Minutes by Gerry Jurrens, N2GJ at N2ARC.
Attendees (9 hams):
Gerry Jurrens, N2GJ
Gary Wilson, K2GW
Brian Boccardi, N2MPM
Vojtech Bubnick, AB2ZA
Jack Acacia, KB3OXW
Pushpendra Khaira, AB2XF
Richard Bitzer, WB2ZKW
Samuel Leidy, KF3G
Ron McConnell, W2IOL
Meeting notes:
K2GW: Gary welcomed newcomer, Sam KF3G, and described various clubs and activities in the area. He also brought a bunch of brand new laptop cases to sell prior to this Sunday's Packrats Hamfest in PA. We also sold the surplus Astron RS20 power supply to amortize the purchase of a large capacity gel-cell for battery backup in the new N2ARC station.
KF3G: Sam is a newcomer to the group, coming quite a ways from near to Philly International Airport. He has been visiting various clubs since getting back into ham radio recently, getting a feel for the kinds of activities each one offers. He had a lot of good input to the discussions on lightning protection.
W2IOL: Ron brought in a Yaesu FRDX-400 receiver to give away (see below). He also brought a large supply of electronics magazines (such as IEEE Spectrum) to give away.
KB3OXW: Jack brought in several nice .5 watt "QRP" speakers and some tube straighteners to give away. As Gary said, "We had an abundance of speakers for today's meeting!"
WB2ZKW: Richard has been contemplating the erection of an HF antenna at his new QTH, but a recent severe thunderstorm with abundant lightning has him wondering about protection from Mother Nature. Several times during the meeting, discussions about the capricious nature of lightning and how to protect from it ensued.
AB2ZA: Vojtech brought in his highly-modifed ATS-3B which he has converted from a CW-only single-band transceiver, to a radio capable of multi-mode, multi-band operation. I took a lot of notes, but can't read them now, so I implore Vojtech to document his modifications on the radio on the reflector.
AB2XF: Push put up an HF dipole at his place and a 2 meter antenna. He posted photos from the last meeting online (via Yahoo Groups: NJQRP). He brought in 3 different sound processing units, a Creative Labs SB0940USB (about $44) which he says is quite good; the SB Live! 0410, and the M-Audio Delta 44 ("Very good, professional quality, quite expensive at ~$145"). He has learned a bit more about the Software Defined Radio software (demonstrating the settings for IQ Connection which should be 0 with the SB0940USB, 1 at 48K Sampling Rate and 2 at 96K rate with the SB0410). He showed us the "Rocky 3.5" software, which he described as "much easier to use" and capable of PSK31 operation. He also mentioned that there is a program called "CW Skimmer" which is capable of operating almost like a bandscope showing the different callsigns of the stations within the bandwidth display - might be useful for contesting, [N2GJ: although at $75, it's a little pricey].
N2MPM: Brian came for a while and had a birthday party to attend. Good to see you, Brian!
N2GJ: Working on furniture project for N2ARC with my 90 year old father-in-law. Put up a portable Arrow j-pole for hurricane watch/Skywarn a couple of weeks ago with good results. Going to give the Yaesu FRDX-400 receiver from Ron to my friend Marty WB2BEW, who enjoys restoring old tube radios.
Additions/corrections welcome!
Respectfully submitted, 73,
Gerry Jurrens, N2GJ
See you all at the next meeting! (See the NJQRP Event Calendar for the full set of meeting dates.)
Last updated: September 28, 2008
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