A survey was sent to all our members today to determine how many might be interested in an Upgrade Class to General to be held next spring. So far the survey has been mailed only to NCRC members, but we might open it up to a state-wide audience at a later date.
Please fill in the short form and return it (its an Email thing — just fill in the blanks and press the SUBMIT button at the bottom).
The latest NCRC Technician Class began on Monday September 16, with seven students. Classes will be held for the next five Monday, and an exam will be held on October 28th. As we did last session, students who pass the exam and join NCRC for two years will receive a HT once they receive their license.
Remember that the October NCRC meeting will be held at the VFW Post
This past Field Day saw the GOTA station having difficulty due to horrible RFI at the Glen Park Pavilion. The noise was so bad that it even prevented weak signal satellite work near the power lines on 144/440 MHz. With an upcoming JotA event in October, WA1ABI, John King, offered an instructional class in RFI finding techniques using VHF/UHF AM receivers with directional antennas, a KX3 with a rubber duck antenna, and a ultrasonic leak detector.
The RFI levels were high enough, even on 2 meters, that directional antennas were still yielding multiple peaks, and the lack of a RF gain control on the VHF gear further hindered the process. On the other hand, signal levels were more reasonable at 70 cm, and a rather pronounced peak was observed in the direction of one particular telephone pole.
Other participants were “walking the line” with the KX3 set to 6-meter AM, and independently established a rather strong signal level from the same pole. John King then brought out the mystery weapon — a ultrasonic receiver that detects sounds in the 36-46 KHz range and converts them to audible signals (a hetrodyne receiver operating a ultrasonic frequencies). Sure enough, when John pointed his parabolic dish at the pole, he could easily detect arcing, and he observed ivy was growing up the pole’s guy wire and right into the MV 3-phase lines. Fascinatingly enough, a much stronger arcing noise was actually coming from a pine tree that was growing at the base of the power pole. Moving the guy wire could cause the noise to go away or come back.
National Grid will be called in next week to fix the issue, and a second RFI party will check to see if the noise is improved.
Thanks to John WA1ABI, Willy W1LY, Jack K1JG, Rich N3RWB, Dave KC1AAA, Dirmid KB1ZZY, Rob KB1ZZU, Julian N1UHP, and Bob WB4SON who participated in the hunt.
The “Guilty” Power Pole – Observe the Ivy Growing Up the Guy
NCRC will be offering a second Technician Class starting September 16, 2013 at the American Red Cross facility in Middletown. Classes will be held on six consecutive Monday nights from 7:00 – 9:30 PM. An exam will be given on October 28th at 7:00 PM.
The class fee is $10, and the exam fee is $15.
People interested in the class may go to this URL for more details and to signup:
The Technician Class continues, and 13 students are now participating. Tonight marks the half-way point for the class. The exam will be held in early May, and the club will be recruiting new members from those that pass.