Zero Beat 04 2016

We will be at the police precinct for our March meeting. The precinct is at 6850 Appling Farms Pky.

April Meeting Topic

We have a couple things going on this month at the meeting;

1. Please return your tickets if you can. We will have Art and Rick collecting them. You can bring them to FreeFest but if you can turn them in ahead it will take the load off the ticket sellers in the morning.

2. We will have a very short program on the effect of feed line on SWR. This came about as a result of antenna work at WKNO in the past couple weeks.

March of Dimes Walk for Babies – April 30^th

The March of Dimes Walk for Babies is Saturday April, 30^th . I believe it is a morning event. Linda Laseter has coordinated this event the past several years and needs a few more volunteers. Please see if you can help out and contact Linda if you can. Her contact info is:

Phone 901 268-1766

Email lindalaseter@gmail.com

Estates

The estate stuff is nearly all gone. The Kenwood TS-450 is out for testing. The only thing we have left is the 50 amp, rack mount, Astron power supply. It is $110 for non-members and $100 for members. Dennis has a large Mosley commercial type, HF beam at his house. Price is $50. You can sell the aluminum for scrap at this price. If you want a beam this is a super deal.

Heliax

The club has acquired a bunch of 1-5/8 Air dielectric Heliax compliments of Pat Lane. This is pretty exotic stuff. If you need apiece let me know. It is stiff enough that you can make a 20-30 ft. tower without guy wires. I am planning on using a piece for my dual band mobile. I am going to “snake” it down through the car and then drill a 2-1/2” inch opening in my trunk lid and mount an antenna directly on it.

Dues

Please pay your dues for 2016. We need these to support our activities. There is a membership application on the web page and at the meeting. If there have been any changes in your status please fill one of these out and send it in with your dues. Art Barnett is the treasurer and official dues collector and it is best to give it directly to him or mail it to our mailbox. PO Box 343358 Bartlett, 38134

Repeaters

Both the 2 meter and 900 MHz antennas have been replaced at WKNO in the past 2 weeks. We were able to work a “cash” deal with the tower crew working there to replace them. Both are working 100% better. Both antennas were heavily damaged mechanically. There was no evidence of a lightening hit.

The new fusion repeater is in, and has been installed on the 147.03 MHz at WKNO. It is putting out 50 watts vs the approximately 15 from the Kenwood. The 443.250 MHz Fusion is working well on 20 watts and several users have linked to the internet successfully.

FreeFest

We are 101% full and I have 8 on the waiting list. Table prep will be Friday April 8, from 1:30pm on. Vendors will load in after we are done. So far, MFJ, Satellite Sam, and several others have said they will load in early. Please plan to come out and help set up and help the vendors load in.

We still need a few folks to help with ticket sales on Saturday. Mary will be there and she can use at least 1 or 2 others. This is a sitting job, but does get pretty hectic early on Saturday. PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU CAN HELP!!!