The Spudnik construction meeting went well. Six Spudniks were built for club members. Time did not allow for completion of all of them, but we will meet again this month and finish them up.
The best news was the presence of Deyl, KD4FD at the meeting. We have not seen Deyl in a while and it is great to have her back with the club.
The March meeting of HODARS is scheduled for March 8th. As usual the meeting will be held at the Health Resource Center across from EAMC on Pepperell Parkway. Meeting begins at 7 PM. Pre meeting supper will be at a local eating establishment, which has not been selected yet. We meet at 6 Pm for the evening meal.
The program this month is a do it yourself project, making spud guns. It should be very interesting, as Mr. Spudnik- Mike, KI4TWB will be heading up the instructions, with assistance from Bob, KA4PKB.
Mike and Bob constructed one for club use and it has worked really well.
WSPR is a piece of software that enables you to participate in a world-wide network of low power propagation beacons. It enables your radio transceiver to transmit beacon signals, and to receive beacon signals from similarly-equipped stations in the same amateur band. Because participating stations usually upload spots that they receive in real time to a web server, you can find out within seconds of the end of each transmission exactly where and how strongly it was received, and even view the propagation paths on a map.
(From the http://www.g4ilo.com/wspr.html web site)
W4HOD will have a guest speaker in February to talk about this very subject. Richard Robinson (AI4RY), will present the program on WSPR.
Dave Morris, N5UP, the founder of eQSL will be our guest speaker at the May meeting. Dave will be flying throughout the US this Spring and wants to visit as many amateur radio clubs as possible. Dave’s program will be about eQSL of course, how it works, and how to join.
You can read all the details of Dave’s flight plans at this page.
http://www.eqsl.cc/qslcard/ClubTour.cfm
Dave, N5UP in his cockpit
The schedule for October VE testing has been posted on the ARRL VE page. The VE tab is at the top of this page and has all the details of the testing session.
The sessions will be held on Saturday, October 2 at 9:30 AM CT and Monday, October 11 at 6:00 PM CT. The location is the Career Center located inside the Goodwill Industries retail store. The location is in Midway Plaza located on Pepperell Parkway in Opelika. View Location Map
September meeting of HODARS was great fun. Frank McLemore, N4TKT had a great program on grounding and protection against lightening. He even had gifts for everyone in attendance.
Supper was very good with lots of fellowship. We were honored to have Dean, KI4LLX visiting us and hope he returns soon. Stew, K4JOP joined the club at the meeting and we look forward to having him and his wife, Aina, KD4SCH join us often.
September meeting of HODARS is this Tuesday, the 14th at 7 PM CT at the Health Resource Center across from East Alabama Medical Center.
We will have a special guest, Frank McLemore, N4TKT, who will present a program on lightening and grounding.
We will have an Italian supper at 6 PM CT in the meeting room prior to the club meeting. On the menu:
Chicken Alfredo
Lasagna
Salad
Bread Sticks
Ice Tea, Soft Drinks
Desserts
The HODARS VE team is having a ARRL VEC testing session on September 13, 2010. The location is the Goodwill Industries Career Center in Midway Plaza Shopping Center on Pepperell Parkway in Opelika, AL. All three license class exams will be offered, depending on prior registration of applicants for General and Extra class tests.
The session begins at 6:15 PM CT and prior registration is strongly suggested. Registration guarantees we have the correct number of VEs and supplies on hand. Walk-ins for Tech class exams will be accepted, but other license class walk-ins will depend on having proper VEs on hand. For further details on what to bring, and other important information, check our VE Exam Page. To register for the test session or for any questions, contact our VE team
After visiting several different locations for our monthly meetings, HODARS has decided on a permanent meeting place. We now meet at the Health Resource Center, across from East Alabama Medical Center on Pepperell Parkway in Opelika. The Health Resource Center has been very accommodating to us and the meeting room is very comfortable and has several hi-tech amenities, which enhance our program presentations.
Our normal meeting time is 7 PM CT, but we usually meet for supper at 6 PM before the meeting. Sometimes we meet at a local restaurant, but starting in September, we will be periodically having supper in the meeting room at the Health Resource Center. The cost of the meal at the HRC is $5.00 per person. Check our web site monthly for supper details.
A link providing the address and a map is shown below.
Well, the 2010 Huntsville Hamfest is history and it was fun. The Alabama Contest Group had some good forums as well as the annual ACG meeting. Tim, KY5R has done a great job this year leading the ACG and we appreciate it.
Tim, KY5R at ACG forum in Huntsville
The ACG dinner was held at Beauregard’s in Huntsville. Very good turnout and admin had a chance to meet some new hams she had never had the pleasure of meeting.
Some of the ACG crowd at Beauregard's in Huntsville.
Paul Newberry, N4PN won the Southeastern Contester of the Year and was presented a plaque by Tim, KY5R
Tim, KY5R presents Southeastern Contester of the Year to Paul, N4PN
HODARS had a very good meeting and program in August. Dick, K4IQJ demonstrated a two port Vector Network Analyzer from Array Solutions (VNA-2180). It can be used as a single-connector device to measure antenna impedances in a manner similar to the MFJ-259 but with a lot more informaion, or as a two-port device to characterize amplifiers, filters where you need to apply a signal to the device input and measure its output. Dick is using it to measure phase and amplitude matching of the three paths in my three-element receiving array.
http://www.arraysolutions.com/Products/vna2180.htm
Here is a .pdf detailing Dick’s receiving array.
http://www.w4hod.com/3ElBinomial EndFire Array.pdf
After the meeting birthday cake was enjoyed, celebrating the third anniversary of HODARS. It was great to see Bob, KD4PK and his wife Ruth, KI4QGM. Both Bob and Ruth joined our club and it is great to have them with us.
Great meeting tonight. After supper at Logan’s, we met at the BanccorpSouth buidling on Pepperell Parkway. We discussed the AQP operation and made plans for Field Day later this month. We have been offered a very good deal on a Moseley TA-33 beam, rotor, tower and a 2-meter beam. A local ham has decided to get out of the HF business and is selling us his equipment for what it cost to have it taken down, which is a lot less than retail value. We are very grateful to him for this opportunity to expand our contest operation. Our Field Day operation should be a lot more exciting with this addition. We haven’t figured out how to use our spud gun to put it up though.
AQP setup went very well on Friday. K9MUG, KI4TWB, KA4PKB, K4IQJ, KI4KUT, KI4EEY and AA4YL gathered at the site and worked in the sun and humidity putting up CW and SSB antennae. K9MUG and K4IQJ will use a 20/40 meter delta loop as the main antenna, but also have a vertical for 15 meters and possibly other bands. SSB is using a G5RV up around 45 feet. We had to re-shoot one of the trees for the G5RV, but it worked out great. KA4PKB and KI4TWB have really mastered the spud gun and get wonderful results.The antenna analyzer gave all of the antennae a glowing report and we will be ready to go at 11 AM local time. This will be a great tune up for Field Day, we will be in the same location for it.
