Newsletter and Meeting Minutes - October 26
Jimmy Carter
The University of Akron Amateur Radio Club
W8UPD
Meeting Minutes
October 26
Meeting Minutes:
Before the club meeting Rick and I went over to Buldger Hall to check the W8UPD antenna and repeater. The roof was awesome with great views. The antenna for our repeater looked like it was in good condition nothing was bent/broken and the coax looked solid. We check out some other antennas and took a few pictures. Finally we had a cyber-key to unlock the room the repeater is actually installed in, but alas it was encoded wrong. We both concluded that when we actually are able to open the door, we should be ready to install our new system and have it all done and working before we close the door again.
A former club member was welcomed back and stayed to talk for a while. We had great discussion of a variety of different topics. Later the club reviewed the current projects, and gave new ideas on projects, membership and related items. The club also checked the durability of the "indestructible flash drive", it survived our cruelty. The club also modeled the radiation pattern of the modified 80m Carolina Windom. Fairly high radiation angles are seen on 80m, we can try to improve this with time.
Projects and Ideas:
Manny items were discussed on Monday, all were good ideas. Here are a number of different projects the club is working on, but not all.
-EME Project-
The club has decided to give Earth Moon Earth communications a try. Over a few talks, we decided we had a good chance if we got a few extra pieces of equipment and that it would be well worth our investment. A rope yagi will be used for the antenna because it is inexpensive and portable. The aluminum has been received, measured and is now being cut to length. Next for the antenna will be attaching the elements to the rope and constructing the driven element. We are going to use Jason's 500W 144MHz amplifier, and probably my IC-706 with a 250Hz filter. The modes we will be running are CW and WSJT. We have ordered and received a low noise preamplifier (NF .5db, Gain 24db) that we may use on the repeater after this project.
Our antenna will produce 19.03dbd of gain in free space and roughly 22.65dbd of gain 12ft above the ground. Plugging all of these parameters into VK3UM EME Calc, predicts that we will receive our own echos off of the moon at1.5db above the noise in a 250Hz bandwidth.
What this means is we will be able to receive our own echos when the moon is closest and talk to similarly equipped stations most of the time, any station with more gain and Effective Radiated Power will be easier to work. Trust me, there are plenty of stations that run the full 1500W and more gain. To receive our SSB echos off of the moon we would need 1000W and another rope yagi.
-Training Courses, Classes-
It was suggested that the club offer a few different training courses to promote membership and further the club as a group. Suggested courses were a Morse Code (CW) training Course, and a Technician License course. Other ideas are welcomed. We may build simple radios (such as the pixie) as a utility to learn CW among other things
Also along the same lines it was suggested that we have "classes" lead by anyone who volunteers on different topics (such as propagation, antenna theory, RF electronics, modes, weak signal etc.) to increase the clubs knowledge. These mini lectures could be lead by anyone interested.
-New Website-
The club has decided that it is time to revamp our website and bring it into '09. Our website has been a major resource for public relations and being such we want to give the best impression possible. Remember to take pictures often at club activities. Its good for the site and also for historic value. If you do have any pictures send them over to Andrew, he is currently collecting them for the site. Chris has offered (I believe) to head up the development of the new site.
-Request for Next Semester-
We are requesting a few items for next semester. New test equipment and micro-controller programmers are a recent addition. Headsets would be nice if ever in a contest or just for noise reduction. The replacement repeater is almost finished, waiting on an enclosure.
-Miscellaneous-
Echolink should be up and running. If someone could
test this from home it would be greatly appreciated. Descriptions are being
completed on the equipment that is being sold. Our HF antenna still needs
parts, and will go on the roof ASAP after we have the parts and everything in
line. We have one good rotators, and one being refurbished. Noise reduction
items (14in x 20in panel and insulation) needed.
If you would like to head up any project let Andrew know, it would be greatly
appreciated.
Events and Important Dates:
October
31 Sat - Halloween!
November
1 Sun - Daylight Savings takes effect.
7-9 Sat-Sun - ARRL Sweepstakes Contest (CW)
11 Wed - Ideas needed by this date!
11 Wed - Veteran's Day
21-23 Sat-Mon - ARRL Sweepstakes Contest (SSB)
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
Note:
I have decided to make the
meeting minutes more of a recap of the different things we talked about in the
meetings. Before I tried to recap the flow of the meeting and I will still note
any happenings of the club in the meeting minutes. Also I'm kind-of making this
into meeting minutes/news letter type emails. Hope no one minds. If any
of you would like things added to these emails, shoot me a quick message and I
will try to incorporate what ever it may be. Or if you think I've missed
something, replying to this gets an email out to the club.
See you next Monday!
73 KG4SGP - Jimmy
Carter
University of Akron
Amateur Radio Club Secretary/Treasurer
Michael Beavers
Lee Beavers
Ken Teleis
I am thrilled to see the activity happening in the club and the
projects you have planned. EME sounds exciting.
It's good to see the ARRL sweepstakes on your calendar - is anyone
planning to operate the contest from the club station - either CW or
phone?
Unfortunately, my wife is working both weekends so I won't be much
help but it would be great to see W8UPD on the air for SS. I think
there is a sub-contest between college stations in the SS.
I'll try to get to at least one meeting this year to say hello.
Keep up the great work everyone!
73,
Ken Teleis, KZ3E/8
License Trustee
Chris Egeland
would gladly tag along for contesting for voice (I'd be useless for
CW). It would be an exciting use of the club's resources, and
definitely fun to do. We can order some pizza and spend some good
time up there. If anyone's got a spare HF rig to bring up, it might
be worth it, so we can operate on the beam and the windom at the same
time. Also, I'll probably start working on some preliminary website
designs this weekend. I'm thinking that we should move away from a
static HTML setup and more towards a dynamic CMS type of website.
Something like Joomla could definitely be useful. If anyone has any
other suggestions for the CMS, I'm all for it.
Also, I'll look into seeing how feasible it would be to get some of
those Optiplex GX400's for the shack. Chances are, it's just a matter
of asking, and throwing them in my car, but I'll have to check.
Frank Tompkins
Now that I'm back from vacation, and this nasty cold, I should be able to make next Monday's meeting.
Jimmy - great job on the newsletter!! Thanks!
Projects - I like the idea of informal classes or one nite training sessions. EME also looks very interesting - it requires hi gain, low noise, and precision work! I'd like to do something with pic processors - when I was in school, we were interfacing to microprocessors, focusing on interrupt handling, hardware address decoding, etc. whereas w/pics you can get to the "solving the problem" part a lot faster. And of course, we still have the tribander to get back up in the air.
Contest? With enough notice, we could probably try the ARRL Sweepstakes contest (sideband) on 11/21 thru 11/23 (haven't checked my calendar yet but maybe) - though it would be a lot more fun with a steerable beam in place.
Oh well, see you all Monday.
73
- Frank, W8EZT
Jimmy Carter
Sounds good about the website! Can't wait to see the designs you come up
with. I think it will really help out the club.
-Jimmy Carter
Tom Reed
OSCAR College Night Special Event November 5
OSCAR College Satellite Night will begin this Thursday evening, November 5 local time for North America. (November 5 from 2200 UTC to November 6 0500 UTC.)
Expect to hear many OSCAR capable NA college club stations on the air
as college clubs are getting priority on the AO-51 QRP repeater that
night.
The uplink frequency is 145.880 MHZ FM; the downlink frequency is 435.150 MHz FM.
Dr. Jay Garlitz, AA4FL at the University of Florida reminds
satellite users to, "Please work each college station but afford them
the ability to take calls and make as many QSOs as possible. We do want
you to speak to each other as well, but give priority to college
stations during this one evening special event."
College club stations will also be on other birds so make as many
contacts as you can on each bird. College stations are encouraged to
QSL all the stations they work during the event. An award for working
college club station via satellite is in the works with details to be
announced later.
AA4FL summarized, "While we are initially focusing on North American
activity let me know of interest and participation from other parts of
the globe via e-mail at jgar...@ufl.edu."