First, I and my XYL, Ruby, KA4CLI, would like to wish each and everyone
a very joyous holiday season...
May you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
In retrospect, the year 2004 was a rewarding one for the Lenoir ARC.  We, as members, not only reconstituted and revitalized it...but we embued it with new features (such as, hopefully,  a better and more informative newsletter, more interesting meetings, and our very own website!).    As we forge ahead into a new year, with an energetic slate of officers and with a progressive membership & agenda, we can make the LARC the envy of other clubs.  2005, here we come! GPS (global positioning system) units are fast becoming a way of life.  Many auto manufacturers are now offering "OnStar" (see last month's editorial!) and the price of small handheld units are now competively priced in the $100-$150 range.  In addition, the Motorola cellphone, Model V-60X, has a built-in GPS (call 911 and you can be pinpointed to within 300 yards)...much better than the older "nearest tower" concept which could be up to 10 miles distant!
     New Car-Jacking                         Scheme! The printer problem that most are having for the complete & proper printing of individual issues of the Newsletter is still being addressed.  Since there is apparently no option within Print Shop, Ver. 20, that allows this functionality, other options are being explored.  One option is saving  the Newsletter in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)...which does have a printing option that prints the entire Newsletter .  But the Acrobat version can approach 50 MB in size...too large to send as an email attachment!  Other avenues are being studied and you will be informed later as to any progress . Our Mailing address is:  Lenoir Amateur Radio Club,  P.O. Box 3276, Lenoir, NC, 28645. ARRL Affiliation Votes were taken from the floor during the regular November meeting for previously nominated club officers to be installed for the coming year. Those elected for 2005:
Tom, KA4HKK - President
Ted, KF4FLY - Vice-President
Scott, KC4SWL, Sec - Treasurer
Jim, N4EUX, Newsletter Editor

During the November meeting, we had one new member to join our ranks.  We welcome Greg Branch, KI4GZD , of Morganton, to the Lenoir Amateur Radio Club! Please note! Speaking of Addresses... The LARC now has a brand-new web domain identity - thanks to Gary, KD4YTU!  He has secured for us the domain address of Lenoir-ARC.org (and .net) .  Gary will set up a number of email addresses using this domain and later will host our very own website on his server free of charge!  Add ti onally, this newsletter will be available on the website for viewing and/or printing simply by clicking on one of the several "tabs".  Work will begin shortly on the design and implementation of the new website!! Reorganization of the club has been a great reintroduction to ham radio & old friends for me.  Although growth of the club has been slow since its revitalization earlier this year, we are already changing that!  Involvement in this year's bike ride is only one example (which generated a lot of interest by exposing ham radio to several members of the Emergency Services and others as well).  I look forward to next year and its bright prospects!   Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!     -Tom, KA4HKK The editor reserves the right to edit and/or paraphrase articles or "news" submitted for inclusion into the LARC newsletter due to time and/or space constraints. Submit articles, etc. to Jim, N4EUX, at bozo38@charter.net    tnx! GPS Recently, only Garmin GPS units have been mentioned in this column, but it was not intended to ignore the "other" major player, Magellan, in this field.  In fact, Magellan and its family of GPS products probably predates those of the Garmin genre.  Both have excellent websites to help you to make an intelligent decision  to choose a GPS unit (an excellent Christmas gift!) that is right for you. See for yourself...here's the links:
http://www.magellangps.com/en/
http://www.garmin.com
     Our Newsletter
GPS
Our Mailing address is:  Lenoir Amateur Radio Club,  P.O. Box 3276, Lenoir, NC, 28645. Website Address... Our official website address is http://www.lenoir-arc.org  Be  careful when typing it in to your address window of your browser...that's a hyphen (some refer to it as a dash) between "lenoir" and "arc" - not an underscore! Officer Elections
Got juicy news or an information item??  Send it in!!!
Our repeater trustee, James Bradshaw (N4NIN), reported at the November meeting that he has received the Ringo Ranger antenna previously ordered for the repeater.  Also, at the same meeting, it was voted upon, and passed, that we would seek an outside source for a person to actually install the new antenna atop our 100+ foot tower due to several cirumstances (insurance coverage not the least of them).  Expected cost may approach $500.00.  More later... Global Positioning System Jim N4EUX Back Next