Looking for Help with Club Meetings
thomas golero (KC2CBA)
on
November 13, 2004
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Each year the Hall of Science Amateur Radio Club holds a kit building night at our April meeting. In the past we have bought kits from the major kit building companies and members have tried to build them during the meeting night. Most builders finish their kits at home. This year I would like to try something new.
I would like to know what projects other clubs have tried for their construction/kit building nights. Did you buy kits or did members come up with their own ideas? Were the projects built individually or in a group? What worked and what would you have done differently?
Even if you don't belong to a club I would like to hear your ideas on simple projects you think could be built in two hours and that have some practical purpose in the shack.
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Tom KC2CBA
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by N8UZE on November 13, 2004
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Check out back issues of QST. There are all kinds of projects there. Of course the main thing is to plan it well enough in advance that you can obtain all the components.
Some of the projects are VERY simple. For example, I and my OM built a VOX headset from one of the articles. It used a pair of headphones, electret mike element, battery, mic connector and a something to support the mike element that could be attached to the earphones. It probably took about 1/2 an hour to build once everything was on hand.
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by W3RRK on November 13, 2004
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Hi Tom. Our Club had very good luck with small kits.
we put together the Pico keyer in about an hour. and when we were done we all had working kits. next project was the Rockmite QRP kit. they took a little longer but most members had them done by the end of the evening. It's been fun to see some of the enclosures members have come up with! make sure you have a well lit meeting room and good soldering irons. and of course a few people who have built kits in the past to help out. things should go smoothly.
good luck. feel free to visit our club site for more idea. www.skyviewradio.net
73
Mark W3RRK
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by W4XKE on November 13, 2004
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Tom, try the Ten Tec "T-Kits" http://www.tentec.com/Tkits.htm
They have a fall sale in progress at this time. Their products are very impressive and cover a wide range of prices and complexity. Good luck on your project OM! 73, Johnny, W4XKE
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RE: Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by KC2CBA on November 13, 2004
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Hello Dee and mark,
Thanks for the great suggestions.We built the rockmite kit two years ago and it a project which took longer than two hours so we want to scale things back a little this year.
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PowerPole Party
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by KZ1X on November 13, 2004
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Try buying the West Mountain Radio crimp tool, then having a PowerPole Party at the meetings. The first time, build one of the kit distribution boxes like the Saratoga unit. Also sell the club members connectors bought in bulk.
Have a time carved out where people can learn and help each other install connectors on cables they bring in.
This also works for PL259 and other connectors.
Installing connectors is a basic, critical ham skill and far too few can do it these days.
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RE: PowerPole Party
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by KC2CBA on November 13, 2004
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Hello Steve KZ1X ,
Is the saratoga unit sold by West Mountain Radio? Your idea is great and I will be looking into further.-Thanks
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RE: PowerPole Party
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by KZ1X on November 13, 2004
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At one point, Mitch AE6AI at www.hamstop.com sold a nice kit. I don't know if he still has it, but I bet if you told him you'd buy a bunch for a club project, he would help you out. Saratoga is a competitor product to the West Mountain line. They are less expensive ...
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by WN3R on November 13, 2004
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Introduce the members to full wave loop antennas with 1/4 wave matching sections. Cheap and easy to build. Loops work well and hang in far less space than a dipole does.
Hang with one or two supports - Shapes > Square, Rectangle, triangle-base down, or triangle-base up, or diamond. See ON4UN Low-Band DXing book for performance info based on feed point and shape.
Email me at WN3R@arrl.net for free dimension sheet.
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Wire antennas are easy, cheap, and fun
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by WN3R on November 13, 2004
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Build wire antennas for the club to use for outings, exhibits, and field day. Build antennas for new hams or SWL's to use in their stations.
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by AE5X on November 13, 2004
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How about this ($36):
http://www.amqrp.org/kits/tin_ear/index.html
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by AE5X on November 13, 2004
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Or this $27 transceiver:
http://smallwonderlabs.com/Rockmite.htm
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by KA5VCQ on November 13, 2004
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You can build a simple CT-17 converter in about an hour.
Also, simple interfaces for connecting soundcards to radios take little time. You can add a transistor PTT switch into it also. You could give a presentation on digital soundcard mode operation before building the circuits and see who might be interested.
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by KB2SDR on November 13, 2004
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Ahhh,
The Hall of Science, where I got my Tech plus license from.. I have to go there and visit it sometime when I get up that way..
73
Jason
KB2SDR
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by VE3ZXQ on November 13, 2004
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This is great Tom....
I'm in the process of creating a "needs and wants" list for kit making here....
items like:
1. multi-compartments "tackle box" which fold out and away.
2. list of basics "tools", snips, solder irons etc..
3. spare common parts, connectors etc...
4. a checklist to bring to ham fleamarket to find bargains
5. perhaps a grand wishlist for those who dream big!!
these are some of the things you can work on as you go, perhaps you can do a meeting on the pro and cons of low and high wattage solder irons...maybe price comparing while christmas is coming...
and last but not least... like N8UZE says, look up some older issues of QST or 73 and dig up the "hints and kinks" sections and create a journal(s) of "troubleshooting" basics and advance tips that people can lookup....coerce the elmers into giving up their "trade" secrets with a free coffee and donuts!!!
i'm sure all would have a great time convening and re-doing their list
Good luck!
p.s. we offer only low-fat, high-fiber donuts to our elmers here in Canada!!! lol
VE3ZXQ James
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by WA2JJH on November 14, 2004
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I got my novice from the Hall of science in 1976.
Two projects I like. Any superegenitive SW RCVR. A few transistors and a 386 chip, you have a multiband RCVR.
Then build the old tuna tin 2. 2 transistor QRP transmiter. One can practice CW QSO's for a few miles with these two kits.
WARNING I bought those $40 XCVR kits, Direct conversion RX. The same color burst XTAL drives a small amp for 300mw out. Sounds great right,
I build 2 from ebay and NFG!
ATleast with the regen rcvr I had multiple bands. I would always get the mating transmitter miles away.
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RE: Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by KC2CBA on November 14, 2004
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Wow the responses I've received so far have been fantastic.I want everyone who has posted to know that I will be looking at all of your ideas very carefully and I appreciate the time you have taken to respond.Those you of with a past association with HOSARC please feel free to drop in on one of our monthly meetings ( second Tuesday of each month)or visit us at www.hosarc.org.
Tom KC2CBA
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RE: Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by K0RFD on November 14, 2004
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Arrow Antennas sells their 2M-440 aluminum J-poles in 10 packs, at a cost of about $30 each (10 bucks off buying them 1 at a time). About 1/2 hr worth of assembly, a little longer if you bring an antenna analyzer and tune them for absolute best SWR (although they tune up REALLY close if you follow the dimensions in the instructions). The results are a very good-performing and rugged antenna that will last for years and years.
You can also machine the parts yourselves if you have a place to buy aluminum angle iron and 3/8" rod, a hacksaw, a couple of drillbits, and 3/8" x 24 taps and dies, but it really isn't too much cheaper than buying the 10-packs.
Would be a good quick, easy, and practical 1-night building project, particularly if you have new hams needing a good base station antenna to get on the air.
http://www.arrowantennas.com/j-pole.html
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by KC0GLA on November 14, 2004
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The fastest and easiest projet I like to build is a Rig to Sound Card Interface. I basicly desinged a little radio to sound card interface circut that uses NP Caps and 20K 15 turn pots.
All of the materials can be bought from any larger electronic supplier. You need a small about 2" by 3" box. I usulay use a plastic box and breadboard sold by RS. You also need a stereo 3.5 mm M to M extension cable. I prefer a 15' or longer cable sine I use the wire for the radio and serial connection also. I use a 4n25 optocoupler and a db9 for the serial. Only other part is a 1K resistor and some telephone wire to make the traces.
I usualy lay out the circuit so the computer is on one sid and the radio is on the other. I hook up the capacitors directly to the radio side. The pots are basicly level adjustments for the sound card. The opti coupler and resistor is for PTT for the radio.
Usualy the radio is diferent for everyone so the last part of hooking the interface to the radio and connectors will need to be done on thier own or they need to furnish the connectors themselvs.
This works great even for Technicains since you can hook your radio up and use AGWPE for packet or APRS.
Another kit based project is the TinyTrack for APRS.
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RE: Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by K0RFD on November 14, 2004
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Actually, the rig-to-soundcard interface IS a good project. The one I designed is a hair fancier, has two optoisolators--one for PTT and the other for FSK, just in case they want to use it for RTTY.
I solved the "Every rig is different" problem by mounting a 5-pin DIN jack in the box, wiring the box-to-radio connections in a standard way (PTT, FSK, Ground, Audio In, Audio Out), then the user can wire up their own 5-pin DIN plug to "whatever" cable. The computer sound card connectors are standard DB9 and 3.5 mm stereo, easily made ahead of time.
You can build that "dead bug" style in a couple of hours, even with raw rookies.
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by K3IXD on November 14, 2004
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My club built 2m FM Jpole antennas one meeting using 300 ohm feedline. It is a simple project and a lot of fun.
73, Ed
K3IXD
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by K9FE on November 14, 2004
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In the past we have...assembled 95% of a K1 at a meeting by working in teams, built Plumbers dream J-Poles with the experienced hams helping the newer techs, Put together simple 40m CW receivers from a kit, ate cookies (food has to part of it), built coax jumpers by teaching the newer and some older hams to put connectors on the correct way. (That was a very successful meeting) I tried to get interest in a 2n2222 contest, but there just isn't the level of electronics knowledge in enough people to make it work at our meetings.
If you think of some good ones I would like to hear about them.
73 de K9FE Mike
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RE: Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by KI4BNP on November 16, 2004
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The Alexandria Radio Club held a basic soldering course at one of it's meetings, you can bring junk radio's and get people to hone their soldering skills, it helps to know the right and the wrong way to solder and also when not to use rosin-core!
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by KI6LO on November 16, 2004
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Maybe you can get a discount for a quantity of Byonics TinyTrak III APRS encoders. These can easily be assembled in a hour or so by those with limited soldering experience.
Just an idea.
Gene KI6LO
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by W5ESE on November 19, 2004
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perhaps build some pixie 2's? i built a pixie 2
for 80 meters, and used small alligator clips to
hold the crystal. cheap crystals are available
for 3579.545 khz and 3686.4 khz, so you could
build a "two channel" 80m qrpp rig very
inexpensively. my best dx so far with it is from
central texas to florida. i recommend swapping
out the 2n3904 from the final and using a metal
can 2n2222a instead, and power it off 12v to get
about 400-500 mw out.
with several club members in your area on the
same frequencies, you could have alot of fun with
these.
some info on it is at:
http://www.qrpp-i.com/pixie2.htm
73
scott w5ese
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by WA2JJH on November 20, 2004
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wow! Got my Novice from the Hall of Science at 108th Queens,NY.
I think simple TX's and RX's are good to start.
After your crew works out all the bugs, Have a short QRP QSO with them.
My first kits bac in 1968 were audio amps CPO's ad FM wireless transmitters. Start simple.
Perhaps the club station can all chip in and build and buy a club K2!
Everybody works on one assemble according to skill level. You the have a fine SSB/CW 100W transceiver for the club to kepp working.
Man-Mano-shevits..Last time I was there your club station was WB2JSM, had yu had a DRAKE C line.
I have to make a pilgrimage on the #7 train and visit!!!!!
73 MIKE
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by N6KD on November 20, 2004
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I recently attended the Pacific Division convention and a non ham showed how 6 different antennas could be built in about a half hour each. His antennas were for 1.2 GHz and higher - so I built each one of them - mostly from junk parts for 144MHz and 440 MHz. They all worked and took from 1/2 hour to about an hour each. They provide directivity, gain and the desired polarization. I provided a presentation at our local club.
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by WA2YQV on November 24, 2004
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TenTec is the best I think,
and RamseyKits is right behind them
(They have a lot of small, low cost, and usable stuff)
Ramsey electronics:
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/hk/
or http://www.ramseykits.com
Got my Tech at HOSARC ! ages ago
Art
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Looking for Help with Club Meetings
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by WA5KRP on November 25, 2004
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We had a blast making 2M copper j-poles. They came out beautifully and worked perfectly. You'll want to have an SWR meter on hand for tuning them up.
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