West Texas Connection Newsletter MARCH-APRIL 1997 The WTC Newsletter is available on a bi-monthly basis for a subscription/donation of $12 per year. Subscribers also receive new maps of the system twice a year. Send $12 to: WTC, P.O. Box 7033, Odessa, TX 79760 After postage, all money goes toward maintenance of the West Texas Connection. Editor - Les Blalock, N5KOA email: LCB911@apex2000.net WTC Sunday Morning Net The WTC Sunday Morning Net meets at 0900 (Central) every Sunday morning. The net is informal and open to all. Check in for local ham news and events. WTC News Mark, N5SOR, will be hosting an information session about the West Texas Connection at the Midland Hamfest. The session will be at 10:00 AM, on Saturday so make plans to attend. Mark says the session will probably be only about 30 minutes but there will be plenty of time for questions afterwards. So start writing down your questions and bring a big list of 'em for Mark. Also at the Midland Hamfest, plans are to call the Sunday Morning Net from the hamfest site. Bring your HT and check in while you wander through the tables. If you are on the Hamfest grounds, call on 147.220 Simplex or check around... There may be a portable repeater on, too. (Note that the Net may begin a little late, depending upon the quality and quantity of Egg McMuffins that morning.) The North Odessa repeater on 146.700 went down when a fuse blew in the power supply on Sunday, Feb 2nd. A.B., WB5NTI, noticed the signal went away during the Sunday Morning Net. Rod, N5XXO got it replaced and back on the air. Speaking of the Hub Site at Pleasant Farms. The site and tower were recently sold by Gareth, W5CDM. Gareth reports that the sale included an agreement for the WTC equipment to remain in place as long as Gareth is around. The sale was offered to, and considered by, some local hams but the deal was ultimately made to a commercial broadcast interest. The WTC thanks Gareth for the years of providing the site (along with WA5QMJ-SK) and appreciate his efforts to provide the WTC. Installation of the Marathon repeater (147.500+) has been delayed. This site is actually in the Glass Mountains about 22 miles East of Alpine and 40 miles South- SouthWest of Ft. Stockton. Coverage will be directed to the south of the site. The Big Spring site received attention from Mark, N5SOR, Fred, KC5BNS, and B.John, KE5PL the first week of February. Rain occurred all around West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico during the third week of February with amounts of 1-3 inches being reported. Unfortunately, the same storm produced lightning that struck the WTC Hub at Pleasant Farms. Rod, N5XXO put in many hours repairing and putting the 145.410 and 444.100 radios back in service. Thanks Rod. The Connection thanks those who have recently made generous donations. Thanks to Sterling, WT5G, for his donation to the system - specifically to replace the controller at Lamesa and to A.B., WB5NTI. Everyone is reminded that the Connection is an official Non- Profit entity and donations are tax- deductible. By the way, I think we failed to mention that Clayton, N5IJD, was involved in getting the Colorado City repeater put in place. If I did fail to mention that before... Thanks Clayton. (If I've already mentioned it - disregard this, Clayton.) We also thank those of you checking into the Sunday Morning Net. Some on a regular basis - and others when they have time - and still others when they remember. Even those that would prefer to sleep in. Right Robert? We've got a good indication of who is active and where by bringing the Net back. SKYWARN It's that time of year again. Be prepared for severe weather. If you are an active weather spotter, check your equipment and supplies now. Like the Boy Scouts, "Be Prepared". The annual Skywarn Organizational meeting was held on February 1st. Turnout was good with about 25-30 showing up from West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico. One of the topics was that of implementing some type of paging or DTMF call-up on the Connection for notifying Skywarn spotters at locations of specific interest. This call-up system would possibly allow persons not monitoring the voice traffic to be alerted that there was weather activity in their immediate area. There are no immediate plans to implement such system but stay tuned... The vanity call for the West Texas Skywarn Association as arrived! From now on, except when they use W5QGG out of habit, you will hear Skywarn net control using W5MAF. Also, Skwarn ID cards are being issued. If you want one, make sure you contact Robert, N5RKN before March 10th and furnish him with identification (Drivers' License). You can contact Robert at (915) 335-7980 in the evenings, or by BBS at (915) 580-4267, or by email at n5rkn@apex2000.net. Finally, in Skywarn news, there will be an Advanced Spotter Training session on Friday, March 14th for HAMS ONLY. That's the Friday before the Midland Hamfest and the session will be held at Midland College. PACKET WEATHER There is more interest in packet weather stations. Tommy, N5WJN in San Angelo has put one up and a remote packet weather station has been installed south of Big Spring on 145.010 and with the callsign N5KOA-1. The Big Spring wx station is a combined effort of B.John (KE5PL), Fred (KC5BNS), Mark (N5SOR), Bear (-K9DOG) and Les (N5KOA). (This wx site is somewhat temporary so the Big Spring area hams may want to consider purchasing their own weather station, maybe as a club.) The station beacons in APRS format or you can get a shareware copy of AutoWeather, a text-based packet terminal and weather watching program. (See the JAN-FEB issue of the WTC Newsletter for more info on this subject.) The Big Spring digipeater on 145.01 has been repaired and put back on the air by B.John, KE5PL. There are now 9 Weather Stations on the air in West Texas. You are encouraged to propose to your local club that they buy a weather station for your area if you don't already have one. Contact one of the current owners for more information. These things can be very valuable during weather events. Plus, they are reviving interest in packet - more fun for hams! MISC In 1993, NASA blew up, or lost, equipment valued at $567 million. Since 1977 there have been 189 federal court opinions written that included a reference to Elvis Presley. Estimated number of "well-documented" sightings of Big Foot since 1958; 1,500. -Harper's Index As of November 8, 1996, there were 39,951 hams licensed in Texas. -ARRL New maps are included with this issue since they were not available in time for the JAN-FEB issue. They will also be available at the Midland Hamfest and, as always, are still available by SASE. ____________________________________ Check out the West Texas Skywarn page on the Internet at: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ftproot/maf/ html/skywarn.html Spotter training schedules are there, too. ____________________________________ Many hams use computers in their shacks so I though you might be interested in this tidbit. If telephone lines were compared to highways: Your garden variety Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) is a 1/2 lane road. An ISDN line is 2 lanes. A T-1 runs at 1.544 Mbps and is the equivalent of 12 ISDN lines, or 24 lanes. Fiber-optics can provide 32,000 lanes! West Texas Connection P.O. Box 7033 Odessa, Texas 79760