W8UPD News Letter - November 17, 2009
Jimmy Carter
The University of Akron Amateur Radio Club
W8UPD
News Letter
November 18, 2009
A work date for the tower has been scheduled: This Sunday 22 Nov. Saturday is also an option if people can’t make Sunday. If you are interested in helping reply to this email!
Past Meetings:
We've had a busy few meetings since the last newsletter. Namely an appearance by Dr. Grover who gave a very nice lecture/demonstration of embedded systems. He gave a great lecture on the different facets of the microcontrollers, what they can do, how they can be programmed, and like information. This was the first lecture in the class sessions the club is flirting with and was by all means a success.
Also great thanks go to Chris for procuring and donating one server (An actual server now!!! Not just a computer we've configured to be a server) and 3 new computers. As of yet we are working on getting the server up and in condition to take over as the main, website hosting, server along with other associated tasks.
Projects:
-Repeater-
On the receive: A box for the link transmitter was purchased and should be in by the end of this week (19 Nov.). After receiving this piece of equipment we should be ready to head to Buldger and replace the receiver/link transmitter being used currently. The replacement of these components should bring our repeater to .1uV sensitivity. Over the years our repeater slowly became more insensitive and is almost deaf right now needing several uV to key up the repeater. Assuming there is no problem in the coax or the antenna, this should solve the problem.
On the transmit side: A short time ago we received a new repeater controller which will allow us to initiate more functions such as DTMF tone programming, bring the control circuits up to date. All of the transmit side repeater components were moved into one rack for space efficiency and other "because we can" reasons. All of the wires were bunched together with zip-ties for stress relief and ascetic purposes.
After getting the receive site changed over and the new controller interfaced we will look at adding functionality with the controller, using better coax/changing the transmit antenna location for more efficient TX site, getting the 70cm machine up and running again.
-EME-
17 Days until the Contest!!!
The 43 Element, 100ft EME antenna for 2m is almost completed. The elements have been cut to length are zip-tied to rope on one side in the correct spacing. The zip-ties actually worked surprisingly well for keeping the elements in place. The other side of rope will be on shortly, and the driven element matching system will as well. Jason's 300W amplifier is sitting on the desk waiting to be tested and incorporated with the project. Shortly we will be constructing a Transmit/Receive relay so we don’t burn up our Pre-Amp in front of our radio's receiver. I have installed 250Hz and 1.9KHz filters in my IC-706 to better receive any signals coming back from the moon.
A location still needs to be finalized for our EME attempt (also we may want to test our antenna here once before the contest!). If we would like to invite people I would say after a test run would be good. With there being only one weekend before the contest, the other is thanksgiving; the contest may well be our test run.
For the contest the moon (for Akron) will set first: On the 5th at 9:45AM the moon will be 10deg above the horizon and at AZ 287.5 deg. The moon will set at 10:52AM at 297.7deg. Later the moon will rise at 8:49PM at 65.9deg. At 9:50PM the moon will be at 10deg above the horizon at AZ 75.5deg. On the 6th the moon will be EL 10deg at 10:25AM and AZ 281.5deg and will set at 11:22AM AZ 290deg. Later the moon will again rise at 10:02PM AZ 72.5deg and be EL 10deg at 11:05 and AZ 82.5deg. I'd say an hour is enough to get ready if we try EME once before our contest date.
-Antenna-
Parts arrived for our HF antenna and assembled in the past two meetings. Rick cleaned the rotor and we have one working. We have scheduled 22 Nov. to mount the antenna to the tower. Saturday may also be used if people are interested. A few people to help would be great. Somewhere in the area of 5 to 8 people would be superb.
-Computers and Website-
Chris will hold off on the design of the webpage until the new server is up and running stable. We are in need of a designer or graphic designer for new images and cascading style sheets for a new layout. If anyone is interested or knows some one who is experienced please let us know. We will also be using a Content management system (CMS) to make our website more dynamic.
Chris also procured and donated three Dell OptiPlex GX 400 desktop workstations. Each have P4 1.7GHz processors and anywhere between 256 and 512MB of RAM, with 20 or 40GB HDDs. Also 100mbit Ethernet, integrated sound, integrated video, and one may have a CD or DVD burner
The server is a Dell PowerEdge 2500. It is equipped with 8x 10,000RPM HDDs (6x 36GB, 2x 73GB) 4GB of RAM, dual 1000MHz Pentium 3 processors, 2x SCSI controllers, triple hot-swap power-supplies, and comes with Windows 2000 Server. This server ran for 8 years without a single problem.
-Card Swipe-
We have been flirting with the idea of a card swipe/electronic strike for the door to the shack. We have one working card swipe and are thinking of integrating it with a microcontroller or directly to the computer along with the electronic strike. This would allow us to log who is in/out of the shack, who has tried to get in, and other miscellaneous information. Some of this information could perhaps be linked to our webpage to show, for example, how many members are in the shack. It may be a nice embedded systems project for the club.
-QRM Reduced-
Yesterday a few members bolted a panel to the vent reducing noise in the shack by 10db. Now we are able to whisper and hear people from the couch to the radio, turn the radio on moderately and every one can hear it unlike up until recently where we had to push the speaker into distortion to get above the noise of the vent. Finally one complete item crossed off our list!
Events and Important Dates:
November
21-23 Sat-Mon - ARRL Sweepstakes Contest (SSB)
22 Sun - Tower Climbing! Antenna Maintenance.
23 Mon - W8UPD Meeting
26-29 Thu-Sat - Thanksgiving Break
28-29 Sat-Sun - CQ WW DX Contest (CW)
December
5-6 Sat-Sun - ARRL International EME Contest.
4-6 Fri-Sun - ARRL 160m Contest
12 Sat - Last day of Exams
12-13 Sat-Sun - ARRL 10m Contest
14 Mon - Geminids Meteor Shower 120 ZHR
See you next Monday!
73 KG4SGP - Jimmy Carter
University of Akron Amateur Radio Club Secretary/Treasurer
Michael Beavers
Lee Beavers
Andrew Hewko
Frank Tompkins
Depending upon the weather, I can probably help on one of the two days. I've been out of the loop recovering from the flu for the last few weeks, so I'm not sure what remains to be done before we put the beam back up on the tower. I know just before it goes up, we better be checking it out on an antenna analyzer to verify it's put together properly (voice of experience - we (CFARC) had a beam up but assembled incorrectly for Field Day last summer - it don't work real good).
Somebody mentioned an extended mast pole (which implies a mast pole
coupler) and thrust bearing. Do we have these items on hand?
Is the rotator fully checked out and ready to go back in service?
I can arrange to load my gin pole (and related hardware) up and bring it up to campus as early as Friday - but will need help from club members getting it up to the shack. Or I can get it up there Saturday or Sunday morning.
So, I guess the question is, do we have a reasonably detailed game plan? From what I remember, it took 4 of us to get it down, so I would expect it to take at least 4 of us to get it back up.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc.???
- Frank, W8EZT
Jimmy Carter wrote:
The University of Akron Amateur Radio Club W8UPD
News Letter
November 18, 2009
Important:A work date for the tower has been scheduled: This Sunday 22 Nov. Saturday is also an option if people can’t make Sunday. If you are interested in helping reply to this email!
Past Meetings:
We've had a busy few meetings since the last newsletter. Namely an appearance by Dr. Grover who gave a very nice lecture/demonstration of embedded systems. He gave a great lecture on the different facets of the microcontrollers, what they can do, how they can be programmed, and like information. This was the first lecture in the class sessions the club is flirting with and was by all means a success.
Also great thanks go to Chris for procuring and donating one server (An actual server now!!! Not just a computer we've configured to be a server) and 3 new computers. As of yet we are working on getting the server up and in condition to take over as the main, website hosting, server along with other associated tasks.
Projects:
-Repeater-
On the receive: A box for the link transmitter was purchased and should be in by the end of this week (19 Nov.). After receiving this piece of equipment we should be ready to head to Buldger and replace the receiver/link transmitter being used currently. The replacement of these components should bring our repeater to .1uV sensitivity. Over the years our repeater slowly became more insensitive and is almost deaf right now needing several uV to key up the repeater. Assuming there is no problem in the coax or the antenna, this should solve the problem.
On the transmit side: A short time ago we received a new repeater controller which will allow us to initiate more functions such as DTMF tone programming, bring the control circuits up to date. All of the transmit side repeater components were moved into one rack for space efficiency and other "because we can" reasons. All of the wires were bunched together with zip-ties for stress relief and ascetic purposes.
After getting the receive site changed over and the new controller interfaced we will look at adding functionality with the controller, using better coax/changing the transmit antenna location for more efficient TX site, getting the 70cm machine up and running again.
-EME-
17 Days until the Contest!!!
The 43 Element, 100ft EME antenna for 2m is almost completed. The elements have been cut to length are zip-tied to rope on one side in the correct spacing. The zip-ties actually worked surprisingly well for keeping the elements in place. The other side of rope will be on shortly, and the driven element matching system will as well. Jason's 300W amplifier is sitting on the desk waiting to be tested and incorporated with the project. Shortly we will be constructing a Transmit/Receive relay so we don’t burn up our Pre-Amp in front of our radio's receiver. I have installed 250Hz and 1.9KHz filters in my IC-706 to better receive any signals coming back from the moon.
A location still needs to be finalized for our EME attempt (also we may want to test our antenna here once before the contest!). If we would like to invite people I would say after a test run would be good. With there being only one weekend before the contest, the other is thanksgiving; the contest may well be our test run.
For the contest the moon (for Akron) will set first: On the 5th at 9:45AM the moon will be 10deg above the horizon and at AZ 287.5 deg. The moon will set at 10:52AM at 297.7deg. Later the moon will rise at 8:49PM at 65.9deg. At 9:50PM the moon will be at 10deg above the horizon at AZ 75.5deg. On the 6th the moon will be EL 10deg at 10:25AM and AZ 281.5deg and will set at 11:22AM AZ 290deg. Later the moon will again rise at 10:02PM AZ 72.5deg and be EL 10deg at 11:05 and AZ 82.5deg. I'd say an hour is enough to get ready if we try EME once before our contest date.
-Antenna-
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