W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Gene KJ6OML Garden Grove, Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach, Sam W6JTT, and Clem W0MEC. Gene is barely readable to Corey. He relays Phil and Sam, but Corey does not read either. Corey YHX reads the check-ins at s9.9, no copy, no copy, and no copy, respectively. QRT 19:38 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, Tom W6ETC/E, Clem W0MEC Westminster, Jeff KK6TRC/E, Gene KJ6OML Garden Grove, Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach, Terrence AI6ZV Costa Mesa, Bob K6DNR Westminster, Bob WB6IXN Santa Ana, and Charles N6YMK/M. Sam is loud and clear to Corey. Tom thanks Jeff and Corey for their OP duties. He has an HT that didn’t seem to be working. It was keying a repeater, but he wasn’t hearing it on the HT. He checked the configurations, and they were okay. So Tom compared the hardware with another older, but similar radio. He found that three or four areas of hardware configurations were changed. So Tom aligned the hardware configurations, and now it works fine. It took wa-ay longer than the hour he expected. “Don’t lose hope,&rdquo says Tom. He is on Echolink this round. Tom says it is a Baeofeng BF-F9B2 on the second round. This one is capable of 8W, says Tom, but it is yet to be confirmed. Bob IXN relays he is using a Yaesu FT-8800 to Tom. Tom suspects Bob hit something on his radio that turned on WIRES. Tom says as a gemologist, that one of the largest deposits of corundum is in Madagascar. There is red and blue corundum, the red being ruby, the blue sapphire. Phil jumps in on the second round to tell Bob IXN to press the left volume knob momentarily to turn off WIRES. Clem reads Net Control at s7 to s8, and all okay so far (to Bob IXN). Corey reads him full-copy the whole way. Clem recounts the 10M Net to Corey on the second round. Jeff is at his Huntington Beach QTH, but is on Echolink so the OPs there can read him. He did the Newport to Ensenada Sailboat Race on the weekend. Jeff used his Baofeng as a secondary HT at the helm of the boat, and has the VHF frequencies programmed into it. He made some communications with it, and it worked well. On the second round, Jeff further describes the WIRES procedure on Bob IXN’s Yaesu. Gene reads all nice and clear (up to Bob DNR’s check-in), and Corey has him Full-Quieting. Phil in Huntington Beach reads all at s10 (up to Bob DNR’s check-in). On 10M tonight, he had Corey at s1 to s2. Phil could barely hear him, so made no contact. Phil heard the other OPs fine. Phil recounts the FT8 presentation from Chip and Arnie at the last meeting, on the second round. He made contact with Morocco and New Zealand at 30W on 30m FT8, and Australia at 30W on 17m. Phil is using an all-band vertical antenna for FT8. Terrence has Corey at 30dB over s9. He was in Madagascar for vacation, and saw the rainforest and savanna, and some really interesting things. Corey recalls a primate he learned about in Geography class in elementary school that lives in Madagascar, and that much vanilla is grown there. Terrence clarifies that they are lemurs, and saw six of about fourteen species. “They almost look like a cross between a monkey and a cat,&rdquo says Terrence. The weather was about 78° to 80°, 90% to 95% humidity in the northern rainforest, 90° and lower humidity in the savanna, 90° and 100% humidity at the beach on the west side of the island, and 80° and 60% to 70% humidity at Antananarivo in the winter there, says Terrence. Terrence reads all s9+, up to Bob IXN’s check-in. Bob DNR is at the home QTH. He is checking in with the Net after a long while. Bob IXN has his internet feature covering the beginning of his Tx, but reads all but two bars on the weakest signal, and Full-Quieting on the others. He is learning his Motorola cellphone as an alternative to the land-line. Corey offers some help with Bob’s cellphone. Corey relays the WIRES procedure to Bob on the second go-round. Jeff clarifies that the display shows “INT&rdquo when WIRES is on. Bob fixes the mode now. Charles checks in at the end of the second round. He is mobile on the 57fwy at the 22fwy interchange, going home from Irvine Valley College. Corey reads him loud and clear, with just a little flutter in the background. Corey YHX reads the check-ins at s6, s6, s6 to s7, s6, F.Q., s7 to s8, s7, s6 to s7, F.Q., and s5 to F.Q., respectively. QRT 21:23 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Bob AF6C Orange, Jim AF6N Tustin, Vijay KM6IZO Irvine, Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach, Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, and Clem W0MEC. Bob is having dinner now. He is working on a Heathkit S40B receiver. He needs some rubber mounts for it. Bob has jury duty next Monday. He has perfect SWR, probably from lossy coax, reports Bob. Jim says good evening. He was looking forward to the general meeting, but wasn’t feeling well. He stayed home instead. Jim reads Bob and Corey 20dB over s9, and Vijay is s6 on the second round. Phil is s9, and Sam and Clem are right at the noise level to Jim. Jim asks if Bob has a Heathkit article for June, and Bob replies yes, for May. Bob will try again in June if his taxes work out. Jim tells of his tax work. Vijay is imperceptible to Corey on the first round, and Bob relays on the second round. Vijay is better to Bob, Corey, and Jim the second time. The third-round, Vijay adjusts his antenna tuner, and Bob reads him better. Phil is down in the white-noise to Corey. Sam is weak, but a little more readable to Net Control on the first-round. Phil relays Clem through Bob. Clem only hears Phil. Corey reads the check-ins at 7dB over s9, s8.5, no copy to s4.3, s4.7 to s3.8, barely perceptible, and no copy, respectively. QRT 19:59 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Clem W0MEC Westminster, Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, Vijay KM6IZO Irvine, Bob WB6IXN Santa Ana, Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach, Tom W6ETC/Echolink, Jeff KK6TRC/Echolink, and Mike W6MAO Rialto. Clem says he has Corey good-copy. Mike is a little faint, but Clem reads him okay. On 10m, he only heard Sam and Phil on his end. Clem reads Corey at s7, good-copy, and asks him how his feed-lines are doing. Corey replaced them because of a downed tree. Sam has antenna damage to his 2m ground-plane. The radiating element is broken-off. Sam says he will work on it tomorrow. He needs to replace the ground-plane with a discone. Vijay reads Clem at 3 out of 8 bars. Corey reads Vijay with clear, strong signals. Vijay reads Sam and Clem at 3 bars, and Mike is 1 bar into Irvine. Clem says he is running 60W, and reads Vijay at s6. Bob listened-in on 10M, and heard Corey for the first time. The OPs were lighting-up most of the bars. Bob receives on 2m even better. He is learning how to use his cellphone. Bob suggests a weather report from Sam at his place in Idyllwild. More rain is on the way here, says Bob. Sam comes back with “The weather in Idyllwild is very mild and somewhat warm.&rdquo Phil heard Bob AF6C, Jim, Clem and Sam, but not Corey on 10m. Phil contacted Germany and Spain on 20m FT8 using 75W into a beam at about 4:00pm this afternoon. He reads Mike at s7, and the rest at s10. Phil hears Jeff with low audio. Tom says good evening to Corey and the Net. Tom jokes about the discussions for Elmers at the meetings, about CW, “the Cold-War,&rdquo or a new 2M radio, and wonders how he will get a radio that big into the house. Corey jokes about it being a task for our Technical Chairman. On the second-round, Tom talks about vertical-antenna radiation characteristics. Jeff has low audio through his bluetooth wireless headset, but receives all OPs well. Mike reports 59° 62% humidity with light winds out of the southwest in Rialto. He is expecting some thundershowers in the foothills. Mike asks about the 80M net, and Corey says he needs to get his antennas back up after the downed tree. Corey reads the check-ins at s6 to s7, s5 to s6, s6, F.Q., s7 to s8, s5 to s6, s6, and s5, respectively. QRT 21:00 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, Gene KJ6OML Garden Grove, Jim AF6N Tustin, Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach, Clem W0MEC Westminster, Greg W6ATB Orange, and Bob AF6C Orange. Sam is barely perceptible to Net Control. Sam is readable on the second round. He says good evening, and has good copy on Clem, but that is all. Gene is alternating between a strong and a weak signal. Jim relays Phil’s check-in to Corey. Jim confirms Gene’s alternating signal. Corey is 15dB over s9, says Jim. On the second round Sam is fine, but not Clem or Gene, Greg is booming-in, and Phil is s9+ with his IC-7300, says Jim. Jim enjoys switching to his Yaesu, to keep familiar with its controls. Phil hears Corey at s2 to s3, a little better than last week, Jim at s6, Clem s5 or s6, and confirms Gene’s alternating signal. Clem is down in the white noise to Corey. Clem is still weak on the second round, but Phil hears him off-and-on. Greg booms-in, but with a slight frequency mismatch. Wednesday nights, his family normally goes to Buca restaurant where his son manages, but plans are cancelled, so here he is. Propagation is difficult tonight, says Greg. Greg hears Jim, Bob, and Corey, but can’t hear any other check-in. He switched from a dipole to a beam, and can use a loop-receive antenna. Greg is going to Las Vegas this weekend to visit his sister. Tim N6GP and Dan KI6X will take treasurer duties in that time. Sporadic-E is in on 6m for FT8, and Greg redid his antennas. Bob checks-in on the second-round, and is strong and clear. He was eating dinner, and is running a little late after a meeting with the IRS. Bob got an inquisitive letter from the IRS, and went through authentication procedures, some of which were pathetic. Finally he got it squared-away. Bob is starting a new Heathkit article, he says on the third round. Corey reads the check-ins at s4.4, s7.4 to s5.1, s9.0, s4.7, s3.6, 4dB over s9, and 8dB over s9, respectively. QRT 19:53 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Clem W0MEC Westminster, Vijay KM6IZO Irvine, Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, Greg W6ATB Orange, Jeff KK6TRC/Echolink Huntington Beach, Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach, Gene KJ6OML Garden Grove, Tom W6ETC/M, Nicholas AF6CF, Bob AF6C Orange. Clem has good copy on Net Control, now. Clem read Corey at s3-s4 at first. He has all OPs up to Nicholas’ check-in with nice signals. Tom is RST 57, says Clem. Vijay was surprised to hear the Hughes Net before this one. He checks-in and checks-out. Sam’s 2m ground-plane was destroyed in a storm, so he is running a new discone. Net control has excellent copy on Sam. On the second-round Sam says he took a Rocky Mountain Express Train trip from Vancouver B.C. to Banff, Alberta last week. Greg reads Sam well at s9+, and Clem loud and clear, about an s9. Corey is F.Q. Greg’s antenna is up about 40ft, a 3dB stick, and a beam he can switch to that is vertically polarized. He is in his workshop, and has been working on some paperwork. Nicholas was F.Q., says Greg. Jeff says good evening to the Net. He just got out of a board meeting. All is good, and he is anticipating a little rain tomorrow. Jeff had a timeout issue with Echolink, and is on it for the second round. Phil has all Full-Quieting, up to Gene’s check-in. Greg was s5 on 10m, tonight, says Phil. Ten Meters and 6m was open yesterday, and he contacted WA, OR, ID and Canada on FT-8. On the 14th, he reached KH0I, in the Northern Mariana Islands on 20M, at 0500UTC. Twenty minutes ago Phil was talking to Australia on 20m. Tom and Nicholas are an s5 on the second round, says Phil. We have a club general meeting this Friday, Phil reminds us. Gene reads all up to Phil nice and clear. He is running a Diamond DJ-130 Discone for 2M/440. Tom is mobile in Yorba Linda. Tom has a lot of static on Echolink, and it is not coming up. He is in front of Nicholas’ QTH. Tom doubled with himself via direct and Echolink, a strange occurrence, explains Nicholas. Nicholas says good evening to Corey and the Net. He is at his QTH in Yorba Linda, and Corey has him nearly full-quieting. Nicholas will try his best to make it to the earlier-than-expected general meeting. Bob has been working on an S40B Heathkit Receiver, as a present for his nephew. He says to Nicholas, Bob has his portable oscilloscope that is a challenge. Tom and Nicholas detect a whine on Bob’s signal that Corey, Phil, Greg, and Jeff don’t hear. Corey has Bob F.Q. with a clean signal. Corey reads the check-ins at s6 to s7, full-copy, F.Q., s6, s7, s5 to s6, F.Q., s6, s6, and F.Q., respectively. QRT 21:00 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey in Orange checks in Clem W0MEC Westminster, Sam W6JTT. Clem is way down in the white noise. Sam has Clem at 20dB over s9, and can just barely hear Net Control, so Clem relays. He switches to a discone antenna, and Corey reads him stronger. When Sam switches back, Corey reads him weaker, but readable. Corey is way down in the noise to Sam. Corey YHX reads the check-ins at s3.3, and s3.7. QRT 19:40 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Clem W0MEC Westminster, Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, Bob WB6IXN Santa Ana, Tom W6ETC/Echolink Tustin, Jeff KK6TRC/Echolink, and Mike W6MAO Rialto. Clem receives Net Control at an s7. Ten-Meters was a different story. All OPs are RST 58, Corey is RST 57 to 58 on 2M, good-copy says Clem. It was a little wet and rainy this afternoon, overcast and 55°F to 63°F at Clem’s QTH. Sam has a lot of antenna cleanup to do, has a new discone, and Net Control reads him full-copy. Sam receives all OPs quite well. Bob hears Sam full-copy and asks about his QTH in Idyllwild. Sam hasn’t been up there in a while, but is going up there Friday. Bob got a weather report tonight that the mountains are getting some winds and inclement weather. Bob is having some tooth-work done, with some infected bone and an implant. He had some rain today, and the weeds are overtaking his yard. Bob has all at RST 59. He thanks Corey for the work on his antennas. It was mostly low-cost dipoles in his teaching days, recalls Bob. Tom isn’t on his mobile rig; it has difficult propagation close to his house. He has a topic for the Net, rain and how it effects propagation. As a second topic, Tom observes on another Net that there was a complaint as to infrequent Net Control I.D. Corey brings up rain-scatter and how it effects propagation. Humidity effects microwave frequencies adversely, says Tom. Tom refers to attenuation. Raindrops scatter and absorb differently depending on the wavelengths vs the obstruction. Jeff is familiar with tropospheric ducting, high-pressure systems, and inversion layers. Jeff notes that the noise on the Echolink Node is in his rig, and will work on it. Jeff will be headed-out to Great Lakes, Illinois, for his son’s military graduation this weekend. He mentions the differences in airline extras, and will be up at 6am to be at the airport by 8am, tomorrow morning. Mike reports 50°F, 70% humidity, winds out of the SW at 10 to 20mph, and had some rain off-and-on since noon above the foothills in Rialto, no thunder or lightning. There have been some aerosol injections into the atmosphere, says Mike. Corey refers to the seeding of clouds to effect hurricanes, but that was in the ‘50s, says Mike. Soil conductivity helps propagation, he says. Bob may have a loose mic contact, says Mike. Mike mentions his neighborhood will have a scheduled power-outage from 10pm to 6am, so he needs to get his place warm by then. Corey YHX reads the check-ins at s6 to s7, s5, F.Q., s5 to s6, s5 to s6, and s5, respectively. QRT 21:13 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey in Orange checks in Jim AF6N Tustin, Clem W0MEC Westminster, Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, Gene KJ6OML Garden Grove, and Vijay KM6IZO Irvine. Jim has his beam antenna aimed towards the northeast, normally he has it pointed west. He is listening to a dead band. There is a station on the east coast, but no one is responding to him. Clem tries to check-in under Jim, but Jim hears no one but Net Control. Clem on 2m reports a side-net that was held on 10m. Sam checks-in via Clem on 2m. Gene comes-in at 7:40pm, with Clem on the side. Vijay checks-in via Clem on 2m, also. Corey YHX reads the check-ins at s8.1, weak, no copy, readable, and no copy, respectively. QRT 19:35 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Clem W0MEC Westminster, Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, Gene KJ6OML Garden Grove, Jeff KK6TRC/Echolink Newport Beach, Bob WB6IXN Santa Ana, Greg W6ATB Orange, Vijay KM6IZO Irvine, Charles N6YMK/M 91fwy from Irvine Valley College, and Tom W6ETC/Echolink. Clem reports the side-net in his area on 10m. He could barely hear Net Control on that band. Net Control is s7 to s8, and Vijay is s4, says Clem. Vijay has Clem at 3 bars out of 8, full-copy. Sam has good copy on all, up to Vijay’s check-in. His shack is a bit of a mess, but he got his new discone antenna up. Corey reads him full-copy. Gene receives all nice and clear, a very informative Net. Corey inquires about inverter noise on Gene’s signal, a fast pulsing noise. Jeff reports no one is waiting on Echolink, tonight. His son and family had a great weekend for his son’s military graduation. Jeff notices a great improvement with Vijay’s signal. Vijay got a 20W TH-9800 versus the HT he used about three months ago. Bob hears all 100% on both 2m and 10m, and is Full-Quieting to Net Control. Bob has an open band on 40m CW this evening. It will probably be quite lively on that band tonight. Bob greatly appreciates the work Corey does on Bob’s antennas. Corey will call tomorrow. Greg reports a big difference on Clem’s signal when Clem switches-on his amp. Greg is running 80W, into a 3dB antenna up 33ft. Greg missed the 10M Net, but caught Clem and the Hughes Net on 2m. He has been working on side-runs, and babysitting kids. Greg says 6m and 10m is open locally. The E.S. is good rather than sunspots, because the hops are shorter. All the in-between states come in. Greg will be operating FT8 for Field Day. Corey will operate the digital station as well. Tony N2VAJ will be doing satellite. Greg uses an Icom and a computer-tracking program for satellite. Tony on the other hand uses an Icom IC-9700 set up to do satellite. It does all the tracking with a scope without a computer, and Greg would like to see it on Field Day. Tony uses omnidirectional antennas vs Greg’s yagis. Vijay says good evening to the Net. He has a spare 12V Battery for Corey. Corey accepts with thanks. Vijay says Charles at I.V.C. is not coming in, which is unusual considering Vijay is in Irvine about half-a-mile away. He tried to check-in on 10M, but no one heard him. Vijay reports a great improvement in reception with his new rig. Clem and Sam come in now. Corey asks for a signal report on Vijay from Clem. Vijay is s2 to s3 to Clem. Corey asks Sam also, but Sam has local noise wiping out his reception. Charles says Irvine Valley College closes at 8pm in the summer. Tom checks-in from his office QTH in Tustin via Echolink. He came across a formal, directed Net at a remote location. It is very boring compared to this Net, says Tom. Tom is reading about ARRL ARES, and asks a question of the OPs. “What is the most important operator skill,&rdquo Tom asks. Corey says “note-taking.&rdquo Vijay says “relaying information.&rdquo Tom comes back with “listening,&rdquo in his and other’s opinion is the most important skill. Corey and Bob say good-night. Corey YHX reads the check-ins at s3 to s7, s5 to s6, F.Q., s5 to s6, F.Q., F.Q., s6 to s7, choppy, and s5 to s6, respectively. QRT 21:13 PDT.
