W6IFE Newsletter

September 2004 Edition

President Chris Shoaff N9RIN 2911
Calle Heraldo San Clemente CA 92673 949-388-3121 [email-masked]

Vice President Larry Johnston,
K6HLH 16611 E Valeport Ave Lancaster, CA 93535 661-264-3126
[email-masked]

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

Corresponding Sec Kurt Geitner,
K6RRA1077 E Pacific Coast Hwy TMB142 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 25309 Andreo Lomita, CA 90717 310-539-5395
[email-masked]

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

805-499-8047 [email-masked]

W6IFE License Trustee Ed Munn, W6OYJ 6255 Radcliffe Dr. San Diego, CA 92122
858-453-4563

[email-masked].

At the 2 September SBMS Meeting we will be
Planning for the up coming second part of the 10 GHz and UP contest.. 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/.

SBMS meeting parking- We have become a great number of members at meetings.
We park next to the church in the adjacent lot or on the street and or in the
lot across the street. Across the street the sign on the building shows: 1025
Main Street. MAIN STREET BISTRO. The sign on the parking lot says: CLIN
CHIROPRACTIC CARE Dick, WB6DNX

A reminder that the third Saturday of each month is Microwave Activity Day
starting after the Pomona/ Cal Poly Swap meet through mid afternoon.

Last meeting- There was lots of discussion
on where everyone was going for the ARRL 10 GHz and Up contest. Mel, WA6JBD was
to post the plans on the SBMS reflector as new plans were sent to him. Art
Goddard, W6XD, ARRL Southwestern Division Director, spoke on BPL and indicated
test sites in San Diego and Anza as well as Cottonwood, AR. Art also indicated
that there would be an election for Southwestern Director in October. Welcome to
returning member Ed Cole, AL7EB of Nikiski Alaska and welcome to new member
Jeffery Pawlan, WA6KBL of San Jose, CA. Ron Phillips, AE6QU from Laguna Woods
was our visitor. A contact person for Vectron oscillator information is Nelson
Estrella 888-328-76661 x 414. 25 people present.

Scheduling.

11-12 September ARRL September VHF QSO Party

18-19 September ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest

14-16 October 2004 Microwave Update in Texas

"Wants and Gots for sale"

Want WR75 to SMA or N transition and WR75 to WR90 transition John KJ6HZ
909-683-1434

Want six runs of 7/8th inch hardline 100 ft each Mike W6YLZ 818-349-8525

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First half of the ARRL 10 GHz and Up contest -SBMS member data so far.

It was noted by Bill, WA6QYR while roving
that most of this years contest seemed to be in the San Joaquin Valley. Rovers
from both the Northern and Southern California areas were running the valley
with few fixed station on the hilltops. In years past, the rover path was up and
down the west coast with the stations in Mexico. Now the rovers could work the
Mexico stations over the California hills. A large number of contacts were made
over the 1 MKm distance.

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From San Diego I worked Chip, N6CA in Sacramento and Ron, K6GZA on Sutter
Buttes, the latter 510 miles. Also got a long contact with Miguel, W6YLZ in
Mexico at 704mi. I found a place north of San Benito Mountain in the coastal
range on the Valley side. Frank, WB6CWN

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These are the best DX QSO's that I worked this past weekend....

1. Worked WA6CGR in CM95 xv & N6RMJ ...1028 km from DL 27 PT

2. Worked N6CA in DM06 cf .....1049 km from DL 27 PT

3. Worked N6RMJ in DM05 as....1024 km from DL 27 RS

4. Worked WA6CGR in DM 06 bg...1060 km from DL27 RS

5. Worked N6CA in DM05 cw....1033 km from DL 27 RS

6. Worked N6CA in DM05 fw ....1021 km from DL 27 RS

7. Worked WA6CGR in CM96 xc...1060 km from DL27 RS

8. Worked WB6CWN in CM96 om.....1135 km from DL27 RS

Previous personal best was 1100 km with WA6CGR 2 yrs ago from DL27 tm.
Hopefully, I can improve some more next month...de Mike....XE2/W6YLZ

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My best DX on the first weekend was Frazier DM04ms to:

DL27MS 883 KM Baja Sunday

DL27PT 872 KM Baja Saturday

CN90FL 672 KM Mt Lassen

CM99CE 550 KM Sutter Butte

The Lassen QSO is all over land and a tuff path Sutter Butte is a GREAT spot,
GZA was a reference beacon for 2 days Robin,
WA6CDR

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Hi, I was not able to make up to the top of Corey Peak Saturday and was
stranded in the canyon without Cell Phone access or any repeaters to get word
out. Better luck next time! 73, Chuck WA6EXV
(Chuck did with the help of a tow truck make it off Corey which had been through
a rain storm and had slick muddy road. Casino in Hawthorn, NV took the edge off
the poor weekend. Ed)

----------------------------

Hi Guys,

Well this last weekend was a bust as far as working to the west from
Harquahalla and I'm truly sorry for the hope and patience that you guys put out
for us, especially Robin.

It probably started with some of my well-known procrastination and not
allowing enough time for getting projects finished. You'd think that this
wouldn't be a problem after 35 years as project and program manger experience in
the aerospace industry. But as you get older, things seem to take 3 to 4 times
as long as you think that they should. Living 45 miles away from an electronics
store and over 100 miles from any kind of electronic surplus changes your design
thinking a bit as well as component choice. Also designing (mechanically as well
as electrically) to take equipment out into the field and up a road as rugged as
Harquahala's, requires techniques such as; lock washers under every screw and
bolt (using at least half again as many as home ham projects), using mechanical
joints as well as solder (no tack solder connections), lacing tie wrapping or
taping and cable clamping all wire/cable runs. Probably because of my NASA and
AF project experiences I tend to over design and build too robustly, HI.

The Space Ball project took longer than I planned, but I got it accomplished
and learned some "not to do's" (available later to those that are interested).
The 30" offset Prodelin dish was mtd to it. The feed that WA6EXV made for me a
couple of years ago was attached to the "circular" WR-90 W/G, which ran to the
back of the dish. My converter box and 10 W PA, as well as their PS's were mtd
as counter weights behind the dish on the Space Ball mt. Unfortunately the wx
and shortage of time didn't allow me to set up a test range and test/adjust the
antenna/feed arrangement before packing to get on the road. I was supposed to
leave Oracle by noon Friday, in order to make it up the hill before dark. About
that time my travel partner, Jon W5WVI, who lives in Mesa, called and said that
the TV noon news said that there was a lightning induced fire on Haraquahala the
night before that was endangering the structures up there. There's not a lot to
burn up there except grass and scrub brush and I wasn't too worried, except that
the BLM might try and prevent us from going up the road. Well we decided to take
the chance anyway (we had no plan "B"), and I finally left Oracle by 1530 and
met Jon on I -10 in west PHX about 1730 (height of the 5 PM traffic). We got to
the base of the mtn just at dark and saw no road blocks, so I didn't give Jon a
chance say no to going up that horrible road in the dark. To his credit, Jon did
an outstanding job in following me up in his 4WD Explorer; I know he'd never
driven a road that bad before, let alone in the dark!! We finally got to the top
about 2030 (over 1 1/2hrs for 10 mi.) and were able to temporarily park in the
general vicinity that we were going to operate. We then unloaded all our
equipment so we could sleep in the vehicles. In the dark we didn't see or smell
any wildfires so we assumed that the fire was further down another ridge. The
next AM we got up and in a couple of hours got all the equipment sorted out and
set up. I'm a cell phone newbie, Jon has never operated one, and I couldn't get
mine to connect to the outside world - although it said that there was enough
signal strength?? I'd brought manuals for all the equipment including the GPS
and PDA but not for the Motorola cell phone! We never did get a cell connection
all W/E!?? I had several minor Murphy's before I got my big rig running. Jon had
never operated 10 GHz in the field, and very seldom from home. After a couple of
tries with stns to the west with no results, I finally set up an impromptu
antenna range using a horn and the driver from my backup rig, set up about 150'
away, and adjusted the focus and the polarity (after all the 90 degree angles of
the 3/4" copper pipe W/G run). The as built positions didn't appear to need much
adjustment! Our frequency calibration turned out to be pretty close, as measured
by my Systron Donner 6245 counter, and later verified by WA8ULG. Late in the
afternoon we confirmed our compass accuracy by observing the Sun's AZ (provided
by the Sun/Moon tracking program in my PDA). Coincidently the sun set exactly at
283 degrees, the calculated heading to Frazier!!

It turned out our only communications back to the PHX area turned out to be
2M SSB as W7GBI doesn't have a 440 rig, and the cell phone we were to call him
on didn't work. Jon finally worked him near dusk - Charlie had to point off at
90 degrees from true, as Camelback Mtn blocks him to the west. We finally got
WA7CJO on (via at telecon from GBI), but for some strange reason we could not
make a contact - with his 300 W to his gnd mtd EME dish it's never been a
problem before. For some strange reason I couldn't hear Charlie or Jim and
neither of them me. So for Sunday, I decided to use my old faithful back up rig
- 1 W to 18" offset.

Our 9 AM sked with Charlie, W7GBI, was successful for me and also again for
Jon. We talked to Ted, WA8ULG, on 2 M SSB, who was operating from his new summer
home in Parks (abt 20 mi. SW of Flagstaff). He turned on his beacon of 3 W and
pointed it's dish our way. It was copied S9 by both of us and followed up with
SSB contacts with him on his barefoot DB6NT. Another try with WA6CDR, on
Frazier, at this time was still unsuccessful. We were hot, dry, sunburned and
frustrated by this time and I had at least a 6 hour drive home, so we packed up
and left about 1300 and made a uneventful trip down the mtn - which looked much
steeper and more eroded in the daytime, HI.

BTW, late Saturday we finally had a chance to look around the area and
discovered that the fire had burned to within 200 yds of our site at the top of
Harquahala. We met two BLM wildland fire fighters, who drove up Saturday, and
they say that the fire fighters had declined to come up the hill Wed PM, but had
used choppers for water drops and that later ferried a cleanup crew to the top.
Well I think that Jon really enjoyed the trip and outing (as I always do) and
would be for doing another one some time. I think and hope that I've converted
him to a mountain topper! I don't know but as the equipment gets smaller, I seem
to carry a bigger and bigger load!! The Space Ball AZ/EL rotator worked out
pretty good, and being able to adjust the AZ speed infinitely slow was an
advantage. Sorry to be so long winded and I know that most of you have had many
of the same experiences, but maybe you'll get a few chuckles from ours, to all
GL es 73.Chuck, W7CS

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Received this letter from Gordo, WB6NOA. He
has some interesting ideas here. Your thoughts? Mel - WA6JBD

August 24, 2004

Congratulations go to all of the San Bernardino Microwave Society members who
truly "went the distance." Those dedicated members did a fabulous job, and for
those of us "part-timers" on 10 GHz, we had plenty to learn!

For Part 2 of the contest, please show me on Signal Peak, in Orange County,
DM13CO. What I learned in this past weekend's contest was the need for "fixed"
stations to stay around continuously for all 2 days in order to provide
additional points to the hardworking rovers. We may need to promote this aspect
of the microwave contest MORE to those of us who are not on regularly--the fact
that modest fixed stations on the air for both days can dramatically add to the
fabulous scores of those working hard out in the field stopping every 10 miles.
So count me in for the next Part 2 weekend up on Signal Peak.

The second thing I learned was to get the word out to "part-time" 10 GHz
enthusiasts (like me) the importance of not only working the long-range strong
station, but making every effort to work those additional smaller or lower power
stations up on the same mountaintop so the whole TEAM makes a contact. I was
very impressed with the Mexico crew as well as the Kettleman gang on how the
strongest station would help get the team contact going, and then the other
stations up on the hill would take their best shot to get back to those of us
fixed here in Southern California. A true team spirit!

Although I am member of SBMS, I didn't see any posting on the website of who
was going to be where. It wasn't until a couple of days before the event that I
started making contact with other SBMS members, finally getting your valuable
list. Mel, should we maybe get this list posted on a website so those from the
"outside" can see all of the effort that San Bernardino Microwave Society
members put in on this two weekend contest?

Finally, for most of the SBMS operators, I know these observations I've just
made sound more than OBVIOUS. But for those of us just dabbling in this
fascinating 10 GHz world, we want to be able to better support the members who
drive hundreds of miles to set up their portable stations, and some additional
guidance might help up everyone's score if we know what the dedicated contesters
are looking for when it comes to a reliable fixed station back in the L.A.
basin. Gordon West, WB6NOA

Hello Microwavers, The results are now posted for the MDS/ERP tests made at
the July 10th SBMS/SDMG Picnic. To see them, go to: www.ham-radio.com/sbms/sd/
then scroll down to the MDS/ERP Link. 73s Ed, W6OYJ

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MICROWAVE UPDATE 2005

Chairman: Pat Coker, N6RMJ of SBMS

Planning Committee: Pat Coker, N6RMJ of SBMS

David Peters, KI6FF of WSWSS

Dennis Kidder, WA6NIA of SBMS

Presentations: Chip Angle, N6CA

PRIZES: Dave Glawson, WA6CGR

Registration: Dick Kolbly, K6HIJ

Location: Cerritos Sheridan

List of Presentations:

SBMS 50 YEARS Dick Kolbly, K6HIJ

RESULTS OF THE 2004 2GHZ AND UP WORLD WIDE CLUB CONTEST

SPONSORED BY THE S.B.M.S.

SAN BERNARDINO MICROWAVE SOCIETY

CLUB ENTRIES SCORE

2003 2004

SAN BERNADINO MICROWAVE SOCIETY 16 16 48,275

Front Range Microwave Society of Colorado 00 10 32,375

Mt Airy VHF CLUB "PACKRATS" 08 10 25,714

SAN DIEGO MICROWAVE GROUP 07 07 17,674

MIDWEST VHF UHF SOCIETY CLUB 04 00

These were the only logs I received; we lost one club but gained another I
hope there is more participation next year any suggestions comments please
contact [email-masked] N6RMJ PAT
DM14cp

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below: Last meeting Chip, N6CA carried in parts to the new 10 GHz beacon/
transverter to be placed in Hawaii along with a 4 ft off set feed dish. Chip had
a few more tweaks to do on the rig before shipping off to Paul, KH6HME. The rig
included a TWT power amplifier and low noise amplifier that made it an "across
the ocean class rig" for every one to work the 2300 miles to Paul.

below:From a top of Mount Frazier on the first weekend of the ARRL 10 GHz and
Up contest was Robin, WA6CDR with his 6 ft dish and rig mounted on the back
(right side of photograph) as counter weight. In the back of his vehicle was the
HF IF rig, keyer, computer for pointing angles and misc. radio equipment. Robin
was in a position to work most people to the bay area and as far as Mexico to
the south.

below: Also on the top of Frazier was Frank, W6QI from the San Jose area with
his advanced technology 10 GHz rig that was really portable. With camp chair,
backpacking stove and vehicle full of camping gear, Frank was well equipped to
spend the weekend on the mountaintop. Frank managed to work both 10 GHz and 124
GHz with this one rig. He also had a very nice 47 GHz transverter to slide into
the tripod shoe following an alignment with both 10 and 24 GHz contacts.
Apparently the station on the other end suffered a TWT problem on his 47 GHz rig
so that contact was not complete.

below: Bill, WA6QYR had his rover rig set up to where he could just pull out
the pole and slide it into the new under bumper mount. The dish would sit upon
the pole along with the transverter. In the back of the pickup was the two meter
IF radio and batteries that could be recharged while moving to the next
site.

Activity reported at the August SBMS meeting: Chris, N9RIN has his 10 GHz rig
working; Mike, W6YLZ is still looking for pieces to his rig; Dave, WA6CGR has
fixed his IF radio; Pat, N6RMJ fixed his 2.3 GHz radio and the 5.4 GHz rig is
working; Glenn KE6HPZ did some work on the Tehachapi repeater; Peter, K6PTL has
all the parts to assemble a 10 GHz radio; Chip, N6CA is fixing the Palos Verdes
beacon and has parts to show for the Hawaii 10 GHz beacon; Larry, KG6EG has been
out looking at contest sites; Wayne KH6WZ making improvements to the 10 GHz rig;
Bob, WA6VHS has a new IF radio; Dennis, WA6NIA was having transmit problems in
his 10 GHz rig; Jeff, KN6VR was repackaging his 10 GHz radio; Bill, WA6QYR just
returned from a 5200 mile trip to Chicago; Chuck, WA6EXV has his 10 GHz rig
working; Frank, WB6CWN was working on rebuilding YLZ rig; Dick, WB6DNX was ready
with his 10 GHz rig; and Mel, WA6JBD had his new 10 GHz rig running.

73's Bill

below: Wayne, KH6WZ out on Secret Site 51 DM04ti trying to stay warm in the
wind as well as holding up the dish and rig during the second half of the ARRL
10 GHz and Up contest.

The 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 and beyond. 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