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Ken

At Saturday’s club meeting at the home of K1SD the annual election of officers was held. There were no speeches or attack adds, just a unanimous election of the current officers to serve another one year term. Hmmm… sounds like a rigged election, but what else would one expect of an election held in Rhode Island?  🙂

The officers elected for the 2012-2013 term are:

President – Mike McKuaghan, K1DM
Vice Pres – Ken Wagner, K3IU
Secretary – Ed Haskell, W1PN
Treasurer – Chuck Newman, KA1CQR
Contest Manager – Bill Bliss, W1WBB

 

The first of three planned monobanders for W1AN/W1DX is in the air. The project was started over a year and a half ago by Mike K1DM and I after collecting parts for two monoband antennas from a pile of aluminum at the QTH of Bill N1HRA. One antenna was a 15M-5 element and the other turned out to be 20M-4 element. The second 15M beam was from Mikes QTH. Missing parts, aluminum and new hardware were purchased for all three antennas. The old aluminum was given a thorough steel wool cleanup and two 15M beams were assembled per changes found in the ARRL Antenna Book. Testing on the MFJ analyzer was done by Mike and I at 40 feet by raising with a line and pulley on the south 90 foot tower. Minor adjustments were completed.

Tower preparation continues. Along with Mike, Pat NG1G and Ken K3IU have also contributed to getting the rotor and mast at the top swapped and old antennas down and new mounts up. The 36 foot side mounted mast and rotor were installed a couple weeks ago. There still remains some relocation for the repeater antennas and old mounting hardware needs to be removed.

Since we were going to stack the 15M beams, identical 3/4 wavelengths of coax were cut and checked with the MFJ analyzer to confirm they had the same electrical lengths. I slipped and secured several ferrite cores on the coax near the feedpoints of both to keep most of the RF off the outside of the coax to minimize the affect on the RF lobes of the antennas. I fabricated attachment points from aluminum strap and angle and used phillystran to minimize boom sag for both beams.

To raise the antennas I welded up a fixture that would slip over the galvanized steel tram cable and hold the antenna in a position to keep the boom level with the elements at an adjustable upright angle to avoid interference with the guy wires on the ride up. A pulley was secured about two feet above the end point of the tram cable and 1/2″ line provided by Mike K1DM was attached from the pulley to the tram fixture to haul up the antenna. Initially I was going to haul up the antenna with the use of a garden tractor with a climber ready to receive it on the tower. But first, I wanted to see how much effort would be required if I used my own horsepower to raise it. It turned out to be surprisingly easy. In fact, I hauled it up first with only a slight upward angle on the elements. This angle turned out to be too small, so I lowered the antenna and changed the angle to almost 45 degrees and it went up the 75 feet with little pain.

Once the antenna was up I took a break and has some lunch. I hadn’t secured it yet to the mast and was trying to decide if I had the energy to make the climb. I could wait for another day. Having a ground crew would certainly make things easier and much more would be accomplished including getting ready for the second antenna. I have a personal limit of one cliimb a day. I had planned this to be a three man project. I made the climb and with some effort I was able to secure the antenna on the mast. It looks pretty nice up there. On this one, I can say, I put it up all by myself. That done, for the second antenna I will need a ground crew. It’s a much longer way down if you forget a tool or drop a wrench from 110 feet. And it’s much more enjoyable to share the accomplishment with friends.
73,
John, W1AN

CTRI gang,

      How many stations participated in the CQP this past weekend?  I submitted a score, I heard W1CTN, Radio Ansonia, but I didn’t hear anyone else.  If there is one more club member, we can enter the club competition.

      Please post here, and make sure you submit your score.  It is really easy to use their Log Submission form.  Go to their site, fill in a few things, tag some buttons, and then paste your cabrillo file into the appropriate window.  That’s it.  They will also accept the “normal” e-mail with the cabrillo file attached.

     I needed California on 80 meters, so I got into the fray.  Spent some time on Saturday evening, and then a couple hours on 15-m on Sunday afternoon.  My 40-meter dipole actually worked pretty well.  It will be much better when we get the stack for 15 playing at W1AN.  It’s getting closer to a reality!

73 for now. Mike, K1DM

Contest         : CQ World Wide DX Contest
Callsign        : K6ND
Mode            : RTTY
Category        : Single Operator (SO)
Overlay         : —
Band(s)         : Single band (SB) 10M  A
Class           : High Power (HP)
Zone/State      : 5
Locator         : FN42FC

 BAND   QSO  CQ DXC DUP S/P  POINTS   AVG
——————————————
   80     0   0   0   0   0       0  0.00
   40     0   0   0   0   0       0  0.00
   20     0   0   0   0   0       0  0.00
   15     0   0   0   0   0       0  0.00
   10  1246  30  80  19  33    3497  2.81
——————————————
TOTAL  1246  30  80  19  33    3497  2.81
==========================================
          TOTAL SCORE : 500 071

Fellow CTRI’ers,

      It seems that events have overtaken our plans to meet Saturday, 6 October 2012.  Jim, K1SD, has said we can meet at his place NEXT Saturday, October 13th.  There are several members of the Executive committee who cannot make it to the meeting on the 6th, so that’s why I am going to change the meeting date!
     I give all of you permission to attend the Steam Up this Saturday, if you promise to come to the meeting on the 13th at the QTH of K1SD.
     I will post this on the Web Site, and attempt to post it on the Yahoo group, if I can get into it.

This will be one of the most important meetings of the year!  We will be holding elections!

Best 73, Mike, K1DM, President, CTRI Contest Group.

Gang,

     I think Ken is on the road, so I’ll post this.  PLEASE POST YOUR SCORES FROM THIS WEEKEND’S CQWW RTTY Scores here.  Thanks.  73, Mike, K1DM

This is a test of a replacement for the much maligned Forum capability of the current site.

CTRI Contest Group;

We are holding our October meeting at the QTH of K1SD.

 

Special Notice:  Beginning time 10:00 AM.

 

Major Business:  Annual Election of Officers

 

We also have a special plan for after the meeting:  The Rhode Island Wireless and Steam Museum is holding a special “Open House” on Saturday, October 6, and it’s just a few blocks from Jim’s (K1SD) QTH.  If you check out their web site, you will discover that you don’t want to miss this special opportunity to visit a National Treasure.  Of note is the former station from “PJ” a communication station from Point Judith, RI from the early days of steam ships.  There is an admission fee of $ 15.00 per person at the museum, but it’s a small donation to the organization

We look forward to seeing you all at the meeting.  You don’t want to get elected President, just because you missed the meeting, like I did last year.

If you would like to nominate someone for an office, please post that as a reply to this post.  Also, if you would like to nominate yourself for an office, or volunteer position, do the same.

I look forward to seeing all your smiling faces on Saturday, October 6, 2012 at the QTH of K1SD.

 

73, Mike, K1DM, President, CTRI CG

ATTENTION: The format of this notice is usually the same and you may be tempted just to skip to the parts you know change. This month the date, time, and place all change from what you were expecting.

It’s that time again.

If you are familiar with the interactive meeting notice skip down to “Topics“. This is an interactive meeting notice. What, you may ask, is an interactive meeting notice? As the phrase suggests, it is a meeting notice which requires interaction by the readers. For example: we need to have topics for presentation at the meeting; we need presenters; we need volunteers to provide lunch; we need to know who is coming to the meeting so the quantity of lunch portions may be determined, and so on. This post will be updated as interactions (comments) are appended.

Topics

1. Contest Report
2. CQWW-WPX RTTY Contest status
3. Annual Elections

Lunch provider:

Coffee and Drinks by:

Members who will attend:  K1SD, K1DM(?), KA1GEU, W1WBB,KS1J,KB1LN

Venue: K1SD QTH, 131 Sylvan Drive EAST GREENWICH, RI at 10:00am

It’s that time again.

If you are familiar with the interactive meeting notice skip down to “Topics“. This is an interactive meeting notice. What, you may ask, is an interactive meeting notice? As the phrase suggests, it is a meeting notice which requires interaction by the readers. For example: we need to have topics for presentation at the meeting; we need presenters; we need volunteers to provide lunch; we need to know who is coming to the meeting so the quantity of lunch portions may be determined, and so on. This post will be updated as interactions (comments) are appended.

Topics

1. Contest Report
2. Boxboro results
3. CQWW-WPX RTTY Contest status
4. CQWW RTTY contest (Last Full weekend in Sept)

Lunch provider:

Coffee and Drinks by:

Members who will attend: W1PN, NG1G, K1DM, KA1GEU, KS1J, KI1G, K3IU, W1AN

Venue: Crandall House, Ashaway, RI at 11:00

The plan is now posted.  Look to the right.  See you all at the Crandall House on the 15th.

 

Mike, K1DM (El President)