President's Message
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APRIL 2009

April has arrived and with it the hope that Spring is finally here! 

One sure sign of Spring is the 8^th annual “Cruise or Lose” Poker Run on Friday, the 1^st of May.  Dave Wilson was our guest speaker at the April meeting and filled us in on what to expect this year.  As before, all the participants will be pre-registered - so there will be no last minute entries.  The cut-off for registration is April 25^th.  If folks miss the deadline, they will not make the final entry list that Dave Wilson will distribute to all of us helping out at the various stops.  This player roster sheet is CRITICAL to the poker run!  It is our responsibility to write down what card was drawn by each player.  Abbreviate the suits by using a single letter: “D” for Diamonds, “C” for Clubs, “S” for Spades, and “H” for Hearts.  We also will be marking each Player’s registration card with the card drawn, but our separate player roster will serve as the confirmation source to ensure no one tries to forge a winning hand.  The roster from each location will be turned in at the end of the poker run so the winning hand can be double checked against all the rosters.  For this reason the rosters must be both filled in and accurate!

The basic ground rules from last year carry over again to 2009.  No registration cards passed out or cards drawn before the official start of the poker run at 6:00 pm.  No one can drive more than one vehicle for the event.  If the player roster for your location has an asterisk (*) by a participant’s name, that means that person registered two vehicles or failed to list a license plate.  We must document the driver of the second vehicle or fill-in the missing license plate information.  If they failed to fill out the liability release card at the time they mailed in their entry, it will be attached to their registration card.  They need to sign it and give it back to us before they can participate in the event.

The locations are the same as last year: Classic 50’s Casino, Fords Drive-In, Fuddruckers, Pierce Auto, Dairy Queen, Taco Johns West, Harley Davidson, and Pizza Hut.  Dave Wilson will be stopping by each location to hand out the registration cards for all of the players at 5:15 pm, so we need to be in place by that time.  Things work out best when there are at least three persons per location.  That provides for one person to shuffle and watch the cards, one person to write down the card drawn, and one person to sell 50/50 raffle tickets!  This is our radio club’s biggest fund raiser of the year, so selling lots of 50/50 raffle tickets is the key to funding our repeater upkeep, summer picnic, and other activities.  It is also a lot of fun!  Since the poker run starts at 6:00 pm and ends at 9:30 pm, every participant gets plenty of time to cruise to the various locations and draw a card.  It is not a race!  There’s over three hours available to hit all the stops.  The goal is to cruise!

For those who may not have heard, Burghardt Amateur Center announced on March 16^th that it was dropping the sales of Amateur Radio equipment.  The current slump in the country’s economy has made it very difficult to continue with retail sales in a market with very slim profit margins to begin with.  Many folks may not realize that there is not a huge difference between the wholesale price dealers pay for radio equipment and the retail price they sell it for.  Sure, there’s a mark-up – but it’s not like the inflated prices car dealerships charge for new cars.

On the bright side, the current owner of Burghardt Amateur Center, Jim Smith (WØMJY), will continue to provide the radio repair service they have offered for years.  With many of today’s rigs containing micro-chip components, it can be difficult to service them yourself – especially if you need factory spec parts.  When the VHF final amplifier stage in my Kenwood TM-741 dual-band mobile radio died a few years ago, I sent it off to Burghardt Amateur Center for repair.  The design used separate “modules” for the VHF and UHF final amplifier stages.  It was far easier to send the radio to an authorized repair center with the needed parts in stock, than to attempt the repair myself.  Burghardt Amateur Center has a good reputation in the ham radio repair business, as evident in that aspect of the business remaining strong.  Plus, when you live in Montana, having a repair shop located in South Dakota is almost considered nearby.

In other Amateur Radio news, the FCC recently investigated reports of unlicensed operation on the 2-meter VHF ham band in the Indianapolis, Indiana area. The bootleggers turned out to be the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department!  Apparently several city police officers decided to use 2-meter radios to supplement their normal radio communications during drug surveillance operations.  The FCC was, to borrow an expression from Queen Victoria, “not amused” about the illegal acts.  They reminded the police department of the numerous tactical channels available from the public safety pool of frequency allocations just for this very purpose.  The Chief of Police has ordered all Amateur Radio equipment removed from police vehicles.  The FCC has not announced what penalties will be imposed upon the police department for the infractions.

A similar incident several years ago in Florida involved a construction company that was operating 2-meter ham equipment on 145.020 MHz.  This portion of the band is normally used by hams for weak signal and FM simplex operation, with Packet digital communications taking place on the adjacent frequencies of 145.010 and 145.030 MHz.  They got away with it for almost three years before being reported to the FCC.  Once the company was busted by FCC field agents, the construction company stopped operating on 2-meters and quickly applied for a business band license in the Industrial/Business Pool Service.  They bought new, legal 2-way radio equipment and thought the whole issue was closed.  But the FCC said that just because they stopped doing something that was illegal – upon being caught – it was not over.  The company was fined $10,000 for bootlegging on Amateur Radio frequencies.

This goes to show the importance of monitoring for and reporting intruders into the Amateur Radio bands.  Radio frequency spectrum is a hot commodity today.  All sorts of “wireless” devices are operating under Part 15 of the FCC Rules and Regulations all across the radio spectrum.  Various individuals and companies will seek to take advantage of the flexibility Amateur Radio equipment provides without heeding the FCC restrictions and licensing requirements.  It’s up to us to continue the self-policing policy that sets ham radio apart from the other radio services.  It will never solve all the problems on Amateur Radio frequencies, but it goes a long way in preserving the integrity of our radio service.

That’s it for this month.  See you at the next club meeting or on the air.  Don’t forget to come out and help with the “Cruise or Lose” poker run on May 1st!

73 de

Bruce Clark, KA2ODP

GFAARC President

MARCH 2009

 

Hi,

Welcome to theGreat Falls Area Amateur Radio Club!  We hope you enjoy viewing the various information posted here and find it useful.

Why do we call it the Great Falls "Area" Amateur Radio Club?  Because for many years we have maintained a wide area coverage 2-meter repeater up atop Highwood Baldy mountain, in the Highwood Mountains east of Great Falls.  The 146.730 MHz repeater has become well-known throughout the state for its excellent coverage of the central Montana region.  From near Havre, to out near Lewistown, to south of Eddie's Corner, you can chat with fellow hams while home or out and about in your vehicle.

This extensive coverage has been further increased through the placement of another GFAARC 2-meter repeater on top of Antoine Butte near Zortman.  The two repeaters are constantly linked together via a dedicated 70-cm link that allows the two repeaters to act as one.  This combination provides 2-meter coverage across much of the central Hi-Line region.  Folks up in Malta are now able to join in on round-table discussions over the club repeater.  In the near future we will make a trip to the Zortman repeater site to install a higher-gain antenna farther up the tower.  Our goal is to reach out to the hams living in the Glasgow area and provide them with the opportunity to chat directly with hams in the Great Falls area over a single repeater network.

But wait, that's not all!  The 146.730 MHz repeater also has an Echo-Link connection provided by Jim, N7YO.  Echo-Link allows us to connect the Highwood Baldy repeater (and its links) to other repeaters and stations AROUND THE WORLD via the internet.  Imagine having a conversation with a fellow ham in England using just your 2-meter FM radio!  I have had several pleasant chats with folks in various locations in Europe from my favorite armchair.  With the Echo-Link capability you get a taste of what "DX" awaits you on the shortwave bands when you take the next step and move up to the General class Amateur Radio license.  (Which, by the way, you can accomplish simply by coming to one of the monthly Amateur Radio license exam test sessions - also sponsored by GFAARC!) 

If this all sounds like a sales pitch, it is!  While I'm not giving out free Ginzu knives, I am trying to get the word out to folks about just a few of the many services provided by GFAARC over the past several decades.  Because of the wide area coverage of our repeaters, we have club members from all over the north central region of Montana.  Many are unable to routinely make the long drive to Great Falls to attend club meetings, but through our repeaters they can join in and be part of the group right from the comfort of their own home.  For some along the Hi-Line, the GFAARC sponsored repeaters are the only 2-meter repeaters they can reach. 

Imagine how disappointing your new hobby of ham radio would be if there were no 2-meter repeaters in your local area that you could reach!  Ham radio can bridge the miles between the small towns in Montana.  During times of severe weather or other disasters, you are no longer isolated just because the electricity and telephone lines are down.  As another example of what GFAARC does, we sponsor the North Central Montana Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) group.   These volunteers provide emergency radio communications support via Amateur Radio during times when all other means have failed.  These many examples show that GFAARC has always been more than just a local club.  Our name reflects the fact that we have members from all over North Central Montana. 

We would like to be your ham radio club too!  Thanks for stopping by and checking out our club web page.  For more information on club activities, sponsored repeaters, FCC license exams, and “Elmers” willing to help answer your ham radio questions, please see postings elsewhere on this web site - or - check out our forum web site at www.w7eca.net

73 de

Bruce, KA2ODP

Club President