Volume 14, No 5 Web Site: www.w4gso.org May, 2005Editor: Tom Forrest, N4GVK E-mail: info@w4gso.org

The Official Publication of the Greensboro Amateur Radio Association

Feed LineFeed Line

Our member this month isCarlton O’Rork, N4DFA. Carltonis very active in GARA, anddonates a lot time assisting ourchief engineer at the repeater site.He also serves as a control operatorfor the repeaters. He has been aGARA member for 15+ years.

Carlton has been licensedfor 26 years and got interested inAmateur radio as a young boyShort Wave listening. He isoriginally from Richmond,Virginia.Carlton’s wife Patsy got her

Carlton O’Rork, N4DFA

Technician License in 1980, whichconsisted of the General Class levelwritten exam and 5 WPM code(CW) and later converted toGeneral Class. Her call is N4DFBand his is N4DFA as they got themon same weekend administrated bythe FCC who paired spouses up atthat time if notified. Carlton wenton to up grade to General with 13WPM CW, then Advanced andfinally Extra Class.

Carlton’s son Stephen gothis no-code license as soon as itcame out and actually had to takeboth exams with 30 questions onone and 35 on the other. He missedone question and received hisTechnician License call KD4BQC.He has a Yeasu FT 411 HT, but isnot active at moment.

Carlton sports a goodequipment list including: Icom IC-761 with internal Ant. Tuner, YaesuFT101ZD (back-up) on HF,Dentron Clipperton “L” HF AMP@1200 Watts +. Yaesu ExternalAnt. Tuner FC 102-Dual MeterPeak Reading. Four Icom MobileRadios VHF/UHF, two in the houseand two in Truck & SUV. OneKenwood TM-261A VHF in wife’smobile. Icom W31A Dual-BandHT, Icom T90A Tri- Band HT,Alinco DJ-S11T VHF 320Milliwatt HT on Motorcycle.

Meet Our Members - Carlton O’Rork, N4DFA Next MeetingMay 23

The next meeting of theGreensboro Amateur RadioAssociation will be held at theGolden Corral Steak House offWendover. If you’d like to eatbe there at 6:30 with themeeting beginning at about7:15.

The program will be presentedby Clark Doggett,KG4HOM.He was dispatched withSORT during the 9/11 attacks.He went to the pentagon andhe went to ground zero. He isgoing to give a talk about alwaysbeing prepared as a ham.Being part of the solution notthe problem.

IN THIS ISSUEIn this issue of the Feed

Line, you will find a 2005membership roster for GARA.Included with the roster is clubinformation along with a listingof local nets and repeater controlcodes. This is a pull-out sheet. Ifyou, as a GARA member, wouldlike additional copies, please sendan e-mai l to the edi torn4gvk@bellsouth.net.

As protection for ourmembers, the roster will not beincluded in the PDF web file ofthis issue of the newsletter.Continued on page 5

Page 2 May 2005

“The Feed Line” is ©2005 by the Greensboro Amateur Radio Association and published monthlyh. Our address is P.O. Box7054, Greensboro, NC 27417. The purpose of the newsletter is to provide the club and prospective members informationabout the club and amateur radio in general. Material and information should reach the editor by the first Friday of the month for the next edition of the newsletter. Opinions expressed in “The Feed Line” do not necessarialy represent the views of theofficers, directors, ediotr or members of the Greensboro Amateur Radio Association. Material may be reproduced, providedproper credit is given to GARA.

PresidentLee Wimbs, W1MBS

Vice PresidentJohn Doggett, KI4BMS

SecretaryTom Forrest, N4GVK

TreasurerErnie Wall, NC4EWFinancial OfficerAl Allred, K4ZKQ

EngineeringArch, KT4AT

OperationsRoy Smith, N4BYUMembers At Large

Clark Doggett, KG4HOMMark Robertson, KG4STP

CirculationPaul Shepherd, WA4LGX

Webmaster & News Letter EditorTom Forrest, N4GVK

GARA Officers

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GARA Meeting MinutesApril 25, 2005

The regular monthlymeeting of the Greensboro AmateurRadio Association was held at theGolden Corral Restaurant Mondayevening February, 28, at 7:15 PMwith 26 members present includingtwo visitors.

The meeting was called toorder by President Lee Wimbs,W1MBS. He asked for a momentof silence to honor sick and lostloved ones.

President Wimbs notedvisitors present. The minutes of theprevious meeting were approvedas printed in the “Feed Line.”

There was no old businessreported. Committee reports werepresented. Vice President JohnDoggett had no report. TreasurerErnie Wall, NC4EW, reported thetower work bill had been paid alongwith all monthly bills. Al Allred,K4ZKQ, reported on the financialstatus, saying it was a bit betterthan forecast at this time, buteverything was expected to be innormal ranges through the year.Secretary Tom Forrest, N4GVK,said that activity was normal. Healso reported on the newsletter andrequested articles.

Engineering Committeereport was given by Arch, KT4AT.He said the intermod is back andcausing some problems. The newerantenna has worked well for aboutthree months. Arch suspectsproblems may be on the tower Theclub’s duplexer will be taken outof service and inspected forproblems. Arch also passed aroundan “RF power filter” he designedto handle up to 300 watts. It willbe eventually installed at the siteto assist with the intermodproblems. The UHF work isprogressing and he had spend a lotof time sorting through various GEMasterII parts to get just the rightones.

Operations Chairman andrepeater trustee Roy Smith,N4BYU, had no report. Members-at-large, Clark Doggett, KG4HOMhad no report. Mark Robertson,KG4STP, reported he was gettinginformation about possibly gettingthe Scouts involved with a class.He said this should take placemaybe during a camporee. Heasked for volunteers. Al Allred,K4ZKQ and Bob Schwer, K3ZGAsaid they would help.

Allen Bradley, KD4IUN, asked forvolunteers for the year lyWrangler/McDonald Soccertournament Memorial Dayweekend May 26. He said if he hadenough volunteers, there my notbe a need for some persons to worktwo days.

President Wimbs, onceagain spoke briefly about upcomingclub activities, picnic on September17 at 5:30 pm and Mt. Mitchell tripin October.

Bob Schwer asked the club for anyassistance we could provide hisniece in the military to locatesupplies not available to overseastroops.

The program for theevening was presented by RobertYoung, NC4ME, owner andoperator of Tarheel Antennas ofFuquay-Varina, NC. Robert gavea highly informative talk about

Continued on Page 4

Page 3May 2005

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VHF Update: There hasbeen major discoveries andprogress made this month on thesituation reported in the last issue.As explained below, although theproblems are not addressed in afinal way, we are back to a fullfunctional machine.

First, the power bandpassf i l ter was completed andcharacterized. It provides over 70dB of attenuation from DC to 110MHz (no hole), and 40 dB fromaround 160 MHz to 1.5 GHz (nohole either). Bandpass loss isaround 0.5 dB. And, due to theample heatsinking, it will safelypass over 300 Watts in continuousduty. Prototype #1, which wasunder construction and circulatedat the last meeting, has beeninstalled on the machine on Friday,May 6. We will have more nextmonth on that.

Second, the grounding kitshave been installed on bothfeedlines (UHF and VHF) at thebottom of the tower South leg. Weare now safe there.

Third, I loaned my Wacomduplexer to the Club, installed iton the machine, and took back thePhelps Dodge for evaluation onthe bench. Well, ladies andgentlemen, this is where theproblem is. The thing tunes verywell, provides high rejections (over106 dB) on both sides, low loss inthe passbands on both sides (lessthan 1 dB), BUT..... it intermods.At least one cavity intermods, onthe receive side. Plot of responseshowing intermod is available. Itprovides an intercept point on thirdorder intermodulation (IP3) ofabout +75 dBm. This machine

needs +100 dBm minimum toprovide full performance. I tried tocleanup as much as I could reachon it (you cannot reach inside thecans, as they are welded).Connector plates and couplingloops have been taken apart,cleaned up, and resoldered. Bottomplungers and fingerstock have beencleaned up through injectedcleaning chemical spray. Still doesit.

Now, we will run the soccertournament on the machine as istoday, which is working good (withthe power filter and my duplexer).Everybody is pretty much fullquieting again in Guilford County(or real close to it).

Next I will take care ofbringing up UHF, and will focuson that duplexer after that. Don'tgive up on the old bugger yet !...If the intermod problem is limitedto one cavity (or even 2, but that'spushing it), I can find it, and retuneto run on 5 cans instead of 6. At145.15, we need between 85 to 90dB of rejection (3 cans probablyrequired for that), and at 144.55,we need between 75 and 80 dB (2cans only may do that). This maybe achievable on 5 cans. If not, orif more than one or two cans areinvolved, then.... the Club will haveto replace that duplexer ($1500new, but we may find one used ingood shape for less than that).

UHF Machine: Now, whileparts were on order for the powerfilter, work proceeded on the UHFside. 46 UHF Mastr2 boards andmodules on the receive side havebeen sorted out and gradedaccording to performance. Thisincludes helical filters (including

the small mixer board inside), IFboards, Local Oscillator andm u l t i p l i e r b o a r d s ,IF/Squelch/Audio boards, Systemboards, and +10V modules.

The best have beenearmarked, so they can beassembled together in the twomachines. This is complete for thefirst receiver. The result is amazing.Wether the best are put together,or the worst are put togetherprov ides a d i ffe rence inperformance of that receiver ofclose to 10 dB. One is a champ,the other is a deaf dud. Receivesensitivity of the first machine is -126 dBm for 12 dB SINAD. Thatis with the ARR preamp. This isabout 6 dB better than standard GEMastr2 specification. The UHFpreselecting cavity has finallyarrived as well.

What remains to be doneis mainly on the transmit side. Willsort a bunch of exciters, severalPA's. Need to configure the stationharness and connections. Andfinally the RC-96 controller needsattention on a couple of things. Iwould expect that by the time thisupdate is published, the firstmachine will be on the air, or withindays of being put on the air.

Engineering Report By Arch, KT4ATEngineering Chairman

Feed line grounding

Page 4 May 2005

Our prayers and sympathygo out to GARA member JaneDoggett, KG4ZQK, and her familyfor the loss of Jane’s mother,Frances Gibson, on April 25.

Family Loss

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Ham HappeningsbriefsNEWS

Do you know of an amateurin the area that’s newsworthy? Theydo not have to be a member of GARAto be elegible. Send your items to theFeed Line newsletter Editor, TomF o r r e s t , N 4 G V K a tn4gvk@bellsouth.net.

My friend Bob has a toolfor just about everything.

The first time I went to visitBob, and meet his wife Carol, Iwas amazed at his tool collection. His basement workshop lookedlike a small Home Depot. Therevery various peg boards, shelves,and tool boxes everywhere.

Now for the interestingpart. Some of his tools were onlyused once, just one time. His policywas to never borrow a tool. If youneed to borrow a tool once, youmay need to use it again. And, ashe pointed out, that tool belongedto someone else. That tool wasowned by someone else. And Bobfelt it was not right to usesomething that did not belong tohim.

Now we get to the realreason for my note this month. Ifyou use a repeater, you should ownthat repeater. I realize if that were

ANote

from thePresident

from Lee Wimbs, W1MBS, GARA President

Be PartOwner...

Lee, W1MBS

true, there would probably be acouple of hundred repeaters on twometers just in the city limits ofGreensboro. Perhaps I should havesaid, "be a part owner of arepeater".

As an amateur radio club,GARA, owning a repeater can beexpensive. Consider the originalinvestment. Think about the feedline, the antenna, the duplexer, thecontroller, and perhaps a backuppower source. What if we are luckyenough to have a back up repeater? Then double the beginningexpense.

Now let's add in the normaloperating expense. How aboutrepairs on the repeater? Spare partscan be expensive, and some clubshave to add the expense of hiringa qualified technician to the repair.Add to the monthly bill a localtelephone line for control, fees forlocal power companies, and evena rental fee for a location to keepthe repeater.

As you drive from city tocity, and you are using variousrepeaters, think about who keepsthat repeater in operation. It couldbe a club like ours whose onlyincome is by membership dues, orit may be owned and operated byan individual who has to pay allthe expenses out of his pocket.

It would be nice if all theusers of our repeater were memberswho permitted their dues to be usedto maintain and operate the clubrepeater. This month's commentsare directed toward those localamateurs who use the GARArepeaters on a regular basis, andare not members of our club.

Be like Bob, own the item you use,do not borrow, or take for granted,something that belongs to someoneelse. Be a member of GARA. Be"part owner" of a repeater you cansay belongs to you.

Minutes from Page 2

proper methods of groundingyour mobile HF rig. He gaveseveral illustrations and materialsused to aid in the installation ofstrap grounding. He stressed thefact that a good body ground wasessential in making the most outof your HF radio mobile. At theend of the talk, a drawing washeld for a free “Little Tarheel”antenna. It was won by MikeJackson, W4ABX.

There being no furtherbusiness, the meeting wasadjourned.

Respectfully submitted, TomForrest, N4GVK, Secretary

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Mosley TA-33 Tri-Band mountedon 50 foot Rohn Tower, DiamondX200A VHF/UHF Vertical. 40Meter Square Horizontal Loop,mounted at about 42 feet for HF.His favorite band is 15 meters alongwith a favorite loop antenna.

Some of his Ham activitesinclude DXing, participating in

storm watch , bike-a-thons and MSWalks.

He is a retired financialAnalyst f rom the FederalGovernment. Numerous trainingschools and certificates whileworking for Government such asIRS Accounting Course, Dunn &Bradstreet Accounting Course,Business Laws of Real Estate, etc.Many while in US Marine Corps,

Greensboro Police Dept. CitizensAcademy and others.

Carlton is a Life Memberof the Marine Corps League,member of the Marine CorpsHeritage Foundation, Chartermember of the Crusier Club USA- motorcycle club.

Meet the member fromPage 1 ....

Robert Young, NC4ME, owner and operator of TarheelAntennas of Fuquay-Varina, presented the programfor the April meeting of GARA. Robert talked abouthow to achieve a really good ground on vehicles formobile installations (photo at left). At the end of hispresentation, a drawing was held for a "Little Tarheel"antenna which was won by GARA member MikeJackson, W4ABX (above right). Robert's anennas canbe seen on his web site : www.tarheelantennas.com(Photos by N4GVK)

Snap Shots

Arch, KT4AT andCarlton, N4DFA,c h e c k a f e wreadings on therepeater beforeleaving the shack.A good afternoonw a s s p e n tattaching a groundsystem to the feedlines on the GARAequipment.

Greensboro Amateur Radio AssociationP.O. Box 7054Greensboro, NC 27417

FIRST CLASS MAIL

The Official Publication of GARA

Area ActivitiesFOURTH MONDAY – at 6:30 PM, the GreensboroAmateur Radio Association has their regular monthlymeeting at the Golden Corral on Landview Dr., off W.Wendover Ave. Please plan to gather at 6:30 PM fordinner. The meeting is scheduled to start at 7:15 PM

CLUB NETS:

SUNDAYS – weekly at 9 PM, the GARA News andInformation Net. This net features NewsLine and is onthe 145.150, W4GSO repeater. Roy Smith, N4BYU isalways looking for net controls. Contact him if you wouldlike to help.

THURSDAYS – The Guilford County ARES Net meetson the 145.150 repeater (100 Hz. tone) at 9 PM.

TUESDAYS – at 8 PM, the 2 Meter SSB Net meets on144.225 Mhz. USB. Chris Thompson, K4HC is the netcontrol station.

WEDNESDAYS – The Guilford Amateur Societyholds their weekly net on the 145.250, W4GG repeaterwith an 88.5 Hz. tone. Jim Hightower, W4JLH is the netcontrols.

TUESDAYS – at 8:30 PM The Triad SkyWarn Netmeets on the 147.225, K4ITL repeater, no tone required.

OTHER ACTIVITIES :

FIRST MONDAY – The Guilford County A.R.E.S.monthly meeting is held at 1002 Meadowood St. off W.Wendover Ave, in the EMS building, beginning at 7 PM.

THIRD MONDAY – at 6 PM The Guilford AmateurSociety holds their monthly meeting at the Golden Corralon Landview Dr., off W. Wendover Ave. Dinner at 6:30PM and the business meeting is slated to begin and 7 PM.

SATURDAYS – at the K&W Cafeteria on Big Tree Way,hams get together for Saturday Breakfast at 7:30 AM.Talk-in is on the 145.150, W4GSO repeater, with 100 Hz.tone.

MONDAYS & FRIDAYS – at 11 AM, Greensboro Hamsget together for lunch. On Monday they meet at variouslocations and on Friday lunch is at the K&W Cafeteriaoff South Holden Road. Talk-in is on the 145. 150, W4GSOrepeater with a 100 Hz. tone. On Mondays, give a call tosee where everyone is meeting.

EVERY FRIDAY – at 8 PM (approximately) GreensboroHams get together for coffee at Starbucks in Quaker villageShopping center off W. Friendly Ave.

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