Bryan Gonderinger

DX Commander Assembly & Tuning Event This Saturday (8/12) at 9am!

Come join Chuck, K0ITP, and Chuck, WG5X, as they assemble and tune their DX Commander HF antennas at the Clover Building at the Boulder County Fairgrounds this Saturday, 8/12/2023, starting at 9am.

The DX Commander (https://dxcommander.com/) is a multi-band vertical antenna system that uses the same technique as a fan dipole (https://www.onallbands.com/ham-radio-101-what-is-a-fan-dipole-antenna/) manufactured in England. It is a well-known antenna (and manufacturer) that has a very good reputation in the amateur community (and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@m0mcx)

There are a few different models, but the base model (DX Commander Classic) supports 40m through 2 meters.

Chuck (WG5X) has a still-in-box antenna that he’s going to put together and tune, so you can experience the whole process right from the start.

There will almost certainly be antenna analyzers and antenna tuning involved, and promises to be quite an interesting activity!

Hope to see you there (even if your name isn’t Chuck)!

LARC Repeater Update

The LARC repeater system has been experiencing signal dropouts and noise for a number of weeks. The issue appears to be with the microwave link to the receivers and transmitters on Lee Hill.

A plan is in place to address this by relocating the microwave dish on the roof of the Justice Center to adjust the path slightly as the current path appears to be partially blocked by a tree a few blocks away.

There are some scheduling and parts issues that need to be resolved, so in the meantime, the systems on Lee Hill have been disconnected from the repeater system.

This has solved the dropout problem, but does reduce the coverage area of the repeater system. Stations outside of the coverage area of the Justice Center may not be able to get into or hear the repeaters at this time.

If you are having trouble, you can try the other repeater (2m or 70cm) and see if that’s any better, or use EchoLink to access the system.

Once the Lee Hill equipment is able to be brought back into the system, the larger coverage footprint should be restored.

LARC Foxhunt

Hello LARC – Well get your gear out and antennas – it’s fox hunting time!!!

Here is the general area for the fox.

Go find it and take a picture with it, then send the picture to me.

The hunt will run from 10AM to 1PM. Come out, have some fun and find the fox.

Almost forgot – the fox will be transmitting on 146.565 at about 1 watt.

It will transmit a CW message – figure it out and send it to me along with picture. at [email protected]

BARCFest Ham Fest – Sunday, October 2

BARCfest is happening this Sunday, October 2 – doors open at 8am!

Jim Andrews, KH6HTV, will be providing free radio testing (see supplement doc below).

Mona’s Hot Dogs will be there with a food truck offering breakfast sandwiches, pastries, lunch items and beverages (yes, including coffee, lots of coffee!)

We have MB Engraving again so you can purchase a new nametag in case you need one.

The door prizes are a bit different this year – we have premium prizes on the hour and standard prizes every 15 minutes (15,30 and 45 past the hour). Premium prizes are valued at $115 to $370.(grand prize), while standard prizes are $20 to $80 values. We have had donations of prizes from Arrow Antennas, Bioenno Power, Heil Sound, The Wireman, and Denver HRO managers Mike (KB6VHF) & Laura Spraker, Gerry Leary, Mike Derr, Debbie & Pete Goldman and of course BARC. All prizes will be listed on the sign by the announcer table. Since they are gift bags (yes, you get swag along with all the prize drawings) there are too many details to provide here. However, the grand prize is:

GRAND PRIZE – A Gift tote with a $370+ value !!! The prize includes an ARROW II Model 146/437-10WBP Hand-held PORTABLE Satellite Antenna ($170 value) AND a YAESU FTM-3100R/E VHF Transceiver ($150 value) AND a Wireman $50 gift certificate. Plus ham SWAG in a Heil Sound Tote Bag.

So sign up today and we’ll see you there!

-Debbie

wb2dvt

2022 ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention, Oct 7-9

The 2022 ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention will be held on October 7th through 9th in Cheyenne Wyoming. Jointly hosted by the Shy-Wy and Sweetwater County Amateur Radio Clubs in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Rick Roderick, ARRL President is the featured speaker this year. The main convention day will be Saturday, October 8th with vendors, a swap meet, forums, activities, a VE test session, banquet and special event station W7Y. For more information, see their web site: https://wyhamcon.org/site/

Click on the “PROGRAM” menu item at the top of the page for an event schedule – they’re got a lot of interesting presenters this year (including our own Club president, Chuck Poch, K0ITP)!

General Meeting Videos Uploaded

Recordings of the February, March, April and May LARC general meeting presentations have been made available on YouTube. You can find them under the LARC YouTube channel, or on the club web page by clicking on Meeting Presentations under the LARC History menu drop-down.

Presentation topics include: BCARES, SkyHub Link System, Air Force MARS, and NASA on the Air.

NCARC Kit Building Event – Sat June 11

The Northern Colorado Amateur Radio Club (NCARC) is hosting a “Rosin Core Event” where participants will be building their own UltraPico Keyer Morse code keyer (http://www.hamgadgets.com/ULTRA-PICOKEYER).

The cost is $30 and all kit and soldering materials will be provided (but you are welcome to bring your own equipment if you want). The event will be held Saturday, June 11th – there are still slots available at the 1:00pm – 3:00pm session.

Not an NCARC member? Don’t worry – non members are welcome to attend!

For more details, see their club web page at: http://ncarc.net/

Foxhunt – This Saturday, Mar 26th

Did you participate in the recent LARC Yagi antenna building activity? If so, here’s your chance to try out that new antenna (and if not, you can still join on in the fun, even if you only have an HT and rubber duck antenna)!

Sebastian Wessels, NS0W, a former vice-president of LARC, is running a fox hunt this Saturday, March 26th. Here is his announcement of the event:

I decided to run a Fox Hunt this weekend as there seems to be renewed interest in the club. I did a test deployment today and I could copy the Fox with my mobile setup south of 17th, between Airport on the west and Lashley on the east. I did not check the south boundary but I am sure you should be able to hear it all the way to Pike.

I am planning to do this on Saturday, March 26 from 2PM sharp, till 4pm. The frequency is 147.495. It is an FM signal with beeps every second or so for 30 secs and then my call, NS0W in CW, and then it turns off for 30 sec and repeats the cycle.

The fox is an ammo can that will be at ground level. I will attach some kind of password to the top. It will be in an publicly accessible area, but will obviously be hidden behind a bush or something similar. This should be an easy hunt, but be ready for your receiver to be swamped when you get close. You will need some kind of attenuation.

Please record the time, location and “Password” and send it to [email protected]. I will ask Chuck to share the results.

If you are new to fox hunting / radio direction finding, here are some resources you can check out:

http://www.homingin.com/equipment.html

http://www.arrl.org/direction-finding

Sebastian mentions attenuation. This is one of the few times in amateur radio where we actually want to decrease the power of the signal reaching our radio. If you have an HT with a rubber duck (i.e. non-directional) antenna, you can use the “body fade” technique, or when you get really close to the fox, you can disconnect your antenna altogether (just be careful not to transmit without the antenna!)