Fallbrook Amateur Radio Club Bulletin

Net Controls
Stephen Spencer    KC6MIE,  Steven Brooks    KE6GXP

Patrols

Fallbrook 1 Bigs Parker            KG6GIU Kathy Beebe          KI6OHQ	Fallbrook 2 Hayden Perrine        KG6YVD Krissy Powers        KR6SSY	Fallbrook 3 Randy Jones            KD6UAK Lori Wollacot            KJ6AFH
Fallbrook 4 / Fire Watch Red Mt. Ron Patten            KG6HSQ Dave Huhta            N6EEG	Fallbrook 5 Steven Brooks        KE6GXP Lynda Brooks        KI6OHX	Fallbrook 6 Roger Muynihan        K6RPM Andrew Weldy        KG6YWB
	Fallbrook 7 Conrad Lara            KG6JEI Ronald Stuart        WA6JEF

Patrolled routes 28, 28F,  43J and 48J.

Covered Fallbrook areas, Including, Del Luz, Rock Mountain, Gavilan Mountain, Sandia Creek,  Rainbow Glen, Rainbow Heights, Bonsall, Couser Canyon, Rice Canyon and Pala.

The highest temperatures encountered were less than 94.  The lowest humidity was about 33%.  The highest wind 8 Mph gusts.  Nothing unusual or remarkable was noted.  There was as many as 23, cars in the parking lot of the Santa Margarita Reserve.

Steven Brooks
KE6GXP

www.heywhatsthat.com

It does line of sight predictions and displays them on a google map. Go to the point, click on it and do a 'new panorama'. The 'visibility cloak' will shade line of site areas.

73. Dave N6EEG

Subject: Special Bulletin 10 ARLX010
From: ARRL Headquarters , Newington CT July 20, 2009
To: all radio amateurs

Legendary CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD, who held the title of ''Most Trusted Man in America,'' passed away Friday, July 17 after a long illness. He was 92. The avuncular Cronkite anchored the CBS Evening News for 19 years until 1981 when he retired. During that time, he reported on such subjects as the Kennedy assassinations, the Civil Rights movement, the Apollo XI lunar landing, Vietnam and the Vietnam-era protests, the Arab-Israeli Six Day War, Watergate and the Begin-Sadat peace accords.

Cronkite, an ARRL member, narrated the 6 minute video ''Amateur Radio Today'' www.arrl.org/ARToday/. Produced by the ARRL in 2003, the video tells Amateur Radio's public service story to non-hams, focusing on ham radio's part in helping various agencies respond to wildfires in the Western US during 2002, ham radio in space and the role Amateur Radio plays in emergency communications. ''Dozens of radio amateurs helped the police and fire departments and other emergency services maintain communications in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC,'' narrator Cronkite intoned in reference to ham radio's response on September 11, 2001. ''Their country asked, and they responded without reservation.''

Walter Leland Cronkite was born in St Joseph, Missouri on November 4, 1916, the only child of a dentist father and homemaker mother. When he was still young, his family moved to Texas. ''One day, he read an article in ''Boys Life'' about the adventures of reporters working around the world -- and young Cronkite was hooked,'' said his obituary on the CBS Web site. ''He began working on his high school newspaper and yearbook and in 1933, he entered the University of Texas at Austin to study political science, economics and journalism. He never graduated. He took a part time job at the Houston Post and left college to do what he loved: report.''
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/17/eveningnews/main5170556.shtml

In 1963, it was Cronkite who broke into the soap opera ''As the World Turns'' to announce that the president had been shot -- and later to declare that he had been killed.'' CBS called it a ''defining moment for Cronkite, and for the country. His presence -- in shirtsleeves, slowly removing his glasses to check the time and blink back tears -- captured both the sense of shock, and the struggle for composure, that would consume America and the world over the next four days.''

One of Cronkite's enthusiasms was the space race. In 1969, when America sent a man to the moon, he couldn't contain himself. ''Go baby, go.'' he said as Apollo XI took off. He ended up performing what critics described as ''Walter to Walter'' coverage of the mission -- staying on the air for 27 of the 30 hours that astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were on the moon. In 2006, NASA honored Cronkite by giving him their Ambassador of Exploration Award. ''His marathon, live coverage of the first moon landing brought the excitement and impact of the historic event into the homes of millions of Americans and observers around the world,'' NASA said in a news release announcing the award. Cronkite was the first non-astronaut and only NASA outsider to receive the award. www.arrl.org/?artid=6130

Steve Mendelsohn, W2ML, was Cronkite's radio engineer at CBS for many years. ''I had many chances to discuss my favorite hobby, ham radio, with 'the world's most trusted anchor man,''' he told the ARRL. ''Gradually, his interest increased, but on finding that he had to pass a Morse code test, he balked, saying it was too hard for him; however, he told me he had purchased a receiver and listened to the Novice bands every night for a few minutes. At the CBS Radio Network, Walter would arrive 10 minutes before we went on the air to read his script aloud, make corrections for his style of grammar and just 'get in the mood' to do the show. In those days Rich Moseson, W2VU, was the producer of a show called ''In the News,'' a 3 minute television show for children voiced by CBS Correspondent Christopher Glenn. On this day, Rich was at the Broadcast Center to record Chris' voice for his show and had dropped by my control room to discuss some upcoming ARRL issues.'' At the time, Mendelsohn was the ARRL Hudson Division Director.

''When Walter walked into the studio, I started to set the show up at the behest of our director, Dick Muller, WA2DOS,'' Mendelsohn recalled. ''In setting up the tape recorders, I had to send tone to them and make sure they were all at proper level. Having some time, I grabbed ''The New York Times'' and started sending code with the tone key on the audio console. For 10 minutes I sent code and noticed Walter had turned his script over and was copying it. We went to air, as we did every day, at 4:50 PM and after we were off, Walter brought his script into the control room. Neatly printed on the back was the text I had sent with the tone key. Rich and I looked at the copy, he nodded, and I told Walter that he had just passed the code test. He laughed and asked when the formal test was, but I reminded him that it took two general class licensees to validate the test and he had just passed the code. Several weeks later he passed the written test and the FCC issued him KB2GSD.''

Mendelsohn helped Cronkite make his first Amateur Radio contact: ''Having passed the licensing test, Walter was now ready to get on the air. His first QSO was on 10 meters about 28.390 MHz. He was nervous and I called him on the phone to talk him through his first experience. As we talked on the air, a ham from the Midwest come on and called me. Acknowledging him, I asked the usual questions about where he was from, wanting to give Walter a bit of flavor of what the hobby was about. I turned it over to Walter, and following his introduction, the gentleman in the Midwest said, 'That's the worst Walter Cronkite imitation I've ever heard.' I suggested that maybe it was Walter and the man replied, 'Walter Cronkite is not even a ham, and if he was, he certainly wouldn't be here on 10 meters.' Walter and I laughed for weeks at that one.''

In 2007, ARRL Hudson Division Director Frank Fallon, N2FF, presented Cronkite with the ARRL President's Award. This award, created in 2003 by the ARRL Board of Directors, recognizes an ARRL member or members who ''have shown long-term dedication to the goals and objectives of ARRL and Amateur Radio'' and who have gone the extra mile to support individual League programs and goals. Cronkite was selected to receive the award in April 2005 in recognition of his outstanding support of the ARRL and Amateur Radio by narrating the videos ''Amateur Radio Today'' and ''The ARRL Goes to Washington'' http://www.arrl.org/pio/VTS-video.wmv ''It was quite a thrill to make this presentation to Cronkite,'' Fallon said. ''He has long been recognized as the 'most trusted man in America,' so lining our causes to his face, name and voice has been a great help.''

Cronkite is the recipient of a Peabody Award, the William White Award for Journalistic Merit, an Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the George Polk Journalism Award and a Gold Medal from the International Radio and Television Society. In 1981, during his final three months on the CBS Evening News, Cronkite received 11 major awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1985, he became the second newsman, after Edward R. Murrow, to be selected for the Television Hall of Fame.

A private memorial service was scheduled for July 23 in New York City. Cronkite will be cremated and his remains buried in Missouri next to his wife Betsy, who passed away in 2005. A public memorial service will be held within the next month at Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations to the Walter and Betsy Cronkite Foundation through the Austin Community Foundation (http://www.austincommunityfoundation.org/), which will distribute contributions to various charities the couple supported.

As Cronkite said on March 6, 1981, concluding his final broadcast as anchorman: ''Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away, they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is.''

Fellow CERT, Ham Radio Team Members, I mentioned this on the Vista CERT net, last Thursdays, I now have some video, if you care to view it. Its what we train for, our stations can be called into play, at any moment, it doesn't take an earthquake, tsunami or fire, disaster...... (and I hope those never come our way) Its such a typical story demonstrating the need for HAM radio...... but then, I think, you all know that already......... so as a reminder.......... story and pics below....

Video taken by Kirk KE6MTF.
http://marlene.zimage.com/ke6mtf/hike/rescue/iPhone/IMG_0408.MOV

Rich KI6RRQ

Saturday afternoon around 3:00PM on July 11, 2009, I was monitoring the CARA repeater (Catalina Amateur Radio Assn.) on my base station, when I heard a call; "is there anybody listening", I responded; "probably about 300 people" and the caller said he was on his HT hiking around the Mt. Baldy area, he said he was about 2.5 miles off road and resting at the wilderness San Antonio Ski Hut and that a few hikers had arrived from farther in the backcountry claiming one of their group, had broken an ankle and was a mile or more up the trail and they needed help. Mt Baldy is the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountains and the highest point in Los Angeles area and Mount San Antonio is at 9,900 feet above sea level.

I had my computer on and asked the caller for his call sign and name, he responded: KE6MTF, Kirk , they matched, I asked if he had a cell phone, he told me there was no cell service on anybody's phone. I told him I would coordinate emergency services over my land line and asked for his exact location. KE6MTF, Kirk did an excellent job, he had a good idea of where he was but was not sure of the County, however he had GPS coordinates. I called 911 and was transferred three times until I was put thru to San Bernardino County Sheriff's dispatch, Chelsea, who coordinated the rescue with San Bernardino Fire, who sent a foot patrol and Sheriff dispatched a helicopter to meet someone at the Ski Hut to take them where the hiker was down. It took a little less then an hour for emergency services to get above the location in a helicopter and they were not able to land the helicopter because of the rocky terrain at the ski lift. Meanwhile the group of hikers had gotten the injured lady down the trail to the Ski Hut and had her leg stabilized and determined it was probably not broken but they still did not feel they could carry her out as the trail down from the wilderness Ski Lift was so steep.

The dispatcher said they would perform a skid rescue, where they drop and suspend a collector of some sort, from the helicopter, and this victim is secured and pulled up and out, in this manor. The dispatchers also asked if there were any other needs such as; food, water etc. and there were not. After about 15 minutes from arriving on site they were working to perfect the rescue and the victim was air lifted out, successfully, without further complications.

Since the incident, Kirk informed me that the injured lady was around 40 years old and that there were up to 15 hikers hanging around the ski hut some of which where search and rescue volunteers on vacation and they had some kind of radios with them however thier batteries where spent. Kirk said when he got out of his car, to start his hike, he grabbed his HAM radio and GPS and his friends said; "that's just extra weight, you wont be needing that" to which he said he replied; "first I go nowhere without my radio, second if I need to call for help, the only way I would be able to let them know where I am is with GPS, I'm bringing them, I don't think they will say that next time and one of them decided they need to look into getting a ticket and radio and that the search and rescue folks said they were going to look into getting HAM radio licenses"
HAM radio saved the day, a hand held radio, hitting a local wide area repeater, what was needed when cell and land line phones were not available. Many thanks to the CARA club for their awesome reach in southern California on 2 meters @ 147.090, + offset, no PL and those on the air that where very gracious to respect the traffic and keep communications open during the rescue.

This is such an excellent example of the benefits of Ham Radio If people had to hike out of the wilderness, get to their cars, find a cell signal, they might have been pushing up against the loss of daylight hours and rescue would have been significantly more difficult and might have included more people then just the initial injured party, meanwhile a couple of HAM radio operators, stood in the balance.

Emergency services, accepted the HAM radio call without hesitation and used me, a HAM radio operator, to ask questions back and forth with Kirk in the wilderness, to gain all the information they wanted and needed, to put assets on the emergency. It was as if I was calling about something in my own back yard, in Vista CA, San Diego County, when the problem was several counties away in the mountains, several hundred miles away from me, with people, I didn't know. I am proud to have had the opportunity to use my license in service of an emergency situation. As a CERT member, this was the very reason I got my HAM radio license, for, in the first place!

Rich
KI6RRQ

The "Before the Threat" movie (San Miguel version) has already been posted on YouTube. It is too large to post as a single movie, so it was divided into 3 parts. Here are the links:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj7EHvsrRzs&feature=relatedYouTube (part 1)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XhGOvxuB3o&feature=related (part 2)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzgfVblgK4s&feature=related (part 3)

Mishell Rose
KJ6AEV

By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU

One of the great things about Field Day are the stories. Every year, I add a story or two to my repertoire. This year is no exception.

My best story from Field Day 2009 starts about 1:30 pm on Saturday. I was at my post at the public information table/GOTA station. We had been ready to rock and roll for at least a half hour, so a group of us were just sitting around chewing the fat when 13-year-old Stuart and his mother walked up to the table.

Her son was a little on the shy side, so his mother explained that Stuart had seen a listing of our Field Day site on the Internet and had asked her to bring him out to see us. She mentioned that Stuart had been listening to ham radio operators on his little Yaesu handheld scanner for several years and was very excited to actually meet some ham radio operators and see ham radio in action.

Not only that, she said that he had taught himself Morse Code. A kid after my own heart! I quickly volunteered to give them a tour of our Field Day site. First, I showed him our VHF/UHF station, and he seemed really impressed with the five single-band radios.

Next, I took him into the 40m phone station. I asked how fast he could copy Morse Code, and he said 30 words per minute. I cranked the receiver down into the CW portion of the band, and sure enough, he could copy anything that I tuned in.

At this point, it was still only 1:45 pm, so I told him, "Let's go over to one of the CW stations, and we'll see if we can make a contact." We marched over to the CW #2 station, and after getting clearance from the station captain, I tuned around for a clear frequency, then called CQ. Immediately, N5VV, replied.

At this point, Stuart was so excited, he was shaking a little bit. Since the contest was just about ready to start, I kept the contact short, but that didn't matter. Stuart had finally gotten to see ham radio in action.

Stuart's mother then inquired about taking the test. I explained that our Volunteer Examiners give the test every second Saturday of the month and gave her the URL of our website. She said that Stuart had been studying and was ready to take the test.

Unfortunately, they had to leave at that point. I told Stuart's mother that we'd be there through 2pm Sunday and to come back any time. She said that they'd definitely be back the next day.

Stuart Makes His First Contact
Stuart and his mother returned about 1:30 pm on Sunday. He wanted to see the VHF/UHF station again, so that was our first stop. He took a couple of photos of the setup, and then I suggested we go over to the GOTA station. When we first got there, someone was at the mike, but shortly afterwards, they got up, and Stuart and I took the controls.

When we first sat down, I made a few contacts using my call to show him how to use the paddle. I noted that holding the levers down produces a series of dits or dahs, and that by tapping the other lever while holding down the first, you can produce a dit between dahs or a dah between dits.

Then, I asked him if he'd like to try it. He said yes, so just to see how it would go, I tuned up to above 7100 kHz. There was no activity up there, so I set the keyer speed to 15 wpm and told him to send my callsign a few times. He reached over with his left hand and sent it perfectly. Now, remember, this is someone who'd never touched a paddle of any kind before. Not only that, he even sent the K (dah-di-dah) iambically! That is to say that he held the dah paddle while tapping the dit paddle to slip in a dit between the two dahs.

Then, I asked if he'd like to make some contacts. He said yes, so I said, "Let's switch seats." We switched seats, and I said, "OK, tune around a little and find a strong station calling CQ." We found K2ZR, and I coached him a little on how to reply. "Now, remember," I said, "we're going to use the W8PGW callsign." When I gave him the nod to send, he reached over with his RIGHT hand and sent W8PGW perfectly! When K2ZR replied with our call and the exchange, I coached him to reply with "4A MI." Not only did he do that, but he slipped in a "R" to denote that we'd copied the exchange. When K2ZR replied with a "TU," I showed him how to log the contact.

That's all the coaching I needed to do. After the first contact, I said, "OK. Now, tune around for another station calling CQ, and we'll make another contact." He was off to the races. As soon as he made a contact, he jumped up to type it into the log. His arms weren't long enough to reach the computer from where he was seated.

When we started, the keyer speed was set to 15 wpm. After a couple of contacts, I asked if he might want to send faster. When he said OK, I bumped it up to 18 wpm. After a few QSOs with only a couple of mistakes, he asked if we could go faster, so I set it at 20 wpm. Again, only a couple of mistakes, so we bumped it up to 22 wpm. There, he started making more mistakes, but let me repeat, he never touched any kind of key before in his life. I have no doubt that with a little practice, he could easily do 30 wpm.

Overall, he made 12 contacts in the 21 minutes he operated the station. Not a bad rate for someone who'd never sent a character of Morse Code in his life, don't you think?

Unfortunately, Stuart was not able to take the test at our July VE session as he was at Boy Scout camp. Come the second week of August, though, he'll be a ham. He even has a vanity callsign picked out for himself. Listen for him--in the CW bands, of course.


Dan Romanchik, KB6NU, is the station manager for WA2HOM, the ham radio station at Ann Arbor's Hands-On Museum, and the ARRL MI Section's Training Manager. You can read more about his adventures in ham radio by going to www.kb6nu.com.