QRZ! Ham Radio 5/QRZ Ham Radio Callsign Database - Volume 5.iso/digests/infoham/940712.txt

Internet Message Format | 1994-11-13 | 26.0 KB

Date: Mon, 27 Jun 94 18:04:13 PDT
From: Info-Hams Mailing List and Newsgroup <[e-mail]>
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Subject: Info-Hams Digest V94 #712
To: Info-Hams


Info-Hams Digest            Mon, 27 Jun 94       Volume 94 : Issue  712

Today's Topics:
                        AEA IsoLoop - Opinion
                  AEA IsoLoop - Opinions/Experiences
                        BAY AREA FREQ'S WANTED
                         Bitching and Moaning
                           Car Thief (LONG)
                               Clipart
                        FIELD DAY 1994 REPORT
                     GPS group purchase shutdown
                        heathkit info. needed
                   Hey Hey, My My, What a Field Day
            It's time to retire from the hobby - good one!
                            Paket ver 6.0
                 What causes pitch shift in receiver?

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Archives of past issues of the Info-Hams Digest are available
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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, 27 Jun 1994 19:52:27 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!sdd.hp.com!col.hp.com!srgenprp![e-mail]
Subject: AEA IsoLoop - Opinion
To: [e-mail]

John Welch ([e-mail]) wrote:

[Re: Isoloop antenna]

: Just for grins, last night my wife (WV9K) *did* use a short antenna
: that worked nearly as well - an 8 inch alligator cliplead dangled off
: a 50 ohm resistor.  ...
: We've had *much better* luck with short wire dipoles thumbtacked to
: the ceiling, ...
: Perhaps the loop advocates are unwilling
: to admit they might have been somewhat mislead by the advertising claim?

Well, I'm not an Isoloop advocate, but it definitely sounds like there
is something wrong with your unit.  It should be within a dB or two
of a dipole at the same height on all bands.

(Now, whether it's worth the money or not is another question...)

AL N1AL

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

Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 19:29:18 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!sdd.hp.com!col.hp.com!srgenprp![e-mail]
Subject: AEA IsoLoop - Opinions/Experiences
To: [e-mail]

John Welch ([e-mail]) wrote:
: As quoted from <[e-mail]> by [e-mail] (Dave Bushong):
: > [e-mail] (Clay Jackson) writes:
: > >Ronald H. Bafetti ([e-mail]) wrote:

: > >: Anyone out there using (or familiar with someone who uses) the AEA
: > >: IsoLoop  antenna?    ...

: > >I've got one in my attic, and it works great as far as I can tell.  ...

: > I agree   ...

:    For what it's worth, I have a much less enthusiastic tale...
..
:    How about this as a test?  Put a 50-ohm 200 watt dummy load in the
: air at 40 feet, and see how well you get out?  You'll be amazed.
:    BTW other problems we had was the receive using the Iso-loop was
: down about 2 S units from the dipole, and we had to turn off all the
: computers because RF was getting into everything.

I wonder if your Isoloop might have had a problem.  The computer RFI
could be a clue:  I would expect the Isoloop to have less RFI than the
3.5 MHz dipole since the dipole is probably closer to house wiring etc.

I recently bought a used original Isoloop (14-30 MHz) that I was going
to use on Field Day.  My plan was to put it up on a 50 foot mast, with
two of the mast guy wires acting as an 80 meter inverted vee fed on both
80 and 40 meters with 75-ohm twinlead into a Johnson Matchbox tuner.
However, I found that even on 20 meters, the 80 meter inverted vee
performed the same as the Isoloop.  I did an A/B comparison using a
coax switch so I could instantaneously compare the two antennas using
off-the-air signals -- I could see no significant difference.  Of course,
neither antenna did nearly as well as my TH7 tribander at 55 feet!

So I didn't take the Isoloop along on Field Day.  Since the 80 meter
dipole performed just as well, even on the higher bands, and since
the dipole + matchbox had greater bandwidth than the Isoloop (less
retuning), I just used the dipole on all bands.

: Even with the slower stepping, tuning was a real pain in the bum.  ...

I found that using an MFJ SWR analyzer with the Isoloop works great.
Use an antenna switch so you can easily connect the analyzer to the
antenna, tune the analyzer until you hear the whistle in the receiver,
and tune the antenna for a dip.

Bottom line:  The Isoloop would be a good solution for some situations
such as operating from an RV in a campground or from an apartment
situated such that you could put up an Isoloop but not a dipole.
But I agree that for most people, $300 is a lot of money to spend for
an antenna that is almost as good as a dipole.

AL N1AL

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

Date: Mon, 27 Jun 94 09:07:06 PDT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!dog.ee.lbl.gov!newshub.nosc.mil!cg57.esnet.com!bbs.dsnet.com![e-mail]
Subject: BAY AREA FREQ'S WANTED
To: [e-mail]

I got a list of the local police and shariffs departments from serveral
of you but now I want even more!!!  is there any that list the ones they
refer to when they say go to channel 9 or goto cannel 3.  This happens
all the time with the san jose pd.  They go there when they want to have
a little more privacy or soemthing...

Also I am still looking for the meaning of all the numeric codes they use
e.g. 415 is a disturbance or fight I think,  10-51 is under the influence
or crazy or somehting like that any list of the meaning s of therse would
be greatly appreciated.

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

Date: 27 Jun 1994 17:52:33 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!usc!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.cs.columbia.edu!news.columbia.edu!tintin.cc.columbia.edu![e-mail]
Subject: Bitching and Moaning
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>,
Ray Wade <[e-mail]> wrote:

>So what are YOU doing to improve things, pissing and moaning?

Trying to convince people that just because it was worse in the past
doesn't mean that what we have now can't be made better and waiting to
see how the new FCC computers will improve things once they clear the
backlog.  Working with the ARRL to keep folks waiting for their
tickets informed of the current waiting period via an Internet WWW
server, providing the latest info from the FCC on the assigned
callsigns in each district, etc.

Pray tell, what are your contributions to society, besides the above
quoted gem?

                        --Fuat

Columbia University                             [e-mail]
703 Watson Labs                                 212-854-4804
612 W115th Street                               212-662-6442 (Fax)
New York, NY 10025                              N2YGN

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

Date: 27 Jun 1994 18:01:17 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!library.ucla.edu!psgrain!news.tek.com!soul.tv.tek.com![e-mail]
Subject: Car Thief (LONG)
To: [e-mail]

            Ham Radio Operator Assists in Catching Car Thieves
                            Cathy Dicker
                            Chris Dicker
                        Scott Diamond (KB7ZHB)


On Sunday night at 11:30 p.m. on June 12, 1994 I was almost asleep when our
teenage son, Chris, came bursting through our  bedroom door exclaiming that
someone across the street was trying to break into a car.  With two teenage
sons  and an eleven year old  son in our house,  it seems like the kids are
always hearing strange noises. My first reaction to  this news was to cover
my  head with a   pillow and try and get   back to sleep.   Fortunately, my
girlfriend Cathy decided to see what was going on.

While half asleep I overheard her and  Chris discussing what they had seen.
Apparently a man and woman had driven up and down the block on a motorcycle
and when they approached  the vehicle across from our  house, the  woman on
the motorcycle had said, "this ones open".  She then got off the motorcycle
and the motorcycle  drove away.  She entered  the vehicle on the  passenger
side, moved  over to the driver side  and was adjusting the  seat, steering
wheel and grabbing at the dash.  At  this point, my girlfriend Cathy yelled
back to me that I really should get out  of bed and look  at what was going
on.

As I walked to the window to watch, Cathy yelled  down to the woman, asking
her if that was her car and what she was doing.  She was  out of the car at
this point and  yelled back  that the  car was her   friends and  that  her
boyfriend was going back to get  the key. Cathy  yelled back "Well then you
won't mind if we call the police".   At this, the woman shrugged, reentered
the car and continued moving the  seat and messing  with the dash.  We were
starting to get pretty suspicious so we went ahead and called 911.

After a couple of  minutes her boyfriend  came  back on the  motorcycle and
Chris overheard her telling her boyfriend that  we said we were calling the
police. The boyfriend said  that he would meet  her at home and then  drove
off. She stayed in the vehicle for a couple more minutes continuing to mess
with the dash and then she got out and started walking down the street.

When she started walking down the street we got really suspicious. Maybe it
was her friend's  car but why wouldn't  she wait by the  car? Why would she
walk away?  Chris decided he would follow  her and see  where she was going
and  in addition he  brought  along a pencil and   sheet  of paper.  If the
motorcycle came   back again he wanted   to  write down  the  license plate
number.  I thought about what was happening  and decided that this was just
too odd. I try not  to invade in my neighbors  private affairs but I wanted
to see where she was going. Dressed only in my bathrobe, I got my car keys,
wallet, handheld ham radio and went out to the car to follow her.

It  was  overcast and rainy and  by  the time I  got  out onto the street I
couldn't see where she had gone.  I drove down  the street and saw Chris on
the corner. He pointed down the street where she was and got in the car.

I had my ham radio with me.  For those of  you not familiar with ham radio,
there are local  repeater  stations  which  receive your  incoming  signal,
amplify it and rebroadcast the signal, thus allowing local ham operators to
cover a large area with their signal.   In addition some of these repeaters
are connected  to phone lines and if  you are a  member of a ham radio club
you can use these  repeaters to make local phone  calls.  I was a member of
the local K7WWR repeater and  I had used this  repeater many times over the
winter  on cross country ski trips  when we wanted  to check to see how the
kids were doing at home.

I'd programed my handheld  ham radio with the  tone sequence for home  so I
called home to see if the police had stopped by (at this point we were only
two blocks away from home). There was no answer on the phone  at home and I
figured  she  was talking  to  the police.   We  still slowly  followed the
woman.

During the  whole  time we  were  following her  we  stayed  back about one
hundred yards. I didn't stay back to hide, a car with it lights on crawling
along at   walking speed 100 yards    behind you is pretty   noticable, but
instead I stayed back because at this point I wasn't  all that certain that
she was guilty and I didn't want to scare  her.  I kept at a nonthreatening
distance so she wouldn't be scared and besides  if she really was dangerous
and had a  gun I didn't want  to be too close anyway.   I'm sure she saw us
behind her, but she probably didn't realize that  while following her I was
using my ham radio to try and call home and that I  could use it to contact
the police if necessary.

After a couple  of minutes I called home  again.  Cathy answered  this time
and said the police had stopped by and they said  the car had been punched.
Meaning that someone had tried to rip out the ignition. It was sure looking
like the person we were following had tried to steal a car.  Cathy had told
the  officer in the car that  we were out following  the woman.  Cathy told
the police to  look for  our car  and  that I had  a  ham radio  and  would
probably be trying to contact them.  The policeman didn't really understand
this. After all how could I contact the  police with a  ham radio? He asked
Cathy if she was in constant radio contact with me.  Cathy explained to the
policeman how I could make a phone call and the policeman then drove off to
see if he could spot my car.  At this point we  were about five blocks away
from our house.

After Cathy  told me about the car  being punched, I  decided I should call
911 directly. My handheld ham  radio can store up  to four phone numbers in
it's memory. Fortunately, just two weeks before I'd thought, if I'm ever in
an emergency   I'm  going to be too    nervous to enter   the  correct tone
sequences. At that  time  I'd gone ahead and  assigned  one of my  autodial
sequences to 911.   I signaled the repeater  up and made  the connection to
911.  At first there was some confusion because the  repeater is located in
Portland and when I described our location they weren't  sure where we were
in   Portland or Vancouver.   Once  they realized I   was in Beaverton they
transferred the call to the Washington County 911. I repeated my story with
the Washington county 911, they said I  should contact the Beaverton police
dispatch directly  and gave me a  number.  I explained  that I was using my
ham and   that it was   difficult to  redial and  asked  if  they  couldn't
transfer.  The  operator said  she was transferring  me  but  that if I got
disconnected I should dial directly.

We were now about eight blocks away from home and were finally connected to
the right dispatch.  At  first the Beaverton  dispatch wasn't sure what  we
were  calling about but she  soon  connected our call  with  the search the
police were doing in our area and asked for our location.  At this point it
was  really exciting for us  in the car.  The woman  who broke into the car
was walking down a number of small  streets and throughout our conversation
with the  Beaverton dispatcher we were relaying  our position  as we turned
onto  each street.  In our  minds we imagined  her relaying our coordinates
over the police radio to the local patrol cars and  the patrol cars zeroing
in on our position.

Up ahead of us we saw two cars that had turned down the road we were on. It
was too dark to see the  cars but we thought they  might be police. As they
got closer I saw that they were police cars and I  flashed my bright lights
as they went  past.  Quickly, I told  the dispatch that  the cars  had just
passed me and  that they needed to turn  around.  The police went  one more
block then turned around and headed back our way. I leaned out my window as
they came up from behind.  The lead police car  pulled alongside of our car
and I pointed out the woman we had been tracking.

Both police cars went  ahead and pulled up  alongside  of her, and  at that
point a third police car showed up. As the police cars pulled up, it looked
to us like she was trying  to cut through the  nearby houses to avoid them.
Fortunately the police were too close and jumped out of the car to question
her before she could go anywhere. At that point we headed home, elated that
we'd been   able to direct  the police  to her after  tracking her  for ten
blocks.

Later that night the police came to tow away the car across the street from
our house.   It turns out that the  car was stolen.   I don't know why they
broke  into a stolen  car.  This is just  a guess  but  perhaps it had been
stolen earlier in the day and left in a 'safe' place  before taking it to a
shop to be taken apart at night. The police called back later that night at
1:30 a.m. and then at 2:30 a.m. (I was too excited to sleep much anyway) to
ask us for the details of what we had heard and seen.  The officer we spoke
with said that several arrests were occurring  as a result of catching this
person.



            Scott Diamond, Cathy Dicker and the DDFH
         Tigger, Stanley, Salem and Orange Monster (our cats)
                     6620  SW Hyland Way
                  Beaverton OR, 97005-5035
                      [phone]
          [e-mail]
                                                    -     O
      ~o                                              -  <|\
      <|\                                             -   \
      / >                                           -     /
     cathy                                              scott

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

Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 11:50:58
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!gatech!udel!news2.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!nwnexus!olympus.net!olympus.net![e-mail]
Subject: Clipart
To: [e-mail]

>The University of Warwick Amateur Radio Society is currently in the process
>of putting together some publicity for next year's fresher's fair. I've
>been looking for radio-related clipart to include, but to no avail (all
>I could find was an ARRL logo, which isn't much use in the UK). Does anyone
>have any ideas where I might find some on the net? (most formats will do).

>        Thanks a lot,

>                Rob (President UOWARS).

Rob, I ran into the same problem when I started doing the local ARES
newsletter. There is no source that I could find. One of the gentlemen in my
HAM class is a commercial artist and we are working on a set of amateur radio
clip art to be distributed via shareware. It should be ready by the end of the
year.
William Vaughn    [e-mail] "Just plain Bill."

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

Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 17:03:23 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!gatech!newsfeed.pitt.edu!gvls1![e-mail]
Subject: FIELD DAY 1994 REPORT
To: [e-mail]

FIELD DAY 1994

CALL : WA3NNA

ENTRY CLASS : 1B - battery - 1 operator

SECTION / LOCATION : SNJ
                     Between 21st and 22nd Street; Ocean City NJ.
                     On the beach; About 50 yards from the ocean.

RIG : OHR Classic (5 watts CW - 20 & 40 meters)

ANTENNA : half-wave vertical wire - supported by a kite.

POWER SOURCE : 12V Ni-Cad battery pack

TOTAL ON-AIR OPERATION TIME : Less than 8 hours


FINAL SCORE:
       73 QSOs on 40
       35 QSOs on 20
     -----
      108 TOTAL QSOs (x2) CW   (x5) 5 watts   = 1080 points
      100% emergency power                    =  100 points
      Operation from a public place           =  100 points

                 TOTAL SCORE                  = 1280 points

COMMENTS :
    The thunderstorms never materialized but the winds more than made up for
    it.  High un-cooperating winds kept the kite antenna from flying early
    Saturday afternoon.  Finally (with a longer tail on the kite) I was on the
    air shortly after 2100z.  Operated from the beach from about 5 PM Saturday
    until dark and then returned 9 AM Sunday.  40 meters was much better than
    expected.  20 seemed much worse than last year.  Tried a couple CQs and
    worked 3 stations but the rest were all from just tuning and calling.  In
    general, was able to work about 80% of what I called.


LESSONS LEARNED:  ;-)
    Delta kites do not like high winds unless they have a *very* long tail.
    A half-wave vertical on 20 works better than a full-wave vertical.
    Use a dupe sheet next year.  Memory starts to fail after about 50 QSOs.
    You can still get a nasty sunburn even under a beach umbrella >ouch!<
    FD is too short.  All of this preparation for only a few hours on the air.


=================================================================
Pete Rossi - WA3NNA                  [e-mail]

Unisys Corporation - Government Systems Group
Valley Forge Engineering Center - Paoli, Pennsylvania
=================================================================

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

Date: 27 Jun 1994 17:23:12 GMT
From: src.dec.com!crl.dec.com!nntpd.lkg.dec.com!nntpd2.cxo.dec.com!specxn.enet.dec.com![e-mail]
Subject: GPS group purchase shutdown
To: [e-mail]

Greetings, all.

As I have not achieved critical mass in the number of orders for the
Motorola GPS engines, I am shutting down the group purchase.

I am on vacation for the next two weeks.  If, upon returning, there has
not been enough orders received to reach the magic 100 mark, I will be
returning the checks to those who have sent them to me, and
discontinuing any efforts in this area.  As of now, I have orders for
about 35 units.  For those of you interested, that's about $13,000
sitting on my desk.

Thanks for your time, efforts and wonderful interest in this matter.

Regards,

Tom Bonomo

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

Date: 27 Jun 1994 18:04:25 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!library.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!nic-nac.CSU.net![e-mail]
Subject: heathkit info. needed
To: [e-mail]

I have purchased a Heathkit model HW-16 and it's companion VFO (HG13).
Being new to Ham radio, I am confused as to how to interconnect these two
units. I received a partial manual, but it does not have any
illustrations on how to put these two units together. I know that the
manuals are not complete as they are photo-copies of the original and
there is not enough information for me to get things up and running. Does
anyone out there know of a source for complete manuals or perhaps that
might be familiar with these units. I believe that Heathkit is out of
business. I can receive signals, but can't seem to get this thing
together for transmitting. Thanks in advance for any help. KE6FDU (new
novice and still not on the air!!)

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

Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 17:20:03 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!convex!darwin.sura.net!rsg1.er.usgs.gov![e-mail]
Subject: Hey Hey, My My, What a Field Day
To: [e-mail]

In article <2ummvd$[e-mail]>,
Scott Richard Rosenfeld <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
> stuff deleted...
>
>Did I mention the helium-filled blimp holding up the 160 vertical?
>Managed some 25 QSOs on that alone!
>

Well, Scott, about 70 or so miles to the west in Leesburg, VA, where we
had a super nice Field Day site set up at Ida Lee Park, the winds were
so strong on Sunday that your vertical would have been a sloper or
maybe even a horizontal!!  :-)

I won't tempt the FD gods by complaining about cold weather.

73 - John, W3GOI (who's still sending NC4S, our FD call, on CW at home).

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

Date: 27 Jun 1994 18:46:18 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!gatech!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!news.umbc.edu!haven.umd.edu!cville-srv.wam.umd.edu![e-mail]
Subject: It's time to retire from the hobby - good one!
To: [e-mail]

This actually happened.  I was giving a commercial license exam, and
this ham came in to take his GMDSS Repair license exam (element 9,
for you who know the commercial regs) to go along with his General
Radiotelephone Operator's License (GROL).

Anyway, we need two forms of picture ID, so he starts flipping through
his wallet, and I see what looks like a pictures of equipment.  I ask,
and he shows me a beautiful picture of his mint condition Collins
KWM-2 station.

He has no pictures of his family (wife OR kids), but he does have a
picture of his HF station...

No kidding!


--
73,                            _________   _________  The
                            \ /  Long   Original
Scott Rosenfeld  Amateur Radio NF3I  Burtonsville, MD     |   Live    $5.00
  WAC-CW/SSB  WAS  DXCC - 125 QSLed on dipoles __________| Dipoles! Antenna!

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

Date: 27 Jun 1994 21:36:21 +0300
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!news.eunet.fi!gate.compart.fi![e-mail]
Subject: Paket ver 6.0
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] (James Prentice WA2MZF) writes:

>Does anyone know where we can get the latest ver of Paket which
>is ver 6.0 ?

ftp.funet.fi:/pub/ham/packet/terminal/paket6.zip

73, Markku / OH2BQZ

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

Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 14:15:55 GMT
From: ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.mtholyoke.edu!news.umass.edu!noc.near.net!usenet.elf.com!rpi!psinntp!arrl.org![e-mail]
Subject: What causes pitch shift in receiver?
To: [e-mail]

Mike Stramba (Canada) ([e-mail]) wrote:
: I was (trying) to listen to the 80 and 40 meter bands on an inexpensive
: portable (a Pulser).

: What causes the 'pitch shift' effect? ... I.e the person's voice sounds
: like it's been shifted down an octave or more, and also sounds like it's
: being fed through a flanger.

The problem is the cheap radio. No doubt it tunes in 1 kHz steps.  To
reproduce voice accurately, you have to re-insert the carrier accurately.
A radio with 100 Hz steps may not be acceptable to finicky listeners.
10 Hz steps are usually good enough for almost everyone.

: Is it just that the receiver cannot isolate a particular frequency well
: enough?

: I did pick up a weak signal that I could barely make out the voice from
: all the static,however I could *clearly* hear the person's voice and exactly
: what he was saying, i.e. no pitch shift.

If you listen to enough signals, some will be tuned correctly.
--
Zack Lau  KH6CP/1           2 way QRP WAS
                           8 States on 10 GHz
Internet: [e-mail]   10 grids on 2304 MHz

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

End of Info-Hams Digest V94 #712
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