New Award and Operation Alert                    

The Israel Amateur Radio Club (I.A.R.C) is proud to announce a new national award program entitled:   Holyland Christianity On The Air (HOCOTA).

This program will include amateur radio operations from numerous sites of major Christian significance. The sites were selected based on well documented research and archeological history as documented in the Holy Bible and other Christian works.  We believe that the connection of operating from these holy sites will not only appeal to Christian amateur radio operators but to amateurs of all faiths and beliefs.

The program accreditation will be built from ‘blocks’ of sub-awards derived from specific geographic locations. Activities will run throughout the year with special operations mainly during Christmas and Easter.

The HOCOTA Program will commence during Christmas 2016 (23-25 December) by Four special event multi operator stations. The current sub-program is called the ‘Jesus Miracles Award’.  Within this block of the HOCOTA Program we’ll start with some of the most significant miracles that Jesus Christ performed around the Sea of Galilee.

Therefore, the Christmas 2016 operation shall include:

1. 4X9XMAS-Tabagha- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabgha
2. 4X7XMAS- Kursi- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursi,_Golan_Heights
3. 4X3XMAS-Mount of Beatitudes – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_of_Beatitudes
4. 4X2XMAS- Yardenit- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yardenit

QSL information as well as program rules will be published separately.

Awards – Our goal is to enable automatic award opportunities and we are also considering the availability of an impressive, unique plaque.

4Z4DX                                                           4Z1RZ

Dov Gavish                                                 Zurial Rienstien

IARC Special Events Manager                             IARC President

My prized Bird watt meter stopped giving reasonable readings last year.  A check revealed that the resistance had changed from 50 ohms to approximately 65 ohms.  Opening up the dummy load I found that the cooling oil reservoir was empty.  I emailed Bird to ask for a quote on a replacement resistor element but received no reply.  I then canvassed my ham friends and was lucky to find that Dov, 4X1KP had an exact replacement resistor.

The photo below shows the new resistor next to the burnt original.

I polished the inside surface of the metal funnel that contacts the far end of the resistor element and cleaned all contacts with contact spray, then inserted the new element.  An ohmmeter check showed just a fraction over 50 ohms.

I then purchased a liter of paraffin oil (mineral oil) at the pharmacy.  Refilling was carried out on a disposable aluminum roasting pan (to contain any oil leaks).  I filled the reservoir with approximately 150 ml of oil and left the dummy load on the aluminum pan, to check for leaks (photo, below).   I then continued filling.

After more filling I noticed that the rear seal was leaking.  On disassembly and cleaning I discovered a tear in the rubber expansion diaphragm sealing the rear port of the oil reservoir.  The function of this diaphragm is to allow for oil expansion with heating.

I could not locate a diaphragm of this size in town so I made a temporary repair using a sheet of rubber from a mountain bike inner tube and an O ring of the right size.  The seal, so far, is holding.  This tear in the diaphragm is obviously the root source of the whole problem with oil loss resulting in heating of the resistor element.

If you have any concerns that the oil in your dummy load contains PCBs – write it off and take the dummy load, intact, to a chemical waste disposal site.

Paraffin oil from the pharmacy requires no special precautions – just don’t make a mess that will get the XYL on your case.

Moral

Before applying power to that dummy load you bought from the “junk” (electronics surplus), check the oil level.