podunk hollow newscomprehensive geologic history of the entire caloris basin interior," says...
TRANSCRIPT
Podunk Hollow News The office ial Newsletter of the Egyptian Radio Club, Incorporated
June 2008
FIELD DAY RESULTS
Our Field Day venture was chaired by Bill Bell, W9BEL. These are the results of the Egyptian Radio Club’s effort in the
American Radio Relay League 2008 Field Day contest.
Thanks to K7RMJ the CW contacts were up from 107 in 2007 to 142 in 2008. The phone contacts were up slibhtly from 126 in 2007 to 132 in 2008. Bonus points were up 100 from last year, thanks to Tim Waterhouse, KC5LFD, with his solar
panel for 6 additional contacts via VHF; Our thanks this year to Bob Heil, K9EID for the media publicity points on the
Shortwave station WCBQ. We had a large number of club members working the 2 stations we had on the air. The Egyptian Radio Club and the Field Day committee wish to express our thanks to each and every member who helped out;
both those on the air and those behind the scene who gave valuable support to the “one the air” effort.
Here is a recap of our points. We ran 2 stations on generator/battery power at 100 watts which gives us a power multi-
plier of 2 for each contact. Thus, all contacts were in category 2A-IL.
We had 142 CW contacts, which gives 142 X 2 = 284 CW QSO points. (CW points get an immediate X 2) We had 132 Phone contacts, which gives 132 = 132 Phone points.
Total of QSO Points 416 Total QSO Points QSO Points X 2 for power less than 150 = 832
Now, we add in the BONUS Points:
100% Emergency Power 200 points Media Publicity 100 points
Set up in a Public Location 100 points
Natural Power QSO (Solar cell) 100 points Submitted results to ARRL by web 50 points
Total BONUS Points 550 Total BONUS Points 550
Total Points submitted to ARRL 1382 Points
The breakdown by band is as follows:
MODE CW Digital Phone
BAND meters QSO Power QSO Power QSO Power 160 m. 0 150 0 150 0 150
80 m. 0 150 0 150 18 150
40 m. 101 150 0 150 26 150 20 m. 41 150 0 150 82 150
15 m. 0 150 0 150 0 150 10 m. 0 150 0 150 0 150
6 m. 0 150 0 150 0 150
2 m. 0 150 0 150 6 150 via Solar 1.25 m. 0 150 0 150 0 150
70 cm 0 150 0 150 0 150 33 cm 0 150 0 150 0 150
23 cm 0 150 0 150 0 150 GOTA 0 150 0 150 0 150
Total contacts 142 CW 0 Dig 132 Phone
AMATEUR ACTIVITIES CALENDAR
Two meter net Every Tuesday night 8: PM
Weekly 10-10 Net Every Wednesday night 7: pm MONTHLY DIRECTOR’S MEETING Monday before membership meeting Next director meeting NEW DATE August 11, 2008
Monthly MEMBERSHIP meeting First Thursday of each month Next monthly meeting
August 7, 2008 ,
Field day 2008 southwestern Illinois college Granite City LAST FULL WEEKEND IN JUNE
June 28 & 29, 2008
Send information on your planned amateur radio ev-ent to the Podunk Hollow news at the email address [email protected]
Post Office Box 562, Granite city, Illinois 62040
WaLLY’S WONDERINGS
This summer is the time for visits from old friends. I had the pleasure of hosting a visit from Ed Wiegand, WA9QOD on July 8. Ed lives in the Phoenix
area after retiring from his teaching position in Wonju, South Korea. Many local area hams may remember WA9QOD as living in Bunker Hill, IL
and being a Bunker Hill High School teacher. Ed was a member of the Egypt-
ian Radio Club in the 1970’s. Now add 30+ years and you will
still recognize him. He has a bit more wrinkles; but still has the same full
growth of hair. That is something most of us cannot say.
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We did, and had a ball. More attendees from club members and even got
publicity on a nationwide shortwave station, WCBQ, 7415 KHz; thanks to Mr. Robert Heil, K9EID. Heil Sound was one of their sponsors and Bob was able
to give all the particulars about the W9AIU Field Day setup. I understand he had a 45 minute interview with the host of the “Live from Field Day” program,
Ted Randall, WB8PUM. WCBQ covers the United States from their location in
Monticello, Maine. WBCQ broadcasts 50,000 watts on each of its four inter-national shortwave transmitters on 5.110, 7.415, 9.330 and 15.420 MHz.
_______________________________________________________________
I still encourage every club member to talk up our 2009 Egyptianfest. Not only will we have a great hamfest; but we have lined up, Special Counsel for
the Spectrum Enforcement Division of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau Riley
Hollingsworth, K4ZDH -- the man who has come to embody Amateur Radio Enforcement. Riley will be a strong draw to the hamfest and we are
attempting to contact additional vendors to round out the commercial end of Egyptianfest 2009.
Before joining the FCC, Hollingsworth, a South Carolina native, graduated
from the University of South Carolina and Wake Forest University School of Law. While in high school, he worked as a disc jockey for WRHI, an AM
station in Rock Hill, South Carolina. "It's a funny thing," Hollingsworth said. "They once held a beauty pageant in Rock Hill and nobody won!" In the mid-
1970s, he was a "Nader's Raider" and worked on brown lung disease in the North and South Carolina textile mills. Saying it has been a "privilege to work
with and for the Amateur Radio licensees and the land mobile frequency
coordinators," Hollingsworth said that he is "extremely fortunate to work for two wonderful groups of people: Those at headquarters in the Enforcement
Bureau, and for the Amateur Radio operators." (Credit to the ARRL Letter for information above)
W9AIU Field Day 2008 photos N0RSP Photo
Marsha Wilson, KC9KTS, and son, Charlie.
K9EID Photo
The infamous W9AIU Communications Trailer is still do-
ing yeoman duty.
K9EID Photo
75 and 40 meter Dipole and the weather is coming in.
. WA9BRQ Photo
Setting up the VHF Antenna for the solar power station. K9EID Photo
W9AIU VHF antenna, completed and working.
K9EID Photo
HyGain vertical at W9AIU Field Day.
N0RSP Photo
Thanks to Bob Heil, K9EID for the extra publicity for the
W9AIU Field Day on WCBQ.
N0RSP Photo
Chef Bill Dusenbery, N9OQK, accepting advice on brat-
wurst cooking from Egyptianfest Chef Bill Bell, W9BEL
WA9BRQ Photo
Nolan explains the proper way to eat those brats.
The Egyptian Radio Club uses only Heil Headsets and Microphones.
WAS9BRQ Photo
KC5LFD, Tim Waterhouse, brought his own camera; but
the club furnished the Coca Cola.
WA9BRQ Photo
Mike Phillips, N0RSP brought his camera, too. Mike was
the official Egyptianfest photographer.
WA9BRQ Phyoto
Tim brought his own cargo trailer and generator. With
the price of gasoline, we made some service station rich.
WA9BRQ Photo
The food was difficult to stay away from. Good Food,
Good Friends and Ham Radio, What more can you ask
for?
K9EID Photo
Frank Shears, K7RMJ at the W9AIU key, working some
rare DX.
K9EID Photo
Tim, KC5LFD, is an avid CWer, also. However, here he is
working 20 meter phone
WA9BRQ Photo
W9BEL, Bill, logging for KC5LFD, Tim.
WA9BRQ Photo
We have a great spot for a Field Day picnic; but we don’t
seem to get the big Field Day score.
K9EID Photo
A full house of hams. Frank, K7RMJ, Marsha, KC9KTS
and Tim, KC5LFD, doing their best to rack up a big score
for 2008 ARRL Field Day.
New Discoveries at Mercury From Science @ NASA—submitted by Mike Phillips, N0RSP
July 3, 2008: Mercury's magnetic field is "alive."
Volcanic vents ring the planet's giant Caloris
Basin. And Mercury has shrunk in on itself more
than previously suspected. These are just a few of the new discoveries by
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, which flew past
Mercury on January 14, 2008. The results are
described in a series of 11 papers published in a
special July 4th issue of Science magazine. Six of the papers in Science report studies of
the planet's surface--its colors, mineralogy, and
the shape of its terrain. For instance, the color
enhanced image below reveals evidence of
volcanic vents along the margins of Caloris basin,
one of the Solar System's largest and youngest
impact basins:
Above: A color image of the Caloris basin and adjacent
regions. Orange hues just inside the Caloris basin rim
mark the locations of features thought to be volcanic.
Courtesy of Science/AAAS
"By combining Mariner 10 and MESSENGER
data, the science team was able to reconstruct a
comprehensive geologic history of the entire
Caloris basin interior," says James Head of Brown
University, lead author of one of the Science
reports. "The basin was formed from an impact
by an asteroid or comet during a period of heavy
bombardment in the first billion years of Solar
System history. As with the lunar maria, a period
of volcanic activity followed, producing lava flows
that filled the basin interior. This volcanism is
responsible for the comparatively light, red
material of the interior plains intermingled with
[newer] impact crater deposits." Finding volcanic vents around Caloris resolves an old debate among planetary scientists: Are smooth plains on
Mercury, such as the interior of Caloris basin, caused by erupting lava or some other process? Lava has won the
day.
Above: Near the rim of Caloris basin, this broad, smooth
dome or shield-like feature is interpreted to be a volcano.
The bright halo surrounding the kidney-shaped
depression is probably an explosive volcanic eruption
deposit. Courtesy of Science/AAAS
One of the most exciting results announced in
Science involves Mercury's magnetic field. Until
Mariner 10 discovered Mercury's magnetic field in
the 1970s, Earth was the only other terrestrial
planet known to have a global magnetic field.
Earth's magnetism is generated by the planet's
churning hot, liquid-iron core via a mechanism
called a magnetic dynamo. Researchers have
been puzzled by Mercury's field because its iron
core was supposed to have cooled long ago and
stopped generating magnetism. Some research-
ers have thought that the field may have been a
relic of the past, frozen in the outer crust. MESSENGER data suggest otherwise: Mercury's
field appears to be generated by an active
dynamo in the planet's core. It is not a relic. "MESSENGER's measurements indicate that,
like Earth, Mercury's magnetic field is mostly
dipolar, which means it has a north and south
magnetic poles," says lead author Brian Anderson
of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. "The fact that it is
dipolar, and that we did not find the signature
shorter-wavelength anomalies that would signify
patches of magnetized crust, supports the view
that we’re seeing a modern dynamo. We are
eager for the October flyby and the year in orbit
to see if this is the case elsewhere on the planet
and confirm that the field comes from the core." Mercury's core makes up 60% of its mass,
which is at least twice as large as any other pla-
Above: A crater deformed by a lobate scarp. Click to
view. Courtesy of Science/AAAS
net. Cooling of this outsized core has led to a
remarkable contraction of the planet, revealing
itself in the form of cliff-like "wrinkles" called
lobate scarps (pictured right). MESSENGER
Principal Investigator Sean Solomon, at the Car-
negie Institution of Washington, explains: "The dominant tectonic landforms on Mercury
are lobate scarps, huge cliffs that mark the tops
of crustal faults that formed during the con-
traction of the surrounding area. They tell us how
important the cooling core has been to the
evolution of the surface. After the end of the
period of heavy bombardment, cooling of the
planet's core not only fuels the magnetic
dynamo, but also led to contraction of the entire
planet. And the data from the flyby indicate that
the total contraction is a least one third greater
than we previously thought." The flyby also made the first-ever observations
of charged particles in Mercury's unique exo-
sphere. The exosphere is an ultrathin atmosphere
where the molecules are so far apart they are
more likely to collide with the surface than with
each other. Material in the exosphere comes
mainly from the surface of Mercury itself,
knocked aloft by solar radiation, solar wind
bombardment and meteoroid vaporization: "MESSENGER was able to observe Mercury's
exosphere in three areas—the dayside, the day/
night line, or terminator, and its 25,000 mile-long
(40,000 km) sodium tail," says author Bill
McClintock of the University of Colorado. "Atoms
of hydrogen, helium, sodium, potassium, and
calcium have been seen in the exosphere, and
many other elements almost certainly exist
there. These atoms are accelerated away from
Mercury by solar-radiation pressure and form a
long tail of atoms flowing away from the Sun. But
their abundances differ depending on whether it's
day or night, effects from the magnetic field and
solar wind, and possibly the latitude." ”Mercury's exosphere is remarkably active," he
marvels. Another significant scientific surprise involves
Mercury's magnetosphere--the bubble of
magnetism surrounding the planet. Thomas
Zurbuchen of the University of Michigan explains:
"Mercury's magnetosphere is full of many [kinds
of charged particles], both atomic and molecular.
What is in some sense a 'Mercury plasma nebula'
is far richer in complexity and makeup than the
Io plasma torus in the Jupiter system." The
composition of the nebula doesn't match that of
the solar wind, leading researchers to conclude
"that this material came from the planet's
surface. This observation means that this flyby
got the first-ever look at surface composition." NEW
"When you look at the planet in the sky, it
looks like a simple point of light," remarked
MESSENGER Project Scientist Ralph McNutt, of
APL. "But when you experience Mercury close-up
through all of MESSENGER's 'senses' seeing it at
different wavelengths, feeling its magnetic
properties, and touching its surface features and
energetic particles, you perceive a complex
system and not just a ball of rock and metal." "It's remarkable that this rich lode of data
came from two days of imaging, just 30 minutes
of sampling the planet's magnetosphere and
exosphere, and less than ten minutes carrying
out altimetry and collecting other data near the
time of its closest approach," adds Solomon.
"MESSENGER's flyby was a huge success." And it was just the beginning. Two more flybys
are scheduled for Oct. 2008 and Sept. 2009.
Then, MESSENGER will actually go into orbit
around Mercury in 2011. Exciting times lie ahead.
Stay tuned to Science@NASA for updates.
Post Office Box 562, Granite City, Illinois 62040-0562
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
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