W6IFE Newsletter

President Jeff Fort KN6VR 2019 Hunter Rd Chino Hills, CA 91709 714-577-0045 jlfort@west.raytheon.com

VP Dick Bremer, WB6DNX 1664 Holly St. Brea, CA 92621 714-529-2800 rabremer@juno.com

Recording Sec Mel Swanberg WA6JBD 231 E Alessandro Blvd Riverside, CA 92508 909-369-6515 swanberg@pe.net

Corresponding Sec Kurt Geitner K6RRA 213 Main St. #5 Seal Beach,CA 90740 310-718-4910 k6rra@gte.net

Treasurer Dick Kolbly K6HIJ 26335 Community Barstow, CA 92311 760-253-2477 rkolbly@compuserve.com

Editor Bill Burns WA6QYR 247 Rebel Rd Ridgecrest, CA 93555 760-375-8566 bburns@ridgecrest.ca.us

ARRL Interface Frank Kelly WB6CWN 1111 Rancho Conejo Blvd. #501 Newbury Park, CA 91320

805-499-8047 fk@event1.com

FCC Interface Dave Laag K6OW 11614 Indian St. Moreno Valley, CA 92557 909-924-1517

W6IFE License Trustee Ed Munn W6OYJ 6255 Radcliffe Dr. San Diego, CA 92122 619-453-4563

edmunn@compuserve.com

The 6 January 2000 meeting of the SBMS will have Ed Munn, W6OYJ talk about the operation and programming of the Qualcomm synthesizers for ham use. The SBMS meets at the American Legion Hall 1024 Main Street (south of the 91 freeway in Corona, CA at 1900 hours local time on the first Thursday of each month.. Check out the SBMS web site at http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/. Thanks to the webmaster Chip, N6CA, there are lots of member pictures and items to read.

It was with sadness that we learned that another one of our long time members , Gordon Lewin, WB6YLI had passed away November 28th from complications with pneumonia. Gordon was one to be out and about on hill tops during contests with his rig or at his Redondo Beach home garage roof top helping folks add points. A number of us always wondered if his old car would get him home after being out on some remote hill top. Periodically Gordon would return to England for visits and operating with amateurs there. His signals are going to be missed.

Last meeting - Dave, WA6CGR presented his engineering model of a 120w amplifier using an Ericsson PTF-10125 LDMOS FET to cover 1240-1300 MHz. This was a special device that he is trying to get Ericsson to expand the parameters to cover the ham band for a new product line. Included in this newsletter are the handout datasheets provided by Dave. Dave was operating his amplifier in the constant key down mode for several hours to test its capability to handle ham operations. The RG-142 cable to the dummy load was warmer than the big heat sink used. Dave plans to add circulators to his amplifier in the production models. Visitors to the meeting were Gordon Cove, WB6GVC of McBef, SC; Pete Carah, K6JRR of Altadena; and Ralph Fowler, N4NEQ of Kennesaw, GA. Welcome. 21 present.

Scheduling-

3 Feb. John Stephensen, KD6OZH will talk about his article on "A Stable, Low-Noise Crystal Oscillator for Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Transverters" in the Nov./ Dec. 1999 issue of QEX and some updates.

2 Mar. Gordon Huff, WA6FMX, solid state T/R circuits.

Wants and Gots for Sale

Want two 4CX400A 's Bob Gardner W6SYA 818-248-3683

Want WR-42 90 degree twist and waveguide switch Dave WA6CGR 909-318-5154.

Activity reported at the December 1999 SBMS meeting- Chuck, WA6EXV was out for some 24 GHz tests as reported last month and is building some new control circuits for his 10 ft EME dish; Bill, WA6QYR was out testing on 24 GHz also and is trying to get his GPS based reference oscillator to function; Jim, K6ML is putting his shack together following his move and has worked Art, KC6UQH in San Diego from the new Vista QTH; Ken, WB6DTA is back from a Hawaii vacation and operating in DM23; Bob, W6SYA built a new 1296 MHz preamp; Mel, WA6JBD has a new 2 ft 24 GHz dish and is fixing some of his 24 GHz rig problems; Ralph, N4NEQ has 10 and 24 GHz gear; John, KJ6HZ did some 10 GHz dish work; Dave, WA6CGR is half way done with a 5.6 GHz rig and has been doing lots of building; Dick, K6HIJ is doing some cell phone synthesizer work; Sam, K6VLM hears the Miguel beacon strong; Gary, W6KVC has his 10 GHz ATV back on the air; Doug, K6JEY found out that running 500w on 432 MHz to a 100w relay makes carbon; Jeff, KN6VR has his IF radio about done and his 1.2 GHz 50 w station on the air (Jeff reported that Hiro, KE6IDA is back from Japan and had lots of info on the 24 GHz and up stuff that is going on there); Gary, KE6JUV has a new 10 GHz beacon up.

Congratulations to Carmen Von Striver on her new call, K6ASL (xyl of Jim, W6ASL).

CHANGES--The number monster or area code gobbler has struck again according to Ed, W6OYJ. His San Diego area has moved from 619 to 858. Just a reminder to all who have moved lately, please forward your new address to SBMS. USPS only forwards mail for a short time before trashing it. Newsletters are sometimes related to junk mail and get dumped without return to the editor for notice of change. Robin, WA6CGR has moved his email address to wb6tza@socal.rr.com.

NEW 47 GHz record??-Yesterday, 8 Dec., after some testing the last month or so, and waiting for the right day, Bob, KF6KVG and I headed out to try to extend the 47 GHz record. I went to Mt. Vaca, (CM88WJ) near Vacaville, CA and Bob went to Loma Prieta Mtn (CM97BC), south of San Jose. We calculate distance to be 137 km. We acquired about 2:15 p.m., signals about 1 s-unit out of noise. About 10 min. later, Bob found he was on a side lobe, and signals jumped up to S8 on both ends. We both have 23 in dishes, 5 dB noise figure, Bob has +11 dBm, I have +16 dBm from a new x4 multiplier just found among some 39 GHz stuff. We estimate moisture loss at 0.3 dB/km, and believe we have enough margin [for] the world record a shot. [We] have found a path of 290 km. Fades were about 1 S unit over an hours time. Weather 50 degrees, humidity about 60 percent, and high clouds. [I'm] still not happy with the compasses we use. 73, Will Jensby Santa Clara, CA W0EOM@aol.com

Hi to all! We now have Dave K6OW great SBMS article up on the SBMS webpage at: http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/historyOW.html or just go to http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/ and look for the pointer.Dave WA6CGR & Chip N6CAToday A beacon on 10368.011 MHz was install on Santiago Peak. Constructed by K6VLM and installed by KE6JUV and KC6CCC. P.O. 20 mw under KE6JUV Call Sign. I receive it S-2 with my portable rig set up in my shack. Please forward signal reports to me KC6UQH and I will relay them back to Sam, Gary, and Mike. Thanks Art, KC6UQH kc6uql@k-online.com> Hey, I'll be sure to send for a QSL if I hear it up here in Alaska :-) Great to hear of all the progress of the SBMS and so-cal microwave since the 1970's when I was a member. I am preparing to get on 10 GHz here in so-central Alaska, with hopes of stimulating some interest-activity. I will be setting up a gunnplexer nbfm (5 KHz) beacon (18 inch DSS dish) oriented toward Anchorage (98 km NW of me) in a few months. Meanwhile waiting for the UPS truck to bring my new DEMI 10 GHz xvtr and DB6NT 0.7dB NF preamp. Look for me off the moon in a few months! Anyone know where I can find a >20w 10 GHz TWTA? 73, Ed AL7EB, ex-K8MWA 50-144 eme-432-1296(EME-next summer)-2401Rx-10,368(soon)

Edward R. Cole al7eb@ptialaska.net

Look at http://df6na.mayn.de/~df6na/surplus.htm for 30-2000 W X-band TWTs.73, John, KD6OZH

73's Bill

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