th at which I'd like to be able to tell them that they are covered. The exact route has not yet been set, but will be by mtg time. I'll walk the route after the staff mtg. If I see that we need more ops I'll let you know. But, the route will be ON the Fair Grd property.

Warmest Personal Regards,

is Tom

The Burley Amateur Radio Club will be conducting a General License Theory class beginning April 6, 2004. The 10 sessions will be on Tuesday evenings from 6 PM until 9PM. Last session will be ARRL VE Testing on June 8, 2004. The textbook is $15.00 which includes the $5.00 registration fee. For those students that do not wish to purchase a book a $5.00 Registration Fee will be assessed. Morse code will be offered from 6:15 to 6:45 PM and Theory from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. The textbook used is The ARRL General Class License Manual For Radio Amateurs, 4th edition.

A printable class registration form and other class information can be found after March 8, 2004 at

http://www.burley-arc.com

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Some hams may have thought they'd left their transceivers turned on Tuesday, February 17. That's when the popular National Public Radio <http://www.npr.org> afternoon news magazine All Things Considered (ATC) ran a piece about the pending addition of the @ symbol to the official international Morse code lexicon. That's because NPR introduced and closed the nearly four-minute segment with actual CW, catching the ear of many hams.

ARRL Chief Technology Officer Paul Rinaldo, W4RI, conceived of the new character, necessary for transmitting e-mail addresses in CW, among other possible purposes. Assuming approval by International Telecommunication Union <http://www.itu.int/home/index.html> member-states, the new character--the first added to the code in many, many years--will be "AC" run together

(.--.-.).

The new character, Rinaldo says, is both unique in the Morse world as well as a mnemonic (think of an 'a' wrapped in a 'C').

ATC co-host Robert Siegel interviewed ARRL Senior News Editor Rick Lindquist, N1RL, for some background on the change, giving Lindquist an opportunity to mention his passion for mobile CW operation. The short feature, "Morse Code Enters Cyber Age," is available on the National Public Radio Web site,

<http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=1680529>.

From ARRL Letter Vol. 23 No. 08

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.

It costs approximately 60 cents per copy to print a newsletter and the postage to mail it. Receiving your newsletter electronically helps keep publishing costs down allowing the funds to be used for other club projects

Notify Bob if you need to receive your electronic copy in an ASCII of pdf format.

Visit the NKARC Web Page at the URL

and get the latest copy of the club newsletter -- "SOLID COPY. Click on the handi-talkie graphic and get a list of links to other web pages to connect including ARRL, FCC, Packet Radio Home Page, AMSAT and many others. Have something to sell? Classifieds is a new addition to the page. The QRZ call sign look-up form is available.

Submit your comments to Page master, Jeff at

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

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Help the environment by properly disposing of discharged household batteries. This includes alkaline, regular zinc carbide batteries, and batteries with heavy metals such as ni-cads and lithium ion. The Solid Waste Facility on Hansville Road accepts the batteries as past of the county-wide recycling program. Otherwise, bring them to the meeting for transfer to the disposal site.

Do not bring lead-acid batteries to the meeting for disposal. It is your responsibility to take them to the Solid Waste Facility.

In 1980, what rigs were on the market? In the field of 2 meter handhelds, the Tempo S-1 (the first synthesized HT) was facing some stiff competition. Kenwood introduced the TR-2400, and Yaesu brought out the FT-207R. Both were priced at "just" $395. ICOM unveiled the IC-2A and the IC-2AT. Prices started at just $200 (no nicads or TTP) to $270 fully equipped. In response, Tempo dropped the price of the S-1 to $260. If you can't afford a synthesized HT, buy a discontinued crystal controlled rig. The HY-GAIN 1 watt, 6 channel HT is just $88. The Yaesu FT-202R, a 1 watt 6 channel unit (which looks just like the FT-207R) is only $125. PACE is leaving the ham market and has its remaining 2 meter handhelds on closeout for less than $120. Inflation has increased prices 250% since 1980, figure out the prices of these radios in today's dollars.

Finally, in 1980, did you get "Bashed"? Did you buy "The Final Exam"? Would you EVER admit to it? What's the controversy?

In 1980, Dick Bash, KL7IHP, published a series of books entitled "The Final Exam" and nicknamed them

"Bash books". The actual test questions and multiple-choice answers were reproduced verbatim as they appeared on the FCC Technician/General, Advanced, and Amateur Extra exams. Remember, in 1980, the FCC exam question pool was not published. The FCC had a general "syllabus" of rules, regulations, and technical data covered on each exam. The ARRL License Manual discussed these topics in detail. But no one had published the actual questions and answers until Dick Bash came along. How did he get the questions? Simple--he would go down to the FCC examination site, stand outside the door, and question the applicants as they came out. Cooperative hams (or would be hams) gave him the questions and multiple choice answers that appeared on their exams. Later, as the books began to sell in numbers, applicants would mail him the questions and answers that were on the tests. The books were popular--selling at the rate of 1,000 per month in 1980.

Dick Bash claimed his operation was 100% legal. He said that since the questions were available via a FOIA request, they weren't classified and could be published. He further stated that he was justified in publishing "The Final Exam" because the syllabus and License Manuals out there did not adequately prepare applicants for the exams. Indeed, FCC records showed that the failure rate at some exam sessions was 69%--less than 1 out of 3 passed. This was before the Volunteer Exam program. FCC exams were given at the 20 field offices nationwide, and at quarterly, semi-annual, and annual examination sites. If you failed, it might be 3 months or more before you could retake the test.

The ARRL and the FCC fought back. QST refused to run ads for "The Final Exam". The FCC began rewording and changing the questions on the exams to thwart those who had memorized the earlier questions. Dick Bash claimed that the FCC used coercion to pressure magazines and distributors not to advertise or sell "The Final Exam". This battle went on until 1984, when the Volunteer Examiner program was instituted, and the FCC released the question pool to the public. Dick Bash ceased his operation. Did he win in principle? You decide.

In our next installment, we are going to stay in 1980, and look at four unique public service activities in which Amateur Radio played an important role. Sadly, in one event, two hams lost their lives.

So, until then, turn on your TRS-80 and copy all those new packet signals.

by William Continelli, W2XOY

Copyright 2003 by William Continelli, W2XOY. All rights reserved.

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If you changed your address, call sign or e-mail address 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. You can also send the changes via e-mail to Horace or Bob Tomas at the addresses listed in the club officers list on the mailing page.