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Greater Cincinnati Amateur Radio Association, Inc.
77 years of service to the Greater Cincinnati Community
Volume 78
October 2014
Issue 10
Have a set up, QSL Card collect, Homebrew
you would like to show off.
Here is your chance for your 5 minutes of fame.
Bring it to this month’s GCARA Meeting
and
show it off!
Next Meeting
October 22, 2014
7:30PM
The Main Door to the Breeze Manor will be locked,
and you must use the Communication Device located
near the entrance to request entrance to the building. Page 1!
Maple Knoll (Breeze Manor)
11200 Springfield Pike,
Springdale, Ohio
(Take Maple Trace Dr. off Springfield Pike)
Message from the President
David Self, K8SSN
This has been a busy pass few months and will be glad
it get things back to normal. I have been working 7
days a week for as long as I can remember and can’t
remember when I have been able to get on the air.
Drive to work 2M don’t count.
It is October and I haven’t closed my pool yet. Haven’t
been to the Lake in over a year.
OK off my soapbox: This year’s Christmas party will be
Tuesday, December the 9th. Notice I said Tuesday!
The cost is still $20.00, more information in the the next
TM&K.
This month is elections, so come out and make sure to
cast your vote. And if you have a write in they are
always welcome.
This is also the last meeting of the year, so if you have
something you would like to see the club do in the
future bring the ideas to the meeting. We are always
looking for ways to get more members active. This is
your club.
Hope to see you at this month’s meeting and some
show and tell item you may have.
73
Upcoming Monthly Programs
Published monthly by the
Greater Cincinnati Amateur Radio Assoc. Inc.
Submit ads and news to the editor
Deadline: forth Wednesday of the month
Editor: David Self, K8SSN
3261 Old Oxford Rd.
Hamilton, Ohio 45013
tm&[email protected]
Advertising Fees
Business card size..$5.00 / issue $60.00 / 12 issues
Half page.................$10.00 / issue $100.00 / 12 issues
Full page..................$25.00 / issue $250.00 / 12 issues
Reprinting, from The Mike & Key is granted to amateur
radio publications provided credit is given to the
original author and The Mike & Key.
GCARA officers & committee chairs
PRESIDENT: David Self, K8SSN
[email protected]
1st VICE PRES: Neal Berter, N8QFZ
[email protected]
2nd VICE PRES:Roger Kleine, KA8MOE
(513) 681-4586
RECORDING SEC’Y: Allan M. Hale, WA9IRS
(859) 525-1761, [email protected]
CORRESPONDING SEC’Y: Richard Pestinger, KC8RP
(513) 829-8807 [email protected]
SCOUTING ACTIVITIES:VACANT
TREASURER: Roger Kleine, KA8MOE
(513) 681-4586
REPEATER CONTROL OP: Roger Kleine, KA8MOE
(513) 681-4586
HAM HELP/EQUIPMENT SUPPORT:
Richard Pestinger, KC8RP
513-829-8807 [email protected]
HAMFEST: Neal Berter, N8QFZ [email protected]
Stan Cohen, W8QDQ
[email protected]
HISTORIAN: Sean Connelly KD8BQA
The Mike & Key: David Self, K8SSN,
tm&[email protected]
WEBMASTER: David Self, K8SSN [email protected]
MEMBERSHIP: Richard Pestinger, KC8RP
(513) 829-8807 [email protected]
SCHOLARSHIPS: Rick Burdick, K8WWA,
(513) 554-4662, [email protected]
SILENT KEY COMM: Jim Benson, W8OUU,
(513) 825-1254, [email protected]
VE TEAM: Gary Osborne, W8XS
(513) 474-0287, [email protected]
ARRL
Great Lakes Director: Jim Weaver, K8JE
(513) 549-0142, [email protected]
Ohio Section Manager: Fred Piper, KI8GW
(614) 589-4641, [email protected]
W8DZ 2M REPEATER :145.27-
1936 Net
1.936 MHz, Thursdays 9:00pm
Net Control:
Jay Adrick,K8CJY / Geoff Mendelhall, W8GNM
October 22…Show and Tell
November-February…NO MEETING
December 9…Christmas Party
DONATIONS TO THE GCARA may be tax deductible.
Contact the treasurer for information
Page 2!
Meeting Minutes
Officers in Attendance
President - David Self, K8SSN Present 1st Vice Pres. -Neal Berter, N8QFZ Present
Corresponding Secretary – Richard Pestinger, KC8RP Present
Subject:
Date:
Location:
Opening:
GCARA General Meeting
September 24, 2014
Manor House Breese Manor
7:30PM
2nd Vice Pres/Treasurer, - Roger Kleine, KA8MOE Absent
Recording Sec.Allan Hale, WA9IRA-Absent
Call to Order: - President Self
Pledge of Allegiance
Introductory remarks by President Self with a joke.
Reports –
Treasurer’s Report – Roger’s report for this evening for September and the Picnic included: Income Beginning Balance $142.87. Income; Transfer from
savings $500. Total Income $642.87. Expenses: Park reservation $140.00, Catering $150.00, Richard for Drinks $50.55, Kroger’s supplies $66.32, Bank Fee,
August September $28.00 Total Expenses $434.87. Ending balance $218.00.
Picnic Report, Dinner collection $130.00, Dues collected $120.00, Total for Picnic $180.00. Paypal Collection $50.00. Picnic Expenses = Park reservation
$140.-00, Catering $300.00, Drinks $50.55, Kroger’s supplies $66.32, Kroger gift card $25.00 Total $581.87. Balance = (-$410.87) A motion was made and
seconded that the Treasurer’s report be accepted and submitted.
Scholarship Report – Rick mentioned that he had not received any applications for the scholarship program. Rick encourages our new members and anyone to
submit an application. The requirements are simple, you need to be a GCARA member and you need to be present and support the club activities.
Membership Meeting Minutes – Allan noted that the meeting minutes from the August meeting were not taken due to his absence resulting from out of state
work commitments.
Membership Report –Richard was present and indicated that the club has 88 members.
Repeater Report– Neal mentioned that the club repeater is operational and functioning. He did mention that the repeater will be moving to a new site very soon
that has an elevation of some 400 feet above ground terrain which should significantly improve the signal strength throughout the metropolitan area as well as
the suburban areas outside of the city. Don’t forget that the GCARA repeater is on +145.27_ (Negative offset) with a PL of 123 Hz. Be sure to try the repeater and
see if you can access it and continue to let Neal know of your experiences!
V.E. Session Rick mentioned that at the recently held GCARA VE session there were two applicants and they each were successful in their exams so we have
two new Technician Class Licensees! Great going guys!
Old Business?
Silent Keys – Jim Benson was absent this evening. No one else knew of a SK.
New Business? As is customary for September, the nomination for officers for the club was held. The nomination slate for the upcoming club election includes:
President - Open
1st Vice Pres. Neal Berter, N8QFZ
2nd Vice Pres. – Rick Burdick K8WWA
Treasurer, - Roger Kleine, KA8MOE
Corresponding Secretary, Membership – Richard Pestinger, KC8RP
Recording Sec. Allan Hale, WA9IRS,
Do not forget that next month nominations can be made from the floor by any GCARA Club member in good standing that attends the meeting. If you would like
to serve and help the club, please come out and let your voice be heard! The club depends, upon its friends!
Other business?
Dave mentioned the possibility of a GCARA Hamfest for next year with the possibility that it will be held at Strickler’s Grove as it did many years ago. Let’s
see if this develops into a tangible opportunity for the club to have a well-attended event that will be open to the entire family including activities for children
and adults alike! Stay tuned!
Dave also mentioned that plans are underway for the GCARA Christmas Party. Additional information will be found at the GCARA Club website and will also
be published in next month’s Mike & Key.
Additional New Business? None brought to the membership, Motion to close the meeting, Noted and seconded, All in favor!
Program: The program tonight is:
Baseball's Greatest Scandals, #4: The Pittsburgh Drug Trials
Dale M. Shiffman, an unemployed photographer characterized by his attorney as ''a minor league dealer among major league users,'' was sentenced yesterday in
Pittsburgh to 12 years in Federal prison for selling cocaine, mainly to major league baseball players. That was the headline in the New York Times for October
22, 1985 describing a scandal affecting the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball team but later was more widespread throughout the sport. The man who was directly
involved in the activity Dale Shiffman, spoke concerning his involvement and the activities and events that changed his life from that time up to the present day.
At the September meeting Dale told his side of the story which was a remarkable one and had the members in attendance spellbound for the program event. If
you were not there you missed a lot!
There being no additional business,
Adjournment followed at 9:08 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Allan Hale, WA9IRS
Recording Secretary
Page 3!
1936 GCARA NET CONTROL STATIONS
NCS FOR THE GCARA 1936 NET ARE AS FOLLOWS
October-W8GNM, Geoff November-K8CJY, Jay December-NM4A, Bill
Alternates:
AI4XD, KZ8ZZ, WD8NKJ
CO-NET MANAGERS:Jay Adrick, K8CJY & Geoff Mendenhall, W8GNM
Don’t have an antenna for 160? Check with any of the above.
NOTE: THE 1936 NET IS THE OLDEST CONTINUALLY RUNNING NET
'ON SSB AND AM.
1936 Net
Thursday’s 9:00pm
1.936 LSB (160M)
GCARA Membership
If you have not taken the time to renew your membership in the GCARA for 2014, please take the
time to do so.
A lot of members renew at hamfest and Since we did not have one last year, your dues may not
have been pay for this year.
You can use the form on page 11 or you can use PayPal to renew by click
here (if reading via pdf) or go to www.gcara.org and scroll to the bottom of
the page.
New members: if using PayPal, please put Name, Call address, etc in the
message box or send email to [email protected]
Silent Keys
Bob Boehm K8YS
If you know of a ham who has become a SK
please contact Jim Benson, W8OUU
513-825-1254, [email protected]
please contact Jim Benson, W8OUU
Page 4!
Member’s Mart
For sale DX Engineering 5 band total antenna kit hexx beam mark 2. New but
partially assembled $425. Ameritron ALS-600 amp clean $725.
Jim wb4zcd 859-441-9684.
Send ads to tm&[email protected]. Ads are free to members and subject to editing.
Deadline: last Monday of the month. Ads will run for two issues, unless otherwise requested.
TM&K ads usually work. If they don’t, consider donating to the GCARA Equipment Support Committee.
Donations may be tax deductible.
ARISS contact on Echolink and IRLP
Please join us in listening to the ISS contact with
participants at the Indiana Area School District,
Indiana, PA, USA on Friday October 17th. AOS is
anticipated at 1641 UTC.
The duration of the contact is approximately 9
minutes and 30 seconds. The contact will be a
telebridge between NA1SS and IK1SLD in Italy.
Indiana, Pennsylvania is a rural town with a
population of 32,000 that is situated sixty miles
northeast of Pittsburgh. Our residents enjoy the
convenient proximity to a major city, as well as the
community-feel and lifestyle of a small town. The
Indiana Area School District has provided a
dynamic high-quality educational program for over
170 years. Our four K-5 elementary schools, one
6-8 junior high school and one 9-12 senior high
school serve 2800 students district wide.
In addition to distinguished academic
achievement, our students’ activities include
fundraising for a variety of charitable causes,
school and community leadership, as well as
setting new standards for excellence in both
academic and athletics competitions. In fact, we
currently boast two National Merit Scholarship
semi-finalists and a third honoree. We are proud of
our student’s accomplishments!
Our dynamic school programs are part of the
building blocks for student success. Beginning with
a commitment to early childhood and pre-K
programs to increase student learning readiness, to
the rigor and challenge of enrichment options at the
elementary school level. Our secondary programs
include an array of Advanced Placement and STEM
course offerings, dual enrollment options, and our
own cyber school option for students. Many local
residents will tell you, “Indiana, PA is a great place
to raise a family.” This is true because we blend the
small town community with a school system that
continually strives to provide cutting-edge programs
that prepare students to be successful citizens.
Audio from this contact will be fed into the:
EchoLink *AMSAT* (101377) conference
server
IRLP Node 9010 Discovery Reflector
On the Web for Windows, Mac, iOS &
Android Devices at: https://sites.google.com/site/
arissaudio/
Audio on Echolink & web stream is generally
transmitted around 20 minutes prior to the contact
taking place so that you can hear some of the
preparation that occurs. IRLP will begin just prior to
the ground station call to the ISS.
Due to changes with the AMSAT Server, laptop
listeners are encouraged to set the timers in
Echolink ( with the software open go to TOOLS SETUP - TIMING and set receive and inactivity
timers to 0 ) to avoid timing out. RF link users may
time out.
* Contact times are approximate. If the ISS
executes a reboost or other manoeuvre, the AOS
(Acquisition Of Signal) time may alter by a few
minutes
73, John AG9D ARISS Audio Distribution
Page 5!
ARRL support for clubs could use some improvement
By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU
$2 for renewing members. According to a
former treasurer of ARROW, my club here in
Ann Arbor, MI, $2 just wasn't enough to make it
worth his while to process renewals.
Often, when you hear ARRL officials speak,
they extol the virtues of amateur radio clubs,
saying things like, "Clubs are the lifeblood of
amateur radio." For example, Dale Williams,
WA8EFK, in response to my e-mail
congratulating him on his appointment as the
new ARRL Great Lakes Division director, said
that his "plans are to push to keep things local,
club-related, and bottom-up driven."
Of course, that kind of set me off. When it
comes to club support, the ARRL is more talk
than action.
One example of this lack of support is that there
hasn't been an issue of the ARRL Club News
newsletter for years. Even so, if you log into the
ARRL website and look at your e-mail
subscriptions page, you'll see that it says that
it's supposed to be a monthly newsletter.
I'll also note that the ARRL CEO Harold Kramer,
WJ1B,left this particular newsletter off the list of
available newsletters in his June QST column. I
don't know who at HQ is responsible for
producing this newsletter, but the fact that there
hasn't been one for so long speaks volumes to
me.
Another example is the club commission
program. Under this program, clubs get a $15
commission when they sign up a new member.
That's not bad, but the commission falls to only
To be fair, it's not all bad news. The ARRL
website does have a page with information on
how to set up and run an active club (http://
www.arrl.org/affiliated-club-resources). The
ARRL also has a club liability insurance
program is a decent deal for clubs, but that
program probably doesn't require much effort
on the ARRL's part. The ARRL is also
supposed to refer new hams to clubs, but I'm
not sure exactly how they do that, and I don't
think ARROW's gained any new members from
this recently.
Let me ask you. Is your club getting the support
it needs from the ARRL? If so, I'd like to hear
about what you think they're doing right. If not,
I'd like to know what you think they should be
doing to help your club.
====================================
When he's not writing this column for club
newsletters, Dan, KB6NU enjoys working CW
on the HF bands and teaching ham radio
classes. For more information about his
operating activities and his "No-Nonsense"
series of amateur radio license study guides, go
to KB6NU.Com or e-mail [email protected].
Page 6!
ED NOTE: Reprinted from August 1974 TM&K
Page 7!
Electrical Safety
This
developed for
A. Hale,
of the
club.
crossword puzzle was
the GCARA Mike & Key by
WA9IRS for the enjoyment
members and friends of the
Copyright WA9IRS © 2014.
Solution found at
www.gcara.org/puzzle
or scan
Page 8!
DX happenings…
Page 9!
FCC Ham Exams
GCARA December 10:Blue Ash Recreation Center 4433 Cooper Rd Blue Ash. Registration 6:30pm. For more
information contact Rick, K8WWA at [email protected] WALK INS ACCEPTED
1st Saturday each month: Cincinnati (Hartwell), CRA, at Hartwell Pres. Church. Registration 8:30am; walk-in
only! All licenses classes. Dale Pritchett, KC8HJL at (513) 769 0789
2nd Monday each month: Kentucky (Edgewood) NKARA, at Turkeyfoot Middle School, 3230 Turkeyfoot Rd.
Registration 6:00pm. Follow the signs. Pre-registration preferred, walk-ins accepted. Lyle Hamilton, AB8SH,
(513) 315 4032. Talk-in 147.255
In all cases; tests require two Ids (preferably one with photo). Bring with you the or
Webpages of Importance to Members of the GCARA
Greater Cincinnati Amateur Radio Association…..www.gcara.org
GCARA on Facebook…..www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=402853765060
American Radio Relay League…..www.arrl.org
Great Lakes Division-ARRL...www.arrl-greatlakes.org
Ohio Section - ARRL…..www.arrl-ohio.org
Ohio Section News…..www.arrl-ohio.org/sm/Section_News.html
Dayton Hamvention…..www.hamvention.org
Shortwave listening Guide...www.naswa.net/swlguide
Follow the GCARA on Twitter…@W8DZ
* If reading from a pdf file, clicking on the link will take you to the webpage
Page 1! 0
Membersh
ip Applicat
JOIN
or
RENEW
GCARA
MEMBERSHIP
ion
GCARA membership application and information update form
( ) I enclose $15 dues per club year (Jan. 1- Dec. 31) x ( ) years = $_________
( ) I request free student membership (licensed Hams in grades 1-12) for Jan. 1-Dec. 31.
If a free Student Membership, what is your school & grade?___________
This is a ( ) new, ( ) renewed membership. Member of ARRL? ( ) yes, ( ) no
( ) My yearly dues are paid. Please enter the following changes for me:
NAME ________________________________________ CALL _______________
ADDRESS*___________________________________________________________
CITY/STATE*__________________________________________ ZIP* __________
Tel. No. with A/C* (_____)________-__________
E-MAIL ADDRESS* _____________________@____________________________
My interests in and out of Ham radio: Public service; Working with youngsters;
On-air operations; VHF/UHF; HF; Building; Teaching; Computers;
Helping people become licensed; Repairing equipment; Helping other Hams.
*Provide specified information only if it has changed since last renewal.
Mail with dues payment to: Richard Pestinger, KC8RP
66 Boehm Court
Fairfield, Ohio 45014
Make checks/MOs payable to GCARA
to pay with PayPal go to www.gcara.org
GCARA meets the 4th Wednesday of each month
Directions to GCARA Meeting location
Maple Knoll (Breese Manor)
11200 Springfield Pike, Springdale, OH
(Take Maple Trace Dr. off Springfield Pike)
Page !11
Send application
and $15.00
to
Richard Pestinger,
KC8RP
66 Boehm Court
Fairfield, Ohio
45014
If you would like your
membership card
mailed to you, please
send a SASE with your
The Greater Cincinnati Amateur
Radio Association, Inc.
______________________________
TM&K Editor
3261 Old Oxford Rd
Hamilton, Ohio 45013
TO CHANGE YOUR CALLSIGN, ADDRESS, PHONE OR EMAIL
GO TO THE GCARA WEBSITE www.gcara.org
(link located at bottom of page)
Page 1! 2