January 2013
Updated Roster
May 31-June 2, 2013
Seaside Convention Center
415 First Avenue, Seaside Oregon
Scott, W7IZ (RN7 Manager) says that the NTS will have a special meeting in the "Sea Mist" room on Saturday, June 1; 10:30 AM to 12:00 Noon. NTS has a 1.5 hour slot reserved on Saturday of the NW Division Convention in June this year. We usually meet only every-other-year but this will give us a chance to say hello, answer any questions and update everyone. AND rest your feet from swap tables!! This meeting is 'just because' and we hope to see you there if you're coming to SeaPac.
More details regarding this 90 minute session will be coming later. Additional information on Sea Pac is available from their website at : www.seapac.org
Take a look at this newsletter. Jim has a bit of history, a bit of current events, and a bit of "looking ahead.
K7BFL on the Road (part 2)
by Don K7BFL
As you
may remember from the last
WSN Newsletter, XYL Elvera and I traveled "to Alaska" during July and
August. We returned home early in September. A
21 ft travel trailer was our home during that time.Highlights of the trip included visits with some Hams in Fairbanks. Ed, AL7N is the Alaska Section Traffic Manager. He also is the CW link with the "lower 48" regarding NTS Radiograms. Ed has an nice Shack with lots of homebrew equipment. It all works very well! He monitors 14050 kHz and several other frequencies. If you have traffic for Alaska, give him a call. Ed and I had several CW QSO's during the trip; I sent him one radiogram.
While in Fairbanks we had "breakfast" with Ed (and wife Clara), KL7EDK (Jerry), and AB4BL (Linda); along with several other local hams. Jerry has a very fine "Winlink" gateway station. His equipment is scanning frequencies on several bands, 24/7, looking for Pactor or WINMOR stations needing to send or receive "emails via radio" using the Winlink 2000 system. I connected to KL7EDK many times during our trip on 80, 40, and 30 meters, depending on my location and time-of-day. Linda is the Emergency Coordinator (EC) for Alaska. It was nice to meet her and her husband at the lunch.
My rig
during the trip was a ICOM 7000. The antenna was
either my "Clip Dipole" (80, 40, 30 20 meters) supported by a nearby
tree limb or my 20 ft fiberglass telescoping "Wind Sock Pole"; or
monoband "Hamstik" mobile antennas. My CW paddle was
homebrew, made from 2 lever action micro-switches, glued
back-to-back. An important component to my mobile station
is a "Battery Booster". This provides a regulated 13.5 volt
voltage to the radio, from a lower battery voltage (and line voltage
drop). This is important because most of my operating
was "portable", with the engine not running.We both enjoyed traveling through British Columbia and Yukon on the way to and from Alaska. There was much natural beauty during the 6000 mile round-trip. It was nice to have HF ham radio with us.
| July |
August |
September |
October |
November |
December |
|
| QNI |
484 |
368 |
462 |
461 |
455 |
397 |
| Traffic |
76 |
79 |
94 |
156 |
233 |
130 |
| Sessions |
60 |
62 |
60 |
62 |
60 |
60 |
Greeting from the WSN Manager
by Guy Fiola, N7YRT
Seasons
Greetings to all the members!
As we
start
a new year, it is good to know
we are still enjoying the company we keep with the nets we join and the
new friends
we make along the way.
I know I
sure could not do all of this
myself, and wouldn’t attempt it if I could. So, thank you for being
there
day after day and night after night.
My wife
Valerie and I enjoyed dinner with
our oldest Daughter and her boyfriend in
My project
as of late is to put together a
solar panel / power set up for my small trailer and if needed for the
house. I’ve
been acquiring parts and pieces over the last two months and finally,
I’ve
been putting it together. My goal is to make it transferable from the
trailer
to the house (without extension cords). So I’ve mounted all the major
electronics (charge controller, power cut-off, 2kw inverter) into a
metal case,
an old gutted voting booth. ( the county here went to mail only
ballots, and
had these as surplus, they make a great container for radio stuff and
more. I
wish I had gotten more of them) I’m waiting on a fuse block which
should
be here next week sometime to finish this part of the connections. The
plan is
to be able to run normal electrical appliances (no AC in the trailer)
and other
things like hair dryers while only using battery power when we’re
camping
at craft fairs next year. When doing this “fair thing” in 2012 we
were able to camp for free but no hook-ups. Well we like to be able to
watch TV
and I like my coffee so electricity is a real nice commodity while
camping even
if it’s free. 2012 was our first attempt at the fair going. We enjoyed
the outing as much as the event. We picked up a old trailer which
needed some
TLC, and old 1972 18’ Prowler. I’ll have more in the solar project
than the trailer is worth so that’s one reason I’m making it
transferable and not mounting the solar stuff permanently to the
trailer. The
trailer took some work to fix up to get into operation, like a broken
water
pipe with a broken water heater. I suspect the previous owner let it
freeze and
well we all know what winter does to water. I sealed the roof before
fall and
it is sound and solid (I’m glad I took the time to do the roof, I sleep
better knowing what condition it is in).
I didn’t
see
any evidence of water
damage from the roof at all, but the water heater must have leaked for
some
time, the wood was well rotted under it. Anyway we’ve used it three
weekends and it is works good except the power (12v) didn’t hold up
without help from a generator. I know the solar panels will do the
trick, and
can’t wait to try it our next spring/summer. Maybe I’ll run into
some of you in my travels. 73, from
Don't
forget that the evening session of WSN changes back to 6:45 PM on
February 1.
N7YRT
WSN
Manager
(with a lot of help from you)
PS We’re
still in need of a RN7
relay/ liaison on Thursday evenings, please consider it, it is easy and
the friends
you make will be worth the effort.