Minutes Faulkner County Amateur Radio Club (FCARC) November 11, 2008
Meeting was called to order by President Frankie Parks K5FRP at 6:31pm
Members and guests:
Treasurers Report: No report given. [Although our current bank balance was not mentioned at meeting, we currently have $1,290.37]
Old Business:
Anderson Power Poles
Glenn King N5GK has Anderson Power Poles in stock for sale to club members at $8.50 for ten pairs of black and red power poles.
Tower and Repeater Work
Glenn King N5GK reports that on November 1, 2008, members of the FCARC took down the Rohn 25G tower situated on the ridge line northwest of the Hogan Road cut were the old microwave tower was located. We are now in the process of building a bigger and stronger cap for that tower that the Rohn 25G base rests upon. When it is put back up later this year, the tower will be guyed to the new elevated anchor positions that were put in a year or so ago. Hopefully that will occur this fall or early winter. At that time, we should be able to get some new antennas in place and get some of the other repeaters working.
Wayne Johnston KD4TA noted that Lynn McCaig N5RWW did a tremendous job working all day up so high on the tower. Glenn King brought some additional steel guy lines that were put in place 20' down from the top of the 80' tower to stabilize it while Lynn was disassembling it from the top down. As a result, it was very solid for him to work on. Amazingly, the tower was the least solid at the junction between the Rohn25G and the larger microwave tower. The Rohn 25G base (up 25 ft in the air) was resting on thin 12 ga steel cap on the top of the microwave tower sections. Lynn was standing at that point shaking the thing, saying "I want guy wires again." After additional temporary steel guys were installed, Lynn completed taking down the tower. We have learned to be extra cautious [as a result of Perry Carleton AE5EE's fall].
President Frankie Parks expressed thanks to Lynn on behalf of the FCARC for his hard work on the tower.
Simulated Emergency Test
On Saturday November 1, 2008 Glen King N5GK activated the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) call tree for a Simulated Emergency Test (SET). There are sixteen names on the call tree and ten people answered. This was a very good response, considering that several members were out of town and it was an impromptu test. Those members activated came up on the net. In January 2009, when ARES memberships are renewed, interested FCARC members will have an opportunity to join and become active for that disaster response system.
New Business:
Officers Election
Club officers will be elected/re-elected at the FCARC meeting on December 9, 2008. Elections will be held for the offices of President, Vice President, Secretary/Treasurer, and Custodian (if Glen steps down). We hope that Glenn will remain as Custodian "hopefully his permanent and honorary position." (Glenn commented later that he was bringing his train whistle to the election meeting!)
Club Dues
Dues for FCARC memberships will be collected starting at the December meeting. Cost is $10.00 for a single member, and $15.00 for family (defined as everybody living under the same roof). Dues will be collected until February, but we want to get the records up to date and the money in the bank quickly.
Club Photos
We would also like to start taking new photos of old and new members so that the identification cards and photos posted on the FCARC web site will be up to date.
December Meeting
George Carroll N5GC suggested that the meeting on December 9, 2008, incorporate a special Christmas dinner. The suggested menu of turkey, ham, dressing, giblet gravy, mashed potatoes w/ brown or white gravy, pinto beans, green beans, yams, rolls will cost only $10.80 per person "tax and gratuity included in that amount." We could decorate and have a special dinner. George then phrased his suggestion in the form of a motion that passed. Thus, the December meeting will involve the dinner, a program, and the election.
Program
Tom Desaulniers, Jr. K4VIZ (tom@k4viz.com
*QRP Low Power Amateur Radio Operations*
Tom noted that there are many things to be interested in and choose from within ham radio: slow scan television, packet, APRS, teletype, PSK31, SSB operations, and of course CW "which is what real hams do." A really interesting way to do CW is with low power QRP operations of 5 watts or QRPp operations at half a watt or less.
There are many organizations for QRP: NORCAL Norther California QRP http://www.norcalqrp.org/; South Carolina; Vermont; and many other states with QRP organizations that push their own kits, designs, and contests [here are a few of the many: http://newenglandqrp.org/ ; http://www.qrparci.org/ ; http://www.fix.net/~jparker/wild.html
Tom brought two of his rigs to the meeting for members to inspect and to demonstrate. One was an Oak Hills Research QRP rig (cost of about $149.00 for 5 a watt, super heterodyne radio with RIT, RF and AF gain, variable bandwidth and crystals). [ http://www.ohr.com/100adet.htm ] Tom added a 10 turn pot to make the tuning very accurate. Oak Hills also has a watt meter with scales for 10W, 1W and 100mW for forward and reflected power that will assist in making the little radios very efficient. [http://www.ohr.com/wattmeter.htm]
The other rig he brought was a very low power QRPp rig half watt rig -- a Rock Mite direct conversion radio with crystal input filter, control for 7.040 (a frequency that is now popular with RTTY operators) or 7.030, a built-in variable speed keyer, full break in CW, and push button shift, for about $49.00. [see this link for more information http://www.smallwonderlabs.com/Rockmite.htm ] The rig is very small - only one circuit board. Tom modified his to include an amplified speaker so he would not have to use earphones all the time. He put the entire station (radio, amplified speaker, ear bud earphones, batteries, and paddle keyer) in a very small 3" x 4" x 8" box with handle.
Tom demonstrated how the Rock Mite rig could vary the transmit speed with a simple pushbutton change. With that very low power of only half a watt he had successfully worked (while he lived in Birmingham, AL) stations in Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, California, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida, Louisana, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Michigan).
At his home here in Conway, Tom uses a Palstar antenna tuner [http://www.palstar.com/ ], running twin lead to a tree with 150 ft in either direction for a dipole. He believes that you should put up as much wire as the law and the neighbors allow, and if it stays up for a year, then you did not put up enough wire!
The Rock Mite radio arrives in a flat envelope with two small plastic bags that contain the circuit board and all the parts. Some assembly required!
Tom also brought several QRP antennas. He noted that it was fun to go out and quickly set up an antenna and QRP station in a park. One of his was a 300 ft. reel of long wire antenna mounted on a reel attached to a wood handle. He usually ran one antenna in a tree with another wire underneath for a countepoise. He also had a 42' Telepole "a nesting fiberglass pole like the ones used by power companies to replace fuzes on poles." He attached the center of his 40m dipole to the pole, attached the pole to his trailer hitch, and operated out of his van with an inverted V antenna.
Tom brought several antenna tuners. The MFJ version was flexible -- if the antenna had high impedence, attach it one way, and if low impedence, attach it the other. Either way and then the tuner could match the antenna. The MFJ tuner was simply a tapped coil and a variable capacitor.
His Emtec ZM-2 tuner for either balanced or unbalanced lines had an LED that fades to tell the operator when the match is made. [More information on the $65.00 kit is available on the web at http://emtech.steadynet.com/zm2.shtml ]
To demonstrate the two QRP radios, Tom put a radio at each end of the dining room and conducted a real over the air CW QSO with Dave Moore K0DST so that all the members and visitors could listen to both ends of the conversation. Their short Morse code CW QSO consisted of the normal exchanges of call sign, name, and location (QTH).
Tom also brought literature about his rigs. He had the manuals for the Rock Mite. He noted that it is a real challenge to work stations at low power and very low power.
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After the presentation, Jim Grinder noted that he had more than a half watt loss in his coax feed line to his rig. Tom, who uses twin lead, suggested that coax was good only for short interconnections!
President Frankie Parks thanked Tom for the program and Dave for stepping forward to participate in the QSO. Vice President Wayne Johnston noted that Tom was a great ambassador for ham radio as evidenced by him volunteering to demonstrate his QRP station for the Boy Scouts at their spring camporee several years back. The scouts were fascinated with his entire set up and code operations.
Tom wanted to make sure that everyone at the meeting knows that CW does not stand for ["Country and Western or for Cold Water"]
Reminders: lunch on Fridays. Only five members checked in on the net on Thursday. Glenn King volunteered to be net control for December.
A motion having been made to adjourn, the FCARC meeting ended at 7:15 pm.
Immediately after the meeting, a test session was held for two hams.