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June, 2003                                                                                            the sPARC gap                                                                                            Page 3

Estate Sale

arold Landers, WAØBRU, has advised us of a sale coming up on the weekend of June 20, of the ham gear and other effects of the late Floyd Passmore, W7KLE.  This sale will take place at 9625 SW Jacktown Rd. in Beaverton on Friday and Saturday,  June 20 and 21.

Although the items in this sale will not be offered at SeaPac, they are all subject to prior sale, no reasonable offer will be refused, if you can't meet the tagged price for an item.  Prices were not stated in the announcement of the sale.

Some of the items on sale include a 40-foot tower with rotator and triband beam, a 13-element CushCraft 2-meter beam, some UHF antennas and various miscellaneous mobile and surplus antenna items.  Radios include a Swan 350 and a Drake TR-7 HF transceiver, a Kenwood 2-meter handheld, a high power HF linear amplifier and an 80-watt Henry brick for 2 meters, and several homebrew items.  There are also a couple of antenna tuners, and several pieces of test equipment, some of them homebrew and some commercially made.  There is also a rather extensive assortment of parts and tubes, including spare tubes for Floyd's homebrew linear.

Inquiries may be put to Harold Landers, WAØBRU, at 503-708-8301 or wa0bru@arrl.net. 

This is a courtesy announcement to benefit the heirs of one of our fellow hams who has become a silent key.  PARC cooperates with other clubs in the area, when it comes time to handle these matters.

-W7LT

Report of the VE Committee

ike many aspects of amateur radio, volunteers provide the backbone to continued viability of the hobby. Nowhere is this truer than in the licensing of new and current hams. The Volunteer Examiner (VE) Program is nearing its twentieth anniversary. While most hams are familiar with the VE process, it seldom dawns on them that the current VE Program is a public-private venture in which volunteer citizens administer exams that result in the issuance of a government license. For perspective, consider AAA administering driving tests for the DMV, or the NRA issuing conceal-carry permits - well, you get the idea.

From its inception in September 1984 the ARRL/VEC program has administered more than one million exam elements at more than 70,000 test sessions. PARC plays its own small, but not insignificant, role in this process through its own VE Team that consists of accredited Volunteer Examiners who arrive one hour before each monthly club meeting to administer exam elements to prospective hams or those seeking to upgrade.

From March 2001 through May 2003 the PARC VE Team has served 111 persons who have chosen to test with us. Those efforts have produced 88 new licenses earned (52 Technician, 23 General and 13 Extra). While it is always gratifying to see hams upgrade to a higher class, the real joy comes in seeing a person pass their initial exam. Consider last month's May session. Among the fourteen persons who tested that Friday evening were two 12-year old girls, a nine-year-old boy from Eugene and a blind man who once held a Novice license. When the evening was over, ten new Technicians emerged from the session, including nine-year old Johnnie Brambora, twelve-year old Shannon Breakey, and Lynn Kneip, the blind former Novice who passed his exam after it was patiently read to him by VE Rich Morgan, KD7GIE. Helping Rich that night were Eric Stephenson, KK7UE, and Lee Hopper, NB7F.  Other PARC VE's include Pete Rodabaugh, W7PR, Bert Younglove, WA7AXO, and Paul Templin, KD7NBJ. Occasionally we will be joined by itinerant VEs from other clubs who are willing to bring the badge and time to help with a session.

Seldom do our VE sessions finish in time for the VE's to catch the start of the regular PARC meeting. So when we stumble into the meeting a little late, often grinning with delight over the evening's latest results from the Board Room, now you know why. For further information about the ARRL/VEC Program, please visit www.remote.arrl.org/arrlvec/.

-N7XB