CLUB MEETING:
The June Meeting will be held at the Sacajawea Middle School June7th.
The meeting starts at 7 PM.
CLUB MEETING:
The June Meeting will be held at the Sacajawea Middle School June7th.
The meeting starts at 7 PM.
Presidents Column
Jim Hall, AA8Y
This column is a bit short this month as I am getting ready leave for my annual trip East to see my mother and sons and their families and visit with cousins and of course take in the Dayton Hamvention along the way.
I hope to get be able to get the June newsletter out while I am on the road. Fingers crossed….hi hi.
I'm not sure where Field Day will be held yet but I am sure that we will be having Field Day again.
Take care and I will see everyone in June and will bring back a few tales to tell.
It looks like we have a busy month ahead, with the Big Sky Engine Academy on June 9th and 10th and an exam session of June 16th and then Field Day on June 23rd and 24th.
The trip I was on was great and got to see lots of friends and relatives and take in the Dayton Hamvention as well. I didn't win any prizes but it was fun anyway did get to see a number of old friends at the Hamvention and that was good. I also attended the "Four Days In May" QRP Symposium on May 17th. Although I did miss a couple of the sessions, It was a good group of meetings.
Meeting Minutes
Gallatin Ham Radio Club
Minutes of May 3, 2001 Meeting – submitted by KD7FVR, Ron
The May meeting was held at Sacajawea Middle School. Vice President Doug KK7VC called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM. 21 members were in attendance.
Minutes of the April 2001 meeting were approved as printed in the newsletter.
TREASURER'S REPORT
Harley KI7XF reported that the club balance is approximately $1207.00. Treasurer's report was accepted by unanimous vote.
NEW BUSINESS
Ron KD7FVR passed around two letters received through the club e-mail. One from Sky Warn requesting donations from ham clubs. The second was from ARRL offering a series of Ham Radio Books at a substantial discount to be contributed to local libraries.
Don KC7EWZ updated the club regarding the Search and Rescue building. Jason Schrauger and Chris Kent have found someone to help "ramrod" the building project.
Vivian K7CUB is retiring from her teaching position at the end of the school year.
Don KI7OJ reminded the club of the Big Sky engine academy June 9 and 10. At least 2 operators are needed in the trailer. Four or five will be needed at the academy most of the time. The group is planning to use the Ruby Repeater.
Jeff AA7GK discussed the Sky Warn pager and activation procedure. He moved to donate $50.00 to Sky Warn. The motion was carried. It was moved and seconded to donate the ARRL books to the Bozeman Public Library. The ARRL was offering the set for $170.00– a $302.90 value, saving $132.90. The motion carried.
Don KC7EWZ announced that Rik KB7KB has graciously offered to teach those who would like to know about repeaters and how to convert radios to repeaters, etc. A work session is possible for Saturday May 12th or Friday the 11th.
Don N7FLT said that the Hyalite youth camp was unavailable for Field Day and there is a charge for use if it was available. The club decided to hold field day at Bear Trap Campground. The club will purchase Hot Dogs and Buns for PotLuck Saturday night.
PRESENTATION
Fred KE7X headed an interesting discussion on Communications for Fire Fighting.
The meeting adjourned at 9:05 PM.
Upgrade Honor Roll
This column honors all who receive or upgrade their license through the GHRC in 2001
Congratulations to all who upgraded
Technician Class
Karen Cremer KD7MFC
Robert Grupe KD7MFD
John Hiscock KD7MFE
William Hiscock KD7MFF
George Hunyadi KD7MFG
Steven Jepsen KD7MFH
Charles Klankelborg KD7MFI
David Klunpar KD7MFJ
Brian Larsen KD7MFK
James Lenard KD7MFL
William Michno KD7MFM
Brad Norman KC0KAO
Michael Obland KD7MFN
Gerald Schaefer KD7MFO
Avinash Shantaram KD7MFP
General Class
Robert Solomon K7HLN
Extra Class
Pat Sands N7SVI
Note:
The next exam session is June 16th Rather than the usual first Saturday after the club meeting due to SW Engine Fire Academy which will be held the weekend of the 9th and 10th of June and some of us are planning to attend, helping with communications. Normal examination schedules will resume with the September Exams
Please note the above change
.VE Test Sessions
Test sessions are held at 9 am in room 632 at
Cobleigh Hall on the MSU Campus the first Saturday AFTER the first Thursday during the following months: December, March, June, September. This schedule may be revised. Make sure to check your newsletter each month for any changes to the VE Testing Schedule.
For more info: Contact Jack, N7ODN
2001 Schedule
March 3rd
June 16th
September 8th
December 8th
Happenings Page
Schedule of Events
June 2001
|
Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
|
1 |
2 Ham & Eggs @ 4 - Corners |
|||||
|
3 |
4 |
5 146.88net |
6 |
7 Club Meeting |
8 |
9 Ham & Eggs @ 4 – Corners |
|
10 |
11 |
12 146.88 net |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 Ham & Eggs @ 4 – Corners |
|
17 |
18 |
19 146.88 net |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 Field Day |
|
24 Field Day |
25 |
26 146.88 net |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 Ham & Eggs @ 4 – Corners |
If you have any events you would like to see posted here, please email or mail them to the Editor for inclusion in the Summer Newsletter. Deadline: 27th.
Hamfests & National Amateur Radio Events
CONTESTS
QRP TAC Contest (telephone area code) 1800—2359Z June 2nd, See June QST, pg 108
ARRL June QSO Party , June 9-11, See May QST, pg 114
Kid’s Day Operating Event, June 16-17, See June QST, pg 108
Field Day, June 23-24, See May QST, pg 112
Hamfests
Seaside, Northwest Division Convention, June 1-3, Seaside, OR
See May QST
Motanta State Convention, July 20-22, East Glacier
GHRC Hamfest, Saturday, October 13, Sacajawea Middle School, Bozeman Montana
NET CONTROL
June 5 K7CUB
June 12 KC7BLO
June 19 KC7EWZ
June 26 W7OIQ
July
3 AA8Y
July 10 KC7EWZ
July 17
July 24
July 31
Aug. 7 AA8Y
Aug.
14 KC7EWZAug 21
Aug 28
Please help out by volunteering
If you have not signed up as a net control operator yet. Please do so! As members of the GHRC, each of us should take a half an hour from time to time to run the net. This is a small sacrifice in time which greatly enhances the quality of our net and our club.
If you have never run a net, contact Don, KC7EWZ for information on running the net. It’s really easy! Running the net is a great experience which will help prepare you for participating in emergency communications.
The net meets every Tuesday evening at 8 PM 0n 146.88
Ridge Run
Needed, ham operators for the annual Ridge Run to be held on August 11th. At least 5 hams are needed but more could be used, if available. All stations require an early start in the morning and finish time varies with your location. Let me know if you can help. Call Kay at 586-5543 or kayjn@imt.net
NORTHERN ROCKIES WEAK
SIGNAL GROUP
TUESDAY EVENING AT 8:30PM ON 144.200 USB.
FORMAT IS CASUAL ROUND TABLE.
NET CONTROL IS BOB N7CZ AND JIM N7YO IN GREAT FALLS.
GPS NOTES – 4
Use your GPS for Triangulation
Have you ever looked off into the distance at an object and thought you might like to know the coordinates of the location? This month’s article will describe how to use a GPS and a compass to triangulate a distant object’s coordinates. Once you know its coordinates, you can calculate how far away it is, what its bearing is from you, and etc.
The ability to triangulate an object’s position can be invaluable in many different examples. The following examples are just a few instances of when knowing how to triangulate an object came in handy for me.
On a hunting trip, I spotted some deer that I thought I would like to stalk. I knew that I would like to approach them from behind a hill that was on the other side of them from me. As I was wondering how I would know where they were once they were out of site from me, I thought about trying to place their position into my newly acquired GPS receiver. Using the technique described below, I was able to stalk the deer while out of sight of them for about an hour and end up coming directly down onto their position.
In another example, KE7X and I shot two bearings on some distant smoke rising out of the Elk Horn Mountains on the other side of Toston. Now for those of you reading this that don’t know the geography of this area, our baseline was only about a mile long while our bearing shots were close to 40 miles long. This is not a very desirable situation in triangulation. It turned out that we were only off a few miles in our triangulation solution.
My last example is the experience I wrote about a couple of months ago of the hiker trapped on a ledge up in the Bridger’s. If you remember reading through that article, the search and rescue team was able to triangulate the climber’s position by taking bearings on the climber’s flash camera. In this case the longest bearing leg was over three miles and the triangulation solution was only off about 300 meters.
In order to use a GPS to locate a distant landmark, the user builds a route then uses the display of that route on the map screen to pinpoint the desired location. The following are the steps involved.
1. From your current location mark a waypoint. To show the relationships between the various waypoints in this problem I will number them as follows. The current position will be called 001A
2. Take a bearing with your compass to the desired point. Use the waypoint-editing page to add a new waypoint based on the bearing and distance from your current position waypoint. Call this waypoint 001B. You will not know the distance so estimate the distance that is greater than what you think it is. As you will see, it is better to be too far than too close.
3. Begin to build a route by starting with 0001B. Waypoint 001A should be the second waypoint.
4. Travel to a second point some distance from your current location where you can get another bearing on the distant point. Mark your new location and label it 002A. On a GPSIII+, you can add this waypoint to a route just before you save it. Go ahead and add it to the route you began in step 3.
5. Take a bearing from this new position and create a 4th projected waypoint called 002B. Add this waypoint to your new route.
6. Your route should now be in the order of: 001B, 001A, 002A, and 002B.
7. On the GPSIII+ receiver you will now need to activate this route. If you are using a different brand, you will need to activate this route.
8. On the map page you should see the tracing of your route has created a drawing that looks something like a teepee. The bottom of the teepee is where you traveled from 001A to 002A. The sides are the projected waypoints to 001B and 002B. Where the two sides intersect is the location of desired landmark. It will look something like this:
002B 001
\ /
\ /
\ /
X destination
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
001A_____________002A
9. Use the panning capability on the map screen to move the cursor location to the intersection point found in the previous step and zoom in for the most accuracy.
10. Hit the GOTO key to create a new waypoint called MAP at that point. Your gps will now be navigating toward this destination. You could also press the enter/mark key to "capture" the map position as a waypoint. In both methods you may name it what you wish.
Try this technique on objects you can then drive to. This will allow you to check the accuracy of your calculations. For example try to determine the location of a water tower, tall building or cell phone tower.
Happy GPSing.
Don Wilson
KC7EWZ@arrl.net