Thank you to Martin Borque, KC7VFW, for having been our newsletter editor.
We all sincerely appreciate the effort and work he put into it!!
Thanks, Martin! Please continue to contribute articles as you are available!

HAMFEST 1999 IS COMING! More details inside!

Some happenings this summer: (if we missed anyone or anything, we're sorry!)

June - The GHRC participated in the 1999 Field Day Contest. We operated two stations from the Battle Ridge Cabin area in the Bridger Mountains. One single side band station and one cw station. Weather cooperated and everyone who attended had a good time. Propagation was poor, with small openings in the mid-afternoon on Saturday and early Sunday morning. Our final score was 860 QSOs (contacts) compared to 1089 QSOs last year. In attendance were: N7FLT, K7YD, KJ7UN, W7LR, KE7X, WD8DQG, AA8Y, N7GS, N7LT, AB7VR, KD7AEO, AB7MV, N7RSQ, KC7PFH, KC7PFG, KD7DOK, KI7OJ, KB7PMW, KD6HKR.

July: Some operators assisted in back up communications for the Diabetic Camp, up Hyalite - Camp Diamont (including W7LR, among others)

Hams from the local area attended the Glacier Waterton Hamfest in July N7GS, N7ODN, AB7MV, N7LT, KD7DOK & family & K7YD.

SEND YOUR EVENTS, HAPPENINGS AND ADVENTURES TO THE GHRC NEWSLETTER!!! ghrc@tangerinecity.com

HAMFEST 1999

SATURDAY! October 16, 1999, beginning at 10:00am!
Start planning now - it'll be here before you know it!!

This is a different location than last year!
RV & OVERNIGHT PARKING will be available!

Reserve your table NOW. Information on the website at: www.tangerinecity.com/ghrc
or call Don Wilson at (406) 586-6659.
Don't have enough to want a display table?  The GHRC is again offering a CONSIGNMENT table!
You may display items for sale on our CONSIGNMENT table, for a 10% of sale per item fee!
No need to reserve, just show up and check in with a GHRC representative!

The GHRC Reflector Email List

(For more details, visit the club website at: www.tangerinecity.com/ghrc)

Just the place to ask questions about ANYTHING ham related, post news, events, cries for help putting up that new antenna, items for sale, and what hand held to buy.  The list is where you are notified about upcoming ham activities, hamfests, classes, test sessions, weather alerts, community service, Search and Rescue information, new FCC rules and band provisions.  This list is where our new hams can ask for help and our Elmers can give advice.  This list is what we make of it and we have a great membership making this list a useful tool and a nice place to share your latest ham-venture!! You don't have to be a GHRC member to join.  This list is open to anyone interested in ham radio and/or emergency communications.

To subscribe to our MAILING LIST, simply send email to the following email address & then click SEND!
(No need to type anything! It's already filled out for you!)
To Subscribe: GHRCList-request@tangerinecity.com

To send email to the GHRC mailing list, email to the following address:
 Email To: GHRCList@tangerinecity.com

Unsubscribing has never been easier.  On the rare chance that this list just isn't for you, simply send email to the following email address & then click SEND! (No need to type anything! It's already filled out for you!)
To: GHRCList-request@tangerinecity.com

Morse code falls from commercial use as network goes silent
1.33 p.m. ET (1734 GMT) July 18, 1999 ~ By Calvin Woodward, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - What God hath wrought, new technology has put out of business. Morse  code, the old language of dots and dashes, has been consumed by the age of bytes. Months after the code was abandoned under international convention for ships in distress, the only  private U.S. network of coastal radio stations using Morse has turned off the transmitters. With that, mariners and Morse practitioners say, a long antiquated but eminently reliable form of  communication has ended in U.S. commerce.  A final ceremonial message was tapped out last week to Washington, where the first such message  originated 155 years ago. On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse's question, "What hath God wrought?''  pulsed along 35 miles of steel wire to Baltimore. Simple but slow, the telegraph was overtaken generations ago by the telephone, by data systems  capable of reproducing printed words at the receiving end, and by satellite for most forms of  communication. But until the newest generation of satellite and computer technology took hold, Morse code endured for  seafarers, chilling all who heard the distress signal put into effect after the sinking of the Titanic -   three dots, three dashes and three dots meaning SOS. Now e-mail is within easy reach for many mariners and modern ships have global positioning systems  allowing rescuers to zero in on them. "Morse code has finally met its match,'' says Tim Gorman, operations director for Globe Wireless, the  company that dropped the curtain on commercial radiotelegraphy by ceasing transmissions at its four stations in Half Moon Bay, Calif., and Slidell, La. Last week the World War II-era Liberty ship Jeremiah O'Brien, docked in San Francisco harbor,  transmitted a Morse farewell to President Clinton. "History is made on this day as we embark on a new  era of communication,'' it began.  The message was translated back into English and sent to the White House the modern way, via e-mail.  It was acknowledged with an automated e-mail response from the White House, no hands on deck. The International Maritime Organization officially phased out Morse code Feb. 1 for ships in peril,  replacing it with the high-tech Global Maritime Distress and Safety System.  The U.S. Coast Guard ceased Morse operations several years ago and no longer monitors radio frequencies used for the code, spokesman Ed Brady said. But it will respond if it happens to hear that  infamous, now archaic, SOS.  "There's no government facility listening,'' he said. And now with the loss of the radio stations, there  is "nobody privately listening,"  Morse experts say the stations, KFS, KPH, WCC and WNU, were the last commercial radiotelegraph  operations in North America. They continue to beam shipping information, news and weather to ships  at sea as part of the larger Globe Wireless network using satellites and high-frequency radio. The technology now considered a tortoise was an astonishing hare in its time. "Information will be literally winged with the rapidity of lightning,'' the Baltimore weekly Niles  National Register reported after Samuel Morse made his historic transmission. Space and time were  "annihilated.'' The invention eventually ended the age of news dissemination by pony express, steamer and courier  pigeon.  The Associated Press, formed four years after Morse's demonstration, rose on the strength of the expanding telegraph as information that once took days or weeks to go from city to city sped to its destination in minutes.  Reports from the Civil War, greetings between distant relatives, dispatches on market prices in far-off  places - all could be sent in the time it took to reach the telegraph office. At first it consisted of clicks;  later, tones. An international Morse code was developed that was more suitable for foreign languages. With the advent of radio, the electronic Morse signals sent by cable also could be transmitted over the  airwaves. One hundred years ago, a radio message set off the first known Morse-inspired rescue at sea  when a lightship saw the steamer Elbe run aground off Dover, England. Radiotelegraphy penetrated the wildest tempests.  "We have seen and heard reports that when a ship gets into a bad storm and gets into trouble, the first  thing to go is satellite communications,'' said Kevin Layton of the Canadian Coast Guard in Halifax,  Nova Scotia, which monitors busy North Atlantic sea lanes. "Morse code was right there 'til the ship flipped under the water.'' Morse continues to be used in poorer parts of the world and is popular with ham radio enthusiasts.  U.S. naval ships seeking silent communication still use the code with flashing lights. Another vestige remains, although those who practice it are surely oblivious. The rhythmic beat by fans in sports arenas - dum-dum, dum-dum-dum, dum-dum-dum-dum,  dum-dum - is Morse code for the numbers 7 and 3. By telegraphers' shorthand, 73 means best  wishes.

CHANGES TO THE GHRC WEBSITE!!
new site address:  www.tangerinecity.com/ghrc
new club email address is:  ghrc@tangerinecity.com
The new POSTING address for the club reflector:  GHRCList@tangerinecity.com  
We have made some changes to the way we access the GHRC website.  WEBJUMP was providing us with free space, but we had to suffer with the advertising banners, an inability to navigate the site properly, lack of site control and funtionality as well as much spam to the club address. After numerous complaints from members having trouble navigating & viewing the site, we have made the following changes to allow our site better access, less down time and REAL email service. (I've been working toward this for a while now.)  
Roc Media has purchased a domain called TANGERINECITY.COM.  This site is being used as hosting for small businesses.  I have decided to dedicate a minimum of 5 megabytes of space on the tangerinecity.com host to the GHRC website, email and mailing list (reflector list).  This will allow us maximum freedom to pursue any internet venture the club desires as well as give us complete control over the appearance of our site.  (Future GHRC site changes will need this new functionality.)  
Here are the current changes you can expect, broken down and explained:   The new site address is:    www.tangerinecity.com/ghrc There is a message at the old site address, alerting visitors to the change so that NO ONE will get lost or fail to find us!! It will remain there indefinitely. Our new club email address is:  ghrc@tangerinecity.com  The old address, ghrc@bigfoot.com, will continue to be in service until after the hamfest, because we have used that address for all of our advertising.  My desire would be to keep that address, but the volume of spam and junk mail generated by the BIGFOOT server is now unbearable!!  No kidding, over 10-15 pieces EVERYDAY!!  With the new address, there should be only the occasional spam, that's unavoidable when you own a domain!  The bigfoot address will forward to the new ghrc@tangerinecity.com address so that no mail will be lost.  (So far, we have not received even ONE email reservation for the hamfest tables.  Should we be doing more on the internet to get the word out??)   Our mailing list has been changed to match the site and the email and give us more room to post.  You have all already been moved and are required to do NOTHING other than note the new POSTING address for the club reflector:  GHRCList@tangerinecity.com  You can still subscribe, unsubscribe & post with the addresses available on the club website. STUFF WE'D LIKE TO BE SENT FOR THE WEBSITE:   Silent Key information - anything you have.  Emailing me this information is the only way it can be updated. 
Design Ideas - anything you'd like to see on the site, from graphics to sound to logos.
Events - I can't stress this one enough!  I want to hear about upcoming ham related events!  This doesn't just mean BIG stuff like hamfests and testing - what about a trip you're taking?  what about an antenna raising?  what about a contest your going to participate in? 
SEND SEND SEND!!  EVERYTHING is wanted! It really is frustrating and disappointing to hear about stuff AFTER it happened.  Let's get involved!! ANYTHING else you can think of.  It doesn't matter who you are or what your idea is - share it with me and we can probably make it happen!   73 & 88,   de KJ7UN Laura