Big Rapids Area Amateur Radio Club

Transcription

1 Big Rapids Area Amateur Radio Club July 2016 PO Box 343 Paris MI Pres. Dan Astleford Web Page: Editor: Phil Presidents Message Greetings, We had a volunteer for treasurer at the last meeting. Please welcome Josh Afton (KE8KPS) to the temporary position and assist in any way possible in making his introduction easier. I would also like to thank Jens (KC8OIV) for the many years he has been our treasurer. Both repeaters are receiving some strange comments. The 440 is having a condition where the signal strength will drift plus or minus one S unit. Not sure what would be causing that but we will keep an eye on the condition. The 2-meter repeater is reported to have power levels that change with the person talking. That doesn t seem to have an obvious reason except the Link System is also reporting problems with their repeater. Since the repeaters share the same receive antenna and the same transmit antenna any problems with the Link System will probably be reflected to our repeater. The Link System has reported that they believe there is a coax problem possibly with water in the hard line or poor connections. One 2-meter repeater improvement that has been suggested is to program the repeater to the 5 watt output setting then attenuate the signal to the input needed for an old GE MASTR power output unit. This would give us a higher output level (probably 50 In This Issue: Pg 1 President s Message Pg 2 June Meeting Min. Pg 3 Announcements Pg 3 On the Hill Pg 6 KB6NU Pg 7 Tech Question watts) and a fair amount of isolation between the antenna system and our Yaesu Fusion transmitter. This change should be fairly easy to implement and most of the parts are available in our club junk box. The 440 could be treated similarly but the availability of the outboard amp is in question. The end of our election year is coming to a close in September. If you have any interest in being one of the club officers or have ideas on how the club should proceed in the coming year, now is the time to make your feelings known and make a commitment. Ham it up, Dan (WA8AEN)

2 Minutes From The Meeting 2 June 2016 Bruce Werner, WB8TVD, Secretary Here s what you missed if you were not at the meeting on 2 June 2016: Dan, WA8AEN, opened the meeting at 7:05pm with 15 members and guests in attendance. Sheets for attendance and net control were passed around while attendees introduced themselves. A few reminders: Please sign up for net control of our two nets. The next club breakfast will be 2 July, 9:00 am at Sharon s. The next BRAARC meeting will be 7 July, 7:00 pm at BRDPS. Secretary report: The minutes from the meeting in May were published in the June newsletter. The minutes were approved by consensus. Treasurer report: Jens distributed a summary sheet of the club finances and gave a brief rundown. There is $946 in the General Fund. His report was accepted by consensus. EC Report: Mike, KD8DIB, substituting for Jeff, K8OE: There was a successful session working on the Amateur Radio position in the EOC communication trailer. All items have been professionally installed. There was a problem with the power distribution panel and it was sent back for repairs and parts. The Amateur radio position is made up of 2 meter and 440 MHz equipment, with D-Star capability. There is no HF included. Repeaters: Mike, KD8DIB: All the repeaters sound good. The Yaesu repeaters have been installed and all the Micor equipment has been removed. Ferrite beads have been inserted in the lines of the 2 meter repeater to cut down some interference from WDEE. Bruce asked about the audio problems that had occurred after recent net operations. Mike responded that it had mostly been alleviated with the new equipment. Dan noticed some problems popping up occasionally with the 440 repeater. Jeff, WD8DLK, is willing to help return the 6 meter repeater to the Silo. According to Mike, the communications trailer is at the BR Fire Department location, and is secured inside one of the main bays. Mike fielded a suggestion that it might make an interesting field trip during a meeting to look over the trailer. He will look into that and bring it up to Public Safety. Only four have signed up for the Girls On The Run event and Dan notes that Bill may still be out of commission for the event. There was some discussion of whether to use simplex or one of the repeaters. Final determination will be on the day of the event, by testing beforehand. The Bulldog Bike Tour will probably be cancelled due to very low participation. Field Day: We have written permission to use Northend Park for our operation, including during park closing hours. There are still openings for operators at almost any time of day. A brief set of instructions to get to the site through the construction was discussed. Josh, KE8EKC, offered to help (TVD: volunteered ) with treasurer duties. The Board members present immediately approved his offer. (TVD: Very immediately!!) Dan notes that the club will not be participating in the 4 June NPOTA event, but plans for 6 August are still viable.

3 Tech Corner: Tom, KB8TYJ, had sent an about a video showing an extreme test of a Baofeng handheld transceiver. Dan located the video of that demonstration and we viewed it with jaws dropped. (TVD: As much for what he did to it as for how it worked afterward.) Looking up the price after the video showed the radio for less than $40 over the Internet. Bruce had a question about using D-Star in this area, since the new Amateur equipment in the communications trailer is D-Star capable. D-Star has some unique capabilities, and may be used simplex for various functions, including digital communications. (TVD: Okay NOW what HT do I buy???) (TVD: See Baofeng above ;-) ) (TVD: Seriously, the comm trailer has D-Star, the EOC has Kenwood and the repeaters are Yaesu Fusion. What s a Ham to do?) Bruce was assured it would all work out. (TVD: He seems to be twitching) The 50/50 drawing was won by Mike, KC0LNK, and Nancy. They returned their portion to the Club s General Fund. The assembly took a lemon bar break. A suggestion was floated that the Secretary get a card for Bill, WA8MZB. Mike and Patty (KD8DIB & KD8GGD) announced their son Calvin, KD8KQC, had graduated and is now working for the City. The lemon bar break became an open discussion on various Ham Radio topics, including the price(s) of the Baofeng UV-5 HT as demonstrated in the video (TVD: Destroyed!!) and antennas. It was unclear who volunteered to bring treats to the next meeting. (TVD: To the secretary, anyway. Someone else was paying attention!) The meeting was adjourned about 8:15 pm. No Hams or guests were harmed in the conduct of the meeting. We all went home. Well, mostly. *********************************************************************************** Announcements: Saturday, July 2, Breakfast at Sharon s Restaurant in Rogers Heights at 9A.M. Thursday, July 7, Regular BRAARC meeting at the Big Rapids Public Safety Bldg at 7P.M. *********************************************************************************** On May 6, Dan, WA8AEN, Mike, KD8DIB, and yours truly, K8OE, took a trip up to the 2m repeater site near Hawkins. It was a perfect day for replacing the existing 2m repeater with the new Yaesu Fusion repeater. The first task was to tear the old repeater out and that actually took more time than installing the new one. A new instrument rack that held the new repeater and the existing controller was then installed. Thanks to the very good pre-work done by Mike, installation was pretty easy although space was very tight for the new rack. We decided to run this repeater at 20 Watts even though the specs say it can run at 50. The word from other users is that running it at 50 Watts risks burning it out. Some adjustment of the squelch was needed but soon everything was working well. We could initially hear WDEE FM on the repeater frequency but that seems to have diminished. The old repeater probably will be refurbished and will remain as a backup should there be any trouble with the new one. Be sure to thank Mike and Dan for their hard work Jeff K8OE (Pictures following)

4 Dan, WA8AEN, and Mike, KD8DIB, Now what???? Dan and Mike, tools in hand, ready to complete the task at hand.

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6 Design Advances Make Portable Operation Easier, More Fun By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU I've just returned from the Dayton Hamvention. Dayton was a blast as usual, and if there's one thing I took away from this year's event it's that portable operation is not only becoming more popular, but more sophisticated as well. In fact, it's a virtuous circle. More sophisticated portable equipment is making portable operation more popular, which is spurring manufacturers to make more sophisticated equipment, which is making portable operation even more popular, and around we go. This is perhaps most easily seen in the evolution of the Elecraft products. One of their first rigs was the K1, a small rig that was frequently toted out into the field, even though it wasn't really designed for that purpose. It had a small form factor, but had a conventional front panel layout. The next evolution was the KX1. This CW-only radio was designed specifically for field work. It originally only covered 40m and 80m, and had a very limited front panel, but its built-in battery pack and KXPD1 paddle made it a great choice for portable operators when it was introduced in A big leap forward was made when they introduced the KX3 in This radio combined a bunch of features never before found in a portable rig. The KX3 features an SDR architecture and covers all modes, including (SSB, CW, Data, FM, AM); used the same full-sized LCD display as the K3; has advanced DSP features; and can be connected to a computer via USB for firmware upgrades and for use with other ham radio software. The KX3 is so full-featured that many operators use it as their main rig with a suitable linear amplifier. At Dayton 2016, Elecraft took this concept even further and introduced the KX2. It's about half the size of the KX3, but yet has almost all of the features of the KX3. There was a tremendous amount of buzz over this radio at Dayton among portable operation aficionados. The base price of the KX2 is $750, and with options, will cost you about $1,000. Of course, Elecraft isn't the only company competing in this market. LNR Precision sells a radio called the LD-5, and at Dayton, they introduced the LD-11, which like the KX3 and KX2 features an SDR architecture and covers 160m - 6m. This radio goes for about $800, and has also proven to be popular among portable operators. Dayton also had a number of exhibitors that supplied products other than radios to aid portable operation. There were several portable antenna manufacturers, including Buddipole (buddipole.com) and PackTenna (packtenna.com), and BiEnno Power (biennopower.com) was also there, showing off their new lithium-iron batteries, While radios like the KX2 and LD-11, at relatively low prices, allow operators to easily get out into the field, portable operation would not be as popular as it is without organized activities. Programs like the Summits on the Air (SOTA, na.sota.org) and the National Parks on the Air (NPOTA, npota.arrl.org) make portable operation even more fun. These programs do this by providing a structure in which operators can find one another and gain awards for operating. SOTA did not have a booth at Dayton, but NPOTA was a big part of the ARRL section there.

7 If you aren't already a portable operator, you should give it a try! You don't have to invest a bunch of money in a rig to just try it. KX1s have been had for less than $400, and simpler QRP rigs cost a lot less. Getting outside and operating in the fresh air is a lot of fun and could give you a whole new perspective on amateur radio. ================================== Dan, KB6NU, is the author of the "No Nonsense" amateur radio license study guides, and blogs about amateur radio at KB6NU.Com, and you can contact him by ing cwgeek@kb6nu.com. Listen for him operating his KX1 from the park or beach this summer. Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Ω Last Month s Technical Question If the power output from a modulator is reduced from 50 watts to 0.5 watts, the power loss will be: a. 5db d. 50db b. 10db e. 100db c. 20db Ans: c. This Month s Technical Question A balanced push-pull amplifier will: a. suppress the fundamental frequency b. suppress the fundamental and all odd harmonics c. suppress all even harmonics d. generate sub-harmonic frequency e. have the same output as a single-ended amplifier ################################################################################### Solution to last month s puzzle

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