The HOTLINE
Official Newsletter for the
Heart O' Texas Amateur Radio Club
Waco, Texas

 

Volume XXVII, Number 11              December 2002

Annual Meeting Time                                                                by John Chamberlain, AC5CV

Position

Nominee(s)

President

Ed Middlebrook KC5NT

Vice President

Stan Russell KD5RWX

Secretary

John Chamberlain AC5CV

Treasurer

Ray Read AD5CK

Director (term to expire 2005)

Ed Hynan KC5KNI

As a reminder for old timers, and as a matter of fact for our new members, you’ve probably figured out by now that HOTARC doesn’t meet on the fourth Thursday of November. That’s because we figured out long ago that nobody would come on Thanksgiving Day! So, our bylaws state that the “November meeting” shall take place on the Thursday after Thanksgiving Day. Furthermore, this “November meeting” (even though it usually occurs in December) is designated as our “Annual Meeting.” That means ELECTIONS!

To that end, our Nominating Committee for 2003 has shared with me that they plan to submit the list of Nominees shown here for consideration at our Annual Meeting this week.

Please make special plans to attend this VERY IMPORTANT MEETING of your radio Club. And by the way, you are free to nominate others—as long as they are either present and/or have expressed a willingness (in writing, if not present) to serve if elected. As I recall, last year was filled with excitement, as several recounts were demanded! Who knows what may happen this year! J

 

Mark Your Calendars
for the HOTARC Christmas Luncheon!!

Happy Holidays to all of HOTARC!! This year we will be celebrating another year of HOTARC with our annual Christmas party at Ryan’s Steakhouse (on the corner of Franklin and Valley Mills Drive). We will meet at 12 Noon on Saturday, December 7th. We’ll keep it simple with a “Dutch treat” (pay for your own). When you reach the cashier, you can let the host or hostess know that you are with HOTARC and she’ll point you to our group of tables. We hope to see all of you there!

Bill Haberl KD5TRD and Scott Shafer KD5MLY

President’s Corner

We hope you all are having a Happy Holiday Season as our Ham Year winds down. It was nice to share Thanksgiving with numerous relatives who came to town to celebrate together. We will have the same opportunity to celebrate together as a club this Saturday at our HOTARC Annual Christmas Luncheon. Bill Haberl, KD5TRD and Scott Shafer, KD5MLY are organizing the event. See the note from them in the HOTLINE.

This Thursday’s meeting is our Annual Meeting at which we will elect the officers for next year. We would like to thank our Nominating Committee: Otto Hackfeld, KI5QT; Norris Martin, KB5SLI; and Larry Carlson, KC5JWD, for their fine work at a difficult task. As you will read here in the HOTLINE, they have produced a slate of candidates to present to the membership. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor during the election so be sure to attend and vote your choices.

I look forward to seeing each of you at our Thursday club meeting and also again Saturday at our annual HOTARC Christmas Luncheon.

Rusty Keyes, AD5JY
HOTARC President

For the Record...

HOTARC Meeting of Members
October 24, 2002

The monthly meeting of the Heart O’ Texas Amateur Radio Club was called to order by Rusty Keys AD5JY at 7:00 p.m. at the Kultgen Automotive Building on the campus of TSTC, Waco. There were sixteen full members, one family members, one associate member, and three visitors present.

The visitors were: Wally Lavender WA5QPE, Bill Feltenberger, and Joe Pichotta KD5TFY. Bill Feltenberger has passed his test, but no call yet.

The Minutes for the September meeting were approved as published in the HOTLINE, following a motion by Roger Miles WB5MBO, second by Ed Hynan KC5KNI, and unanimous vote by the members present. The September Treasurer’s Report as published in the HOTLINE was also accepted, following a motion by Otto Hackfeld KI5QT, second by Horace Bushnell W5TAH, and unanimous vote by the members present.

Announcements:

·    Ray Read AD5CK (HOTARC Treasurer) reminded everyone that he has HOTARC caps for sale at $6 each.

·    Linda Hynan AC5QQ affirmed that HOTARC and Baylor ARC are offering amaterur radio testing on the third Saturday of each month (unless otherwise announced) on the Baylor University campus, at the Rogers Engineering Building. For their contributions as Volunteer Examiners, Linda presented Certificates of Appreciation to John Chamberlain AC5CV, Ed Middlebrook KC5NT, and Roger Miles WB5MBO.

The Treasurer Reports...

 

Heart O’ Texas Amateur Radio Club
Treasurer’s Report, October 2002

Beginning Account Balance                                              $ 2,943.09

Income

       Interest                                       1.24

       TOTAL Income                       $ 1.24

Expenses

       Trailer registration                                    $   43.24

       Repeater antenna                                       200.00

       TOTAL Expenses                                    $ 243.24

Ending Account Balance                                                  $ 2,701.09

Submitted by
Ray Read, AD5CK
HOTARC Treasurer

·    KC5NT announced plans for presenting ham radio to students at West Elementary on either Nov 1 or Nov 8, with assistance from AC5CV. The third graders there have been reading a book titled “Radio Rescue” about a young ham who relayed information to help rescue a Florida family at sea in 1920. Ed and John plan to present some simple HF communications with an HF dipole, and an introduction to Morse Code.

Special Events

·    John Chamberlain AC5CV thanked all who participated in the highly successful Waco Wild West Century (WWWC) bike ride, and presented certificates of appreciation.

Committee Reports:

Trailer Committee: WB5MBO reported that the trailer “lost” a tire on the way to the WWWC bike ride event, so we are down to one spare, but all tires are good now (all the old tires have been recently replaced).

Repeater Committee: WB5MBO purchased a new DB224 repeater antenna for the Club at the Belton Ham Expo. KC5KNI moved to reimburse Roger $200 for the antenna purchase, KI5QT seconded, and the members unanimously approved the motion.

Website Committee: Justin Martin KC5LQL reported all is well with our web page.

New Business:

·    HOTARC’s Christmas Luncheon is usually held in early December. Bill Haberl KB5TRD and Scott Shafer KD5MLY agreed to coordinate this years plans.

·    AD5JY again exhorted the members to consider serving as officers for 2003 when the Nominating Committee calls upon you.

·    John Gafford N5XAK, President of WATS (Waco Amateur Television Society) announced that the Directors and Members of WATS have decided to dissolve the WATS corporation. Law requires that its assets be donated to a non-profit organization, and so the WATS members propose to donate the Club assets to HOTARC. The HOTARC members present expressed their sorrow over the dissolution, but enthusiastically received the offer of the WATS assets and ATV interests. For example, KD5RWX wished to somehow make it better known that ATV is a part of HOTARC, e.g., modified logo, ATV emblem on the trailer, or whatever. AD5CK moved to accept the WATS offer of its assets and desire to keep ATV alive in HOTARC. AC5QQ seconded , and the members unanimously accepted the motion. Details of the transfer will be worked out in the weeks to follow, hopefully before year’s end.

AD5JY heard a motion from KI5QT to adjourn. The meeting was followed by a lively show’n tell of “homebrew” projects (see photos in HOTLINE): WB5MBO showed a homemade antenna tuner and 75-80m CW transmitter purchased at Belton; AC5CV showed a portable 2m APRS station (including GPS receiver); Bill Cox W5JRM showed a discone antenna and gave a brief discussion on modifying switching power supplies; KD5MLY showed code oscillators; Stan Russell KD5RWX showed a GPS antenna project (from a recent QST article); AD5JY showed a “fuzz box” for his son’s guitar; David Bush KC5UOZ showed a no-weld antenna mast mount that attaches to your  vehicle’s trailer hitch receiver, and also a homemade yagi ATV receive antenna; W5NCD showed another version of the battery-pack 2-meter APRS tracking station; KC5NT showed an HF QRP CW transceiver he assembled from a kit, a portable HF station kit, and a homemade HF whip antenna.

Submitted by:
John Chamberlain AC5CV
HOTARC Secretary

Request for ARES Net Control Station Volunteers
                                                by Ed Hynan, KC5KNI, McLennan County Emergency Coordinator

It is time to put together the ARES Net Control Schedule for 2003. I currently have seven individuals that have volunteered for net control duty. The ARES / Bakers Dozen Training Net is held each Monday night at 8 PM on the 145.15 Repeater. Since the 2002 schedule was done we have had a number of new and return ARES members. I would like to provide this excellent training opportunity to all current members of McLennan County ARES. If you would like the opportunity to serve as a weekly net control please let me know via e-mail at KC5KNI@arrl.net . Let me know if there are any Mondays that would not be convenient (i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and/or 5th).

For those who would like to volunteer, I will add you to the 2003 schedule, provide you with a copy of the preamble, log sheet, and the ARES / Bakers Dozen Training Net Operating Instruction (as soon as I finish it). If you want to participate, please let me know by 10 Dec 2002.

If I can secure additional volunteers, you would be scheduled to call the net no more than 6 times a year. Please let me hear from you.

Additional ARES Information

I hope to have the basics for the ARES section on the HOTARC web site to Justin by the first of the year. Recall listings, ARES positions, operating instructions, and repeaters are just some of the items that will be included. Watch for it!

I just completed the ARRL Emergency Communications Course Level 2. I can say that there is a lot of good information, and it is a good course format for taking on-line. Both the Level 1 and Level 2 courses are worthwhile. There is a cost of $45 per course for ARRL members—but it is money well spent.

Best wishes to all for a Happy Holiday Season!

The Results Are In!                                                  by Ed Middlebrook, KC5NT

While most of us have all but forgotten the fun of Field Day 2002, here’s some great news you can glean from the December 2002 QST, or more easily from the ARRL web site. If you go to the contest page at the ARRL site (for ARRL members only), you’ll find, among other things, all the Field Day 2002 scores. Query the database of scores for North Texas 2A entries, and you’ll get the following information:

Rank

Call

Score

QSOs

GOTA Call

Participants

Club

1

W5ZDN

3,500

943

N5MVL

20

Heart O'Texas ARC

2

K5SLD

3,242

811

KB5PMX

42

Arlington ARC

3

K5QHD

2,720

832

 

14

Garland ARC

4

W5LM

2,382

548

 

55

Temple ARC

5

K5RWK

1,922

470

 

30

Richardson Wireless Klub

6

WJ5J

1,866

533

AA5NE

20

Ham Assn of Mesquite

7

AA5NZ

1,570

435

AA5QV

25

Mills Cty Hams

8

W5HRC

1,528

503

N5YM

14

Hurst ARC

9

W5A

1,370

280

NS5R

19

Sabine Valley ARA/MFRC/HCARA/Rains

10

K5BWD

1,226

438

K5BRN

15

Brownwood ARC

11

K5PSK

1,190

339

 

10

North Texas RA

12

WB5RDD

1,126

313

 

12

 

13

W5BCR

1,090

235

 

8

Bosque Cty ARC

We’re Number One! Congratulations to all who contributed to this success!!

Homebrew—HOTARC style!                                          (photos by AC5CV)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


would you like to donate any spare VHF and UHF equipment to a worthy cause? We received a request for help from the Waco squadron of the Civil Air Patrol.

 

The HOTLINE is the monthly newsletter of the Heart O’ Texas Amateur Radio Club (HOTARC), Inc., a nonprofit corporation, chartered by the State of Texas and principally located in Waco. It is permissible to use any of the original material contained herein, provided proper credit is given to the source.

Edited and Published by John Chamberlain AC5CV, ac5cv@arrl.net.

HOTARC 2002 Board of Directors

President: Rusty Keyes AD5JY, 662-1461, rustedkey@aol.com

Vice President: Ed Middlebrook KC5NT, 826-4053, KC5NT@arrl.net

Secretary: John Chamberlain AC5CV, 855-7731, AC5CV@arrl.net

Treasurer: Ray Read AD5CK, 776-4059, rayread@hotmail.com

Past-President: Norris Martin KB5SLI, 829-2138, KB5SLI@flash.net

Director (2002): Ed Hynan KC5KNI, 666-4873, KC5KNI@arrl.net

Director (2003): Mike Ross N5MVL, 836-1083, N5MVL@juno.com

Director (2004): Marshall Mabry KD5IQ, 772-1037, mabrym@aol.com

Club Repeaters

145.15 MHz (input at -600 kHz, tone 123 Hz)

146.88 MHz (input at -600 kHz)

146.98 MHz (input at -600 kHz, tone 123 Hz)

VE Testing

NOTE: There will be NO TESTING by HOTARC/BARC in December. We hope to resume in January with the regular schedule of testing on the third Saturday’s of each month. Contact: Linda Hynan, AC5QQ at 666-4873 or Linda.Hynan@UTSouthwestern.edu.

 

Meeting Notice

This month’s meeting of HOTARC will be at 7:00 pm on Thursday December 5, 2002 in the Kultgen Automotive Center of the TSTC Waco Campus. This is our Annual Meeting at which we elect officers and Directors for 2003. All members are urged to attend!