Apr 2023 WCARES Monthly Meeting – In-Person & Zoom

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Situation Awareness & Tactical Communications

Kevin Fitch (K4KCF) is a volunteer wildland firefighter. Situational Awareness & Tactical Communications is vitally important in this environment. In his presentation, Kevin gives ham radio operators some things to consider as we train for our role as emergency communicators.

Off-Center Fed Antennas

Ted Edwards (W3TB) gives a detailed presentation of the properties of a multi-band off-center fed dipole antenna. The antenna described is only 68 feet long, but covers the 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m amateur radio bands.

Mar. 2023 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting:

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Paul Havlik (WD9IOK) thoroughly discusses RFI, how it affects you (and others!), and what can be done to reduce or eliminate it. Recorded during the WCARES monthly meeting on March 18th, 2023.

Feb. 2023 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting:

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1. Blake and Ryan Pearson achieve “Big Dog” status

Blake Pearson (KN4VKY) and Ryan Pearson (KN4VKW) operated the CW station at the N4FR Winter Field Day. Their work was impressive, expertly handling traffic at 23-25wpm. Because of this, Tim Kreth presented the boys with certificates, clearing their way to sit at the proverbial “Big Dog Table” from now on. While the boys watched the presentation on Zoom, their father, Andrew Pearson (KN4VKX), accepted the certificates on their behalf.

2. WCARES Membership Requirements – 2023

In this video, Jeff Standifer (WB5WAJ) reviews the requirements for being a WCARES member in good standing.

3. Radio Wave Propagation

How is possible for us to talk to hams across America and beyond? Watch this video and learn the science behind the magic.

Tim Kreth (AD4CJ) gives a detailed presentation of radio wave propagation. Much of this material comes from the General license study materials. If you haven’t yet obtained your General class license – or if it’s been a while, and you’ve forgotten a few things – Tim’s presentation includes useful information for all hams.

Sept. 2022 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: VarAC

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Tim, AD4CJ gave a talk introducing a new use for the VARA HF protocol: the VarAC HF chat application created by by Irad Deutsch, 4Z1AC. The website for VarAC is: https://www.varac-hamradio.com and includes a list of features, the download for Windows, FAQs, user manuals and a community forum etc.

Tim then played a portion of the September 5th, 2022 Tonight @ 8 video from RSGB (Radio Society of Great Britain): Back to the keyboard! by Mike Richards, G4WNC. Mike gives an overview and examples of digital modes, required equipment and radio connections for keyboard QSOs and then walks through the features of VarAC and provides some operating tips for keyboard QSOs.

The complete video is well worth watching especially if you are new to digital modes:
https://youtu.be/SC0UxNG2itE
or skip ahead to the section on VarAC with the embedded video below.

The RSGB website is: https://rsgb.org/ and more videos from RSGB can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRSGB/videos.

The VarAC portion of the video starts around the 29:45 mark:

June 2022 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: Surge Protection with Paul Havlik, WD9IOK

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Paul Havlik (WD9IOK) gives a MasterClass in station grounding and surge protection. Paul worked for Square D (now Schneider Electric) for 28 years, so he certainly knows his stuff.

April 2022 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: MTEARS

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Presentation by Tom Delker (K1KY). Tom talks about the MTEARS network… the Middle Tennessee Emergency Amateur Repeater System. This is a set of 34 linked repeaters that span most of the state of Tennessee.

March 2022 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: VHF/UHF Sideband

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In this comprehensive video, Paul, WD9IOK gives you all the information you need to get involved in 6 meters and up (VHF and UHF) operations using SSB mode. There’s more than just FM to play with in the higher frequencies of ham radio!

February 2022 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: Maximize Your Signal Reception

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For the February 2022 WCARES meeting, Tim, AD4CJ presents Maximize Your Signal Reception

Learn how to adjust your HF radio to maximize your signal reception. Tim delivers a presentation based on a PowerPoint stack that he put together back in 2016. It was good advice then and it’s good advice now!

00:53 Mechanics of Fine-tuning your radio
02:03 How to Fine-Tune Your Radio
03:14 How to Zero-Beat CW Signals
05:41 How to Accurately Tune a SSB Signal
09:50 Automatic gain control & RF gain
28:35 The use of preamps
29:23 Attenuators
36:45 Noise Reducer Circuits
39:16 Noise Blanker Circuits

January 2022 Virtual Monthly Meeting: Solar Power for HAMs and Understanding NVIS

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Solar Power for Hams presented by Tim, AD4CJ

Understanding NVIS from Paul Denisowski, KO4LZ of Rohde & Schwarz

September 2021 Monthly Meeting at the EOC: What is Emergency Management?

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During the September 18th WCARES monthly meeting, Todd Horton (Director of the Williamson County EMA) gave a fantastic presentation.

His PowerPoint title slide asked, “What is Emergency Management?”

Todd provided a thorough answer and went well beyond this to include the structure of the Williamson County EMA, their vision, their capabilities, facilities, and much more.