Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Station Building”

Automatic Antenna Switch Decoder added to W4GAC Station

Ron KP2N and Tom NY4I added a Top Ten Devices Band Decoder to the W4GAC station. This switch ties into the existing Six Pack antenna switch. The idea is that rather than the operator having to select the right antenna, the Band Decoder follows a signal sent from the radio that tells the decoder what band the radio is on at the time. The corresponding position is then switched on the antenna switch. So when the radio is on bands 10m – 20m, the Log Periodic is selected. When … Click for more

SPARC Members attend West Central Florida Section TECHCON

Section Manager Darrell KT4WX discussing PICAXE Microcontrollers.

On Saturday, February 25, several members of SPARC made the trip to Sarasota for the 3rd annual WCF section TECHCON. This is a free technical conference put on by the WCF ARRL section technical staff. The location changes to various places around the section to allow the most section members to attend.

This year, there were two conference tracks. One focused on more introductory topics such as station design, antenna building, APRS and programable microcontrollers such as the PICAXE and the Arduino. … Click for more

URGENT Action Required for the Amateur Radio Parity Act!

From the ARRL:

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), is still not supporting H.R. 1301 / S.253 the Amateur Radio Parity Act.

In fact, Senator Nelson has placed a “hold” on the legislation, effectively barring consideration of the Bill despite its widespread bipartisan support.  If this hold isn’t removed, the bill will die in the Senate and require the process to completely start over when the new Congress begins on January 1, 2017.

You are one of well over 40,000 licensed Amateur Radio operators living in Florida.  Many of you already live … Click for more

W4TA back in Contest Mode…New Antennas Work Great

With the completion of the relocation of our Log Periodic antenna on our new tower and the erection of a temporary dipole for 40M/80M, W4TA is on the air. The tower puts the antennas up around 55 feet. And boy do they work well in combination with the Alpha 9500 amplifier. We inaugurated the antenna/amplifier combination in the CW Sweepstakes contest, the oldest contest in amateur radio. It was no effort to hold a frequency and it was fun to hear the pile ups focused on us.

Congratulations to all Click for more

Log Periodic Antenna Moved

The Log Periodic antenna was transferred from its old location atop the shipping containers to the new tower by John, KI4UIP; Donn, N4KII; Dave, KR4U; Bob, N2ESP; and Hal, W1EES. Ron, KP2N replaced the logging computer power supply. With luck, W4TA will be ready for the sweepstakes. Click on title for photos.

lp2
The LP antenna removed from shipping containers.
lp1
The LP antenna installed on new tower.

Related Images:

Antenna Modeling with EZNEC

 

The program for Friday, Nov 4, will be antenna modeling, building simple models and then comparing them to more complex antennas.  Ed, NZ1Q will demonstrate EZNEC software, which offers a free demo program that can be easily downloaded.   Ed will go through how to build an antenna model and read the resulting charts and graphs for a simple dipole, a two element beam and then as time permits, an Off Center Fed Dipole and other antennas., Radiation patterns, SWR, impedance matching and effects of grounds will be demonstrated. 

Be sure … Click for more

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com