Regina Amateur Radio Association
GUYWIRE

January 2006

January 11th,   7:30 PM  SCIENCE CENTER IMAX Boardroom.
Use IMAX entrance.

This meeting is Show-and-Tell.  Bring in your most prized QSL
card, certificate or interesting gadgets

The "Hypothermic Half Marathon" will be held on February 19th at 10:00 AM.

Mark your calander for the 2006 Scouts Canada Klondike Hike.  It will be held on Saturday, Feb 4, with the alternate date of Feb 11 (if too cold or stormy).  We will need about 23 operators, so let Jim Sandercock (VE5CS) know your availability
jsandercock@sasktel.net

The Saskatchewan 2 meter link net is now operating weekdays (monday through friday) at 9:00 pm local time on connected Saskatchewan repeaters.  In Regina, catch it on VE5WM 146.88.

The VE5WM repeater took part in the annual New Years Around The World Net on IRLP.  The net actually started around 5 AM our time when New Zealand greeted the new day, but the repeater was connected when the new year crossed over europe and then toNorth America.  Several local hams made use of the net to send New Years greetings to hams in other parts of the world.

Bill, VE5WN has the following equipment that he is willing to give away to anyone who would like to have it.   There is a Heathkit DX-35 transmitter complete with a HG-10 external VFO and a Heathkit receiver (he is not sure of the model).  Anyone wanting these should contact Bill at 731 2434

The lone survivor in the West Virginia coal mine, Randal L. McCloy Jr. of Philippi WV turns out to be a ham, KC8VKZ.  He remains in hospital in Pittsburgh with critical injuries.  Hams wishing to send Randy get-well QSLs can do so at Box 223, Philippi WV   26435

After legal wranglings and other twists and turns, Radio Shack is coming back.  The Canadian operation lost its franchise and all stores were bought out by Circuit City/Source.  Radio Shacks parent company has set up a new Radio Shack Canada company and they will be establishing stores across the country again.  To read the confusing details, go to www.radioshackisback.com

And in a historical note, did you know that Radio Shack started out as a single store selling ham radio gear?

To no ones surprise, Industry Canada has announced that the portion of the 220 mHz band from 220 to 222 mHz will be withdrawn from the amateur service January 25th and assigned to commercial service.  RAC has launched an objection to this action. To soften the blow, IC says that amateur operation on this band may be allowed under exceptional
circumstances such as emergency communications.

The U.S. lost this portion of the band 16  years ago but Canada was allowed to continue to use it, albeit with restrictions on stations located near the U,S. border.

This action will not have much impact on Saskatchewan as there are only two repeaters on this band and both are above 222 mHz.  Complete details are available at:

A new era in satellite navigation has begun with the launch of Giove-A.  The 600kg spacecraft was lifted into orbit on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, at 0519 GMT. Giove-A will demonstrate key technologies needed for Galileo, the $4B sat-nav system Europe hopes to deploy by 2010. The new network will give EU states guaranteed access to a space-borne precise timing and location service independent of the United States.

This month marks the 100th anniversary of one of the most significant events in the history of amateur radio. One day in December 1905, an engineer at a receiving station based at  Machrihanish in Scotland was listening in when - to his astonishment - he heard the voice of Reginald Fessenden. What made this so special was that Fessenden was at the time in North America - this was the first time that a voice transmission had been copied across the Atlantic.

Remarkably, it was purely by accident. Fessenden - a talented if eccentric Canadian scientist - had actually been talking to another station in Maryland, USA but, thanks to the wonder of propagation, his signal made its way across the Atlantic.

This was not the only first achieved jointly by Fessenden and the Machrihanish station. A month later, after the Scottish station had been readied for transmission, it and Fessenden undertook the first ever two way CW radio contact across the Atlantic. In this respect, Fessenden was ahead of his great rival Marconi who at that point had only achieved a one-way crossing.

Fessenden was also in 1900 the first to use HF alternators and first to superimpose the human voice on radio transmissions. He also made the first radio music broadcast, on Christmas Eve 1906. His other achievements include inventing AM and writing over 500 patents. And yet, despite his great contribution to radio, he rarely received the credit he deserved, and died in 1932 a largely forgotten man. Meanwhile, his arch competitor Marconi had become a legend.

There was also to be a sad ending for the Machrihanish station with which Fessenden achieved his pioneering radio contacts. The station was closed down in December 1906 - less than a year after the first two-way CW contacts across the Atlantic - after severe gales blew down its mast.

To mark Fessenden's pioneering work with the Machrihanish station, the special event callsign GB1FVT will be activated during the first week in January from the Machrihanish site. Operation will be on all HF bands, CW and SSB. Another special event station - AA1A/BO - will be aired from Brant Rock in the US. (Thanks to the RSGB) 

The repeater squelch tail is not related to the IRLP operation, so you do not have to wait for the repeater to drop out before transmitting.  Keep in mind that you still should key up your mike for 1 to 1 1/2 seconds before speaking due to the delay in the system.  VE5WM has a relatively short turn-over time but not all nodes do, so pace yourself accordingly. 
The only exception is when there is a series of uninterupted transmissions that last for 3 minutes, in which case the repeater (not the IRLP) will time out. This can be overcome by pausing before keying up every 2 - 2 1/2 minutes or so to reset the timer.  The repeater will time-out after 3 minutes of transmission without a break whether on IRLP or not.  This is
a safety feature.  If you have been transmitting and have timed out the repeater, you can tell because the repeater will give a "TO" in code as soon as you release your PTT button.

There is a 20 minute activity timer on node-to-node connections..  If it senses that there has been no activity on the system for 20 minutes it will disconnect you from the IRLP.  Connected nodes on both ends of the system will hear a disconnect announcement.

There is also a 20 minute timer on connections to reflectors.  If it does not see any activity from your node for 20 minutes it will disconnect, regardless of the activity on the reflector.  If you wish to remain connected, just momentarily key the PTT button on your mike during a period when there is no incoming audio to reset the timer.  Since this is a simplex circuit,
it has to be done when there is no audio being received from the system.

If you try to connect to a node and are unsuccessful, as when the other node is busy, off line or being used locally, you do not have to key the disconnect code.  The system knows you didn't connect.

A node-to-node connection uses a high quality Internet audio circuit (8 kHz compared to the average 2 meter radio quality of 3 kHz), therefore if you are hearing a station on the system that has poor audio levels, noise or distortion, the chances are that it is not an IRLP problem, but most likely one of the following:  (1) A poor signal into the repeater   (2)  Poor audio quality coming from the handheld or base station at that end  (3) The repeater-to-node interface not properly set up.  If you are transmitting low level audio into the system, the system will not try to make it up. What goes in, comes out.

Using the IRLP should be just like using the local repeater.  Nodes are not allowed to send courtesy tones, IDs or squelch tails to the system so the only extra sounds you hear should be the things that the local repeater transmits.  You could imagine the mayhem if all nodes sent their IDs, etc. to the system, particularly on a reflector.

Q. What is the maximum bandwidth permitted for a station operating in the 420-450 mHz band?

If a person fails an amateur radio exam, how long must he wait before he
can write the test again?