W5SFA
The
Stephen F. Austin Radio Club, Inc.
An Association of Amateur Radio
Operators in the Austin, Fayette and Waller County Areas
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 73
Carmine TX 78932
Meetings: Last Wednesday of each month
Repeaters: 145.410 (KC5YMJ)
444.875 (W5SFA)
1999-00 Officers:
President, Carl Hickman, K5OWC
Vice President, Wade Eilers, W5TEN
Secretary/Treasurer, Dan White, W5AOV
Newsletter Editor, Dave Jenkins, K5KX
Newsletter Publisher, Dave Jenkins, K5KX
The
SFARC Newsletter is published monthly for members and those interested in
becoming members.
January, 2000
January Meeting
The next SFARC meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 26 at Sillavan’s
Restaurant (Highway 36 between Bellville and Kenney). Dinner will be at 6:30 PM, with business
meeting to follow. Dan and Carl will be
discussing the recently added autopatch functions on the 444.875 repeater (see
below). If are a user of this facility,
this meeting will be your chance to find out just how to use this added
functionality.
November/December Meeting
Members present:
Dave, K5KX and XYL
Joy
Wade, W5TEN and XYL Nancy
Dan. W5AOV and XYL Linda
Carl, K5OWC and XYL DeAnn
Carl, W5MPX
Linda, N5LXG
This was the Club’s annual November/December combined meeting and Christmas dinner, and was held at the house of President Carl Hickman, K5OWC and his XYL DeAnn on December 7, 1999. Carl and DeAnn provided the ham and turkey, while the rest of the folks there provided other delicacies such as baked vegetables, desserts, etc.
Virtually
no business was discussed, since members and XYL’s were too busy pigging out to
think about other Club activities.
November Bike
Ride Benefiting Center for the Retarded in San Felipe
Here’s a picture of Dan W5AOV working the 1999 November Fest Metric Century Bike Ride. [I just don’t have a mental picture of Dan in spandex, so he must have been in his car at the time this pic was taken. Ed.] Dan worked communications from 8 AM until 2 PM at break point 4 which was located at the Cemetery on Mechanic Street in Bellville
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Repeater News
If you use the 444.875 repeater, you’ve probably heard some new sounds lately: Carl, K5OWC and Dan, W5AOV have been working at implementing the phone patch on the repeater during the last month. They are about finished with the setup and most of the testing. Some testing still remains but they hope to have all of it completed by the January meeting date.
Dan and Carl are hoping for a large turnout at this meeting so that they can discuss the autopatch operations with everyone firsthand. We hope that all SFARC members will take advantage of this added repeater functionality, which does come with some restrictions in operation due to the nature of the phone line available. With the coming of ten digit dialing and the age of the repeater controller it will be necessary that all calls be placed via memory location. Each person will be assigned locations to put their phone numbers in. A published list will be available to all club members. While no one will be allowed to place a long distance or operator-assisted call, provisions will be made for emergencies.
Please come to the meeting with a list of numbers you wish to have put into the dialer. A sheet will be provided for you to fill out. If you cannot attend, then either mail or e-mail your list to Dan White and he will be sure that they get installed.
Dan’s snail mail address is:
Dan White
You
can also e-mail your numbers to: dan.white@argolink.net
Coming Events:
The annual MS 150 will be upon us in 3 months. This year, organizers will be asking for
volunteers to ride shotgun in SAG vehicles, as well as handling the more
traditional checkpoint duties. The Club
has always been active in supporting this event – please see if you find time
in your spring activities to participate.
Background
Noise:
Have you started using the Internet since the last Newsletter? If so, please let Dave, K5KX (e-mail: djenkins@pointecom.net or dfjenkins@equiva.com), have your e-mail address(es).
For those of you who communicate with me electronically, please note the change in my e-mail address as shown above.