Dixie Ham Radio Newsletter January 2017

Amateur Radio works… …when all else fails!

We are an ARRL Affiliated Club

Club Officers: President ....... .............. Harold Wells, KE7OZG Vice President ..................... Jim Ashby, K5JCA Treasurer ...................... James Moore, KG7VEI Secretary................ Lynden Kendrick, KG7SXQ Board Member.............. Deborah Porter, KE3FY Board Member ...Brady MacPherson, KD7AWJ For information or comments send to:

Lynden Kendrick, Editor Lynden.Kendrick@gmail.com or

Text 801-598-1618. We need to gather funds for solar/battery backup systems for our repeaters and funds for other club activities. For donations, please also contact me or send them to James our Treasurer. Notice: Articles, statements and opinions are those of the authors. The Club is not responsible for accuracy of the information contained herein.

Ham Radio Special events: The Dixie Amateur Radio Club meets on the 3rd Wednesday at 7 PM at the St. George Community Building. It is found at the southwest corner of Washington County's Gayle M. & Mary Aldred Senior Citizens Center property, which is located at 245 North 200 West, St. George, Utah. The WCARES (Washington County ARES) monthly training meeting is held on the 2nd

Saturday each month at 9:30 AM. The next meeting is at the Washington County EOC training room located in the basement area of 197 E. Tabernacle in St George. Learn more or how to join Washington County ARES at http://ares-wc.org/blog/.

New Board Members At the recent Club Christmas party held at the Golden Corral, two new members were elected to the Board of Directors of the Dixie Amateur Radio Club. Deborah Porter, KE3FY, and Lynden Kendrick, KG7SXQ, were voted-in and they will serve Board Members for two years. Lyn said he plans to continue as Editor of the club's Newsletter

The new Board met on January 5th to determine who would serve as President, Vice President and other officers.

Porter and Kendrick will replace Scott Smith and Keisha Lovett. Everyone should give Scott and Keisha a big pat on the back for their service.

Member Articles:

Dude, do you even QRP? By Mike Cartmill, ACØPR Although QRP simply means low power, which is subjective, one is generally considered running QRP at 5 watts or under on HF, while QRPp is one watt or less. Whether it’s the challenge of making contacts at low power, testing your abilities as an operator, conserving your available power, or the necessity from a rig that only operates with a few watts, running QRP can be rewarding. Some technical information: dropping from 100 watts to 5 watts results in a drop of about 13db which is just over 2 S units. Going down to 1 watt is an additional 7db. Receiving an RST of 569 or 579 instead of 599 isn’t too bad

at all! Just as with any setup, your antenna and height are major factors.

(Editor note, I had to look this up: The RST system is used by hams to exchange information about the quality of a radio signal being received. The code is a three digit number, with one digit each for conveying an assessment of the signal's readability, strength, and tone. Therefore, 599 equals 5 out of 10 for readability, 9 for strength and 9 for tone.)

I often use a Youkits HB-1B qrp cw radio for portable operations, it runs at 4 watts. Granted, with Summits on the Air, I have an awesome vantage point, but using a simple wire off-center-fed (OCF) dipole, even with tougher propagation conditions the last few months, I can average almost a QSO per minute and regularly reach to 2,000+ miles. Naturally, there have been a lot of 339’s or 559’s for reports, but plenty of valid contacts! (Editor's note: Summits on the Air or SOTA is an award scheme for radio amateurs and shortwave listeners that encourages portable operation in mountainous area; for example, high up on Brian Head or Snowbird ski areas.) Certainly, there are many who are on SSB while operating QRP, but cw and digital modes are even more common with their smaller bandwidth requirements. Don’t forget, the real challenge isn’t even on you (other than making your signal as efficient as possible), it’s on the other end, with someone trying to pull your QRP signal out. While there may be some frustration at times, and a number of repeats, you may find you are up to the challenge of running low power. Instead of 73, a QRPer signs off with 72; some say it’s because they don’t have enough power to make it to 73, but others believe it’s because they can do more with less! 72 to all.

The St. George Marathon By Lynn Bateman KE7MXZ, S.G.M./D.A.R.C. Coordinator The Dixie Amateur Radio Clubs largest project each year is the St. George Marathon that is held on the first Saturday of each October. This past year the City held its 40th running of the Marathon; I’m not sure when the club first got involved volunteering communication services, but I do know it was near the very beginning. The following is a short history of the first couple of St. George Marathons. Wikipedia states: “When Sherm Miller, who worked for the St. George City Parks and Recreation Department, returned to St. George after running the Deseret News Marathon in Salt Lake City, he was inspired to host a marathon in St. George. Although others were not as enthusiastic about the idea, he was allowed to hold his marathon. He quickly organized the first St. George Marathon, held in November 1977. That first race began on a cold day with 57 runners and one wheelchair racer. The participants faced a strong headwind as they ran. Near mile 20, one runner was almost hit by a hay truck. Of the 58 who started the race, only 38 reached the finish line, a finish line on a course that was later discovered to be 40 yards too short. The next year the number of participants grew to 378 just by word of mouth, drawn by the descriptions of the scenery of Southwestern Utah, including red and white sandstone formations in the Snow Canyon area just outside St. George, even though the race at that time was not yet a sanctioned marathon. Since then, the St. George Marathon has grown steadily and has since become a USA Track and Field Certified and Sanctioned race.” Today the City of St. George caps the race at 7,800 runners, and for a number of reasons the actual number of runner that start the race is usually between 6,000 to 7,000 runners. The City depends on thousands of volunteers to man the Aids stations, and many other services needed for the race to be a success

and enjoyable for the participants and visitors. Between the city staff and the volunteers the marathon is well organized. Runner's World magazine has included the St. George Marathon in the Runner's World 10 Most Scenic Marathons, Fastest Marathons and the Top 20 Marathons in the USA; calling it one of four "marathons to build a vacation around." Based on surveys of runners, Runner's World magazine named the St. George Marathon, the Most Organized Marathon. The race is known for tremendous volunteer support. We as the Dixie Amateur Radio Club are part of that volunteer effort and the city considers our roll so important they named the club a sponsor of the marathon. Most entities would need to give a lot of money to be a sponsor, but the city recognizes the value of our service. See (http://www.stgeorgemarathon.com/sponsors.php ) For our part we put radio operators in 14 Aid Stations and a couple of observation points, 6 Shuttles, 4 mobile units, a transfer point and the finish line. And keeping this all together and running smooth is Net Control run by Jeremy Cox KF7BGB and with the help of 6 others it is very well done. This year we had 56 people step up to the plate and volunteer with us. We provide essential communication for the comfort and safety of the runners. We are tied into dispatch and can get emergency services of any kind on its way quickly when needed. Over the years, we have saved some lives, literally. Not all who help us are in our club and not all live in town. We have one who comes from Beaver each year and some years we have had help from the Salt Lake area as well. I need to thank all who have volunteered their time so willingly; it has made my job of coordinating it so easy. Next are some Marathon pictures from ham operator volunteers.

At the Start line about 4:30am, Lynn Bateman

Mike Cartmill at Checkpoint 11

James Moore and his daughter Sydney

Excitement at milepost 18--someone passed out...on the bus. (Note timing strip on the left)

1st and 2nd Female runners at milepost 24

Lyn's Yaesu 8800R go box

James's Kenwood V71a Go Box--with water and orange volunteers in background

Why do you need an antenna tuner for HF By Ned Stevens, K7ELP

About the only time you need a antenna turner for HF is if the antenna you are using does not match the output impedance of the HF rig. Most HF rigs have a output impedance of 50 ohms on all their transmit frequencies. If the antenna impedance is not really close to this frequency there can be some problems. An antenna tuner is nice to have even on a matched antenna, as it can help with some interference issues. Examples of HF Tuners:

Fixing the Toquerville Repeater Pictures and Repairs by: Mike Blenderman, K7IC, & Jim Ashby, K5JCA

Mike hard at work

Toquerville tower

View of freeway and Pine Mountain in background

View looking south towards St. George

Toquerville Repeater building

Email Dialog about a Buddipole from Tom to Jim Ashby Jim, What is your opinion of BUDDIPOLE antennas? Tom, K7XSO

You might ask someone who uses them. Anyone out there with actual use? Jim, K5JCA Chuck Wolcott responded: I have one. Use it when mobile in my RV. Pros: For 10-40m. Set up doesn't take too long if you have an extendable antenna pole. I do have a small travel tuner in-line. Easy to rotate once up. Compact, lightweight to store and use. Weather resistance seems good. Cons: Not that many negatives. It is a simple dipole. Is usable w/o tuner. Only directionality is 2 lobes w/o great gain. Antenna must be lowered to change bands. (See mfg for additional info.) I Would purchase again, mainly due to the flexibility of bands offered. Construction is very good to excellent IMO, but you need to be careful when setting up. Parts are not substantial, tradeoff for light weight and portability . Chuck, KF7F Eugene worth added: I would just add a couple of things to what Chuck has said … Also can be erected as a vertical with counterpoise. I have the Buddistick configuration as well. Like them both. My preference is vertical (see NE1RD pdf publication “Buddipole in the Field”) Think of the Buddipole/stick as an antenna Tinkertoy. You can do many things with this antenna, and imagination is the only limiting factor. While the most accurate tuning of the antenna involves an antenna analyzer, you don’t have to do that. Many people use the vertical set up and tune to “loudest noise” on the band then adjust for resonance with the counterpoise. I

recommend getting the Buddipole Balun, as it helps with the setup immensely. With the 80m coil and a cap hat, you can get out of the 10 - 40m range. It’s very narrow banded, as you might expect … and not very efficient. Sure, it’s some fiddle fiddle, but very nice. I really thought amateur radio was experimentation anyway. You MUST guy this antenna, even if you have the tripod stand for it. Otherwise, you will become a member of the broken whip club. Don’t ask how I know this. Guy the antenna 100% of the time. And, I replaced the shorter whips with the longer ones. Don’t expect to run a kilowatt through the antenna. It’s only rated for 250 watts. But, then again, I rarely run more than 20 watts into it. It’s a perfect travel antenna for my QRP HF station. Buddipole Users Group (BUG) has an informative email sit on list on YahooGroups. Gene, WG7GW

Mini-Buddipole

Buddipole with guy wires

The Experiment Worked By Lynden Kendrick, KG7SXQ In the last newsletter, I noted how I tried to connect with the Jacob's Lake Repeater located South and East of Kanab. Lance Smith, KI7FIB, and I drove to a spot on the Joshua Tree Scenic By-Way where I thought we should have a clear line to Jacob's Lake. We were not successful. Maybe no one was listening, or maybe we weren't up high enough to get a clear shot, maybe the fact I was using my aluminum mast attached to the middle of the Yagi was a problem, or who knows? A week or two later, Lance and I drove up to Seegmiller Mountain (22 miles by dirt road to get to the 6200 ft top). Importantly, I had connected by email with Eric Nelson, KG7UNI, in Kanab to meet us on the air at noon so we would have someone to talk to. His name was given to me by Kanab's club President. Using my Yaesu 3200DR and my 5 element Yagi, he was able to hear us on the Jacob's Lake repeater and on the Kanab club's repeater (on TV Hill North of Kanab). We could talk on both analog and C4FM digital (on his FT991). Jacob's Lake is 91 miles from Seegmiller. I wanted to get out further.

Antennae on top of Seegmiller Mountain Thus, I drove my 1967 VW Baja Bug up to a saddle on Utah Hill (about 127miles to Jacob's Lake and about 6100 ft up so I had a good line of sight). Again, I had an "appointment" with Eric Nelson. I could hear the repeater ID and I could hear him, but I couldn't trip the repeater with my 65 watts output. I was disappointed and didn't understand it.

5 element Yagi pointed at Jacob Lake repeater On my work bench at home, I duplicated my set up. After fiddling with my yagi which I hooked up in my driveway and running an SWR (1.2), I found my mistake. I had used a cigarette lighter converter to power my Yaesu FT-3200DR. The Baja Bug battery was old and I didn't keep the engine running. The radio could receive just fine but when I keyed the Mic the 3200DR wouldn't transmit full power. Too much current draw. Mac, Bob and older operators are for sure going, "dah." I also want to thank Vince Oppedisana, WB7UWW, in Page, AZ. The Kanab club President also gave me his name as a possible contact. He and I tried to connect earlier but couldn't. Another Saturday morning and one more time I drove up to the saddle on Utah Hill. This time with my big deep cycle battery on the front seat. I was able to talk to a friend in Malad, Idaho--Don Daniels,KG7LPZ, via Jacob's Lake as well as someone in Provo. Eric was not in Kanab so I couldn't try C4FM digital to TV Hill there but I bet that would have also worked. The experiment finally worked and I learned a great deal--mostly from mistakes.

Volunteer Exam Sessions Report for 2016 By Gary Zabriskie, N7ARE, V.E. Team Liaison Members of the Dixie Amateur Radio Club who are ARRL-VEC certified Volunteer Examiners conduct 17 scheduled Amateur Radio test sessions each year here in southwestern Utah. Please thank them when you see them. They all devote a lot of time and effort to help serve the needs of the Amateur Radio community. Eleven ARRL-VEC certified Volunteer Examiners affiliated with the Dixie Amateur Radio Club, Inc. conducted 17 separate test session opportunities and served 95 individuals who took a total of 125 exam elements. For those wanting to take the FCC test for a new Amateur Radio license or upgrade to a higher license class, there is a regularly scheduled ARRL Volunteer Examiner-administered exam test session held at 5:30 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month, except in December. The third-Wednesday test sessions are held prior to the Club's monthly meeting that follows after the V.E. session. The monthly V.E. exam is held at the same location as the Club Meeting that follows at 7:00 p.m.at the St. George Community Building, located at the southwest corner of Washington County's Gayle M. & Mary Aldred Senior Citizens Center property, which is located at 245 North 200 West, St. George, Utah.

In addition to the eleven monthly 3rd Wednesday test sessions (January through November), we offer V.E. sessions on six Saturdays each year. They are scheduled on the 2nd Saturday of each of the even-numbered months during the year. This is so those who cannot participate in the monthly 3rd Wednesday V.E. exam session will have an opportunity to take a test with our V.E. team. The Saturday sessions will be held at the Hurricane City Branch Library, in the Conference Room and will start at 1:00 p.m. The address of the Hurricane Library is 36 South 300 West, Hurricane, Utah. Volunteer Examiners conducting a Volunteer Exam session at the Hurricane Library. If you desire to take a new exam or are contemplating upgrading your license classification, please visit our web page devoted to the V.E. Sessions (and our upcoming Club Meetings. It is found at: http://www.dixieham.org/meetings.html

On that page you will find the following:

Test Session Schedule for 2017 General information about sessions What you need to bring to the session Rules during the session How to notify the V.E. team liaison of

your intention to take a test (is much appreciated, but is not mandatory)

Here are two spreadsheets showing the results of all Volunteer Exam Sessions held in 2016: