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
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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
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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 kc2ky@arrl.net 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.
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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