F  E  E  D  -  P  O  I  N  T

It's a good thing it is raining today, or I might not get this written in September. Been busy, harvesting, freezing, cleaning up the garden, and planting cover crops, among other things. The view from my office window is getting brighter each day. Many leaves have already fallen, ripped off by strong winds and today's rain.

On September 16th N1EVO and his brother Pete and dog stopped here early in the morning to pick up distilled water to take up to Rocky Mountain. I gave them a funnel and a smaller bottle to do the filling of the batteries. They were back here by mid-afternoon and we went up to top off the batteries for 146.640. N1EVO is going to make another trip to Rocky Mountain, because as they were leaving they noticed the antenna was at an odd angle. He was going last weekend, but with 30 mile an hour winds it didn't seem like a good day to go.

There has been a discussion about the 146.640 repeater. N1EVO noted that after it has been in use for awhile the audio drops. Several of us have noticed that on the Monday night nets. KB1OWW thought it might be because of the batteries. On September 24th N1EVO and KB1OWW came late in the afternoon with two testers to use on the batteries. The batteries were okay but on the low side. The battery charger Stan uses during Can-Am was still clamped to the batteries. Though it is not plugged in, there were two lights that were on the charger. Could the batteries be losing some of their charge to the charger? One clamp was taken off a battery terminal and the lights went out on the charger.

Speaking of the Monday night nets, they have been quite interesting lately, with several lively conversations about antennas. KB1OWW and N1EVO are experimenting with a vertical dipole.

We have held two testing sessions during the last week of September. The first was on September 22 at 8:30 AM at the Northern Door Inn. The three VEs were N1FG, KB1FTK, and KW1C. The candidate was KB1LGI, who took the Extra test. He passed. The second was at the Elrich home in St. Agatha. The VEs were N1FG, KB1FTK, and N7GLR. The candidates were a husband and wife, Ken and Theresa Cyr. They both passed the Technician test easily. No one had much notice for these tests. The candidates were ready and wanted the tests ASAP! Thanks to the VEs and the ARRL for their speedy action. KB1LGI wants all involved to know how much he appreciated the quick response.

One of the benefits of belonging to the ARRL is their outgoing QSL service. Recently as I was finally filling out about 65 QSL cards for DX contacts, I asked at the post office what the rate was for overseas airmail for cards. The rate is now the same as for letter mail; 90 cents. There is no longer surface mail overseas, everything goes by air.

After calculating the cost to send cards individually, which amounted to a staggering $58.50, I quickly logged on to the ARRL website and clicked through to their outgoing QSL service. What a deal, $5.00 for the first half pound and $10.00 for a full pound of QSL cards sent to their respective QSL bureaus overseas. By their estimation a half pound is approximately 75 cards.

Wasting no time I clipped the address label from an issue of QST, filled out a check to the ARRL and stuck everything into an oversized envelope and mailed it to Newington, CT at a cost of $2.50, for a total of $7.50 and a savings of $51.00. Such a deal!

We send our best wishes to N1JHD, who was in a serious accident just before our last meeting. The accident was caused by an inattentive driver ( not Gil), so keep your eyes on the road at all times. Gil, we hope you are feeling better.