W6IFE Newsletter

President Doug Millar,
K6JEY 2791 Cedar Ave Long Beach, CA 90806
562-424-3737 [email-masked]

VP Dave Glawson,
WA6CGR 23437 E Amberwick Pl Diamond Bar CA 91765
909-861-7036 [email-masked]

Recording Sec Mel Swanberg,
WA6JBD 231 E Alessandro Blvd Riverside, CA 92508
909-369-6515 [email-masked]

Corresponding Sec Kurt
Geitner, K6RRA 1077 E Pacific Coast Highway #142
Seal Beach, CA 90740 310-710-7810 [email-masked]

Treasurer Dick Kolbly,
K6HIJ 26335 Community Barstow, CA 92311
760-253-2477 [email-masked]

Editor Bill Burns,
WA6QYR 247 Rebel Rd Ridgecrest, CA 93555
760-375-8566 [email-masked]

Webmaster Chip Angle, N6CA 25309 Andreo Lomita, CA 90717
310-539-5395 [email-masked]

ARRL Interface Frank Kelly, WB6CWN 1111 Rancho Conejo
Blvd. #501 Newbury Park, CA 91320 805-499-8047 [email-masked]

W6IFE License Trustee Ed Munn, W6OYJ 6255 Radcliffe Dr.
San Diego, CA 92122 619-453-4563 [email-masked]

At the 3 April 2003 meeting of the SBMS
Doug, K6JEY will show video of the Deep Space Tracking Station in Tidbinbilla
Australia, along with some pictures and stories of our trip to Australia in
December for the eclipse. 2003-4 Elections-- nominations will be asked for from
the floor prior to the election. The SBMS meets at the American Legion Hall 1024
Main Street (south of the 91 freeway) in Corona, CA at 1900 hours local time on
the first Thursday of each month. Check out the SBMS web site at
http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/.

Elections: Nominated last meeting were- President,
Dick, WB6DNX; Vice President, Ken, WB6DTA and Chris, N9RIN; Treasurer, Dick
K6HIJ; Corresponding Secretary Kurt, K6RRA; Recording Secretary Mel WA6JBD;
Newsletter Editor Bill, WA6QYR. Nominations will be called for prior to the
election at the April Meeting.

Prez Sez: As I am not able to run again for office
due to time constraints, I asked not to be nominated for office again for the
club. I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support of
the club and myself over the last three years. It has been fun, exciting and
challenging to be president of SBMS. My thanks to all of you in the club who
have been so supportive of all the things we have done over that period of time.
My thanks especially to the officers of the club who help so much in assisting
to run the club. It really wouldn't work without your dedicated and consistent
efforts. We have a number of individuals and small groups working on various
projects and in helping others get on the air. Each month we have seen more and
more progress and more and more stations get on the air. I don't know of any
other club with the kind of activity we have. We also have excellent people who
through consistent effort keep the club running smoothly. I want to especially
thank Dick, K6HIJ, for his work as the treasurer of the club, and Bill, WA6QYR,
for his work as newsletter editor.

It has been an honor to be president of such an active and strong club.
Surely SBMS is one of the best clubs in the country. I look forward to being
just a regular member and doing what I can to help in the club. 73, Doug
K6JEY

Last meeting Chuck, WA6EXV talked about the
construction and operation of the 1296 MHz to 2304 MHz translator and beacon
which was installed on Heaps Peak, DM14kf in November. His handouts are included
in this month's letter. Send him your reports of operation through it. Signals
from the Friday night 8 pm 1296.1 MHz net can be heard through it. Thanks Chuck.
Mike, W6YLZ was presented with the SBMS Plaque for winning the ARRL 10 GHz and
Up contest. Bill, K0RZ will receive his in the mail soon. Welcome to visitor
Greg Bailey K6QPVof San Diego. Ken, WB6DTA had a new board for the power supply
of last month. See enclosed page. Discussion of where everyone was going and
bands to be on was held in preparation for the upcoming 2 GHz and up contest. We
are buying a Hysonic 15watt wireless PA system to be used at club functions.
Since it is battery powered, we can use it nearly any place we want to. It also
has provisions for a wired microphone. Tests of a similar unit at meetings
showed it to be a big improvement over the old unit in every respect.
http://www.kaitousa.com/SH120B.htm. We got a special price. It was agreed to
give the old PA to the American Legion. There will be no banquet this year since
time has already passed. 25 people present.

Responses to the first SBMS 2 GHz and Up contest.

Activity of the Microwave Group of San Diego in the March 15/16 2003 2 GHz
and Up contest was as follows: One and a half inches of rain fell (Monsoon
Conditions)! Activity was mostly from indoors pointing out windows toward nearby
mountains for bounce to distant stations.

Jack, N6XQ 9 QSOs with 6 Stations on 10 GHz, 1436 Km pts, Pwr Mult=2, Score
4072.

Ed, W6OYJ 4 QSOs with 4 Stations on 10 GHz, 415 Km pts, 10Ghz total = 2445, 1
QSO/1 Station on 2.3 GHz, 2 Km pts, 2.3 GHz total = 306, Score 2751.Pwr Mult 3
both bands.

Chuck, WB6IGP 2 QSOs with 2 Stns on 10 GHz, 404 Km pts Mult=1 Score 604 Note:
QSOs by 180 deg bounce off Mt. Miguel.

N6IZW 1 QSO 10 GHz, 25 Km pts, Mult=3, band total=125, 1 QSO 2.3 GHz, 2 Km
pts, Mult=3 Band total =306 Score 681.

Total Score for San Diego Group=8108 pts, 18 QSOs. 73s from Ed, W6OYJ

Pat, N6RMJ, Chuck, N6EQ, and Glenn, KE6HPZ were reported as out running
around.

Bill, WA6QYR roved on Sunday 3 contacts on 10 GHz; 6 contacts on 3456 MHz,
and 6 contacts on 2304 MHz for a total of 3 calls, 15 contacts, 3 bands, 1092
points for SBMS.

Chuck, WA6EXV worked from home on 3 bands: 2304 MHz 126km @ med power X2 + 1
call = 352 points; 3456 MHz 126km @ QRP X3 + 1 call = 478 points; 10368 MHz 40km
@ Med power X2 + 3 calls = 380 points; Total Points = 1210, 3 Calls, 15
contacts, points for SBMS.

Scheduling:

1 May Wayne KH6WZ Extremely low loss polarity protection for your microwave
rig. Parts kit available at meeting.

5 June Feeding of TWT's

14-16 June June VHF QSO Party

28-29 June Field Day

2-3 Aug UHF contest

16-17 Aug 10 GHz and Up contest

13-15 Sep VHF QSO Party

20-21 Sep 10 GHZ and Up contest second half

"Wants and Gots" for sale

Want HP715 Power Supply, X13 Klystron, and HP 809 and 810 unit- Ed K6ODV
909-689-1339.

Want ceramic caps 0.005 ufd @ 4kv Mike W6YLZ 881-349-8525

Want 10 GHz antenna and feed Wayne KH6WZ 714-846-1230 [email-masked]

For sale #65 0.033 carbide bit Larry K6HLH [email-masked]

I'm still looking around for a good blue Siemens TWT tube--RW2135 and a
couple of junker WR-90 waveguide four port switches. Regards, Frank WB6CWN
(805)230-2253

Activity reported at the March SBMS meeting- Doug,
K6JEY has 24 GHz SSB on air and will start contest in desert; Mel, WA6JBD has
some 6 GHz TWT and worked with brick oscillators; Dick, WB6DNX did some 24 GHz
power supply work and learned more about mill operations; Chuck, WA6EXV build
the Brooks Shea GPS ref and a pulse generator 100 KHz to 1000 seconds in decades
and had them to show; Bill, WA6QYR built some shelves and moved stuff from shop;
Rick, W6ESS did some work on his K2 IF radio and some tweaking on the 10 GHz
rig; Ken, WB6DTA visited San Diego and will be having relay kit boards next; Ed,
W6OYJ had his 2 GHZ polarplexer simplexer rig with TVRO LNA 146 MHz IF to show
its operation and to listen to the Heaps Beacon during the meeting, He has
updated more 24 GHz material to the web site and reiterated the problem with the
3 GHz IF boards in mixer diodes being backwards; Kerry, N6IZW had his tweaking
board version of the Pcom modules to show the innerards of bypassing filter and
hopes to have documentation completed by end of March; Greg K6QPV plans to be on
San Miguel with 10 GHz; Dennis, WA6NIA has his first 2 Meter EME contacts from
Inyokern where it is electrically quieter and plans to be out with 10 and 24
GHz; Pat, N6RMJ had WSJT 2 meter contacts with 10 countries and has new tripod
for 10 GHz rig; Chris, N9RIN is still working on DBNT rigs; Larry, K6HLH did
some 10 GHz rig work; Joonho , KG6MQS needs some help with antenna work; Glenn,
KE6HPZ did some sequencer work; Paul, N6DN just getting on 10 GHz; Dick, K6HIJ
did some work on building block for Chuck's sub reflector; Bill, KG6CNL is in
the acquisition mode; Wayne, KH6WZ is working on a Down East 10 GHz rig; Mike,
W6YLZ did some more TWT work; Chip, N6CA did lots of work work; Tony, KC6QHP did
some work on his 24 GHz rig and the motor control circuits in the pointing
head.

Off the web:

W4WWQ and myself bettered our 120GHz DX to 12.79km on March 10th, 2003. This
should be a new World and North American DX record. The former record was held
by W0EOM and KF6KVG at 11.6km back in 1999. QSO Details: Date: 3/10/03 Time:
01:24z W4WWQ 37-20-28 79-10-39 FM07ji WA1ZMS 37-25-48 79-16-01 FM07ik Distance:
12.79km Freq: 120.GHz Mode: CW Temp: 11.1C Dew Pt: -4.4C RH: 33% Pressure: 998mb
Atmos Loss: 1.22 dB/km Signals on the W4WWQ end were about 8dB S/N, while
signals on the WA1ZMS end were only 1 or 2 dB S/N. Since the atmospheric losses
at the time were about 1dB/km we decided not to try and push it any farther
until we can get better performance out of the gear. Hope to have some 120GHz
photos at www.mgef.org over the next few days. 73, Brian, WA1ZMS/4

Hi Brian - good work, but I have been late in announcing that Bob and I did
16.5 km on Fri, Mar 7. We have been trying 120 GHz for the last two weeks and
finally got a good day. More details later but basically the same rigs as before
with more tweaking. Will

Hi again to all, We (W4WWQ and myself), pushed our 322GHz "DX" to 1.4km on
March 4th, 2003.

QSO Details: Date: 3/4/03 Time: 01:17z W4WWQ 37-21-14.7 79-10-13.7 FM07ji
WA1ZMS 37-21-23.6 79-11-10.8 FM07ji Distance: 1.432km Freq: 322.6GHz Mode:
FSK-CW Temp: 0C Dew Pt: -6.7C RH: 61% Pressure: 992mb Atmos Loss: 10.6 dB/km
<---WOW! We likely would have had better results if we had a day with a lower
dew point. The QSO on the WA1ZMS end was tough at best. Problems with frequency
stability limited the application of weak signal software like Spectran, etc. So
good old fashion

5WPM CW and headphones were used. Since one station has a better RX mixer
than the other (isn't that always the case!) Pete, W4WWQ had about 6dB of margin
on his end while I had 0dB on mine. The gear is the same that was used in the
recent past for other 241/322 GHz QSOs. Photos of gear can still be found at
www.mgef.org. For this QSO the 80GHz drive level into the diode multiplier was
reduced during RX to get a lower conversion loss. I hope that others can get
some gear running on +300GHz and

give this DX record a smashing! 73, Brian, WA1ZMS/4

Hi all, well the competition for DX records on 120GHz is continuing. Mother
nature gave the local area a blast of cold and dry air last night. I just
couldn't pass it up! (Also gave us light snow this morning.) W4WWQ, KA4YNO and
myself took to the local hills and managed three QSOs on 120GHz with our
best

DX being 20.6km. Date March 11, 2003 Time 03:41z W4WWQ/4 37-22-48.7
79-21-20.3 FM07hj WA1ZMS/4 37-29-46.6 79-32-15.7 FM07fl Distance 20.631km WX on
WA1ZMS end of QSO Temp -2.7C Dew Point -18.3C RH 29% Pressure 906mb Calculated
loss ~1.09dB/km Interesting point to note, as the WX gets colder, the total loss
per km can go UP as oxygen replaces water vapor. Interesting twist for the bands
near oxygen absorption lines. The same thing can happen on 75GHz at the low end
of the band.

That's it for me on 120GHz. Now it's W0EOM's turn or for someone else to join
the competition.

Remember, DX records are made to be broken. Had the WX not turned dry/cold
here, I'd be stopped at 12km. Photos and a noisy audio file can be found at
http://www.mgef.org/zms_120.htm 73, Brian, WA1ZMS

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I wanted to let you know that we will be hosting the11th International EME
Conference in New Jersey in August 2004. The Conference web page is: http://www.qsl.net/eme2004. You may want
to publish this information in the next issue of your newsletter. The Conference
will be of interest not only to EME operators, but also to general VHF/UHF/SHF
hams. Thanks, Marc N2UO & Al K2UYH, Organizing Committee, EME 2004.

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Hola! Finally got a couple of pictures up from Clint W1LP/mm. Will try and
get more up soon.

See: http://www.ham-rdio.com/w1lp.
73 Chip N6CA

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Hello Microwavers, Today we added the two new drawings of Pcom 23 GHz
modifications from the SBMS February 2003 Newsletter to the SBMS web pages. The
drawings of Sam's (K6VLM) mods for 24 GHz operations were done by WA6QYR and
WB6DTA. The drawings were redone to make the component and descriptive labels
larger and more legible for the web. One drawing is the "DC Wiring of K6VLM's
Pcom mods." And the other is an "Overall Block Diagram of the modified Pcom
transverter". This version of the mods does not utilize the original Pcom
synthesizer and does not require the Pic processor to set that synthesizer. Part
of the synthesizer module is used to amplify the 2640 MHz Qualcomm synthesized
VCO signal and the original X4 multiplier in the Pcom module is used to produce
the pair of 10560 MHz outputs to drive the LO inputs of the RX and TX modules.
You can find these drawings and other Pcom mod info at: http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/sd/pc23mods.htm.

73's Ed W6OYJ

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Hello everyone Please amend your listings and/or "favorites" list in your
browser. I have now acquired a personal domain name: www.g3pho.org.uk which
should now be used instead of the http://www.g3pho.free-online.co.uk/ address
used previously.

This means I can change my ISPs at will without having to change the URL for
the website. The www.qsl.net/g3pho URL is also still current and should be used
if you don't like the frames version at the new domain. Thanks for viewing! 73
Peter Day, G3PHO Editor RSGB Microwave Newsletter

"The World Above 1000MHz" webpages: http://www.g3pho.org.uk%20/

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Its been awhile that I have written you, my friends. I am sending this out as
a blind address to all of you to protect the privacy of your individual
addresses, rather than send individual e-mail. I have made a lot friends thru
the years so this gets the word out faster.

Most of you know I have been on a couple web search lists for dating (since
Dec. 2001). I have even met a few gals over the last year and a half and a
couple of you are being sent this message. From the beginning I have had a
friend, Janet, who I have written and has become a good friend. We have shared
our "adventures in on-line dating" and our disappointments. Finally, we both
just ended writing each other having exhausted the list of others. It was
obvious we should meet to see if something more than friendship was in store for
us.

Feb. 19th I flew down to Gulfport, MS to visit Janet. She is essentially the
same age and divorced since 1994, lives in Pass Christian near Gulfport. She is
a northwesterner originating from Oregon and living in

southern CA for many years. We spent four fantastic days together. I saw her
home, workplace, met her nearby adult son and his girlfriend, her friends and
coworkers. We drove around seeing the community and sampled a couple eating
places, did a little window shopping, and visited the NASA center nearby (she
knew I would like that because of my past employment).

OK, we fell in love! Unbelievable at this later stage in life. WE were just
hoping our friendship would blossom some. Well, it did beyond our wildest hopes.
This Friday, a week after I got back home to Alaska, I called her and proposed
and she accepted. We are engaged. While down in MS we visited a jewelry store
and compared tastes in rings. Yesterday, I arranged for her to get hers. So it's
official!

It took me awhile to get here...nearly 59 years as a bachelor. Because we
both need jobs, it will take some time to figure out which of us will move and
where (Alaska or Mississippi). Therefore, we have not set a wedding date
(expecting a year, maybe). We will let you know!

Ed and Janet Cole AL7EB

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Hi --This is a slightly unusual message; please forgive the intrusion.
Although I subscribe to the microwave list because it's a frontier of ham radio
that I'm personally exploring, I'm posting this in my capacity as President of
TAPR.

As you may know, TAPR supports all sorts of activities related to digital ham
radio, from traditional packet to digital voice to spread spectrum. Lately we've
been involved around the edges of the movement to use 802.11b hardware for ham
operation on 2.4GHz. Although we applaud the ham spirit of innovation that leads
to this, we have some real concerns that in the long term, sharing the 2.4GHz
802.11b channels between Part 15 and Part 97 users is going to lead to trouble.
We should be doing high speed SS stuff, but we shouldn't be doing it in a shared
spectrum that's going to result in us getting blamed for taking down your mom's
WiFi network.

But there's all that cheap WiFi hardware out there, and we have all sorts of
spectrum on other bands that we're not making much use of.

To solve that problem, TAPR would really like to see a low cost transverter
that would hook up to an 802.11b card on one end, and to a [insert your favorite
microwave band here] antenna at the other. And you guys are just the ones to do
it...

We are willing to provide modest financial support for the development effort
(we don't pay by the hour, but can cover material costs and alpha/beta PC board
runs, etc.) and can handle kitting and/or production of the final version.
Depending on the ongoing involvment in production, some sort of per-unit payment
may be workable (that's a matter for negotiation).

We're looking for something simple and low cost, with modest performance (it
would be nice to have /a few dB better power output and receiver sensitivity
than the typical 802.11b card, just so we can show

value-for-money, but cheap and easy to build are more important attributes
than super performance). TX/RX turnaround time may be a challenge, but there are
a lot of external amps used with WiFi gear, so the switching time seems should
be a surmountable obstacle. It seems to me that 3.3GHz is a good target band,
but we're by no means wedded to that.

I sure hope that one of the enthusiasts here will take up this challenge. If
you're interested, please drop me a line.

Thanks and 73,John Ackermann, N8UR [email-masked] http://www.febo.com
President, TAPR [email-masked] http://www.tapr.org

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73's, Bill

Bill, WA6QYR was out roving during the SBMS 2 GHz and Up contest in Indian
Wells Valley DM15. His vehicle had a 2304 MHz and 3456 MHz loop yagis mounted on
top and the radio gear inside.

The San Bernardino Microwave Society is a technical amateur radio club
affiliated with the ARRL having a membership of over 90 amateurs from Hawaii and
Alaska to the east coast and beyond. Dues are $15 per year, which includes a
badge and monthly newsletter. Your mail label indicates your call followed by
when your dues are due. Dues can be sent to the treasurer as listed under the
banner on the front page. If you have material you would like in the newsletter
please send it to Bill WA6QYR at 247 Rebel Road Ridgecrest, CA 93555,
[email-masked], or phone 760-375-8566. The newsletter is generated
about the 15th of the month and put into the mail at least the week prior to the
meeting. This is your newsletter. SBMS Newsletter material can be copied as long
as SBMS is identified as source.

San Bernardino Microwave Society newsletter

247 Rebel Road

Ridgecrest, CA

93555

USA