April 6, 2023 Club Meeting
Thursday, April 6, 2023 at 7:00 PM Medford Police Department Community Room, 219 S. Ivy St., Medford, OR
Program: Project Show and Tell; Automating Amateur License Exams, Pat Cunningham, N7UH
The program this month will consist of two topics:
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A Show and Tell of your favorite projects. The projects can be Ham related, Electronic related, Software related, restoration of older equipment, etc. Members are encouraged to bring their project for demonstration if possible, Otherwise to discuss their project (with Powerpoint slides if they have any).
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Automating Amateur License Exams. License exams require an increasing amount of paperwork, and software is available to help in automating both administrative portions (applicant, forms, as well as taking the test itself. Pat Cunningham procured two inexpensive Chromebook computers and has installed software so that they can only boot directly into the examination software. He has a source of more of these devices, which appear to meet all the requirements that prevent other uses (opening other web pages, searching for answers, etc.). There will be a discussion about how our club might use these to help administer test sessions more quickly and efficiently while reducing the workload for our Volunteer Examiners.
Announced in the April 2023 issue of The Repeater.
Meeting Notes
From the May 2023 issue of The Repeater.
2023-04-06 RVARC Meeting Minutes
21 attendees
7:04pm Meeting called to order by Pres. Don Bennett, KG7BP.
Treasurer’s report: $5429.02 in bank.
Don, KG7BP, and Pat, N7UH, have proposed in-house license exam testing on used Chromebooks using preloaded HamStudy ExamTools software.
With a budget of approximately $250 for 10 Chromebooks, $150 for a Pelican Case, and $50 for a travel router, the system could pay for itself within a couple of years by witholding the allowed $7 of the $15 exam fee.
Mike Bach, W6FFC, made a motion to fund the purchase of the test hardware at a level not to exceed $450. John Laybourne, AC7S, seconded the motion. Vote passed the motion.
It was asked about how to now renew licenses online, and to summarize the process, here is a link to the procedure: www.fcc.gov/wireless/support/knowledge-base/common-amateur-filing-tasks/common-amateur-filing-task-renewing
7:50pm Show & Tell portion of meeting:
Mike Bach, W6FFC, demonstrated the TinySA Ultra spectrum analyzer, as featured in the latest QST magazine. Operating between 0.1 - 800 MHz, or 0.1 MHz - 6 GHz, the cost is around $140. It has a 4" color touchscreen, internal rechargeable battery, SMA RF connectors, and a USB-C interface to a PC or charger.
John Armstrong, KF7UMK, showed an old 8" Floppy Drive from the mid-1970’s manufactured by Control Data Corp.
Pat Cunningham, N7UH, showed some mini FT8 transceiver modules.
8:31pm break for snacks & visiting.
9:20pm meeting adjourned.
Submitted, John KF7UMK, Secretary.
