November 4, 2021 Club Meeting
Thursday, November 4, 2021 at 7:00 PM Via Zoom. Login sent via email or upon request.
Program: TBA
The next club meeting will be Thursday, November 4th, via zoom. The program has not been announced.
Announced in the November 2021 issue of The Repeater.
October 7, 2021 Club Meeting
Thursday, October 7, 2021 at 7:00 PM Via Zoom. Login sent via email or upon request.
Program: RF Exposure Evaluation / On-line Calculator, Tom McDermott, N5EG
The FCC adopted RF Exposure requirements for different services many years ago. Until recently Amateur Radio operators had some blanket exceptions that avoided the need to run the calculations. The FCC recently removed the blanket exceptions, and all Amateur Radio stations need to conduct RF Exposure evaluations for their operating situation.
The presentation will cover:
- Basics of RF fields: field strength and power density.
- Absorption vs. frequency.
- Exposure category.
- Some key parameters needed to conduct an evaluation.
The ARRL has put an RF Exposure tool on their website that makes this a simple and straightforward process. A couple parameters from above are needed for input to the ARRL tool.
Other tools are also available, such as 4NEC2 which contains an MPE (Maximum Permissible Exposure) graphical presentation if you have or want to construct an NEC (Numerical Electromagnetic Code) model of your antenna. But this level of analysis is seldom necessary. The club has used the 4NEC2 MPE tool for previous Field Day calculations showing that the operations were in full compliance with the FCC requirements. Besides, 4NEC2 makes colorful charts.
Biography: Tom, N5EG is the club newsletter editor and membership database administrator.
Announced in the October 2021 issue of The Repeater.
September 2, 2021 Club Meeting
Thursday, September 2, 2021 at 7:00 PM Via Zoom. Login sent via email or upon request.
Program: Field Day wrap-up. Open discussion
There will be a wrap-up of our 2021 Field Day outing, hopefully including photos. Afterwards the meeting will open for general discussion.
Just when it seemed that we might be able to start getting back together in person at club meetings, the Delta variant of COVID-19 came roaring back. With the governor’s order requiring masks both indoors and outdoors and social distancing we will continue to meet via zoom.
Announced in the September 2021 issue of The Repeater.
June 3, 2021 Club Meeting
Thursday, June 3, 2021 at 7:00 PM Via Zoom. Login sent via email or upon request.
Program: Field Day
We will discuss Field Day plans, location, and associated club activities. Since this is an outdoor event, we will be able to have more freedom in conducting activities. As COVID declines and vaccinations increase we can start making progress returning to normal. ARRL interim Field Day rules will still be in effect this year.
For this month’s program we will discuss potential Field Day activities for the club. Our normal site has not yet been released for general use. Several members have been looking at possible locations in the Hyatt Lake area. With the higher altitude it might be cooler than our previous close-in (but down in the valley) locations.
Announced in the June 2021 issue of The Repeater.
May 6, 2021 Club Meeting
Thursday, May 6, 2021 at 7:00 PM Via Zoom. Login sent via email or upon request.
Program: TBA
The program for May has not been firmed up at the time of newsletter publication.
Announced in the May 2021 issue of The Repeater.
April 1, 2021 Club Meeting
Thursday, April 1, 2021 at 7:00 PM Via Zoom. Login sent via email or upon request.
Program: FT8, Pat Cunningham, KD7MPA, and John Laybourne, AC7S
Pat and John will discuss the FT8 mode that has become very popular due to the ability to work with quite low levels of power and small antennas.
Biography: Pat Cuningham KD7MPA is club president, and John Laybourne AC7S is previous club president.
A related new mode, FT4 is becoming popular for contesting and dxpeditions as it permits approximately 2.5x faster cycle time than FT8 (but not quite as good sensitivity).
Announced in the April 2021 issue of The Repeater.
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.
February 4, 2021 Club Meeting
Thursday, February 4, 2021 at 7:00 PM Via Zoom. Login sent via email or upon request.
Program: N1MM+ Setup, Configuration, and Use, Pat, Allan, John, Tom (tag-team presentation)
- Pat will focus on installing and setup of N1MM+
- Allan will discuss CW setup, keyers, and considerations
- John will discuss RTTY setup, connection to the radio, and messages.
- Tom will discuss Phone, and setting up voice messages, and connection to the radio.
Our club will hold the February 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 February 2021 issue of The Repeater.
January 7, 2021 Club Meeting
Thursday, January 7, 2021 at 7:00 PM Via Zoom. Login sent via email or upon request.
Program: My Favorite DX’ing Tools, Scott Cummings, NA7OM
Scott will present some of his favorite computer (mostly) tools for DX’ing. Knowing when the band will be open to a particular location, the right direction to point your beam, and a whole host of other information is useful in working that rarew or elusive Dx.
Biography: Scott Cummings, NA7OM is past club president and vice president. He is active on HF contesting and DXing.
Announced in the January 2021 issue of The Repeater.
December 3, 2020 Club Meeting
Thursday, December 3, 2020 at 7:00 PM Via Zoom. Login sent via email or upon request.
Program: Distributed Multi-operator Contesting
Due to COVID-19, multi-operator stations have been prevented for the major contests. As a result some of the larger contests have started to permit distributed multi-operator entries. These usually have a geographic restriction (perhaps 75 mile radius). The various different stations can enter the contest as through they are a single muylti-operator station, with similar rules:
- One signal per band / mode (just like a physical station)
- Proper serial number sequencing (like a physical station)
- Single entry (just like a physical station)
In order to support this type of contesting the popular logging program N1MM+ can use wide-area-networking (WAN) to coordinate all the stations, bands, modes, scoring, and sequencing. The program will be an open discussion of this new entry category, how to properly coordinate stations, and discussion among club members about who and what contests we might want to participate in this way.
December will be election of officers for the club. We have one candidate for president, so please don’t be afraid to show up at the meeting!
Announced in the December 2020 issue of The Repeater.
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