Students Win Grant

Bradley Van Uden (KG6CPY) and Ted Dawson (KG6AJH), both seventh grade students at Los Cerritos Middle School in Thousand Oaks, received a $500 California Association for the Gifted grant for year 2001.  Bradley and Ted submitted a proposal to the association to create an enrichment class for Los Cerritos students to teach them about electronics and amateur radio. The association was very impressed by Bradley and Ted's proposal and awarded them the $500 grant.  Bradley and Ted will provide the class for Los Cerritos students beginning next September.  The class will be provided as an after school activity.

Congratulations Bradley and Ted.

SECOND ARTICLE:

CVARC Comm Van Activities

Leon Kadish (N6VCL) has agreed to serve as this year's CVARC Comm VanChairman.  Leon will be coordinating all CVARC Comm Van activities for year 2001.

A CVARC Comm Van Concept Of Operations document has been written and approved by the board.  The document defines the purpose of the comm van, the types of activities that the comm van is allowed to support, and the
procedures that we follow in managing the comm van activities.  A copy of the document is available on the CVARC Web Page.

The comm van has been used to support three community service activities so far this year with a number of activities coming up in April, May, and June.

The activities supported to date include the Conejo Valley Crop Walk (March 11), Simi Valley MS Walk (March 31) and the Westlake Street Fair (April 1).

Activities coming up include the Earth Quake Preparedness Day in Camarillo April 7, Cruzzin Conejo Bike Ride May 12,  Sea To Summit Bike Ride May 19, and Field Day June 23. 

These community activities are a lot of fun to participate in.  It is also very gratifying to see how much the community appreciates the communications support that we provide during these events. On March 12, Westlake Rotary International presented CVARC with a substantial donation for CVARC's work in providing communications support to the community.  The community really does depend on us!

I have different middle schools operating from Radio Central on the Battleship North Carolina on the following dates:

Wednesday, April 11, 2001 - 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon EST Wednesday, April 18, 2001 - 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon EST Wednesday, April 25, 2001 - 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon EST

Look for us near the following frequencies: 14.260; 28.560; 7.230. Call to be used NI4BK (Battleship call was NIBK) Please send a legal size SASE for a great QSL which will include a picture of the battleship, facts about the battleship and pictures of the students operating from the battleship.

Margie Bourgoin, KB1DCO
ARRL
Educational Correspondent
Phone: 860-594-0267
FAX: 860-594-02

N6WNE/K7SDW    1st place => 0.75      6.4 miles
KE6HUI/KE6UMW 2nd place => 2.0        11.0 miles
K6CAB/N6VCL Hiders

This brings the current YTD to...
N6WNE/K7SDW            1.5
KE6HUI/KE6UMW        4.0
WA6RJN                          7.75
K6CAB/N6VCL              8.0

Hiders
April 22 WA6RJN
May 20 KE6UMW KE6HUI
June 17 K7SDW N6WNE

Hi to all. As you may know through an accident of haste I've had a computer virus since about Jan 25, 2001 even though I had an anti-virus program. I'm very confident it has now been killed - after many false starts from the anti-virus company "techs." and 24 pages of misinstructions. It was killed through a over 2 hours of phone calls from an upstairs "tech. type" (known as an Escalation Team Member) at the McAfee anti-virus people which I arranged through their Customer Relations; a 30 min. download of the proper files; a 1 hour scan of over 19,000 files; and the killing of 2 viruses (probably related) and one "trojan" virus residing in 21 files. I believe I was lucky - all it did originally was scatter 842 small files into the computer and later corrupt random images displayed from a Zip Drive disk. It could have made a permanent spiral design on the screen; sent itself to my address list if I'd used some MicroSoft Mail (ExpressMail? Outlook Mail?) or do similar things.

THE LESSONS:
By all means be sure you know the sender before opening ANY email; Be sure you trust the sender and his/her awareness of viruses before you open any email attachment; Do not trust any "forwarded" emails just because a friend sent them; Run your anti-virus scan program very often; hopefully you have an email scan included.
Be sure you keep your anti-virus program up-to-date  - it is USELESS unless it is up-to-date and that means within the last month or less!!!!!
Visit your anti-virus program's company website often to learn the names of recent viruses so you can be on the lookout for them. Just a very few among the current ones include emails from the 7 Dwarfs; SnowWhite; hah-hah; a
Dutch tennis star's picture; etc. Don't think this only happens to OTHER people. Several friends have recently "just missed" opening an email virus. Be knowledgeable (that includes all in the family using email or the internet) or you are in for a mess that may cost you your computer or many $$$!!!  And there are many viruses that attack Mac computers too.
Good Luck to all. Bill.

==>NEW FIELD DAY RULES FOR 2001 DESIGNED TO ENHANCE THE FUN

Field Day 2001 will run from 1800 UTC June 23 to 2100 UTC June 24--as always, the fourth full weekend in June. Typically a club or group event, Field Day is the most popular operating activity of the year--and one of the
most enjoyable for hams of all skill levels. A few rules changes this year affect bonus points for Field Day scores.

* The non-traditional mode bonus has been expanded from 100 to 300 points for doing three separate demonstration modes. 

* Packet is back and will be counted as one of the three demonstration modes, but to claim packet credit, you must set up a portable digipeater system. Existing, permanent packet networks do not qualify for this bonus.

* You may earn a 100-point bonus if an invited local government official or representative of one of the agencies that ARES serves in an emergency visits your Field Day site. To earn this bonus, the invited official must actually visit the site, not just be invited.

* The message-handling bonus has been changed. You may now earn 10 points per message, up to 100 points total, for origination, relay, and delivery of formal NTS messages. In the past, only messages received and relayed were counted. The Field Day participation message to the Section Manager or Section Emergency Coordinator under rule 7.3.5 does not also qualify for bonus points under these rules.

This marks the last year that the extra Novice/Tech Plus station will exist in its current form. The Novice/Tech station is a non-counting transmitter, and its QSOs count for QSO point credit. The ARRL Membership Services
Committee is considering several options to encourage participation by newly licensed hams.

The ARRL Contest Branch has compiled a 24-page Field Day 2001 Information packet, http://www.arrl.org/contests/forms/01fdpack.pdf . This document is available in hard-copy format by sending an SASE with four units of postage to Field Day Package, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111.

In addition to the dated Field Day pins that have proven so popular the past few years, the League now offers 2001 Field Day T-shirts. Pins are just $5, and the T-shirts are $9.95. For ordering information, visit the ARRL Products Catalog, http://www.arrl.org/catalog, or call toll-free 888-277-5289. The Contest Branch no longer handles orders for these items.

As the Emergency Coordinator for Area 2, I would like to emphasize for each of you to attend the class on message handling.  This course is going to be available for all ARES/RACES members on May 5^th at the Camarillo Police Dept from 9 am to 11 am.

Not all of us are experts on the moving of traffic, messages, or general information.  This was very evident during our Area 2 drills as well has our County SET drills.  In October of this year we will be working to provide to the first 150 hams that sign up the introduction to the various service organizations that we has Ham say we are a resource for.  Well, the only way this hold water is to have you trained to be that resource.  Some of this training is considered by some Hams as not necessary as they think they will be used during a "real emergency".  Yeh, your right on, you be used to listen to your radio and not part of the team. 

It is very important that each of us becomes not only familiar with the ARRL methods of operation, but also how those methods are folded into our own community requirements.

If you can, please not only reserve the date of May 5 on your calendar, but also drop me a line, phone call, etc. that you will be attending.  Camarillo PD can hold about 50 and I would like Hams in the Conejo Valley in high attendance.

73 de Greg.
EC Area 2

It is very hard to decide what is important.  Ham Radio or other activities!  No question about it - HAM RADIO.  Just look at all the activities afforded you as a new or old timer in this hobby of various adventures.  More modes of operation than fleas on a dog.  If you have not had a chance to try any of these modes then Field Day 2001 is for you.  Besides the old standby CW & SSB modes, we have packet and PSK31 digital modes moving into the territory of fun fun operations.  It should not be hard for any of you to team up with a CVARC member up at the Byrd Ranch FD site.  If you need a rig, it will come.  If you need an operator, they will come.  After all, we have one of the best sites in Ventura County.  Let's see how many stations that we can not only put on the air but how many of us can learn and participate with other members and hams in the Conejo Valley are in the setup and operation of an emergency station.

If you think a band is filled that you want to operate, just let me know and we can always work things out.  This year the Comm Van will be manned by Roger, N6WNE, doing digital, but plenty of room for that 6 meter crowd on our new Alinco DX-70.  Go for the 6m antenna project and lets double up on the Van efforts this year, after all we have plenty of antenna ports.

The trailer is scheduled for 20 CW and all sort of operators are needed for both 15, 20, 40, and 80.  If you want to string out all that copper wire like we did one year, 160m is in your grasp, all you have to do is ask!

The VHF/UHF group should have a good year.  With the large sun spot a bit ago, who knows what may "spot" out in June.  I think the all mode functions on these bands has been overlooked in the past.  Maybe some of you need just a bit of coaching on what it takes to get the station going.

I am looking forward for the BBQ chicken and beef (no mad cow included) again this year.  That sure was a boon for operations and moral.  For those of you who have not participated in a CVARC FD, well just get that sleeping bag and 40 pounds of potato chips ready!  I will be asking for more sign ups for the next two months and "bugging" each of you for your support to the club.  This is one event that is the top project of the year for the Board members to assist in making this a memorable event of fun fun fun.

Give me a call, email, or sign up your pet, (as long as they can either talk or send CW or keyboard commands).

Check on the FD rules either at the ARRL.org site or at CVARC.org site.

73 de Greg, Operations Chairman, FD 2001

The recent "big" solar flare brought to my attention a mode of communications that has not been documented by the FCC, but has been available for Ham use all along.

What is it you say?  Well if you had a chance to set up your solar panel and catch the "BIG ONE" you would have been given a clue to the new source of energy and the ability to transform that energy into DX QSO never ending.  It is said that each time we send our RF signals out to space that the energy is still out there!  All you need is a receiver sensitive to detect it!  Imagine how we shrug this off as untrue and fluff it off as a joke.  Well, it's no joke when all of a sudden like in the movie Frequency an event like our recent solar flare lets the cat out of the bag.

It started with a snap and crackle sound under my rig, which is attached to the emergency battery/solar configuration.  I also have an old crystal radio tapped into the ground system to listen to local radio stations.  Well much to my surprise when the event took place I did not realize my cat had knocked down my CW key onto the old crystal set.  When I turned on my radio without looking at where my key was I heard various QSO's going on.  So like any decent Ham, I began listening to the conversations.  I could not believe what I was hearing.  I heard K6CAB on the key talking to several stations very rapidly, one after another.  I started writing down the calls and realized that Don was sending CQ FD and answering the stations with 10A SB.  I could not figure that one out!! What was Don trying to do, get a FCC ticket?  Well after a bit more call signs I had to check this out, so I called Don and he said he was not on the air.  I got last years FD logbook and started comparing the calls Don made during FD with what I heard that night.  Don could not believe it either.  I guess that's why they call it April Fools.     
73 de Greg