Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 11:07:01 PST From: Info-Hams Mailing List and Newsgroup Errors-To: Info-Hams-Errors@UCSD.Edu Reply-To: Info-Hams@UCSD.Edu Precedence: Bulk Subject: Info-Hams Digest V94 #301 To: Info-Hams Info-Hams Digest Thu, 17 Mar 94 Volume 94 : Issue 301 Today's Topics: 1x1 Callsigns? (2 msgs) Alaska QSO Party Body Parts by J. Herman Definition of CW speeds Diesel or Taurus fr HF/VHF mobile?? E-mail gateway translator? Grounding and lightning protection--KE4ZV HAM Origin? This Week on Spectrum 03/19/94 Who was coordinating the GPS board purchase? Send Replies or notes for publication to: Send subscription requests to: Problems you can't solve otherwise to brian@ucsd.edu. Archives of past issues of the Info-Hams Digest are available (by FTP only) from UCSD.Edu in directory "mailarchives/info-hams". We trust that readers are intelligent enough to realize that all text herein consists of personal comments and does not represent the official policies or positions of any party. Your mileage may vary. So there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 14 Mar 1994 13:27:47 GMT From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!darwin.sura.net!perot.mtsu.edu!raider!theporch!jackatak!root@network.ucsd.edu Subject: 1x1 Callsigns? To: info-hams@ucsd.edu jholly@cup.hp.com (Jim Hollenback) writes: > Bob Levine (levine@mc.com) wrote: > : Has anyone seen anything in print about whether the vanity > : callsign program (someday) might allow 1x1 calls? > : (for info, a 1x1 is like K1X) > No, but I've heard ther is a 2X1 ... JY1 But, Jim. That's a 2x0! ;^) *AND* there's TWO of them: JY1 and his spouse JY2 But then, he makes the rules, so his call can be anything he wants as long as it conforms to the basic ITU allocations... Thanks for the chuckle. 73 Jack, W4PPT/Mobile (75M SSB 2-letter WAS #1657 -- all from the mobile! ;^) +--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--+ | Jack GF Hill |Voice: (615) 459-2636 - Ham Call: W4PPT | | P. O. Box 1685 |Modem: (615) 377-5980 - Bicycling and SCUBA Diving | | Brentwood, TN 37024|Fax: (615) 459-0038 - Life Member - ARRL | | root@jackatak.raider.net - "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" | +--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--+ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Mar 1994 13:42:43 GMT From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!emory!news-feed-2.peachnet.edu!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!darwin.sura.net!perot.mtsu.edu!raider!theporch!jackatak!root@network.ucsd.edu Subject: 1x1 Callsigns? To: info-hams@ucsd.edu rwilkins@ccnet.com (Bob Wilkins n6fri) writes: > Jeffrey D. Angus (jangus@skyld.grendel.com) wrote: > : Based on how some people view me, I'm gonna sign up for A6H. > : It's look good on the car too. > > Someone else we know might like ah6fu [....snip.....] Ah, hate to get technical here, it is just r.r.a.misc, but we do NOT have the entire block of "A" calls... just AAA-ALZ. Hence A6H belongs to another land...United Arab Emirates, and i DO not see the Sheik giving that up to a US 6-lander! A side note: a certain ham was issued KB4FU, and proudly got a callsign tag for his car. Someone in a supermarket commented to his wife, and suddenly he realized the potential for abuse of his callsign, phonetically speaking. He quacked and fussed, and sent the call back to the FCC (for repairs?) and demanded a new callsign to replace the "obsene" one first issued... Those who believe the FCC and the "Higher Power" have no sense of humor read on: Presently, there appeared on the gent's doorstep another envelope from Gettysburg... he tore it open and found.... KB4 _T_ough _S_hit! ;^) 73 Jack, W4PPT/Mobile (75M SSB 2-letter WAS #1657 -- all from the mobile! ;^) +--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--+ | Jack GF Hill |Voice: (615) 459-2636 - Ham Call: W4PPT | | P. O. Box 1685 |Modem: (615) 377-5980 - Bicycling and SCUBA Diving | | Brentwood, TN 37024|Fax: (615) 459-0038 - Life Member - ARRL | | root@jackatak.raider.net - "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" | +--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--+ ------------------------------ Date: 17 Mar 94 16:34:34 GMT From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu Subject: Alaska QSO Party To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Are there any KL7s reading this that plan to operate the Alaska QSO Party this weekend? If you plan to operate 80/75, what would be a good time to listen for you? Last one for my 5BWAS! 73 de Chris KU4A ku4a@lexvmk.vnet.ibm.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 08:52:26 GMT From: news.Hawaii.Edu!uhunix3.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu!jherman@ames.arpa Subject: Body Parts by J. Herman To: info-hams@ucsd.edu In article <762477092snx@skyld.grendel.com> jangus@skyld.grendel.com (Jeffrey D. Angus) writes: > > Funny, you've followed up on almost all of my postings now trying to > point out some alledged "fascination" with body parts. > > Not trying to avert some attention to your own fascination are you? Take a sedative, my friend. Oh, you forgot to mention where Conway Yee shot himself. 73, Jeff NH6IL ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Mar 1994 13:36:48 GMT From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!darwin.sura.net!perot.mtsu.edu!raider!theporch!jackatak!root@network.ucsd.edu Subject: Definition of CW speeds To: info-hams@ucsd.edu clh6w@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Carole L. Hamilton) writes: > You've make quite a leap in going from PARIS to 50 units! What > asumptions did you make about dash per dot ratio? And how many > dots per space? Actually, I'd say *you* are the one who has made the leap (and bound?)... ;^) For the best and most lucid description of character formation and timing (what you refer to as dash-dot [sic] ratio) I suggest you read the very excellent documentation that comes with SuperMorse... it is truly worth the shareware fee, JUST for the docs and the treatise on timing... 73 Jack, W4PPT/Mobile (75M SSB 2-letter WAS #1657 -- all from the mobile! ;^) +--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--+ | Jack GF Hill |Voice: (615) 459-2636 - Ham Call: W4PPT | | P. O. Box 1685 |Modem: (615) 377-5980 - Bicycling and SCUBA Diving | | Brentwood, TN 37024|Fax: (615) 459-0038 - Life Member - ARRL | | root@jackatak.raider.net - "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" | +--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--+ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 09:01:30 GMT From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!apollo.hp.com!hpwin052!hpqmoea!dstock@network.ucsd.edu Subject: Diesel or Taurus fr HF/VHF mobile?? To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Chain and gears, oh well, another theory down the pan... I've been accused of having enough curiosity to kill a cattery, I'd have had that lump out and running on a bench, then tried it with the injectors out spinning over driven by a 3 hp electric motor, then with the head off, then with the pistons and rods out etc etc until something finally affected it ? Did you try exorcism? I don't blame you for unloading it back whence it came, but the whole thing must really niggle. Cheers David ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 15:35:59 GMT From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!yeshua.marcam.com!zip.eecs.umich.edu!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!suncad!freenet.Victoria.BC.CA!uf484@network.ucsd.edu Subject: E-mail gateway translator? To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Is there anyone out there who knows if there is an Internet site which translates e-mail into either mcode or sw, then sends it to a specific callsign? I'd like to reach my friend who is an avid ham, but doesn't use e-mail. Regards, Daniel Hertz (uf484@freenet.victoria.bc.ca) -- Uncorked! The Wine Consultants ------------------------------ Date: 17 Mar 94 17:43:58 GMT From: news-mail-gateway@ucsd.edu Subject: Grounding and lightning protection--KE4ZV To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Gary, you mentioned that a typical lightning strike has an energy of about 20J. Is this really correct? I did a comparison to the energy stored in a 50uF capacitor charged to 3kV (E=C*V**2), which is 450J, and I was surprised that the charged cap stored almost 25 times the energy of a typical lightning strike (not to say that a 50uF filter cap in an amplifier is anything to sneeze at!). Have I miscalculated something? Mike N6MZ mikemr@microsoft.com ------------------------------ Date: 17 Mar 1994 06:18:59 GMT From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!agate!darkstar.UCSC.EDU!cats.ucsc.edu!haynes@network.ucsd.edu Subject: HAM Origin? To: info-hams@ucsd.edu In article , Daniel D. Todd wrote: >Edward Sorensen (edsorensen@delphi.com) wrote: >: I have a father-in-law who is a ham Chuck Kramer (KE4BWG) he asked where and >the Scottish or Irish pronunciation of le'amateur, Or that the opposite >of a lid in the telegraph service was a ham. (the most likely in my Quite the contrary. In the 19th century poor telegraph operators were called "hams" or "plugs"; and the trade schools that turned them out were called "ham factories". This is from Edwin Gabler's book "The American Telegrapher - A social History, 1880-1900" and it's evident from the book that Gabler read a lot of the magazines and other literature addressed to telegraph operators of the period. Of course that doesn't prove that "ham radio" derives from "ham operators" of the wire telegraph days, but it's quite plausible since at the time ham radio started there were lots of professional telegraph operators and the radio amateurs were mere hobbyists. Nor does Gabler explain how the poor operators came to be called "hams" or "plugs". This question ought to be in the FAQ file - it comes up over and over. -- haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet "Ya can talk all ya wanna, but it's dif'rent than it was!" "No it aint! But ya gotta know the territory!" Meredith Willson: "The Music Man" ------------------------------ Date: 16 Mar 1994 14:59:21 -0500 From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!sgiblab!wetware!spunky.RedBrick.COM!psinntp!starcomm.overleaf.com!not-for-mail@network.ucsd.edu Subject: This Week on Spectrum 03/19/94 To: info-hams@ucsd.edu This week on Spectrum we will talk about receivers. Our guest is a man who knows them from antenna jack to speaker. Larry Van Horn answers technical questions all day long on the Monitoring Times answerline. Larry has the opportunity to test almost everything that comes down the pike and with that unique position he can give a great overview of receivers. Bring your questions to Spectrum this weekend and get them answered from the expert. Next week on Spectrum (Saturday March 26'th) Spectrum will feature a look back at radio and telecommunications history through the ears and eyes of Don Kimberlin. Don worked in all aspects of radio and tellecomm from the 1950's through today. He has an interesting perspective on the communications industry and is a living archive of high-tech history. The only way anyone can know and interpret the future is to see it after understanding and learning from the past. Don is a high-tech historian and you will see why on Spectrum. -- Spectrum airs live Sunday at 0300 UTC (2200 EST Saturday) on: WWCR, 5810 KHz, Nashville, TN (World Wide) WIFI, 1460 AM, Philadelphia, PA (Philadelphia Area) KHNC, 1360 AM, Denver, CO (Denver Area) Omega Radio Network, Galaxy III, X17, 5.8 MHz WIDE audio. (Satellite) Spectrum is rebroadcast: Sunday at 1500 EST, on WIFI, 1460 AM, Philadelphia, PA (Philadelphia Area) Monday at 0400 UTC (2300 EST Sunday), on WWCR, 7435 KHz, Nashville, TN (World Wide) -- Spectrum, "The Communications Magazine You Read With Your Ears." Box 722, Holmdel, NJ, 07733-0722, USA spectrum@overleaf.com, askspectrum@attmail.com, spectrumshow@genie.geis.com +1 800-787-SPECTRUM, +1 908-671-4209 (FAX +1 908-671-2495) ------------------------------ Date: 17 Mar 1994 15:51:02 GMT From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!math.ohio-state.edu!cyber2.cyberstore.ca!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!alberta!quartz.ucs.ualberta.ca!tribune.usask.ca!canopus.cc.umanitoba.ca!umthoma5@network.ucsd.edu Subject: Who was coordinating the GPS board purchase? To: info-hams@ucsd.edu Could the person that offered to coordinate the group purchase of the Motorola GPS boards please e-mail me? I am unable to search back to find your address and there are a few people here that are interested in getting on the want list. Thanks! -- Craig Thomasson VE4 CET "If your parents didn't have kids, umthoma5@cc.umanitoba.ca chances are, you won't either." Model Railroading... Amateur Radio... Computers... Engineering... More fun than any human being should be allowed to endure... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 06:29:11 GMT From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary@network.ucsd.edu To: info-hams@ucsd.edu References <1994Mar16.155633.14996@ke4zv.atl.ga.us>, , <1994Mar16.162143.1@clstcs> Reply-To : gary@ke4zv.atl.ga.us (Gary Coffman) Subject : Re: Grounding and lightning protection In article <1994Mar16.162143.1@clstcs> armyrman@vms4.sci.csupomona.edu (Alex Myrman) writes: > >I too have antennas up on the roof and a couple long wire (dipoles) hanging >around off the house. >What should be done when lightning comes? I understand clearly that they >should NOT be in the radio but where should the lead-in's go? Do commercial broadcast stations disconnect their antennas when a thunderstorm approaches? No. Do their antennas get struck by lightning? Yes, again and again and again. Do their transmitters sustain damage? Do their transmitter buildings burn down? Are their operators killed? No. No. And no. Why? Proper installation. (Truth be told, all of the above *have* happened at commercial broadcast stations, but in every case the cause can be traced to, you guessed it, improper installation.) Proper installation isn't cheap or easy. Make the slightest mistake, cut the smallest corner, and you open yourself to catastrophic damage. So what's a ham with limited funds and knowledge to do? Many hams just disconnect their coaxes and drop them behind the radio. Some who are a bit more savvy stick the end of the cable in an old mayonaise jar. Neither trick is satisfactory. If your antenna is struck, there's going to be around a *million* volts on that cable, that much voltage can jump 100 inches in air, and it *will* if it has to in order to reach ground potential. The only proper way to deal with lightning is to give it a controlled way to go to ground. It's going to go to ground one way or another, your only hope is to direct it in a way that's safe for you, your equipment, and your home. >I have a heavy ground run to the radio room for grounding the equipment. >Should the antennas be connected to this, grounding the center conductor >and sheild? Should they be grounded and a real lightning rod be installed? >Or just disconnected from the radio's? Well just disconnecting from the radio isn't good enough. You've got to give that lightning a *low impedance* way to reach ground. And that low impedance path has got to be able to successfully handle 4,000 amperes of *RF* current. That's what lightning is, nature's own spark transmitter. Ideally you'll have a ground window installed at your station. (I know you folks are probably tired of seeing me preach about this, but it is the best protection you can have.) That ground window will have *every* wire that enters or leaves your station passing through it via proper lightning suppressors, including power, telephone, coax, *everything*. Note, arrange the cabling so that no downlead parallels an interior station cable run. Otherwise surges will be inductively coupled from the outside cable to the inside cable bypassing the ground window. The ground window will be connected *directly* to your ground field by a straight low inductance conductor. In no case shall the conductor be less than number 8 solid copper wire, but should really be a wide copper strap, 5 inch copper flashing is good. (The reason wide copper strap is preferred is that it's inductive only at its edges, and because skin effect limits current penetration to only a few thousandths of an inch so you want as much surface area as possible.) Ideally there will be no bends in the ground run, but in no case shall there be any *sharp* bends. That adds inductance. Note that in *addition* to the ground window, every antenna or support whose construction will allow it should have a separate ground conductor run to the station ground field. This will relieve the downleads, and suppressors, of part of the current load they'll have to carry during a strike. A single 8 foot ground rod is *not* an effective ground field. Ideally we'd copper plate the Earth to form an effective ground field, but that's impractical. So we make do with driven ground rods. In average soil, a single 8 foot ground rod will have a resistance to Earth of about 230 ohms. That will place a connection to that rod at 920 kV during a 4000 ampere strike. Not good. As currents start to flow into the ground, the soil becomes temporarily *saturated* with charge. This limits the amount of current that can be quickly dumped into any individual Earth connection. So we need a bunch of Earth connections. How many is a bunch? Well good practice says that the total resistance to Earth should be less than 25 ohms, so that means at least 10 rods are required. How far apart should the rods be to avoid overlapping saturation zones? The rule of thumb is that ground rods should be no closer together than the *sum* of their lengths. That means that any two rods in the ground field need to be at least 16 feet apart. The rods should be laid out in a star pattern with the rods connected to each other by no less than 1.5 inch bare copper strap buried not less than 18 inches below grade level. Note that these straps can be considered horizontal ground rods themselves and can reduce the number of driven rods needed in the system by about a third. So assume 7 rods, one central and six radial at a 16 foot separation. Make all connections to the central rod. That's your *single point ground*. Tie power company, phone company, and CATV grounds to this point as well as attaching your station ground and separate antenna grounds to this point. Never never never daisy chain grounds. All grounds must be tied to this single point, and only to this single point. (Note, if you have a tower, it can serve as the central rod. With its base planted in concrete, it forms a Ufer ground superior to a single driven rod. Note too that if you have metallic underground plumbing, that should also be tied to your single point ground by a strap connection.) One more caveat. If your soil is dry sandy soil, or very rocky, you'll need more rods than for the typical case above. It's OK to extend your star out beyond the first ground rod, and in this case *only* it's OK to daisy chain along a radial from one rod to another, but more than two rods along a single radial reach a point of diminishing returns. The buried radials themselves, however, make a dandy groundplane for a vertical antenna and can extend out as far as you like. I've left out many details in the above system, such as how to deal with bonding dissimilar metals, always making a *mechanical* connection as well as an electrical connection (solder *will* melt during a strike), what constitutes a *proper* lightning suppressor, etc. Entire books have been written on proper station installations. You should read at least one, _The National Electrical Code_. And I'd recommend one more, Roger Block's _The Grounds for Lightning and EMP Protection_. Ok, that's the *proper* way to protect your station. Now what's the cheap ham way? Install an *outdoor* bulkhead panel near ground level and bring all your antenna coaxes through it with bulkhead feedthru connectors. Drive a rod into the ground at least 100 inches from the house and bolt a bar to it that has female coax chassis fittings attached, both shell and center connected to the bar. When a storm approaches, unscrew all cables from the bulkhead and screw them to the ground bar. This will keep dangerous currents and voltages *outside* your house. But that bar is going to reach 900 kV during a strike. Make sure there's nothing conductive nearby. Obviously *don't* ground the house bulkhead panel to this rod. (Note that this cheap approach has several faults. First you've got to be home to connect the coaxes to the ground bar. Second there is such a thing as clear sky lightning. Not all strikes occur during a well defined storm. Third, any cable that passes parallel to the grounded coaxes is going to have a large surge inductively coupled into it. And fourth not all lightning is going to come into your house via your antennas. It can also come in on the power wiring, the phone wiring, or the CATV wiring. So this method should be considered a minimum *expedient* only. It does beat a mayonaise jar.) Gary -- Gary Coffman KE4ZV | You make it, | gatech!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary Destructive Testing Systems | we break it. | uunet!rsiatl!ke4zv!gary 534 Shannon Way | Guaranteed! | emory!kd4nc!ke4zv!gary Lawrenceville, GA 30244 | | ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 07:21:48 -0600 From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!math.ohio-state.edu!news.acns.nwu.edu!ftpbox!mothost!lmpsbbs!NewsWatcher!user@network.ucsd.edu To: info-hams@ucsd.edu References <763354761snx@skyld.grendel.com>, <2lpa6o$gkd@ccnet.ccnet.com>, Subject : Re: 2x0 callsigns? (was: 1x1 Callsigns?) In article , jherman@uhunix3.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Jeffrey Herman) wrote: > In article <2lpa6o$gkd@ccnet.ccnet.com> rwilkins@ccnet.com (Bob Wilkins n6fri) writes: *** (LOTS OF LINES ELIMMINATED HERE FOR BREVITY) *** > > > >Someone else we know might like ah6fu I don't think he can get enough > >spark from a tv set to justify a 1x1 call. The call is available as the > >last fellow could not handle it ;) > > Hey, who ya talkin' about, Bob? AH6FU is a Hawaii call, and there's only > one Hawaii ham who posts on here.... (oh my God - is he referring to me?) > > I guess Hawaii hams will be vying for 2x0 callsigns since we have to > have the mandatory `H6' in the prefix. Not much of a choice: > AH6, KH6, NH6, WH6. Phooey. [Hey, now there's a neat call: PH0OEY.] > > Jeff NH6 IL Jeff, we thought you were going for AL 0 HA. After all, it's a vanity call so the normal prefix limitations (AH=Hawaii, AK=Alaska) should no longer apply! -- Karl Beckman, P.E. < STUPIDITY is an elemental force for which > Motorola Comm - Fixed Data < no earthquake is a match. -- Karl Kraus > The statements and opinions expressed here are not those of Motorola Inc. Motorola paid a marketing firm a huge sum of money to get their opinions; they have made it clear that they do not wish to share those of employees. Amateur radio WA8NVW @ K8MR.NEOH.USA.NA NavyMARS VBH @ NOGBN.NOASI ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 08:52:10 +0000 From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!demon!skewsby.demon.co.uk!sjh@network.ucsd.edu To: info-hams@ucsd.edu References <2lnm9t$643@jericho.mc.com>, <2lo1ii$g94@oak.oakland.edu>, <1994Mar11.133322.1912@mwk.com>o.uk Subject : Re: 1x1 Callsigns? In article <1994Mar11.133322.1912@mwk.com> gleason@mwk.com writes: > In article <2lo1ii$g94@oak.oakland.edu>, prvalko@vela.acs.oakland.edu (prvalko) writes: > > calls. If I remember correctly, In the US, the call must BEGIN with "A, > > K, N, or W" then have a SINGLE DIGIT NUMBER and followed by at LEAST one > > > W, A, N, and K...guess that makes us hams here in the states a > bunch of WANKers...I suspect the Brits had a hand in assigning us > these letters... > > Lee K. Gleason N5ZMR > Control-G Consultants > gleason@mwk.com If Only ! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + Simon J Hopkins sjh@skewsby.demon.co.uk + + Consulting Partner Limited g8pxb@ampr.org + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ------------------------------ End of Info-Hams Digest V94 #301 ******************************