Category — Antennas

In this series on Club Program ideas, I’m providing possible programs for clubs to use in their meetings. You can find a full explanation of the approach in Club Programs – The Series.

Today’s program idea: Moonbounce.

Bouncing signals off of the moon and listening to them come back is a fascinating entry into Doppler shifts, weak signals, long distances, and knowing when the moon is available at your QTH.

Program ideas;

• Why the moon?
• How it works
• Building Antennas — and rotors
• Software (WSJT)
• Frequencies to listen

Hams were working the moon long before astronauts landed there. It’s time to brush up on how all that was done.

Scot, K9JY

Photo Credit: SV1BTR’s antenna on Skynet

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There is a thread on the TowerTalk reflector about stacking quads. I have never heard of it being done, but one of the participants pointed us to DF3KV and his stacked quads for 20, 15, and 10 meters.

It is an impressive picture and gallery. You have to appreciate the effort it takes to get these 6-element quads up on the tower and then geared up to operate. Especially when you consider that the tower is not that tall.

Nice!

Scot, K9JY

In this series on Club Program ideas, I’m providing possible programs for clubs to use in their meetings. You can find a full explanation of the approach in Club Programs – The Series.

Today’s program idea: CQ Sixty Meters.

So here is the truth: I know nothing about 60-meters even though it has been available to hams since July 3rd, 2003.

Since the band is limited to channel operation, fifty watts ERP and USB only, life is a challenge on this band.

What equipment is used? How do channels work? What is on the band?

Even if I never went on the band, I’d like to know how this band works and a club program from someone on the band would fill the need nicely.

Scot, K9JY

Just announced on one of the reflectors I subscribe to, the Dayton Antenna and Contest Forums are now on-line.

Antenna Forum

The Dayton Antenna Forum has three presentations. The first is Real World Antenna Patterns vs. Theoretical Computer Antenna Plots by Mike Wetzel, W9RE, and Tom Chance, K9XV.

The second is A New Approach for Measuring Complex Antenna Currents in a Vertical Array by Greg Ordy, W8WWV (love THAT call…).

And the third is Multi-element Lowband Vertical Arrays - Approaches for Small Lots by Ted Rappaport, N9NB, and Ray Sokola, K9RS.

Nice to see those Midwestern calls!

Contest Forum

The contest forum offers six presentations.

The first is, of course, the 2008 Dayton Contest Forum Introduction by Doug Grant, K1DG.

The second is Passing the NCJ Torch by Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LZ, and Alan Dewey, K0AD. (Doing nice job as well).

The third is When Giants Walked the Bands – The Early Days of Multi-Multi by Doug Zwiebel, KR2Q.

The fourth is SDR and Contesting – The Future is Now by Pete Smith, N4ZR.

The fifth is Beamforming on 160 Meters by Victor Kean, K1LT.

Finally, Contesting with 28 Miles of Feedline by my former neighbor John Battin, K9DX

Thanks to KKN.net for hosting these presentations. All of the links are PDF files.

Scot, K9JY

In this series on Club Program ideas, I’m providing possible programs for clubs to use in their meetings. You can find a full explanation of the approach in Club Programs – The Series.

Today’s program idea: grounding the tower.

While yesterday’s grounding topic was the station, today we extend that idea outside to the tower.

Grounding the tower will go a long way to protecting the station — and the rest of your household electrical items.

Possible program subjects:

• Lightening myths
• The role of concrete and rebar in lightening protection
• How many grounding rods you need
• How to maintain the grounding system
• Welding the wires — why it is needed.

When I belonged to the Four Lakes Amateur Radio Club in Madison, WI, we were fortunate to have a 40,000 student University in town. Along with the professors. We had a great lightening protection program done by one of the professors.

His great theme was busting the lightening protection myths with this simple question: do you think lightening traveling five miles will be stopped by X? Fill in whatever for X and you can see where he was coming from.

Bonus: do one program on the myths and the theory of protecting the tower. Do another program on the practical how-it-is-done part of the work.

Scot, K9JY

In this series on Club Program ideas, I’m providing possible programs for clubs to use in their meetings. You can find a full explanation of the approach in Club Programs – The Series.

The basis of the program idea is something many hams have but few have seen – the rotor.

The rotor is integral to pointing our beams the right way. Rotors are strong – but sealed. This club program idea is to open a rotor and take a look inside.

The suggested program:

1. Rotor basics – wind load, torque, the important specifications
2. Open the rotor
3. Ball bearings – and their care
4. The brake – what it looks like and how it works
5. Big rotors – why buy them

This program ran during my tenure on the board of the Four Lakes Amateur Radio club. It was a new program, but it turned out to be one of the most popular programs during the year. Rotors, for most hams, are mystery black boxes in a tower. This program demystifies the rotor.

Extra credit rotor ideas: rotors for satellites, moon bounce, and VHF.

Have you ever had this program for your club meetings? Let us know how it went in the comments.

Scot, K9JY

Photo Credit: Norms Rotor Service