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I have invited Dundee Dale, otherwise known as Dale Williams (WA8EFK) to introduce himself at the September 15th CARS club meeting by video conference together with Michael Kalter. Both will be given one minute each to announce at the meeting who they are and where to get more information. Dale is a candidate for the Great…

On tonight’s Sunshine net we had 12 check ins if you include net control. The net had a special nuance to it tonight. At nearly the conclusion of the net, Jim (KE8NFL) announced that he was considering the purchase of a Kenwood 2000 and asked if other net check ins had comment on that make…

The nanoVNA is a mighty fine instrument considering you can buy one for less than $100. But like many instrumentation items, you have to know how to use it. In this blog post we will look at the illusion of error due to a failure to consider scaling. Consider the example illustrated in the first…

This blog post will hilight one of the nanoVNA’s most infamous display shortcomings. How do you tell when you have a trace selected? The nanoVNA is truly God’s gift to amateur radio…if you know how to use it. But the nanoVNA’s big calling card (a magnificently low price, just $40) is indirectly it’s big liability….

Mike (WB8ICN) tells us that on tonight’s CW net there were two check ins: Gary, W8KM and Dick, KA8VLN. Figuring high on the list of CW discussion was Mike’s nanoVNA. Other than that, discussion centered on lunch and Gary’s boat anchor repairs.

Every amateur radio operator by definition has a first QSO. Most go into the bin of forgetfulness never to be discussed again except in the mind of that amateur radio operator. But this story is a little different. In this story we have three participants: 1. the new adult amateur, Jason WA6MPR; 2. a step-pops, Wes…

Many CARS members meet Friday evenings for dinner at the Alpha Coney restaurant at the Jackson Crossings mall in Jackson, Michigan. At tonight’s meeting of August 28th one of our members, Dick KA8VLN, brought with him a couple of cool devices to share with the group. The first device was a Morse key that you…

I would like to start some sort of video conference learning arrangement relating to amateur radio. The first thing that I think of is helping amateur wannabes learn the tools of the trade for FCC licensing. I won’t be much help there with my limited amateur radio experience but there may be club members that will…

Tonight’s net was outstanding! We had almost as many check ins as we did for the net last Thursday. We were just one check in shy of that record of 19 check ins to the net. On this net KD8AAD, Bill, served as net control. Check ins (in the order taken) were: 2 N8HLC Harland,…

In tonight’s Sunshine net we had 13 licensed amateur check ins. These included myself (N8QM, N8HLC Harland, WB8ICN Mike, WD8IGK Scott, W3IGT Dave (our resident geologist, retired), NK8L Leo, KA8VLN Dick, K8TS Dale, KE8NBV Jeremiah, N8CDK Mark, KD8AAD Bill, N8IUM John, and our late checking K8LEC Lars. Of particular interest on this net was a…