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Originating Volume Amounts of Routine Spam Traffic has been causing some problems with the NTS Nets for some time. Rob K6YR Chair of the Pacific Area Staff is presently working on changing the handling of such traffic with a possible amendment in Section 3.16 of the ARRL Public Service Communication Manual. The Chair Persons of CAS and EAS are working with Rob on the program. Rob will notify us when changes become effective.

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Don W7GB has announced that he will be retiring as WARTS Net Manager after serving in that position for 20 years

Anyone who is interested in applying for the Net Managers job, should contact Ken, K7YR or any Net director to put their name in the hat.. 

According to the Constitution and By-Laws, the board will appoint the new net manager..

The board will be making its decision after Saturday April 5th.   The new Manager would take over from Don on June 1st 2008.

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At the present time their does appear to be  a sufficient amount of incoming traffic from PAN and RN7/2 to warrant the starting of WSN/2 at this time. If anyone has any other information regarding incoming traffic or information which would  conclude that we should open WSN/2 again please let me know.

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Greetings from the Great Frigid Northwest, Yelm in the last week of March 2008:  'The Winter That Wouldn't Die!'  Carol and I have had a pretty good winter overall, she has pretty well healed from breaking her right arm in October.  More health concerns continue, but hopefully they will improve this spring.

I really haven't been in any contests since Sweepstakes in November, the 10 Meter contest in December, and the ARRL DX contest last month.  My 3 element beam sure is working well:  I had an opening on 20 meters to Europe for SIX HOURS during that last contest, and the solar disk was clear.  Conditions improve when you have a better antenna.

Between contests the past few months I have been garnering a few awards from all the operating I didthe past 5 years.  Many thanks to Al, W7QM, for verifying my 500 QSLs for the CQ magazine 500 county award.  Got that new award in my living room!  And since then I've verified 55 more counties, so I'm already 11% of the way to the CA-1000 award.  I also won Thurston county in the Salmon Run contest in September.  First out of one, I'll take it.

Field Day is not a contest!  That said, all WSN members are again invited to the third annual WSN Field Day effort to be held this year right outside the Nisqually Pines Community Center clubhouse at 16949 Port Orford Blvd, Yelm.  The clubhouse would be used as an evacuation center in case of emergency, so the new CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) will try the actual emergency location this year.  It is right under high voltage power transmission lines, but I tested it with my mobile rig on 80, and got the same S6-S7 ambient noise level I have at home half a mile away.  We'll figure it out, that's why they call it Field Day.  We'll put up a new G5RV in the trees that Friday before, and Field Day starts 1100 28JUN08.  I know that cuts down the operating time to 'only' 24 hours, but I'm usually so exhausted by Sunday morningI WELCOME eleven o'clock when it gets here!  CU on the net!

73,
Leroy N7EIE

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Mike VE7DXD, SM BC/YUKON has started a new BC Net. Presently there are 30 or more checking in daily at 0330z on 3715 khz

Mike and Paul VA7MPG check in daily on DRN7 to relay traffic to NTS and Canada.
           

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To: <ve7dwg@yahoo.com>
Subject: Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hike HF Operations
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:29:52 +0000
Hi Dave --
 
I've decided to give the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) another shot for 2008.  I tried to hike it in 2006, but I got waylaid by a spinal ailment.  I'm feeling much better now.
 
My plan is to start at the US-Mexico border near Campo, CA on Saturday, April 19th.  Tom Aterno KI6ASP has volunteered to help with some southern California transportation, and he is planning to hike with me for the 20+ miles from the border to Lake Morena County Park.  All going well, I hope to arrive in Manning Park, British Columbia in late September or early October.
 
GENERAL HF OPERATION
 
In 2006 I set up regular HF schedule times, with poor results.  Those pre-set schedules ate into some prime hiking time and resulted in very few contacts.  This year on off-days - typically in rainy weather - I'll explore the IARU Region 2 HF QRP watering holes
http://www.iaru-r2.org/band-plan/ (3560 kHz, 7030 kHz, 10 116 kHz, or 14 060 kHz), but I won't set up a fixed schedule.  My preferred exchange will be name (including Polar Bear QRP Club names - mine is "Nanuq" - which doubles as my PCT trail-name) and Maidenhead coordinate - I'll use the 4 or 6 character version.  The PCT starting point at the Mexico border is DM12so and the Manning Park Lodge is CN99ob.  To understand the Maidenhead system and to calculate your  coordinates, see: http://wwwarrl.org/locate/gridinfo.html .  I have no plans for pedestrian-mobile operation - I'll normally wait until evening after I've set up camp.
 
EQUIPMENT
 
Unlike 2006, I won't take along any VHF/UHF equipment, so I won't be telemetering my position on APRS.  This is one example of steps I'm taking to reduce my backpack weight for my 2008 trek. 
 
Elecraft KX1
 
My workhorse radio will be the Elecraft KX1 with the 30 m/80 m module installed.  I've been having some technical difficulties with the internal tuner, and I won't likely have time to fix it, so I'll carry the more versatile Elecraft T1 tuner instead.  ARRL members can see my QST reviews of both the KX1 and the T1 on the ARRL website.  Largely in response to my KX1 review, Elecraft's Wayne Burdick performed some engineering wizardry to make the KX1 80 m capable.  Because he couldn't find a small enough latching relay, one standard mini-relay is always energized while operating on the 80 m band, so it draws a bit more current on that band than on other bands - a small trade-off for this backpack-ready radio.  One beauty of the KX1 - in contrast with the Elecraft K1 - is that it covers the whole spectrum on any of its bands and can receive on either sideband, so cross-mode CW/SSB contacts are straightforward.  I'll carry resonant half-wavelength dipole antennas for the 80 m, 40 m, 30 m and 20 m bands, each loaded directly from the KX1 through a BNC-to-dual-post adapter without a transmission line.  In most situations, that will make the dipole operate in the Vee rather than in the preferred inverted Vee formation.  In case something goes awry with the KX1, my Small Wonder Labs DSW-80 (a fine rig which unfortunately is no longer in production) will be in my bounce or drift box, which I'll mail ahead to the next post office stop along the PCT.  That package is a complete 80 m CW station.
 
Small Wonder Labs Rock-Mite
 
I've had lots of fun playing with various versions of the Small Wonder Labs Rock-Mite.  Both the Rock-Mite and the accompanying American Morse Equipment MityBox are back into production.  I already own Rock-Mites for 3560 kHz, 3579 kHz (which I'm tweaking with an inductor in series with the oscillator crystal to operate on 3578.5, the Idaho Montana Net frequency) and 14 060 kHz, and I have another RockMite on order for 7030 kHz, the new IARU Region 2 40 m QRP center of activity.  It's moving steadily up the back-order list on Dave Benson's Small Wonder Labs website.  I will be carrying the 40 m Rock-Mite as an "SOS Package" in a thigh pocket, for use in an emergency in case I get separated from my backpack during some mishap.  In that package is a complete emergency station with power supply, resonant dipole, keyer paddle and earbud headphones.  The Rock-Mite will be equipped with the N0XAS keyer chip http://www.hamgadgets.com/product_info.php?products_id=48 , so I could load it with a beacon message in an emergency and haul the transceiver over a tree branch so that the Rock-Mite forms the center on an inverted Vee dipole antenna.     
 
TRAFFIC NETS
 
Most of my on-the-air time will be sending and receiving traffic on a series of 80 m CW nets.  The main ones, in south-to-north order, are:
 
April-June:
Southern California Net (SCN) 3598 kHz 0215Z (Monday-Friday PDT)
April-August:
Northern California Net (NCN) 3533 kHz 0200Z (rarely slow net 0400Z) daily
August:
Oregon Section Net (OCN) 3569 kHz 0130Z, (rarely 0500Z) daily
August-October:
Washington State Net (WSN) 3558 kHz (rarely 1430Z) 0145Z (rarely 0445Z) daily
April-October:
Idaho Montana Net (IMN) 3578.5 kHz 0300Z (often checking in before net time) daily
August-October
British Columbia Emergency Net (BCEN) 3652 kHz 0200Z daily
 
Anybody wishing to contact me should do so through those nets or through a formal ARRL National Traffic System (NTS) radiogram addressed to:
Bruce Prior N7RR
Pacific Crest Trail
via such-and-such 80 m CW traffic net
 
I hope to check into at least one net about every other day or so.  This will normally be in the evening through those 80 m CW nets.  On occasion, it may be more convenient for me to check into a 75 m SSB net. 
 
If necessary, I may utilize the higher-level NTS CW nets, such as the Sixth Region Net (3575 kHz 0245Z & 0430Z), Seventh Region Net (3560 kHz 0230Z & 0430Z), Twelfth Region Net (3570 kHz 0230Z & 0400Z) or the Pacific Area Net (3552 kHz 0330Z), or a regional net like the USB Alaska-Pacific Emergency Preparedness Net (14 292 kHz 1615Z Monday-Friday Alaska time mornings) to pass priority or emergency traffic.
 
73, Bruce Prior N7RR/VE7HR
 

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