CARS Meeting of October 19th, 2021
Speaker: Wesley Cardone, N8QM
Affiliation: Distinguished member Chelsea Amateur Radio Club
VP Cascades Amateur Radio Society
Title: The Siglent SDG 1032X Function Generator
The Siglent SDG 1062X Function Generator was reviewed in this month’s issue of QST magazine (October 2021). As it happened, our own Wes Cardone (N8QM) needed a function generator and spent some considerable time in looking into what was available and for what prices. Lo, and behold, Wes decided on the same model function generator that was reviewed in the QST magazine! At the October 2021 meeting of CARS, Wes will bring his function generator to the meeting and talk about what persuaded him to settle on this model. Wes will also briefly discuss what his need was/is for a function generator and how these things serve amateur radio.
CARS Meeting of August 17th, 2021
Speaker: Wesley Cardone, N8QM
Affiliation: Distinguished member Chelsea Amateur Radio Club
Title: What’s all this Chartaristic Impedance Stuff, Anyhow?
For the August meeting of the Cascades Amateur Radio Society, Our speakergave a presentation on characteristic impedance. All wires (coax as well as hookup wire) have a characteristic impedance. He presented the components of characteristic impedance, their nature, and what their dependencies are. Having that background information, he then had us look at the FCC amateur radio pool question G9B02 and talk about it.
CARS Meeting of July 20th, 2021
Speaker: Wesley Cardone, N8QM
Affiliation: Distinguished member Chelsea Amateur Radio Club
Title: What’s all this Antenna Tuner Stuff, Anyhow?
For the July monthly meeting of the Cascades Amateur Radio Society, Wes Cardone (N8QM) picked up where he left off in the June meeting with cable termination reflections and cable length. Please see the club blog post where the video of this presentation has been posted.
CARS Meeting of June 15th, 2021
Speaker: Wesley Cardone, N8QM
Affiliation: Distinguished member and vice-president of the Cascades Amateur Radio Society
Title: What’s all this Impedance Matching Stuff About, Anyhow?
For the June monthly meeting of the Cascades Amateur Radio Society, our presentation was given by Wes Cardone, N8QM, on impedance matching. But this was from a perspective that most amateurs have likely not considered.
Wes asked the question, “So, what’s all this impedance matching stuff about, anyhow?” Why is it that in amateur radio that we pay so much attention to all this impedance matching? Is it really important in all cases and why or why not is it important? None of us worry too much about impedance matching for our living room incandescent lamp fixture. Yet it has all the elements of interest with an electrical signal source, distribution cable, and a load. What makes amateur radio any different, anyhow?
CARS Meeting of May 18th, 2021
Speaker: Jeff Thrush, KD8LMI
Affiliation: Distinguished member Chelsea Amateur Radio Club (wd8iel.com)
Jeff handles all of the maintenance on the Chelsea and Manchester repeaters and what a masterful job he has done, and continues to do, on them! This is your “go-to man” for all of your amateur radio questions.
Jeff gave a presentation which he gave earlier this year to the Chelsea Amateur Radio Club on WinLink. I attended this presentation and thought it was truly down-to-earth and well laid out.
A video recording of this presentation has been edited and uploaded for viewing.
CARS Meeting of April 20th, 2021
Speaker: Dave Foster, W3IGT
Affiliation: Distinguished member Cascades Amateur Radio Society
What is the difference between a crystal radio and a radio crystal? What role did rock crystals play in winning WWII? What is the relation between a rock and a crystal, an atom and an ion, and why should I–as a ham radio operator–give a hoot?
These and other interesting questions were answered during the presentation titled “Radio Rocks! A geologist looks under the hood.” Please keep visiting this page to see a video of this presentation when it becomes available.
Here’s How to Log Into Our Meetings
If new to video conferencing we recommend logging in at maybe 6:30pm to give yourself some margin. While actual meeting content begins promptly at 7PM EST, you may want to jabber-jaw with other amateurs between 6:30 and 7:00PM while waiting for the meeting to begin.
You may video conference either using an installed Zoom application or participate from a browser. The easiest way is to use the “Online Club Meetings” button on the club home page. Clicking on the home page “Online Club Meetings” button takes you directly to the meeting. If the meeting has not yet started, then you will already be there when it does.
Recent Meetings
Meeting of February 16th, 2021
Speaker: Steve Waterman, K4CJX
Affiliation: FEMA R4 RECCWG AuxComm Committee, Chair
More than ever, the U.S. Amateur Radio spectrum is under observation for use by commercial communications giants. We have just experienced a loss in the GHz range and the loss is likely is not over yet. While the ARRL is working to protect our Amateur frequencies, at the same time there are supplemental avenues to successfully maintain the amateur spectrum. Recognizing the issues the Amateur Radio operator faces and the need for our services, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) SHAred RESources (SHARES) program advocates the use of Amateur Radio volunteer resources for the installation, operation and maintenance of its agency member stations.
For our March 16th meeting Steve Waterman provided information about the CISA SHARES program and how amateurs can become involved. This presentation and discussion was a follow-up to Max Schneider’s January 19th CARS presentation about the CISA Emergency Communications Division (ECD) AuxComm solution for Amateur Radio EmComm. Winlink radio email, which has been adopted by the Department of Homeland Security for its own use is an important tool in the processes and was part of Steve’s presentation.
Here are the notes from Steve’s presentation: Why SHARES by Steve Watermann
CARS Meeting of March 16th, 2021
Speaker: Bruce Braun, W6FSG
Affiliation: Retired NBC Broadcast Engineer/Producer
PREVIEW: For the March 16th meeting we had a presentation by Bruce Braun (W6FSG), a retired NBC broadcast engineer, presenting about a documentary that he produced on the Titanic. Here is a teaser he has given us as an early intro to the presentation.
January 19, 2021
For the January 19th meeting our speaker was Max Schneider presenting on Michigan’s AuxComm. It has been announced that many of Michigan’s RACES organizations are being decommissioned in favor of AuxComm. This presentation was therefore of intense interest to many of our members and amateur radio operators of surrounding counties. Attendance was nearly 30.
Here are the PDF notes Max gave us from the presentation:
What is Auxiliary Communications (AUXCOMM)