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BAD NEWS Band conditions have been really REALLY, been down for the most part. with a few exceptions. On those nights we have had over 70 check ins
GREAT NEWS (1) Kimo, KB6WNF is still with us. His computer has been out of commission for the last few months. This is why he has not answered any e-mail from us.I sent him a letter Tuesday and he called Friday afternoon.
He has been under the weather. He had an operation (one of those items you really don't want to talk about) and now he has a problem with his back. He is able to walk around the house with two canes, and that is about all. He says that its also to cold to go out to the shack. Maxine said she is the chief bottle washer now. He really is in a good mood and said that everyone is still on his prayer list.
GREAT NEWS (2) Nancy, wife of Mike (K6LDK) had breast cancer surgery a few weeks ago and they removed the tumors. Doctor said that he got all of it. Nancy is now driving again and will start Chemo in March.
GREAT NEWS (3) Blondie, (All around hospital dog) has been certified to work at Kaiser Med. Congrats. Yes we know Mike, (K6LDK) you had something to do with this.
GREAT NEWS (4). Norm, WG6W will have his VE team again at the Spring retreat. They will be giving all classes of Ham Licences starting at 8:00 am at the Valencia Travel Village at the recreation Hall. Cost is $16 for the materials. Please bring two forms of photo ID. Kids can bring their school ID.
GREAT NEWS (5) QUARTZSITE
Quartzsite was a blast this year. We camped next to a wall which was very close to the main tent. Reason? Every day the ladies went shopping.
Then there was Chuck the mattress hugger. He drove into camp one day and spent some time with us (I am sure he does not remember). First he wanted some coffee, then asked for a frying pan to use over the fire. Then he asked if anyone had a mattress. Marcia gave him a NEW over that she had for one of the coaches' chairs. Next Morning at about 7:15 he drove away.
For the next two days all of us looked for him, uptown and at the ham gathering at mile post #99. Nothing.
Then without notice, he came back and gave the cover back to Marcia. Marcia's comment? "God works in mysterious ways." Some one then asked "but why you, Marcia?"
BUT WAIT - There's more.
Next on the agenda was "MAD MAX" who wandered into our camp site. Now this fellow was really drunk, He found a chair and he asked for a beer. he said he had one beer and he was thirsty, He got up twice and fell down three times. After all of us telling him to leave, he got up again, but this time fell over and almost wiped out Marcia. We got him up and pointed the way home (anywhere but here). He left headed south. The next thing was we heard was from a group camping to the south of us yelling at him to leave. One of their campers came over too us asking about him. Seems that he staggered out of their place and fell into the bushes. He went and got him into his truck, called the sheriff and went to the main gate where they said they would meet him. They waited, and waited and waited. Called the Sheriff again and they said they could not do anything as they had a very bad accident on I10. I think they just left him there.
Clair (KJ6NJ) has a really nice older motor home with a 6.5 kw generator.Now this generator was a little on the rich side with the gas which made it very noisy. One night he left the fire circle and went inside to watch TV. It was rather hard for us to hear at the circle even with the generator facing away from us. About an hour later, he shut it down and we all heard shouting and clapping from the R/V group next to us. Poor Clair.
Jim (KI6ASU) and Ann drove their motor home all of about 7 miles to join us.They have a home there.Their home is a "Rube Goldberg" type. Jim bought it from this fellow who built most of it with his family. They built a windmill tower about 20 feet high, then put a home made generator on top.They even made the blades for it and attached to it three alternators It did not work as the blades turned them to fast. He left that standing and installed solar panels all over the place to charge the batteries for the invertors. He also built in the ground, a distillery for making distilled water for the batteries. The story goes on and on.
February 22nd
2-22-09 de WOQNI TO ALL AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS
THE FCC HAS ASKED OMIK AND THE WESTERN AMATEUR RADIO FRIENDSHIP
ASSOCIATION {WARFA}TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CONVERSION FROM ANALOG TV TO
DIGITAL TV, PLEASE GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO HELP PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THE
CONVERSION BY GOING TO A MALL WITH A PLACE CARD AND HELP PEOPLE OR ASK A
ELDERLY PERSON IF THEY WOULD LIKE TO HAVE SOMEONE HELP THEM. WE WILL HAVE
A SEPARATE PAGE ON OUR WEB SITE WHERE YOU CAN POST A NOTE AS TO WHAT YOU
HAVE DONE FOR OTHERS AND THIS PAGE WILL BE FORWARDED TO THE ARRL AND THE
FCC SHOWING HOW WARFA AND OTHERS ARE HELPING. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A
MEMBER OF WARFA TO POST.
Band Conditions (D), Toward the end of the net, W6WGC (Jim) our
northern relay was not heard at this QTH. We had to to have Frank, K6FED
relay to us. We still were able to get 70 check ins. Total check ins =
70.
73 - Bill - WOQNI
February 19th
Good Morning
Band Conditions. FFFFFFFFFF--------
Well it started innocently enough at the beginning of the net where
everything was fine. At 9:10. we had about 40 some check ins. Then
first came that A/C oscillating noise building up to an S-9. Under
this was white noise building to an S-8. At 9:14 no signals were
heard. No one could hear net control but the relays, KJ7XP and
K6FED could still hear each other (S-4). I went to 3900 and was
able to get a relay from the Mexican boarder to Bob, WA6PYQ
who was able to get a message to Frank to try and keep it going.
At 9:43 IT ALL WENT AWAY. The Band was so quite it was eerie and scary. No signals anywhere on 75. At 9:45 we started to hear faintly some stations and Forrest, KJ7ZP. By 9:50 Forrest came up to an S-9 and 30 seconds later he was 30 over. Speed, K7TFJ check in with a 35 over 9. He has NEVER been that loud.
It was like we had a solar flare hit right on CA for about 35 minutes, then said "let them hear". Becase of the band conditions, we cut short the net, closing it about 9:30. From what I could gather we had about 55-60 check ins. Thanks Frank, for sending me your check ins.
As our part in notifing one and all about DTV on June 12th, 2009, we have a few cartoons that we will be sharing with you.
Bill - WØQNI
February 17th
2-17-09 87 check ins.
de WOQNI
Band Conditions (A). YES, AN "A" It was one of those west coast nights for "Radios on the Left Coast". 75 meters was long up to a point, 1200 miles or so. Boy did the relays have fun tonight. Our thanks to Forest, KJ7XP, who was able to get his amp working, and Chuck, NO6L.
Billy, N6YW with help from Don, W6KAT ,WOQNI and Chuck, NO6L helped handle traffic for Billy to his brother in law, KI6DNN/mm at sea in Mexico. Josh was S-9 to the bay area.
Quite a lot of talk about all the wet weather most everyone was
having. This is great as California really needs it. Most reservoirs
are only about 35 to 40% full. The rains of last weekend brought them up 15%.
The check ins tonight were the best in 4 months. We had a total of 87 check-ins. They just kept coming. We finally closed the net at about 10:20pm.
Check out the New Bar Graph showing the check ins from November
to mid Febuary. Web Site is 
http://www.warfa.org/themix.htm.
January 1 thru February 12th
REMEMBER The WARFA Spring Retreat
MAY 14TH-18TH
VE TESTING SESSION ON SATURDAY, MAY 17TH AT 8 AM. CONTACT NORM, WG6W.
Good Morning
Last night's net was a blast. It all started when we asked for mobiles, etc. Would you believe we had 10 low power or limited antennas check-ins! It only went up hill from there Thanks to Don, W6KAT and Jim, W6WGC for relays. We had a check in of 81 stations. Even Debbie KL7OU from Alaska made the trip. We did have a litttle help from Moody as he was able to reach W9LIO and WN8Z, Pat in N.Y. It seemed that all the check-ins were happy, so they must have had a great Valentines Day.
The attached file is a revised Bar Graph of check ins from November
through mid February. It seems as though we have been averaging between
65 to 70 check ins. BUT in the last few weeks, the count has grown
to over 70 average. Maybe there was a little sun spot who came out
of hiding for a few hours.
Total check ins
1-4=70, 1-6=56, 1-8=75, 1-11=53, 1-13=60, 1-15=51,(1-18,20, 22, 25,
Quartzsite), 1-27=77, 1-29=50, 2-1=80, 2-3=65, 2-5=74, 2-8=75, 2-10=64,
2-12=72...
73 - Bill - WØQNI