Excerpts from the latest Scuttlebutt issue.

Greetings from N1GYX

Spring is here in Florida! How do I know? The time change has occured. We changed the clocks to "Spring" ahead as I write this column. Keep your fingers crossed that it will not mean three weeks of poor propagation. Net Controllers, use your relays, and find new ones daily if you need more help. Don't be afraid to ask and please, those listening help the Net Control out by volunteering.

With the removal of the Morse code requirement we have already seen a huge increase in the number of General licenses granted through upgrades. We welcome all the new hams and hope they join us on the radio.

We had a good roundtable in January. It was the general consensus that the By-laws be changed to ex-tend the voting for future years' officers to Dec. 30 from the first of December. This move will allow more members to vote next year. Reviewing the results of the last two years, it was noted that, while the results would not have changed for those elections, over 10 percent of the votes arrived in December, after elections closed. We believe that many use mail forwarding services and that slows down the delivery of the bill and Ballot and, thus the delay in responding with the completed ballot. No change will be needed for the induction of officers, except to ask the outgoing Commodore to do the January Schedule from now on.

It is nice to see a number of new relay and weather readers, welcome to you all. Chuck ND7K seems to be doing well with his guest Fleet Captain on Sundays. Contact Chuck if you would like to participate.

Fair Winds and Smooth Seas in 2007 --- 73! -Ron Knaggs N1GYX Commodore

Several cruisers have asked me how to recognize the onset of a stroke in a friend or family member. The interest in learning about strokes stems from awareness of recent medical breakthroughs. There is a belief that early strokes can be halted or even reversed; this is true, especially if the stroke is less than six hours old.

A stroke is a sudden malfunction of the brain caused by the shutting off of blood flow to some region of the brain. The region involved depends on the location and the size of the artery that has closed off. This "blood deprived" zone in the brain begins to die. Doctors call the damaged area an "infarct," in this case a "cerebral infarct." The part of our body connected to that part of the brain, an arm, a leg or side of the face, first gets weak and then becomes significantly paralyzed.

Here are a few examples. If the brain area is connected to an arm, the hand on the opposite side gets weak and clumsy. The ability to recognize objects by holding them may be lost. If the area connects to the face the smile becomes crooked, the protruded tongue deviates to the weak side, the eyes may not both look in a common direction. If the area damaged connects to the lower extremity, the person develops a paralyzed leg. Thus, depending on the part of the brain that is affected there may be no findings in the face at all.

Another factor is the speed at which the stroke progresses. If the small artery involved can keep itself open, even a little, the symptoms may be mild or intermittent. If the artery is a major one and clogs up quickly, the onset of weakness and a severe paralysis may occur within just a few minutes. Also, the weakness may come and go over a period of hours. The person may find that a hand quickly got clumsy and then a half hour later is strong again. The victim may suddenly be unable to dial the phone or recognize words on a page, and then "come out of it" in a few minutes. These "stuttering" symptoms are called transient ischemic attacks, and as such, give an alert helpmate a window of opportunity to take the patient to a medical facility. The major stroke may be prevented.

In medicine, we speak of differential diagnosis. That means, "What else could be causing the problem?" In the case of brain injury causing paralysis or altered consciousness, one must consider brain hemorrhage. Sudden brain hemorrhage almost always is associated with headache and a depressed level of consciousness. It is important for the doctor to rule out a hemorrhage, because the treatment is different; the treatment for strokes is an anticoagulant, a substance that makes blood less likely to clot, surely not to be given to a person who is already bleeding inside the head!

Once the victim has arrived at a medical center the ER staff will refine the diagnosis, rule out hemorrhage and estimate the age of the brain infarct. If the patient is in the early hours of salvage-ability the staff will institute anticoagulation of the blood. The results can be remarkable if the suffering person is brought early enough to a medical facility. After 6 to 12 hours there is little benefit to be had, and in fact, once the damaged (stroked) brain has aged a day or two it may actually become hemorrhagic and ooze some blood itself. The hope is to get treatment started within 3 hours of the onset.

Now let's talk about stroke recognition. I have seen email instructions for lay people on how to recognize a stroke. They are full of misleading half truths. That's one of the reasons I'm writing this for you. The symptoms may be sudden and unrelenting, or they may be intermittent, present a few minutes, then gone and back again. So, be alert to both presentations of the stroke problem.

The specific symptoms depend on the part of the brain under duress; hence what part of the body is connected to it. If the area is small only speech and "object recognition" may be affected. If the brain area connects to the muscles of one side of the body, then only the arm and leg will be paralyzed. I mention this because the "do it yourself list calls attention to a crooked smile. Well, not every stroked patient has a crooked smile. This also applies to the deviated tongue. Even medical students have trouble detecting a deviated tongue.

Now, just a couple of interesting facts. Our speech ability and ability to use numbers lies in a small area above the ear in the brain on the side opposite to our dominant hand (right handed left brain, etc.). Thus a stroke victim may have a deep and lasting paralysis on the non-dominant side of the body and still retain all speech and arithmetic ability.

OK, what to do with all this information? Clearly if you are cruising, and long hours from land there is little chance of getting promptly to an emergency room. If you suspect a stroke, or a transient ischemic attack, with its intermittent symptoms, and assuming they can still swallow, give the suffering person an aspirin tablet (any size). That is a reasonably good "home brew" anti-coagulant. Give one a day until you can get to help. Meanwhile help the victim to have a clear and open air-way. Don't cock their head up on a pillow and shut off their wind pipe.

If you can have the victim transported to an ER within 4-6 hours, do so! In today's world there is a reasonable chance the stroke can be reverted or at least diminished. Also, remember, if the stroke becomes a completed one, the patient may look worse for the first few days due' to brain swelling, but then begin some degree of recovery. Fifty percent of any potential improvement will appear in the first 8 weeks, and another forty percent by the end of the first year. A good rehabilitation facility can make a big difference in the return to a quality life, but that's another subject.

Jim Hirschman, K4TCV - Fleet Surgeon, WRCC

From time to time the Waterway net gets a barrage of QRM which is usually caused by DXers or contesters. An example of this was Thursday, Feb. 8 when lots of mid-westerners were shouting their call signs on 7.268 along with numerous louder Waterway Netters shouting (without ID) "You're QRMing our net" etc. The result was paralysis.

Let me describe what happened. DXOJP, a rare DX on, Spratley Island, was transmitting SSB on 7.093 (a legal frequency for him). It was 10 PM his local time. The "gray line" (explained later) lay over the US Midwest, so they could hear the DX fine; however, the DX could not hear the US East Coast who were past the gray line and in daylight. The DX station had more QRM than we did, so he said he would listen at 7.268, a clear frequency for him. In a word, he was working "split." The stations in the mid west were listening on 7.093 and transmitting on 7.268. A smart DXer will listen from time to time on the DX listening frequency to know what's going on, and one of them probably told the DX station he was being QRM'd by some net, so the DX station should move to make more contacts. This is why he moved, not because of all the Waterway Net stations shouting "you're QRMing us" (without callsigns). The DX did not hear them. We know the DX (DXOJP) and who was working him because on the DX Clusters there were "spots" posted giving callsigns, frequency and time. They are on the internet, free and watched by serious DX, IOTA and contest chasers. DXOJP was posted three times on clusters during our net on Feb 8, listening on 7.268. DX Clusters include: http://www.dx-central.com/, http://oh2w.kolumbus.com/dxs/ gin.html, and others. The increasing popularity of DX Clusters results in faster and louder pile-ups and maybe QRM.

The gray line (twilight zone) is the line dividing darkness and light. Here DX radio signals on 40 meters and lower bands greatly increase for maybe a half hour or so. We sometimes also hear this as foreign broadcast station QRM. DXers become very skilled at using this gray line.

Some people have suggested parts of amateur frequencies should be off limits for DXers and contesters. This will never happen. DXers and contesters outnumber hams with formal nets. The ARRL QSL bureau alone sends out about 2 million DX QSL cards a year, and there are several hundred other QSL bureaus. This does not include incoming or direct or Logbook Of The World QSLs. If hams are going to protect their frequencies, strength is in numbers, so all hams need each other including DXers and contesters.

(Thanks, Chuck; this reinforces the Net Guide's admonition against Net participants trying to control QRM. We should live with it, or let the Net Control station direct appropriate action, if any - PKC)

(Continued from Winter, 2007 SB...The story of Sans Fruscins' escape from major damage, perhaps protected by a rare French coin under the base of the mast)

On my next trip I found Sans Fruscins in a raft-up in the middle of the lagoon. She had not been taken to the boat yard because of a disagreement between the insurance companies as to who had salvage rights and who was to pay for the salvage of the boats in the marina. One of the salvage companies had blocked the exit from the marina until the Sheriff intervened.

Then came Hurricane Rita. During the storm, one of the boats in the raft got free and damaged every-thing in its path. The bow had climbed into Sans Fruscins' cockpit, broke a couple of stanchions and cracked the lens on the compass. There was more damage after the insurance company took charge than we had before!

The insurance company eventually released Sans Fruscins to me. In the mean time I had secured a slip just west of Slidell. The bayou leading to the marina and the slips were full of mud and grass, the piers and pilings were damaged. Every time the tide went out, I was on the ground. But at least it was a place to tie up.

Going back and forth to Slidell to check on Sans Fruscins and viewing the devastation became very depressing for me, so I started looking for alternatives. We decided to truck Sans Fruscins to Demopolis, AL on the Tenn-Tom waterway. A trucking company from Gulfport doing salvage work at Oak Harbor accepted the job. The driver and I agreed to stop at McDonalds in Picayune; he was to slow down, allow me to catch up and I would buy lunch. When I got back on the interstate I called him on the CB. No answer. I called him on his cell, no answer. I then started calling the southbound truckers and asking if they had seen a sailboat going north on the Interstate. When I eventually got a report giving Sans, Fruscins' location, it was obvious he was pulling away from me, headed for Demopolis. Sans Fruscins averaged 80 MPH on that run from Slidell to Demopolis. Remember the coin?

Finally, Sans Fruscins was in the water, 60 miles from my home, destined to become a riverboat and we were to, become river rats. Reasonable slip fees, (slip rent on the coast had doubled if you could find a slip!), very good boat yard, nice people, everything was in place ... until they decided to raise their slip rent 56% all at once. Not double, but too much for me.

That was the final straw. I took the coin off the boat, removed all of our personal items, and now have a FOR SALE sign on Sans Fruscins. We enjoyed the best of sailing conditions the Gulf Coast had to offer. It will be many years before boating down south returns to normal. Now we have a 21 foot trailer-sailor that we will use until we are no longer able to sail.

Should I have removed the coin? Or should I leave the coin on board her to continue to provide her with good luck? Please let me know your opinion.

Bill Gray, WB5BNV

Since the FCC has decided to no longer require the passing of a CW test to qualify for a General or Extra class license there has been a lot of speculation on the future of CW on the ham bands. Well, our experience on the CW net, so far, has shown no effect at all. In fact, we constantly get new check-ins; they have been coming so fast that we haven't been able to keep up with all the new calls in the CW Net Roster. I think that we are currently 6 call signs behind.

The future will tell what will hap-pen to CW, but I expect it will be around for many years. There are just some things that CW does better than any other mode. There are reasons why the FAA still uses CW to identify airports. Our armed forces still use CW in situations where other modes are not practical. How else can one have a rig about the size of a pack of cigarettes that runs off of pen light batteries and can give reliable communications over hundreds if not thousands of miles?

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox.

All hams are welcome to join us on the CW net every morning at 0700 Eastern time on 7050 kHz. Early check in starts at about 0645 or earlier. Many of the net members get on 3550 kHz at around 0630 for quick QSO's.

Propagation has been getting better with the change of season, but will suffer a setback when daylight sav-ings time first takes effect. After that, propagation will improve until the fall when it starts getting dark earlier again.

I'm writing this from aboard my boat Trident, on a mooring in Boot Key Harbor in Marathon, FL where the weather is absolutely beautiful and has been for most of the winter. I, and lots of others, will soon be heading north and will miss the nice people and weather in the Florida Keys. "Come on down" and enjoy!

73 and CU on CW in the AM - Forrest, AG4ND

The following members or their families have received cards or flowers from the Sunshine Fund recently.

     NU4P - Bob Rader   - Hospitalized

     Robbie Hughes (Wife of Don, N4EOW) - Hospitalized

     N4OCC - Howard Kendall   - Silent Key
     K4OFD - Richard Rockwell - Illness

     KF8ML - Don DeSplinter - Hospitalized

The Sunshine fund is not funded through your dues, but is supported by donations collected over the year. Our fund is in need of additional support and if you feel it in your heart to donate, it would be appreciated.

If you are aware of a club member in need of some Sunshine, please contact me via phone (correct in the roster), new email address kc4bgq@earthlink.net., or sunshine@waterwayradio.net.

Please provide me with as much information as possible and a point of contact. This especially holds true if someone is in the hospital. When you receive flowers, please let me know, so I can confirm they were received.

I want to thank the members of the WRCC for your support. I could not do it without you.

Jean Freeman, KC4BGQ - Sunshine Fund Chairman

Have you ever missed listening to the WRCC when you were off the boat and without your ham radio gear? I have the solution in a software program called CQ100 located at QSONET.COM. This is Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) with no access to transmit over RF (as you can with Echolink). You must be a licensed ham (of any class, even though the virtual RF spectrum is High Frequency).

So if it's "virtual", how do you tune in the WRCC? Someone has to provide the streaming audio into CQ100 from an actual transceiver copying the WRCC on 7.268 MHz. And for now that's me; I have done it for a few days now and have received excellent reviews from my small band of "Beta" WRCC members. Of course, you will experience the good and bad aspects of my propagation from Tampa, Florida. But if you are (for example) located in Annapolis, MD and cannot hear the Bahamas; just turn on your CQ100 coming out of Tampa and, voila, there is your "electronic" southern relay. Neat, Huh!

If you have an interest in CQ100; go to QSONet.com. (Note: I have no affiliation with the Cormac Corporation.) This program is for hams ONLY and you will need to send a copy of your license for proof. Send by digital image (scan, digital photo); DO NOT FAX. The registration process, if done right, takes about 15 minutes to return your certification, which allows you to download the program for a 90-day trial; if you like it---it's only $32/year.

The program uses virtual 14.200 MHz as a calling frequency; you WILL be talking worldwide. Now, specifically for the WRCC morning net, I am broadcasting the Net on virtual 29.268 MHz. When you think 7.268 say this phrase: "UP 22 FOR CQ" i.e. 7.268 + 22.000 = 29.268 MHz. Sorry about not being able to get 7.268 MHz, but the CQ100 manager (Doug) wants incoming RF in-terfaces to be up on the high band so the more commonly used frequencies (lower bands) can be reserved for QSOs: Starting at 0700 I will have a beacon up on 29.268 MHz announcing the forthcoming Net broadcast; you will start hearing some ham activity about 0730; the "official" net starts at 0745 Eastern Time. A virtual WRCC calling frequency can be "UP 10" at 29.278 as the beacon will capture the net frequency. When the net starts, just QSY down to 29.268 MHz for LISTEN ONLY. I think this is good for WRCC and non-WRCC hams to be aware that general QSO's will not be on the Net frequency from about 7 - 9 am.

NONE OF THIS IS MEANT TO REPLACE THE LIVE NET ON THE RADIO; it just supplements it to fill in propagation holes and allows the "RF-Challenged" to, keep up with WRCC doings.

73 - Terry, K1LCH

Transiting the Grand Lucayan Waterway on Grand Bahama Island can be an interesting way to get to or from the Northern Abacos, and also quite a time saver if you will be in the Xanadu Port Lucaya area of Grand Bahama. From Great Sale Cay or Mangrove Cay on the North side of Grand Bahama to Port Lucaya on the South, the saving is almost 20 miles compared to the Indian Cay route around West End, or 40 miles using the Memory Rock route.

The waterway is a 7.2 mile manmade canal cut through the island. Most of it is over 200 feet wide, with many smaller canals extending from the main route. In the southern or older portion, the canal and the tributaries and side canals are all lined with concrete bulkheads. The northern end, probably a third of the canal, was finished after Bahamian Independence and is considerably narrower without tributaries or concrete bulkheads except at the very north end. Width in the narrow portion is no problem for slow passage of most users, although sharing it with the Sea Ray Club on one of their outings will increase your heart rate a bit. If heading north, don't be intimidated by the narrow cut between the older southern portion and the newer canal to the north; it's the only really narrow spot in the whole canal. Depth throughout the canal is more than adequate for any draft able to cross the shallower northern entry and I've not noticed any shoaling in the vicinity of the bridge as some guides suggest.

The only obstacles to an effortless trip through the waterway are the fixed Casuarina Bridge, about 2.6 miles from the south end, and the shallow entry on the north end. For boats with a draft over 6 feet, or an "air draft" much over 27 feet, there's not much I can offer. For those close to those limits, the following hints will ease your way through the canal. Also please keep in mind that my hints are based on draft limits of 5.5' and 27' and running the canal without waiting between the bridge and canal for the tide to change. Depending on your draft requirements and/or willingness to wait for the tide to change, you will have nearly three feet of additional bridge clearance at MLW.

First, for the Casuarina bridge, the only one you will encounter on the waterway and as a result the only way to get from one end of the island to the other if you. were, driving. Charted clearance on the bridge is 27 or 27.5 feet at MHW depending on which chart or guide you use and there are no height or clearance indicators on either side. A good aid to judging clearance can be found in the structure under the bridge built to protect the bridge supports from boats and debris. What you will see of this protective structure are three timbers parallel to the water on either side leading into and under the bridge. If the water level is at least six inches under the bottom timber, you will have 27 feet of clearance. Be careful if you are traveling south and just barely getting under the north edge of the bridge - the south side is about six inches lower than the north and may be the reason for the discrepancies in charted clearance.

Getting through the shallow channel on the north end, from Dover sound to the canal, is much easier than most guides would indicate. It is very well marked with eight sets of pilings, each with a daymark; as of the Fall of 2006, only one piling is missing on the south side of the channel near the center. Only one daymark is numbered red 2, the second piling on the west (Dover Sound) end but the first pair are lighted on each end. On a reasonably high tide (2.5 feet at Settlement Point) you will find no less than seven feet through the dredged channel, the shallowest area around mark 3, just west of the mid point. The tricky part can be in judging the state of tide since it lags predicted tides at Settlement Point (West End, Grand Bahama) by 2 to 2.2 hours. Like the bridge, there is no official indicator for tide height, but the spoils bank from the dredging will tell you all you need to know. When the channel was dredged, the spoils were deposited alongside the channel just outside the row of pilings marking the south side. The east end of that bank between the last two pilings (red daymarks 7 and 8 if they were numbered) is a excellent indicator of channel depth:

• If just a few isolated rocks and a small patch of mud is showing on top of the spoil bank between the two southeastern most pilings, depth in the channel will be a minimum of seven feet.



• If the spoil bank is just beginning to dry between the two southeasternmost pilings there will beat least five and a half feet throughout the channel.

The route from the west end of the dredged channel to Mangrove Cay will have adequate depths for a six foot draft in mid to high tides if you stay to the west of a stake WNW of Cormorant point (N26°44.45' W78°41.04').

Jon Hill, N7IGG

It is a new year, and we have a new slate of officers (well, almost new, as Ron, N1GYX, is continuing on as Commodore). Welcome aboard to Chuck Grey, ND7K as our Rear Commodore, and congrats to Tom Rader, K4WJC in moving up to Vice Commodore. I am sure they will all do a wonderful job.

With the new rules for No Code now in effect, I am hoping to see an increase in our membership numbers. I have included a little graph that I put together to show you the status of our membership for the last 10 years. As you can see, is has been steadily decreasing. We are down over 36% from the high we had in 1998. If you have met anyone while you are out there cruising, don't forget to talk up the club, and hand them an application, or steer them to our web site for information and application downloads. There is always a sample application in each Roster that you can copy and hand out, or go ahead and download it from the web site yourself and keep a few copies handy. Membership is still a bargain at $14 per year.

We also have older Rosters available for anyone who wants them. Please just let me know and I will ship them to you. Heavy Duty burgees are also available at $15 each. Don't forget to fly it!

88, Your humble secretary -- Jeanie, N4WFM

SB EDITOR: Marco Island, Florida in May 2006 began to enforce an anchoring ordinance which is in opposition to statutes of the state of Florida. After repeated attempts to educate and inform the city administration and the city council by knowledgeable and dedicated cruisers, we were unable to gain the attention of the reigning powers. Plus after embarrassing reports of visiting cruiser harassment, we could not allow this injustice to continue. With the support of our local sailing organization, SAMI, Sailing Association of Marco Island, we staged a civil disobedience protest in order to bring the matter to court for resolution. We finally got the attention of the city and it came in the form of an arrest and release in his own recognizance for violating the city ordinance, with an appearance in court scheduled for February 15, 2007. We feel the boating public should be aware of this event.

Herman G. Diebler
Rear Commodore, SSCA
Marco Island

(After this letter was written, a not-guilty plea was filed; the next court hearing is scheduled for March 23.)

SB EDITOR: WRCC sponsored a very successful set of luncheons and ham exams in George Town, Great Exuma this winter. Lunches started in late January and ran through the end of February. We had as many as 85 cruisers at our lunches.

Interest in exams was unusually high, thanks to the FCC dropping the code requirement. We had 52 people show up for our exam session on February 23. Of those, 47 received upgrades or new licenses. We had one new Extra -from scratch- 36 new Generals, with 13 no-exam upgrades, 14 upgrades with exam, and 9 new Generals from scratch. And we had 10 new Technicians.

Interest in our make-up exam session, March 9, is high, with a number of those new to the harbor and those who only passed the Technician exam looking to upgrade.

Lee Kristofs, KG4OYX

SB EDITOR: Note to Tom Elliot KE3JO: "You've gotta give if you wanna get." We have been throwing bottles over for half a century. My wife Kit and her family started it as children cruising New England in their yawl. One of their replies came from a lobsterman's wife on a remote island off the coast of Maine. She could neither read nor write; she got her insurance man to write it for her.

During WWII, Kit's father would drop notes in bottles from his ship. Many came back from servicemen with their addresses censored.

Cruising with our children in an open center-boarder in Massachusetts waters, a bottle note was a teaching exercise. Our all-time record was a note returned from St. Johns, USVI. It must have traveled more than 6000 miles.

The Bahamas is a great area for notes in bottles. All the cays in the Exumas offer great opportunities with the prevailing easterlies (Cuba, Andros, Florida) and the Gulf Stream. Either an offshore wind or an outgoing tide will get them started, and (as Tom suggests in the Winter issue) the results can be very interesting for both sender and receiver.

John Bryant, KB1FDB
Aboard Kittiwake

SB EDITOR: Carol and I were relaxing in Moonshadow's cockpit while anchored near Hamburger Beach. Suddenly a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter passed low over our mast and began circling near the 50 or so boats anchored nearby. We first thought they were after some smugglers but unfortunately that was not the case. Nearby a Canadian sailor had fallen overboard from his dinghy and been run over by the out of control boat. His thigh was deeply cut by the propeller and he had lost a lot of blood. Someone had reached the DEA by marine VHF radio and they were coming to the rescue.

Eventually the injured man was transferred to town by small boat, loaded in a pickup and transported to the nearby softball field. The helicopter then transported him to the nearest hospital, 130 miles away in Nassau. It was reported later that he was doing OK in the hospital and was not expected to lose his leg.

This is just one of the many times where either the U.S. Coast Guard or the DEA have responded promptly to emergency situations in the Bahamas. The incident serves as an urgent reminder for us all to attach the outboard motor kill switch to our body at all times.

Tom Elliott, KE3JO
Moonshadow

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