SADDLE PEAK AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

WA6ZPS Remote on the World Wide Web



January 13, 2000:

January through June 2000 SPARCGAP Newsletter

HAPPY NEW YEAR, A NEW MILLENIUM!

Welcome to the Spring-Summer edition of the SPARCGAP. There are many things going on, so I will get right to it! The weather is great and I hope you all have had an opportunity to enjoy it!

CACTUS RADIO CLUB MEETING

 The annual Cactus Radio club meeting will be help on Friday/Saturday, February 18-19, 2000 in Fabulous Las Vegas. All Saddle members are invited to attend this yearly event. I provided information about the meeting in the fall edition of the SPARCGAP. Should you not have this information, you can find it on the web at www.cactus-interie.org. I hope that as many Saddle members as possible can make it. The deadline for hotel reservations is 1/19/2000. Please see the Cactus WebPages for additional information. This year's Cactus manuals will incorporate all the new radio configurations/frequency changes, based on the 20 KC channel spacing changes.

SITE UPDATE

Several things have occurred at the hilltop and from our landlord since the last ZPS SPARCGAP. We had a short period of telephone outage, due to the roof (that's right) the roof felt came off from high winds in the area. The roof pieces leaned against our power pole, which was not a good idea or a safe one. When these same tiles came off, they damaged the 25 pair telephone interconnect cable from the main building. After numerous telephone calls to the landlord, I was successful in getting in touch with their emergency repair people in Northern California. A visit to the site the following day revealed the damage. Our landlords were very expedient in effecting repairs, both to the roof and the telephone cable. We also had a few days of complete outage of the ZPS system. I went up last Friday (1/7) and found that the main AC power cord to the entire remote base station had been unplugged and inside the cabinet. Once I plugged it back in the ceiling socket, the radio came back to life! A quick check showed everything to be in order! I think probably that the plug had been disconnected when repairs were effected. Oh well we are back on the air! I think we may install twist lock plugs to avoid future problems.

LANDLORD UPDATE

 During my discussion with our landlord, I was told that the new standard rate for all amateur radio users would be $125 per month. This amount will cover the main UHF radio and one link radio. Any additional radios will be at an increased cost. Currently, we are paying $85.00 a month, so we are looking at a 32% increase. This increase is not because of anything we have done as an amateur radio group, but due to many other amateur radio groups across the country using our landlord's sites. Many of these groups had up to seven (7) transmitters and associated antennas, but only paying $50 a month. So a standard amateur fee is being established. It will also be required to use a duplexer or other antenna combining/sharing arrangement. Fortunately, we are already doing this at Saddle Peak. I am going to try and prepay our site rent for a year in advance, to avoid the raise. It is unknown at this time if it will work, but it is worth a try. So, anyone able to pay their 2000 year dues in advance ($60) please send me your dues so I can send a check to the landlord. Certainly it is worth the effort for the 32% return on our investment. I do have to admit that if we do need to raise our dues a few dollars, it will be our first raise since 1973! How is that for fighting inflation? I think it is pretty good! As I get more information, I will let everyone know!

NEW SPARCGAP DELIVERY SYSTEM!

 This is the first electronic edition of the SAPRGAP! With a new Millennium, comes a new delivery system that hopefully will be faster, cheaper and almost real time in the updates. I will be delivering the SPARCGAP via the Internet. Most of our members have access to the Internet, so I thought I would try this electronic method to save cost and handling! Your bills will be coming under separate cover. Should you have any ideas or comments, please send them to me sblomer@home.com. Please keep me updated on your Internet addresses!

You can also subscribe to the Cactus Radio Club reflector which provides information on Cactus related events/activities. To be added to the e-mail reflector distribution list, send an e-mail message to Ken, WA6PYJ (ken@cactus-intertie.org) indicating that you want to be added to the Cactus e-mail reflector. Include your name, call, affiliate group and the e-mail address you would like to have the messages sent to. If your e-mail address changes, be sure to indicate both your old and new e-mail address. Your Cactus membership will be verified prior to being added to the distribution list.

73's and I hope you have a great 2000! See you all in Las Vegas!


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