February 2009

Green Valley Amateur Radio Club

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OUT OF MY HEAD

A note from the secretary

As a general rule, we carry a complete roster in the February newsletter, but this month, we’re going to hold off till March. I’ll prepare a spreadsheet with names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. We won’t put all the e-mail addresses on the web page, but we’ll put them into a hard copy, which will be available to our membership.

While we do have an old e-mail list, we need to update it. To that end, we’ll provide a sheet of paper at the February meeting,which by the way, is NEXT WEEK. If you’re out of town, e-mail me. Be sure to put e-mail update, in the subject line.

Thanks, Bob

CONTINENTAL SCHOOL RADIO CLUB

We’re proud of these kids… thanks Ken

 The big news this month is the success of the robotics team. Under the leadership of Kellie, KE7DQJ, a junior at Sahaurita high school and Ken Van Horn, KE7VTW, advisor, a group of 4 students planned, designed and built a robot.  They worked many hours as a team including 6 hours during Christmas vacation.

The final bugs were worked out on Friday night January 16th. At the competition the following day, there were 10 teams competing for state champion.  After the qualifying rounds we were fourth in the ranking.  We went undefeated in the elimination round and won state champion.  We are now eligible to compete in the world championship at Dallas, Texas on April 30 to May 2nd.  There are approximately 100 teams expected at the Championship.  Our team is looking forward to the challenge

CLASSES and EXAMS

Lloyd wants you to know:

A note from Ray Soifer

GVARC newsletter readers might like to know that the full text of my Outbacker antenna article, in slightly edited form, is now on eham.net as an updated product review. Here is a link: Outbacker Outreach and Alpha Delta Outpost tripod Product Reviews

Best, Ray

Silent key Jerry Cermak K8YVU

 

NEW MEMBERS

Lack of Classes no excuse for not learning CW

You don’t need a class to learn Morse Code. In fact, with the tools we have today, it’s much easier to learn Morse Code than ever before. If you have a PC, download the G4FON CW Trainer. This free programs has been used by hundreds, if not thousands, to learn code. Another good way to learn is the K7QO Code Course. This is a collection of mp3 files that step you through the characters and numbers. If neither of those strike your fancy, look into Learn CW Online. According to this website, “At LCWO you can learn Morse telegraphy (CW) online in your browser. You don’t need to install a program on your computer, and you always have your personal settings available, from any computer on the globe with an internet connection. You can also easily track your progress by means of different statistical functions.

In addition to these resources, there are two mailing list that I would recommend - Koch Morse and SolidCpyCW. Both lists have over 1,000 members who are all willing and able to help you learn code.

Using these tools is a lot better way to learn code than the old, traditional classes. Classes met once, maybe twice a week. Using these tools you can practice every day, whenever you have the time, not when a teacher holds a class. Not only that, with these tools you can more easily measure your progress than you could with the more traditional classes.

Ham Radio Ops Can Help With Solar Research

On the HamRadioHelpGroup mailing list, Bob KE5WZK notes:

While studying for college courses I learned about this upcoming program. Ham operators are participating by receiving data. How cool is that?

The article says:

[On Friday, January 23, 2009,] NASA researchers announced an event that will transform our view of the Sun and, in the process, supercharge the field of solar physics for many years to come. “On February 6, 2011,” says Chris St. Cyr of the Goddard Space Flight Center, “Super Bowl XLV will be played in Arlington, Texas.”

Wait … that’s not it.

“And on the same day,” he adds, “NASA’s two STEREO spacecraft will be 180 degrees apart and will image the entire Sun for the first time in history.”

…details of the project skipped…

experienced ham radio operators can participate in this historic mission by helping NASA capture STEREO’s images. The busy Deep Space Network downloads data from STEREO only three hours a day. That’s plenty of time to capture all of the previous day’s data, but NASA would like to monitor the transmissions around the clock.

“So we’re putting together a ‘mini-Deep Space Network’ to stay in constant contact with STEREO,” says Bill Thompson, director of the STEREO Science Center at Goddard.

The two spacecraft beam their data back to Earth via an X-band radio beacon. Anyone with a 10-meter dish antenna and a suitable receiver can pick up the signals. The data rate is low, 500 bits per second, and it takes 3 to 5 minutes to download a complete image.

So far, the mini-Network includes stations in the United Kingdom, France and Japan—and Thompson is looking for more: “NASA encourages people with X-band antennas to contact the STEREO team. We would gladly work with them and figure out how they can join our network.”

 KN4LF is now reporting another sunspot group from Cycle 23:

On Tuesday January 27, 2009 yet another solar cycle 23 sunspot group (S738) formed near S05E40. If numbered by NOAA/SWPC it will be 11012.

Solar cycle 23 is now 12 years and 10 months long from first spot to present one, an extension of the already record long solar cycle!!!

Well gang, that’s it for this month. Remember to help me out with e-mail updates.

Thanks

See ya next Wednesday evening at 7:00

Bob