The 2012 CQ WW RTTY contest has come and gone. Several members of HODARS participated, using the club call-W4HOD.

Darrell, K9MUG; John, KI4KUT; Bob, KA4PKB and Cheryl, AA4YL gathered at the club radio room and operated in the Multi Single High Power category.  We used the new (well, new to us) A3S tribander and HF-Auto tuner. Both worked well.

Bands were in great shape. Was great to have 10 meters booming in again.

Grilled hamburgers, potato salad, cole slaw, ice tea and key lime pie was enjoyed.

The DRCG Long Distance Contest (RTTY) is June 9-10, 2012. Three different segments over the weekend. Darrell, K9MUG, Bob, KA4PKB and Cheryl, AA4YL will be participating.

Looking forward to seeing other club members too.

More info here.

Alabama QSO Party (AQP) was Saturday, June 2. HODARS participated in our new radio room at the QTH of one of our club members.

The room is still in process of being completed, but in good enough shape to begin operating.

HODARS operated in the Multi-Multi category. Multi operators and multi categories with one transceiver.

Darrell, K9MUG and Dick, K4IQJ took turns operating CW which was the major part of our score. Bob, KA4PKB and Cheryl, AA4YL made a few SSB contacts.

We were visited by club members, Tom, KE4KWE, his wife Reta, Stew, K4JOP and his wife Aina, KD4SCH and John, KI4KUT.

Photos later.

Call: W4HOD

Operator(s): K9MUG K4IQJ KA4PKB AA4YL

Station: W4HOD

Class: M/SMixed HP

QTH: AL

Operating Time (hrs): 10

Summary:

Band CW Qs Ph Qs

——————–

160:

80: 3

40: 115

20: 173        7

15: 14

10:

——————–

Total: 305 7 CW Mults = 50 Ph Mults = 7 Total Score = 35,169

Club: Alabama Contest Group

Comments:

First contest in the new club radio room. Thanks to K9MUG and K4IQJ for running the CW station. As usual they did a fantastic job. Only a few SSB contacts. 20 and 40 meters were in great shape.

Thanks for the contacts and thanks to the hard work of the ACG for sponsoring the AQP.

February meeting was fun. We enjoyed a Taco/Burrito/Nacho buffet, with coconut layer cake for dessert.

After supper, we watched Bob, KA4PKB; Mike, KI4TWB, and Ken, W4KDS start construction on a Tenna Dipper Deluxe, a small antenna analyzer. Bob manned the soldering iron, while Mike and Ken performed inspection duties.

http://www.qrpkits.com/deluxetennadipper.html

The three of them were not able to finish during this meeting, but made it about two thirds through. They will finish up during the March meeting.

Present during the meeting, Stu, K4JOP; Mike, KI4TWB; Bob, KA4PKB; John, KI4KUT; Tom, KE4KWE; Reta; Gene, KI4EEY; Cheryl, AA4YL; and Ken, W4KDS.

John Glenn: “From our founding days, Americans have been motivated by curiosity about the new and the unknown. That curiosity…coupled with an education system that let all our citizens benefit and contribute, were the twin engines of progress.” Photograph of our +Fragile Oasistaken by +NASA astronaut John Glenn February 20, 1962, as he piloted the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first manned orbital mission of the United States.

February meeting is February 21 at 7 PM at the Health Resource Center, across from East Alabama Medical Center, on Pepperell Parkway. Meeting room is the Dogwood, which is straight back when entering.

We will have a Mexican dinner in the meeting room beginning at 6 PM. As usual, price is $5.00 per person. Dinner will consist of burritos, tacos, nachos, chips, salsa, drinks, dessert, etc.

Bob, KA4PKB is presenting the program for the evening. He will be demonstrating how to build The Deluxe Tenna Dipper, a small antenna analyzer. To see the Tenna Dipper, go to this link. Most builders say it assembles in about an hour.

http://www.qrpkits.com/deluxetennadipper.html

Some eHam reviews.

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/9835

If anyone would like to order a kit and build one, we could have a kit
building meeting one month. Price is $70.

The January meeting of HODARS was very interesting. Dick, K4IQJ presented a program on controlling his remote receiving antennas via the Ethernet port on his Ten Tec Omni VII.

Dick has his Omni VII and a Beverage on Ground (BOG) at the QTH  of KA4PKB east of Auburn. Dick explained the planning, photos of the layout,  and gave a demonstration of the setup.

Members present for the meeting, K4IQJ, KI4TWB, KE4KWE, KA4PKB, K4JOP, Reta, WB4LNM, KI4EEY, AA4YL, KI4KUT.

We were glad to have a visitor from the Auburn University Club; Kyle, W4GNU. Kyle is a Linux fan and his callsign fits!

Admin sends sincere apologies from for lack of current postings of late.

Due to schedule conflicts at the usual club meeting place, future meetings will most likely be held on nights other than our usual 2^nd Tuesday.

I will keep the club updated on dates, times etc.

The HODARS site has been down for a few days. I moved the hosting account to a new company,. QTH.COM is now hosting our web site.

QTH is owned by hams and the customer service is outstanding. In the beginning, I had problems with the domain transfer and Scott at QTH.COM was always there to help answer questions. Scott also helped transfer the SQL database for WordPress to the new server.

If anyone is looking for web hosting, I strongly recommend QTH.COM. They host ham clubs, individual ham sites and non ham radio sites too.

http://qth.com/

September 21, 2011

Received an email from W0ZOK, our host for the NAQP. Gene has finished installing the second tower and beam for the contest. The first contact he made was UY2UA in the Ukraine.

A photo of the new installation is shown below.