We had a great meeting last night. We heard a lot about the plans for the new bench, especially about the excellent arrangements for antenna feed lines(4" conduit with 16" weatherproof boxes on the roof and above the ceiling tiles) and grounding (there is already a path to the outside and the previous tenant left us a rather nice grounding buss bar) and we got to check out a nice little 40m receiver that @zmetzing built. The antenna issues kept us from doing a full test on it, but it’s an impressive little rig using dead bug style point to point construction.
One point that @artg_dms brought up was that AR SIG needs to start having its own meetings, so that we can elect a chair and start working on plans and events, otherwise the SIG might “die on the vine.” I think that would be a tragic waste of the opportunities and resources available at DMS.
So let’s figure out when will work with everyone. Personally, Sundays are the best day for me. During the rest of the week the earliest I could commite to making it to the space would be 7:30-8pm.
73 de Adam W9ECO
Do we have a something like an @ARSIG talk group to ping all the members at once, or what would it take to create one?
Sounds like a plan. I’ll even offer a door prize for the first meeting. How about a nice step RF attenuator. It is used but operational, always nice to have around the Ham Shack. Broadcast out the meeting date and time and I’ll add a photo of our first door prize. Same rules apply; must have your name on the AR SIG Wiki as a member and 2) must be present to win.
All right, I just submitted a calendar request for the purple classroom for next Sunday 11/18 @ 7:30pm. That makes it the 3rd Sunday of the month; next month’s 3rd Sunday is 12/18, should I go ahead and reserve a room for then as well?
Ok folks, it is Door Prize time for the Amateur Radio SIG Meeting. One lucky person that attends the Sunday meeting will win a Door Prize. I will be giving away a Daven RF Step Attenuator. Now this is a used piece of equipment but with good care it will last a lifetime in your Ham Shack. The attenuator has 50 ohm BNC connectors in and out with a range from 0dB to 100 dB in 1dB steps.
Door Prize rules: 1). Must be present to win. 2). Your name must be on the member list in the Amateur Radio SIG Wiki page. Good luck to all.
Only a few days left. I went through the wiki and checked QRZ for emails, I found a few and sent the message below. I wasn’t able to find email or talk names for everyone. If you know how to get a hold of:
David Barkley KF5AVS
Kee Fedak KG5OOM
Alex Thomas KG5BCX
The talk names I was able to find and are on the wiki @tmc4242 @zmetzing @richmeyer @artg_dms @grumble @bpamplin @sciborg
The majority of whom have checked in on this thread already, but it doesn’t hurt to have a reminder.
Here is the email I sent out, I’ll also be posting an edited version to some Ham groups on FB later today.
Hello, my name is Adam W9ECO. I’m reaching out to you because your name and call is listed in the SIGs wiki and your email was available on your QRZ page. We are working to rebuild the SIG and have a lot of exciting plans for the next few months as we expand the space and get ready to set up the new bench.
During the last combined Elab and AR meeting we were told we need to start holding regular meetings and elect our own chair or else we risk losing the SIG.
We will be meeting on Sunday 11/18 @730pm in the purple classroom at DMS. Unless something changes we will be making the 3rd Sunday of the month our regular meeting.
I was not able to find emails or talk names for everyone on the list so I would appreciate some help in spreading this around if you know anyone on the list or who lives in the area (we are open to non members in the SIG, though we hope they will consider becoming members) and who might be interested, please forward them this message. Also if you are a member of any local groups that have a reflector, email list, or Facebook page/group could you please share this with them?
If you are not interested in receiving further communications regarding this please let me know and I will remove you from the list, and if you like, from the wiki.
73 de Adam W9ECO
There was another younger guy who was in the elab towards the end of the Antenna fixing day, short blond hair was wearing a red tshit with (I think) a white boy scout logo on it. I believe he said he was a tech or was studying for the test. Can anyone remember his name and or have contact info for him?
Thanks Todd, no worries. I know this was kind of short notice and during a difficult time of the year. I just want to get some plans started and momentum building.
So glad you’re taking the lead, Adam! Sunday works for me, and I can’t wait to increase my knowledge with Ham radio at the AR SIG. The new bench and receiver sound amazing. Looking forward to Sunday!
We didn’t actually take a vote on it, someone pointed out that the meeting hadn’t been on the calendar for the requisite 10 days.
I haven’t had a chance to write up minutes yet, but we talked about a Morse decoder decoder/encoder, and how we could pair that with your 80m project and possibly some NVIS antenna to try and do a local CW net. @sciborg mentioned she had picked up a new rtlsdr dongle and we talked about some of its uses like scanning and watching airplane traffic.
I showed micro controller controlled antenna relay board from the guys at the hamradio workbench podcast that I think would be worth considering once we are in the new building. Maybe get one for the shack and if we like it consider getting more for a class. @richmeyer touched on the expansion and brought in some of Walters Legacy so we could take a look. I loved the beautiful direct conversion reciever laid out like block diagram; we left it on SIG bench if you haven’t had a chance to see it. We didn’t have the correct SMA adaptor so we didn’t hook it up. Oh and we also talked about making an arduino or rPI remote control head for the SDR so we could hook it up to a big screen and let people listen, or press one of a series of buttons and see things like recent PSKREPORTER, wspr spots, logbook/dx contacts worked, SSTV decodes, or anything of that nature to help show what we can do and to help encourage SIG members to use the station so they can “get on the highscore board.”
After the meeting I played around some on my uBITX; I finally managed to get over to tanners and pick up the headers to make the screen extention so it’s back in business. I didn’t make and contacts on it, but then I fired up the Alinco, and checked into a random 80m net. It was a little challenging-had to have a relay help; it wasn’t until after that I figured out how to get it out of low power mode so that was just 10 watts. I also made a couple of contacts on 40m into MI and OG before I realized that it was after midnight and I should head home.
I’ll get the December meeting on the calendar in the next couple of days so we can do things right. I’m still stepping forward to fill the role, but I know there are more experienced hams/Makers in the group, so if someone else wants to run for chair this will give them a chance to speak up.
