ARRL Letter: WRTC grant

[frenaye at pcnet.com]

Two items of interest in this week's ARRL Letter (available at www.arrl.org):

FIRST COLVIN AWARD GRANT TO WRTC

The first ARRL Colvin Award grant has been made to the World Radiosport Team 
Championship 96 Inc. The $5000 award will help support the WRTC event to be 
held in the San Francisco area July 13-14. The event, featuring HF 
competition among 52 two-member teams, is being held in conjunction with the 
IARU HF World Championship Contest. ARRL Executive Vice President Dave 
Sumner, K1ZZ, plans to deliver the grant to the WRTC-96 officers and 
directors at Visalia, California, this weekend.

The Colvin Award was established in 1994 with the proceeds of a life 
insurance policy purchased by Lloyd Colvin, W6KG, that named the ARRL as 
beneficiary. The award is conferred in the form of grants in support of 
Amateur Radio projects that promote international goodwill in the field of 
DX.

The first WRTC competition, with 22 competing teams, was held in Seattle, 
Washington, in 1990. Eleven competitors from the 1990 event--including 
defending champions K1AR and K1DG--are returning for this year's event.

WORLD-CLASS FOXHUNT COMING TO CALIFORNIA

An international-style foxhunt on May 5, 1996, will be part of the 1996 West 
Coast VHF/UHF Conference in La Mirada, California. ARRL Lab Supervisor Ed 
Hare, KA1CV, is among those scheduled to speak at the conference. He'll 
discuss TVI and the Amateur Radio operator.

"Foxhunting" or "foxtailing" for hidden radio transmitters is a very popular 
radio sport around the world, but it's done differently from the typical US 
hidden-transmitter or "T-hunts," which often are conducted from vehicles, 
with perhaps a short on-foot search (called a "sniff") at the end. 
International-style foxhunts are done on foot in big wooded parks. Five or 
more "foxes" transmit in sequence for a minute each. The first hunter to 
locate all foxes wins. Youngsters in many European and Asian countries do 
foxtailing as part of their physical education programs in school. A world 
foxhunting championship takes place in Europe or Asia every three years.

For the California event, all transmitters will be on 2-meter FM. There will 
be separate divisions for various age groups, with prizes for individual 
winners in each division.  There also will be team prizes. All entrants must 
compete independently, and each entrant must bring his or her own RDF 
equipment. For more information and ideas, check out the VHF/UHF Conference 
Web site at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kc6yhm, provided by 
Mike Cramer, KC6YHM.

The foxtailing contest offers cash prizes and trophies to winners. The event 
is open to anyone who has registered at the conference. It's being organized 
by the Southern California Six Meter Club. For more information, contact Joe 
Moell, K0OV, at HomingIn@ aol.com or at 75236.2165 at compuserve.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail: frenaye at pcnet.com  
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box 386, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444



>From stockmal at usa.nai.net (stockmal)  Sat Apr 20 01:11:41 1996
From: stockmal at usa.nai.net (stockmal) (stockmal)
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 20:11:41 -0400
Subject: N8BJQ (not) N8BJG & stacking horizontal loops
Message-ID: <199604200011.UAA22332 at usa.nai.net>

Thanks everyone for fixing me on that little mistake.  I did make the
correction and appriciate everyone's help.  Anyone into ants. know what the
pros and cons are of stacking horizontal loops for the low bands?  Anyone
ever try it?
                Thanks again
                        73 Phil/N1TMG
************************************************************************
    The Stockmal Household......................stockmal at nai.net    
                      http://www.nai.net/~stockmal         
                Middle Atlantic District Labs - MAD Labs
               IT'S NOT THAT IT DOESN'T WORK AS A COMPUTER, 
                  IT JUST WORKS BETTER AS A PAPERWEIGHT
************************************************************************


>From Rus Healy <rhealy at mdsroc.com>  Sat Apr 20 01:47:49 1996
From: Rus Healy <rhealy at mdsroc.com> (Rus Healy)
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 20:47:49 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Tower
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.960419204100.10863C-100000 at mdsroc.com>

Thanks to all who responded to my request for tower information. It'll 
help me prepare for a public hearing Monday night. More info after that.

--73, Rus

ps: How many other people--ex ARRL HQ staffers or not--were omitted from
the SS results? I've had scores screwed up before, but never totally lost
by the ARRL Contest Branch before. I recall an excellent article by Dave
Patton on this subject several years ago--all the emotions and things that
went through his head the first time it happened to him . . . somehow I'm
not as bothered by my 11-hour A-power effort being dumped as he was of his
full-time effort in a big DX contest. I guess there's still room for
improvement in the way submitted logs are handled by the various sponsors.
:')

-------------------
Rus Healy, NJ2L
Rochester, New York
nj2l at mdsroc.com

>From Ralph Bowen <rbowen at computek.net>  Sat Apr 20 01:46:50 1996
From: Ralph Bowen <rbowen at computek.net> (Ralph Bowen)
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 19:46:50 -0500
Subject: TO "BREAK-UP or NOT" ??
Message-ID: <199604200046.TAA07397 at ns1.computek.net>

On Guy wires:

Fred said:


>(3)  Don't break 'em up.  You can always do it later when
>you discover which are resonant and which are not.  OR,
>detune them by adding a few additional feet to change the
>resonant frequency.
>

This may be the way to go.

At N5AU, none of the guys were broken up except on those towers where made guys 
from guy wire scraps.  I believe the high 20M tower had some philly on the
upper guys.  Everything, including the stacks looking through all kinds of
guy wire seemed to work just FB.

73

Gator,  N5RZ   rbowen at computek.net


>From Wes Attaway <wes at prysm.net>  Sat Apr 20 01:48:25 1996
From: Wes Attaway <wes at prysm.net> (Wes Attaway)
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 19:48:25 -0500
Subject: multiple COM ports (vendor)
Message-ID: <01BB2E29.30885B00 at shr11-1.prysm.net>

To those numerous souls who expressed interest, I purchased the Flexport =
42 Quickpath board from HDSS Computer Products in Newark, CA; their =
number is 1-800-2529777.  I paid $98 back in Sept of 1995.  The board =
supports 57600 bps, 16-bit buffered, in/out speed, and bi-directional =
parallel ports.  Be aware that there may be upgrades and/or later models =
now.  My only point, originally, was that these kinds of specialized =
boards do work well.  This one is particularly handy since it has only =
one socket for the four serial ports, using a 4-way "spider" cable =
(supplied) with separate plugs on the end, making connections easy. Let =
me know if anyone needs further info. GL.
=20
--------------- Wes Attaway  (N5WA) ----------------
2048 Pepper Ridge, Shreveport, LA 71115
    318-7973012 (Office); 797-4972 (Fax)
------------------- wes at prysm.net ----------------------