Farmer Joe was returning home from a one-year Peace Corp assignment in a country so remote that there was no reliable communications to the outside world. He had no idea about what was happening at home while he was away. When he arrived, his friend, Harry, met him at the bus station. The following conversation took place:

Joe: “Wow, what a trip. Thanks Harry, for meeting me. How are things here, Harry?”

Harry: “Everything is great, Joe. I do have some good news and some bad news.”

Joe: “Give me the bad news first Harry, let’s save the good news to last.”

Joe: “You mean old Shep died? He was only two years old – well, three now. He was a great stock dog, but loved to chase cars. He got killed by a car, right?”

Harry: “Well you see, Joe, the horses were in their stalls in the barn when your barn burned. The horses couldn’t get out and…”

Harry: “Yes, well you see, some burning embers landed on the roof, they quickly burned through and fell into the hay loft. After that the barn went up in flames like a flash.”

Harry: “They came from the house, Joe. I was going to tell you, your house also burned down.”

Harry: “Joe, the kids were playing around the coffin and knocked a candle over into the curtains. Everyone got out okay, but the house was gone in just a few minutes.”

Joe: “You mean that old biddy, I mean Ms. Mary died? I thought she would live forever. (Forced grin) What happened?”

Harry: “She died of shock when she found out your wife ran away with one of the field hands. By the way Joe, when your wife left she cleaned out your bank account. Perhaps we should stop by the tax office and pay your taxes. They’re threatening to sell your farm because your taxes are delinquent.”

Joe: “Harry, you said there was also some good news. What could that possibly be?”

Harry: “Oh yes, Joe, do you know what day this is? It is the first day of April. The good news is – ‘APRIL FOOL’!!! Everything is fine at your house and they are all looking forward to your return.”

Our club has again voted to hold Field Day exercises at the same location as has been the past several years. All necessary applications and insurance certificates have been submitted to the City of Titusville for approval. A meeting was held with the City’s water department officials in regards to the use of Well Field # 3 site for the club’s 2004 training. Due to the potential terrorist situation there will be additional restraints placed on our activities and I am delighted that our city is taking the measures to assure the safety of all. Upon approval of our request for use of the facility, we will on Friday afternoon be setting up and preparing for what will be a great training and fun weekend. The ladies of TARC again will serve us with an evening meal that you will not want to miss. Be at the site Saturday afternoon for this special treat. If you do not know where the FD event will be held please give me a call at 269-2796. You participation will be welcomed.

Wednesday May 5^th was a busy day for many of TARC members as well as radio operators throughout Brevard County. We had a very short notice of a Table Top Exercise put on by all Titusville city departments. The event was named Exercise Distant Thunder. The scenario was of a plane crashing in down town Titusville. I am sure the other participating members would agree the training for such an emergency was a solid plus. This exercise took place at the Titusville Police Department and I want to thank Art KC2ENO, Judy N2JY, Ed KG4KVO and Ozzie N4SCY. For the May 25^th meeting, Bob W4YBI has arranged for Denis Decker to be our guest speaker. Denis is with the National Weather Service and I know you will enjoy his presentation. Hope to see you at the meeting, bring a friend.

After the opening ceremonies of Pledge, moment of silence and introduction of members and guests, Bill Eppley W2SDB entertained members by playing Happy Birthday and other tunes on his harmonica.

Ozzie N4SCY reported that the broadcast stations of WMFE, Orlando’s public TV & Radio Stations, will celebrate it’s 40^th birthday next year. In planning for the celebration, they are looking to public broadcasting’s future in central Florida. Part of the planning is a series of informal Thursday luncheons titled “Start Talking – We’re Listening”. If you have ideas on how public broadcasting can serve an under-represented sector of the community, email your name, phone number & email address to Ozzie. He will pass the information on to the station. His email address is n4scy@titusvillearc.org.

WD4EBA Paul Bernhardt, talked about solar charged systems and gave a website where you can get more information. Contact Paul for more information.

President Bud K4CWG told the club that VP Bob Keim, W4TAT is not feeling well and that he hopes he will be able to attend the next meeting.

Bob Green , N3DMI said that the newsletter is now ready to be emailed to members rather than mailing through USPS.

Mike told members about his 2 meter radio mounted on his motorcycle, and Walt told about being bicycle mobile.

Clara and Pike Abell talked about their upcoming visit to the WWII Memorial in Washington DC.

There was no formal program this month. Next month Dennis Decker will present a Skywarn program.

Beginning Balance	$ 2101.09
Deposits	2012.80
Total Income	4113.89
Expenditure	1099.67
Balance (4/30/04)	$ 3014.22

MAY BIRTHDAYS
MAY 02	W9LSD	DICK DUELL
MAY 07	KG4NDD	DAVID MANGUARDT
MAY 10	N1PAW	JOE BONARDI
MAY 11	KE4LNS	DON McLEAN
MAY 15	K5UNT	MAL HARPER
MA6 16	WD4EBA	PAUL BERNHARDT
MAY 19	K4JDV	JANET VAN ALSTINE
MAY 20	K2TNT	GEORGE FISCHER
MAY 23	KE4MXJ	PEDRO LORENZI
MAY 24	K4JYX	JOHN ADAMS
MAY 25	K34BBJ	CHARLIE PROSSER

At our May meeting, Dennis Decker from the National Weather Service in Melbourne will be our special speaker. Dennis will have the latest information on what to look for and what to report on SkyWarn. In addition, he will award SkyWarn ID cards to all who take the training. You will enjoy this presentation.

The following article from the IRARC May Newsletter and is reprinted with permission

Amateur radio is a hobby with an almost infinite mode of activities, specially in the HF bands. Anyone listening in the ham bands, particularly on weekends, will hear all sorts of exchanges. Some folks like to "ragchew" and spend time on the air talking with friends and strangers alike on just about any topic---and sometimes no topic at all. Then there are the radio nets where stations check into the net by calling a control station and are then redirected to make contacts with other stations. The type of contact of course depends on the nature of the net. There are traffic nets--probably the oldest type--there are nets dedicated to county hunters, mobile stations, maritime

However, there are other types of amateur exchanges that are more challenging because they test the skill of the radio operator. This column is dedicated to those type of activities. Because these forms of operation are more challenging, they are more gratifying, and they also help sharpen the operating abilities of those who regularly engage in them. One other benefit is that many of these contacts will be with foreign stations or unique activity stations that will provide interesting or once-in-a-lifetime QSL cards or certificates. In contrast to the ragchew , the exchange in these type of contacts is usually brief, generally consisting of a call sign, a signal report, and name of the operators. At times a brief exchange of pleasantries will happen, but for the most part these stations are looking to make as many contacts as possible.

When most hams talk of making many contacts generally they think of contests, but there are other situations when stations want many contacts. Dxpeditions are one of these situations, this is where a group of hams will go to an uninhabited part of the world and operate. As a rule they want to contact as many stations as possible, and their exchanges can be very, very brief; particularly since, as a rule, they have a pile-up on their hands.

Special event stations, another popular activity, also seek to make many contacts, but generally they are more low key. Most of these stations are commemorating some event and will spend some time explaining to the caller what the event is all about. They will be happy to answer questions and engage in brief pleasantries, but as a rule, they try to avoid lengthy conversation.

Then, of course, there are the contests. Each has its own rules and exchange format, but generally the idea is for many stations to contact many other stations within the confines of the contest area. Contests, especially the international ones, are a good way of rapidly obtaining QSO's to qualify for awards, like DXCC, WAS, etc.

Below is a list of activities in each of the above-mentioned categories. I chose them for the column because they seemed interesting and challenging and because they will occur within the time period of this month's newsletter.

In the Dxpedition group, I think the one from Alaska may be the most challenging and rewarding. Propagation in and out of Alaska is a problem most times of the year and contact with stations there is not easy. After 10 years I'm still looking for my 40m CW contact with an Alaskan station.

The Special Event group has some interesting ones as well. I bet the FBI station will send an impressive certificate. This might be a worthwhile contact. The one from France commemorating the Utah Beach action should also be unique. The WWII veteran generation is rapidly disappearing, and I suspect that soon events commemorating their bravery and sacrifice will not happen.

Likewise, for the event from England commemorating the Overlord operations. A QSL or

Finally, there are the contests. I included a list of some of the most important ones for this month. These are run annually and are very popular. They are all foreign contests and since propagation has been down in the past month or so, they may not provide many contacts. But, again, these are opportunities to hear many foreign station on the air and have a chance to work on

Certificate. Jay Chamberlain, AE4MK, 27 Fox Run Ln, Fredericksburg, VA 22405. No SASE

-2359Z July 3. 60th Anniversary of Operation Overlord 1944. 21.070 21.056 14.070

To turn the computer off when you are not using it, or not? There are two schools of thought on this issue, the first school likes to think that leaving a computer on all the time consumes power and if you have one of the always-on internet connections leaving the computer on all the time just provides greater opportunities for hackers to break into your machine. The other school of thought believes that its hard on the disk to spin it up and down all the time and its my personal observation that all the disk drives that I have had to throw on the trash heap were removed from machines owned by students of the former school of thought. Leaving a computer on all the time tends to wear out two components; the little CPU fan and the muffin fan in the power supply. Neither of these are expensive or difficult to replace for anyone with a screw driver and a sense of adventure. The added risk of hacker exposure by having your computer on line all the time is not a real issue since most all viruses and spy-ware come in through your e-mail service. Unconfirmed sources bandy about the figure of $8.00 a month can be saved by powering on your computer only when you need to use it. If you are using Linux for an operating system, only turning the machine on when you need to use it is more practical than the other 99.9% of PC users that are under the thumb of Microshaft’s Winders operating system. Linux has a very clean boot-up and shut-down sequence that is very verbose and easy to troubleshoot as compared to Windows start-up and shutdown sequence. Most problems with Windows machines involves a trip to your local computer fixer are problems that occur during boot up. For you Macintosh users, the only consideration as to whether you leave it on or not is the stress on the disk drive. The Mac operating system is every bit as solid as Linux and this has more to do with the Motorola internal architecture than anything else. The Macintosh computer is superior to everything else out there but the popularity has yet to gain widespread acceptance since it only runs the Mac OS. Linux and Unix can be made to run on the Mac hardware but I have not heard of too many people working on or pushing this. I can recommend with out any reservation that the monitor should be turned off whenever you are not using the computer and I am not a big fan of the power saving settings that turn off the monitor, the hard drive and the CPU after some time of inactivity. I find the CPU very groggy and sluggish when you wake it up when using these powers saving features and I manage to find something else in the house to power off. If you leave your computer on all the time, its wise to turn the monitor off rather than depending on the screen saver to extend the life of the monitor. Another hazard that is available only at boot time is the opportunity to inadvertently screw up settings in the BIOS. If you are not watching what you are doing when you are booting up you can easily find yourself in the BIOS instead of Windows. Accidentally saving new settings can cause your machine not to recognize the hard drive. So this is another headache that may be avoided by rebooting as seldom as necessary. Leaving a Windows machine on all the time will only go so far. You can leave a Windows machine on for up to six weeks before some subtle defect in the OS or one of Microsoft’s applications will make a reboot necessary. Most other operating systems can survive a year or more of constant operation before the odds of applications problems manage to hose the box.

The FCC says minor amendments to various Amateur Radio rules become effective June 1. The regulatory changes, which the FCC made on its own motion rather than in reaction to any petitions, appeared May 5 in the Federal Register."This document makes minor amendments to various rule sections to clarify or eliminate duplicative language or conform them with other rule sections," the FCC said. Among other changes, the most significant involved revising the wording of Section 97.307(d), which defines spurious emissions. The updated language imposes a slightly higher standard on newer transmitters or amplifiers of any power level. Starting June 1, the rule will provide that:

* the mean power of any spurious emission from HF transmitters or external RF power amplifiers installed after January 1, 2003, must be at least 43 dB below the mean power of the fundamental emission.

* the mean power of any spurious emission from HF transmitters or external RF power amplifiers installed on or before January 1, 2003, must not exceed 50 mW and must be at least 40 dB below the mean power of the fundamental emission. If the mean power output of such as transmitter is less than 5 W, the attenuation must be at least 30dB.

Still exempt from the provisions of Section 97.307(d) are transmitters built before April 15, 1977, or those first marketed before January 1, 1978.

The FCC also has redefined what constitutes an Amateur Radio operator to reflect the advent of the Universal Licensing System (ULS) electronic licensee database. Under the revised Section 97.3(a)(1) an amateur operator is "a person named in an amateur operator/primary license station grant on the ULS consolidated licensee database to be the control operator of an amateur station."

The current rule defines an amateur operator as "a person holding a written authorization to be the control operator of an amateur station."

Another change eliminates Technician or Technician with Element 1 credit licensees from the classes of operators permitted to prepare Element 1 (5 WPM Morse) and Element 2 (Technician written) examinations. The Commission ordered the rule changes within the context of a larger, wide-ranging Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in WT Docket 04-140. That NPRM addresses several Amateur Radio-related petitions and proposes revisions to operating privileges. The FCC continues to seek comments on these proposals. Comments are due by Tuesday, June 15, and reply comments by Wednesday, June 30. Among other changes, the FCC has recommended adopting the ARRL's "Novice refarming" plan.

While the County EOC was participating in the State-wide Hurricane Zane Drill on May 5^th, many TARC members were participating in the Titusville Police Department’s table top drill. If you didn’t have an opportunity to participate, you really missed some excellent training activities.

Ride for the Red was another big success and TARC is to be commended for supplying 9 of the 20 operators who responded to the County-wide Public Service activity.

Upcoming activities: On June 5^th, the BEARS will have a Comm Vehicle set up at the Publix Supermarket at Saint John’s Plaza, on Garden Street. Come take a look at our gear and help us hand out hurricane preparedness brochures to the public. I can really use the help. This is the same day as the NBARC Ham Fest at the DAV on Singleton Ave., and BEARS has been given a table to sign up New ARES members or to replace old or lost ARES Badges.

And of course don’t forget the Governor’s Hurricane Conference is May 24 –28, 2004. There are plans for carpooling and convoying on the 28^th. Free admission to the Hams’ conference.

David Norton, KB3GJH, is the new CATs Chief and the meetings are taking place at the County EOC, 9am, Media Room.

I have not heard from any of the TARC Hams who are also CERT trained: Please send it to me in an e-mail. K4MVO@titustek.com. Thanks.

BEARS approved the expenditure for an HF antenna mount for Comm II. Jan, W4REN will be looking for a good deal at the Dayton HamFest. No, we are not paying for his trip, we’re just asking him to shop for us while he is up there.

The BEARS now have a Fund Raising Committee and Bob Green, N3DMI, volunteered to be the Committee Chairman. Thank you Bob for you help.

The LISATS will be setting up a Comm Vehicle on the 528 Causeway for a fund-raising effort during the upcoming rocket launch on the 19^th. You all are invited come out and share in the fun. If you can’t make it out, then please consider checking into the Launch Net, 147.135, 1630 hours local. We always have a operators at the EOC for launches so let’s give them a lot of check-ins. The Emergency Manager is interested in the number of participants we have during these nets.

Please let me know if you are interested in a BEARS Shirt. I’ll need your Name (as you want it printed on the shirt) and your Call Sign, your size, and contact information: e-mail, telephone number. They are $20 a piece and come in Men’s sizes. These are not meant to replace the TARC shirt. Rather, they are nice addition to wear when you are coming out to support a BEARS event. Such as my upcoming fund-raising event at the Publix on Garden Street, or helping at the BEARS’ table at a HamFest.

We are all looking forward to Field Day 2004. TARC always has a lot of fun, so if you haven’t had an opportunity to participate in the past, then please consider coming out. I’m coming out with a camera and possibly a reporter, so wear your TARC shirts and smile!

BEARS meet on the second Tuesday of the month, 1900, at the County EOC, Rockledge, Talk-in Freq: 147.135.

LOCAL HAMFESTS
DATE	LOCATION
June 5	NORTH BREVARD ARC Contact: Bob Jones N6USP n6usp@gnc.net 321-264-2622
June 12	UCF Tail Gate 0700-1200
Sept 11-12	Platinum Coast ARS Melbourne Contact: Jeff Hildredth KG4IPO kg4ipo@arrl.net www.pcars.org

RENEWALS
KF4MUV	PATTY KING	K1TJK	THOMAS KELLY
W4NMB	HOLLAND STARKEY	W4GBW	CHARLES MOREHOUSE
K4EOS	CLYDE LEE	KF4HTB	BECKY LEE
KG4YNO	BOB MEEKS	KG4PCK	MIKE CARTER
KG4PGK	BARBARA CARTER	N4SCY	OZZIE OSBAND
KS4BD	DARWIN McCOMBS