Contributed Article

General Class License Course

January 22, 2017 by Steve Parks

Announcing the Spring 2017 Southwest Dallas County Amateur Radio Club
“General Class” amateur radio license course. The purpose of this course
is to help interested individuals upgrade their “Technician Class” license to
“General Class”. Morse code is currently NOT a requirement.The class will be held at the First United Methodist Church of Red Oak,
600 Daubitz Road, Red Oak, TX. Enrollment is now open to the first 8
people to sign up. This class covers the material in the 426 test questions
of the “General Class” question pool and much more. There will be videos,
demos, homework, & mock tests during the 24 hour course, consisting of
3 hours (6:00PM to 9:00PM) on 8 consecutive Tuesdays, from March 28
through May 16, 2017, using the American Radio Relay League (ARRL)
“General Class” License Manual, 8th Edition” as your textbook. A printed
version is available here for $29.95 plus any shipping & handling charges.
An electronic version can be downloaded from Amazon Kindle here for $19.95.

Following the last session, written FCC amateur radio license exams may be
scheduled and taken for $14 to $15, depending on where the test is taken.
Correctly answering 26 of the 35 questions on your test will qualify someone
to upgrade their “Technician Class” amateur radio license to “General Class”.

Anyone wanting to attend may reserve a place in this class by sending an
email to with their contact information consisting of their
call, name, email address, and phone number.

TNX es 73,
K5EIS, Tom

January’s General Meeting, Jan 17

January 2, 2017 by JD Toony

Maurice Martin (KM5RF) will be our special speaker for January 17 at 7pm. He will be giving us a presentation on Ufer tower grounding, lightning suppression, proper ground rod installation, and station grounding.

He has quite a few hands on items that he will pass around and explain the purpose of each in multiple installations, as well as actual lighting damaged items that have been removed from his station.

His tower has taken 2 direct lighting strikes in the past with no damage with all 7 radios being connected. This will be a most interesting presentation, so come with questions about all things towers and grounding.

November’s General Meeting

November 1, 2016 by JD Toony

Our speaker for November 15th will be Jonathan Brandenburg. He is currently a professor at UTD and active in the DFW area Raspberry Pi user group. He owns a drone education and consulting company, has his pilot license, is an FAA certified advance ground instructor, recently obtained an FAA certificate to fly commercial unmanned aircraft, and loves to scuba dive.

He will be giving a presentation providing information and updates on exciting AMSAT activities and opportunities. These include Amateur Radio on the ISS, as well as recent and upcoming launches of amateur satellites. There will be discussion of progress on a geosynchronous amateur payload and even work on a lunar satellite. He hopes his presentation will pursuade our club to experience satellites through AMSAT and perhaps consider advancing the state of radio art.

The Chili Social After Action Report

October 25, 2016 by Steve Parks

The October General meeting and Chili Social was enjoyed by all who attended. A special “Thank You” to each person who brought chili, cheese, chips, beans, salad, and etc. Oh yes, and we even had some yummy deserts! On the Monday Net, Ben (K5NEB) said that his cookies didn’t turn out good. Well, by Tuesday night they got good enough that they pretty much disappeared at a fast pace. Ed (K5ZPC) thoughtfully brought a jar of antacid tablets to aid with the after-effects of too much spicy food. Teamwork prevailed with the set-up and clean-up and there were lots of friendly conversations to be heard as folks enjoyed the opportunity to visit and catch up with one another. It was good to meet and get to visit with family members that do not always attend the meetings.

We are looking forward to another opportunity to get together and eat and visit at the December Christmas dinner. Then there will be Field Day in June, and another October Chili Social.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the November meeting!

Pat (KB5YPP)

Ham Radio Elmers

October 19, 2016 by Steve Parks

When I began my ham radio journey I was looking for elmers. I was interested in building things, HF, and CW. Russ Thompson (KX5G) was one of the first to help. He gave me a power supply (that I still use). I also met up with John Langridge (KB5NJD) who helped me configure a number of home antennas and gave me my first set of paddles. I think I must have sent John at least a thousand emails asking questions. He politely responded to every single one of them.

And yet. . . it wasn’t enough.

My desire to learn could not be satisfied. I turned to media of all kinds. Books, blogs, podcasts, etc. Over time I have cultivated a list of media I enjoy. I thought I should share it. If YOU are wanting to learn more and have worn out your actual Elmer, here are some places you can learn a lot!

Blogs:

Podcasts:

Books:

Solder smoke Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics – Bill Meara

Elements of Radio – Marcus and Horton (This book is out of print, but you may find it at a ham fest. I did.)

Solid State Design for the Radio Amateur – Hayward and Demaw (Also out of print)

Experimental Methods in RF Design- Hayward, Larkin, and Campbell (this book is the follow up to solid state design. It also appears to be out of print.)

The Handbook

YouTube Channels:

QRP School – I actually got to meet Cliff on an NPOTA activation this year

WG0AT – Steve is the goat guy featured twice in QST this year. He is often manning the Buddipole table at HamComm.

QRP CW – I believe this guy is in Spain, but he always has interesting short videos

And if you are looking for the Rocky Balboa Radio video — I think this is it. The Rev. George Dobbs of GQRP fame talks about why QRP.

So — If your new to radio and interested in building things or learning things, these are some resources to get you started. Enjoy!

-Steve-

KF5RY