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Burger & Brew tickets are now available. It’s being held at Sundance Pub, Thursday April 24. Tickets are $15 p/p. This is always a fun event and if you haven’t attended in the past give it a try. Bring your friends, all are welcome. This is one of the events that’s help keep our dues as low as they are. Email me any ticket requests and I will have your tickets ready for pickup either at a meeting or at the door.
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For those involved in the DRATS exercises, the second exercise will be emailed out tomorrow. If you haven’t finished or started the first one, no worries just keep plugging along. The exercises are not about speed but about understanding. It appears the first exercise was a lot of fun for most as seen by the emails sent out.
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Our next basic course starts April 1. Please promote as much as possible as we are behind the usual totals. All info on the website: www.deltaamateurradio.com
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From VE7PKE:
Now that everyone has their coax I am sure coaxial connectors are the next order of business.
Tom has sourced some quality connectors for the coax. I will be coordinating the order collection and distribution of the connectors.
To ease the financial issues we will round the prices up to give the club a very small fund raising opportunity. These connectors are high quality and are only available in Crimp. The club has the proper crimping tools. If there is interest I am happy to organize a crimp fest event were we can do the terminations as group effort.
Please let me know by Friday March 21st your requirements. qty of connectors, size of Coax and style. Most ham gear has UHF connector.
LMR 400 connectors
11-11T-3-TGN LMR400 N male $8.00 each
17-03T-7-DNN LMR400 UHF Crimp Male $5.00 each
13-10T-1-DGN LMR400 BNC Crimp Male $5.00
LMR240/240UF
11-11L2-TGN LMR240 N Male $8.00 each
17-03L2-7-DNN LMR240 UHF Crimp Male $5.00 each
13-10L2-DGN LMR240 BNC Male $5.00 each
Please express interest to Dave Miller VE7PKE ve7pke@gmail.com
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Picked up this tid bit about the Point Roberts Towers from Clay Freinwald, K7CR and his newsletter Clay’s Corner
Meanwhile, just to the North of Seattle the battle of Point Roberts continues. What makes this interesting is that the FCC has approved the application for the multi-tower array for KRPI, leaving final approval with Whatcom County. The site is on a little finger of real estate that sticks into US territory from Canada. In fact, the only way get there (by land) is to drive into and out of Canada. The residents of Tsawwassen, just across the border (in B.C.) are really upset. As is the case with many issues involving these matters, the objectors express concerns about health. You would think that, but now, with zillions of AM Radio towers all over the world that the health impact would have been resolved long ago. It may have been, but to the residents near this site, it’s a focus of their concern. Wonder if this would have been handled different if the station were owned by CBS?
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Walking Down Memory Lane also from Clay Freinwald, K7CR and Clay’s Corner
From the looking – way back – department:
When I was a kid in Cub Scouts one of the most exciting things I got to build was a ‘Crystal-Set’ (Set was then used to describe a radio receiver). Today if you were to attempt to do this you would go out a purchase a diode for the ‘detector’ that would be the heart of the project. Back in those days we did not have that luxury as no one made any…Unless you wanted to use a tube and that would violate the rule of no external power. What you did was actually purchase a crystal and use a small piece of wire called a ‘cats whisker’…with the set complete, and your headphones on, you would find the magic location on the crystal that would turn it into a detector and – viola – you had a radio! It was not too long before enterprising folks started making crystals with an internal junction (cats whisker). Pictured below is an example of what they looking like…way back when. Yes, this was an AM only receiver…and that was OK because there weren’t any FM stations to receive anyway. There are a lot of museums dedicated to the rich history on which the broadcast industry is built. Take a few minutes and look atwww.radiomuseum.org for a listing of where you can spend some time…Looking back.
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Have a good week everyone
fixed+crystal+detector