Charles County Amateur Radio Club

On Thursday, 13 Feb, members of the CCARC, lead by President Bob (NW3M), met up at the Potomac Branch Library in Indian Head, to provide a ham radio presentation to any interested individuals.

Attending were three guests (two adults, one teen), and additional club members included Brad-W8NO, Jeff-KB3SPH, Pam-KB3SWS, Daniel-KC3OPK, Bill-W8BL, and Charles-AA3WS.

Bob’s presentation was “Not your Grandfather’s Ham Radio” and covered modern ham radio –  frequencies, bands, call signs, radio types, QSL cards, and different ways to be involved, including contests, Earth-Moon-Earth, special events, etc.

Pam-KB3SWS had informational displays on CCARC, World Radio Day, Marconi, and Fessenden.

Live demonstrations of using a repeater with HTs (equipped with an outdoor ground plane antenna, roll-up J-pole antenna, and HT stock antennas) and simplex operations were shown by Bob-NW3M, Charles-AA3WS, and Jeff-KB3SPH.

Brad-W8NO demonstrated SDR reception, a QRP radio portable set-up, and a portable dual band beam antenna for satellite operations.

On 7 Feb, the CCARC was joined by Chris, NY9X, via Zoom as he lives up North. Chris presented an excellent brief on working the LEO Satellites and some ‘basics’ to ensure success.

Chris covered areas such as:
– What type of equipment do I need?
– How to find and track the sattys
– What is Kepler Data
– The up/down links
– FM vs SSB
– What is Doppler

His recommended site is amsat.org, which is a great place to get all the latest info on the various satellites up there.
He also noted that in operations, it is almost a three handed process, so there was the recommendation to have a small recorder, so you can record your contacts and then go back afterwards to replay and do your logging.
It was noted that the cost is $ to $$ to $$$ with the recommendation to spend as little as possible to get started as you may already have most of the equipment needed and then move on to bigger and better if you enjoy this aspect of the hobby and want to add more to your set up.
Chris also used his personal experience to note some of the errors a newbie may have, such as not having the antenna connected or the wrong antenna connected, the frequency pairs reversed (sending on 2m when it is a 440 uplink as an example), or even having the side-bands not set up properly (LSB vs USB).

He did recommend that an FM satellite be the first attempt to work another station but noted the one issue is that the FM repeater only allows 1 signal at a time. You’ll hear a lot of activity, but jump in and start transmitting.

He offered to provide any assistance he could via email if you start to delve into satellite comms and he can be contacted at ny9x@ny9x.com

On Saturday, 21 Dec 2024, several members of the CCARC meet at Fishermans Park on Cobb Island to commemorate the first time voice was transmitted over the air on Dec 23rd, 1900.

The temps were a challenge as with the wind chill factor, it was about 17 deg outside.

In attendance was Pam (KB3SWS) and Jeff (KB3SPH), Bob (NW3M, Bill (W8BL), Michelle (N3YRZ), Tom (W3TOM) and Bob (KB3KOW).

Pam and Jeff braved the cold and set up a table and an SSB station, making close to 50 contacts for the 4 hours we were ‘on island.’

Bill set up his digital station and worked FT8, also making about 50 contacts

We were also lucky as Jeff brought his drone along and took several photos with the 15knot winds blowing. He did learn that his antenna is drone proof….

Both Bob’s (NW3M and KB3KOW) spent time playing with DATV and conducting several tests with reception of picture NW3M was sending. We consider it a success since KB3KOW was able to go to the parking lot across the bridge and get a clear picture of the fire station flags moving in the wind.

Tonights meeting was a presentation by Jeff, KB3SPH, on his newest acquisition of a DJI drone. He covered the various licenses you may need in order to fly a drone, depending on if it was recreational or more serious stuff. He also covered his study and taking of the Part-107 license. For that, he made use of a site called “Pilot Institute”.

https://pilotinstitute.com/

What is nice is that they also have a link to register for the TRUST (or The Recreational UAS Safety Test). The TRUST is free but you have to abide by 9 rules to be able to fly under this license class. If you can’t abide by all 9 rules, then you’ll need a Part-107 license.

Drones that weight more than 250grams (.55 pounds) need to be registered with the FAA and if you fly under a Part-107, then each drone will need their own registration. The drones also need to be capable of transmitting identifying information, but this capability is built into the newer drones.

Jeff also demo’s some different phone apps that help you determine any restrictions to the airspace, based on your location, along with any alerts and warnings that may be applicable.

He then pulled the drone out of its protective box, set it up and gave a demo in the confines of the meeting area.

On this past chilly Saturday morning (11 Nov), several members of the CCARC descended upon Mallows Bay to operate a special event station

For those not familiar with the area, here is a Google Map showing the general location:

In attendance were: Bob (NW3M), Jeff (Kb3SPH), Pam (KB3SWS), Bill (W8BL), Michelle (N3YRZ), Charles (AA3WS) and Bob (KB3KOW).
After arriving on site, everyone started setting up their respective stations. While the weather for the day was supposed to be nice, it didn’t start out that way with clouds and slightly cooler than expected, however, within 2 hours, the sun was out in full force and made it a great day to operate.
We had 4 radios on the air at any given time across most of the bands with three of the stations running on solar supported systems.

In addition to SSB operations, Bill (W8BL) also worked FT8 and made a number of contacts during the day.

Due to the location and lack of near-by shops, Charles (AA3WS) set up the Chuck Wagon Grill and Pam (KB3SWS) preparred the Buffett Line

We had several visitors during the day including members Joe (KB3HNP), Rob (N2OMC), Debbie (KV3VNF), Tom (W3TOM), Dale (N3ILH), Pat (KB3UYZ) and Angel (N4SNI) who also brought along his daughter and grandson, Sebastian, who joined Rob at one of the stations and worked to make a few contacts.

We started to shut down around 1600 with +/- 200 contacts in the logs.

Tonights presentation was provided by AA3WS and titled “How to modulate your IPOD.”

His main equipment was an IG-42 Heath Kit Signal Gen along with a 20Mhz scope.

Using a series of schematics, he showed how all signal generators are transmitters. The first schematic was of the sig gen which showed the three main areas of the board to include the oscillator, the power amp and then the modulator.

He then showed the schematics of several transmitters and noted how each transmitter contained the exact same areas.

As part of his demo, he connected the scope to the output of the sig gen to show the unmodulated sign wave being generated by the sig gen. Using one of the small FM radios (seen in the above picture to the right end of the table) he tuned into the frequency so we could hear how the unmodulated signal sounds (which is nothing).
He then connected his iPod to an impendence matching transformer, audio amp and an isolation transformer and taking that output, plugged it into the input to the sig gen. As if by magic, we were then listening to the music from the iPod.

Charles then proceeded to provide an example of both overmodulation and under modulation so we could both hear it and observe it on the scope.

Jeff, KB3SPH, gave a presentation on building your own Battery Box.

Items he covered were:
Considerations (why would I need one and where would i use it?)
A Demo of a battery box

Considerations
Where woud I use it?

• installed in shack as a backup power source, maybe as a UPS
• part of a portable go-kit
• multi use — mobile, portable, standby

battery size

• amp hour rating
• physical size/weight

battery type

• flooded lead acide
• lithium ion
• Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4)

Box size/type

• big enought for battery or other stuff as well
• weather seal on box
• plastic or metal

Charging method
how are you going to charge it? be able to remove battery, do you include the charger in the box or wire it to include a charging port.

Options
Binding posts
powerpole outlet
meters
12v outlets
usb charing
power supply nput
power distribution
solar controller integration

He then started his demo. His LiFePO battery is a 35am Bioeno battery (about 8 pounds) compared to a 40ah acid battery (40 pounds).
The Bioeno comes with power poles connections already installed. He then showed his PowerWerk battery box that he had purchased, and which was already built, but then he used that as a base line as he wanted something a bit bigger to also incorporate additional items, such as a solar charger.
He makes use of an ‘Epic PowerGate’ rigrunner that accepts solar, battery and power supply inputs with one output. If there is no draw of current, then the battery will be charged. As current is needed, it will first look for a power supply input. If none are available, then it will make use of the battery.

His solar panel is made by Renogy. He built a 10ft powerpole extension cord, so the battery does not have live near the solar panel and then showed how he plans on integrating that into the power box. This resulted in him having to build several adapter cables with powerpoles to allow everything to tie together and still power the original meters that were on the PowerWerk battery box.

He noted that with the LiFiPO, you can get to about 90% depletion before the 13.6v output just dies, whereas with lead acid you can only get to about 50% and then there is the potential for damage the battery.

At tonight’s meeting, President Bob provided a brief that he presented to the senior community center some weeks ago entitled “Amateur Radio Today, no longer your Grandfather’s hobby”.

The format of the brief is aimed at individuals who may have heard about ham radio, either from family members or even from television shows. His brief covered the various services (FRS, MURS, etc) as well as the ham bands, the federal definitions for the various services.

The brief also touched upon QSL cards and the typical information included on each card as well as some of the special awards that can be earned, such as the below “13 Colonies” event held each year.

The brief finished up with how ham radio gives back to the community, which the CCARC has helped with in the past such as the Indian Head 100 (Oxen Hill Bike Club) and the annual March of Dimes/March for Babies.

The CCARC meeting this month was presented by Bob (KB3KOW) and Jeff (KB3SPH) and was an introduction to some various digital modes to include FT8, JS8Call, VarAC and finaly Easypal.

Instead of having radios set up, Jeff and Bob made use of the audio cards on the laptops and ran normal audio cables between the two PCs. One of the audio cables was on a splitter with a speaker attached so that the audience could hear what each mode sounded like.
The first program was WSJT and a demo of FT8. The goal here was to show how automated the process is once someone responds to a CQ. We answered questions as the demo progressed, but one question was “so, you can’t do any chatting on this mode?” which was a good lead into the second program.

JS8Call was used to demo the ability to do weak signal ‘chatting’ between two stations using the JS8 protocol, which is similar to the FT8 protocol. We exchanges some short notes back and forth much as same as sending an SMS message between phones.

We then moved on to VarAC. This software makes use of the VARA sound card modem and allows you to connect directly to another station and transfer files, chat and even leave ‘v-mail’ in the event the other operator is away from their keyboard. We also demonstrated the potential to be able to relay messages between two sites but using a third site as the temporary staging area.

Finally, we tested EasyPal. This is a digital Slow Scan TV (SSTV) software that allows the transmission of some good quality pictures, however, as we were able to show, much like digital TV, it’s either there or it isn’t and if enough packets of information is lost during transmission, nothing shows up on screen like it would using an analog program like MMSSTV

On July 25th, 4 members of the CCARC visited the Senior Center located in LaPlata. Bob (MW3M) had coordinated with the center to provide a short talk on ham radio to any one who may have an interest. We had two people attend the discussion to learn more about local events the CCARC participates in and other ways of getting ‘radio active.’

The brief provided by Bob can be downloaded by clicking HERE