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O P E N M I CA NEWSLETTER OF THE

RUNESTONE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB, W0ALX

W0ALX RARC, 2301 S Le Homme Dieu Drive NE, Alexandria, MN 56308www.w0alx.org Alexandria Rpt: 146.790- 442.025+ (88.5) Sauk Centre Rpt: 147.255+

JULY 2015

UPCOMING EVENTS:

July 18: 8:00am Breakfast, The Depot, AlexandriaJuly 18: 10am RARC Monthly Club Mtg

Glenwood State Bank, Alex

Aug 1: 8:00am Breakfast, Trucker's Inn, Sauk CentreAug 15: 8:00am RARC Monthly Club Mtg

Glenwood State Bank,Alex

….........PLEASE NOTE SCHEDULE FOR JULY 18..........

8:00am, Coffee/Breakfast, The Depot, Alex

10am Monthly Club Mtg, Glenwood St Bank, Alex

PRESIDENTIAL SPLATTER.........

Mid Summer Nights Dream

Summer is in full swing with hot nights and even hotter days. The old saying is put up antennas during the worst conditions and they will stay up and work better. Well I think July qualifies. I just extended my tower height to 120 feet (free standing of course). I added a stepper IR antenna, the big one you know. Wire antennas, you bet. A full wave length 160 meter dipole, 80 meter dipole and 40 meter dipole. Just to be safe, I am trying a 4 square for 160 (to get Alaska). With such a nice antenna farm I had to get a new rig. I had a difficult time in deciding on the Icom 7851, Kenwood 990S, Flex 6700, or the Yaesu FTDX5000MP so I purchased all of them. Wait, to be heard decently I realized I needed a linear. Oh so many choices. Alpha 9500, Ameritron ALS-1306, or the Acom 2000A. You guessed it, I got them all. It was around midnight, tuning the 160 meter band, low and behold, there was KL7RA (the big contest station you know) with an S9+20db signal and very little summer static. Here was my chance to finally get Alaska. With no warm up or tuning required, I turned on the linear, phased the 4 square toward KL7, took a deep breath and started to call. KL7RA, KL7RA de WA0EBZ. Yup, he came right back with a S9+40db. Finally Alaska in the log book. I hope all your dreams are as good as mine, Hope you had fun at this years field day.

Have a wonderful summer!73, Wayne (wa0ebz)

PROGRAM NOTE:

A two part program at club meeting on July 18...1) Components, What are they? and 2) A short video, “W0AIH Super Station and Antenna Farm”.

You should plan to come and see what's going on...CU there, 73

What follows next is a collection of pictures taken by Denita KC0WHM, Jim KB0INZ, Bill KG0DX and Mike W0MKE. Thank you for responding to the request for FD pics. Our folks tried to cover most aspects of FD 2015 but probably missed a couple opportunities capturing potential Schwartz Award candidates. Oh well, enjoy the pics and we apologize for not getting everyone into the album. Come again next year and we'll try harder.

Here's where we were in Osakis, MN on a lovely weekend in late June. If you missed it, you lost out on lots of fun.

Appears as though this unidentified ham is looking for something to shoot with his spud gun.

Can you see the small, red birdie at the top right of the tree? Someone had to walk out into the corn field to retrieve the birdie; thinking his feet got wet.

Minutes of the Runestone Amateur Radio Club Radio Club June 20, 2015

Members Present: Jim Horn(KB0INZ); Dave Bartlow(KF6SUI); Mike Wisniewski(KC0TAF); Denita Wisniewski(KC0WHM); Bill Klundt(KG0DX); Mike Thomas(W0MKE); Norn Priebe(W7ISD); Roger Haffner(KD0UTA); George Schouweiler(N0RCL); John Ross(W0JAR); Norman Yuetter(W0KCJ); Wayne Johanson(WA0EBZ

No Formal Committee Reports

Norm W7ISD was appointed by President Johanson as a Director of the Club as of this meeting to serve until elections at the January 2016 meeting of the club membership.

A decision about renting a storage space was tabled by consensus.

The updates to the Constitution and By-Laws as read at the May meeting were approved on a 13/0 vote. The quorum (at least 13 of the 19 members) was met by 12 members present physically and one member (N0CE) contacted by telephone. N0ISD/KG0DX

The Douglas County Ag. Association offers a 10’ x 10’ indoor space for $25 at the Douglas County Fair Aug. 20-23, 2015. The Secretary is directed to write them thanking them but declining the offer. W0KCJ/KG0DX

The audit of the books was done. Everything was found to be in order. The Secretary has placed a copy of the audit report dated April 15, 2015 in his book of minutes.

Discussion Topics: Douglas County tower ordinances; Norm Yuetter’s trip to Dayton Hamvention; operating activities of members; Field Day Planning; Technician Class Fall 2015

Adjournment: Norm Priebe / Mike Wisniewski . Passed

Quite a crowd had gathered by this time for the RARC 2015 Field Day event!

The action is beginning to pick up. We actually had a ham from the Fargo area stop in after sighting our banner.

Using a direction finding instrument to find their way back to their ham shack trailer? Checking the wx? Nobody knows for sure.

OK guys, here how it goes....press the button, turn the knob, and THEN flip the switch....see how easy.

How many Extra's does it take to raise an R7? There's at least four in the pic.

I can hear you now, 10-4 good buddy. You runnin' with McCoy convoy on 94?

Now what the heck's going on here? With this pair in the trailer it's anyone guess.

Something has nearly everyone's attention. This was Sunday morning sometime.

Dave testing out his newly acquired IC-730 with Andy and Bill looking on.

Roger test driving his newly acquired Uniden 10 meter rig..worked pretty good Sunday morning with the sloper.

Mike demonstrating “strong-arm” PSK via 2 meters with a local application; the other Mike (not pictured) demo-ed Raspberry pi....good, interesting stuff.

Mike and Wayne analyzing the analysis with respect to some bad coax.

. The far support for a random wire and remote, manual tuner. Worked pretty good for a limited 40 ft wire.

Andy and Mike hammering away at the PSK. Great local condx; atmospheric, not so much.

Roger was just resting his eyes so he could work that Uniden and get himself ready for some home operation.

Doesn't need much explanation does it???????