August 2001

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		Our Web Site: www.W7LT.org
August 2001	VolumeXVIIII	Number 6

A New Look!

Like most living things, the Sparc Gap continues to show some changes. For those who may not have noticed, this one is in COLOR!

Over the next few issues, we will be experimenting with the format, layout, and content of the sPARC GAP. Changes being worked on are Pictures, technical articles, projects, and other information of interest to club members.

Kelly Butte, the site of W7LT’s Field Day Operations, 2001

Test Sessions

Test Sessions are still being conducted at 6:30, prior to the club meetings. All are welcome to schedule a test for an upgrade, or for getting your first license. Contact:
Bruce N7XB,

brmccain@teleport.com,
office telephone, 503-257-7320
P.O. Box 30705,

PDX 97294-3705.

Elections Held:

Due to some confusion, elections were delayed in the June meeting, and held at the July meeting. Elected officers are:

President: Ed Burress, KC7GFX

Vice President: Pat Kennedy KD7HDP

Membership Secretary: Pat Roberson, WA7PAT.

Recording Secretary: remains unfilled. If interested, let us know at one of the meetings.

In this Issue:

Field Day 2001

June 28^th and 29^th this year marked the 60^th annual field day since PARC was formed. Each year we scrape up all the piles of ham equipment, camping gear, water, food, wire, and batteries we can carry and head to the hills. And each year it seems as though we come away feeling like we didn’t do very well. This year was no exception. Somehow, we managed to miss some of the bonus points that were somehow easier last year. Also absent this year was the Novice station. It seems elusive why in a climate when all are encouraged to upgrade their license, and now easier to do so would there still be a station dedicated to a license that’s no longer granted? Oh well, all the ham groups across the nation I’m sure were faced with the same problems, and I think that will tend to level the playing field somewhat.

Last year, we scored all the bonus stations, and walked away with a total of 9,465 points for class 4A Battery, and landed 1^st in our class. Considering the loss of the Novice station which has always been “free points” for us, and the missed satellite pass, and missing the message handling, we still did very well. This year, for class 4A Battery, our total score was 11,235, up 1,425 points! This increase was due in part to better overall performance of the 4 stations which operated continuously for the entire 24 hour period. Way to go club!! We had a few other surprises this year, for more information, pictures, and comment, see page 4.

Club Meetings

PARC Meetings continue to be held at the same location and time. They are as always, the third Friday of each month at 7 PM. Meetings are open to all members and the general public. Look for some changes in the meetings, and more reasons to come. Meetings are held in the basement auditorium at:

One Liberty Center

650 NE Holladay Street

Portland, OR

Updates and changes will be announced on the PARC Net, Mondays at 7PM on the 146.840 repeater. All hams are welcome to join us on the air, or in the meetings.

Presidents Message
I suppose the best way to start this is by a small introduction of who I am.My name is Ed Burress, my callsign is KC7GFX.My email address is edbu@spiritone.com. I started Tektronix in 1977, and had worked there up until a little over a year ago when Xerox bought our color printer division.Over the years, I have worked as an electrical design engineer, software engineer, media engineer, and currently work as a mechanical engineer. I was first licensed when I was 14 as WB7DHT, but let my license lapse about the time I discovered that girls were ok to be around, and that most of the ones I knew didn’t care about radios.A decade or more later, my interest rekindled, I took the tests, and came out with my current callsign, KC7GFX. What I really want to do is talk about the club.The good news is that we have about 150+ members, which is a good size for a club, but I think we could stand to grow a little.The bad news is that I only ever see about 12 to 15 at the meetings lately. I could rationalize it by saying that this is summer, and people are on vacation, but the fact is we need to work on our approach to gaining and retaining members, keeping their interest. First, there has to be a good reason for anyone to sit in a basement meeting room on a warm summer evening. I have heard that our meeting place may be a problem, but I think our meetings are what we make them, and not where they’re located. I’m drive up from Wilsonville to be involved in them, and I can tell you that it wouldn’t matter to me where it is, as long as it’s interesting, I’d show up. I know that there are some disadvantages to the auditorium we use, we can’t eat in there, so potlucks are a problem, we can’t seem to get a signal in or out on any band which creates a problem for demonstrating equipment, and there never seems to be an overhead projector around. There are advantages however: It's free, it’s a nice room, parking isn’t too bad; and there’s an adjacent room for folks wanting to take tests. As I see it, there are three main things we need to do to grow our club: 1) We have to get our current members involved in the club meetings and activities once again. 2) We need to reach out to the Ham community to gain new members and encourage potential Hams. 3) We have to create a reason for them to stay and come back once we have them hooked. I have listened to several suggestions of how to accomplish these goals, and have added to them some of my own. I’m looking into a few of these already: Content: Our meetings are going to take on a new look and feel. Our goal is to have content that is of interest to the club. Guest speakers, slide shows, show and tells, presentations, workshops, etc. A few of us have already started working on some of these, and we could always use help. If you know someone, or are someone who could deliver an hour presentation or so, let us know! Door prizes…show up and you have a chance to win something. Gift certificates, equipment, a kit, I’m not sure, but It’s being worked on. Here’s a hint: if you bring a spouse, you have two chances to win. I’d like to see this club be a family oriented event.	Printed Material…Show up and you get a free printed copy of the FCC rules, or a repeater map, or an introduction to packet radio, free software, free QSL card printing offers, something. My goal is to have something at every meeting that’s only available for those who show up. Family Involvement: There is an idea that some of us are kicking around: we have an adjacent room at the back of the auditorium that’s used prior to the meetings for test taking. What if we were to use that later for the spouses and families to get together? Activities might include projects for the kids, a potluck, or just a support group for the spouses of the members that are down the hall foaming at the mouth about delta loops and yagi’s. Stay tuned for details; so far it’s just an idea to get the families involved. Project Sessions: I would like to see us build some things as a group. It may take the form of publishing the plans in the Sparc Gap, taking a poll of how many would be interested, and then building something. I realize that the auditorium is not the best place to cut PVC tubing and solder coax, so I’m open to suggestions. I’ve heard several ideas for projects that could benefit a large portion of the club, and we’re trying to work out the logistics of how to do that. Ideas that have been discussed are: Antennas such as the screwdriver HF; a solar power charge controller for solar panels; a QRP tuner; J-Pole antennas, a QRP transceiver, and portable tape measure beams. Projects might have a small charge, with any profits going into the club treasury. Other clubs across the nation offer kits, there’s no reason we can’t do the same. The SparcGap: First of all, look for some more changes. Printed in color, with pictures and content changes: technical articles, projects, tips, schematics, board layouts and graphics. Our newsletter has been really good so far, but I know we can make it better. The Spart Gap is the face that we present to our current and future membership, and we’re going to make sure it continues to smile. Contribute an article on anything ham related: technical, history, operating methods, a good or bad experience you had, something! I’ve been as guilty as most, never writing anything for the SparcGap, but I intend to be a regular contributor hopefully making it a better newsletter. I want to offer my personal thanks to Chuck Parker who has worked tirelessly to bring us the newsletter for so long, and has done a wonderful job improving the look and feel. I hope we can carry on his tradition, and make us all proud. New Members: To put it bluntly, we need to get some more bodies in the seats. We need to reach out to the Ham and the prospective Ham community and let them know that we’re here. More importantly, we need to show them a clear reason why they would want to join. I figure we have one chance to pitch our club to someone, and if there’s nothing here for them, they won’t be back. There are a lot of good people out there that can offer as much to us as we can to them, and we’re going to start finding them! Advertising:Glen Jones started a good idea a few years ago, and I think I dropped the ball on him, but I hope I’ve turned that around. Taking his idea and adding to it, I’ve finished up a 3-fold color brochure about the club.	They will be available at the meetings, also look for one in a future issue of the Sparc Gap. Take it out, fold it up, and give it to a friend. The plan is to place a sign and brochures in R5D3, HRO, Radio Shack, Powell’s Technical Book Store, Swap Meets, in short, any place else that will let us. We might start a direct mailing campaign to newly licensed Hams in the Portland using the FCC database. We have used press releases preceding Field Day mostly to get the 100 bonus points, but I may start using this tool to get our club mentioned more often in a public forum. Hey, we’re 60 years old this year! That ought to be worth a few words in the Oregonian and QST! Lastly, there’s an old idea that I don’t think gets much attention: Invite a friend. Lie to them, tell them you’re taking them to a movie, dinner, free drinks…(no, I’m not serious, but invite them along to see what we’re doing.) Volunteerism: I’m getting involved because I feel like giving something back to the Ham community. I’m inviting you to do the same: become a VE, write an article, give a presentation, and help us make this a more interesting place to be. Become an Elmer. All of us have some skill that we can bring to offer to our fellow hams, you don’t have to be technical to be an Elmer. If you’ve operated at one of our field days, letting another Ham know what to expect, and telling them about the surprises…that’s a form of Elmering. Donations: Since we received our 501c-3 status as a non-profit organization, we have had our first official donation: 3 Pentium class PC’s donated by Xerox Corporation. All it took was a little paperwork, and 2 days later they were signed over to PARC. Getting donations to help rebuild our aging repeaters is something that would be a nice goal. If any of you have experience writing grant requests for non-profit organizations, this could be your chance to shine. I want to thank all of those who worked on getting our non-profit status, it’s that type of commitment that keeps us going! Communication: I’m going to try to remain an accessible President. I need feedback from you on your ideas and suggestions for the club. I will try to be on the club Net on Monday nights, will make every meeting I can, and will answer email and phone messages as soon as I have the time. I will listen to complaints only when they are paired with a suggestion of how to make it better. Complaining about the low turnout will not make it better, suggesting or finding a good guest speaker, or donating a door prize will go a lot further. Volunteering will get more attention than standing around. Our club has been around since 1941, with a lot of Presidents before me who are a tough act to follow. Neal, N7RX is especially tough to follow, and if I can muster half of the leadership he has, I will consider myself lucky. My son, Reed is 6 years old now, I’d like to think that he will have a strong club to join when he’s ready. I am grateful to the other members who keep the club going, and am especially looking forward to the challenges ahead. We have a good group of folks that have stepped up to be our officers this year, and we have a good membership. I’m confident that we’re going to work well together to make this a better organization. I promise to do everything in my power and capability to grow this club, and not let it fall down on my watch. Thanks and 73’s Ed Burress KC7GFX

Here is a portable packet station which was used in a demonstration in connecting to a portable packet repeater node. The entire station fits neatly into a briefcase, and runs entirely from battery supply. The station consisted of a Toshiba notebook computer connected to a Baycom packet modem and an Alinco HT.
	Here, Pat Kennedy, KD7HDP, demonstrates his portable packet station while connecting to the club’s portable repeater.
The portable packet repeater consisting of an Alinco mobile 2 meter radio attached to a Kantronics KPC-9612 TNC. The TNC will later be configured and returned to service at W7LT’s permanent packet repeater site east of Portland, Oregon.
	A partial screen shot showing connection to the W7LT portable repeater. Our thanks to Pat, KD7HDP for the great demo!

A New Look!

Test Sessions

Elections Held:

In this Issue:

Field Day 2001

Club Meetings

Presidents Message

W7LT 2001 FIELD DAY DEMO STATION #1: APRS

W7LT 2001 FIELD DAY DEMO STATION #3: ATV

W7LT 2001 FIELD DAY DEMO STATION #2: Portable Packet

W7LT 2001 FIELD DAY ADDITIONAL BONUS POINTS

Wanted:

Here is a shot of W7LT club members who looked on at the demonstration of a portable laptop computer running DeLorme’s Street Atlas 5.0 and APRS +SA. W7LT was active during the Field day Contest reporting our location atop Kelly Butte in SE Portland. We opted to demo our APRS equipment at the information table since it seemed to draw some attention.
	Here is a closer view of the APRS station in action. In the background is a satellite image of Kelly Butte so that observers could compare the map image, the reported APRS location and the satellite image to see how APRS can be useful in locating other operators in locating each other, or in use for search and rescue operations, etc.
Here is a picture of the screen showing W7LT’s position in the lower right corner of the screen. Amateur stations into Northern Canada as well as the Pacific Northwest were also evident in the APRS screens. Equipment and Demo were provided by Ed Burress, KC7GFX.

Mike Schlabach, KB7YVM demonstrated his ATV setup to the club. He located his car in the lower parking lot approximately ¼ mile away, and attached his magnetic mount camera to the roof of his Ford Expedition. The camera was pointed in the direction of the old 911 center which used to be located atop Kelly Butte.
	Mike’s Transmitter operated on the 70 cm band and he typically uses it in conjunction with the ATV repeater located on the KGON tower in Portland. His current plan is to use it in conjunction with one of his other hobbies, flying ultra-light aircraft, and He’s already made plans to mount the camera on his plane.
Mike set up a portable ATV receiver attached to a small television (after all we were all operating class 4A Battery), and he made no exception for the demo station. Members of the club and the visiting public were able to see the lower parking lot, and keep tabs on our cars. Mike plans to add a text overlay to the transmitted image “so that I don’t have to keep running down to the lower lot and hold up my callsign every ten minutes for station ID. Our thanks to Mike, KB7YVM for the great demonstration.

Natural Power: W7LT operated in class 4A Battery again this year. Adding to our station compliment was this trailer provided by Mike Schlabach, KB7YVM. Mike’s trailer drew a lot of attention, housing the 15/40 meter phone station as well as supplying continuous solar and wind generated power. While all stations operating at the site relied on storage batteries for all contacts, we all used 110VAC generated by Mike’s Trace sine wave inverter to power lights and laptops (and a coffee maker until he saw the 100 Amp draw on his batteries). Our many thanks (and some apologies) to Mike.
	A Visit from a Public Official: W7LT again this year sent out our public press release, and an invitation to city officials to come and visit and learn what our club operations and field day is all about. Here, club president Neal Sacon, N7RX visits with a representative from the Portland Fire Department’s Bureau of Emergency Services.
Information Table: W7LT maintained an information table to let the public know what field day is all about. We had special flyers printed up in full color, a 30” x 40” satellite image acted as the centerpiece of our display showing visitors what Kelly Butte (our operating site) looks like from the air. Ham’s and the general public from as far away as the Seattle area visited our site. We invited the public to tour our site, and if they were inclined, operate a station under the guidance of our club members who were always present to assist.

Wanted: Sparc Gap articles, any size, new or used OK. Contact: Ed Burress, edbu@spiritone.com