Four members of the Florida Polytechnic University graduates received or upgraded their Amateur Radio Licenses. Good luck with your careers in electronics. I can’t think of a better hobby for future EEs.

Kudos to Vlad KX4TH for motivating his classmates to get into ham radio.  

Left to right Vlad KX4TH Extra, Moshe KN4YUG Tech, Jayla KN4YUH Tech, Peter  KN4YUE General, and Rich N4ESS.

Left to right Peter KN4YUE General, Moshe KN4YUG Tech, Yesabel KN4YUF Tech, and Bill K4JZ

Attendance 
We had 59 members and guests attend this evening.  A special thanks to Top WB6ZEQ for making sure everyone is accounted for. This may seem like a small thing, but it is the collection of small things that makes our club work. Thank you.

Suppose with one click you could connect to any one of over 400 Ham Radios around the world.

Here is the link that will get you started. https://www.sdr.hu/  

But read on before you click on it, read on.

When you click on this link you will see a list of over 400 stations that are streaming what comes into their radio onto the Internet. Reception varies around the world, so if you are interested in QSO’s in the USA, search on USA. If you are just curious, you can click on any of the stations listed and scan through frequencies in any mode from about 0 to 30 MgHz. Be sure to select the appropriate Mode. The software takes a little getting use to, but it is for the most part intuitive, and you can’t do any harm by pushing buttons. So feel free to experiment. I have tried this on my tower, my Samsung Tablet, and even my Android phone. I got it to work on each, but clicking on tiny buttons on a phone is problematic at best. Go with a laptop, tower or tablet for best results.

This is the first thing you will see when you click on the above link.

I was mainly interested in stations in the USA so I typed USA into the search bar and came up with several choices. The station in Idaho seemed popular, so I picked it. Note, you can tell the popularity of a station by checking out the votes to the right of each station.

I thought I would try the 40 meter band so I clicked around 7 MHz. This is what the screen looked like on the CW portion of the band. Those blobs to the left are dots and dashes in CW. The control console is the grey box to the lower right. It contains all the controls you need to do just about anything you would be capable of doing if you had a radio sitting in front of you. In this case I clicked on the CW button, zoomed in with the + magnifier, and nudged the frequency up and down with the smaller circled pluses and minuses. Here is what the Idaho site looked like.

Next I decided to explore the voice part of the band. First I clicked on the LSB button, and then I moved up the band where I found a voice conversation. To move up you can either click and drag the blue section to the left, or click on the grey bar at the top further up the band. You will learn other ways to accomplish the same thing as you become familiar with the software. So play. You can’t hurt anything. This is what the voice section of the band looked like.

The conversation I tuned in on was between two hams discussing loop antennas.
And, just so you know what to expect in the way of audio quality I attached a sound clip that I recorded. The discussion centered around the need for an variable tuning capacitor. The higher the transmitter power the higher the voltage. Higher voltages in turn require bigger plate spacing to prevent arcing. Along with the bigger spacing comes larger plate areas for the same capacitance. And, along with that, a higher price tag.In keeping with ham tradition, these two were lamenting the higher price tag.

Click Here to Listen to the conversation

Patty Morris Foxworth, KJ4AFB, passed away on August 26th 2019.

Bob is currently at Scott Lake Health and Rehab, 800 County Road 540A, Lakeland, and their phone # is: (863) 500-4015.  Bob asked that I inform you of his wife’s passing, and would happily welcome visitors if anyone is available.  He is in Room 304.Click here for a Google Map and directions.

When I visited Bob Sunday, 9/16/19 I asked if there was anything I could do. He asked me to put together an  album of pictures of Patty.  I am in the process of creating hard copy for Bob, but in the mean time here are some of the pictures I found on our Blog.

For over twenty other images CLICK Here.

Hurricane Dorian projected to become a major hurricane as it churns toward Florida

Strengthening is forecast over the next few days, and Dorian could be become a Category 3 storm on Friday.

As of 5 p.m. EDT on Friday, Dorian’s center was some 20 miles east of the northwestern Bahamas and about 595 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida, the hurricane center said. Dorian was moving at 9 mph and had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph.

“There is still significant chance of a strike on the state of Florida,” DeSantis said during a briefing at the Emergency Operations Center this morning. “Anyone inside of that cone needs to be prepared.”

As of Saturday 11:00 PM Saturday the forecast is for Dorian to track North with its center staying over the Atlantic as it passes Florida. Good news for us.

As of 11:00 PM Sunday

Monday AM.
Dorian continues on a path that would put its center off the Eastern coast of Florida. At this time is does not appear to be a threat to central and western Florida. Current projection is for the storm center to be well north of us by Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

And the forecast is for the storm to remain off the coast as of late Monday.

Well goodby Dorian, at least as far as we are concerned!

Congratulations

Congratulations go out to Darrin, KC6HSP, our new EXTRA. Darrin wanted to be on a ship, but not a cruise ship, so we found passage for him on a freighter. This would be my choice if I had the urge to take a sea voyage. No noisy casinos, no tempting foods that you know you should not eat, and plenty of time to sit back and just enjoy the ride. Of course I would want to know all about how a big cargo ship moves from place to place, and how cargo is kept track of, picked up and dropped off. The more I think of it, the more I think Darrin has a good idea here.

Happy Birthday

 

Review Of Field Day

Attendance

• Checked in 7/31
  WB6QEZ Top
  KI4CRI. Charlie
  WX4NEX Norm
  KN4SAU John
  KN4SAV. Ed
  KT4WX Darrell.    First time?
  N6MRS Mike
  N7HUG Steve
  KJ4SGJ James.  First time. (Reconnected with Charlie)
  KK4LYQ Bill

Once again,  LARC showed out in force to provide radio support to a worthy cause. This time it was the Lakeland Warrior Walk. Here are some photos of the event.

Words are not needed!

Hams are a fun group of guys, or an incorrigible lot, take your pick

To the right, and blending into the crowd, is our fearless net control operator.

We were pleased to have had Darrell Davis join us on this march.

Steve, hand on the button, ready to respond.

Victor’s dream come true.” I always wanted an adult Tonka Toy when I grew up.”

Bill, ever vigilant on station

Last but not least, Next to Glenn Smith we have his very patriotic pouch. Patriotism runs in this family.

Time to volunteer for the 2019 Lakeland Warrior Walk.