MEETING 1 JUNE 2015

Hello again, it's been a few weeks since I added to the BLOG so I'll get back into the habit. I would sure like some help, write something about anything you care about and send it to me, I'll post it for everyone to read.

The meeting last Monday saw 16 people in attendance, Four new guys showed up, we hope they will be regular attendees.  Billl Johnson was there to see what ham radio was all about and decide how to proceed toward a license.  The others, one young guy from the Coast Guard and a couple of old timers came for the first time.  They are KK4TPL, David Gonzalez USCG,  Don Prewein, KQ4XQ and John Arket WB4ZLT retired Army.

Although Alan had a projector set up and ready there was no program.  We filled the time with a wide ranging discussion of many topics ;-)  (How's that as a euphemism for a BS session?)

I went through a period where I wasn't much interested in setting in front of the computer.  My spinal stenosis flared  up and for a week I was in intense back pain.  The only two places I got any relief was in bed or in the swimming pool.  Since the NCAA College Softball Tournament was on I watched the games from the swimming pool and let everything else go.  I have an MRI scheduled for Friday and will then be evaluated by the Laser Spine Institute to determine whether I am a candidate for their spinal surgery procedure.  This has been getting worse for years, I'll be happy if there is an affordable solution.

Meeting notes 13 April 2015

It was another beautiful morning.  Bernie had the sign posted in front of the side door.

The conversation got around to moonshine and Don Partain, KJ4FKT gave us several interesting stories about the art.   We were told that sometimes the moonshiner added chicken shit to the brew for flavor!!  Don went on to explain how one could tell.  This is how:  pour a small amount of the white lightning onto a piece of wax paper.  Light the alcohol.  If it burns without melting the wax paper it is pure and free of the flavoring.

Don Colvin, KC4UUM suggested that everyone dig up a photo of their radio shack.  Whether it is operational or not, take a picture if you don't already have one.

HUMOR CORNER

REWARD OFFERED

A reward of 500 microfarads is offered for information leading to the arrest of this deperate criminal Hop-A-Long Capacity. This unrectified criminal escaped from a western primary cell where he had been clamped in ions awaiting the gauss chamber. He was charged with the induction of an 18 turn coil named Millihenry who was found choked and robbed of valuable joules. He is armed with a carbon rod and is a potential killer. If encountered, he may offer series of resistance Capacity is also charged with driving dc motor over a Wheatstone bridge and refusing to let the band-pass. The electromotive force spent the night searching for him in a magnetic field, where he had gone to earth. They had no success and believed he had returned ohm via a short circuit. He was last seen riding a kilocycle with his friend eddy current who was playing a harmonic.

MEMORY LANE

Jack, WD8QYU brought in some pictures from 1996 to add to our album

 

IMARS MEETING ANNOUNCEMENTS

IMARS MEETING 30 MAR 2015

It was a beautiful day, good turnout, 14.  [Can you believe that?  Five years ago we had 75 members and every meeting was attended by 25 or 30. We need to get to work.]                                                                 The first thing everyone noticed upon arrival is the wonderful new sandwich board sign marking the entrance.  Great work, thanks go to Alan KI4ZSK, Jack WD8QYU, John G4VMR and, of course Bill N4ZZO for the original design of our logo.                                                                          
Bernie found himself a nice comfortable chair from which to conduct the meeting and opened with a call for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence to honor our military, police and firefighters protecting us world wide.

We were happy to see Bob Thorton, K4KUB.  Bob has retired from his real estate business, or at least slowed down enough to be able to attend meetings.  We asked Bob to tell us a bit about his career and he gave us an interesting talk about graduating from Auburn University and going to work for the Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Seeing where the space program was headed he switched to a real estate career which has been a good decision.

 Tony KB8DNW was in his counting house counting out the money in the doughnut fund which stands at $336 and change.  Thanks to Tony for being so reliable in bringing the doughnuts every week.  Our membership would surely drop without those goodies.

 Jack reminded us that the he has placed an announcement on the 146.835 repeater.  You can help spread the word about IMARS by keying that announcement periodically.  To run the announcement key the mic briefly then drop and key it again then press *60* and wait for the announcement.

Maybe you saw the meeting announcement that appeared in the Beacon on the 25th.  I'll try to remember to send the request before Friday each week.  I've asked to make it a permanent announcement in the Beacon's Calendar section.  I'm also getting a query from the DB N-J indicating that they will put at least the first announcement in their "My Community News."  Keep an eye out for it.   I wanted to tell somebody how to come in the back way off of Highbanks and couldn't remember the name of the street.  There it is, Naranja Road.                                                                                                                     All of these efforts to spread the word about IMARS are necessary if we want to build up the membership.  When I arrived in Deltona I wanted to find a ham club and so called the Deltona Public Library.  Fortunately the woman who answered the phone was Mrs. Bob Waterson KC4LXW (SK).  Do you remember Bob?  If anyone has any ideas about how to get more people to come to meetings please let the group know.  One of the things we're lacking is a formal presentation on some topic at each meeting.  We used to do that until most of we who volunteered have done the same presentation multiple times.   Time for everyone to think hard about some topic you're willing to talk about for 20 or 30 minutes, a "show and tell",  then let Bernie know.  If you need a projector I believe Alan can arrange to have one available.  If not I have one I can bring in.

RAMBLINGS

I am always anxious to get back to the swimming pool, it's about the only real exercise I get.  I can stand the water until the temp gets down to 70. With all the warm weather I was wondering how long I'd have to wait before the water was tolerable again.  The old thermometer was broken and I got the idea that I'd like to have a remote reading thermometer so I could monitor the temp as it comes up to the level I can stand. As with everything these days I GOOGLED it.  Ancestry had just what I was looking for, a floating monitor that connects by radio to a readout I can set on the patio table beside the air temp readout.  To top it off my points on Amazon made the price plus shipping FREE.  It's working well.  The water was 76, I thought I'd not set it up correctly.  After a while I learned that it was, in fact reading correctly!  I have started swimming at least once a day. After about 15 minutes the water feels fine, a bit cool but I can stand it.

I brought in a couple of unusual citrus fruit that grow in or next to my yard.  I couldn't remember the name of the tiny little bitter oranges.  They are calamondin, a hybrid between a tangerine and a kumquat.  If your interested you can have a bag full of these little devils.  Here is a place where you can find many recipes for them http://tinyurl.com/nmqsht5  The recipes include Cake, Marmalade, Pie, Bread and Nut Bread.

Here's another strange fruit.  I've wondered whether this is a mutated grapefruit.  When we put in the swimming pool we moved this tree from the middle of the back yard to the side.  It had been planted by the previous owner and was quite small, no fruit ever grew before we transplanted it.  In searching the internet for what it might be I've discovered that it is probably a "Chinese Grapefruit" or Shaddock or Pomelo/Pommelo (pronounced pom_MEL_ o) Spanish for grapefruit.  It is very popular in the Malaysia-Indochina region where it originated.  It tastes like a mild grapefruit, not nearly as juicy.  There's a picture of our tree, groaning with Pomelo, come and get some if you'd like to try them. Find info and recipes here: http://tinyurl.com/oztbdqt and here http://tinyurl.com/orpxcwu


I'm writing this tonight with my "2nd Op" asleep beside me.  She comes up on the desk and paws around making herself a nest then lays down and closes her eyes.  She stays there unless I leave the room, even go up the hall to the bathroom whereupon she jumps down and follows me, then back to her nest when I return.  She's a variety of Saimese called a Rag Doll, one of the sweetest and gentlest cats we've ever had.

HUMOR CORNER

We had a good discussion going today.  The subject turned to "code talkers", those Navaho Indians who were employed to speak their native language over radio circuits to keep the enemy from learning what was being said.  Bonnie piped up "What is a code talker?" she asked. The clown in me couldn't resist and I said "Bonnie, that's when a phone man opens his mic and says DAH DI DAH DIT, DAH DAH DI DAH . . . ."   It got a good laugh. I don't know where that came from.  Here's a link to a story about Chester Nez of Albuquerque, NM, the last code talker.  Chester died in June of last year at age 93.  http://tinyurl.com/l5qrcwn

73/88

See 'ya next week, good Lord's willing and the creeks don't rise.

Jerry KØJH

(We've got three ZEROs in the club now ;-)

IMARS MEETING 16 MARCH 2015

It was a lovely morning. Bernie opened the meeting precicely at 10:00 a.m.  We did our Pledge of Allegiance and then a moment of silence to honor Silent Keys, military, police and firefighters who have gone to their reward.

We were glad to see Ernie WA4KMF, and Ed N1MCU again and all the old timers too.  Bonnie WB4FSF was present after being sick for a while.  Bill Kehm was there after missing a couple of meetings.  We are happy that Bill has decided not to move to New Hampshire.  This winter the weather in the Northeast helped make up his mind.

There was no formal program scheduled to Don Partain, KJ4FKT gave us an impromptu talk about how iron was produced in the Dover, Tennessee area.  It was a most enjoyable talk about something most of us know very little.

What else can I say?  We need more input from members.

Here are some pictures I took today, I couldn't get a clear shot of several members, sorry, I wasn't thinking while I was taking the pictures.  I'll get you next week.


Please consider what you might give a short talk about.  All of our members have had a long and interesting life, please do as Don did today, stand up and volunteer to entertain us with some of your life experiences, we enjoy them all.

HUMOR CORNER

REWARD OFFERED

(Contributed by Bernie KJ4QML)

A reward of 500 microfarads is offered for information leading to the arrest of the desperate criminal. HopALong Capacity. This unrectified criminal escaped from a western primary cell where he had been clamped in ions awaiting the gauss chamber.  He was charged with the induction of an 18 turn coil named Millihenry who was found choked and robbed of valuable joules.  He is armed with a carbon rod and is a potential killer.  If encountered he may offer series of resistance.  Capacity is also charged with driving a dc motor over a Wheatstone Bridge and refusing to let the band-pass.  The electromotive force spent the night searching for him in a magnetic field, where he had gone to earth. They had no success and believed he had returned ohm via a short circuit.  He was last seen riding a kilocycle with his friend Eddy Current who was playing a harmonic.

THE DEATH OF PAUL

(Contributed by Jerry Hale KØJH)

There was a young fella named Paul,

Who fell into the spring in the fall.

IWould have been sad had he died in the spring,

But he didn't, he died in the fall.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

(Contributed by Jack Kessler, WD8QYU)

Why did old time sailors wear a gold earring?  Answer: To pay to have their body sent home if they died before they got back home.  

Why did a sailor's uniform have a large collar going down their back? Answer: To protect their uniform from the tar they used to keep their long hair in check.

See ya next week.


73/88

Jerry KØJH

INDIAN MOUND AMATEUR RADIO SOCIETY (IMARS)

09 March 2015

[Well, I posted a new BLOG page last night but it is not here!  Where did it go?  NO IDEA ;-)]

|SK|  Member John L. "Jack" Allen KK4EKV, died on Sunday March 8th, 2015.  John retired to DeLand from his home in New Jersey.  Jack served on submarines in WW II and was a traffic engineer in NJ before he retired.  No obituary or notice of services has been published as of today.

We had a good meeting, turn out was about normal for these days.  We are making an effort to attract some new members.  

Alan KI4ZSK, has volunteered to make us a sandwich board sign that can be set out on meeting days and can also be used at any public event.  Alan showed the design that he had come up with.  Our traditional logo, designed by Bill Kehm, N4ZZO could not be used because the resolution of the file Alan has doesn't have good enough resolution.  I have located a JPG file of the logo at 300dpi 1500x1510 that might be usable and sent that to Alan.

I have placed meeting notices in the News Journal and the West Volusia Beacon, let me know if you see them please..  Jack  WD8QY, has put a voice announcement on the repeater.   It there is anything else you think we could do please bring it to our attention at a meeting or in an eMail.


I read an eMail received from Joe Chaput N9ZGU who will be 90 years old next week.  The health of his wife prevents him from coming to Florida for the forseeable future.  He is proud of his son who has gotten his 1st (Chief) Mate's license and will be a Master when he has enough time as Chief.

Bob WB9SOE, responded to a question about the new Apple Watch and that led to a discussion about security in general.  Bob pointed out that the new smart phone apps, Google Wallet and Apple Pay allow you to pay bills and purchase items without exposing your credit card numbers.  A one time number is generated for each transaction so if the bad guys get ahold of that number they will not be able to do anything with it.  Bob also strongly recommended that everyone FREEZE their credit so no one would be able to establish an account with information they stole.

By coincidence Anthem, had a full page add in todays DB N-J (9 Mar 2015) notifying everyone that Anthem's accounts had been hacked and that anyone who has an account with them or with Blue Cross or Blue Shield was a possible victim.  Anthem also strongly recommended that you FREEZE your credit and gave the following links to the three credit companies:

EQUIFAX Credit Freeze  EXPERIAN Credit Freeze TRANSUNION Credit Freeze

ANNOUNCEMENTS

EMERGENCY RESPONSE COMMUNICATIONS NET

The DeLand Stake will be holding a meeting on Friday, March 20th, at 7pm in the LDS Church, 1345 Aquarius Ave., DeLand.  You need not be a church member to participate in this Emergency Net.  (AND WE WILL NOT PREACH TO YOU ;-)  Your input is welcome.  Questions?  Bernie KI4QML (386) 575-7160 or email: berner36@bellsouth.net.

ARLB014 

Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 Introduced in Congress H.R. 1301

The measure would direct the FCC to extend its rules relating to reasonable accommodation of Amateur Service communications to private land use restrictions. More info on the ARRL resources page on its website at, http://www.arrl.org/hr-1301

ARLB013 

Comments Due by April 6 on 76-81 GHz Radar Sharing Proposals

An FCC proceeding that could lead to expanded spectrum for various radar applications in the 76-81 GHz band, which Amateur Radio shares with other services. The band 77.5-78 GHz is allocated to the Amateur and Amateur Satellite services on a primary basis, and to the Radio Astronomy and Space Research services on a secondary basis.Comments at: http://www.regulations.gov

See you next week.

Jerry KØJH

PS:  Someone asked about Bob Thornton K4KUB and nobody knew what had become of him.  Today (Tue 10 Mar) I received a response from Bob to my inquiry to inactive members:

Please keep me on distribution.  Until recently, my work didn’t allow me to attend, but that is changing.

All the best and 73,

Bob

K4KUB

IMARS MEETING 

March 2nd 2015

We met, as usual, on Monday morning.  I got to the DeBary EOC at just after 9 a.m. but Bernie and Carlos were already there, the coffee was ready and we were all waiting on Tony who brings the donuts.  Somebody said when he brings donuts he is Anthony ;-) The donuts were fresh and tasty, we all threw in out $1 donation to the donut fund and lit into them.  Others arrived throughout the hour and Bernie got the meeting started right on time at 10 O'clock.

Bonnie Taylor, WB4FSF and John Watkins, G4VMR remain on the sick list, we wish them both a speedy recovery.  Ken List, KB8NNA  is busy driving motor homes to and from the big shows and can't make meetings like he used to.

Ernest "Ernie" Clough WA4MKF, a new member, came in. He said he had been to a meeting a couple of weeks ago, I must have missed that meeting.  Ernie is a General, he lives in DeBary and his name is pronounced 'CLOUF'.  WELCOME ERNIE!

Old timer Carlos Colón, WA4ZKV  got up and talked about a circuit he was experimenting with and wanted advice about how the voltages he was seeing were being generated.  If you have answers please let Carlos know about them at his eMail address posted on the web site (MEMBER INFO).

After Carlos was finished Roy Peters KNØNI  gave us a very interesting talk about FRACKING and how the process works.  Being a geologist Roy is eminently qualified to explain it and make it interesting to all of us. Roy mentioned that there is a belief among many that oil is still being created. The session ended with a discussion about other fuels that show promise Natural Gas (NG  or LNG), Hydrogen, E-85 etc.  Bob pointed out that E85 yields much less MPG than regular gasoline (with 10% ethanol). [Edmunds ran a test to compare E85 to gasoline, taking into consideration the price difference.  The result:  Gas/E85 difference: The fuel economy of our Tahoe on E85, under these conditions, was 26.5 percent worse than it was when running on gasoline.]  (Click on Edmunds above to see the report.)

Alan Williamson  KI4ZSK the following announcement of our Society appeared in the DeBary Newsletter:

Thank you Alan

We discussed a sandwich type sign board that could be placed near the road on meeting days and used for any other occasion where IMARS could be promoted.  Alan said he would follow up on that idea.

I pointed out that a notice of our meetings could be placed in the Beacon and/or the News Journal but requires someone to take the initiative to send in the requests.  Any volunteers?   I used to do it regularly but haven't done so for a couple of years.

So, we got some social, some electronics and some technical information at this meeting.  It was a pretty good morning in my humble opinion.  What did you think?

Before adjourning the meeting Bernie asked that we volunteer, in a rotating fashion, cleaning up the coffee pot after the meeting.  Bernie said it was unfair to Alan, after he makes the coffee in the morning, to also burden him with cleaning up too.  We agreed and Bob and I took care of the clean up before we left.

That's about it for this week.

Let me know if you have any complaints, corrections or submissions for future BLOG posts.

73

Jerry KØJH
 for
Indian Mound Amateur Radio Society

Web site:  http://imarsvolusia.com

BLOG    :  http://tinyurl.com/qygy42k

        or   : http://imarsflorida.blogspot.com/?

NET NEUTRALITY

There was some interest/quesions about the net neutrality rules the FCC recently imposed upon the www. 

If you are interested the FCC's Open Meeting is on the www at www.fcc.gov/events/open-commission-meeting-february-2015

This unprecendented rule making has completely changed the way the internet will be operated, placing it under Title 2 which was designed to regulate the large telephone companies.  The commission has preempted the various city operated local networks (municipal networks especially in TN & NC).  Taxes are sure to follow.  This rule will undoubtedly be challenged in court and will probably go all the way to the Supreme Court for a final decision.

If you watch the video scroll to the two Republican commissioners, Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly who explain the dangers of this rule.

The Chairman of the FCC repeated many times that this rule was open and that 4 million people commented.  He failed to mention that the comments were made on the basis of the Notice of Proposed Rule Making which had nothing to do with the final rule.  That rule, even though the rule has been put in place, is SECRET.

If you are interested in pushing back against the Obama take over of the internet you can go the the following site which will facilitate your letter to your Senators and Representative.

http://action.americancommitment.org/16401/?zip=

You might also like to read other opinions at the following sites:

The Sad Reality Of Net Neutrality (Forbes) 

How Will Net Neutrality Affect Consumers?

Net Neutrality, the Mob and the Man

A Political Miscalculation on Net Neutrality?

The Solution to the F.C.C.’s Net-Neutrality Problems

January/February 2015 Meetings

IMARS met every Monday morning throughout January and into February.  We all owe thanks to Alan KI4ZSK for making the coffee before every meeting and to Anthony Waselizh KB4DNW for bringing the donuts. Both of these people make the meetings worth attending.

We have a new member who has been coming regularly.  Roy Peters, KDØNI (Colorado), is a retired geologist and has many life experiences (aka "Sea Stories") to share.  The diversity of the experiences of our members makes this club interesting.

John Watkins, G4VMR gave us a talk on using  range extenders and/or wall plugged Ethernet adapters to extend your home network.  The range extender he demonstrated was the TP-LINK 300Mbps Universal WiFi Range Extender  TL-WA850RE N300 ($25 from Amazon or Newegg no tax or shipping charge from Newegg.)                                                                                                                           John explained that a range extender restricts the bandwidth and recommended another device, a Wall-Plugged Ethernet Adapter. ($25.39 from Amazon.) which uses your house wiring to provide an wired Ethernet connection anywhere in your house that you have an electrical outlet.
Two units are required, one plugged into your router and the second to provide the remote access.  John brought a NetGear XET1001 85Mbps model to demonstrate. He loaned 3 of them to me for evaluation at my house, they work well.  This technology is similar to the old X10 system.                                                                                                                                                                  
In looking into this I found another model that might be even better.  It is the  ACTIONTEC 500 Mbps Powerline Ethernet Adapter and 4-Port Hub Kit (PWR514K01)  $75.98  From Amazon.    This includes 2 units, one unit to connect to your router and the second, a 4 port device to provide remote access.


If you think you might be able to benefit from this type of network extender here is a review with a neat video that tells you everything you need to know.  http://tinyurl.com/kuq7wbo

Thank you  John, this is what I've been needing.


We can always count on Bob Cook WB9SOE to give an interesting presentation on about anything he chooses to talk about.  He is on top of the latest changes in the TV world and communications in general.  Bob does a great job of making his presentations understandable when he approaches the white board and illustrates his points. 

We are looking forward to our newest member, Roy KDØNI, to give us a few minutes on rocks in the near future.  Roy is the second Ø geologist in the club, Bud NØIA is a geologist too (I think ;-)

We didn't forget to talk about ham radio either.  Don Partain, KJ4FKT, told us about SARnet.  SARnet is The Statewide Amateur Radio Network.

It is a network of linked UHF voice repeaters that serves the State of Florida. The repeaters are operated by their local trustees and the network that connects them together does not interfere with the local use of the repeaters.  The key to this network is that it uses dedicated bandwidth that is separate from the internet. Statewide connectivity is achieved without the use of any commercial telecommunications services. SARnet does not use the internet, cellular telephones, or land lines.

In reply to a rethoical question "it is not just for emergency communications. That being said, the creators of SARnet are active in public safety communications, both commercial and amateur, so they have an understanding of what SARnet can do for emergency communications in the state of Florida."

If you would like to know more arout SARnet (www.sarnetfl.com) you can download the presentation on SARnet given at a 2015 Hamcation forum at: http://tinyurl.com/lnn964x

In conclusion I'd like to tell you about my "clown face".  When I was about 13 years old I rode my bicycle 20 miles to work on a bicycling merit badge in Boy Scouts.  I went to visit my Uncle Joe riding mostly gravel roads with a one speed fat tired old bike.  I swear it was up hill all the way!  Uncle Joe made lawn ornaments as a hobby.  He taught me how to use a little vibra saw and I made the clown face pictured.  I've carried that clown face all over the world.  The long red nose that was supposed to be a belt hanger was lost somewhere along the line.  While cleaning out the garage the other day I ran across it again.  I should have thrown it away but the sentimental value of it stayed my hand.  I thought it might bring a smile to your faces.

73/88

Jerry KØJH

Please let me know what you think of this latest blog post.  Rather have more radio content?  Please consider a contribution, I'll post whatever your produce.  Share your interests with the rest of us.

For sure let me know of any errors I have overlooked.