5 results for author: Cameron Conover

Letter from the President’s Shack: January 2016

Happy New Year, GARA!  I feel honored to have been selected by my fellow members to serve as the president of this wonderful club.  GARA has so much rich history in amateur radio in the Greensboro area and North Carolina, it is a wonderful thing to be a part of that.  I believe we are uniquely positioned in the history of GARA to do some great things and really build on what those before us have done.   Speaking of those before us, there are only a few members around who remember the beginning of GARA.  GARA has been around for as long as I’ve been breathing almost, over those 40 years the club has shifted and changed, grown and shrank, and ...

N4G Update

N4G-Radio-Equipment From David, AJ4TF: Permit application is in the hands of the National Park Service, but their new policy is that they won't issue the permit until we provide evidence that we have paid our liability insurance policy for 2016 (which runs from March 1st to March 1st.   (someone needs to send me the paid receipt as soon as possible please!) KE4MOW will not be able to provide his excellent ICOM HF rig this year, since he has it installed in his shack.   So we will be looking for someone to loan a good HF rig (preferably one that can be operated by relative beginners to HF).    Antenna #1 setup: Cameron ...

North Carolina Dstar Net – Listen Now!

This is a recording from this weeks NC Dstar net that takes place every Tuesday night at 9:00 eastern on W4GSO and other repeaters and hotspots connected to reflector 54C.   This week there were a few technical problems from various participants, more than usual.  Instead of crackle and white noise or static like FM in digital modes you get audio artifacts commonly referred to by users as R2D2.  (Might be time to switch to BB8!) This recording was made through REF 054C on the SD card of an Icom ID-31 by Collins Conover, AF7PO.  Enjoy!

COMPARING DUPLEXERS, MFJ VS. DIAMOND

I put up a new Diamond X200A antenna on my chimney and I wanted to share it between a Dstar hotspot on UHF and My Icom 746 on 2m, in order to do that I needed to use a diplexer. I used to use a duplexer in my mobile, so I had two laying around. The first one was the Diamond MX-72.   Inside this one I found two cold solder joints, it was used in my collection and I remember having it installed in my car and then removing it because it caused a problem. Before I could even test the Diamond MX-72 I had to repair the cold solder joints. Strike one.     The second one is the MFJ-916B: Basically I just wanted ...

The 500 Milliwatt Challenge

By Chris Thompson, K4HC   Just before Christmas, I was able to purchase a new HF radio, the Elecraft KX3, along with the companion 100 watt amplifier. Shortly after, I was able to sell my old HF radio and complete the “KX Line” by getting the PX3 panadapter. Most of you already know the KX3 is an outstanding QRP radio by itself (when not using the amplifier), and has an excellent receiver. I have been extremely satisfied with my purchase. As K4AX says, I now am drinking the Elecraft Kool-Aid. Since I now had this wonderful QRP radio, I decided I would set a challenge for myself. The challenge would be to work 100 countries using QRP ...