Emitter NARC Site Security Officer Vacant Chief Examiner Michael Eliuk VE6MY 701-2673 Air 1 flies with ATV on board on 31 May 2006. Picture by Jon VE6NYX Board of Directors NARC Postage

Emitter

June 2006

Published by the Northern Alberta Radio Club PO Box 163, Station Main Edmonton, Alberta

Canada, T5J 2J1. Tel: (780) 467-1333

Canada Post Agreement #40036426 - Canada Post Customer #04062140

Air 1 Flies With Amateur Television Aboard

RAC Alberta, NWT & NU Director Joel A. Weder VE6VOX e-mail to [email protected]

RAC Assistant Director (Edmonton Area) David Evans VE6DXX e-mail to [email protected]

RAC Section Manager Thomas Martens VE6TRM e-mail to [email protected]

RAC District Emergency Coordinator James Ewen VE6SRV

RAC Emergency Coordinator (ARES - Edmonton Region) Tom Cox VE6TOX

NORTHERN ALBERTA RADIO CLUB

President: Carl Gill VE6GGG 963-4153 Vice President Curtis Bidulock VE6AEW [email protected] Secretary Lorraine Sabourin VE6MSL 467-8679 Treasurer Bruce Aubert VE6SA 437-1603 Emergency Coordinator David Evans VE6DXX 922-0880 Operations Director (& Past President) Ray Semenoff VE6RHS 440-1427 Webmaster Bruce Donovan VE6NDA [email protected] Activities Director Gern Sabourin VA6HGS 467-8679 Public Service Director Paul Duczynski VE6PDD 455-2763 Public Relations Director Chris Parker VE6PKR [email protected] Program Director David MacFarlane VE6CUT [email protected] Training Director Michael Brooke VE6XUK 430-6919 Director at Large Les Worrall VE6LHW 462-5756

NARC Main Repeater Site —Phone: 780-467-1333 Home Page: NARC URL: http://www.narc.net E-Mail NARC Board members at:- {Callsign]@narc.net

Emitter Editor: Rosemary Evans, G0NDB/VE6 Assistant Editor: David Evans, VE6DXX Fax Emitter articles to: (780) 922-0881 or Email to: [email protected]

Assembly & Distribution Paul Duczynski VE6PDD 455-2763 Dave Loken VE6DJL 440-1427 Malcolm Jameson VE6MKJ 454-4267

Advertising Rates Full Page - $120.00/yr $18.00/issue Half Page - $60.00/yr $9.00/issue Business Card (1/3 Page) $40.00/yr $6.00/issue Classified Ads - $1.00 for three lines

NARC Member Classified Ads - Free for personal

ATV Les Abbott VE6OG 455-7659

RDF Crew Barry VA6DX, Don VE6DKS and James VE6SRV

Packet Sysops Bob Septou VE6AIA 437-2504 (VE6KM) Dave Yaeck VE6DJY 477-2025 (VE6MC)

Membership Chair Lorraine Sabourin VE6MSL 467-8679

Repeater Custodian Loran Liebert VE6LRN 476-3189

Historian Earl Grotzki VE6ERL 481-3643

Net Control (Tuesdays @ 19:30 on 147.060 MHz) Gern Sabourin VA6HGS 467 8679

New Hams Net (Thursdays at 19:30 on 147.060 MHz) 50 MHz SSB Net (Sundays at 21:00 on 50.145 MHz) Gern Sabourin VA6HGS 467-8679

Swap & Shop Vacant

NARC Site Security Officer Vacant

Chief Examiner Michael Eliuk VE6MY 701-2673

Front Cover

Air 1 flies with ATV on board on 31 May 2006.

Picture by Jon VE6NYX

Board of Directors NARC Postage & Emitter Information

NARC. Activities

National Activities

Canada Post Agreement #40036426 Canada Post Customer #04062140

IF UNDELIVERED PLEASE RETURN TO: -

The Northern Alberta Radio Club P.O. Box 163 Edmonton, Alberta

N A R C N O T I C E B O A R D

1

The next General Meeting of NARC will take place on 20 September at the Continental Inn at 7:30 p.m. There are no general meetings or Emitter during the months of July and August. Many members gather at the NARC site on Saturday mornings and on Tuesday evenings — all members are most wel-come. CANADA DAY (1 July) - NARC, and ARES, will be working with the City of Edmonton to provide video links around the City as a means of testing the NARC TV equipment. NARC members are most welcome to join one of the TV crews. If you want to volunteer please contact David VE6DXX ([email protected]) ASAP.

NARC Site Saturday Morning Breakfast — Join NARC Board Members Gern VA6HGS and Lorraine VE6MSL on The second Saturday each month at 9 a.m. The June date is the 10th. Last calls for breakfast will be no later than 11 a.m. (see centre pages).

NARC barbeque and tailgate flea market — 18 June at the HM site. Contact Gern VA6HGS for information or if you want a table! Field Day - another must for every ham - enjoy the fun of Field Day on 24/25 June at Rundle Park. Please contact Gern VA6HGS. Beat Beethoven - Paul VE6PDD is looking for volunteers for this 16 July down-town event. ARES (Edmonton Region) Nets — 80m SSB check-in net at 7:45 PM local on Sundays on 3.765 MHz. At 8 PM the 2 metre net starts on VE6UV (147.090 MHz) and then moves to 145.695 MHz simplex.

VE6UV — NARC’s new VHF repeater on 147.090 MHz (+ shift) is operational.

Regular Club Net - Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. on VE6HM (VHF). New Hams Net - Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Six metre Net - Sundays at 9 p.m. 50.140 MHz USB - Net Control for all nets is normally Gern VA6HGS.

NARCSAT — the first meeting of the NARCSAT project group meeting early June. Anyone wishing to join the group should contact Bruce VE6SA.

NARC Website — Bruce VE6NDA, NARC’s Webmaster is interested to hear any comments or suggestions regarding the website.

Next General Meeting — 20 September

NARC Website http://www.narc.net

3

Well, summer is upon us once again. At least it feels like it. It was 32 degrees in my car today. It was 32 degrees outside as well, but I think it sounds more dra-matic the way I put it. The ATV project is coming along nicely. The City of Edmonton Air One helicop-ter took the transmitter up for a test flight on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 31 and it worked wonderfully, transmitting directly into the City of Edmonton Emergency Operations Cen-ter (EOC). David VE6CUT, rode in the back seat of Air One and shot video through the window. The signal was fed out through a cable to a quarter-wave antenna mounted upside down on the upper skid. At the EOC the signal was received on a small vertical with a masthead pre-amp to David VE6DXX (Emergency Coordinator) , Tom VE6TOX (ARES EC) and myself. Bob Black (Director of Emergency Prepar-edness for the City of Edmonton) was thrilled with the results and stated (tongue in cheek) that “it was worth every penny he spent on it.” Apparently he has been quoted upwards of a quar-ter of a million dollars to obtain a com-mercial system that would do what our system can demonstrably do. If you look on the NARC web site, you’ll soon be able to see a video clip of what our “eye in the sky” transmitted to us in the EOC on Wednesday. Soon we’ll have an in-band repeater for the ATV operating from the roof of the Tory building on the UofA campus. When that’s completed, we’ll be able to transmit and receive an ATV signal from pretty much anywhere in the City. This is all in support of ARES of course although I’m sure we’ll find other, more

fun, uses for it as well. If you have any suggestions, let me know. Instead of a general meeting on June 21, we’ll be having a spring clean-up at the NARC site. A trailer has been spot-ted there to throw junk into and we want to make good use of it. Come on out and help clean up and beautify the HM site. Ray VE6RHS has done an out-standing job as an Operations Director and deserves our support. If there’s anything you’d like to do at the site, just let Ray know at [email protected]. Speaking of summer, there are a num-ber of events coming up between now and September. For example, on June 18 is the NARC barbeque and tailgate flea market at the HM site. The CARL (not me, the other CARL) picnic is on June 17 and 18. Field day is coming on June 24 and 25. You’ll have an oppor-tunity to Beat Beethoven on July 16. If you’re not into running on that day, then volunteer to do radio comms (and if you tell me that you’re not into radio comms, I may not believe you). What am I doing this summer? you ask. I’m putting a camper on my pick-me-up truck and goin’ cruisin’ every weekend for the rest of the summer. I plan to visit lots of places in Alberta that I’ve never been to, then I’ll branch out into BC and Saskatchewan. As a mentor of mine likes to say, “If you’re trying to decide whether or not you’ve got the time to do something, just consider how long you’re going to be dead for.” There won’t be an Emitter or general meetings for July and August as usual, so we’ll see you again in September. Have a great summer.

The President’s Page

73 de Carl VE6GGG

3

4

The application of NARC TV for emergency preparedness took a huge leap forward on 31 May. That afternoon the EPS helicopter took to the air with amateur TV aboard. The first test flight was successful and if you want to view a video clip show-ing some of the received pictures you can find a link on the NARC web site at http://www.narc.net/video/AIR-1.wmv The NARC TV project started life in 2003 when NARC ob-tained a grant to de-velop a TV system for the Edmon-ton area. Both the 1.2 GHz and the 2.4 GHz bands have been subject to rigorous tests and experiments. Technically, all of the path testing that has been performed has clearly demonstrated that the 1.2 GHz band works best for our non-line-of- sight applications. There are several reasons for this including feeder losses, the ease and cost of devel-oping RF power at 1.2 GHz (compared with 2.4 GHz) and propa-gation. We have found, for example, that even a few trees in a 2.4 GHz path gives far too much attenuation. The 1.2 GHz signals seem much more resilient to obstructions, includ-ing buildings right along the path!

In terms of usage, the two main goals of the NARC TV project are 1) to provide a TV system for the Ed-monton area and 2) to provide a tool which can be used by Agencies dur-ing major emergencies and disaster situations. The use of Air 1 is as a highly mobile

platform for ATV which can be used to show key A g e n c i e s around the City the ex-tent of any d a m a g e following a major emer-gency or d i s a s t e r . D a m a g e assessment is the name of the game. Just imagine

a picture of an incident site; one pic-ture is worth a thousand words! Following the first flight on 31 May there have been several other test flights. We have used each occasion to make changes to the antenna on Air 1 and the receive equipment at the City Emergency operations Cen-tre. At present, three NARC mem-bers have been authorized by the EPS to use the ATV equipment in Air 1. The members involved with the EPS side of the testing need to have a security check. The Air 1 operators are also subject to a maximum

Air 1 Flies With Amateur Television Aboard

By David VE6DXX (NARC Emergency Coordinator)

Final flight briefing for David VE6CUT

weight restriction and must have some experience with video and transmitting equipment. Having said that, NARC is always looking for more members to join and partici-pate in the TV group. Regular opera-tors and those contributing techni-cally have included, Paul VE6PDD, Kathy VE6HI, David VE6CUT, Ray VE6RHS, Jon VE6NYX, Curtis VE6AEW, Loran VE6PE and David VE6DXX. We are looking for other members to join the group, and we will be active on Canada Day assist-ing the City. Contact David VE6DXX if you have an interest in helping your Club with the TV side of this interesting experimentation. So, what is the current status of the NARC TV system? We have an in band 1.2 GHz TV repeater, VE6UV, at the Tory building, a fully packaged prototype TV transmitter and 2 pack-aged power supplies, a workable 2.4 GHz system which works well over

unobstructed line-of sight paths, plus several low power 1.2 GHz transmit-ters and several receivers. NARC also owns equipment which should make it possible to transmit TV on the 430 MHz band. We hope to put much of the NARC TV equipment and the many hun-dreds of man hours of building and experimentation to good use over Canada Day. Our experiments with Air 1 continue, especially on the an-tenna side. What we already know is that if a disaster did occur in Edmonton, we would be able to bolt on our experi-mental antenna to Air 1 and use our TV transmitting equipment to beam live TV pictures straight into the City of Edmonton’s Emergency Opera-tions Centre. Thanks to all members involved who have contributed to this very special project.

5 Celebrating success at the City EOC, VE6CUT, VE6TOX, VE6AEW, VE6GGG and VE6DXX

6

Following a year long search for a contractor to build our new rest-room building for the NARC site, the Executive Committee recently voted to act as its own general c o n t r a c t o r . The hot con-struction mar-ket in Alberta has driven the cost of a quality unit beyond a r e a s o n a b l e price and deliv-ery dates are said to be a b o u t t wo years away. The upside of this situation is that we can ensure the restroom building is built to our very high standards. In addition, all volunteer labour can be used as part of NARC’s share of the cost. This frees up some of the funds tagged for this project giving us the ability to make more improvements at the NARC site. The structure will be built at the NARC site between June and Oc-tober, 2006. The basic design calls for a 35 foot long by 16 foot wide structure with a washroom (including shower); a utility room containing a furnace and 480 gal-lon water tank; and, a minimum 350 square foot conference/training room. It will be built on a

steel frame, with skid pipes/plates front and back. The base has been ordered with a delivery date target of the third week of June. Roof trusses are scheduled for delivery

at the begin-ning of Sep-tember. Be-tween those dates the fram-ing will be completed (2 by 6 walls and 2 X 10 floor) and the build-ing wired and plumbed. The Club is fortunate in having many knowledgeable m e m b e r s

when it comes to construction. Some have already offered to share their knowledge and skills. However, the success of this pro-ject will depend, to a great extent, on being able to put together sev-eral teams of volunteers willing to help with specific parts of the pro-ject. If you have ever wanted to help frame, wire, plumb, drywall, paint, etc. we would like to get you, assigned to a team. You don’t need to be experienced, just will-ing. If you can help with this very excit-ing project call Bruce at 437-1603 or e-mail him at [email protected] . Watch http://narc.net for updates.

NARC TO BUILD NEW RESTROOM BUILDING

7

8

Remembering 9N1MM

One of the huge thrills of DXing is working a new country, especially if the Country is uninhabited or there is only one amateur station in that country.

On the occasion of the 100th anni-versary of his birth on 29 May 1906, the June 2006 issue of QST pub-lished a two page tribute to Father Moran, “Nine Nancy one Mickey Mouse, who for several decades was the only licensed ham station in Nepal. Often called the Voice of the Himalayas” Father Moran was de-scribed as a legend even beyond the World of amateur radio. He fre-quently held discussions with Ma-hatma Gandhi and Nehru of India and was received by Kings and Princes.

Father Moran made a reconnais-sance flight of Everest with Edmund Hillary (the first person to climb Ever-est), entertained the famous DXer

Gus Browning W2GHK and has greetings sent to him from other fa-mous hams, King Palden Thondup Namgyal AC3PT of S ikk im (deceased), King Hussein of Jordan JY1 (deceased) and King Juan Car-los of Spain EA0JC.

I once had the pleasure of meeting Father Moran at the Dayton Hamfest but never worked him on the air. However, I did work 9N1MM’s sta-tion on 15m CW when a member of our UK contest group Alan G4DJX visited Father Moran about 17 years ago - still my only contact with Nepal and a thrilling DX contact.

9N1MM was a remarkable Jesuit Priest who founded many schools near Kathmandu. He died on 14 April 1992 just a few weeks before his 86th birthday. He rests in peace at St Xavier’s School in the shelter of the ’Mountain of Flowers’. Radio amateurs across the World will never forget this lovable Father.

What is a DX Cluster? Many years ago working DXpedi-tions was rather different than it is today! What has really changed is the way in which you find out about DX stations, what frequency they are on, what beam bearing and likely propagation etc. Years ago, if a station in California worked a rare DX station on a Pa-cific Island, he would call up a few of his friends on the telephone, they would work the station and then call a few more friends. The early DX alerting system later grew into DX nets on an agreed 2 metre fre-quency. Then in the late 80’s Ken Wolff K1EA wrote some software which transformed the DX alerting systems world wide. K1EA’s DX Cluster software repre-sents a node, a central point. DXers would connect their own computer to the DX Cluster by radio using con-ventional AX25 packet radio. Once connected, there would be a log on message from the Cluster and an opportunity to view the callsigns of all the other stations connected. Let’s suppose that there are 20 sta-tions connected to a single DX Clus-ter. Essentially you have 20 stations searching the bands for DX or other interesting contacts. When any one of the 20 stations hears a DX station they type the callsign, frequency and maybe a comment into their computer and send the information to the DX Clus-ter node. As soon as the information is received, it is sent to all the other 19 stations connected to the Cluster. In this way DX information is rapidly and automatically shared by a larger group.

In the UK, I was fortunate enough to operate one of the first few DX Clus-ters in the country using the callsign GB7DXH, located on the West side of London at 500ft above sea level in the Chiltern Hills. Because it was the major DX Cluster for the London area at the time, the Cluster devel-oped input ports on the 70, 144 and 430 MHz bands. As other DX Clus-ters got going, the DX Clusters linked themselves together with the band of choice being 1.3 GHz using Alford slot antennas. This antenna provides omni-directional horizontal polarization. GB7DXH had a number of Clusters linked on 1.3 GHz, the furthest away being about 75 miles. VE6DXD (DX Data) became opera-tional in 1997. It uses a single input port on 144.970 MHz, vertical polari-zation and standard AX25 packet radio. It is used by most of the seri-ous DXers in the Edmonton area and all of the major contest groups. Unlike GB7DXH, VE6DXD can also be accessed and is linked to other DX Clusters around the World via the Internet. Now, in 2006 if a station in any part of N. America hears a DX station it is relayed all over the Conti-nent! To link to VE6DXD you can use AX25 packet or use Telnet to VE6DXD via the Internet. There is a link on the NARC website. Often stations in other parts of Canada, N. America and even Europe are con-nected. One great piece of software is called DXTELNET by Favio IK4VYX. Next time we will see what a DX Cluster can do for you. In the mean-time happy DXing. 73 David VE6DXX

9

10

1 Thu NARC New Hams Net - 1930L on VE6HM (VHF) VA6HGS

2 Fri Local Gathering — PARA, Tim Hortons 50St/44 Av at 7PM VE6ELO

3 Sat Informal gatherings - (1) NARC site 9 am. (2)Yellowhead Inn,149 Str. & Yellowhead Trail at 9 am. Jasper to Banff Race

VA6HGS VE6AEW

4 Sun Local gathering - Boston Pizza, 4804 Calgary Trail at noon VE6PDD

5 Mon 6 Tue NARC Net on VE6HM (2m) at 7:30 p.m. VA6HGS

7 Wed Local gathering – Boston Pizza, 7641 Argyll Rd. at 8:30 p.m. VE6PDD

8 Thu NARC New Hams Net - 1930L on VE6HM (VHF) VA6HGS 9 Fri Local Gathering — PARA, Tim Hortons 50St/44 Av at 7PM VE6ELO

10 Sat Informal gatherings - (1) NARC Breakfast 10.00 (2)Yellowhead Inn,149 Str. & Yellowhead Trail at 9 a.m.

VA6HGS



14 Wed Local gathering – Boston Pizza, 7641 Argyll Rd. at 8:30 p.m. VE6PDD

15 Thu NARC New Hams Net - 1930L on VE6HM (VHF) VA6HGS 16 Fri Local Gathering — PARA, Tim Hortons 50St/44 Av at 7PM

RED DEER PICNIC — 16/17/18 June VE6ELO

17 Sat Informal gatherings - (1) VE6HM Site from 9 a.m. (2)Yellowhead Inn,149 Str. & Yellowhead Trail at 9 a.m.

VA6HGS

18 Sun NARC BBQ at Tailgate Flea Market at HM Site VA6HGS


21 Wed Local gathering – Boston Pizza, 7641 Argyll Rd. at 8:30 p.m. VE6PDD 22 Thu NARC New Hams Net - 1930L on VE6HM (VHF) VA6HGS 23 Fri Local Gathering — PARA, Tim Hortons 50St/44 Av at 7PM VE6ELO

24 Sat Informal gatherings - (1) VE6HM Site from 9 a.m. (2)Yellowhead Inn,149 Str. & Yellowhead Trail at 9 a.m. NARC FIELD DAY — Rundle Park — VE6HGS

VA6HGS VA6HGS

25 Sun Local gathering - Boston Pizza, 4804 Calgary Trail at noon NARC FIELD DAY — Rundle Park — VE6HGS

VE6PDD


28 Wed Local gathering – Boston Pizza, 7641 Argyll Rd. at 8:30 p.m. VE6PDD 29 Thu NARC New Hams Net - 1930L on VE6HM (VHF) VA6HGS


June 2006 Calendar

11

1 Sat Canada Day Informal gatherings - (1) VE6HM Site from 9 am. (2 )Yellowhead Inn,149 Str. & Yellowhead Trail at 9 am

VA6HGS





8 Sat Informal gatherings - (1) NARC Breakfast VE6HM Site from 10 a.m. (2)Yellowhead Inn,149 Str. & Yellowhead Trail at 9a.m.

VA6HGS





15 Sat Informal gatherings - (1) VE6HM Site from 9 a.m. (2)Yellowhead Inn,149 Str. & Yellowhead Trail at 9 a.m.

VA6HGS

16 Sun Beat Beethoven VE6PDD



21 Fri Local Gathering — PARA, Tim Hortons 50St/44 Av at 7PM VE6ELO 22 Sat Informal gatherings - (1) VE6HM Site from 9 a.m. (2)

Yellowhead Inn,149 Str. & Yellowhead Trail at 9 a.m. VA6HGS




28 Fri Local Gathering — PARA, Tim Hortons 50St/44 Av at 7PM VE6ELO 29 Sat Informal gatherings - (1) VE6HM Site from 9 a.m. (2)

Yellowhead Inn,149 Str. & Yellowhead Trail at 9 a.m. VA6HGS


31 Mon

July 2006 Calendar

12

13

Severe Weather

“Program your radios” by David VE6DXX The summer months of June, July and Au-gust can produce severe weather in Al-berta.

You can help protect yourself, your family and friends by monitoring the ‘weather ra-dio’ frequencies, which you can almost certainly program into your handheld or mobile VHF equipment..

Here are the frequencies: -

1. 162.550 MHz 2. 162.400 MHz 3. 162.475 MHz 4. 162.250 MHz 5. 162.450 MHz 6. 162.500 MHz 7. 162.525 MHz 8. 161.650 MHz 9. 161.775 MHz 10.163.275 MHz

These frequencies should provide you with weather informa-tion all over North America.

Use Channel 2 in the Edmonton area and Channel 3 South East of the City.

14

Congratulations! If you have gotten this far, you already have a working receiver noise bridge that you could use to align antennas, build traps, etc. This month, we are going to calibrate it. The general procedure that I dis-cuss here comes from the ARRL An-tenna Book, 20th ed. For materials, all we will need is some 24 gauge magnet wire, some PL-259 connectors, some resistors, coaxial cable and some knobs for the front controls. We’ll also need a multimeter and our trusty sol-dering iron. We’ll start by making ourselves some calibration loads with the PL-259 con-nectors and resistors. Solder resistors into the rear of the connectors (keep the leads as short as possible) to make yourself the following loads: 0 ohms (short circuit), 50 ohms and180 ohms. Ideally, there is exactly one source of reactance in the bridge: the variable capacitor. In practice, this is not the case. Especially at RF, the arrange-ment of wires, pads and the compo-nents themselves create stray capaci-tances and inductances in the circuit, which ruin its calibration as the fre-quency of operation is changed. Connect the bridge to your HF receiver (AM mode) and connect the 180-ohm load to the “unknown” side of the bridge. Tune your receiver to 1.8MHz or 3.5MHz and adjust your bridge con-trols for a null. Now, carefully remove the cover on your bridge and use a multimeter to measure the actual resis-tance of the variable resistor. Measure the 180 ohm load’s true value, too. The size of the capacitor needed to cancel the stray amount = 100pF * (sqrt(variable resistor/load resistor) –1). If you used a series capacitor other than 100pF last time, substitute its value into the above equation. If the

variable resistance is larger than the load, you need to solder a capacitor between pad U and ground on your bridge, otherwise you need to solder a capacitor between point B and ground (you did label these pads on your board last time, right?) You could use a small trimmer capacitor, or you could make your own by twisting together two pieces of magnet wire like I did. Repeat the test above and adjust the capacitor until the load resistor and variable resistor have the same value when the bridge is nulled. If you used twisted wire to make your resistor, adjust it by snipping it down in length bit by bit. Now connect the 0-ohm load to your bridge, null the bridge at 1.8MHz (or 3.5MHz) and mark the position of the variable capacitor’s shaft. Now tune your radio to 28MHz (or 50MHz if you have it), re-null the bridge and mark the position of the shaft. If capacitor had to be adjusted when you changed the receiver’s frequency, then you need to add a small inductor to your circuit to balance the stray inductance in your bridge. You almost certainly will have to add the inductance in se-ries between pad U and the 100pF series capacitor. My inductor was made from four turns magnet wire wrapped around a pencil (remove the pencil before installing!) Now repeat the test with your receiver. If you need to retune the capacitor less when you change frequency (or have to retune it the other way), you have the inductor in the right spot. If the difference in capacitor settings got bigger, you need to move it to between pad B and the variable resistor. Adjust the inductor by spreading or contracting its wind-ings until you don’t have to retune the capacitor with frequency changes. You can see both the added capacitor

Build a Receiver Noise Bridge: Part IV By Chris VE6PKR

and inductor on my bridge in Figure 1.

Last step: Calibrate your bridge! First, attach some knobs and blank scales to the front controls. Use your creativity to make these both functional and at-tractive (if you have access to a lathe, you can make a really nice set of cus-tom knobs). First, attach a multimeter across the variable resistor and cali-brate its scale (every 25 or 50 ohms works well). Disconnect the multimeter and take a length of coaxial cable 8m (about 25’) and solder a PL-259 to one end. Null your noise bridge at 10MHz with the 0-ohm load connected. Now replace the load with your coax cable and trim it down until you hear a null (you will have to adjust the variable resistor, but don’t touch the reactance control). Once you get a null, you have a cable that is EXACTLY 1/4 wave long at 10MHz. Short it at its open end. To calibrate the reactance scale, tune your receiver to the appropriate frequency, null the bridge and mark the position on the reactance dial. The table of frequencies and reactances is a little long, so I will post it on the NARC webpage. Although you have just calibrated your bridge at 10MHz, you can convert the values on its dial to whatever frequency you are using by multiplying them by 10/fu, where fu is the frequency of use (e.g., if you are

measuring at 5MHz and the dial says “10 ohms,” multiply it by 2, making it 20 ohms.)

I hope that you have found this article series interesting and useful, even if you don’t end up building your own bridge (although it is a lot of fun and you’ll find that you can use it every-where). I’ll leave you with two quick and snappy applications for your bridge. First, we’ll find the resonant frequency of an antenna. Set the reac-tance scale to 0 and connect the an-tenna to the unknown input of your bridge. Tune across where you expect the resonant frequency to be while you sweep the resistance dial. When you get a null, you have found the resonant frequency of your antenna. Now let’s align a trap for a multiband antenna. First, null your bridge with a 100-ohm resistor connected. Connect the resis-tor in parallel with your trap to the bridge. Without changing the controls on the bridge, sweep the frequency dial until you hear the null again. This is where your trap resonates (at reso-nance, the impedance of the trap is thousands of ohms; many thousands of ohms in parallel with 100 ohms = 100 ohms). Adjust coil on the trap to bring it into resonance where you want it. Until next time, happy soldering.

15

16

Time for a smile — Actual Court Quotes Q: What is your date of birth? A: The 15th of July. Q: What year? A: Every year. Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact? A: Gucci sweats and Reeboks. Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all? A: Yes. Q: And in what ways does it affect your memory? A: I forget. Q: You forget. Can you give us an exam-ple of something that you've forgotten? Q: How old is your son, the one living with you? A: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remem-ber which. Q: How long has he lived with you? A: Forty-five years. Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke up that morn-ing? A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?" Q: And why did that upset you? A: My name is Susan. Q: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo or the occult? A: We both do. Q: Voodoo? A: We do. Q: You do? A: Yes, voodoo. Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning? Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he? Q: Were you present when your picture was taken? Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th? A: Yes. Q: And what were you doing at that time?

Q: She had three children, right? A: Yes. Q: How many were boys? A: None. Q: Were there any girls? Q: How was your first marriage termi-nated? A: By death. Q: And by whose death was it terminated? Q: Can you describe the individual? A: He was about medium height and had a beard. Q: Was this a male, or a female? Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice, which I sent to your attorney? A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work. Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people? A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people. Q: All your responses must be oral, OK? What school did you go to? A: Oral. Q: Do you recall the time that you exam-ined the body? A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m. Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time? A: No, he was sitting on the table wonder-ing why I was doing an autopsy. Q: Doctor, before you performed the au-topsy, did you check for a pulse? A: No. Q: Did you check for blood pressure? A: No. Q: Did you check for breathing? A: No. Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? A: No. Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor? A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar. Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless? A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practising law somewhere.

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May 2006 General Meeting Minutes by Lorraine VE6MSL (Secretary)

Carl welcomed members to the meeting. John Allan VA6SJA, a new ham, at-tended his first General Meeting this evening.

Neil Smith VE6AZA is recovering in hospital after being injured when assist-ing Norm VE6NR to move a piece of support equipment and hitting a power line. Michael VE6XUK mentioned that there are a number of electrical related deaths of hams in North America each year. The most important thing to re-member is to ensure that in such cir-cumstances you stay away two times the distance of the arc. Gern VA6HGS also mentioned that OH&S recommends staying 7m (25 ft.) from any power source. Moved by Michael VE6XUK and sec-onded that the previous meeting min-utes be approved as published in the May Emitter. Carried. Reports: President, Carl VE6GGG an-nounced that Air 1 ATV will be tested on May 31. Two small teams are required: one person with David VE6CUT at Air 1; one person with David VE6DXX and himself at EOC at 12:30 pm to test the antennas. If the tests are successful Bob Black will arrange for the Mayor and Council plus the Fire and Police Chiefs to see a demonstration. Emergency Coordinator, David VE6DXX showed the ATV transmitter that has been built and described how it works. It will be in Air 1 when ATV is used and will always be operated by a licensed amateur. Treas-urer, Bruce VE6SA presented a verbal report on the status of the Club finances. He thanked Glen VE6GWC and crew who have been painting the stairs, land-ings and siding at the HM site with sin-cere thanks from the executive; as well appreciation to Loran VE6LRN for all his time and work completing projects at great savings to the Club. Bruce an-

nounced that our next casino dates are November 17 & 18 and we are looking for volunteers for all positions. Forms are available at the back. He also ex-plained that it has been difficult to find a contractor to supply a wash trailer and prices are two to three times what were anticipated. Discussions are being held by the executive that we consider pur-chasing a shell and completing the pro-ject ourselves. Operations Director, Ray VE6RHS update: exterior painting, mounting of antennas, completion of wind generator, equipment to keep weeds down purchased, a dump trailer has been offered by Ties VE6TVN for use during the site cleanup, and one of the generators needs a new gas tank. Activities Director, Gern VA6HGS re-minded members the next breakfast will be June 10, BBQ and Flea Market is June 18, Field Day is June 24 & 25 and he’s looking for volunteers who can put in some time at the event. Training Di-rector Michael VE6XUK continues code practices on HM after the Tuesday night net; next basic class will be held on Sep-tember 9/10 and 16/17. Anyone inter-ested to contact Michael. New this fall: a number of hands on sessions will be held at the HM site on the third Satur-day. Planning is underway now. No other reports were received. New Business: Glen VE6GWC is donat-ing a 3/8” drill for the tool kit for member use at HM. He asked what kind of a storage bin or cart was being consid-ered. It was also noted that Agrium do-nated funds for test equipment for the kit. Tom VE6TOX summarized current status and plans for future direction of ARES and showed slides of the CAN-WARN offices and the area where ARES has a desk for a radio in case of extreme weather conditions in the Ed-monton area.

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Professional sports teams can bring great spirit to a city, but champion-ship games also bring the risk of poor crowd behaviour and even ri-ots. Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue has seen a full scale riot in the past on Canada Day and several near riots after key sports games. To assist the City of Edmonton and non-governmental organizations, the ARES Edmonton Region was acti-vated for every night of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to be around as Oiler fans celebrate after the games. The Stanley Cup playoffs gave ARES a great chance to test its skills, build its relationships with served agencies and try a new wrin-kle in emergency communications. It is said that emergency communi-cations is a commitment – not a hobby. The ARES members of Ed-monton proved how committed they are to both their community and emergency communications. The first two series the Oilers played against Detroit and San Jose were low key events with ARES members simply providing a link between the staging area and the community police station that served as the Inci-dent Command Post. With the City Emergency Operations Centre closed, there were little communica-tions needs. The importance of this part of the activation was twofold; have one person in the Incident Command Post for publicity and awareness and to have a person pre-positioned should the roads be blocked. This presence helped smooth the way and demonstrate credibility as emergency officials

reacted to an escalation in the situa-tion after each game. By the time the Oilers reached the third series, events on Whyte Ave-nue were getting extreme and crowd behaviour was definitely becoming a problem. Fires were being lit in the middle of streets and damage was being done to businesses along the avenue. Crowds of up to 30,000 people were gathering and fights and fires were becoming a problem. A policy change saw the Inspector in Charge stood down and the Inspec-tor in Charge of the riot squad taking over-all command. On the last night of the third series police experienced communications problems including being unable to hear over the crowd noise, unreliable back-up communi-cations via cell phones and poor voice procedures resulting in trans-missions having to be repeated mul-tiple times. A new approach was about to be taken with a new Inci-dent Command Post, more aggres-sive crowd control and activation of the EOC. By demonstrating the ability of ARES to have members at the Incident Command Post on a regular basis, having members in the EOC was a “given”. As well, members of the Northern Alberta Radio Club (who are major supporters of ARES), brought out their amateur television gear. The race was on to see if amateur television could be added onto the police Air One helicopter in order to provide key officials at both the Emergency Operations Centre and Incident Command Posts with

ARES STANLEY CUP ACTIVATION

By Tom VE6TOX

the “picture worth a thousand words.” Equipment airworthiness, privacy issues, technical issues, repeater locations, in-band or dual band transmissions and even health and weight of the operators going up in the helicopter were all key issues that had to be addressed. For the final series, the two teams (voice and ATV) worked together to help give a better view of the crowds and ensure emergency officials al-ways had a back-up form of commu-nications if required. At any time, the Emergency Operations Centre had two to six spare operators at their disposal. ATV pictures were beamed right into the Command Post and up on the big screen in the EOC (whenever a break in the game occurred.) Operators volunteered from approxi-mately 17:00 to as late as 04:00. The end result was over 25 ama-

teurs contributed several hundred hours of volunteer time either active or on-air as spares with a three min-ute trigger. As well, operators on the ATV project spent hundreds of hours putting together the whole Air One project. This is while members also prepared for Canada Day, Field Day, assisted with the Banff-Jasper Relay and Pigeon Lake Bike Race and even Salvation Army callouts in the middle of the night. Relationships with the police, Office of Emergency Preparedness, and civic officials are not built in a day. Years of work and training paid off with a further strengthening of our relationship with the City and emer-gency officials. It was gratifying to hear them saying at the end of it, “ARES has been great! Now, what can we do for you?” Oh, yes. One more thing: “GO, OILERS, GO!!!”

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Top Left — Curtis VE6AEW, David VE6DXX & Paul VE6PDD, checking the pictures at the City EOC. Bottom left — David VE6CUT getting ready to fly in Air 1. Above — Bruce VE6SA stationed at the

White Avenue police station.

Classified Ads NOTICE: NARC pins, crests, and stickers are available from Paul VE6PDD at coffee or meetings. Pins & crests are $3.00 each, and stickers are - $1.00 each. FOR SALE: ICOM 735 HF Transceiver with match-ing power supply and narrow CW filter. Excellent condition with original boxes - $850 - Contact John VE6BIW at (780) 484 4870 FOR SALE TRA 1-2 Heavy Duty Rotator - $100.00 obo Contact Karin Moller, VE6AAB at (780) 467-5167 FOR SALE Nice package for a new ham. Complete station - Lots of coax, 5 0 f o o t g u y e d t o w e r , homemade 2m beam, Yaesu FT101ZD H F T X / R X , S W R m e t e r ,

phone patch, antenna switch, dummy load. Tower just taken down. Bill Gillespie VE6ABC 438-2510 [email protected] FOR SALE

T r i - b a n d Mo s l e y d i r e c t i o n a l antenna. Coax — 100feet of RG-213/U. Antenna rotator control CDE Big Talk Model BT-1 120 & TRA-4, BT 1 SER1 630. Also top end of a heavy duty tower a total of 20 feet Let me know if anybody is interested in any of t h e e q u i p m e n t . C o n t a c t Rudy at [email protected] FOR SALE

Kenwood TS850S Transceiver, PS52 AC Power Supply, SP31 Speaker, MC60 Desk Mike, Hand Mike, with original boxes, $1300.00. Contact Hans VE6FA - Ph. (780) 436-5843, Fax (780) 439-2655, e-ma i l : [email protected]

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The Last Word ….. This month thanks go to Carl VE6GGG, David VE6DXX, Lorraine VE6MSL, Tom VE6TOX, and Chris VE6PKR for the last part of his noise bridge article and Jon VE6NYX for his Air 1 pictures.

The completion of the June 2006 issue marks five years of being Editor of the Emitter. For me, this has been an ideal voluntary way of contributing to NARC. I have enjoyed the experience, even the late nights when trying to meet a printing deadline. Have a great summer.

73 Rosemary G0NDB/VE6

VE6HM Emergency Access Codes

Note: no * required on emergency numbers) 91 City Police Department 92 RCMP K Division 93 City Fire Department 911 City of Edmonton Emergency

HM Repeater Fast Access Codes *28 VE6AER Tony Ratcliffe *61 VA6JBS James Smith *62 VA6TWT Thomas Turner For information on or changes to speed dial, call Dave VE6DJL @ 440-1427. General Access Codes **3 Resets timer on Autopatch 26* Redial (this is not a misprint) 4440* Link VE6HM VHF to UHF 4441* Link down

Personal Access Codes

*70 VE6ADV Tom Forman *34 VE6BKW Jim Munsey *59 VE6DXX David Evans *42 VE6GE Martin Matheson *25 VE6RNF Neil Federspiel *30 VA6DX Barry Bergstrom *3 VE6 LIZ Elizabeth Sadoway *69 VE6 MKJ Malcolm Jameson *37 VE6 MY Mike Eliuk

Documents

Emitter NARC Site Security Officer Vacant Chief Examiner Michael Eliuk VE6MY 701-2673 Air 1 flies with ATV on board on 31 May 2006. Picture by Jon VE6NYX Board of Directors NARC Postage