club website:
TRANSCRIPT
Issued August 2015 Issue No. 66
Club Website: www.qsl.net/k7jar
S-Meter e-mail: [email protected]
Club Repeater: Output 146.62 MHz; Input 146.02 MHz, No Tone
Next Meeting Annual Picnic 2015
This is our annual club picnic; it is a potluck so bring your favorite dish!
CLUB NET: Sunday Evenings 8:00p.m. Local
2027 Black Lake Rd off Highway 20 East Mile Post 372.5
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Announcements
Amateur Radio Volunteers Face Fire Threat While Supporting Emergency Communication http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-face-fire-threat-while-supporting-emergency-communication
The North-Central Washington town of Republic touts “air you can’t see” on its website. That’s not
the case today. Wildfires in the US Northwest have not only hampered the air quality and visibility, but led
to a Level 2 evacuation order in the Ferry County community of about 1000 residents. That could rise
to Level 3. Amateur Radio volunteers in Ferry County have been on the front lines of the wildfire
emergency there. In Republic, a combination of Ferry County Search and Rescue (SAR), Community
Emergency Response Team (CERT), and ARES/RACES volunteers have been supporting
communication for a shelter housing some 4 dozen evacuees — with more to come, according to Ferry
County ARES Emergency Coordinator and RACES Radio Officer Sam Jenkins, WA7EC.
“We are now close to our maximum support level for local volunteers,” Jenkins told State RACES Officer
Monte Simpson, AF7PQ, who also is ARRL Western Washington Section Manager. “We are now
expecting to operate for several weeks at the Republic High School. The firefighters say they are going to
attempt to defend our emergency operations center/emergency shelter at all costs,” Jenkins added.
“We are standing our ground.”
In addition to being the Ferry County ARES EC and RACES RO, Jenkins explained, he also heads the
SAR component of the dual Ferry County SAR-CERT contingent. “I have networked these three units
together over time to increase the effectiveness of our small, poor, but valiant teams,” he told ARRL.
Firefighters from several states and British Columbia, Canada, have been working the Kettle Complex of
three fires in Ferry County, which covered nearly 60,000 acres as of August 26. No injuries have occurred
and no homes have been lost. Support teams from the Washington National Guard are assisting fire
managers to ensure safety. West of Republic near Omak, the Okanogan Complex at more than 280,000
acres is now the largest fire complex in the state’s history.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), wildfires continue to burn actively across the
West. The NIFC reports that 66 large fires — or complexes — have burned nearly 1.6 million acres
in 11 states. Twelve fires are burning in Washington alone.
Jenkins said his team of volunteers would like to have additional support, but, he told Simpson, “I would
expect that it is asking a lot for anyone to leave the comfort of their home to travel to a place
where the smoke is so thick you can cut it with a knife, and not know if they would escape.”
Radio amateurs responding to the wildfire emergencies have been using VHF repeaters as well as HF on 75
and 40 meters, including SSB and digital modes, and IRLP.
“We are doing our best at doing our thing,” Jenkins said. “I am concerned about what is happening in our
sister counties.” ARRL Eastern Washington Section
Section Manager: Mark J Tharp, KB7HDX
Northwestern Division Scholarship Fund For more information on the Scholarship or to make a contribution, go to
http://www.nwarrl.wetnet.net/node/132 or contact your Section Manager.
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Highlights from our August meeting……. Attendance: 9
Meeting was called to order by President Tom Howe KE7TEG A quorum of Officers was present. Minutes of the July meeting were read and accepted
Treasurer's Report – $9032.06 Randy N7CKJ
ARES Report –- No Report PARC Net – – No report Board Report – Bruce KC7H led a discussion regarding
Tom’s role as president. He does want to continue his role as club president until the end of year, he will however, notify Gimmie AL7LB, and Jim WW7DD if he is unable to attend a meeting.
Announcements: Randy N7CKJ announced that he has been dispatching the helicopters for the fire base
at work, and said it was pretty interesting.
Eating before the meeting will be at Rancho Chico’s Old Business: Debbie KF7GUB would like the club to sponsor a water station for the Blazing Saddles
event, as well as offer radio support. There was a discussion about whether this would benefit the club. Gimmie, AL7LB made a motion to co-sponsor the station with Debbie which was approved.
Purchasing a club banner was brought back up by Debbie KF7GUB, there was discussion about the cost
and whether to do one or two. Debbie made a motion to purchase two banners for not more than a total cost of $200.00. Bruce KC7H, made change to the motion to purchase two banners about 12 sq.ft for no more than $250.00. Motion was approved. Board members asked Debbie to send them a proof of the banner before it was made.
New Business: The club picnic will be September 12th at Jim Tills W7JWT place at 2027 Black
Lake Rd, off highway 20 E. There will be a meeting at 11:00am followed by a pot luck picnic. Meeting was adjourned. Respectfully submitted by: Edward L. Zeiser, Secretary
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by Dave - WD7K
COLVILLE ROTARY BLAZING SADDLES and SPOONS BIKE RIDE - SEPTEMBER 19, 2015 The Communications van will be stationed at the AG Center in Colville and operate as net control for the event. Volunteers are needed to staff the communications van and the outlying positions on the course where the use of a mobile radio will be necessary. Please contact Dave - WD7K to sign up or for more information. A reminder that the ARES Net is every Sunday at 7:45pm local. The Stevens County ARES net can be heard on the 146.620 repeater located SW of Colville on Monumental Mountain and, when linked, the 147.060 repeater (which has a PL tone of 77.0) located NW of Spokane on Lookout Point. The Washington State Emergency Net (WSEN) – anyone with HF privileges is welcome (encouraged) to check in when Stevens County is called. Saturdays at 0900 on 3985 kHz and on Mondays at 1830 also on 3985 kHz. Dave Klimas - WD7K Stevens County ARES Emergency Coordinator H (509) 738-6876 C (509) 675-8843 [email protected]
PARC Sunday Night Net PARC Net Simplex Tests
George, W7WBN
Operators are needed for the PARC Net. If you want to give your hand a try at the Sunday night Net Control contact George at [email protected]
This Net meets every Sunday Night at 8:00 pm local time on the 146.62 repeater located SW of Colville on Monumental Mountain and, when linked, the 147.060 repeater.
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PARC BIO – August 2015 – sorry nobody stepped forward this month.
Landing craft Air Cushion Entering the well deck of the USS Anchorage
Jim-WW7DD watches for that first bike! Jim WW7DD awaits that first bike!
Where is he? Alberto is on the USS Anchorage which left Djibouti,
Africa heading for Oman. Oman is an Arab State in S.W.
Asia on the Southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. He
hopes to have some shore leave here.
Mailing Address: CPL Gomez, Alberto
CLB-15 Det 1 TS
UNIT 10144
FPO AP 96610-0144
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The Radio Corner by Jim W7JWT
“The Heathkit AT-1 Transmitter”
It's time to remember back to our early years of Ham Radio. How many of you started out as “Novices”. No not a novice – inexperienced operator, but getting our first ham license, the “Novice Class”. How many of you started with a Novice Class license? What year? I got my “Novice Class” license in 1972 at the age of 18. My call was WN9LAM. The “N” stood for “Novice Class”. What was your first transmitter? Mine was a Heathkit DX-60B. No, that is not what the article is about. It is about Heathkits' first ham transmitter, the AT-1, (Amateur Transmitter Number 1, how creative!).
Heathkit introduced the AT-1 in 1951 when ham radio was in a simpler time. This coincided with the FCC implementing a new ham radio licensing structure which included a new introductory class, the Novice. Novices were allowed privileges in small CW segments of the 80 and 11 meter ham bands.
See, it's OK to say you got your start on 11 meters! They could run up to 75 watts input power but the transmitter had to be crystal controlled. The AT-1 offered an inexpensive transmitter for the novice that could allow him or her to use additional features after upgrading to a higher class license. The three tubes AT-1 ran 35 watts input, CW only with crystal control. The AT-1 did have connections for an external VFO and an AM modulator. Heathkit introduced the VF-1 VFO in 1952, but never offered a modulator, per say. The AT-1 sold for $29.50. It was the lowest possible dollar-per-watt price of the early 50's. The AT-1 is shown in figure 1 below as it appeared in a 1951 Heathkit flyer.
SPECIFICATIONS: Range... 80, 40, 20, 15, 11, 10 meters. Oscillator-multiplier... 6AG7. Amplifier-doubler... 6L6. Rectifier... 5U4G. Panel mounted crystal socket, stand-by switch, key click filter, A.C. line filtering, good shielding, etc. VFO or crystal excitation--up to 35 watts input. Built-in power supply provides 425 volts at 100 MA. Size... 8-1/8 inch high x 13-1/8 inch wide x 7 inch deep. The kit price includes all circuit components, tubes, cabinet, punched chassis, and detailed construction manual. How can you beat this!
Randy N7CKJ hands
John KL7LL
The Gift Certificate
For the HRO Raffle!
The Gift Exchange
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Circuit Description: The AT-1 circuit consists of three sections, the power supply, an oscillator - multiplier section and the output amplifier - doubler section; each uses one tube. A schematic of the AT-1 is shown in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2
The transformer power supply section uses a 5U4GB rectifier tube in a simple full-wave, capacitor - choke - capacitor circuit. The transformer provides 860 volts AC center tapped, 5 VAC for the rectifier filament and 6.3 VAC for the other two tube filaments and the accessory socket. Each filter capacitor provides 4 µF by series connected 8 µF capacitors. A pair of series bleeder resistors complete the supply. The standby switch opens the secondary HV center tap lead to remove voltage from the oscillator and amplifier when receiving.
The oscillator uses a 6AG7 metal octal pentode as a grid-plate Colpitts crystal oscillator. The plate circuit can be either untuned or tuned and when tuned the stage may operate as a multiplier. The frequency of the crystal used depends upon the band, as shown in Table 1 below.
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The amplifier stage uses a 6L6 metal octal tube. On 80 meters it runs straight through and on the other bands, depending on the crystal used, it acts either as a doubler or runs straight through. The output stage does not offer a Pi network, which is not yet well known; instead it is link coupled and loading for best output requires an antenna tuner, such as the AC-1. Though the ad says 35 watts input, the Heathkit manual more realistically specifies the AT-1's input power at 25 - 30 watts.
TVI: Television was finding its way into homes in the early fifties and TVI became a dilemma for many hams. The AT-1 took a series of precautions to help prevent TVI. The AC power line leads were bypassed, shielding was used throughout the AT-1 and the manual included a chapter on TVI including how to build a low pass filter for the transmitter, a high-pass filter for the TV and an RF line filter for the AC line.
Controls: The T-1 is simple to operate. The front panel is laid out in three rows. The top row just has a basic meter that measures grid or plate current. The second row has the Driver tuning control (0 - 10), the Band Switch (80M - 40M - 20M - 10M) (the 10M position is also used for 11 and 15 meters), and the Output tuning control (0 - 10). The third row has the Crystal socket, power OFF - ON, meter switch marked Current (Grid - Plate), Plate-on - Standby switch, and a 1/4" Key jack. On the rear, left to right is an octal socket for an external modulator, the power line cord, an SO-239 antenna connector and a second octal socket for an external VFO. The modulator socket requires an external octal plug that shorts pins 3 and 4 for normal operation when no modulator is in use.
Conclusion: The Heathkit AT-1 was manufactured through 1956. By then the higher power DX-100 had become very popular with advanced hams and bred the DX-20 and DX-35 as replacements for the AT-1.
Many new hams, starting as Novices in the early fifties, used the AT-1 as their first transmitter. The AT-1 can still be found on eBay. They sell on the average of $100 each in very good shape and a collector grade unit can go for over $300. Ones in less than good shape can be had for under $30.
This is based on the Orange County Amateur Radio Club article, Heathkit of the Month #25, by Bob Eckweller, AF6C.
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The Heathkit AT-1 Transmitter
Inside of the AT-1
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Bottom of the AT-1
The AT-1 VFO Accessory – The VF-1
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The AT-1 did not have a tune-able Pi Network on the output. This accessory compensated for it and made a pretty good antenna tuner too.
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Tiger-Tri Pictures Thank you Cynthia WW7CA
Jim WW7DD at Gillette Lake
Jim WW7DD
Cynthia WW7CA
Bruce KC7H With his portable
anntena
On a more serious note Smoke Plume from the Carpenter
fire – seen From Jim & Cynthia’s
place off Addy-Cedonia Road
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Calendar of Events – 2015
September 2015
4th NCCC RTTY Sprint Ladder & NCCC Sprint 4th Northport Labor Day Celebration 5th ARRL EME Contest 6th DARC 10-Meter Digital Contest 6th Sunday Night Net 8:00 pm – Net Control Operator – George WA7MLS 7th Labor Day 12th Salsa Fiesta at the China Bend Winery 12th Ohio State Parks on the Air 12th ARRL September VHF Contest 12th PARC Picnic and Club meeting 11:00am at 2027 Black Lake Rd off Hwy 20 E. 13th Sunday Night Net 8:00 pm – Net Control Operator – Cynthia WW7CA 13th Southwestern Division Convention in Torrance CA 13th North American Sprint CW 14th Selkirk Loop Bike Riders come through town, visit them at the Colville City Park 19th Blazing Saddles Bike Ride and Chili Cook-off 19th Amateur Radio Public Awareness Day 19th ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest 19th Washington State Salmon Run 20th Sunday Night Net 8:00 pm – Net Control Operator – Jim WW7D 20th North American Sprint RTTY 26th Spokane HamFest – Volunteers needed 26th Texas QSO Party 27th Sunday Night Net 8:00 pm – Net Control Operator – Larry KR7LRJ
October 2015
3rd Cider Fest in Marcus and Colville High School Carnival 4th Sunday Night Net 8:00 pm – Net Control Operator – George W7WBN 4th California QSO Party 9th NCCC RTTY Sprint Ladder 10th Microwave Fall Sprint 10th Oceania DX Contest, CW 11th Sunday Night Net 8:00 pm – Net Control Operator – George WA7MLS 16th PARC Monthly Meeting 7:30 pm Corner Hawthorne & Walnut Colville Snacks: Cynthia 16th NCCC RTTY Sprint 17th JARTS WW RTTY Contest 17th Telephone Pioneers QSO Party 18th Asia-Pacific Fall Sprint, CW 18th Sunday Night Net 8:00 pm – Net Control Operator – Cynthia WW7CA 19th Run for the Bacon QRP Contest 19th ARRL School Club Roundup 21st Phone Fray 24th CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB 25th
Sunday Night Net 8:00 pm – Net Control Operator – Jim WW7DD 28th SKCC Sprint 30th Kiddie Parade and Moonlight Madness - Colville 31st
Hoot Owl 6:00 pm
Calendar of events will be an ongoing part of the news letter, submit your dates to parcnews@hotmail
Check out that grill –
thanks Karl & Cleo!
Check In
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Ham Club Water
Station
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