Ask Dave? Balanced is Balanced and Unbalanced Isn't!

 Another great post from Dave!

John, K0RW, asks Dave to provide a reference other than the ARRL that confirms a grounded vertical antenna is "unbalanced". Watch to see what Dave presents! 

ATAS-120 In The Field? YES!

We have talked about using the ATAS-120 mobile antenna in the field and here it is... I have one of these on my truck that works well but maybe it has other applications?

From W4ARB YouTube Channel

"In this video I try using the Yaesu ATAS-120A antenna by itself, not mounted mobile! I chose to use a ground spike with eight 12' ground radials. See for yourself how it works! I ran 50 watts for a quick CW Parks on the Air (POTA) activation at Tuskegee National Forest K-4451 on 1/3/24."
 

 

Harry's Coffee QSO Update

As some you may have seen... Harry's Cafe announced Thursday that they were closing. It is not known at this time what the future holds for the restaurant or even if there is a future. So we need to find a new location for the weekly Coffee QSO at least for the time being. 

There are not many breakfast locations with room that we would like to go to... so we will be trying out Jimmy's Egg. It's on North Broadway right in front of Home Depot. They have lots of tables, good coffee, great menu selections. Below are some pictures from their menu. Now MOST of us are seniors so I included the 55+ menu and the individual ala carte menu.

Let's try it out, and hopefully it we only be a couple of weeks when Harry's can reopen but we have to wait and see on that. My hope is there is someone in town that would feel motivated to keep it open and give it fresh life.

We will see you at Jimmy's Egg on Wednesday 9am until 10 or so...

January Meeting AND Winter Field Day

Hello everyone, I hope you have recovered from snow, Christmas, New Years etc etc and are ready to kick off the 2025 year for SEKARC! We will be having a big day on Saturday the 25th. We will begin with our January meeting at Fire Station #1 in Pittsburg at 911 W 4th Street at 9am and will include the usual breakfast, coffee and donuts. We will then hold election of officers for 2025-26! Plans for the new year and activities will be discussed and after a short discussion we will head to the Crawford County Historical Museum to setup for Winter Field Day! Maps for the locations are posted below.

Operational Period: Winter Field Day is held the last full weekend in January. For 2025, it will be held on January 25th and 26th. The 30-hour operational period starts at 1600 UTC on Saturday (11 am EST), the 25th, and ends at 21:59 UTC on Sunday, the 26th (4:59 pm EST). Stations may begin setting up no earlier than 1600 UTC (11 am EST) on the Friday before. And of course Field Days are always at risk with severe/extreme weather so stay tuned for any possible update or changes. We are hoping to fully setup and test the new Bandpass Filters that the club purchased in 2024. So come for the meeting, stick around and help setup and stay to help with operation and win a prize? 

As we did with our last meeting we will be offering a very nice grand prize with some conditions... we will hold the prize drawing right before we begin to operate at the WFD site.. so attend the meeting, come out and help for your chance to win! Help setup if you can or just provide moral support and advice (hams do that right?) and hope ya win. The prize....? One of the new Yaesu mobile radios, the FT-3165RASP.

The FT-3165R ASP is a compact 2-meter mobile transceiver with solid basic features configuration and mechanical toughness. The power output is 65W (selectable 65W / 30W / 5W) and its efficient cooling system with the FACC: Funnel Air-Convection Conductor (Wind Tunnel) ensures stable and reliable power. New front speaker provides 5W of loud audio and has been tuned for improved sound quality. 

Mini HF/SW Receiver Only 25$

Mini Portable Receiver.  This looks like a handy novelty but might be good to have on hand on the road or in the field?

SI4732 0.5-108mhz Pocket Mini Radio LSB USB AM FM FM/AM Radio with Antenna All Band Radio Receiver HF SW MW VHF Radio - AliExpress

New BTECH With Nice Features

New BTECH radio with a lot of cool features! I do love the BlueTooth programming. Not sure I would use the app for keying the radio but it is nice to see the GPS/APRS options. It would be nice to see the big guys in the market begin to feature the BlueTooth programming and USB charging.

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Stateline Repeater System Yearly Stats!

Thank you to Tyler KBØPQP for providing this interesting look at the stats from our Stateline Repeater System. No surprise that activity spikes in Spring and Early Summer right? Click on the image below to get a larger version of the graphs.