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.

The West Texas Connection homepage is
at:
 http://www.apex2000.net/nonprof/wtc

Odessa HAMFEST HERE!

It's time again for The Odessa Hamfest
and we hope to see all the WTC users
there.  If you plan to attend the VE Test
Session, be sure to bring:
Picture ID
Original License & a Copy
Original and Copy of any CSCE's
you plan to use.
The test fee is $6.25 and Walk-ins are
welcome.

Most likely the Sunday Morning Net will
not be called on November 2nd due to
the Hamfest.
 

WTC News

Fred, KC5BNS is still trying to get the
new Lamesa repeater up.  The project is
being delayed while looking for a tower
climber.  The frequency will be 444.750.

My thanks to Rick, WB5MPX for
jumping in to take the Net on October
5th.  I had left town rather suddenly and
had not made adequate plans for a fill-in.

KC5JHC in the News Again
by Karen Fago, NWSO

On Friday, September 5, 1997 a small
reception was held at the Midland
National Weather Service Office to
celebrate Ray Fagen's, KC5JHC,
retirement from the Navy.  Ray just
retired from 20 years of honorable
service.  He was surprised by co-workers
and friends as he was "piped" aboard
NWSO MAF.  There were plenty of
refreshments to enjoy; the highlight
being a cake; complete with aircraft
carrier, planes on deck, and a
weatherman launching a balloon.

Congratulations Ray, on 20 years of
devoted service to the United States Navy
and our country.  We hope you can find
something to do with all that "extra"
time you'll have now.

(Ray was featured in the last issue of the WTC Newsletter. - ed.)

GOOD OPERATORS

The West Texas Connection is an open
system and all properly licensed amateurs
are welcome to use it.  The owners do ask
that you use good operating practices so
here are some reminders:

Monitor before transmitting to make sure
a QSO, or SKYWARN net is not already
in progress.

Allow breaks between transmissions to
allow priority or emergency traffic.

If for any reason you suspect your local
Connection repeater is not linked, please
refrain from using the repeater until you
verify that it is standalone.  Sometimes
the local repeater will not be repeating
the linked traffic but everyone else on the
system will be hearing that local machine.
You can often verify the local status by
tuning to a more distant machine and
listening.  You may have to open the
squelch or ask another station to help
verify if there is traffic on the system.

Be courteous and helpful if you hear a
new operator on the system.  Offer
assistance to travelers using the system.

If your contact is local, consider moving
to a standalone repeater if you will be
talking for awhile.
 

More Good Operating Practices

A simplex frequency is always a good
choice for extended short range QSOs
but PLEASE don't linger on the national
calling frequencies (146.520 VHF or
446.000 UHF).  After making contact on
a calling frequency, move up or down a
few kHz to carry on your traffic.

It's very tempting for new hams to sit on
the simplex calling channel until they get
some experience on the air.  They should
be commended for building that
experience but also they should be
reminded to move off the calling
frequency for QSOs.  So, if you're the
other half of that QSO, suggest an
alternate frequency and help the newer
hams learn good habits.
 

WB5MPX On The Move

Rick, WB5MPX, has bought a house near
Ruidoso so I bet we see some more traffic
from that area on the Connection.

Rick has already made plans to put up
the necessary aluminum to be able to
reach into the WTC by way of Dark
Canyon (147.12) and I wouldn't be
surprised to see a link closer to Ruidoso
before too long.

This is, of course, pure speculation on my
part but Rick is quite active as an
operator and is well-known for making
things happen.

Rick plans to also keep his home in
Odessa, so we do plan to see him often
back down here in the hot, flat parts.

This just in...
Rick has applied for and received a vanity
call.  Listen for KK5RIC.

B.John, KE5PL Elopes

Unidentified sources report that on
October 14th, while on the Caribbean
island of Jamaica KE5PL married his
honey, Janet (Jan) Mouton.  B.John had
indicated he was headed to Jamaica to do
some scuba diving and R&R in the sun as
he tries to do every year.  Now it seems
that there were clandestine plans afoot.

At least one person reported getting an
email invitation to the event but
apparently without the customary round
trip airfare with the invitation.

The island of Jamaica is south of Cuba in
the Caribbean Sea and is occupied by
about two-and-a-half million people.  The
marriage took place in the city of Negril
which is located at the west end of the
island.

Congratulations B.John and Jan!
 

N5RKN and KC5WNR Entertain Guests

Robert, N5RKN and his XYL Jackie,
KC5WNR were visited in October by
more than a half-dozen relatives from
"back East".  They treated their guests to
the 1997 CAF Airsho where the Air
Force Thunderbirds were featured.

Robert also brought brother-in-law Tom
to the Friday lunch a couple of times
where Tom met some of the dozen-or-so
hams that meet and eat every week at
Prescott's restaurant between Odessa and
Midland.  Tom expressed some interest in
getting an amateur radio license... no
doubt after Robert told him about how
much fun it is to organize a hamfest.
(More likely, after he saw how much fun
the other hams have.)
The Jordans also managed to get some
home improvements from Jackie's father
who is a retired carpenter.
 

SAME Weather Radio

If you like to stay informed on the
weather in your local area but are tired
of hearing your weather radio alarm for
anything in the entire West Texas/
Southeastern New Mexico, you're in luck.

The National Weather Service (NWS), in
conjunction with the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) and
the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA), adopted a new
nationwide warning system called the
Emergency Alert System (EAS) to replace
the aging Emergency Broadcast System
(EBS). The coding sequence is called
SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding).

SAME monitors, now available at Radio
Shack and other retail outlets, can decode
national security alerts and severe
weather alerts for specific areas - even a
portion of a single county.

SAME messages are encoded using Audio
Frequency Shift Keying (AFSK) at a rate
of 520.83 bits per second. The mark
frequency is 2083.3 Hz and the space
frequency is 1562.5 Hz. The mark and
space times are 1.92 milliseconds.

Although you can program the monitor
to sound only for an alert in your
particular area, experts recommend that
you set the limit on your SAME decoder
for your county and two counties in each
direction around the compass.

More information about SAME on the
Internet at www.thuneagle.com

What is Newsline?

Robert, N5RKN, transmits the
NEWSLINE report every Sunday at noon
on the SouthWest Lynx system and has
transmitted it on the Connection a few
times immediately after the Sunday
Morning Net.

NEWSLINE is delivered primarily by
automated telephone feeds from various
locations nationwide. The tape is updated
Friday evening in Los Angeles, with
other lines usually updating within 24
hours.  With the exception of the Los
Angeles area lines, all other feed points
are privately funded and sponsored.

The weekly NEWSLINE amateur radio
bulletin is formatted and engineered
primarily for distribution on amateur
repeaters and conforms to all sections and
codes as outlined under the Part 97
Amateur Radio Service rules regarding
the legal means of amateur radio
operators issuing QSTs or Bulletins of
Interest to All Amateurs.

NEWSLINE is a free service to the
amateur radio community. It is entirely
supported by voluntary donations from
individual amateurs and amateur radio
clubs.  There is no paid staff and all
funds go directly to the defraying
operating costs. Since recording facilities
are largely donated, the majority of
expenses relate to telephone charges, tape
stock procurement and transportation
and equipment maintenance. Your
support is not only welcomed, but greatly
needed.

You can find NEWSLINE at:
 http://www.tapr.org

73 de Les, N5KOA