Presidential Musings

What I like most about the Longmont Amateur Radio Club

Saturday, June 11, 2011 at Longmont Colorado 

At 1:00 P. M. the doors to the Clover building at the Boulder County Fairgrounds opened to that afternoon’s edition of Solder Sniffers. We were ready to build some G5RV antennas. (For those of you not familiar with that intrepid group, a short explanation follows.) Solder Sniffers started in 1998 when several of the Longmont Amateur Radio Club’s concerned members sought a way to get folks building their own equipment again. That stalwart group included Bob WA2EKU, Earle NØISB, Gary KBØNNB, Rich KBØULB, and Pat WØIPL among others. After all, anybody can pick up a phone made in China from WalMart and call aunt Gerty in Philadelphia, but hams have the opportunity to use their own equipment, designed and constructed by them, to reach out to the world. Many don’t, but we can. We called it Solder Sniffers because the rosin core in electronic solder has a unique, and in a way, very pleasant aroma when heated, and we were heatin’ it!

Back in the day, our first project was a code practice oscillator with some really nifty features designed by Gary. We put them together in one afternoon mostly to see how well everyone could solder. Of course they all worked. After that we tackled a 40 meter QRP CW transceiver kit. Bob and Earle ran thru it a week or so ahead of everybody and discovered all the difficult and incorrect stuff, and figured out fixes. By the time we came together to build that section, it was good. Rich, found a great deal on some used soldering stations, so we all had decent equipment. Suffice it to say that after about six sessions we had assembled 25 working 40 meter transceivers, in large part because everybody helped everybody else.

And that’s exactly what happened all over again this time. Chip ABØXH ordered the window line and found some SO239s. Jake KI6FCW made some supports for the center of the dipole and the coax to window line junction. Will NØAWZ latched onto some PVC conduit for insulators and brought a bunch of needed tools. The design evolved as we worked on it, and it became apparent that we needed more of the parts Jake had made, and that a few modifications might make it all work better. Shawn KD0NFZ and his son Liam KDØNIZ headed for their machine shop and brought us back some freshly minted additional and upgraded models (as well as a couple of great ideas for even more improvements!) Meanwhile Jerry NØOUW, Doug KEØSI, Duane WDØEEM, Started to measure wire and window line. As assembly started, it was determined that we needed some different rivets and more SO239s; so Paul ACØQE headed back to his house to search his junk box for what we needed. Alas it was not helpful, so Paul just went shopping and got what we needed!

His XYL Nancy ACØDC was left to help build the antenna destined for the club’s use this field day along with newly minted General operator Bill KG6CNL. As we used up the 450 ohm window line that had been donated by Sebastian NSØW, we started to use the 300 ohm window line only to discover that the dimensions did not work well with the rivets Jim NØXDA had procured. So it was time for more modifications. A conference of those present provided solutions, and after about three and a half hours we had completed three sturdy G5RV antennas and had three or four more well on their way to completion.

All went well because we did it like we did it the first time. Everybody stepped up to help each other and we had a really good time. Next time you hear that we’re havin’ a Solder Sniffers session, come on by and check it out it might just make your day!

Jim