Wednesday, July 27, 2016

August 1, 2016 General Meeting

This Meeting Was All About Digital



Left to right, we have Jeff Goldensoph, K4JEW, and our guest speaker Chris Bloxsom, AA4CB. The topic for this evenings program was digital communications world wide using hand held, mobile and base stations.
Liam and his dad Leon, KM4STU look at one of the new digital capable radios from Yaesu. Ilam, KM4STS just earned his General License. He is very proud of this accomplishment, and that he will be entering the third grade next year. :-) Mom, Aimee KM4STT is equally proud of her son's accomplishment.

And People
Happy Birthdays to Norma and Don


For more images taken at this meeting Click Here

Thursday, July 21, 2016

August Meeting - All About Digital Past, Present, And Future

The August 1st 2016 LARC meeting will have guest speaker Chris Bloxsom, AA4CB. Chris is a member of EPARS, East Pasco Amateur Radio Society, GCARC, Gulf Coast Amateur Radio Club, and ZAARC, Zephyrhills Area Amateur Radio Club. He will have several rigs on display for you to look at and ask questions about at the end of his presentation as well as some information directly from Yaesu. Chris is one of the EPARS people that have a great understanding of digital modes,C4FM, Wires X, and many more. A DV4Mini operating regularly from his tablet that affords him operation on several different types of digital repeaters C4FM, D-Star, and DMR. 



We will be exposed and enlightened to all of these and more with the ability to ask questions of a fellow ham that can answer your questions about several modes available to all of us. The new hams with Technicians will find a wealth of information that will allow them to communicate around the world on just their handheld.



Please come out to the August meeting and take part in this interesting presentation. If all of that is not enough, then look no further, there will be cake too.




Rich Kennedy - N4ESS

President

Lakeland Amateur Radio Club

Friday, July 15, 2016

LARC Supports The Lakeland Warrior Walk



Once again, LARC supported a charitable Lakeland event. This time it was the Lakeland Warrior Walk. LARC members and Amateur Radio proved to be a valuable asset. We helped insure an orderly parking of cars, and were able to assist an injured walker while patrolling the route. Service is one of the three legs of the stool our club rests on.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Wounded Warrior Walk Saturday July 23, 2016

7th Annual Warrior Walk Lakeland

Saturday  23 July  2016  8:00 AM    Saturday  23 July  2016 3:00 PM 
First Presbyterian Church of Lakeland, Florida
175 Lake Hollingsworth Dr, Lakeland, FL, 33801, United States
7th Annual Warrior Walk Lakeland. The purpose of this event is to honor our U.S. Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines who have been killed in action while serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

All proceeds this year will be going to the Global War on Terrorism Freedom Memoiral.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Monday, July 11, 2016

July 4, 2016 QRP And More

 Badges
All new members get a name tag. If your wife is a ham, or would occasionally like to attend meetings, and would like a badge, we will have one made for her as well. In the picture below, Rich is handing a badge to new club member, Sam Shaver.

John Leahy On QRP
We had two presenters this evening. The first, John Leahy, spoke on his approach to QRP. John demonstrated his QRP Go Kit, which included radio, tuner, power/swr meter, battery, a rather unique pair of antennas, and an unusual Morse Code key.


The power source for John's radio is a small emergency battery located at the bottom this innovative adaptation of an ammo case. 

 John uses three different techniques for matching the the impedance of the various antennas he uses, to his radio's impedance. There is an MFJ tuner inside the case. This is used for a simple dipole and for for some experimental antennas like the loop he demonstrated. The vertical John demoed has a built in adjustable loading coil at its base. I works much like the motorized versions found on many mobile rigs, except it is manual. The third matching device is the matching transformer shown below. This is used in combination with an end-fed long wire antenna. You can find instructions for winding one of these at http://www.zaarc.org/Endfed6_40.pdf
It might be worth you time to give John's site a visit. It contains lots of interesting information. 
ZAARC

 Don Jeerings On Electromagnitism
Our second speaker of the evening was Don Jeerings. Don needs no introduction. Tonight's demonstration was the magnetic field generated around a conductor. The thing that made Don's demonstration unique is that he chose a carbon filament light bulb as his conductor. By placing a strong magnet near the current carrying filament, he was able to demonstrate the interaction between the magnetic field of the filament, and a strong external magnet. Sure enough, when the magnet was brought close to the lit bulb, the filament started to oscillate at 60 cycles per second.  


As will all Don's presentations, they are great photo ops. Here George is recording for posterity the the effects of electromagnetism in action.




Friday, July 8, 2016

Message From The President July, 2016

Hello to all,


The July meeting of LARC was especially good. We had John Leahy, KK4ITX, give a talk on portable operations to include a great “Go Kit”, and a couple of great antennas for portable use. See more on the equipment on John’s page at: http://zaarc.org/ There is lots of great information there to be had.


Secondly we had Don Jeering, KI4EFL, talk on magnetism with an interesting visual presently. Thanks to both of our speakers for these information presentations. 



The rest of the year is upon us with the months just flying by. 23 July 2016 presents us with a couple of events. First we have the LARC tailgate at The Revolution Church, at the intersection of Kathleen Rd and Duff Rd. Lakeland. It starts at 7am and should be over by 1pm. There will be tailgating and inside tables. Contact Kevin Rought, N4KWR, for information and tables. ALSO, that same day will be the 7th Annual WARRIOR WALK Sat. July 23rd 2016 / Time: 8am* First Presbyterian Church lawn. Volunteers will be needed for the event communications. 



The next few months will feature a picnic, date to be decided. Some great presentations, and then November will arrive with elections for the next group of individuals to lead our club in the coming year. There will be some old faces return and a new President to elect. The past three years have gone by quickly and it is time for a new person to guide this club on its future endeavors. I will be sitting in the audience and taking part in events but listening to the new ideas that will inspire and entertain us. I may even do a presentation or two in the coming years. We will also be looking for a hospitality person to take care of refreshments, coffee, cookies, and the like. Your charge is that of the coffee pot and its accessories, the picnic box with paper plates, fork, spoon, and the like. The coffee pot to each meeting and the picnic box to Field Day and the picnics about 3 a year. There you have it. 



To answer your question: No I am not leaving. I am just passing along the activities of the club to those that may do it better than me. I will be sitting in the audience and taking part in the activities as so many of our past officers do at this time. 



If you desire one of these positions let me know. Now is the time to start thinking about running for an office. You have a whole board to help you on your way. The past officers will always lend a hand.


See you at the tailgate or Warrior Walk or both.




Rich Kennedy - N4ESS

President

Lakeland Amateur Radio Club