[AReU] Recap of meeting - 1/3/6

[Terry Petrash]

Happy New Year!

This new year started off with a bang.  We had a great turnout
at this fist meeting of 2006.  The word is apparently getting
around about the good information and teaching that takes place
at these meetings.  

Attendees were:

K4CYC	Gary	Allen
K4NWW	Fred 	Crowson
K4PPK	Jim	Smith
K4PQD	Tom	Gimbert
KA4INM	Ron	Youvan
KA4ZAF	Bobbie	Petrash
KC4MMR	Rod	Clark
KE4VDJ	George	Collier
KF9EY	Paul	Nerger
KI4EPN 	Walt	Knights
KI4ILP	Lou	Pomales
N4DLW	Dave	Welty
N4WBJ	Budd 	Johnson
N6ZUE	Gregg	Britton
NY1N	Ernie	Leone
W2NDP	Dan 	Manfre
W4TAS	Tony	Stone
W4UOO	Mike	Sprenger
W7LGD	Ed	Hohenthaner
WA4BYK	Terry	Petrash
WA4HTZ	Ken	Mac Neill
WB4AKA	Bob	Haynes

The highlight of this meeting was Rod Clark, KC4MMR, giving us a
great presentation on his efforts of making a "home-brew" Buddie
Pole type antenna.  Rod got started on this project when Ed,
W7LGD, won a Buddie Pole as a prize at the recent Tampa Bay
Hamfest in Bradenton.  

Rod saw the simplicity and elegance of this antenna and said to
himself, "I can do that!"  And, do it he did.  Rod made several
versions of the antenna and presented examples of them at the
meeting.  He detailed how he fabricated each part from readily
available parts at a considerable cost saving.  Rod explained
and showed several different ways of making coils and structural
elements that you could used on this project or adapt to other
ideas that you might come up with.

Keep in mind however, if you take your time into consideration,
you may want to purchase it from Buddie Pole directly, but you
would be missing out on all the enjoyment and feeling of
accomplishment once you've done one on your own.  

Tony, W4TAS, worked with Rod on making up a detailed
construction and instruction sheet on how to make these units. 
He even went to the extent of creating a parts description,
source and price list for those ready to commence building
immediately.  For those interested in this documentation,
contact Tony, W4TAS, for possible copies on how to build one for
yourself.

Rod really put on a 1st class presentation.  I wouldn't be
surprised to see a text follow up in an upcoming QST issue with
Rod being the author.

Other activity also took place around the room including Bob,
BW4AKA, asking a question about TV antennas.  Ken, WA4HTZ,
brought a system analyzer in and was working with Bob on
analyzing a PL tone problem with his handitalkie.  I didn't get
a chance to sit down and watch their progress, but from what I
saw it looked like it might make a good detailed show and tell
example for an upcoming meeting.

I'm sure other activities occurred that I didn't observe but we
will try and coordinate our format a little more in the future
so everybody gets the opportunity to benefit from the wealth of
knowledge and information that culminates at these meetings.

One last note, Ed, W7LGD, has decided to relocate back up North.
 We will all miss his presence but hope to keep in contact with
him over the airwaves.

If you have any interesting gizmoes or "what is its" laying
around your ham-shack, think about bring it to one of our
upcoming 
meetings and either telling us about it or asking us about it. 
We all learn a lot from sharing each others questions,
experiences and knowledge.

Our next meeting will be the first Tuesday of February 2006. 
Hope to see you all there along with other new and old faces.

73
Terry
WA4BYK





		
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