Ladies' Home Journal Has Heard You

Thu May 16 17:46:33 EDT 1996

I have been considering whether to jump into the controversy about the
unfortunate reference to "amateur radio stations" in the June issue of
LADIES' HOME JOURNAL.  As a ham and a lawyer for the company that publishes
the magazine, I am either uniquely suited to comment, or uniquely
well-advised to sit on my typing hands.  Until now I have chosen the latter
course.  

But now I do have a few thoughts to offer. 

CLARIFICATION PLANNED--As Tree's recent post advised you, the Journal plans
to publish a clarification in an upcoming issue.  Our editors are working
with the ARRL on the form this will take, but it should correct the
misimpression left by the June issue's reference.  

A CALL FOR UNDERSTANDING--I have read several complaints on the reflector
about the fact the Journal editors responded to complaints initially with a
form reply.  Let me assure you that the volume of ham correspondence was
sufficiently large that it would have been practically impossible to tailor
an individual response to each.  

A CALL FOR PERSPECTIVE--I didn't like the statement, either, but, for the
sake of perspective, let me note it: 

                 (1)was an honest mistake; 
                 (2)was from a source the Journal editors 
                  reasonably believed was authoritative; 
                 (3)was not the main point of the column (which
                  was about how long things should last); and 
                 (4)was, after all, three wrong words in a 190-page
                  magazine. 

A SUGGESTION FOR THE FUTURE--This is not the last time a publication will say
something we don't like.  Some (though, by all means, not all) of the Email
received from hams by LADIES' HOME JOURNAL has been offensive, angry,
insulting and generally over-the-top.  Don't blow an opportunity to educate a
mass-circulation magazine and its readers about our hobby by inappropriate
and inflammatory rhetoric.  

ONE IRONY--Thank goodness for you, Barbara Leeson.  Without you, our
predominantly male hobby may not have been able to field a woman to write to
a women's service magazine.  My guess is the Journal has not published
anything that has provoked such an overwhelmingly male response for quite
some time.   

Well, that's my view (which, by the way, does not necessarily represent the
view of Meredith Corporation, the publisher of LADIES' HOME JOURNAL).  Maybe
I should have sat on my typing hands. 

Perry Bradshaw
WR0G

>From wrt at eskimo.com (Bill Turner)  Fri May 17 00:33:39 1996
From: wrt at eskimo.com (Bill Turner) (Bill Turner)
Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 16:33:39 -0700
Subject: Fire alarm/Security systems
Message-ID: <199605162333.QAA22318 at mail.eskimo.com>

If you do decide to use a kill switch, I would suggest one of those timer
switches which are designed to be installed in a standard electrical switch
box.  They are inexpensive and available in a variety of hour ranges.  That
way you can't forget.

73, Bill  W7LZP
wrt at eskimo.com

>From AD1C at tiac.net (Jim Reisert AD1C)  Fri May 17 05:03:33 1996
From: AD1C at tiac.net (Jim Reisert AD1C) (Jim Reisert AD1C)
Date: Fri, 17 May 96 00:03:33 -0400
Subject: CQ-Contest FAQ on WWW
Message-ID: <199605170409.AAA18569 at mailserver2.tiac.net>

The FAQ for the CQ-Contest mailing list has been posted to

	http://www.contesting.com

There are hot links to the various parts of the document, as well as links
to contest-related E-mail addresses (reflectors and contest log
submissions) and World Wide Web URLs.  Thanks to Bill Fisher KM9P for
giving it a home.

Trey of course will continue to post the text version directly to the
reflector.

73 - Jim AD1C

--
Jim Reisert <AD1C at tiac.net>                    http://www.tiac.net/users/ad1c/

>From n4bp at bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us (Bob Patten)  Fri May 17 07:06:53 1996
From: n4bp at bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us (Bob Patten) (Bob Patten)
Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 02:06:53 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: N4BP/C6A to be active for 50Mhz Sprint & HF on 5-18-96
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9605170121.B8468-0100000 at bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us>

W4OVU, WA4FLZ, and I will head for Bimini this weekend to participate in 
the ARRL 6 VHF Meter Sprint CONTEST.  We will be running 100 watts to a 2 
el quad and expect to hit the air waves by about noon on Saturday.  We 
will be active through Sunday on both 6 Meters and HF.  For HF, we will 
use a battery powered TS-130V running 5 watts to a trapped vertical and 
will be at or near the following QRP calling frequencies:
	cw	ssb
	==	===
	7.040
	14.060	14.285
	21.060	21.385
	28.060	28.385
For VHF enthusiasts, our grid square will be FL05.
For IOTA enthusiasts, our IOTA Ref will be NA048.
If you hear N4BP/C6A, please give us a call!
		73,		BP
Bob Patten
n4bp at bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us

>From n4zr at contesting.com (Pete Smith)  Fri May 17 17:16:32 1996
From: n4zr at contesting.com (Pete Smith) (Pete Smith)
Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 09:16:32 -0700
Subject: Shushing my TS-930
Message-ID: <199605171616.JAA23735 at dfw-ix2.ix.netcom.com>

Prepping for the WPX CW, I decided to borrow an amp and try high power for
the first time (since the rest of my station fits the TS class pretty well).
In setting up the borrowed amp (an SB-220) I ran into a problem that I hope
someone out there has already solved.

I like QSK for S&P, ragchewing, and DXing.  The TS-930's antenna relay is
nice and quiet in QSK mode.  But to control an external amp Kenwood says you
need to enable a larger relay inside the 930, which then makes a horrible
racket on QSK.  

For the near term, no problem, because the SB-220 isn't QSK-capable (yet) --
but has anyone come up with a way around this problem?  Specifically, the
930 has a normally-open-closed-on-transmit transistor switch that also comes
out to the REMOTE jack, and is designed for controlling the TL-922.  I
suspect that either the voltage (110 DC) or the current from the SB-220 will
be too much for that transistor to handle.  Does anyone have contrary
experience?  Alternatively, has anyone developed and tested a circuit for
controlling a beefier transistor switch with the little one in the 930, so
that silence can reign once again?

Thanks for direct replies - if there's interest I'll summarize for the group.  

73,

Pete Smith N4ZR (n4zr at contesting.com)

>From jayt at comtch.iea.com (Jay Townsend)  Fri May 17 18:58:41 1996
From: jayt at comtch.iea.com (Jay Townsend) (Jay Townsend)
Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 10:58:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 1996 WW RTTY WPX results
Message-ID: <199605171758.RAA23814 at comtch.iea.com>

The 1996 WW RTTY WPX results are now available on the web site of the
International Digital Radio Associaton (IDRA).

http://www.iea.com/~adrs. The plaques are being presented today
during the second annual RTTY DX & Contest Dinner during the Dayton
Hamfest. The remaining plaques and "wall paper" will be sent out to
all deserving entires as soon as possible.

The file on the Website is by catagory by score. There is also an FTP
file on the IDRA FTP site. ftp.iea.com /public/adrs/contest

The file is WW96WPX.ZIP and contains the Webpage file along with a
file in country order which is done in Word. That file will appear in
the results in the June issue of the Digital Journal.

73 de Jay WS7I
1996 Contest Co-Chair WW RTTY WPX

-- 
adrs at iea.com

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
            International Digital Radio Association (IDRA)

>From n4zr at contesting.com (Pete Smith)  Fri May 17 19:34:58 1996
From: n4zr at contesting.com (Pete Smith) (Pete Smith)
Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 11:34:58 -0700
Subject: Summary:  Yagi top-loading and the N4KG feed system
Message-ID: <199605171834.LAA00328 at dfw-ix3.ix.netcom.com>

Some time ago, I asked the Topband reflector whether the fact that my C-3
tribander uses all insulated elements would reduce the amount of top loading
effect I could expect from it when seeking to load my tower on 160.  This
mattered because I hoped to avoid the expense and complexity of a shunt feed
system by adopting the N4KG feed system, which requires a resonant length
above the feedpoint.

The opinions received were about equally divided on the subject of whether a
yagi with insulated elements would have less top-hat effect than one with
the elements connected to the boom.  Particularly given the complexity of
many modern antenna installations, the majority felt that the only really
workable approach was to *measure* the electrical height, using a grid dip
meter or similar instrument and the method outlined in ON4UN's book. (By the
way, W7EL specifically cautions against modeling errors in the case of
conductors approaching or crossing one another very close, but not
connecting, like insulated antenna elements).

The query spawned a second thread on the value of the N4KG feed system vs
shunt feed.  Several people expressed the view that the N4KG feed was
overrated because published modelling didn't take into account ground
losses.  One said he was very pleased with his N4KG-fed vertical, but quoted
a pretty wide SWR bandwidth on 160, which suggested significant resistive
losses were appearing in parallel with the radiation resistance.  A few
others reported good results with the N4KG feed, but a majority believed
that there really was no substitute for shunt feed and a good number of
radials to reduce ground losses.

Thanks to N6TR, WA6IZT/4, K9JF/7, K0GU, KN0Z, N0DH, KY3N, W8JIY, K2WK, AA1K,
and N4KW for their contributions.

73,

Pete Smith N4ZR (n4zr at contesting.com)

>From seay at alaska.net (Del Seay)  Fri May 17 19:25:03 1996
From: seay at alaska.net (Del Seay) (Del Seay)
Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 11:25:03 -0700
Subject: Shushing my TS-930
References: <199605171616.JAA23735 at dfw-ix2.ix.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <319CC47F.7CCC at alaska.net>

Pete Smith wrote:
> 
> Prepping for the WPX CW, I decided to borrow an amp and try high power for
> the first time (since the rest of my station fits the TS class pretty well).
> In setting up the borrowed amp (an SB-220) I ran into a problem that I hope
> someone out there has already solved.
> 
> I like QSK for S&P, ragchewing, and DXing.  The TS-930's antenna relay is
> nice and quiet in QSK mode.  But to control an external amp Kenwood says you
> need to enable a larger relay inside the 930, which then makes a horrible
> racket on QSK.
> 
> For the near term, no problem, because the SB-220 isn't QSK-capable (yet) --
> but has anyone come up with a way around this problem?  Specifically, the
> 930 has a normally-open-closed-on-transmit transistor switch that also comes
> out to the REMOTE jack, and is designed for controlling the TL-922.  I
> suspect that either the voltage (110 DC) or the current from the SB-220 will
> be too much for that transistor to handle.  Does anyone have contrary
> experience?  Alternatively, has anyone developed and tested a circuit for
> controlling a beefier transistor switch with the little one in the 930, so
> that silence can reign once again?
> 
> Thanks for direct replies - if there's interest I'll summarize for the group.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Pete Smith N4ZR (n4zr at contesting.com)

Diode switching would be your obvious solution. Pin Diode TR switches
are available commercially, and are very easy to build. One limitation
they have is that most of the high power Pin Diodes are only rated to
500 Volts. That's okay if the vswr remains low. However, run the vswr
up a tad, and bye-bye diodes! See ya'  de KL7HF

>From n4bp at bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us (Bob Patten)  Sat May 18 10:43:20 1996
From: n4bp at bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us (Bob Patten) (Bob Patten)
Date: Sat, 18 May 1996 05:43:20 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: N4BP/C6A trip cancelled
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9605180507.C417-0100000 at bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us>

Due to rough seas between Miami and Bimini, we are unable to make the 
crossing this morning.  We hope to make the trip another time..
Sorry...

Bob Patten
n4bp at bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us

>From harpole at pegasus.cc.ucf.edu (Charles H. Harpole)  Sat May 18 14:42:49 1996
From: harpole at pegasus.cc.ucf.edu (Charles H. Harpole) (Charles H. Harpole)
Date: Sat, 18 May 1996 09:42:49 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: ICOM 706 driving amp?
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.93.960518094013.17403A-100000 at Pegasus>

Anyone with experience hooking up T/R switching out of a IC-706 to key the
T/R relay inside either the Yaesu FL-2100B or  T/R switching the      
Alpha 87A ???
Tnx.  73, K4VUD