WSN Newsletter -- October 2009

WSN Newsletter
October 2009
Updated Roster

WSN/1 TIME CHANGE

WSN/1 will change starting time from 6:45 PM to 6:00 PM effective Sunday November 1 when the time changes to Pacific Standard Time.

PAN Cycle 4 Primary Frequency Change
by Rob K6YR

Effective October 1 (local and 0330z, Oct. 2), PAN Cycle 4 changes primary frequency to 3.552 MHz. The secondary frequency will be 7.052 MHz, and if that frequency is too busy, use 7.108. Please pass the word. Excuse any dupes. 73

Rob K6YR PAN Cycle 4 Net Manager

DPAN VOICE NET TO START AGAIN

To all PAN Area Staff and others,

This is to notify you of the start Of the PAN Voice Net Cycle 4 on October 2, 2009 at 3:30 PM MST or 2230Z on 14345 kHz.
Monday through Friday every week. Pending fiinal approval of the PAN Area Chair.

If you would be so kind as to support this net in some way. We need net control stations and other experienced and non experienced Amateurs to help get this net back on the air.

We are looking for traffic coming into the PAN area and traffic going out of PAN. Please help out by originating some radiograms. Every one of you has friends and family you could send a message to. We need Liaison stations from your Section and Region to check into the PAN Net to bring and pick up traffic for the net.

Lets get going on this and not let the Eastern area, the only one being very active. We can be very active too.

Tony Ivan, KF7GC

SCIENTISTS PREDICT SOLAR CYCLE 24 TO PEAK IN 2013

At the annual Space Weather Workshop held in Boulder, Colorado last month <http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sww/index.html>, an international panel of experts led by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) predicted that Solar Cycle 24 will peak in May 2013 with 90 sunspots per day on average. If the prediction proves true, Solar Cycle 24 will be the weakest cycle since Solar Cycle 16, which peaked with 78 daily sunspots in 1928, and ninth weakest since the 1750s, when numbered cycles began.

The panel predicted that the lowest sunspot number between cycles -- the solar minimum -- occurred in December 2008, marking the end of Solar Cycle 23 and the start of Solar Cycle 24. If December's prediction holds up <http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/01/07/100/>, at 12 years and seven months Solar Cycle 23 will be the longest since 1823 and the third longest since 1755. Solar cycles span 11 years on average, from minimum to minimum.

An unusually long, deep lull in sunspots led the panel to revise its 2007 prediction that the next cycle of solar storms would start in March 2008 and peak in late 2011 or mid-2012. The persistence of a quiet sun also led the panel to a consensus that Solar Cycle 24 will be what they called "moderately weak."

50 YEARS OF HISTORY FOR WASHINGTON STATE NET

FROM DON CALBICK W7GB

Hi Allen - I found the September 24, 1959 WSN log and there I am - my first WSN checkin with my old call sign, W7GYF. It was on a Thursday night, just like this year. So I've been on WSN exactly 50 years. The net control was Bob, W7ZIZ, of Edmonds. The net manager was Joe, W7GIP, of Tacoma. In looking at the roster I am the lone survivor. Here's some info about WSN for Sept 1959

Total net sessions: 22 That's one net session per day, 5 days a week (Mon - Fri)

Total net members: 27. Soon to be 28 with the addition of yours truly

Total checkins: 315

Total traffic: 181. Highest day was 19 pieces of tfc on Sept 24, the net I first checked in. The lowest tfc was 1, on Sept 17. There were no QRU sessions!

Net manager: W7GIP

Associate net manager: John, W7QLH, of Everett

BRAT certs awarded to W7DPW and W7AMC. BRAT stands for "Brotherhood of Radio Amateur Traffikers" and PAN used to award people BRAT award cards for earning points for being NCS, QNB, QNI, etc. I forget what all but I've got the info on file here in case some of the troops want to bring it back.

Oh yes, for Pati here's the roster: W7AIB W7AMC, W7BJR, K7CLL, W7DPW, W7DZX, K7EID, W7EWL, W7FRU, W7GHM, W7GIP, K7GNA, W7IEU, W7IGB, K7IIJ, W7JEY, W7KZ, W7LVB, W7OE, W7OEB, W7QLH, W7TH, W7UMJ, W7USO, W7WAH, W7ZB, W7ZIZ. And yes, Hap, W7AIB, was the Monday night NCS for 25 years straight, including Sept '59! Hap was regarded as "Mr WSN". He and Chet, W7AMC, wrote the book on net procedures.

So there you have it - 50 years and counting.

73 es cu on net. Don W7GB

A WONDERFUL ROAD TRIP

BY DON AND CYNTHIA CALBICK

Hi all – This past September we took a road trip to visit as many national parks as we felt like doing. The trip started out going to La Pine, Oregon for the 4 day dixieland jazz festival. We’ve been doing this for the past 6 years on Labor Day weekend. After dancing to dixieland for 4 nights and touring different interesting sites in central Oregon we set out on our real trip on Labor Day by driving to Emmett, Idaho for family doings. Cynthia’s 95 year old aunt lives in Boise, as well as many cousins.

After Emmett, it was down I-84, then I-15 to our first national park, Zion, in SW Utah. Our first views of Zion were at Kolob Canyon and about knocked our eyes our. We just stood there in awe at the views. The only way to go up the main canyon at Zion is by shuttle and lucky for us, there was a shuttle bus stop in front of our motel in Springdale. We hiked two trails, the Narrows, at the end of the road, and Upper Emerald Pool. The canyon is quite narrow and the views are stunning, with the Virgin River running the length of the canyon. There is much left for us to do at Zion National Park.

The geology of this area (the Colorado Plateau) is very interesting. Several million years ago, two tectonic plates collided and uplifed this area elevations well above 6000 feet. Several rivers, including the Virgin, Fremont and Colorado have been wearing away at the rocks and have produced all of the canyons that we see today.

The next day (Sept 11) we packed up and left Zion via the east entrance. There is some really spectacular geologic formations on this route, including a mile-long tunnel. What a drive! We were heading to Grand Canyon but not sure where to go – North or South Rim? After lunch at Jacob Lake, Arizona, we decided since it’s 200 miles to the South Rim and less than 50 miles to the North Rim, the North Rim it is. This is a high elevation area (8700+ feet) that is all forest. We hiked along the rim of the Grand Canyon near the North Rim lodge area. Again, the scenery is a spectacle to behold and we took many pictures. Yes, the canyon is deep and no, we can’t see the Colorado River. But we did drive out to Royal Point from which one can see the Colorado River. We had planned on going to the South Rim but after hiking out to Angels point, we decided that the views from here were as good (or better) than at the South Rim. Besides, the North Rim is far less crowded, is a 200+ mile drive and being 1000 feet higher, has more trees. We stayed at the Kalaib Inn – in a cabin with a 200 acre meadow out our front door, complete with deer in the morning & evening.

That’s all for this month. After Grand Canyon, we went to Bryce Canyon, Capital Reef, Arches, Canyonlands and Mesa Verde. I’ll tell you more next month.

You can see some of our photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/cynthiagene.calbick

73, Don W7GB

ARLB028 Vanity Call Sign Fees to Increase September 1

ZCZC AG28
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 28 ARLB028
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT August 11, 2009
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB028
ARLB028 Vanity Call Sign Fees to Increase September 10

On August 11, the FCC announced that the cost of an Amateur Radio vanity call sign will increase $1.10, from $12.30 to $13.40.

Now that notice of the increase has been published in the Federal Register, the increase will take effect in 30 days, September 10, 2009.

The FCC is authorized by the Communications Act of 1934, As Amended, to collect vanity call sign fees to recover the costs associated with that program. The vanity call sign regulatory fee is payable not only when applying for a new vanity call sign, but also upon renewing a vanity call sign for a new 10 year term.

The notice in the August 11, 2009 Federal Register, entitled "Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2009," includes regulatory fees. These fees are expected to recover a total of $341,875,000 during FY2009, encompassing all the Services the FCC regulates.

For more information, see the recent ARRLWeb article, "FCC Looks to Raise Vanity Call Sign Fees for Second Consecutive Year" at http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/05/18/10825/?nc=1 .

NNNN
/EX

WSN Visitor

Early in July we had a "strange" QNI to WSN. Jim, WA2IAX/7 checked into the morning session from West Yellowstone, MT. He had traffic for folks in his home state of New York. How exciting to handle "real" traffic! Jim was "regular" with us during the next couple of months, checking in (usually WITH traffic) from Glacier National Park, Post Falls, ID, Snohomish, Forks, and Castle Rock. He then headed into Oregon, where OSN was his outlet to the world.

Jim's rig was an Icom 706 and a mobile Hamstik antenna.

TEXAS NET NEWSLETTER

You can access a fine NTS newsletter, from the Texas State CW Network, at http://k6jt.home.att.net/. Steve, K6JT is the publisher. Steve is active in TCC, acting as liaison betwen CAN and PAN.

GEORGE HART AWARD

On Pages 74/75 Oct QST announcement of the George Hart Distinquished Service Award which has been established and created to be given to League Members for their Distinguished Service. This is to be awarded annually.

Bill Thompson W2MTA, who was mentioned in the same QST article now has nominated W7GHT, Bill Smith for that award. To second the nomination you can email Steve Ewald, WV1X at wv1x@arrl.org. Bill is certainly equal to this award.

From Allen W7QM

Don W7GB Net Recorder for WSN says that in order for a station to be on the Net Roster you must check in at least 4 times per month. Please check in on WSN at least once per week or 4 times per month. We like to have you all on the WSN Roster.

We are saddened by the loss to us of Dave Drew (W7DPW). Dave's key went silent on August 6, 2009. Dave was a longtime member of WSN, serving as a Net Control Station until shortly before his death. In prior years he was very active in RN7, PAN, and TCC.

Our sympathy is extended to Dave's family.

This is the program from Dave's Funeral Mass.

WSN Activity Report

	July	August	September
QNI	464	514	433
Traffic	124	126	80
Sessions	62	62	60

WSN Birthdays

NOV 14 KV4K
NOV21 W7LG
DEC 4 VE7DWG
DEC 10 VE7ANG
DEC 16 W7ZIW
DEC 21 WA7WBY
DEC 23 KA7EKL

Happy birthday to all and we wish you many more!

Best regards and 88's

Pati W7ZIW, Assistant Manager. WSN.