Zero Beat 10 2014

The next meeting will be at the regular time but at a different place. We will be meeting at 2417 Lacosta Dr. at the Pool Clubhouse. Please park in the rear and walk down to the pool house.

There will only be cokes and snacks at this meeting there will be no heavy food at this meeting so eat before you come

Program

The program will be a discussion of Base Station Antenna Conceptsby Roger Schlichter. Roger will present several concepts for discussion. All of us have issues with antennas of one type or another and this will help provide some basics to keep in mind regarding how they work.

Huntsville Hamfest

The Huntsville hamfest was pretty good but it didn’t seem as busy this year as last, but still a large crowd. We hauled some repeaters down to Huntsville and sold some. We still have some VHF and UHF repeaters to sell. All are in very good condition and working perfectly. Please pass the word. The price is right.

Repeater Status

The Kenwood repeaters are working great. Dennis reports he can hit the 444.175 on LeBonheur with a 2 watt HT from Oakland. Coverage around Memphis seems exceptional. The 147.030 at WKNO seems to be working better but power out of the duplexer is only about 20 watts.

The club has purchased two high power amps to jump up the power on the VHF repeaters. These amps are 100% duty cycle and rated at 150 watts out in the commercial band, which is way too much for our purposes. They are capable of 136 to 180 MHz but tuned for the 150-160 MHz part of the band and I will need to tune them down into the ham band. Presently I have one tuned for 147.030 at KNO so that it has 15 watts in and 90 out. This is still a little too much but I am not sure I can turn it down any lower but I am still trying.

We have a 20 ft Stationmaster for the 145.210 that will be located on LeBonheur. To hold this long heavy antenna we purchased a new Rohn roof mount base. We will install all of this on LeBonheur as soon as time permits.

November Meeting

The November meeting will be at the Hibachi Buffet at 6196 Elmore Park Rd. It is in the shopping center at the corner of Stage Rd and Elmore Park. It is an extensive buffet with Chinese, Japanese, and American Selections. I tested it earlier this week and it was excellent. We will have elections and a short program on “alligators”.

St. Jude Marathon

The St. Jude Marathon is run here In Memphis on December 6, 2014. If you can find time in your schedule contact Roger at WR4R@bellsouth.net and volunteer to help out a good cause. Most locations can be worked with a 2m/440 HT but some will require a mobile rig with just a little more power to work. Operators will need to be available from 6am till 3pm but most will not be there all that time. Early aid stations arrive early and leave early, later aid station arrive later and leave later. Most operators will only be needed about 5 hours.

If you have an assignment preference then it is time for you to let me know what it is. For the many of you that want to volunteer but don’t have an assignment preference please let me know that. Those of you that don’t have a specific request make my life a lot easier in making assignments and for that I thank you for being so flexible. Below you will find links to the race courses so you can get an idea where the aid stations are located. If you plan on working this event then I need you to send me some following information. Once you respond to this message I will not be bothering you till it gets closer to the event date unless something comes up. I generally don’t send out assignments until the Wednesday or Thursday before the event.

Name

Email address

Cell phone #

Assignment Preference

Call sign

t-shirt size

Type of equipment you can bring (ie. 2m mobile, 2m HT, 440 mobile, 440HT)

Thanks