Meeting Minutes
by John Holmans
secretary@kwarc.org

Dave , VA3MRJ , opens the meeting and asks all in attendance to introduce themselves.  (Scribe for the evening was Gary, VE3JGK)

A special thank-you to Bruce , VE3WBX , who is the new ‘coffee person’ .

Larry , VE3LGN, announces that there will be no packet meeting this month and to watch the bulletin for the notice of next month’s meeting .

Dave reminds us that the financial statement is in the bulletin and on the web . No tech report this month since the chair is in Florida

Ben , VA3BNY , informs us the next months meeting will be especially interesting with the topic of Solar and Wind generation by Weasel who is also a aviation technician . The topics for the May and June meeting are a ‘work in progress’ .

Ben starts the show and tell portion of the meting with Roger , VE3RKS showing us a “Basic Stamp repeater controller” which is very small and simple to build . It is capable of doing the time-outs and ident for a repeater . He also showed the front panel of a Pioneer car stereo , pointing out how most of the workings are in the removable faceplate .

Next was Fraser , VE3FC , who showed us 2 J-Pole antennas . One for 2m and the other for 440 .He provided a excellent explanation of antenna impedance and how one can side mount the 2m antenna to a tower .

Next was Gord , VE3EOS , who showed us a remote motor controller for a hf tuner . The result is a very low SWR of less than 1.05 to 1 .

Next was Paul , VE3SY , who described 3 different digital modes that can be operated using a computer’s sound card and the appropriate software. They were , PSK31 , RTTY , and Feld-Hell . The latter of which is a older technology but still very capable of getting through . A unique feature of this mode is that with a poorer signal , the letter fade but aren’t easily ‘dropped’ . PSK31 is a very sensitive mode using a 31 Hz shift with 8 levels ,that can distinguish 2 signals at S9 that are only 50Hz apart . It’s speed exceeds that of RTTY and used to use a 850Hz shift . Several documents taken from the web were available to elaborate on these and the URL’s were listed .

Next was Bill , VE3ETK , who showed us his home brew , easy to disassemble 20m antenna made from CB parts . The only addition was a length of pipe to bring it into tune .

Next Dennis , VA3DLT , who had a mystery box from 1944 . It turned out to be a frequency meter in very good condition . He obtained it from his father-in-law , VE2FOR  .

Next was Dave again who described his ‘new’ ICOM ICT8A with  cloning cable . It was wide receive ( the classic DC-light ! ) , alphanumeric display and wit the cable you can program it from your PC .

Next Ben showed us 2 screwdriver antenna for mobile Hf . One of which he was modifying from a manual to motor drive adjustment .He still needs to make the motor enclosure and could use a lathe to turn a few parts . By the end of the meeting , I think he lined up a helpful ham . Once set up , he claimed you can get very close in SWR just by listening to the noise level .

Ben announced free coffee to the presenters .

Paul announced the Don , VE3ESE and Greg , VE3NXB , are in Cuba and doing very well in the contest . Paul worked them 40m mobile  . They can be found nightly on 7064.5 or 14120 .

Break for coffee and 50-50 ticket sales .

I drew the winning ticket for $23.80 going to Mary , VE3MWE .

After more socializing , meeting adjourned by Dave

errors or omissions to secretary@kwarc.org