Members of ARRL since 1957

The Victor Valley Amateur Radio Club Newsletter THE SPECTRUM The SPECTRUM AUGUST Club Meetings .......Club Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month at the Mojave River Campus of the Lewis Center . Directions: From Apple Valley Road, turn west on Tuscola. (toward the river) Take the very first right turn, which is Mana; the campus is located at the very end of Mana Rd. We meet in Building C. Tuesday, August 08, 2006 is the next meeting. Agenda TDB. The VVARC Sunday Night Net .......Every Sunday evening at 7:00pm, the VVARC runs a friendly net for the purpose of giving information and increasing interest in amateur radio. Everyone, member or not, is welcome to log in. The frequency is 146.94 with a "-" offset and a pl tone of 91.5. A special thanks to goes out to Paul Kendal, who has done an excellent job over the past month. If you are interested in helping with to run the net, shoot an email to kg6tgr@yahoo.com. We hope to hear your voice this coming sunday. Route 66 On The Air .......BACKGROUND: US Highway 66 established in 1926, was the first major improved highway to link the west coast with the nations heartland. Through stories, songs, and TV shows, the highway came to symbolize the spirit of the freedom of the open road, inspiring many to see America. However, the demise of Route 66 began in the 1950's as the US began building it's interstate highway system, and the highway was officially decommissioned in 1986. None the less, small portions of the US Highway 66 still exist in towns and rural areas in several states. .......The Seventh Annual "Route 66 On The Air" Special Event. Amateur Radio Clubs using 1 X 1 call signs will operate from 17 cities along the highway during the special event period, 9th September (00:00:01z) through 17th September (23:59:59z) aiming to contact as many amateur radio operators as possible who would like to take part in this annual event. .......SUGGESTED OPERATING FREQUENCIES: Special event stations are likely to be found somewhere in the vicinity of the following frequencies. (Look for digital modes in the standard band segments for such mode) All Frequencies +/- QRM Hz. CW 3533 7033 10110 14033 18080 21033 24900 28033 50033 SSB 3866 7266 N/A 14266 18166 21366 24966 28466 50166 50th Birthday Party & Ice Cream Social ....... The Victor Valley Amateur Radio club is turning 50 years old this year! Everyone is invited to the ice-cream social and VVARC 50th celebration on Tuesday, September 12. Available for perusal will be some of the earliest written records, logos that didn't make the cut, and early photographs. The board will be working hard to publicize it and to make this truly significant accomplishment a festivity to be remembered. Be sure to mark your calendars and we'll see you there. Bulldog Amateur Radio Club [BARC] update... .......As many of you know, we are sponsoring a school club. The school year is starting on August 14. This week we will be decorating the classroom and setting up some equipment. Our club is donating an equipment locker, that will help keep some of the radio equipment safe. We have been accepted as an ARRL 'Big Project' school, and should receive some equipment shortly. Mark Spencer (ARRL) has kept in regular contact on this. Jeff Youskievicz, the principal at Mesa Linda Middle School in Adelanto is very supportive of the club. The VVARC will help nurture BARC with knowledge, equipment donations, demonstrations. Photos will be posted soon and updates posted regularly. Members On The Air Joyce/KB6BLD & James/KB6WHT Pike ....... For the month of August, James and Joyce Pike were chosen to be interviewed. They have been long standing members of the VVARC and have had some unusual communication stories. ....... Firstly, Joyce Pike has been a member since 1979 (27 years) and was licenced in August of 1983. She helped write the spectrum for two years (1980-1) when there used to be advertisers. She also held the treasurer's office for three years. ....... When asked about her favorite contact, Joyce replied: "It was my first HF contact to New Zealand. ZL2AIL/Patrick McMannaway from Carterton, North Island. I heard him on ten meters, listened while he made a couple of contacts, When he was about to clear I gave him a call, I told him it was my first contact to New Zealand. I told Patrick we had a kiwi bird [New Zealander] visiting James-ZL2JZ/ Elizabeth Jury (very good friends/ham from new zealand). Patrick's response was, 'Oh, I know Lizzy. She lives about 18 miles from me and I helped her get her ham licence." the Pikes have been friends with Patrick ever since (1989). Patrick never visited the states, but Joyce has visited New Zealand twice;) ....... Another interesting contact Joyce had was a person at The Vatican (T77T?). When asked if she contacted The Pope, she rolled her eyes and said, “No!” ....... “Two years in a row, I operated the ham station at the rose parade in Pasadena. It was a kick because if you get a female voice on hf, everybody in the world just piles up. ....... Secondly, James Pike has been a member since 1985. James remembers his first visit to the VVARC vividly: “It was the night that Coney Kennedy yelled at me. It was at the old Victorville school offices. I hadn’t met the first person yet, and I was holding a Styrofoam cup, squeaking it in my hand. Coney, who was in front of me, turned around and yelled, ‘If you don't put that [beep] thing down I'm going to... [censored-but the active verb is ‘shove’]." They became friends right away. ....... One of James’s favorite radio memory was trying to get the VVARC White Rabbit Award #1. It was a contest that you had to contact 10 other white rabbit members. Joyce beat James by one minute for the award #2, while James had to settle for the White Rabbit Award #3. ....... The strangest contact of James’s life was after he received his general class. “I was on the radio one afternoon and a gentleman called me. He was sailing into Fiji, under sail power. He asked if I would do a favor for him- if I would call an engineering company in Texas, and order a drive shaft, which was going to cost $280. I gave it about a minutes worth of thought and told him yes. He gave the address and wanted air freight next day. Now understand, we had nothing in common except that we were both hams. So I got on the phone, ordered it. I got back on the radio and told him that it was ordered. He sent international money order for almost $600.” ....... “I have a lot of stories, but my all time favorite was when I talked to Fletcher Christian, the great, great, great, of Fletcher Christian on Pitcairn Island. He sent a complete story from the perspective of Fletcher Christian, written in English script on parchment. I also talked to the daughter about five times.” Fletcher Christian was the famous mutineer of The Bounty. His descendants continue to live on Pitcairn and use amateur radio as a primary source of communications. Well, thanks James and Joyce for sharing your communication stories with the other members of our club. 73, KG6TGR/ Jonathan K6QWR- Victor Valley Amateur Radio Club, PO Box 869, Victorville, Ca 92392