August - Mike And Key Amateur Radio Club

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August 2007 K7LED Relay Postal Address Web Site Send dues to P.O. Box 4234 www.mikeandkey.org Mike&Key ARC Renton, WA 98057-4234 P.O. Box 4234 Renton, WA 98057-4234 K7LED Repeaters Email Send newsletter submissions to 146.82 output / 146.22 input info @ mikeandkey.org Gary Bryan, Relay Editor (PL 103.5) 34033 33rd Ave SW Squak Mountain Federal Way, WA 98023-7724 224.120 output / 222.520 input Reflector kg7ku @ arrl.net (PL 103.5) http://groups.yahoo.com/mkarc Tiger Mountain __________________________ Club Contacts _____________________________ President Mike Eakins K7OV k7ov @ k7ov.com 425-572-5248 Vice President Bert Nielson AF7V mlynx1 @ gmail.com 253-236-0478 Secretary Dick Radford WA7NIW wa7niw @ arrl.net 425-828-9791 Treasurer Carolyn Pasquier WV7Q carolynp @ sprynet.com 253-862-1157 Activity Mgr Mike Dinkelman N7WA mwdink @ eskimo.com 253-631-3756 Radio Officer Paul Roth N7DOH n7doh @ comcast.net 206-550-9690 Trustees -- No. 1 Frank Tate NA7O 206-762-4732 No. 2 Gil Drynan W7GIL gild @ seanet.com 425-392-1668 No. 3 Terry Barham WA7PML barhata @ comcast.net 425-227-9483 No. 4 (CoB) Steven Cook KD7IQL kd7iql @ arrl.net 206-781-2293 No. 5 Hal Mueller N3YX n3yx @ arrl.net 206-297-9574 Logo Committee Dan & Dawn Humphrey N7QHC / KC7YYB n7qhcdan @ juno.com 206-243-0163 Webmasters Jim Etzwiler / Dave Smith KD7BAT / KB7PSN kd7bat @ arrl.net 206-633-1512 Mike & Key Online -- Several club resources are available electronically: On the Web — The Club's site at 'www.mikeandkey.org' includes extensive information about Club activities and events, such as: VEC testing, membership, past editions of the Relay and more. Reflector — The Club's public message board offers an easy and free way to converse with club members. To sign up, surf to: http://groups.yahoo.com/mkarc. E-Relay — Want the newsletter in color and a day or two before the print edition arrives by regular mail? You will also save the club some money in printing and postage costs. To sign up, send a message to the editor: kg7ku @ arrl.net. 2
August 2007 _______________________________________________________ Upcoming Club Activities - August by Mike Dinkelman N7WA, Activity Manger The Club picnic is coming up August 18 th , following the regular Club meeting. It will be held at Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park in Renton which is over on Lake Washington. The park has boatlaunches, picnic shelters (we have one), playground equipment, tennis courts, horseshoe pits, sand volleyball courts, fishing pier, swimming area, 1.5 miles of paved walking trails along the shoreline, and is ADA accessible. Dave KB7PSN is organizing. The Club provides the hamburger, hotdogs, and pop. You get to bring potluck. For maps and other info, please see the Club web page. Because of the picnic, there will be no program following the business portion of the general club meeting. However, the September program should be a special treat. Mitch, K7TUT will present a program on his Amateur Radio experiences while stationed in Iraq. I’m sure that was a fairly unique experience and Mitch is always entertaining in print and person. The October program will be one on antenna modeling software by Scott AG7T. Scott did this a few years ago but we have many new members and a renewed interest in modeling and building antennas (especially on HF). I am sure that if there is a certain type of antenna you would like to see modeled, Scott would be able to demonstrate it but let him know BEFORE the October meeting. Now that August is here, it’s time to think about the Christmas Party in December. (Trust me, places are being reserved as I write this.) I need a volunteer to organize it. ____________________________________________ Being A QSL Manager... [Continued from Pg 1] Hams, using the same reasoning, used these cards to confirm two-way contact with another station, and my guess is that practice started on Day 1 and continuing to the present day. Of course, in the days of the penny post card, it was quite reasonable and widely practiced. Nowadays it is a more expensive practice, but still very much in vogue – especially in the pursuit of DXCC, the ARRL’s award for working 100 countries or entities. The idea of entities came into practice since we talk of Alaska and Hawaii as being countries even though they are “states” and obviously an integral part of the U.S. But, whether we call them countries or entities, if you are talking DX everyone knows exactly what you mean. So, that brings us to the QSL Manager. Suppose there is a station in the Alaska, and he is the very first KL7-land station you have ever worked. Wouldn’t you be inclined to want a confirmation of this contact. You bet you would! Now let us suppose that Joe, KL7ABC, spends a ton of time on the air but really 3 K7LED Relay doesn’t have too much interest in sending confirming QSL cards for years – after all, he has 5-Band WAS so why does he want to QSL? What are his options? One, he says, “Sorry, I don’t QSL any more.” Two, he says, “Glad to send you a QSL.” – but never does. Three, he says, “My QSL Manager is W5XYZ.” That means you send your QSL to W5XYZ, and W5XYZ replies with a KL7ABC QSL card – the only thing you have to do, is to send the QSL Manager an SASE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope) – bearing in mind the QSL Manager has no equity in the QSL exchanges, he’s just being friendly and doing you both a favor. I have served as QSL Manager in the past – 1) a British Marine in the Falkland Islands with whom I had a long QSO while driving home from Las Vegas to Riverside, CA; 2) an American on the Diplomatic Staff in Uruguay whom I met on the air and offered to handle his QSL chores; and 3) a friend, N6CFQ, who used to live in Riverside and then moved to Ireland for several years and was very active on 20M. Fred-W6TKV, M&K QSL Manager, and Russ-W7LXR, Incoming DX QSL Manager (W7, “L” Segment) Another well known DX QSL route is “via the Buro” and it is just for DX QSL cards, no stateside QSL cards. “Via the Buro” is really two totally separate bureaus – both organized by the ARRL. One is just for Outgoing QSL Cards and the other is just for Incoming DX QSL Cards from around the world. The ARRL Outgoing QSL Bureau is a much used route for sending cards around the world (see http://www.arrl.org/qsl/qslout.html). There is a modest fee based upon the weight of your QSL cards, however there are some countries not serviced and they are listed on the referenced web site. When you send DX cards, you are required to sort them by destination countries, and a word of advice, you will have QSLs which are going to be those cards which are being handled by a QSL Manager, e.g. you worked F6ABC in [Continued on Page 4]
Page 1: Volume 35, Issue 8 Mike & Key Amate
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