On the Web : June 2006

If you enjoy reading 'On the Web', your ham radio club can publish this column on an exchange basis with SJRA. Contact Ted, , for the exchange details.		Our contributions to the South Jersey Radio Association club bulletin "Harmonics" includes lengthy Web addresses. As the URL's can be difficult or a nuisance to type into your Web browser, the postings here should make it easier to get to the Web sites SJRA members are interested in. Look for the posting at w2xq.com at the time "Harmonics" is scheduled for delivery in the south Jersey area. Questions, suggestions or contributions are always welcome.
		Solar X-rays  Geomagnetic Field  N 3 K L

The 2006 Field Day Rules
The SJRA Field Day Site entrance is on Lower Main Street, Marlton, opposite the Indian Springs Golf Course.
GPS (Global Positioning System) coordinates are N 39° 53.162', W 74° 53.486', or use these maps.
Mapquest is almost a 'net standard, but the Google map looks very good.

Field Day! Don't blink! You may miss the last full weekend of June. It's here... now! Go to the Web version of this column for our operating countdown clock and the map link if you don't have a GPS unit. K2AA members, friends, and guests will be descending upon Marlton's Field Day site.

Many thanks in advance to the local government personnel workers, supervisors and officials for the site preparation, including cutting the grass and making the grounds very comfortable.

Area repeater news. The call on 145.15 (PL 91.5) in Tabernacle changed from K2BU to K2AX a few months ago. Mark told me the repeater will eventually move to the Waterford Works area, but there is no timeline for the project. The antenna is, temporarily, a beam but that should change in the near future. Dick, WA2EHL, put a new 440 repeater on in Burlington, on 447.675 (PL 103.5). I tested the repeater coverage in the direction of Mount Holly and Red Lion. The antenna is low, around 50-55 feet, and mobile coverage was limited to hot spots once I was south and east of the old Nike base in Lumberton. Repeater coverage in Trenton and along US 206 in Burlington County is mediocre, but the westward coverage into Pennsylvania is decent. Future plans may include the linking of WA2EHL to N3TSZ on 447.625 in ne Philadelphia.

I have ended the production of the repeater list that had been availble on the home page of w2xq.com. Contributing factors? Very few contributions of information. I finally made the decision when I saw yet another organization — Ham-Shack — attempting to start a national list, and there were untold numbers of errors and omissions. Few people support ArtSci who has been producing an alternative to the ARRL compilation. For whatever it is worth, and a few dollars more, the ARRL has published a readable desktop-sized repeater guide. The teeny-type type in the teeny-tiny pocket book is, in my opinion, very difficult to read. If you have access to the Internet, the best sources of up-to-date repeater information are the Web sites of regional frequency coordinators. I have links to most of the eastern NA coordinators at w2xq.com/links_hr01.html#councils.

Ham-Shack was pumping up the volume and beating the data contributions on eHam.net. Some people thought eHam had closed down as for several days there was no response when entering the URL into a Web browser. When I checked on May 23, eHam was back in operation. No cause for the downtime was given.

Google Local at local.google.com now has competition. On 8 June I ran across an ad from Microsoft, and it turns out to be a map and satellite photo combo. Enter an address to move to the target. Microsoft, using the resources of Virtual Earth, will attempt to fix your location if a wi-fi signal is present and Active X is installed on your computer. Windows Live Local — how creative a name — at http://local.live.com/ plots its findings on a map and thereafter the two products function in a like manner. Microsoft sticks it to Mac users; the Safari browser shows a blank page. I looked at the page's source code and found a solution. Mac and Windows users may use the Firefox browser. Windows Live Local is clearly marked as beta. To Google's advantage, Google Local runs very nicely on a Blackberry, thank you very much . When all is said and done, in my opinion it will be advantageous to bookmark both "local" sites. The reason? Microsoft uses its own search engine; the search algorithms and the data sets differ from the Google environment.

The inventory pickings may be slim by the time you read this, but a number of area Radio Shack stores are closing their doors and selling everything, including store fixtures. The sale probably ends at the end of June. There are hefty price discounts, many at 50 percent savings and some items are reduced to 10 or 20 percent. At the store on Rt 38 in Mount Laurel, a 13.8 vdc 15-amp switching power supply sold for $40 rather than the usual $80 SRP and large bags of nylon ties sold for $2.25, marked down from $8. The parts boards and bins seem to be well stocked. Ground rods and a few reels of good quality — in my opinion — RG-8U were on hand. The deep discounts are limited to stock on hand at those stores that are going of out of business. In other stores, the Etón E-10 and E-100 AM-FM-SW portables are being sold out for $50 and $80 each. At this prices, both units are good values for the money. I bought the smaller E100. Recommended; see my comments at trsc.com/weblog/index.html#E100.

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Revised 1 June 2006

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