Serving Pettis and surrounding counties
Our eldest Klub member, friend and mentor Jim Keck WØFRX became a silent key on Sunday, August 25, 2019 at the age of 98.
In some way, Jim touched nearly all of us over his many years, whether by mentoring, sharing his vast experience or by spending countless hours in QSOs with us.
He will be sadly missed.
His obituary can be found here.
Any Klub member who has a story to share about Jim is invited to add it to the end of this post. Click “edit” to add your memory of Jim.
[pdf-embedder url=”https://wa0sdo.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Amateur-Radio-Technician-Class.pdf” title=”Amateur Radio Technician Class”]
July 25th – 28th, 2019
Sedalia, MO. Amateur Radio Club
Special Event Station
52nd Anniversary National Wheelmen Meet
Operating on Bands 10 -80
Call sign ‘NØW’ “National Zero Wheelmen”
S.P.A.R.K. Meeting Minutes – 02/02/2019
Meeting called to order 8:36 a.m.
Treasurer’s report as of 01/31/2029
Checking * $1649.34
Savings * $234.00
Old Minutes were unavailable
Old Business
Renewed discussion pertaining to the minutes of the meeting being distributed via E-Mail
to club members
New Business
Chris, KC0TKS will be live streaming the net this Sunday night.
Phillip KJ5ZW, Asked about fixing the long squelch tail on the repeater. John N0XG, will check into alleviating the problem.
Dennis KY0P, requested an introduction of all in attendance, due to the new Hams and guests at the meeting.
Bob KE0CYR wished to express his thanks to the VE team for holding the test sessions.
A request for having a general class and exam was made.
Sam KE0LMY, spoke to the group concerning field day. She invited S.P.A.R.K. to again participate along with the Benton County and Warrensburg clubs in field day operations.
Richard KEOQYA, made a motion to accept the invitation which was seconded by Nick
KEONIL. A vote was taken and the motion passed.
Sam also requested our assistance with a technician class to be held in Benton County and offered help with our Website and Facebook page.
A new radio club has been established of in Warsaw. information about The Dam Amateur Radio Klub or D.A.R.K. can be found at damark.org
Chris, KC0TKS, asked if anyone had contact the International Space Station on a recent flyover.
Next meeting will be April 6th
The chair accepted a motion to adjourn from Phillip KJ5ZW and seconded by David
KDOORW. The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 a.m.
Paul, consider making a post on the SPARK page about some users of the Baofeng UV5R having very weak transmit audio, I’m sure you’ve noticed that. Most likely it’s because the UV5R is set to Narrow Band mode. Here’s how to check it and change it to Wide Band mode if needed.
1- Press MENU at the upper left corner of the keypad. Voice will say “MENU”. (hopefully in English!)
2- Press the Number 5 on the keypad. The display will show either NARR or WIDE.
3- If the display shows NARR, press MENU. Voice will say “CHANNEL BANDWIDTH”. (If the display shows WIDE merely press EXIT)
4- Press either the UP arrow or the DOWN arrow on the keypad, the display will then show WIDE.
5- Press MENU. Voice will say “CONFIRM”.
6- Press EXIT.
If this procedure doesn’t cure the low transmit audio the user should speak louder and make sure the microphone (behind that teeny tiny hole to the left of the speaker and above the A/B button) is directly in front of and close to the user’s mouth. Sometimes during assembly the piece of foam that holds the microphone element in place gets dislodged and may partially cover the microphone element, that usually requires disassembly. Sometimes that teeny tiny hole needs to be reamed out ever so slightly. Don’t go very deep or the the microphone element will be destroyed, and a speaker mike is the only recourse from then on.
John N0EE
n0ee@juno.com
20 Meters 14.230 MHz USB
Hey a lot of our members would like to see each others “Ham Shack”.
If you would like , post your shack pic or favorite radio that you use.
Ham shack can also be mobile.
Paul, KD0ETL
S.P.A.R.K. members:
We have discussed in past meeting putting together a “Technician Class” to get new persons interested in the hobby a place to come and learn. I have been asked to head up the training. I agreed to do this but like the hobby itself its no fun just with one person. I am asking for volunteers to help teach the (10) Sub-elements in the question pool. I have gone to (2) Tech classes over the course of several years. One was when I was first licensed and one was a short time ago when my wife got the bug and got her ticket. Both of these learning sessions were done in Warrensburg at the WAARCI club office. Both were very good classes with a similar type of layout. I am hoping to get (5) instructors to fill the two weekend days of Sat. Jan 5th and Sat. Jan 12th.
Now the questions are churning and you ask yourself: What do I have to do?
Well, I am working on preliminary lesson plans and hope that the instructors can give feedback or offer some suggestions for corrections. I hope to have most of the work done and the instructors will be asked to go over the power point presentation lesson, in the beginning, followed by the selected question pool questions at the end. That’s it. We will try to have times set for those that cannot stay the duration of the day. If you don’t like public speaking that’s ok also. Please come to support your fellow HAMS and meet the new wave coming in.
We do not intend for this class to teach the new students everything they need to know about Amateur Radio. We are having the classes to teach them how to pass the test.
I expect for those operators that are there to get loaded down with questions so any support to the cause you can give will be appreciated.
Current list of Subelements and Volunteers
Subelements:
T1 — FCC Rules, descriptions, and definitions for the Amateur Radio Service, operator and station license responsibilities
T2 — Operating Procedures
T3 — Radio wave characteristics: properties of radio waves; propagation modes (Phillip Markmann)
T4 — Amateur radio practices and station set-up (Daren Nerad)
T5 — Electrical principles: math for electronics; electronic principles; Ohm’s Law
T6 — Electrical components; circuit diagrams; component functions
T7 — Station equipment: common transmitter and receiver problems; antenna measurements; troubleshooting; basic repair and testing
T8 — Modulation modes: amateur satellite operation; operating activities; non-voice and digital communications
T9 — Antennas and feed lines (Phillip Markmann)
T0 — Electrical safety: AC and DC power circuits; antenna installation; RF hazards
Please send me a direct email to : KD0OPS@ARRL.NET
If you could put “Volunteer Tech Testing” in the subject line and let me know which Subelement you’re interested in teaching. If you are interested and it is one that is already taken please list that also and we can use you as an alternate.
UPDATE: 12/8/2018
Dates for Technician Classes:
1/5/2019 = 8:00 to 3:00 (Times are best guess and could be extended to complete the lessons)
1/12/2019 = 8:00 to 12:00
1/12/2019 = 1:00 to last test completion
Instructor volunteers to date: Scott – KEØQLT, Brett – KDØUSK, John – NØXG, Phillip – KJ5ZW, Daren – KDØOPS
Please feel free to shoot me an email to get your name in so we can coordinate.
