MARC - Cincinnati's Club For Amateur Radio - 147.345+

MARC Member Has Articles Published

June 15, 2017 By

Jack Purdum, W8TEE and Vice President of MARC, has co-authored an article scheduled for the September issue of QST. The title of the article is Build Your Own Antenna Analyzer and is the same antenna analyzer (AA) that many members of the club built last year. The AA featured a full graphics display and could examine all amateur bands from 160M to 10M. See Figure 1. Multiple scans with overlays are possible and all scans can be save to an onboard SD card and can be exported in CSV format for use by other programs (e.g., Excel, Word, etc.)

Figure 1. A 40M scan

Dr. Purdum also was a speaker at the Four Days In May conference in Dayton May 17th of this year. The title of his talk was: Give Your QRP Rig a Facelift. Although the modifications were demonstrated for the $60 BITX40 SSB transceiver, almost any transceiver could implement most of the changes. The modifications include the addition of a TFT color display, DDS VFO, AGC, CW Mode, CW keyer with contest features, S meter, voltage monitor, and a speech processor. See Figure 2. The screen shown in Figure 2 is 2.4” and costs about $6. The code that drives the display is controlled by an inexpensive Arduino Mega 2560 Pro Mini. The talk is scheduled for reprint in QRP Quarterly this July.

MARC plans to do more club builds in the future.

Figure 2. The QRP “Facelift” screen.

President’s Message to the Membership, June 2017

June 5, 2017 By

Dave Vest, K8DV
Hello fellow MARC members, it is hard to believe that 2017 is half over, time flies when you are having fun, I guess. As all of you know June is a really busy month for the Milford Amateur Radio Club, with both Hamfest and Field Day occurring just a week apart from each other.

Hamfest plans are well under way and looking to have record breaking attendance. The prizes are coming along and will have lots of hourly door prizes with some extremely nice grand prizes. The Hamfest fleamarket or as I refer to it the boneyard should have a record number of tables this year with lots of items for sale. Once again we will have a food truck on-site which turned out to be successful last year.

Field Day (FD) Chairmen, Erik AC8VK and Mike W8BEI working with Bill WS6K on FD from continue to make excellent progress with the FD plan. Mike is working hard on the publicity for the event while Erick and Bill are working on the logistics of it.

The May meeting was well received with the presentation being on Field Day and MARC’s FD plans. This month MARC will be privileged to have well known DXpeditioner Joe Pater, W8GEX present to MARC the K9W DXpedition to Wake Island. If you have ever wondered what it takes to do a DXpedition you won’t want to miss Joe’s presentation. Joe has been on over 50 DXpeditions and has been the leader of several. I met up with Joe at Hamvention and he confirmed we are still on for June 8th.

As we look into 2017 we will have several interesting presentations coming up:

  • June – K9W DXpedition to Wake Island “The Forgotten 98” by Joe, W8GEX
  • July – Antenna Testing by Erik, AC8VK
  • August – Using test equipment by Al, AC8GY
  • September – TBD

As you know we introduced a new segment to the monthly meetings called “Jack’s Shack”. Feedback so far has been positive, so we will keep it going. I know that for April Jack will have another interesting installment of Jack’s Shack.

If you have an idea for Jack’s Shack you can submit your ideas to either Jack or me at one of the below email addresses:

  • president@w8mrc.com – Dave Vest, K8DV
  • vicepresident@w8mrc.com – Jack Purdum, W8TEE

If you have not been to a meeting in a while, I ask that you try and attend in 2017 and get involved as the club is only what you make of it.

73,
Dave K8DV

President’s Message to the Membership, April 2017

April 4, 2017 By

Dave Vest, K8DV

Hello fellow MARC members and it would appear that spring is in the air, well at least that is what is sounds like when I listen to 75 meters with all the static crashes and noise that is starting to appear as the seasons start to change. In March the club was able to name new Field Day (FD) Chairmen, Erik AC8VK and Mike W8BEI are going to be working with Bill WS6K to transition FD from Bill to give him a much needed rest after years of planning and coordinating FD. I am also sitting on this committee, to ensure the best interest of the membership is held. I have complete confidence in Erik and Mike. Latest news from the group is things are coming along nicely and appear to be right on schedule.

The April meeting we will surely enjoying learning about Ham Radio Recruiting from Mike W8BEI who will be giving the presentation on this subject. In May yours truly will be speaking about Field Day and what MARC’s plans are. In June MARC will be privileged to have well known DXpeditioner Joe Pater, W8GEX present to MARC the K9W DXpedition to Wake Island. If you have ever wondered what it takes to do a DXpedition you won’t want to miss Joe’s presentation. Joe has been on over 50 DXpeditions and has been the leader of several.

As we look into 2017 we will have several interesting presentations coming up:

  • April – Ham Radio Recruiting by Mike, W8BEI
  • May – MARC Field Day by Dave, K8DV
  • June – K9W DXpedition to Wake Island “The Forgotten 98” by Joe, W8GEX
  • July – Antenna Testing by Erik, AC8VK

As you know we introduced a new segment to the monthly meetings called “Jack’s Shack”. Feedback so far has been positive, so we will keep it going. I know that for April Jack will have another interesting installment of Jack’s Shack.

If you have an idea for Jack’s Shack you can submit your ideas to either Jack or me at one of the below email addresses:

  • president@w8mrc.com – Dave Vest, K8DV
  • vicepresident@w8mrc.com – Jack Purdum, W8TEE

If you have not been to a meeting in a while, I ask that you try and attend in 2017 and get involved as the club is only what you make of it.

73,

Dave K8DV

President’s Message to the Membership, March 2017

March 2, 2017 By

Hello fellow MARC members and my apologies for not publishing a February update. As most of you know I attended Hamcation in Orlando and thus did not make it to the February meeting, I guess between that and the missed update I now have 2 … [Continue reading]

President’s Message to the Membership, January 2017

January 1, 2017 By

Hello fellow MARC members and welcome to 2017. I am happy to be serving as president for the next year and hope that together we can have MARC continue down the road of success. My appreciation goes to Mike Kieffer (KD8OUT) for serving the last … [Continue reading]

National Parks on the Air Operating Event 11/26/2016

November 23, 2016 By

This Saturday, club members will activate the NPOTA site TR04 (North Country Scenic Trail). The location will be at the soccer field by E.Galbraith (Kugler Mill Rd.) and Rt.126. Setup is at 10:00am and we should start on air operations by 11:00am. … [Continue reading]

Ohio State Parks On The Air

July 24, 2016 By

The Milford Amateur Radio Club will be operating from the Indian Mounds Shelter parking lot in East Fork State Park during Ohio State Parks On The Air (OSPOTA) on September 10, 2016. Enter the park from SR 125, go past the park headquarters, and … [Continue reading]

Why You Should Get Your Extra Class License

March 25, 2016 By

By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU The Amateur Extra Class license is the highest class of license in the United States, and perhaps the world. Many hams—even hams that live outside the U.S.—aspire to pass the test and be awarded one. There wasn’t always … [Continue reading]