SOARA Elmer Saturday
email Ed wa6ed@soara.org for comments or suggestions
SOARA Saturday was started to give newer members and guests a less formal meeting upon which they can meet up with experienced club members to learn new skills or be introduced to new things in Amateur Radio.
In April 2018 we changed the SOARA Saturday name to SOARA Elmer Saturday. This was a natural evolution since Elmering is a natural part of SOARA Saturday. Look for green Elmer badges. They may or may not have your specific answer but they are willing to help.
Sometimes SOARA Saturdays will have a topic of discussion, although if you have a specific topic or question you would like to ask, feel free to attend and ask!
SOARA Saturday is open to the public and there is no fee to attend. Donuts and coffee are typically provided by SOARA.
Lori, NI6X building a 50 ohm / 100 watt dummy load kit for high frequency (HF) radio
SOARA Saturday Technet Log <click here>
2024: Events
These are ideas for what we may do at a SOARA Saturday. Depending on volunteer demos may change. We try to have 2-3 different demos except when we have a major topic like DSTAR or APRS
- 1/20/24 Murray Center
- HT programming chirp
- SDRs
- Soldering kits / battery boxes / connector boxes
- CW trainers
- 3/2/24 Gilleran Park
- HF / VHF / UHF operation / portable operation / DX
- Antennas, throwing wire up in the air
- Satellite tracking / coms
- SSTV?
- 3/23/24 Gilleran Park
- HF / VHF / UHF operation / DX
- Antenna testing, VNA, Analyzers
- 4/20/24 Murray Center
- APRS (Major topic) This will be one presentation.
- 5/25/24 Murray Center
- HT programming chirp
- portable magnetic loop antennas
- Raspberry Pi / Arduino Uno R4 applications to ham radio
- 6/22/24 Gilleran Park
- Antennas in the park
- Emergency communications / power
- 7/20/24 Gilleran Park
- Radio demos
- Instrumentation / measurements
- 8/24/24 Gilleran Park
- Antenna analyzer demos
- 9/21/24 Gilleran Park
- 10/12/24 Murray Center
- DSTAR (Major topic) one presentation
- 11/16/24 Murray Center
- Filters, EMI
- tinySA
- 3d printing radio parts
- 12/14/24 Murray Center
- Kit building
- Chirp HT programming
- Radio demos, SSTV? NOAA
- SDR applications
2023 Events:
(Updated 2023/01/02 WA6ED)
Volunteers always welcome to demo skills and knowledge. Meetings 9am to noon. Coffee and donuts provided. Topics and dates subject to change.
- 1/14/23, Murray Center
- Restoring old radios, we will need volunteers
- High voltage safety
- tips and techniques
- CW trainer demos?
- Maybe start a CW practice group over the year? meet and demo skills?
- Morserino-32
- Morse Monkey CW Training Kit
- QRP Guys morse trainer
- Nano Keyer
- source code
- WA6ED has a few kits available
- walking thunt practice
- Restoring old radios, we will need volunteers
- 3/4/23, Murray Center
- Tape measure antenna build for thunting
- demo various attenuators
- link to PVC tape measure antenna instructions
- link to low cost offset KC9ON attenuator
- SOARA Thunting link
- Walking thunt practice
- Tape measure antenna build for thunting
- 3/18/23, Murray Center
- Brian NJ6N will demo APRS
- Bring your APRS equipment and share your knowledge!
- SOARA Thunting link
- Walking t-hunt
- 146.565
- Byronics Fox Transmitter
- 700mW max
- link to fox transmitter
- 146.580
- 3 experimental hamshield Fox transmitter
- 200 mW max
- link to hamshield (out of production)
- 146.565
- 4/22/23, Murray Center
- SDR, RTLSDR, suggestions welcome
- Walking thunt practice
- 5/20/23, Gilleran Park
- emergency power, emergency communications
- prep for field day
- Walking thunt
- 6/24/23, Gilleran Park
- field day weekend
- build battery boxes or connector boxes?
- FD walking thunt
- 7/22/23, Gilleran Park
- Satellites, NOAA, contacts,…
- Walking thunt
- 8/26/23, Gilleran Park
- Test equipment, test HT’s, coax …
- HF operation
- 9/23/23, Gilleran Park
- Antenna testing in the park with VNAs
- HF operation
- 10/21/23, Gilleran Park
- Experiments with the tiny SA or nano VNA
- test filters
- search for noise sources
- test antennas
- other?
- Chirp & Mirkit USB cable set testing
- Experiments with the tiny SA or nano VNA
- 11/25/23, Murray Center
- Demo Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ESP 32 ham projects
- Kit building
- Soldering demo
- Chirp
- work on a code plug for SOARA
- 12/16/23, Murray Center
- CW demos
- Kit building
- Soldering demo
- Maybe thunt
2022 Events:
This schedule will evolve based on feedback. Suggestion’s welcome.
- Dec 18 2021, Gilleran Park
- Tape Measure Yagi antenna build
We will have some 3D printed 2 meter magnetic loop parts available to
members, reference Rich’s W6BOT article. LMK if you want one 3D printed
frame reserved for you.
A few live T’s will be running for testing and experimenting with your build
or bring your already built antennas and hunt!
- Tape Measure Yagi antenna build
- Jan 29, 2022, Gilleran Park
- HF prep for winter field day
- HF prep for winter field day
- Mar 5, 2022, Murray Center
- Coax, connectors, crimp tools. Bring your tools and demo cable building
Save money making and repairing your own cables
HF demo operation if possible
- Coax, connectors, crimp tools. Bring your tools and demo cable building
- Mar 26, 2022, Murray Center
- ESP32, displays, GPS, RTC, rotary encoder demo
Raspberry Pi projects, ham clock, raspad, and custom projects. Bring your
raspberry pi project or demo your favorite application.
- ESP32, displays, GPS, RTC, rotary encoder demo
- Apr 23, 2022, Murray Center
- Hotspots, Zum Spots, Jumbo Spots. Run various digital modes over the
internet. OLED or Nextion display setup. DMR, DSTAR, FUSION
- Hotspots, Zum Spots, Jumbo Spots. Run various digital modes over the
- May 28, 2022, Gilleran Park
- HF operation in the park, various antennas
- Jun 25, 2022, Gilleran Park
- Field day, battery boxes, connector boxes
Walking thunt
- Field day, battery boxes, connector boxes
- Jul 23, 2022, Gilleran Park
- SDR, software defined radio, RTLSDR, QFH antennas
- Aug 27, 2022, Gilleran Park
- Satellites, yagi antennas, communicating, need elmers!
- Sep 24, 2022 Murray Center
- Antenna analyzer, spectrum analyzer, test antennas, attenuators and other
cool stuff.
- Antenna analyzer, spectrum analyzer, test antennas, attenuators and other
- Oct 22, 2022, Murray Center
- QRP, tuna can kits?
- Nov 26, 2022, Murray Center
- ESP32 & Arduino projects, bring your project and share!
- Dec 17, 2022, Murray Center
- Kit building, soldering, buy a kit and get some help
Maybe some pixie kits again? CW
- Kit building, soldering, buy a kit and get some help
October 30, 2019 HamNation 426 SOARA Saturday!
2020 Events:
(updated 12/7/19, suggestions still welcome, events moved based on location)
- Jan 11, 9am-noon
- Murray Center
- APRS, Automatic Packet Reporting System
- Brian NJ6N will demo various aspects of APRS
- Bring your APRS gear!
- Links:
- https://nj6n.com/aprs
- Brian’s webpage on APRS plus this SOARA Saturday presentation!
- https://tnc-x.com/TNCPi.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_node_controller
- http://www.aprs.org/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Packet_Reporting_System
- https://nj6n.com/aprs
- Feb 8, 9am-noon
- Murray Center
- kit building, soldering, soldering coax / solder gun
- Bring a kit! Get started building.
- We will demo soldering and safety
- Links to kits:
- Mar 14, 9am-noon
- Gilleran Park
- SDR, Software Defined Radio
- RTLSDR, SDRPlay, and others
- demo SDRPlay with Raspberry Pi4, remote 12v operation
- Bring your gear and demo
- Apr 11, 9am-noon, canceled due to covid-19 shelter in place
- Every Saturday tech net starting 9am, until we can meet again, 147.645 and 447.180 repeaters
- on 3/28 we had 35 checkins!
- May 9, 9am-noon, canceled due to covid-19 shelter in place
- Every Saturday tech net starting 9am, until we can meet again, 147.645 and 447.180 repeaters
- Jun 13, 9am-noon
- Jul 11, 9am-noon
- Murray Center
- Noise hunting, RFI, ferrites, noise suppression, grounding
- Field Strength meters, SDRs, what else?
- Aug 8, 9am-noon
- Gilleran Park
- HF Digital FT8 operation, JTAlert, psk reporter
- Sep 12, 9am-noon
- Murray Center
- UHF / VHF Digital modes DSTAR, Fusion, & DMR
- Zum Spot, Jumbo Spot
- Oct 10, 9am-noon
- Gilleran Park
- Demo Antennas in the park
- Dipole, vertical, magnetic loop
- Maybe VLF?
- Nov 14, 9am-noon
- Murray Center
- Raspberry Pi or Arduino Projects
- Links:
- https://dl1gkk.com/
- Raspberry Pi ham clock and various projects
- https://oh8stn.org/
- RPi RTC and other interesting topics
- https://dl1gkk.com/
- Dec 12, 9am-noon
- Gilleran Park
- Demo HF Operation in the park
2019 Events:
- Jan (Feb 2), Murray Center, Transmitter hunting Antennas, bring your parts and we will help you build.
- 5 Element Yagi email from Richard K6RBS, 5 element tape measure dimensions
- http://theleggios.net/wb2hol/projects/rdf/tape_bm.htm
- Instructions to build a PVC tape measure antenna
- 3D print parts for tape measure antenna, designed by WA6ED, STL files
- http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Tape-Measure-Antenna/Feb
- http://www.homingin.com/dualfeed.html
- Build a multiple polarization cubic quad antenna
- https://kc9on.com/product/fox-hunt-offset-attenuator/
- https://kc9on.com/ham-radio/fox-hunting/
- $8 offset attenuator kit, you will need a case, coax, connectors…
- Two links above, be sure read the manual & never transmit into the attenuator.
- This is a kit, you will need to add a box, connectors, soldering, and wiring.
- http://www.foxhunt.com.au/index.html
- http://www.dhawke.com/kq1lweb/documents/rdf.pdf
- http://www.byonics.com/
- Feb (Mar 2), Murray Center, Kits!
- Kit building, bring a kit and demo or build a kit
- Get help with soldering, why flux is a important, temperature, safety with hot stuff.
- GET & WEAR WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!
- Bring cardboard to protect tables!
- Kit building, bring a kit and demo or build a kit
- Mar 23, Murray Center, Computer Assisted Radio, EchoLink 101,
- MMDVM, Zum Spot, and stuff
- SOARA Sat JumboSpot HW SW 2019-03-24
- This PDF has links to buy parts and assemble the jumbospot, you WILL need to solder some parts.
- Pi-Star_Config_ed-dstar_24-Mar-2019a
- This is my JumboSpot config. Be sure to change the XX6XX callsign to your callsign. ID: pi-star, Password: raspberry
- Zumspot will need different modem setting and rx&TX offset different.
- Nextion display howto from Brian NJ6N
- Radio programming TBD
- Apr 20, Murray Center, T-Hunt Practice (no room reserved, meet outside, look for antennas)
- http://homingin.com/
- Joe’s website on radio direction finding (RDF)
- http://homingin.com/THRDFSinfo.html
- This is a book to get started, by Joseph D. Moell, KØOV, and Thomas N. Curlee, WB6UZZ
- http://www.scc-ares-races.org/training/courses/DirectionFinding/DFBasicsJun2011v1.4_3Up.pdf
- Nice presentation on RDF
- http://www.dhawke.com/kq1lweb/documents/rdf.pdf
- Describes several different types of RDF equipment
- http://homingin.com/
- May 25, Murray Center, MicroBitX, HF Kits, UHF/VHF kits, Zum & jumbo kits
- Bring a kit and lets talk about it
- WA6ED will likely bring several built projects for demo
- We can show soldering here too.
- Jun 22, Gilleran Park, Field Day Battery Box Build
- Tony’s battery box
- Modular connector box
- Connector box can move from battery box to battery box
- If room inside battery case, connector box can store inside water tight and kept clean
-
- Yellow 3D printed base with Blue Sea cover found on Amazon
- Black and red Power pigtail on left connects to battery
- Batteries only need corresponding connector with appropriate length of wire
-
- Note bind posts make wiring much easier
- The Blue Sea switch is also a circuit breaker.
- Batteries are high current devices. Always use a fuse or breaker!
- The round modules are selected based on your needs and then wired in parallel.
- Powerpoles
- 5V USB & Voltmeter
- 12v Cigarette liter
- Other…
- The blue voltage LEDs are dim in sunlight. Red or Yellow may be better.
-
- Early connector box show parallel wiring through clear cover
- This version uses a fuse and on-off switch in series with (red) 12V
- Battery boxes were inspired by Tony W6TNY past SOARA member, this is his presentation:
- W6TNY Bbox Presentation 08072018
- Modular connector boxe was a derivative idea from Ed, WA6ED
- Tony’s battery box
- Jul 20, Gillrean Park, HF Operation & Grounding, Static & Lightning Protection
- Ground-Lightning-Statiic-Safety PDF
- ground rod, how many?
- lightning arrestors, good for static too!
- Why use braided copper or copper strip over wire?
- Maybe FT8 & WSJTX & JTAlertX demo
- Aug 24, Murray Center, Tube Radios
- bring a tube radio, kit, or a restored radio to demo
- High voltage safety discussion.
- Sept 21, Murray Center, Antenna Analyzers, Smith Charts, Etc.
- Why you need an analyzer?
- What is it good for?
- Oct 26, Gilleran Park, Emergency Power and Operation
- Solar panels
- Generators
- Battery Boxes
- HF, VHF, UHF operation on remote power
- Nov 23, Gilleran Park, Megger / Insulation testing, Coax
- high voltage insulation testing
- Is your insulation good?
- Demos needed! Test samples too!
- Dec, 14 Gilleran Park, HF Operation (NEW NEW NEW)
- We will setup a HF transceiver, antenna, and operate voice
- Have fun on the radio
- Learn how to connect everything together and setup your own rig.
- Discuss finalizing the 2020 Calendar
Past SOARA Saturdays
4/2017 Paint can HF dummy load kit build
The SWR was typically 1.22 : 1 or better up to 30 MHz!
3/2017 DMR Workshop, Presented by Mikkel NR6E
3/2017 Field Strength Meter kit build inside multimeter
10/22/2016 Tape measure T-hunt antenna build with attenuator
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PT