March 4, 2021 Club Meeting
Thursday, March 4, 2021 at 7:00 PM Via Zoom. Login sent via email or upon request.
Program: Smith Charts, Tom McDermott, N5EG
The Smith Chart is a graphical tool to present complex impedance information for RF circuits. It allows graphical solutions for impedance matching networks, circuit bandwidth, and many other useful computations. Modern Vector Network Analyzers (for example, the Nano VNA) can usually display reflection measurements in both rectangular and Smith Chart (polar) formats. This makes understanding the Smith Chart very useful around the hamshack for common ham antenna and matching network problems.
Biography: Tom McDermott, N5EG is the club newsletter editor.
Our club will hold the March meeting via zoom. Credentials are available on the club reflector, and are also sent in the email with this newsletter. Feel free to pass along the zoom meeting details to anyone you know who may be interested, but please don’t post them on the public internet.
Announced in the March 2021 issue of The Repeater.
Meeting Notes
From the April 2021 issue of The Repeater.
2021-03-04 RVARC Meeting Minutes
7pm by Zoom. 15 attendees
Congratulations were given to Amy AG7GP for First Place in the CA QSO Single Op LP category. Some discussion ensued.
Treasurer’s report of bank balance $4950.84 + 2 checks to deposit yet.
Tonight’s program is Smith Charts by Tom N5EG.
Next month’s program will be FT8 by Pat KD7MPA ( and perhaps others ).
Larry N7LJC reminded us of the Tuesday 7:00 pm and Wednesday 10:00 am 2M SO SSB VHF Net, Vertically polarized on 144.200MHz USB
Don KG7BP said there could be an Exam Session in late March, if we could pull together a team. Proctors are needed. He and Kirby KL7VK are the contact folks. He also said a new rule was that an FRN is needed before the ARRL forms can be filled-in and emailed.
7:24 pm Tom’s presentation on Smith Charts and impedance matching was given. The slides can be downloaded from “web.tapr.org/~n5eg/index_files/RVARC Smith Chart & Impedance Matching.pdf”
Since the popular NanoVNA’s have a Smith chart view, it is good to have an understanding of that chart.
One resource is Fritz Dellsperger’s new Smith V4.1 software available at www.fritz.dellsperger.net/smith.html
John KI7ZOA mentioned that SimSmith is good ( see www.ae6ty.com/Smith_Charts.html )
He also mentioned that Nanovna-saver helps by allowing use of a big screen and easy adjustments( see github.com/NanoVNA-Saver/nanovna-saver ).
8:20 pm Van Sias asked if anyone could help with his Quad antenna. A lively discussion followed.
8:40 pm Mike WB6FFC asked about Amy’s recent SOTA’s, perhaps 5 posts in the last 8 days? Amy noted that Bandpass filters are needed for peaks with towers, such as Sexton and Hamaker.
Much other discussion of SOTA, DMR, APRS, etc followed and the meeting adjourned at 9:15 pm.
John, KF7UMK Secretary.
