May 2019 General Meeting

21/05/19 19:30
Minutes PART Meeting May 21, 2019
Cameron Senior Center, Westford, MA
7:30 PM – 8:45 PM

Officers Present:
Andy, KB1OIQ, Pres
George, K1IG, VP
Alan, W1AHM, Treasurer
Chauncey, K1OPE, Secretary
Bob, W1IS, Director at Large

Attendees:  38
KB1OIQ opened the meeting with the usual round of introductions.
Three members made the visit to the Dayton/Xenia Hamvention this past weekend.

Announcements
  1. Kit building event.  Andy, KB1OIQ, announced due to some persistent digging they have received the full documentation for the Arduino based kit, and have placed an order for production of the required pcb’s.  Scheduled delivery is for the first week in June.  Details to follow afterwards.
  2. Terry, KA8SCP, thanked the 14 volunteers who assisted in the Westford Apple Blossom Parade this past Saturday.   A number of new folks participated.  Alan, K1ALL, and George, K1IG, helped out as net control operators.  The usual Net Control station, KA8SCP, was busy riding in the parade as Terry was honored as the Kiwanis Person of the Year.
  3. Alan, W1AHM, gave the Treasurer’s Report:
    1. Latest member count is 80 -  for the same period, a slight decline from the prior year;
    2. Recent balance in the cash account is $12,668 with $6,235 in the Repeater Fund.
  4. Hugh, N1QGE, Membership, thanked everyone for their Food Pantry donations.
  5. Rob, KE8UW, passed around his revised edition of the Club brochure;
  6. Sunday evening emergency net will try a new check-in format;
  7. George, K1IG, had an aerial view of the Hamvention with an overlay of the high number of APRS stations active on the site;
  8. K1IG gave a summary of Field Day preparations:
    1. Field Day to be held this June 22-23;
    2. Classification 4A;
    3. Antenna setup will be on Friday, June 21, starting at noon;
      1. Will set up ~10 antennas;
      2. Will have two G5RV’s and W1IS will try out an OCF wire antenna;
      3. Need about 15 volunteers;
      4. Need lots of coax terminated with PL259’s.  Make sure your name is attached.
    4. Station Chiefs:
      1. CW – Bob, W1IS
      2. Phone – George, K1IG
      3. Digital – Rich, AB1HD
      4. VHF/Tech – Allison, KB1GMX
      5. GOTA – Andy, KB1OIQ
    5. AB1HD gave a brief introduction of the Field Day operation on FT8, accompanied by a short video;
    6. Need a few volunteers to act as Ambassadors to welcome and introduce visitors around the operations.
    7. Need someone to handle the 10 traffic messages to be sent from the site;
    8. Next month’s meeting will be a full presentation on Field Day.
The speaker for the evening was Colin Brench, W1DJR, who spoke on Stealth Antennas.  This was a presentation from
Tom Fagan, K7DF of Tucson, AZ.

Due to the many Home Owners Associations in the Tucson area with antenna restrictions, one can still get on the air.  Colin illustrated a number of alternatives:
  1. Vent pipe antenna;
  2. Various attic antennas;
  3. Under roof eaves;
  4. Loading a metal railing;
  5. Slinky antenna;
  6. Dipole laid out on roof top;
  7. Mobile antennas, e.g., Hamsticks;
  8. Loading a rain gutter;
  9. Use an antenna tuner;
  10. N6BT antennas specifically designed for use in Home Owners Associations.
Colin afterwards demonstrated his SDRPlay receiver and software as a spectrum analyzer.

See everyone next month.

73
Chauncey, K1OPE

Click for RadioCraft News!