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Antennas to Rise Again Over Stadium
By Dan Bowen , K2VOL
This spring has proven to be a very productive one for UTARC. The club has received preliminary word that the antennas which once perched atop Neyland Stadium will finally be replaced. In the fall of 1999, club president Mike Swiatkowski, AA9VI, and club vice president Dan Bowen, K2VOL, were unable to negotiate the safe removal of the antenna tower from the north light tower of the stadium. The antennas, an HF TH7DX tri-bander, and a 2 meter beam, were destroyed while being removed to make room for the new East SkyBox.
The University has tentatively agreed to allocate space on the roof of the East SkyBox, as well as Physical Plant installation of antenna equipment. The club will be assisting in the installation of the antennas and hardware. “George Dominick, W4UWC and Lynn Lamb, W4NL, have committed to providing the antenna rotator and cable,” according to Sam Brown, WA4IUM. The club has received much help from friends and members in making this possible.
Propagation to
the west, which is currently near non-existent, is hoped to improve markedly once
out of the radio shadow of the steel superstructure. This should strengthen
our signal in pileups, and 
improve our visibility publicly. There
are suggestions of placing the club’s callsign, AA4UT, prominently on the
tower, a la 1940’s radio station towers, to be seen from the interior and/or
exterior of the stadium. After all, what better image could we have than an
antenna with our name on it?
Construction details and dates are unknown, however watch the UTARC site, www.utarc.org, and email lists for info as it becomes available.
UTARC Now Legally Recognized Entity
By Mike Coffey, KJ4Z
UTARC recently received a charter from the Tennessee Secretary of State, recognizing it as an independent legal entity. The University of Tennessee Amateur Radio Club, Inc., is recognized as a non-profit membership organization effective February 20. As such, donations and gifts in kind will be tax-deductible once some more preliminary paperwork has been completed. Shortly, the club will need to undertake a series of procedures to officially complete the chartering process and ensure that UTARC will continue to be recognized. More details will follow at the appropriate time.
This is the first time UTARC has been incorporated, and we anticipate that it will greatly ease the donation process, as well as provide liability protection to all club members.
First HF Experiences
By Jeffrey Napier, AG4JF
UTARC Although I have only been involved with the club for about 6 months, I have spent about 5 of the last 6 montths in the shack. Having antenna restrictions placed on me at my house and on my car, I had not had the opportunity to work HF. For the Techs out there who have never listened to HF, it will blow you away. For a Tech, DX is 100 miles. For HF, 100 miles is short skip. The club has provided me with a way of using HF, as well as expanded VHF/UHF capabilities. The first day I was in the shack, I was with Dan who was on the Salvation Army Net responding to the 9/11 attacks. After listening with ease at hearing stations form all over the country come through the speaker, I knew immediately that I would be living in the shack for the next 4 years.
My second day in the shack, I tuned up on 20 Meters to the County Hunters Net. County Hunters are a strange breed of hams. They have nothing better to do with their life than sit on 14.336 MhZ with one goal: Having a two-way conversation (or sig. report exchange) with ALL of the 3,077 counties in the US. This can be very challenging, considering the shear number of counties, as well as the difficulty in reaching some of them. Not many hams are willing to take a ferry to Dukes and Nantucket, MA, drive through blinding snowstorms to get to the northern reaches of Alaska, or ride a mule train down a 1/4 mile high vertical cliff to Kalawao, HI. Since 9/28/01 I have worked about 600 or so counties, including at least one in 48 states (anyone planning a trip to South Dakota? Hawaii? They're both nice this time of year.)
Another challenge complicating matters is our present antenna. A big metal football stadium hanging over your antenna doesn't help propagation in that direction (West). Mobile stations typically aren't as strong as base stations, so that adds another degree of difficulty. To my suprise, the state that I am closest to completing is Arizona. I have worked 14 of the 15 counties in Arizona. Pima County is my last, so if anyone is planning a trip to Tuscon, let me know.
Once I got past the strange way the net works, I was welcomed with open arms, and now I no longer have to give my call 5 times before they get it right, although there is an occasional KE4UP(the call of another active county-hunter) thrown in there. If you operate their way, they are a very freindly group. For information on county hunting, go to www.marac.org or www.countyhunter.com. Until next time, 73s de AG4JF.
ARISS PROMISES NO MORE "NOCALL" ON ISS PACKET
From ARRL Letter Vol 21, No. 8
No more NOCALL! Normal packet activity--with a real call sign--should begin soon on the International Space Station. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Board Chairman Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said Expedition 4 crew will install the new packet module sent up to the ISS last August, and the system should be up and running by February 25.
Since Amateur Radio gear was installed on the ISS in 2000, the packet system--crippled with a dead RAM (random access memory) backup battery--has been operating in digipeat mode using the NOCALL call sign and other TNC default settings. Earthbound users have been able to access the system nonetheless, but the lack of a call sign has been an annoyance.
Expedition 3 Crew Commander Frank Culbertson, KD5OPQ, was to have changed out the packet module during his ISS tour last year, but other duties took priority. The new module, using the call sign RS0ISS, will employ a specially developed ROM programmed with standard ISS defaults, a new battery and an extended memory--up to one megabyte. The TNC also has eight-bit capability to support Russian Cyrillic typesets, and a one-minute timeout disconnect from the PMS if no pertinent packets are heard.
Although the mailbox function will be activated, hams are discouraged from using it. "Currently there is no computer hooked up to the packet module," Bauer explained. "In addition, the crew will be much too busy to respond to messages posted there."
ARISS packet radio frequencies will remain the same. The uplink is 145.99 MHz; the downlink is 145.80 MHz. For additional information, visit the ARISS Web site <http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov/EVAs/amsat01.pdf>.--ARISS
LONE MISSING APPLICATION HOLDING UP VANITY SYSTEM
From ARRL Letter Vol 21, No. 9
And then there was one. The FCC indicated this week that a lone missing paper vanity call sign application filed last October is holding up the resumption of routine vanity processing. On February 27, the FCC processed 33 vanity applications received last October 23 and 24. The following day, it ran another 41 applications received October 25 and 26. Processing remains stalled beyond that receipt date, however. FCC efforts, assisted by the ARRL, to contact the elusive applicant to have the individual resubmit a vanity application have proven more difficult than ever anticipated.
The FCC appears determined to hold off further processing until the remaining applicant is given an opportunity to resubmit an application and, thus, retain a place in the processing queue. Prior to this week, no amateur vanity call signs had been granted since February 1, when applications received at the FCC October 22, 23 and 24 were processed. The FCC later rescinded vanity grants for October 23 and 24, however, after it realized that it needed further information for an October 23 application. Until late January, no vanity call signs had been issued since October 30.
The ARRL estimates that some 2050 vanity applications now are in the FCC's processing pipeline--the majority of them filed electronically. The FCC's policy is to give equal processing weight to paper and electronic applications. Some two weeks' worth of October paper vanity applications apparently were mislaid after mail was sent off last fall for anthrax decontamination.
FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau personnel at the FCC's Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, office used information gleaned from payment receipts to contact the known paper filers via e-mail or telephone to have them resubmit copies of their vanity applications. That effort--again with ARRL help—led to this week's vanity processing.
UTARC Ham Shack, 401 East Stadium Hall
Calendar
March 23rd 2002 - License Testing Session UC 217 9am
April 4h 2002 – LAST General Meeting UC 217 8pm
April 27th 2002 - License Testing Session UC 217 9am
The Volunteer DX is the official newsletter of the Amateur Radio Club at the University of Tennessee and is published several times each academic semester. The newsletter is free to all UTARC club members.
UTARC Officers 2002 Academic Semester
President- Jeffrey Napier, AG4JF
VP/Treasurer- Drew Ott, KG4HPZ
Secretary- Arun Srikantaiah, KG4LKK 946-5166
Newsletter Editor: Dan Bowen, K2VOL, 595-7914
Club Monitored Frequencies: 145.43 MHz Knoxville repeater and 146.58 simplex
Webpage: http://www.utarc.org
Email: utarc@utk.edu
QSL Correspondence:
UT Amateur Radio Club
401 East Stadium Hall