February 2020 General Meeting


Minutes PART Meeting February 18, 2020
Cameron Senior Center, Westford, MA
7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Officers Present:
George, K1IG, Pres
Andy, KB1OIQ, VP
Alan, W1AHM, Treasurer
Chauncey, K1OPE, Secretary

Attendees: 28

George, K1IG, opened the meeting with the usual round of introductions.

Announcements:
   1. Hugh, N1QGE, Membership, thanked everyone for their food contributions to the Senior Center’s Food Pantry.
   2. Alan, W1AHM, Treasurer, presented the following stats as of the January 2020 meeting:
      a) 58 members paid up for calendar 2020;
      b) Total cash balance is $12,462 of which $5,094 is in the Repeater Fund.
      c) Dues for calendar year 2020 are being collected.

George, K1IG, gave a wrap-up of the PART Winter Field Day, January 25-26, 2020, at the Westford Sportsmen’s Club:
   1. First time for PART’s participation.
   2. Had mild weather plus a heated tent.
   3. Single station running CW, SSB and JS8Call.
   4. Ran in Category 1 Oscar.
   5. 12 operators.
   6. Used Brian’s, W1BP, station - Icom IC-7300 and an OCF dipole.
   7. Made 158 Q’s.
   8. Total points 7,508.
   9. There was an RFI issue. All of the interconnecting cables acted as antennas. Problems resolved with the use of ferrite cores.
      a. George pointed out the various core mixes such as 31 for the HF bands.
      b. One tip was you could use one 2” toroid and run multiple cables through it.

George talked about the new MA Distracted Driving Law.
Effective February 23, 2020.
Appears hams are exempt as long as one hand remains on the steering wheel.
Full version of the law is available on the new WB1GOF website.

George plugged the new WB1GOF website which he and Scott, NE1RD, put together.
Nice job!
Website statistics revealed the website is clicked on internationally, especially in China.
In recognition of his 12 year service as webmaster, Rich, AB1HD was presented a club plaque for his contributions.

Our last speaker was Greg Troxel, N1DAM, who gave a technical talk on Field Day Interstation Interference.
Greg gave a brief explanation of the unit of measure (dBm) used in his analysis of the PART Field Day antennas, and the effects of proximity and orientation. He described his composite noise measurements for both transmitted and received signals. His slide deck included an interesting chart of the noise generated on a CW signal by the transmitters of various high end radios.
Links to Greg’s references to be provided.

See you next month.
73,
Chauncey
K1OPE

Click for RadioCraft News!