Hello to fel low LCARC members. During thispast month we've had a few club activities,The Indiana QSO Party and The Watson BoysAcademy ARISS contact. We setup for theIndiana QSO Party behind the EMAheadquarters. Strung the clubs new G4RVantenna in the trees and attempted to get onthe air. We experienced some equipmentproblems as you wil l find out later in this issue.Then we had the Watson Boys AcademyARISS contact. AG9D and N9CHA provided

the necessary equipment to make this successful . K9MQ, N9TZT, KB9HO, andmyself, assisted with setup and takedown activities. The kids were very attentiveand I think the adults were as excited about this as the kids.Talking with Roy Gil l is KC9JQN, the mentor at The Watson Boys Academy, "Wehad feedback from hams and others from all over the world (l i teral ly) who wereable to l isten via Echolink. Al l of the feedback was positive"

Hey let us not forget “FIELD DAY” is coming up next month June 22nd and 23rd,and we sti l l desperately need volunteers to operate. Head on over to our websiteW9LJ.org and signup.

LCARC is also participating in a fundraiser at "FiveGuys" in Scherervi l le June 1 3th. This year is a l ittledifferent from the last, this year you need to print outflyer at the end of the issue or inform the cashieryou're there for the fundraiser. One nice thing isthere is no time limit, Go in for lunch then comeback for dinner. Print it out post it up at work! mightjust be more money for thr club.

With that see everyone at the next meeting, which ofcourse is at the EMA headquarters on the north sideof the government complex and it, wi l l be on the1 4th of June.

73, de Bob, WD9EZB, President, LCARC

Echo Zulu Baker ReportBob Wiberg, WD9EZB

June 201 3, Issue 6, Volume 61

UPCOMING EVENTS

MeetingLake Co ARC

LC Dept Homeland Sec BldJune 1 4th @ 7:30pm

FundraiserFive Guys Hamburgers Scherervi l le

June 1 3th

Hamfest6 Meter Club of Chicago Hamfest &

ARCI Radio Swap MeetJune 1 6th 201 3

ContestsField Day

June 22-23

NetLCARC Weekly Information NetClubs VHF & UHF Repeaters

Every Thursday @ 8pm

In this Issue of Short Skip

Ed - K9TZT

John - W9WY

Larry - KB9ERY

Kenny KE9TC

I f we missed your birthday or

get it wrong, please let us know

ARTICLES NEEDED! ! !I f you have anything pertaining toamateur radio that you would l ike tocontribute to, and share with others inShort Skip, we would be happy toinclude your offering in any future

edition. Anything you would l ike. Hintsand kinks, antennas, technical talk,operating tips, publ ic service, classicradio, club activities, etc., would be

hearti ly welcomed! ! ! Al l articles must bein by the 20th of every month. Copyright

rules and permission apply to al lsubmissions. Please send your

submission to:KC9UNS / Short Skip Editor

kc9uns@gmail .com

I hope you enjoy this month’s Short Skipas much as I did putting it together!

2. LCARC Meeting Minutes

3. Meeting pictures

4. LCARC Website

5 - 6. W9LJ Indiana QSO Party

7. Invite a kid to field day

Time Passes

8. QCWA meeting Info

9 - 1 0. Radios Radios Radios

1 1 . Five Guys Fundraiser Flyer

1 2. Membership Form

LCARC May Meeting MinutesBenjamin Straw, KC9UNS

2Short Skip

Meeting called to order at 7:38 PM

Attendance:1 6 members 1 Guest.

Reading of Minutes:The minutes of the previous meeting Apri l 1 2th was approved asread.

Treasure Report:• Treasurer Report read by Jim KF9EX. Checking $2968.44, Cash:$41 .59, Total $3,01 0.03• Jim has membership cards for those who haven't got them yet

Committee reports:• Repeater: Mark K9MQ: Everything going good with the repeater he wasasked to re enable the kerchunk fi l ter on the club's repeater, Marv WV9Oasked that al l members please ID when testing equipment its goodoperating practices and the a FCC rule, the W9FXT repeater antenna ontop of the ema bui lding has been moved 1 00ft away and is on a lower partof the roof. J im has been contacted by Bartronics and was advised bythem that they wil l inspect the clubs tower with in the next two weeks andsaid they would let the red cross know one - two days before inspection.Marv ask about the key to the gate and Mark he might have it in his carMark thinks he mailed a copy to Nick W9UM.• RACES: Jim advised that the plans for moving the health dept. aregoing forward, he advised that once they vacate, the ema wil l be movingonce preparations have been made. The TS-50 the club attempted to usefor INQP is broken, the power was fluctuating when testing it popped a20A fuse and so Jim packed it up and is in the ema’s radio room.• Contest: Ben KC9UNS reported the INQP had 1 90 contacts in 21states and 58 indiana counties. The clubs G5RV antenna worked greatonce we got going everything going. I t was decided by the board to makethe Indiana parks on the air event more sociable and add a potluck to themix instead of just an operating event.Bob asked that there be more clubparticipation for club events and a signup sheet was passed around.• DX: Nick advised that there some rare DXpeditions being activated. healso sked if anyone was interested in packet if so he is on 1 45.1 00• VE: Porter County 1 03 Jefferson St in the Valpo Public Library• Net: Average is 20 check-ins at we hit a record of 22 on Apri l 1 8

Old Business:• Ed K9TZT sti l l has the coffee pot• Bob WD9EZB reported about the ARISS contact that went overreal ly well• Ed asked about the 50/50 raffle Marv WV9O has it

New Business• NONE

Program:• Bi l l N9QLS talked about the right PL259 to use, crimping andsolder. Bi l l passed along a All Electronics catalog and talked aboutbui lding a voltmeter for 1 .5v NIMh batteries.

Meeting adjourned at 9:08 PM local.

201 3 Officers

President: .............. WD9EZBBob Wiberg

Vice President: ....... KB9HORuss McComb

Secretary: ............. KC9UNSBenjamin Straw

Treasurer: ................ KF9EXJim Harney

Trustee: ..................... WV9OMarv Boetcher

DirectorsBill Young ................. N9QLSKen Brown ................ KE9TCBob Nelms ............ WD9FNYMark Skowronski .......... K9MQJohn Gianotti ................. W9WY

Editorial StaffEditor-in-Chief ...... KC9UNS

Benjamin Straw(kc9uns@gmail.com)

Club ResourcesW9LJ/R ......................... 1 47.000 + PL 1 31 .8

W9LJ/R (St. John) ..... 1 47.240 + PL 1 31 .8

W9LJ/R ......................... 442.075 + PL 1 31 .8

Repeater Nets

Thursday Night @ 8 pm:

LCARC Weekly Infomation Net

MeetingsJune 1 4, 201 3

BOARD MEETING

LCEMA OFFICE,

2900 93rd Ave

Crown Point (41 .449555,-87.36893)

(Across from Gov. Ctr.)

6:30 p.m.

June 1 4, 201 3

CLUB MEETING

2900 93rd Ave

Crown Point (41 .449555,-87.36893)

(Across from Gov. Ctr.)

7:30 p.m.

LCARC is an IRS-certified 501(c)3 charitable organization and donations are deductible pursuant to the IRS rules. If you haveworking radio equipment and ancillary equipment that you can and wish to donate to the club, please contact one of the boardmembers and we will be happy to talk to you about the process. Many companies will either grant or match employee’s gifts tononprofit organizations like LCARC.Please determine if your company is among these and contact a board member so we mayhelp fund and grow LCARC. We cannot accept certain donations, and have to place some restrictions around them (nohazardous materials, nothing we could not sell, etc.). If you are interested, look me, or any other board member up at one of themeetings, or contact us via email (our addresses at the end of this newsletter)

Vol. 61 No. 6

FFRROOMM TTHHEE MMEEEETTII NNGG

Presentations and demonstrations at LCARC are a fun part ofour meetings. Come join us! Not a LCARC member?

It doesn't matter you’re welcome to attend our meetings.No strings, no pressure!

Meet the THREE newest LCARC Members

Matt KC9YDF (Left), Carter KC9YGU (Center), and Don N9TIP (Right)

._.. _._. ._ ._. _._. ... .... _ _ _ ._. _ ... _._ .. ._ _.

3Short SkipVol. 61 No. 6

The New, Improved, exciting, educational and elucidating LCARC Web PageJohn W9WY

You either know ordo not know theLCARC web page(w9lj .org) hasundergone a majorupdate. The new siteoffers easier to readand expandedcoverage to al l hamsand also somespecific information

just for club members. Let’s take a look at the pages andsee what the site has to offer.

HOME PAGEWell , as the title suggest this is the first page one sees.On this page is a description of the club, a l ist of ourrepeaters, and a map and address to our meeting location.Want to search for something? Use the search box in theupper left corner to find what you are looking for.

ABOUT USWritten by Joe Cress, now a si lent key, Joe was one of theearly members of the club and this is actual ly an articlethat was written for the club newsletter, Short Skip, manyyears ago. Newcomers and veterans alike can find outhow the club came about.

JOIN USNot only contains a downloadable membership applicationbut some of the benefits of membership. One should beable to fi l l the form in on the screen and then print it out,read for mail ing with a check, to our PO box.

NEWSLETTERAt the present time we plan on archiving the past 1 2months of Short Skip on this site. Depending on thepreferences of the board we may keep additional years onthis page for downloading.

CALENDAR of EVENTSWell , i t is a calendar that shows what the club is doing.One can view a week, a month, or an agenda (l ist) o clubactivities. Also on this page may be sign-up forms foractivities. As this is written (mid-May) there is a form tosign up for field day. Click on any item to see the detai ls ofthe event or copy it to your Google calendar, if you haveone. By using the left and right arrows next to the month(in the month view) one can go forward and back throughthe calendar.

MOREClick this l ink to see the rest of the pages on the site.

MORE-MULTIMEDIASee selected videos and/or sl ide shows of membersparticipating in club events.

MORE – ARISS MISSIONS

The club has participated in at least seven ARISSmissions. As I get the time and find the tapes (some ofthem are on VHS) and convert them I wil l upload them tothis page.

MORE – AWARDSThe club sponsor two major awards. Check them out onthis page along with a l ist of past recipients. The HerbBrier Award is actual ly sponsored by the club but awardedby the ARRL.

MORE-OFFICERSA listing, with e-mail l inks, to our current club officers.

MORE-FORMSNot a government repository, but a l isting of forms usefulto members. Natural ly themembership for m is here, butalso things l ike the Repeater Guide, the club Constitution,Severe WX reporting forms, The latest Indiana ScannerLaw and much more.

MORE – RACESThis page contains information about the RACESorganization, a l ist of current RACES members, and theRACES manual. I f you are interested in being a RACESmember, contact J im, KF9EX for information. SinceRACES is tied to the Department of Homeland Securitythose who wish to join up have to fi l l out forms for abackground check. (Federal Regulation, NOT a LCARCthing).

MORE – NETSWhile the nets are l isted on the calendar of events, thispage gives a little more detai l of what each net is about.

MORE – OPERATING Aids“Stuff” that might help an active ham.

MORE- CONTACT USOur mail ing address as well as a fi l l -in form that can beused to contact the club.

MORE – MEMBERS ONLY PAGEThis page contains “secret stuff” for members only. Onething is a roster of members. Upon payment of dues theclub secretary wil l give you the official handshake, uh Imean the password. Please do NOT share this with non-members. Passwords wil l be changed on a yearly basis.

MORE - CLUB FORUMCurrently in the trial stage. I f i t becomes used I wil l keep it.Post questions or responses to topics such as Antennas,DX, Mobile Operations, general radio questions and clubnews.

I f you have any correction or would l ike to see otherinformation added to the page please contact thewebmaster, W9LJ. 73 and GUD DX.

4Short SkipVol. 61 No. 6

If you remember two months ago we told you that R&L Electronicswas giving away a radio a week for 1 2 weeks, well apparently itwas so popular they decided to keep on giving. R & L is going to behanding out Yaesu’s, 4 FT-1 900R, 4 FT-2900R, and 4 FT-250R.Rules:enter once per week per person and must reside in the USA.Head on over to: www.randl.com/shop/catalog/radioweek.php andenter to win.

W9LJ Indiana QSO PartyBenjamin Straw KC9UNS

May 4th 201 3 was the date of Indiana’sQSO Party, for al l those who didnt attendwe miss you and hope you attend anotherupcoming event! Anyway we had fun andthats what it should be.At 1 0:1 5m I showed up along with KennyKE9TC and Marv WV9O to start settingthe equipment and antenna up. The Fridayafternoon before the contest I ran over tothe Old Menards in Scherervi l le (Nowclosed or wil l be soon) I decided to see ifthey had any discount rope for the just incase factor. I was surprised that they hadone left YEP! I got the last one on all thoseempty shelves, at 1 00 ft for $2.50, I had tograb it and we needed it!

I brought along my trusty sl ingshot to get fishing l ine up into thetrees and after a couple fai led attempts we got the first side upinto the tree. I cal led Bob WD9EZB to make sure he didn’t forgetwhere he was supposed to be, because he had the other side ofthe rope! Thank god because he left almost forgot it at thehouse. BTW did I mention we used the clubs new antenna? yepa G5RV.The other side had about the same amount of fai led attempts,but we chose to add more weight to the l ine because it tookforever for the l ine to come down from the first tree(1 0 minwasted).Bob showed up just as I got the l ine into the second tree and upwent the antenna... only it didn’t look so hot. We had hit a smallbranch and decided would be fine and should stay in the tree.

We used Big Blue, LCEMA’s mobile command center, i t haseverything we need to work a contest or in an emergency,communicate with the world. Power wasn't hard to set up, bigblue has a generator that powers everything including AC(notneeded on a 70 degree day).John W9WY showed up late after almost al l the work is done,we found the switch to turn off al l the flashing l ights, pounded ina ground rod, set up the computer, radio, and tuner we wereready to rock and rol l , so we thought.

Oh Me!

5Short SkipVol. 61 No. 6

Okay time to make some contacts, only we couldn't transmit! At thispoint we are about twenty or so minutes into the contest and nowfrustrated. The Kenwood TS-50 kept restarting every time we tried tomake a contact or even said anything into the microphone. We didmake a few contacts on 1 5 but got reports saying it was “DistortedOld Man”. On 40 which is where we wanted to be at, was the worstwith restart after restart.

We decide the antenna was at fault due to the feedl ine being almoston the ground. Remember that branch the rope was on? Well onetug and down it went, i f one big gust of wind came along it would

have caused so many problems for us. Now that we fixed the antenna, we attempted to make a contact on40. Unfortunately it sti l l had the same problem. Someone decided to read instructions for the G5RV andfound the feedl ine has to be 1 5 ft off the ground and at an angle. After moving the feedl ine, we can now worka station on 40 for about 3 seconds before the radio fai ls.

In diagnosing the problem we decide the tuner had to bebad, so Kenny headed off to grab a tuner from home. 1 0min later and one more person added to the contest,Carter KC9YGU. Back from home and after playing al ittle John Marv and Kenny(Way too many cooks) havediagnosed its not infact tuner but has to be the radio.. .John makes the suggestion that we call i t quits and headover to schoops for lunch. Not being deterred Marv andKenny head over to the EMA office to grab the spareradio and tuner. I ts now an hour and a half into thecontest, we have 3 contacts to our name, the guys getback and hook up the spare radio and we are on the air!

John started the contest off with a big burst of contacts withabout half of the total contacts. Carter takes over the hotseat, and John teaches him how to make contacts during acontest. Bob WD9EZB takes over making contacts, whi le Ishow Carter how to log them on the computer.Now its my turn in the hot seat and Carter and Myself tagteam making contacts.Russ KB9HO and Jim KF9EX show up around 3pm andhelp us break the equipment down at 4:30.

After going through the log and I tel l you what if you have never worked a contest l ike this it can be a pain.The rules stated that if you work a person who is on the county l ine, you count him in two in counties vialogging him twice. I didnt know this ti l l I was tal lying the totals, which meant I had to go back into the log andedit and edit.So how did we do? We had 1 90 contacts in 21 states and 58 counties with in IndianaGrand total 1 5,01 0 Points. What does that mean and where do we stand? I don't know yet and might notknow ti l l a few month from now.Well Like I said before we had some fun working inthe contest and I hope to see you at the next clubevent. Ben Straw KC9UNSPhotos Marv WV9O & Ben KC9UNS

Your back bone is connectedto your shoulder boneYour shoulder bone is

connected to your neck bone

6Short SkipVol. 61 No. 6

SSTTAAYY UUPP TTOO DDAATTEE WWIITTHH TTHHEE CCUURRRREENNTT HHAAPPPPEENNIINNGGSS OOFF

TTHHEE LLAAKKEE CCOOUUNNTTYY AAMMAATTEEUURR RRAADDIIOO CCLLUUBB OONN FFAACCEEBBOOOOKK..

TTOO FFIINNDD UUSS TTYYPPEE LLCCAARRCC IINN TTHHEE FFAACCEEBBOOOOKK

SSEEAARRCCHH BBOOXX OORR HHTTTTPP::////WWWWWW..FFAACCEEBBOOOOKK..CCOOMM//LLCCAARRCC

._.. _._. ._ ._. _._. ... .... _ _ _ ._. _ ... _._ .. ._ _.

._.. _._. ._ ._. _._. ... .... _ _ _ ._. _ ... _._ .. ._ _.

Invite a Kid to Field DayDan Romanchik KB6NU

I f you've been around ham radio for any length of time, you'l l notice that ham radio operators l ike to complain. One of the mostfrequently heard complaints is, "Kids aren't interested in amateur radio anymore." While I 'm not so sure that's true, I do know thatnow is the time for you to do something about it.

How? Invite a kid to Field Day.

Invite them to help you set up antennas.

Show them how you power the rigs with a generator, or even cooler, by charging a battery with a solar panel.

Let them sit in front of the rig, show them how to make contacts, and log for them. To make it easier for them, make up a cheatsheet with the cal lsign spel led out phonetical ly and the exchange, also spel led out phonetical ly.

Let them operate for as long as they're interested. When they're done, thank them on contributing to your club's total score.

Answer every single one of their questions.

This may not win them over immediately, but I can assure you that it wi l l make an impression on them. To increase your chances ofsuccess, find a kid that's already technical ly incl ined. Invite a bunch of them from the high school 's robotics team, for example.

I f you don't have any plans for Field Day, then make some. Then, go find that kid. I f you don't, then you don't have any right tocomplain that there are no kids in ham radio.

===================================================

When he's not trying to get kids interested in amateur radio, Dan, KB6NU enjoys working CW on the HF bands and teaching hamradio classes. For more information about his operating activities and his "No-Nonsense" series of amateur radio l icense studyguides, go to KB6NU.Com or e-mail cwgeek@kb6nu.com.

I joined the QCWA a few weeks ago. I ’ve been eligible formembership since 2002 but I didn’t quite see myself as an oldgeezer back then.

Time changes your perspective, and the organization recentlymade dealing with them frictionless. I was able to join and paydues onl ine — and its publications are now online too. That, andthe fact that I ’m now occasional ly given an unsol icited seniordiscount on coffee at McDonalds caused me to pul l the trigger andjoin the Quarter Century Wireless Association.

And that got me thinking about my thirty-six years in the hobby.

That’s a long time to do anything when you think about. Andthinking about it made me wonder if i t’s been a worthwhi le use ofmy free time and financial resources, and just what exactly have Imanaged to accomplish?

Consider for a moment The Old Man, Hiram P. Maxim, W1 AW.He founded the ARRL in 1 91 4 and was dead just twenty-twoyears later. He was a radio enthusiast for a few years beforelaunching the League, but only for a few years. After al l , radiodidn’t real ly exist a decade or so earl ier and it was some yearsafter that before the coming of the law.

That means it’s probably safe to say that I ’ve been a licensedradio amateur longer than Maxim, and if that doesn’t generatesome introspection, nothing wil l . A mind is a terrible thing and

using it l ike this can be troubling. For instance, given the finitenature of l i fe and the many activities that one can pursue as aradio amateur, does it real ly make sense to do the same thingover and over again. For 20, 30, 40 or more years?

I was born in 1 959 (you do the math) and figure that if I ’m veryfortunate, I might have 1 5 good years left to enjoy the hobby —and that time wil l doubtless pass very quickly.

I ’ve never been on a DXpedition. I ’ve never had a tower or an HFYagi. I ’ve never owned a big amplifier. I ’ve never bounced a radiosignal off the Moon or the ionized trai l of rapidly fal l ing spacerocks. I don’t have WAS or DXCC on phone. I ’ve never been a netcontrol operator. I ’ve never spoken at a conference or written anaward winning paper about any aspect of the hobby. I ’ve neverinvented a new mode or method of communication thatrevolutionizes the hobby for others.

Have you?

People often say that these kinds of things are on their “bucketl ist” — an imaginary l ist of things to do before they die.

That’s great but if these aspirations remain on some imaginary l istand never become reality, what good are they?

Smoke Curls is written by Jeff Davis, KE9V. www.KE9V.net

Time PassagesJeff Davis KE9V

7Short SkipVol. 61 No. 6

QCWA Chapter 36 Meeting InformationStan Vandiver, W4SV

Detai ls of our upcoming meetings, and highl ights of past meetings,

can always be found at http://www.chapter36.org/meetings.html.

I t is not necessary to be a QCWA member to attend breakfast and

dinner meetings. Al l are welcome. Use this l ink to check on future

dates: (http://www.chapter36.org/meetings.html) .

73, Stan W4SV

Wow, our attendance picked up nicely (36 people) for ourApri l meeting at Suzie's Cafe. Was the food the attraction(which was delicious)? The beautiful spring weather? Orwas it that Friday might be more popular than Thursday forour meetings? I guess we wil l ponder that in the future andmaybe try some more Friday evenings too as chanceallows.

The membership agreed to upgrade the 1 st Place prize inour current membership drive contest. So now we wil laward a $50 CASH PRIZE to the 1 st Place winner whorecruits the most new members before our August meeting.I hope you find this a l ittle more motivating! The 2nd Placewinner wil l now get the 201 1 ARRL Periodical CD-ROMand QCWA mousepad, and the 3rd Place winner wil l getthe QCWA mousepad only. We had a couple of newrenewals since our last meeting: Don KD9HI and Bil lW9OPR... THANKS guys! Remember that your renewalscount in our membership drive contest, but only inconjunction with new members recruited . The ful lcontest rules and a scorecard of the current standings areavai lable on the Contest Page.

We had many great show-and-tel l i tems this month. TomW8FIB brought his 1 937 (or 1 938) McElroy telegraph keyand its wooden shipping box, and also a few special QSLcards. You may have recognized one of those cards.. . i tsowner was at dinner with us, K9WHK! Bruce W9OTN alsobrought a telegraph key, an unusual vertical key (and anosci l lator so we could play with it) . The single paddle sti l lswiped sideways, but the mechanism was mountedvertical ly on the base rather than laid out horizontal ly as isnormally done. Rich 'Doc' Lochner K9CIV brought hisPanama Canal Transit Award for working them on 1 0meters back in his early days (1 979). Dale AC2E brought aneat l i ttle gadget, a mobile digital video recorder (DVR),more commonly known as a dash cam. I t has a sturdysuction cup mount for your vehicles windshield, runscontinuously off of a cigarette l ighter or power accessorysocket, and can take high definition video and also verygood quality resolution sti l l photos (1 2 megapixel, I think).This handy l ittle gadget l ists for only $35 on the Internet.You can see it onl ine with more specs here. Also on displaywere our 2nd and 3rd Place contest prizes. Thanks to al lwho brought items in for our show-and-tel l !

Membership Drive Contest Update: Dennis, K9JZZ, is sti l lour current leader with one new member signed up...himself! But a score of one should be easy to beat, socome on out and play, and get some new members signedup with QCWA! The latest contest updates wil l always bekept current on the Contest Page. Remember: 1 st Prize isnow $50 CASH!

Photos by Stan W4SV(Higher resolution photos are almost always avai lable.Email Stan, W4SV if you want a better copy.)

8Short SkipVol. 61 No. 6

I know alot of our members love when I show you what's new and cool and wicked in newrigs we just HAVE to have! Lets start off with the BIG companies first Kenwood released itsmonster of a rig the top-of-the-range flagship model TS-990S. At just under eight grand theonly things noteworthy about the radio is that it features a bui lt-in automatic antenna tuner,bui lt in AC power supply, a serial port, USB ports and a Ethernet port. i t also has a nice TFTscreen. Icom and Yaesu didn’t show anything new this year at hamvention, I thinking theywil l wait ti l l the JARL Ham Fair thats being held at Tokyo Big Sight, Ariake, Tokyo on

August 24th (Saturday) and 25th (Sunday).

Even though I thought something l ike that would happen, I was proved wrong 2 hours into writing this.. . Iguess somethings just sneak out or just isn't announced. Just l ike the Yaesu FT-252 and FT-257. Theylook a little l ike an FRS radio but packs the power of an amateur radio. The Yaesu FT-252 is acompact, rugged, easy-to-use, high-performance FM mono-band 2 meter handheld del ivering up to 5watts of RF power(A Lot more than those FRS radios). Receive coverage is from 1 36 to 1 74 MHz andthe memory systems boasts 200 memory channels. CTCSS and DCS encode/decode are included.The FT-252 is water protection to IPX5 specifications. I t has a strong 800mW audio amp for noisyenvironments. a useless ATS (Automatic Transponder System) that "beeps" when moving out ofcommunication range. The FT-252 comes with: Lithium ion battery, I think a battery charger that plugsinto the wall(Unknown at this time), a flexible SMA antenna, and belt cl ip.The Yaesu FT-257 is a "440" version of the FT-252. I t del ivers the same 5 watts but for the frequenciesfrom 430 to 450 MHz. Receive coverage is 400-480 MHz.I l ike what one commenter on radio reference said They look l ike crappy FRS radios.. . 'Yaesu has doneit again! ’ . Although looking on Yaesu’s webpage I can't find a reference of them even making this radiobut the l ikes of AES, Giga, and Universal al l carry the HT. List Price is $1 35.00 but some have it for$20+ cheaper.

TenTec has been busy as of late. They have a new computercontrol led CW QRP radio. Their new QRP radio the TenTecArgonaut VI has not been creating a lot of excitement or buzz,in fact many hams have shied away from it because its acrippled radio missing 6, 1 2 and 60 meters. You would thinkwith al l the technology we have, you wouldn't or couldn't l imit a

product that you know for sure can offer those bands! an also word of not is that TEN-TECIntroduced the Model 506 Rebel: an open-source QRP transceiver. Their are only two things tonote about this rig one is that its a dual bander 40 and 20 meter and the other I already mentioned

I think this next radio has been on the market before, it just never jumped out andsaid Hi! I ts the LNR Precision FX-2 QRP Transceiver. The FX-2 is a dual bandQRP transceiver which operates on the 30 meter and 40 meter bands. I t weighs inat only just over 1 0 ounces and is 4.5″ length x 2.375″ width x 1 .5″ depth. Thisl i ttle guy would be great to take with you to a park, hiking, or backpacking. ButWAIT in Q3/Q4 LNR Precision wil l be offering a quad-band SSB and CW QRPradio. 5 watts and very small . This wil l be real ly neat and it supposed to be lessthan $500. Watch for an announcement at http://www.lnrprecision.com.

Palstar showed off its new QRP rig the Palstar TR-30 at Dayton this year. Palstar is well-known for their tuners and their receiver, but was a welcome surprise to see a well knowncompany bring out something new and possibly revolutionary. The TR-30 has a simplefaceplate with a touch screen display, al l aluminum, rated for 20 watts PEP, and has an 1 1pole fi l ter on board. Palstar expects the TR-30 to be avai lable August 201 3 and be pricedaround $1 ,500-2,000.As a note Palstar has not released an image of this radio yet so if you want head on over tohttp://www.palstar.com and complain about it, than head on over to http://qrper.com andhave a look. BTW turnoff the ad blocker when visiting Palstar’s site.

I think I should have renamed the title to QRP becausehere is another one but this time its PSK. Si lentSystem is a tiny Japanese company who is offering avery small QRP PSK transceiver with a bui lt-indisplay, The name? HandyPSK. handy PSK comes intwo models 40 meters and 20 meters. You canoperate CW, PSK, QPSK, MT63 without a PC. Justconnect the battery and antenna and you can operateanywhere, anytime. The price is under $300. Get moreinformation or order it at http://si lentsystem.jp

Radio Radio RadioBenjamin Straw KC9UNS

9Short SkipVol. 61 No. 6

You know I wasn't planning on writing this long article, I was just going to show you thePic’s. Aha hel l I ’ l l keep going but don't blame me if you can't read this issue of Short Skip,you need to get some reading glasses :D

Now for al l you HT lovers, The Tokyo Hy-Power XT-751 SSB/CW handheld covers 40meters to 6 meters in both SSB and CW. It wi l l also has an internal ATU. I ts to bad this isonly a concept radio, but Tokyo Hy-Power hopes to have this radio in production mid year201 4.

Back to non QRP radios and shifting into my “Jeremy Clarkson voice.. . youknow Top Gear”, Anyway take a look at what's being cal led the Feitong modelFT-808, the new radio is being bi l led primari ly as a Marine Band transceiver,but its published specs read more l ike a mid-range car.. . i mean piece of hamradio gear. For instance the FT-808 has a receive range of 500 Khz to 29.9Mhz and a transmitter that covers 1 .6 to 29.9 Mhz. In other words, it covers al lthe ham radio bands from 1 60 through 1 0 and goes from 0 to 60 in 1 .3seconds.The receiver is a double conversion superheterodyne with both it and thetransmitter capable of operating Upper and lower sideband, CW and AM withan amazing 1 00 memory channels. Tuning appears to be a kind of shifterpaddles cal led up and down push buttons with a claimed receiving sensitivity

of 1 2 db SINAD and a squelch sensitivity threshold on SSB, CW, and RTTY of less than 5.6uV.One thing of note. While transmitter power appears to be in the 1 00 watt range, according to the public spec sheet there appears tobe no provision to lock out transmission on 1 1 meters. This wil l l ikely keep it from gaining FCC acceptance for legal ized sales here inthe US. At least not in its current non locked configuration. Did I forget to tel l you the FT-808 doesn't have a steering wheel? Its al lbuttons with a twist of knob... Makes me want to sob.Well that said, the Feitong FT-808 wil l have a list price of only $41 0 dol lars, but sources say this radio cannot be made for that priceso they think it should sel l for about $975.60 the 60 cent is to pay for a fake rap star that comes with it.

Going mobile we have the Leixen VV-808 nothing to big and spectacular to say about thisrig other than it comes in two versions 2 meter and 70cm and is cheap. At $1 00 from a USdealer or as low as $69 straight from China its a good buy for a Gokit or APRS. Somepeople just love these mono band radios and are hoping that they see a 900 1 200 or even acheap 220 mhz radio.

TYT TH-UVF8DOk I know you might be going when is this article ever going to stop well this is it with the last radio its a TYT... the TH-UVF8... Whata sec Ben, haven't we already seen this radio before? Well yes but look at the new colors! We have it in a hal loween orange andturquoise blue. At a low price of $59.80 via eBay or 409shop.com.

1 0Short SkipVol. 61 No. 6

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