F E E D - P O I N T
| October, 2009 | Vol. 19 No.10 |
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Good grief! Seven inches of snow on Oct.22! Not good news for the next Rocky Mountain expedition. All we can hope for is some warmth and that the rain falling today, Oct.24th, will take away most of the snow. I enjoyed a good ski on Oct. 23rd, the earliest ski I have had. Since the snow was quite dense, it made a good base. Our harvest-get-together at Lakeview on Oct.18th was delightful. There was lively conversation and good food. We had four door prizes:A Pelletier's Florist flower arrangement, a $30.00 gift certificate to Lowe's, an ARRL 2010 Handbook, and a bag of giant onions from N1FG's garden. | It seems like we are plagued with difficulties repeater-wise this year. Our thanks to Mike Daigle, Curt Harvey, and KB1OWW, who ascended Rocky Mountain on Oct. 15th. They carried the repaired repeater, two windows that KB1OWW made for the cabin, some water for the batteries, and various tools. We communicated by cell phone. I got the call to try to key up the repeater. Nothing heard either way. (See page 3 for the horrifying discovery!) Gale Flagg 108 Franklin School Rd Fort Kent, Maine 04743 Phone: 207-834-6670 E-mail: galeflagg@sjv.net Next Meeting: Tuesday, November 10th, 18:00 UMFK, Nadeau Hall, Alum. Conf. Room. |
| Schedule of Coming Events | ||||||
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| Date | Event | Place | Contact | Sponsor | Time | Freq |
| SUN | Net | NB | VE1PIN | IRG | 2000 | 145.130 |
| MON | Net | Fort Kent | N1FG | SJVARA | 1900 | 146.64 |
| MON | Net | Presque Isle | WA1YNZ | AARA | 2000 | 146.73 |
| Page 2 | Feed-Point, October, 2009 |
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Start Time: 12:19 Members present: N1FG and Stan, W1TCP, N1EVO, KA1SJV, K1FTK, N7GLR, KA7VNR, KB1OWW and Karen. Treasurer's Report: N1FRX:
Old Business: 1. Rocky Mt.: The repaired repeater arrived from K1XI. See page 3 for the details of the installation. 2. 146.640 Repeater: K1XI and N1HBY arrived on September 25th to put new duplexers in for the repeater. KB1OWW assisted. A few adjustments had to be made inside the cabinet, because the new duplexers were longer than the old ones. K1XI was on crutches. He injured his knee in a fall from a fire truck. We thank him very much for making the trip to do this for us. |
On October 13th W1TCP called to say .64 was dead. KB1OWW noted the same thing, and KB1OOW called KB1OWW to say he couldn't call his wife. What was wrong with .64? KB1OWW came to check the repeater the next morning. We found the batteries dead. (Lack of sun for several days previously.) We added a 2 amp charger to the batteries (not the one we had on them before). Gradually the batteries were charged and the repeater is working. We also know we can plug into AC if necessary. KB1OWW has been back to the tower twice since then to check on the batteries. So far, so good. Thanks, KB1OWW. New Business: 1. NEW HAM On October 10th testing was held for Kevin Pelletier. VEC's were N1FG, K1FTK, and KW1C. Kevin passed his Technician Test and his call sign is KB1TBI. Congratulations to Kevin. Next Meeting: Tuesday, November 10th, 18:00 UMFK, Nadeau Hall, Alumni Conference Room. Adjourned at 12:28 Submitted by Gale Flagg, N1FG |
| Happy Birthday | |
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| News in CW: K6DBG has taken CNN's "breaking news" feed supplied to Twitter and used a custom application to convert it to Morse code at various speeds. You can get Morse news by going to http://www.cw.dimebank.com:8080. | |
| Page 3 | Feed-Point, October, 2009 |
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Mike, Curt, and June installed the repeater, which had labelled wires. Mike had
a hard time putting the windows in because it was so windy. When everything was all set
they called me. I tried to key up the repeater. No response. They said they would
check things over and call me back. The batteries had enough water. They called me back
to inform me that the antenna was gone, or at least half of it!
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We were in touch with K1XI via cell phone. He was as dismayed as the rest of us. He called later with several antenna suggestions, including a strong one like the .64 antenna, but shorter and less gain. The next morning he informed me that he had a commercal 4 bay dipole he had taken off a tower that was being taken down. He would let us have it. K1XI is scheduled to come up Oct. 30 and install the antenna on Oct. 31. The antenna is 8' long and weighs 40 pounds. It is going to take several people to get the antenna up the mountain. Volunteers? Contact me (N1FG) if you can help. |
Heavy duty 40' galvanized steel tower, 16" X 16". Includes mounting hardware. $200. N1FRX. Force 12 EF-510, 5 ele 10m Beam w/balun New in the box, never installed Retails at $470/$480 ... asking $350 Call Don, K1FTK, at 543-6033 | Proofreading is a dying art, wouldn't you say? |
F E E D - P O I N T October, 2009
Published by the St. John Valley Amateur Radio Association
| and distributed free to members and friends of Amateur Radio.
| President: Gale Flagg N1FG
| Vice President: Gil Daigle, N1JHD
| Secretary: Sandra Daigle, N1QMC
| Treasurer: Charles Zafonte, N1FRX
| Public Information: Charles Ames, N7GLR
| Technical Advisor: Carl Pelletier, N1EVO and June Despres, KB1OWW
| Editor/Publisher/Printer
| Gale Flagg - N1FG / Stan Flagg 834-6670
| Associate Editor/Web Edition
| Charles Ames N7GLR
| Membership Information (Annual Dues):
| Regular Membership $ 12
| Associate Membership $ 6
| Articles may be submitted by anyone with a good idea, and may be re-printed
| only in their entirety and with credit going to this newsletter.
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