[AReU] AREU Meeting Notes for September, 2006

[Tony Stone]

RECAP OF SEPTEMBER AREU MEETING

The September 06, 2006 meeting of AREU was a "hum dinger"!!!

Rod (KC4MMR) had his Buddipole set up outside of the meeting
room and checked into the 6 meter net at 7:00 PM. Scott
(WB9UJS) ran the net and several folks at the AREU meeting
checked in. Signals were very good and we could hear Mark
in Zephyrhills very well (armchair copy in fact). Rod has
a great portable station. It was very-very compact
consisting of a switch mode power supply and the radio
which is about twice the size of the power supply. The
kicker is that he did not need the power supply. The
radio has internal batteries that will either power it
at 20 watts or 100 watts depending on how long you want
the batteries to last. With the Buddipole, rig, coax and
antenna stand,  the entire station can be carried in one
package.

I had my trusty FT817 with the converted CB amplifier
I got from Rod, the home brew filter that I demonstrated
at AREU a few months ago, a small SWR meter I bought at
Dayton for $4.00,  an AT11 automatic antenna tuner and
another portable antenna which is very similar to Rod's
portable antenna. The portable system is much larger that
Rod's and requires two attaché cases, a battery and the
FT817 in a padded case. I ran the 10 meter, Tuesday night
round table at 8:00 pm and got one check in from Riverview.
His signal was S7 but the line noise was S5. Still the
copy was good and we had a nice chat. I was experimenting
with the antenna and found that it would resonate on 17
meters and 20 meters also. I made a contact with a station
in Mobile, Alabama on 20 meters with a 5 by 3 report.

In addition to the two portable stations on 6 and 10
meters Ed (W7LDG) brought his 1296 MHz transverter for
a possible QSO with Mike who brought his 1296 transverter
also. With the busy schedule and Mike relatively late
arrival this did not take place.

I set up a test with the spectrum analyzer with tracking
generator to determine the bandwidth of three "Wi-Fi"
antennas that were cut for the 2400 to 2500 MHz bands.
I wanted to know how much their performance suffered
down on the 2304.1 MHz weak signal calling frequency
in the 13 cm band. It turned out that the performance
was almost exactly the same and that the antennas are
perfectly acceptable to use at this frequency. That
will save me a couple of bucks by not having to buy
loop Yagis for that band.

The meeting lasted later than normal (around 9:30 PM)
and started earlier than normal (6:45PM). Everyone
seemed to have a great time and we had one brand new
ham in attendance.

I am sorry to report that Jim (N0FPP) is leaving the
area to make his fortune in another portion of the
country. I have always enjoyed conversation with Jim
and am impressed by his knowledge. He will be missed.

I am already thinking about next month. Hopefully
I will have some 10 GHz equipment constructed and
will be ready to show it off. As the weather gets
cooler I will schedule a weekend test of some of
the 10 GHz and 2.4 GHz equipment that I have built.

73

Tony