Left to right, Dave Ingram, new Tech – KN4DTS, Rich, Craig Bailey, new General, KN4DLS, Peggy, testing coordinator, and Duane Archibald, N4WDH who is also the president of the East Pasco Amateur Radio Club.

 

Please check for errors. If you were there, and you circled your call sign, but are missing, or data is not correct, please let me know.

Call Sign  First         Last           Class              ARRL ARES   Skywarn
                  Carl          Begley       

Clubs collect attendance. It is a tradition. LARC has been doing it since day one. The funny thing is that no one, to my knowledge, has ever made use of the data on our sign in sheets. In fact, the last time anyone ever sees it is after they check off their name. Except for me, that is. I file them.

You no doubt have noticed that the sign in sheets have changed a bit over the last year. Instead of a blank sheet, call signs were prerecorded so you only had to check a couple of boxes. The result was more legible, but not in format easily shared. Two months ago a bar code appeared next to your call sign. Here is what that is all about. By scanning the bar code representation of your call sign into a file, it can then be joined up with the official list of club members and shared with everyone. In essence What follows is the result.

(As an aside, the inspiration for bar codes came from the Morse Code. No it is not the same code, just the same principle, short and long, or in the case of the bar code, black or white. There are numerous bar code systems. I am using Code 128. Grocery stores, and Libraries each have their own system. Even the Universal Product Code, UPC is not all that universal. European UPC codes are not the same as ours.)

So if you are not on the list, and you are a member in good standing, please let me know. Also, let me know if you find any errors.

Attendees at the May Meeting

Jeff (Luther) James passed away Friday, May 12th. He was preceded by his wife Barbara Jean James nearly one year to the day. Jeff is survived by his son Glenn and his daughter Vicky. There will be an informal service Saturday, 10 AM – 12:PM at the Gentry-Morrison Funeral Home 3350 Mall Hill Dr, Lakeland, FL 33810.

Drew Draws A Crowd

Speaking to a captivated audience, Drew presented the the history and theory behind satellite communication. Later the group retired to the outdoors where he put theory into practice. In the space of a few minutes he made a contact with a ham in Texas.Then, wishing to share the fun Drew got Liam KM4STS to participate.

They make it look so simple. Like child’s play. 🙂

Click on the above link. This will take you to the AMSAT site.

If this information gets you interested in satellite communications, it has done its job. Several of our club members are heavily involved with this mode of operation. Two in particular are Matthew KK4FEM and Rich N4ESS. I am sure they would be happy to share their experiences with you.

Note: after reading this post Matthew made some valuable suggestions.They follow:

The club was well represented with volunteers, as usual. No mishaps this year, but we did have one little gal that needed some assistance. She was too tired to walk and mom had her hands full with her sister. I think she may have been saving her energy for the inflatable playroom available to the kids, after the walk. 

Jim Stewart brings new meaning to going the extra mile.

As in past years, LARC Ladies participated in the walk.

There is nothing like a little walking to get you into shape.

Also, as in previous years, Publix was well represented.

For more images of this event click March For Babies 2017

Marvin Johnson passed away, April 22, 2017. He was 83 years old. Marvin was a long time ham, and faithful supporter of LARC. He held the position of Treasurer for many years. Always a gentleman, know for his kind smile, he will be missed.

Marvin Johnson being presented with an award for his his many years of service as club Treasurer by then President and now Treasurer, Patrick O’Neil. This picture was taken in 2012.

As in years past, our club is supporting this event in two ways. Please contact Bob Doherty to volunteer to work a station. Around fifteen volunteers will be needed to cover all the locations. Bring your HT.

The club will sponsor walkers again this year as well. Please let Bob know if you will be walking in support of this cause.

These are times of change. The most obvious is our new meeting location. It is much more comfortable than the last location from the point of view of space and acoustics. It is easy to be heard and understood, even without a microphone.

Field Day
The venue for Field Day 2017 has changed. Plans are to hold this year’s event at the Kathleen Historical Society grounds. This facility is air conditioned, making it more comfortable for participants. For those not familiar with this location, you can visit their website at http://www.kahsatsocrum.com/#

Deadline for MIGS
The deadline for Member In Good Standing status was April 1. If you have not paid your dues, and still wish to be a club member you should contact Patrick to pay your dues.

Club Records Update
April is also the time of year when we look at club records. Mike Oliver and Bill Johnson will be making a push to make sure club records are up-to-date. If you have not made changes to the paper that was circulated during the meeting, you will be contacted by phone. If the phone number we have for you is not current, then we will contact you by email. If neither phone nor email is current you will simply be unreachable. This could be disadvantageous, so unless you chose to be a Stealth Member, you should contact the Secretary to update your records. 🙂

Sign-in Sheets
As secretary I soon became aware that from day one, LARC has always had sign-in sheets at meetings and some events. No one ever questioned this, and to my knowledge no one has ever made use of them. I suppose on the outside chance you need an alibi for where you were on the first Monday of the month they might come in handy, but only if they are accurate. This is one reason we are considering the bar-code approach to attendance records, but there are others.

Generating bar-codes is not a big deal. If you wife is not also a ham, I created a bar-code with the suffix XYL for her. I also created a bar-code for you if you bring your son, YM or YL if you bring your daughter.

Other than being rather cool looking, and related to amateur radio in the sense that they were inspired by the Morse Code,bar-codes are a very practical and efficient way of generating attendance reports. A marked up sheet of bar-codes can be scanned into a worksheet in less than two minutes. But then what? For those interested, here is the workflow:

1. Members circle their call sign
2. Scan bar-codes into a spreadsheet – less than two minutes
3. Port data to a table in a data base – about a minute
4. Marry the scanned data with other information in the database, print out a hard copy, and generate a soft copy for publication. about five minutes. 

We are going to try this for a while. There have been suggestions made to affix a bar-code to the back of your membership card. This is very doable, but it requires that you carry your membership card in your wallet. The concept of bar-coded tattoos on the forehead was rejected out of hand. However, judging from the amount of ink we see these days, maybe sometime in the future. 🙂

So what does a hard copy look like: (Please keep in mind that we are in the process of updating our records so if you paid your dues, or your information is not accurate, please be patient. Feel free to contact me with any updates and corrections.)

What? You were there but you did not circle your name. Guess you will just have to make a point to do it next time. 🙁

Guest Book
 In the past we have asked guests to sign in at the bottom of the sign in sheet. There wasn’t much space to do this and we did not ask for their email. That has changed. We now have a sign-in book, with a place for email so that those who visit can keep up with club activities, and maybe even become members someday.

Testing Testing 1,2,3 Testing
  

Left to right, George, Thomas KN4BOE, Joh, KM4MTQ, Mark Tech, Duain TECH, A, and Richard. Jon Byrd is now Extra, Thomas Conner General, Mark Welch General, and Dwain Hoffman is a new Tech. Brandon Dye also tested, and is a new Tech.

 Below, Paul Pippin KG4EPU proudly holds his graduation certificate. He is now a General and free to roam the HF bands.Directly to Paul’s right, and also in the picture above is Chris AA4CB a visiting VE from the East Pasco Amateur Radio Society.

Congratulations to all

Don’t Forget -March For Babies Is Coming Up. 
See Bob To Volunteer

 

Our Guest Speaker – Ben Henley
  Digital or analog? Itt all depends. The choice is yours.

Interest in Amateur Radio was high at the Kathleen Historical Society Event this year. Rich, Bob and Bill chatted with a total of  fifty-one attendees during the day. Some were interested in becoming Hams, others just curious, and one gentleman was writing a book and wanted to check some facts about EMP, or Electro-Magnetic Pulse, for a fictional novel he is writing. When all else fails, tube radios still work! Of particular note was a middle-schooler named Hunter who was sending code with an electronic paddle after only a few minutes of practice.

Besides the three Hams manning the booth, several others stopped by to show support.  A very special  thank you goes to Chris AA4CB for taking the pictures at this event.