THE SPARK GAP

A monthly publication of the Meridian Amateur Radio Club April 2017

 

 Bible Verse

Mark 11:22-25 / “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (NIV)

 

Happy Resurrection Day

 

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President's Report

Hello all,

First of all I would like to say it is good to see more activity on our area repeaters, I've monitored both and it looks like we are are on an incline in the number of folks checking in. This is a welcomed sight and if I'm not mistaken I'm hearing some new calls out there as well.

As we are moving into the tornado season we can sure use the help in weather spotting, all reports will be welcome. We will also be getting new radios in the emergency operations room at the Lauderdale Emergency Services Building soon, hopefully we can have it back in operation before the next month's meeting. If you would like to volunteer your time to operate the radios at the EOC please see myself or one of the other board members and we will get you the necessary paperwork to you.

This month's meeting will be held at Skidmore's in Quitman, part of our new get out and meet the public and possibly get new interest. Time and address to follow later. Please come join us in great fellowship and great food.

73's Charles Grisham
KB5SZJ

 

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<<< Next MARC Business Meeting >>>
PLEASE READ

Come join us at 6 pm on Friday, April 7th at Skidmore's Restaurant , 109 Railroad Ave, Quitman, MS for your next MARC business meeting. The night meetings are being well received. Your presence is appreciated and needed. Come join us!

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Skidmores-Restaurant-426768097380971

 

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Lauderdale Repeater Group w5LRG
146.970 - ki5fw/R (pl 100hz)
444.500 + w5LRG/R
145.410- no5c/R w/100hz tone access

GE to all: As some of you already know that it is the time of year for both the Lauderdale Repeater Group and Meridian Amateur Radio Club to jointly pay for Liability Insurance to cover both groups and repeater sites. This year’s premium remains the same price or $325.00 for a one year policy. Both groups will pay half of the premium ($162.50 each). I urge everyone to help pay for this expense. If you use any one of / or both repeaters just remember these things do not stay on the air all by themselves. All donations will be greatly appreciated. Dennis NO5C

Contributions can be mailed to:
Lauderdale Repeater Group w5LRG
c/o: Dennis Carpenter
7760 Vanzyverden Road
Meridian, MS 39305

 

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Northeast Louisiana Hamfest

The Northeast Louisiana Hamfest on Saturday, April 29, 2017, in Monroe, Louisiana is now less that a month away. We would love to have you come and visit us.

For more information on the hamfest you can go to http://twincityhams.org/hamfest.html.

If you have items you want to sell, registration for tables ($10 each) can be made at: http://twincityhams.org/tables.
If you wish, you can pay with PayPal, mail a check, or pay when you get here.

Thanks and 73, Twin City Ham Club
http://twincityhams.org

 

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Fayette County Amateur Radio Club Presents “Frog-Fest 2017”

We are bring back the old Fayette Alabama Tailgate from a few years ago. It will be held at the same place, by the lake at Fayette's Guthrie Smith Park. Anyone wanting more info can e-mail me here at w4gle35555@gmail.com

Saturday, May 6,2017 8:00am till 1:00pm at Fayette's Guthrie Smith Park at the Big Pavilion Just off of US Hwy 43 North Adjacent to the Fayette Airport (M95) Fayette, AL. See flyer here: http://www.meridianarc.org/sparkgap/2017news/media/FayCoARC_FrogFest_2017.pdf

Thanks and 73, Grady L. Evans W4GLE

 

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Interesting gadgets I wish I had time for
By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU


I’m on a lot of mailing lists and participate in a bunch of amateur radio forums. As a result, I see a lot of interesting gadgets that guys are buying or are thinking about buying. Here are three of the latest that look interesting to me. I wish I had time (and money) to purchase all of these and try them out.

Android antenna analyzer

On Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/60nnp1/finally_got_my_mini60_ebay_antenna_analyzer_time/), some of the guys have been talking about the Mini60 Antenna Analyzer. Its frequency range is 1 – 60MHz, but the cool thing about this device is that you can use it standalone with the built-in LCD display or with some software (http://www.jtelectronics.co.nz/information_links/MINI60/Add-Bluetooth-Module-To-MINI60-Antenna-Analyser.htm) and a tablet with a Bluetooth interface to get fancy frequency vs. SWR plots.

Mini60 Antenna Analyzer being used with an Android tablet
Mini60 Antenna Analyzer being used with an Android tablet
Of course, this is made in China, but how can you beat the price? It costs $112 shipped.

Multi-functional component tester

Here’s another marvel of Chinese engineering and manufacture – a smart component tester (http://www.banggood.com/3_5inch-Colorful-Display-Multi-functional-TFT-Backlight-Transistor-Tester-p-1083042.html) for only $30, shipped. It identifies and characterizes NPN and PNP transistors, capacitors, resistors, diodes (including Zener diodes), N-channel and P-channel MOSFET, IGBT, JFET, triacs, and batteries.
This isn’t the first smart component tester to hit the market, but the unique thing about this unit is that it has a graphical display that not only identifies the type of component that you’ve connected to it, but also draws the schematic symbol of the part. You can see a video of this tester in action at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07FH6tjzwWg.

Make your Raspberry Pi into a desktop PC

Newark/element 14 will soon start selling a kit of part that will make it easier to turn your Raspberry Pi into a desktop PC (https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-83477?CMP=e-email-SEPO-210317-e14PI&et_cid=28941683&et_rid=1231362216&cmp=). The kit includes:
            •           Intelligent and Safe Power Controller
            •           Interface to connect mSATA SSD (upto 1TB)
            •           Real Time Clock to keep track of time
            •           Heat Sink
            •           Enclosure
They don’t list the price just yet, but this might be what I need to actually make use of the Raspberry Pi 3 I bought several months ago. If you have one of these gadgets, or buy one in the future, please let me know how you like it. I'll put your review up on my blog, so that everyone can benefit from your experience.

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When he's not drooling over electronic gadgets, Dan blogs about amateur radio at KB6NU.Com, writes the "No Nonsense" amateur radio study guides, and teaches ham classes. You can contact him by e-mailing cwgeek@kb6nu.com.

 

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Quote of the Day

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself, right now, right down here on Earth. --- Bradley Whitford

 

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Have a great month

 

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