Congratulations John and John. You are on your way!

Bill left and Rich right congratulate John KN4MFK on passing the Tech Class License.
The road ahead is wide open for Amateur Radio!

Not pictured is John McCullough, KN4FBD who passed his General. John had to leave early, but we do have a picture of him on file. Click here 

Our Guest Speaker

Our guest speaker for this evening was Buddy Morgan, WB4OMG. His topic NVIS or Near Vertical Incidence Skywave, antennas and propagation.

NVIS, is a radio-wave propagation path that provides usable signals in the range between  30–400 miles. The radio waves travel near-vertically upwards into the ionosphere, where they are refracted back down and can be received within a circular region up to 400 miles from the transmitter. Frequency is critical. If too high refraction fails to occur, and if it is too low, absorption in the ionospheric may reduce the signal strength.

 The most reliable frequencies for NVIS communications are between 1.8 MHz and 8 MHz. Above 8 MHz, the probability of success begins to decrease, dropping to near zero at 30 MHz.

Two antenna configurations  for NVIS were suggested. The first was a yagi pointing straight up. The second configuration was a horizontally polarized antenna approximately 1/20 of a wavelength above the ground. For example, a 40 meter dipole about 7 feet above the ground.

Standing in for Matthew who was away on business, Bob Doherty made the announcement that the club now has 107 members! Great presentations are one of the benefits of LARC membership. We appreciate all the hard work that goes into presentations like the one given by Buddy.

Another first for the club was that this evening's presentation was live streamed over the Internet as an experiment. The plan is to make this a regular procedure so that those who find it difficult to make it to the meeting will still be able to participate from home.

There were 44 sign-ins with close to 50 in attendance.

Attendance

CALL	NAME FIRST	NAME LAST	LICENSE CLASS	ARRL MEMBER	ARES MEMBER	SKYWARN
AA4HT	Robert	Van Winkle	Amateur Extra	YES	NO
AB4XK	Chet	Carruth	Amateur Extra	YES	NO
K4JZ	William	Aten	Amateur Extra	LIFE	YES	POL-933
KA4PNE	Yisrael	Freedman	General	YES	YES	DUV-294
KB0QMN	George	Rezac	General	NO	NO
KB4FHP	Joseph	Lunsford	Technician	NO	NO
KF4TPW	Lydia	Morgan	Amateur Extra	NO	NO
KG4BAS	Nestor	Monllor	Technician	NO	YES
KG4BNO	Roger	Heupel	Technician	Guest
KG4YNI	Ernest	Haynes	Amateur Extra	YES	NO	POL-296A
KI4EFL	Donald	Jeerings	General	NO	NO
KI4NBE	George	Gafford	Amateur Extra	NO	NO	POL-316A
KI4WRX	David	Zdanowicz	Amateur Extra	YES	YES
KI4ZMV	William	Johnson	Amateur Extra	YES	NO	POL-840
KJ4RNJ	Joy	Eibe	General	NO	NO
KJ4UW	George	Mann	Amateur Extra	YES	NO	POL-410
KJ4WFS	Tom	Evans	Amateur Extra	YES	YES
KK4LYQ	William	Paul	Amateur Extra	YES	NO
KK4VCN	Eleanor	Marshall	Technician	NO	NO
KM4BAO	Robert	Doherty	General	YES	NO	POL-829
KM4DMD	John	Laurent	Extra
KM4UYX	Kenneth	Kozla	General	NO	NO
KN4BOE	Thomas	Conner	General	Guest
KN4CHP	James	Edmonson	General	YES	NO
KN4DBG	Gregory	Dyer	Technician	Guest
KN4FBD	John	McCullough	Technician	YES	NO
KN4MFK	John	Broome	Technician	Guest
KN4MNJ	Robert	Parrish	Technician	NO	NO
KR4R	Johnnie	Ritter	Amateur Extra	YES	NO
KT2T	Michael	Oliver	Amateur Extra	LIFE	YES	POL-322A
N4ESS	Richard	Kennedy	Amateur Extra	LIFE	NO	PAS-570
N4FRK	Victor	Saxe	General	NO	NO
N4HCZ	Robert	Griggs	Amateur Extra	NO	NO
N4KWR	Kevin	Rought	General
N7BUP	Philip	Stickney	Extra	Guest
N7CUC	Samuel	Shaver	Amateur Extra	NO	NO
W4JGC	Glenn	Culler	Amateur Extra	YES	NO	POL-560A
W4MQB	Barbara	Ritter	Technician	YES	NO
W4XDS	James	Stewart	Amateur Extra	YES	YES
W7STR	Springer	Rush	Amateur Extra	YES	NO
W8DUK	Richard	Grubb	Amateur Extra	YES	NO	POL-782
WA4MMO	Geoffrey	Schuck	Amateur Extra	YES	NO
WB4OMG	Harmon	Morgan	Amateur Extra	NO	NO
WB6ZEQ	Herman	Smith	General	NO	NO
WZ1P	Daniel	Gagnon	Amateur Extra	NO	NO