• Monthly Program Preview 1
• Meeting Highlights 1
• Club Officers 2
• New Meeting Location 5
• Local Repeaters 10
• Local Nets 2
• Club Calendar 7
• Public Service 6
• Section News 3
• Odds & Ends 7
• VEC Sessions 2
• From Our Neighbors 7
• EC Corner 6
• From the Editor 8
• Swap Page 6
• Web Links 8
• Straight Key Night 9
• Marconi Special Event 9
• Membership Form 11
• From Our Past 8

Our program at the January meeting will feature Dave Geiser and his work on Phase and Impedance Indicators. "Transmitters and feedlines like VSWR=1 loads. Mismatches of 50 ohm lines mean the load is not 50 ohms of pure resistance. The three pieces of equipment to be displayed and explained will independently show if the impedance is high or low, and whether the load has too much inductance or capacitance. The test equipment that will be discussed are (1) Simple Homebrew, (2) The Impedance Match Indicator, and (3) The Collins T201/CU991 Sensor (from Surplus)."

Dave’s ideas should save work and adjustment time on antennas and feedlines, as well as give improved performance!

If you have a project or topic to present at a future club meeting, please let us know!

Russell Brown, Program Director

The last club meeting was held on 4 Dec 2002 at the County’s Cooperative Extension Office located next to the Oneida County Airport. Our president, Dave Muscarella (K2YE), conducted the meeting and the minutes were recorded. In brief, the major items of business included a presentation by Tim Saladin (KC2HVS) on his home-built 50-foot aluminum tower. Thank you Tim for an informative presentation!

In attendance were: K2YE, W5IXM, KC2HVS, KC2HVR, KA2TSC, K2GVI, WA2HNQ, WA2GBE, WB2JIL.

PRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDENT

SECRETARY

TREASURER

PROGRAM DIRECTOR *

NEWS LETTER EDITOR *

WEB MASTER *

CLUB EQUIPMENT CUSTODIAN *

Jim Needham W4BNY 337-8521

REPEATER TRUSTEE *

* Appointed Position

The Madison Oneida ARC VEC conducts examinations on the third Friday of each month at the Madison Oneida BOCES complex on Spring Rd in Verona NY. Contact Bill Mayers (KG2DI) for more information.

Local Nets

All Frequencies are in MHz and Times are Local (Eastern)

OCTEN-E 145.450- 1830 Daily

OCTEN-L 145.170- 2130 Daily

CNYTN 147.300+ 2115 F-W

NYPHONE 7.237 LSB 1300 Daily

NYPON 3.925 LSB 1700 Daily

Swap Net 147.000- PL 71.9

Central District Emergency Net

OMEN (ARES)

SkyWarn 145.170- as needed

1. backup

NYS RACES 3.9935 0900 Su

NYS ARES 3.925 as needed

SWL Net 147.000- PL 71.9

MOARC 145.170- 2000 W

CW Practice Net

Black River Valley Service Net

146.655- 2100 Daily

Information in this section comes from our section manger’s (Scott Bauer W2LC) monthly newsletter published on the ARRL’s web page (www.arrl.org). News last updated: Sun, December 22, 2002 at 6:14 PM ET

Stiefvater Consultants

Located on Phoenix Drive, Griffiss Business and Technology Park, Rome, NY (enter from Floyd Ave., Mohawk Dr., or Rt 49/365, then follow signs to Technology Heights area )

Talk-in on RRC repeater, W2OFQ, 146.28 – 146.88

Does anyone know of any upcoming Public Service Events? Let me know!

OMEN was not held in Dec 2002 because the last Wed of the month was Christmas Day. Hope to hear your check-in in Jan 2003.

(ED - Also, don’t forget to check into both the Oneida/Madison Emergency Net (OMEN) and the Central District Emergency Net. These are good places to practice your emergency skills and to gain new ones that may help save lives in the future.)

This section is available to our neighboring clubs and any other organization that would like to pass on information that would be of general interest to our club’s membership.

Club Calendar

February 5 - Club meeting

March 5 - Club meeting

April 2 - Club meeting

May 7 - Club meeting

June 4 - Club meeting

June 28/29 - Field Day

July 2 - Club meeting

August 6 - Club meeting

August 9 - RRC Hamfest

Please continue to give me feedback on the newsletter. Last month’s edition had a number of typos and errors. Most of the errors were corrected on the copy that was posted on the club web page.

As I hope you have noticed by now, the Jan 2003 meeting will be at a different location on a different night. The change in location is due to a schedule conflict with our previous meeting location (for the next three months). The date change is for this month only, due to New Years Day. I hope you all give Kenny Stiefvater a big thank you. He is not a Ham (yet - Russ and I am working on him), but is a long time friend of Russ (WB2JIL), Tony (WA2GBE), and myself. He heard of our need and volunteered his facility for our meetings. I think we should (if this three month period works out) consider making this our permanent home - with Ken’s permission of course. After all, this is the "Rome" radio club and I think we should be meeting in Rome - a more central location for our members as a whole (I think).

Also, I’m sure most of you have noticed on the 145.170 repeater during the last month there have been a series of announcements relating the MOARC club (it is their repeater). Perhaps we could and/or should try the same with our repeater, it may spark more usage. On that same note, I am aware that Bill (N2AZN - formally KC2JAK) is interested in linking the 88/28 repeater using Echo-link. I think it is something to consider. Once again, as a method of increasing its usage.

Enough of my rambling on. As always, please pass this newsletter on to anyone whom you think can benefit from its content.

73, Mike KB2CCD

WEB Page Links

http://

by K9OHW/2

Those of you who monitor WR2ABO regularly might have wondered what was happening on the evening of 19 February. The truth can finally be known. On that evening the Rome Radio Club program was a combination treasure hunt and communications exercise. We began by dividing into four teams. Each team was given their first clue in a sealed envelope and told to monitor the 146.88. At the signal "GO" the sealed envelopes were opened and the teams were off. When a team arrived at their first destination they called in on WR2ABO and were instructed to tune to one of the Emergency Contact Frequencies (ECFs) for instructions. Each team had three ECFs which were scrambled to discourage another team from listening in and getting ahead. The routes for each team were also varied to make things interesting. A typical routing took a team looking for a recent QST, to Rome Electronics, Macdonald’s, Friendly’s, the Post Office, and finally to the Synagogue. Many interesting facts evolved during the exercise. The Rome Post Office construction was in 1936 while Farley was postmaster general; the large red dot on the door of Rome Electronics is red; Macdonald’s has served over 15 billion hamburgers; and transceivers in close proximity tend to desense. The exercise was a good time for all with hot coffee and doughnuts for weary searchers.

-- 73 John

(Dec 23, 2002 - Reprint from the ARRL Website) -- Special event station KM1CC will be on the air January 11-19, 2003, to mark the 100th anniversary of Guglielmo Marconi's inaugural wireless transmission between the US and Great Britain January 18, 1903 (January 19 UTC). On that date, from the sandy Cape Cod cliffs overlooking the Atlantic, Marconi--using a powerful (35 kW) rotary spark transmitter coupled to a massive antenna system-- transmitted a 54-word greeting from President Theodore Roosevelt to England's King Edward VII. The monarch promptly acknowledged receipt of the message via land line and cable, literally igniting the spark of global communication.

The full story is available on the ARRL web site.

(From the ARRL web site)

The object of this friendly event is to enjoy some good, old fashioned QSO fun, using straight keys. The emphasis is on rag-chewing rather than on fast contest-type exchanges. SKN 2003 begins at 7:00 p.m. EST December 31 and runs for 24 hours through 7:00 p.m. EST January 1 (0000 --2400 UTC January 1, 2003).

When participating in SKN 2003, instead of sending RST before sending the signal report send the letters SKN, to indicate your participation, and to clue in passers-by who may be listening that SKN is going strong. Afterwards, send the Contest Branch a list of stations worked, plus your vote for the best fist you heard (it doesn't have to be one you worked). Also, include your vote for the most interesting QSO you had or monitored. If you have questions about SKN, please visit the Contest Branch Web Page at the ARRL web site.

Notes: 1 - Auto-Patch; 2 - off the air; 3 - linked to 10m; 4 - linked to 6m; 5 - ARES/RACES repeater (P - primary, S - secondary)

Listing compiled from multiple sources; including KC2HSU, KB4CMF, nf2g.com, KB2CCD - corrections and additions should be directed to the editor

Name:____________________________________________Callsign:____________

I, the undersigned, hereby agree to abide by the Constitution and By-laws, as well as all other rules of the Rome Radio Club, Inc.