2023-06-13 Net Minutes

Check-ins (24)

David Bailey (K5DKB)

Paul Bilke (KF5WGJ)

excused

Matthew Barry (KG5LYE)

Minutes will be sent out after the net.
Name tags in hand: will be giving them to those who ordered them at the meeting:
Got to tour the inside of St. Mary’s Catholic Center
- It is magnificent inside there: lots of paintings, stonework, woodwork, sculptures, etc.

Lorna Flansburg (KI5FIZ)

61 members
Bank balance: $6,863.94
- Raffle prizes cost $1500, so you better buy tickets to help offset that cost! :)
Next VE session will be at Field Day (not at meeting this weekend)

Question #131 for conversation: Have you ever constructed a receiver, transmitter, or transceiver from a kit?

(If interested in submitting a weekly question, email n5zkf@arrl.net)

CEOC meeting this Friday, 2023-06-16
- Call main number or radio room (979) 821-1012
Brazos County ARES will not be meeting this month
- Will be at Field Day next week

Assembled a kit transceiver:
- 5 W (tr)uSDX
- 20 m through 80 m
- Highly recommended: “If I can do it, you can do it”

Never built a kit, but made a scratch novice transmitter (40 m or 80 m?)
- Crystal control, hand-wound “bottles”
- CW-only

Built a HeathKit receiver in the 1960s in High School
- Tube radio; covered general ham bands
- Fairly easy: good schematics and assembly instructions
- Worked when I finished it!

Haven’t built a radio from a kit, but built a 3D printer from a kit
- Has to count for something :)
- No soldering, but lots of mechanical precision
Field Day Committee meeting tomorrow 18:00

When about 10 years old…
- RadioShack project kits for crystal radio
- Magical times as a kid
As an adult…
- Built a kit receiver from Tentech
This repeater was struggling earlier this week
- 60 Hz buzz?
- Each time the antenna was transmitting, it would get caught in a loop with this buzz sound until it timed out
- It’s fixed now, and thanks to those involved with doing so!
- W5DZ: ideas:
  - There was a huge opening on the 2 m band about that time, another repeater perhaps?
  - Might have been Yaesu System Fusion digital mode?

Has a new, unused Hy-Gain vertical HF base station antenna for sale
- Asking $50
- ~~Call me if interested at (979) 654-0484~~
- Sold on-the-spot to K5WTR

Anyone working on club website?
N5ZKF: primarily on Facebook these days
- New domain being worked on
KG5LYE: New domain in question is https://w5bcs.radio
- Still under development, spearheaded by Paul Bilke
- Have a few services there already, but not ready for “prime time” just yet
- Perhaps right after Field Day… Stay tuned!

Battleship Texas reserved N5T for Museum Ship Weekend
- That’s the same callsign we will be using for Field Day at the farm!
Battery booster question from earlier: Use biggest wire you can get