W6IFE Newsletter

President: Doug Millar,
K6JEY 2791 Cedar Ave Long Beach, CA 90806 562-424-3737
[email-masked]

Vice President: Dick
Bremer, WB6DNX 1664 Holly St. Brea, CA 92621 714-529-2800
[email-masked]

Recording Sec:Mel Swanberg, WA6JBD 231 E
Alessandro Blvd Riverside, CA 92508 909-369-6515 [email-masked]

Corresponding Sec: Kurt
Geitner, K6RRA 213 Main St. #5 Seal Beach, CA 90740 310-718-4910
[email-masked]

Treasurer: Dick Kolbly,
K6HIJ 26335 Community Barstow, CA 92311 760-253-2477
[email-masked]

Editor: Bill Burns, WA6QYR 247 Rebel Rd
Ridgecrest, CA 93555 760-375-8566 [email-masked]

Webmaster Chip Angle, N6CA

ARRL Interface Frank Kelly, WB6CWN 1111 Rancho Conejo Blvd. #501 Newbury
Park, CA 91320

805-499-8047 [email-masked]

FCC Interface Dave Laag, K6OW 11614 Indian St. Moreno Valley, CA 92557
909-924-1517

W6IFE License Trustee Ed Munn, W6OYJ 6255 Radcliffe Dr. San Diego, CA 92122
619-453-4563

[email-masked]

The 1 February 2001 meeting of the SBMS
will have Kerry, N6IZW talk about the 1296 MHz transverter built from Qualcomm
parts. Kerry will have some parts available at the meeting. The SBMS meets at
the American Legion Hall 1024 Main Street (south of the 91 freeway) in Corona,
CA at 1900 hours local time on the first Thursday of each month. Check out the
SBMS web site at http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/.

Annual SBMS Dinner will be on 10 February at the Home Style Restaurant in
Guasti, CA. President Doug says plan to arrive at 6:30 p.m., we will have dinner
from the menu followed by white elephant exchange and stuff. From Ontario, CA on
the 10 Freeway take the Haven Ave off ramp so as to be on the south side of the
freeway. Go right on the first street (E Guasti Road). Drive through the Hotel
area until you come to Turner. Turn left and go south until you find the first
narrow road on the right. Follow it for about a block and you will run in to the
Home Style Café 2909 Brookside Rd 909-390-0355. Meals are around $10. White
Elephant game plan- bring a microwave or RF or electronic something in a box or
wrapped up. It needs a tag with what you know about it, like what frequency
range it works on, maybe what it is, i.e. amplifier. It needs to be good junk.
We will draw numbers as to who gets first choice and so on. Once you get
something, you can trade with someone else. Time to recycle the stuff in the
shop.

Prez Sez-Hope everyone is thinking about
the summer 10 GHz and up contest and their rigs. (I can hear the groans) About
now is the time to get serious with your engineer to develop any changes you are
going to make in your rig. Plan your building in two stages. Plan and finish the
minimum necessary for success and then add on the upgrades in stages like a
better pre amp, bigger tx amp, bigger dish, etc. Changes and modifications can
mushroom on you and take far longer than you thought. Get started now so that if
you are stymied, others can help you out. If you are thinking about wide or
narrowband, go narrowband. If you are undecided about antennas, use AR2 horns.
You can work most everyone on 10 GHz narrowband in the LA area with 200 mw and a
pair of horns, so use that as a benchmark. If you do something like upgrade to a
bigger dish, you will probably need to practice with it before you go out in the
contest.

On to other things. The banquet. We will be at the Home Style Cafe.
Directions etc are elsewhere in this issue. We should have a great time in a
very comfortable place. We will have give aways, a white elephant exchange, and
a few awards. I will be there and hope to have Helen with me.

The Update in Santa Clara. Here is what I know so far. Will said that the
rooms that they have set aside are available and cheap Thursday through Sat. The
problem is that most of us will want to go up on Wed. Their

non-package price at the same place is much higher. My suggestion, and he
agrees, is that we should stay someplace about an hour South of St. Clara on
Wed. night. That'll keep it cheap. Ken doesn't have to worry because we are
looking for a local member to host his motor-home. I would like a list of names
next meeting of those who want to basically caravan up to the meeting on Wed.
stay somewhere along the way near the Bay Area, and stay in the lodging targeted
by the Update. No money needed. I'll just make the reservation and set it up.
Any ideas or feedback?

Japan- I have had a lot of communication from the Tokyo microwave group
courtesy of JF1VAS and Hiro. It looks like a group will be at the Update with
equipment and the desire to operate on this continent. I also received copies of
their last three Updates in Tokyo. They are in Japanese, but not difficult to
decipher due to the schematics. I think that it is important that they are
looking to link with us. I think both we and they have a lot to offer each other
and appreciate the help and friendship that our members have shown them. They
have been working on some higher bands with great success. We hope to have some
of the articles translated for the Update. Recently I came across a link to a
company in France that is offering 10 GHz 4 watt amplifiers for sale complete.
This is the URL of the French place http://www.rfham.com/. The page that lists
the amp is: http://www.rfham.com/prodcat.htm#product catalog. 73, Doug Millar
K6JEY

Last meeting--- Malcolm Levy, KO6SY
presented a talk on the various digital modes of amateur communication including
PSK31. Malcolm has been licensed since 1968 first with a VHF/UHF license only in
the UK (G8CSU) then with full privileges as G4ACU, which he still holds today.
He came to the US 16 years ago and once a citizen became licensed as KO6SY. He
has been active on the digital HF modes since 1986 using RTTY, Amtor, Pactor and
now PSK31, which beats them all! He is also a member of the Western States Weak
Signal Society and professionally is involved in sales and marketing of high
performance automatic test equipment. It was indicated that there has been an
informal agreement that xx.290 MHz would be the location of the digital modes on
microwave. i.e. 10,368.290 would be the slot to operate PSK31 while on 10 GHz.
Welcome to returning member Mike Ramirez, W6YLZ and to visitor Lonnie Movius,
NT6B of Lake Mathews and new member Christian Shoff, N9RIN of Newport Beach. The
annual visit of Paul Lieb, KH6HME to the mainland happened again, welcome Paul.
Sam, K6VLM had a power source for the "Qualcomm" noise sources and a copy is
enclosed in this newsletter. Doug had some miscellaneous semiconductors and
hardware to pass out to the membership present. April election time is coming up
soon. By March there should be a nomination slate in place. 24 people were
present.

Activity presented in the January 2001 SBMS
meeting- Mel, WA6JBD found some 1 ft 24 GHz dishes and gunn sources and is
cleaning them up to find out how many work; Kurt, K6RRA purchased a feed from a
WW2 3 GHz radar, interesting looking piece; Paul, KH6HME reported this years
contacts to the mainland haven't been as good as years past; John KJ6HZ
purchased a spectrum analyzer and a 3 GHz no-tune transverter and visited the
SDMG meeting; Larry, K6HLH has a 10 GHz TWT working at 2w; Sam, K6VLM built a 2
GHz quazi-corner reflector antenna out of the ARRL Handbook; Jeff, KN6VR did
some 1296 MHz antenna testing; Chip, N6CA indicated the PV beacon was having
some cold temperature problems and will come down soon; Chuck, N6EQ had a 10 GHz
contact with his new German rig; Ken, WB6DTA worked WA6CGR on his new 5 GHz rig;
Mike, W6YLZ is getting back on 10 GHz; Dave, WA6CGR has a 2w 26 GHz power head
for his power meter and indicated that the N6EX repeaters are now open for SBMS
use; Dick, WB6DNX has been playing with 24 GHz parts and needs a 4 MHz TCXO for
his syntheser; chuck, WA6EXV is rebuilding the SBMS Heaps Peak 2 GHz beacon,
upping the power out to about 15 w, plans to change the antenna to a horizontal
polarization, and add a repeater mode; bill, WA6QYR has been building filters of
the latest Qualcomm 10 GHz transverter and one for the N6IZW 1296 MHz
transverter; Doug, K6JEY has been testing some 2 ft dishes on 24 GHz.

Scheduling

10 Feb Annual SBMS Dinner at Home Style Café in Guasti at 6:30 pm.

1 March Kerry, N6IZW will talk about Noise figure and construction of a
source and have some equipment to compare your source against. Nominations for
2001-2002 Officers

5 April Program is TBD. Elections of Officers.

Microwave Update 2001 in San Jose September- President Doug is wanting to
know who is interested in booking at a lower rate hotel say about 30 minutes
away from the main event.

Wants and Gots for sale

Want- 5 GHz mixer Ken, WB6DTA 818-848-9059

Want schematic for HP-8620 sweeper, Dick K6HIJ 760-253-2477

Want- HP-8412 display for 8410 network analyzer Larry K6HLH 661-264-3126

Want manual for HP 8551 Spectrum analyzer RF unit Kurt K6RRA 310-718-4910

Want any power head for General Microwave 460 power meter Doug, K6JEY
562-424-3737

Want 5 MHz TCXO for 10 GHz rig Mike W6YLZ 818-349-8525

For Sale- Metal drafting table 6 ft width includes 2-drawer storage unit-
free- you pick up- must go quickly Carl AD6QL 714-996-8443

For Sale: An AIL 727 spectrum analyzer. .01-22 GHz, built in pre-selector,
digital frequency display, 10 db ,2 db/div plus linear mode, oscillographic
mode, IF output, calibrator, standard Tektronix display. Some minor problems but
works fine and in excellent shape. All standard parts and very easy to work
on.

With manual copy. $400 Doug Millar, K6JEY 562-424-3737.

RF Design Magazine had a Frequency Allocation Wall
Chart insert in the Jan 2001 issue . Some things of
interest&emdash; Amateur Radio was listed as a user along with everyone
else.

Ham band 1240-1300 MHz --had these as other users near by- radar 1215-2290,
GPS 1215-1240.

Ham Radio 2300-2305 and 2390-2450 MHz-- had aero in between segments and
fixed service beyond the upper end. Unlicensed 2390-2400. radar 2360-2390 ISM
2450-2500. Ovens 2400-2483.5. Reserved bands were 2300-2305, 2400-2402,
2417-2450. RFID 2400-2500. Satellite services 2320-2345. Wireless Com 2305-2320
and 2345-2360.

Ham Radio 3300-3500 MHz-- only had radar at 3.1-3.7 GHz listed as user.

Ham Band 5650-5925 MHz-- Short range com 5.85-5.925. Fixed service 5925-up.
ISM 5725-5875. Radar 5.6-5.925. GEO Stationary 5.85-6.4. Unlicensed National
Information Infrastructure 5.65-5.85

Ham band 10.0-10.5 GHz-- only had radar 10.0-10.45 and 10.5-10.55 GHz

Ham Band 24-24.25 GHz --had fixed services 21.2-23.6, 24.25-24.45. ISM
24-24.25. Radar 24.05-24.45

Ham Band 47.0-47.2 GHz-- High Altitude Platform Systems 49.2-50.2 GHz. Radar
and Vehicle Anticollision and vehicle recovery systems 45-46.9 GHz. Wireless Com
46.9-47 and 47.2 &endash; 48.2 GHz

Ham Band 75.5-81.0 GHz-- vehicle anticollision 76-77 GHz

Ham band 116-126 GHz-- ISM 116.5-117 and 122-123 GHz Millimeter wave systems
116-116.5 and 122-122.5 and 126-126.5 GHz.

A bunch of hams "hamming it up" at a picnic a few years ago.

San Bernardino Microwave Society is a technical amateur radio club affiliated
with the ARRL having a membership of over 90 amateurs from Hawaii and Alaska to
the east coast. Dues are $15 per year which includes a badge and monthly
newsletter. Your mail label indicates your call followed by when your dues are
due. Dues can be sent to the treasurer as listed under the banner on the front
page. If you have material you would like in the newsletter please send it to
Bill WA6QYR at 247 Rebel Road Ridgecrest, CA 93555, [email-masked], or
phone 760-375-8566. The newsletter is generated about the 15th of the month and
put into the mail at least the week prior to the meeting. This is your
newsletter. SBMS Newsletter material can be copied as long as SBMS is identified
as source.

San Bernardino Microwave Society newsletter

247 Rebel Road

Ridgecrest, CA

93555

USA

Sorry this has been a light month. 73's Bill