RANDOMOscillations - Radio Central Amateur Radio Club
Transcription
RANDOMOscillations - Radio Central Amateur Radio Club
RANDOMOscillations A Monthly Publication for the Members of the Radio Central Amateur Radio Club From the President Neil, KC2KY Greetings and Happy Holidays fromthe KC2KY keyboard! December meeting This Wednesday, December 17, is our annual holiday party and “show and tell”. We’ll have soft drinks, coffee, and some light refreshments. If you are inclined to bring a dessert dish to share with your fellow members, that would be well received. If you have an interesting ham shack accessory or a homebrew work-in-progress or other ham related item you’d like to show off to your fellow members, by all means, bring it along. The idea of the holiday party is to just get together and socialize without the formality of a club presentation. A Century of Amateur Radio and the ARRL Al Brogdon, W1AB From the ARRL Letter, Dec 11, 2014 In early 1999, PSK31 was becoming very popular, with many users considering it to be a replacement for good old RTTY as a keyboardto-keyboard mode. Also by 1999, amateurs had developed automated meteor-scatter stations for VHF use — thanks to APRS, good computers, high-speed Morse, innovative software, and ham ingenuity. On December 30, 1999, FCC issued its Report and Order on Amateur Radio license restructuring. Beginning on April 15, 2000, the FCC would issue just three license classes — Technician, General, and Amateur Extra — and impose a single 5 WPM Morse code requirement January meeting At our January meeting, Steve, AB2EW, will have a presentation on easy audio amplifier design and construction projects around the LM386 IC and other similar components. Steve is known for his commanding knowledge of radio theory and his ability to communicate the theory, as well as practical construction techniques, in a way that is interesting to hams at all technical levels. He’ll also have some of his audio projects available to See "Century", Page 3 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 demonstrate. 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 Ham Radio University Ham Radio University, or HRU, is just 3 weeks away, Sunday January 4 at Briarcliffe College. Radio Central will be well represented, with an antenna simulation forum by Ed, W2EMN, and a Fun with CW workshop. We plan to have a club table with some cool stuff on display including K2PWG's giant QLF key. If you attend I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll be glad you did. There will be 25 forums in all, door prizes, and a chance to run into old friends and meet new friends as well. See "President", Page 2 December 2014 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 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12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 12345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901 December Meeting Announcement Wednesday December 17, 7:00 PM at the Middle Country Library in Centereach (TWO Weeks early, since Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve fall on the last two Wednesdays of December) Holiday Party and Show and Tell 1 Vol XXXVII No. 12 President, from Page 1 Web Page Back in Business After 18 years of free Web hosting, it seems that vdot.net finally bit the bullet. We started with vdot in the mid 1990s when we invited their CEO, Pat Prague, to do a talk at a Radio Central meeting about a behind-the-scenes look at Internet Service Providers. Severl members signed up for dial-up service at that meeting and Pat was so gtrateful that he offered to host our club web page free of charge. Over the years, dial-up has become a thing of the past with the various forms of “Broadband” internet becoming accessable to more and more of us. Vdot.net has made changes to theor business model to adapt to changing times, but apparantly they have disappeared. After about 3 days of down time, I enailed Pat to see what was happening. After another week and a half with no response, I checked 2014 Club Officers out www.vdot.net and got redirected to GoDaddy’s web site that said that the vdot.net domain was available. So apparantly, vdot.net is no more. Fortunately there are other services that provide web hosting at a reasonable price. After checking three providers, I felt that qth.com had the best deal. Within a day of signing up online, I got an email with instructions on how to transfer the rcarc.org domain and upload files. An hour later the whole club web page, with the exception of Club Presentations, was back in operation. Shortly thereafter, Bob, WB2ETR, emailed me some of the original club presentation files I was missing. More importantly, by sending me these files, Bob gave me the kick in the side I needed to scour through my various computers to find the rest of the missing presentation files and get the Club Presentations page rebuilt. President: ................. KC2KY Neil Heft Vice President: ......... K2CQK Charlie Fiore Treasurer: ... KC2KY (Acting) Secretary: ................. AB2UW Bill Lynch Editorial Staff Editor ......................... KC2KY Neil M. Heft (737-0019) Directors Serving until 12/14 . . . Dick Pav............... K2RFP Richard Fisher .... KB2ZPB Serving Until 12/15 . . . Joe Cohen ............ KJ4ZW Stan Bryer ........... W2SCB Serving until 12/16 . . . Bob Chandler ... WB2ETR Steve Sussman-Fort AB2EW Founding Members Radio Central Amateur Radio Club's 2014 Meeting Calendar DATE Honorary Members Frank Kiefer, K2PWG sk Art Greenberg W2LH sk Warren Bogin W2GZA sk JoAnn Colletti N2IME sk TOPIC January 29, 2014 February 26, 2014 March 26, 2014 April 30, 2014 May 28, 2014 June 25, 2014 July 30, 2014 August 27, 2014 September 24, 2014 October 29, 2014 November 19, 2014 Logbook of the World CQ Magazine Editor Rich Moseson, W2VU, Live Via Skype An NE-602 Receiver for 30M D-STAR (Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio) Coolest Ham Shack Accessory RF Safety Test Equipment Race to Communicate Across the Atlantic Round Table Discussion: Antennas and Antenna Ideas Antenna Simulation Lightning Protection December 17, 2014 Holiday Party and Show and Tell December 2014 Stu Goodman K2RPZ sk Harry Lersner N2AWM sk 2 Club Resources W2RC/R ............ 145.150 MHz, 4Z PL W2RC/R ............ 449.525 MHz, 2A PL Repeater Nets Tuesday at 20:00 EST : Club Rag Chew Net Club Web Page: http://rcarc.org Vol XXXVII No. 12 Century, from Page 1 for General and Amateur Extra applicants. No then-current license holders lost any privileges, and “old” Technician licensees were able to apply for a General license with no further testing. During the early 1990s, the ARRL sought to convince the FCC to address the problem of Amateur Radio antenna restrictions and prohibitions by CC&Rs. The FCC declined, so the League then began efforts to convince Congress to direct FCC to do so. And then came Y2K...with none of the breakdowns of society, communications systems, ATMs, aircraft, ad nauseum. Everything kept running smoothly. But ARRL used the occasion to revamp QST. The editorial staff had spent months developing a profile of the typical ham in order to guide them in making QST the magazine that members wanted. In January 2000, QST began publishing new columns about QRP, mobile and portable operation on HF and VHF, vintage radio gear, and the “QST Workbench.” This was in addition to formatting changes to make the magazine more attractive. Starting with the December 2000 issue, all editorial content was printed in full color. By 2000, several states had proposed bans on cell phone use while driving. ARRL began carefully monitoring the various pieces of proposed legislation, to be sure that operating Amateur Radio equipment while driving would not be included among the prohibitions. On November 16, 2000, AMSAT-OSCAR 40 — Phase 3D — was successfully launched into orbit. Initial testing began, but the spacecraft suddenly fell silent. Following many unsuccessful recovery attempts, AO-40 came to life on Christmas Day, with many of its capabilities restored. The Phase 3D satellite being readied for space: The satellite promised to be the most sophisticated Amateur Radio satellite ever. [AMSAT-DL photo] Free Stuff! By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU I'm a sucker for free stuff. Below, you'll find links to a free transistor amplifier design program, a free printed circuit board design program, and a free tutorial on antennas. All of these look to be worth a look. TransistorAmp 1.1 This is free software for designing bipolar transistor amplifiers. I found the link to this software (http://en.transistoramp.de/) on the AMRAD mailing list. Phil, M1GWZ, who posted the link, says, "A transistor circuit that I'm developing needed a 5x voltage gain stage. I could have thrown in a single op amp with split power rails and all that DIL8 real estate, but a single transistor stage would suffice. Trouble is, I'm an EE by inclination, not training, and all those calculations - working out those capacitor reactance values - well, I don't do them often enough for them to be easy. And I want voltage gain, not current. And then I found Transistor Amp 1.1." "It's a nice piece of software," says Phil, "It installs easily and did the job for me quickly and easily. Oh, and when I built the circuit for real - voltage gain of 5x!" [[ NOTE: A screen shot of the software that you can use for the article can be found at http://www.kb6nu.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2014/11/specify-common-base-circuit.png.....Dan]] December 2014 3 Altium CircuitMaker CircuitMaker (http://www.circuitmaker.com) is a free printed circuit board design tool for hobbyists, people like you and me. Maxfield Parrish of EETimes says, "one key aspect of CircuitMaker is its intuitive and easy-to-use interface -- all of the important "stuff" is presented in an easily accessible manner in a ribbon at the top of the display. Another major consideration is that Altium has decided to make CircuitMaker all about "Community," so users can easily share ideas and designs, comment on designs and offer suggestions for improvement, and generally help each other along the way." Free antenna tutorial For a limited time, Rohde & Schwartz and the IEEE Communications Society are offering a free tutorial on Antenna Basics (http://www.comsoc.org/form/tutorialregistration-antenna-basics). This tutorial explains the basic functionality of an antenna, starting with Hertz’s antenna model. It also includes a short introduction to the See "Free Stuff", Page 4 Vol XXXVII No. 12 The K7RA Solar Update From the ARRL Letter, Dec 11, 2014 Tad Cook, K7RA, in Seattle, reports: Compared to the previous 7 days, solar activity dropped over the December 4-10 period, with average daily sunspot numbers down 63.6 points to 88.4, and average daily solar flux off 32.5 points to 139.6. The latest forecast has solar flux at 155 and 165 on December 1112, 170 on December 13-17, 175 on December 18-19, then 170, 165, and 150 on December 20-22, 155 on December 23-27, 150 on December 28-29, 145 and 140 on December 30-31, 135 on January 1-4, then 140, 145, 150, 155, and 160 on January 5-9, and 165 on January 10-12. It then is predicted to reach a peak of 175 on January 14-15. Predicted planetary A index is 6 and 5 on December 11-12, 12 on December 13-15, then 6, 10, and 12 on December 16-18, 10 on December 19-20, 5 on December 21-27, 8 on December 28-30, 10 on December 31 through January 1, then 12, 25, 15, and 10 on January 2-5, 8 on January 6-7, 10 on January 8-9, 8 on January 1012, 10 and 12 on January 13-14, and 10 on January 15-16. This weekend is the annual ARRL 10 Meter Contest, a really fun event that, due to the nature of 10 meters, always holds many surprises. The Geminids meteor shower also peaks this weekend, so ionized meteor trails could enhance propagation at the high end of the HF spectrum. My prediction is that conditions during the ARRL 10 Meter Contest should be slightly better than they were for last year’s event, with solar activity somewhat higher and geomagnetic instability about the same. In other words, not bad. In 2013 the solar flux for the contest weekend averaged 154. This weekend, the predicted solar flux averages out at 168.3, about 9 percent higher. Last year the planetary A index averaged 8.7. This year’s forecast calls for an average of 9.7. To compare propagation predictions for last year’s contest weekend, see 2013 bulletins ARLP051 and ARLP052. This weekly “Solar Update” in The ARRL Letter is a preview of the “Propagation Bulletin” issued each Friday. The latest bulletin and an archive of past propagation bulletins is on the ARRL website. In tomorrow’s bulletin look for an updated forecast and reports from readers. Send me your reports and observations. Free Stuff, from Page 3 fundamentals of wave propagation, the important general characteristics of an antenna and parameters, such as antenna gain, radiation pattern, bandwidth or VSWR. A more detailed explanation of the functionality of some selected antenna types (e.g. dipole or monopole) is also given. Maik Reckeweg, Product Manager Antennas, Rohde & Schwarz GmbH, Munich, Germany, who is responsible for all the company’s monitoring, measurement and communications antennas is the tutorial's. The video is kind of dry, but I think Reckeweg does a pretty good job of discussing antenna basics. The video is also accompanied by a white paper that delves into these topics a little more completely. Overall, there's a bit more math than in most amateur radio discussions of antennas, but this makes the discussion a little more comprehensive. December 2014 4 When not scouring the Internet for free stuff, you'll find KB6NU working on updates to his "No Nonsense" study guides, working CW on 40m, or blogging about amateur radio at www.kb6nu.com. Vol XXXVII No. 12 Did You Know? Some common expressions and their origins(Uploaded to the Internet anonymously) A SHOT OF WHISKEY BARGE IN In the old west a .45 cartridge for a six-gun cost 12 cents, so did a glass of whiskey. If a cowhand was low on cash he would often give the bartender a cartridge in exchange for a drink. This became known as a “shot” of whiskey. Heavy freight was moved along the Mississippi in large barges pushed by steamboats. These were hard to control and would sometimes swing into piers or other boats. People would say they “barged in”. THE WHOLE NINE YARDS American fighter planes in WW2 had machine guns that were fed by a belt of cartridges. The average plane held belts that were 27 feet (9 yards) long. If the pilot used up all his ammo he was said to have given it the whole nine yards. BUYING THE FARM This is synonymous with dying. During WW1 soldiers were given life insurance policies worth $5,000. This was about the price of an average farm so if you died you “bought the farm” for your survivors. IRON CLAD CONTRACT This came about from the ironclad ships of the Civil War. It meant something so strong it could not be broken. PASSING THE BUCK/THE BUCK STOPS HERE Most men in the early west carried a jack knife made by the Buck knife company. When playing poker it was common to place one of these Buck knives in front of the dealer so that everyone knew who he was. When it was time for a new dealer the deck of cards and the knife were given to the new dealer. If this person didn’t want to deal he would “pass the buck” to the next player. If that player accepted then “the buck stopped there”. RIFF RAFF The Mississippi River was the main way of traveling from north to south. Riverboats carried passengers and freight but they were expensive so most people used rafts. Everything had the right of way over rafts which were considered cheap. The steering oar on the rafts was called a “riff” and this transposed into riff-raff, meaning low class. December 2014 COBWEB HOGWASH The Old English word for “spider” was Steamboats carried both people and “cob”. animals. Since pigs smelled so bad SHIP STATE ROOMS they would be washed before being put on board. The mud and other filth Traveling by steamboat was considered that was washed off was considered the height of comfort. Passenger cabins useless “hog wash”. on the boats were not numbered. Instead they were named after states. To this CURFEW day cabins on ships are called The word “curfew” comes from the staterooms. French phrase “couvre-feu”, which SLEEP TIGHT means “cover the fire”. It was used to describe the time of blowing out all Early beds were made with a wooden lamps and candles. It was later frame. Ropes were tied across the frame adopted into Middle English as in a criss-cross pattern. A straw “curfeu”, which later became the mattress was then put on top of the modern “curfew”. In the early American ropes. Over time the ropes stretched, colonies homes had no real fireplaces causing the bed to sag. The owner so a fire was built in the center of the would then tighten the ropes to get a room. In order to make sure a fire did better night’s sleep. not get out of control during the night it was required that, by an agreed SHOWBOAT upon time, all fires would be covered with a clay pot called a “curfew”. These were floating theaters built on a barge that was pushed by a steamboat. BARRELS OF OIL These played small towns along the Mississippi River. Unlike the boat shown When the first oil wells were drilled in the movie “Showboat” these did not they had made no provision for storing have an engine. They were gaudy and the liquid so they used water barrels. attention grabbing which is why we say That is why, to this day, we speak of someone who is being the life of the barrels of oil rather than gallons. party is “showboating”. HOT OFF THE PRESS OVER A BARREL As the paper goes through the rotary In the days before CPR a drowning printing press friction causes it to victim would be placed face down over a heat up. Therefore, if you grab the barrel and the barrel would be rolled paper right off the press it is hot. The back and forth in a effort to empty the expression means to get immediate lungs of water. It was rarely effective. If information. you are over a barrel you are in deep trouble. 5 Vol XXXVII No. 12 Items For Sale John, K1DWU, was generous enough to donate some equipment to the club. He's relocating to Colorado and did not want to drag the stuff to his new QTH. We are offering the following items for sale to any interested club member. All proceeds will go into the club Treasury. 1. Kenwood TS-570S with matching PS53 power supply and matching SP-23 speaker: $750 / package 2. Rigblaster PRO radio-computer interface with Kenwood cable: $100.00 ($75.00 if sold with TS-570 above) 3. Yaesu FT-7800 dual band mobile $175.00 4. ICOM IC-2100 2m mobile $150.00 5. Timewave DSP-599ZX Audio DSP processor $225.00 Contact Neil [email protected] if you are interested. Purchasing Parts for your Next Project? If we pool our parts orders together with Newsletter Articles Wanted Working on a new kit or homebrew project? Have you recently received a rare or interesting QSL card? Received a new DXCC award or band endorsement? Or just have a cool photo (ham radio related) or some soap box comments to share with other club members? Why not consider submitting an article for the Newsletter. We're always looking for material for the Newsletter and feedback from club members goes a long way towards keeping the Newsletter interesting as well as stamping the club "personality" on our monthly publication. Articles can be submitted electronically or on paper, whatever you feel comfortable doing. As RCARC's Newsletter editor, I particularly look forward to putting a new edition together when I have material submitted by members. December 2014 mail order suppliers like Digi-Key, Allied Electronics, or Mouser Electronics, we can defray some of the shipping costs and save some money. Bill, AB2UW, has set up an on line utility for members to order parts from Mouser Electronics as a group. To find out more, check out <http://editthis.info/ wiki/RCARCparts>. If you have a supply of junk box parts you want other members to know about - whether you want to sell stuff or give it away, Random Oscillations is a great way to let your fellow members know. Just drop me an emal or a snail mail with details and we'll put your items in the Newsletter to see if there are any takers. (limited to amateur radio or other electronics related items) 6 Vol XXXVII No. 12 Radio Central Amateur Radio Club 12-3-2014 RCARC Executive Board Minutes Bill Lynch, AB2UW, RCARC Recording Secretary Board Members Present: President & Acting Treasurer *Neil Heft, KC2KY; Secretary *Bill Lynch, AB2UW; Director *Richie Fisher, KB2ZPB, Director *Steve-Sussman-Fort, AB2EW RCARC Web Site Has been down for about 2 weeks – old hosting company looks like they are out of business – they hosted RCARC.org for FREE for 18 years! Neil signed up with QTH.com after researching 3 different hosting providers. Cost will be $5/ month or $60/year for the hosting. Ham Radio University Neil will doing a ‘fun with CW’ presentation using the giant wood key that Frank, K2PWG(SK) made Would be nice to have lots of RCARC members attend to cover the club table Board Members Absent: Director Joe Cohen, KJ4ZW; display. Bill will bring his big display board ‘advertising’ Director Bob Chandler, WB2ETR; Vice President RCARC and Steve was considering bringing his homebrew Charlie Fiore, K2CQK; Director Dick Pav, K2RFP; loop antenna. Director Stan Bryer, W2SCB 2015 Meeting Dates Guests Present: Bob Handel, WB2ICQ Bill heard from the library – room for exec meeting on Feb. Meeting started at 7:09PM in the ‘Lower Meeting Room’ of the Middle 4 not available, chose Feb. 11th instead – all were OK with Country Public Library that change. We will have the (HANDICAPPED ACCESSIBLE) ‘Foundation Room’ (upstairs-use elevator) for our Jan to June membership meetings. Future RCARC Meetings December – (12-17-14, one week ‘early’) Holiday party and show and Board Meetings Jan-June: 1/7, 2/11, 3 /4, 4/1, 5/6, 6/3 tell Membership Meetings Jan-June: 1/28, 2/25, 3/25, 4/29, 5/ January – Steve, AB2EW, will present a talk on designing IC audio 27, 6/24 amplifiers using LM386 and selected TDA-family chips. He’ll bring home-brew working models for demonstration as well. Adjourned at 8:47PM February – We discussed doing something re transmitters and two- NEXT RCARC EXEC MEETING: Wednesday, January 7, tone testing 2015 at 7PM, in ‘Community Room A’ (small one along the entrance hallway) at the Middle Country Public Library in Centereach. 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123 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1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123 1234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123456789012123456789012345678901234567890121234567890123456789012345678901212345678901234567890123 SSTV Transmissions from the International Space Station Set The Russian Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) team members plan to activate slow-scan television (SSTV) from the ISS on December 18 and December 20. Several passes will be over North America. The expected SSTV mode will be PD180 on a frequency of 145.800 MHz with 3-minute off periods between transmissions. Twelve different photos will be sent during the operational period. Transmissions will begin at around 1420 UTC on December 18 and 1240 UTC on December 20. The transmissions should terminate around 2130 UTC each day. — Thanks to Gaston Bertels, ON4WF, ARISS-Europe Chairman December 2014 7 Vol XXXVII No. 12 December Meeting Announcement Wednesday December 17, 6:30 PM at the Middle Country Public Library in Centereach Holiday Party TWO weeks early, due to Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve Falling on the Last Two Wednesdays of December Inside this issue From the President ............................................................................................................................... 1 Neil, KC2KY A Century of Amateur Radio and the ARRL ........................................................................................ 1 Al Brogdon, W1AB - From the ARRL Letter, Dec 11, 2014 Meeting Calendar ................................................................................................................................. 2 Free Stuff! .............................................................................................................................................. 3 By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU The K7RA Solar Update ....................................................................................................................... 4 Tad Cook, K7RA - From the ARRL Letter, Dec 11, 2014 Did You Know? ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Some common expressions and their origins (Author Unknown) Club Announcements ........................................................................................................................... 6 Radio Central Amateur Radio Club 12-3-2014 RCARC Executive Board Minutes ......................... 7 Bill Lynch, AB2UW, RCARC Recording Secretary SSTV Transmissions from the International Space Station Set ...................................................... 7 From the ARRL Letter, Dec 11, 2014 RANDOM Oscillations is published monthly by Radio Central Amateur Radio Club, PO Box 396, Centereach, NY 11720. RCARC, its officers and director, disclaim any responsibility for the accuracy or the content of articles published herein. The opinions expressed are solely those of the authors. RCARC neither necessarily endorses or opposes said opinions. Material may be excerpted from this issue providing credit is given to the appropriate source. Club members are encouraged to submit articles to the Corresponding Secretary for possible publication in this newsletter. The deadline for articles is the 10th of each month. December 2014 8 Vol XXXVII No. 12