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.
Major Upgrade to W1SYE Antenna System
The original W1SYE Repeater antenna had been damaged during recent storms, and water ingress had degraded the signal. Club members Rick Brendlinger (N3RWB), John King (WA1ABI), John Mills (N1JSM), and Willy MacLean (W1LY), plus Henrikas Tamulynas, spent three days working on the antenna system. They spent two days assembling a new G7, taking down the old antenna, and installing the new one. On the third day they ran 180 feet of new Andrew hard line. This was secured using stainless clamps which were supplied as part of a Red Cross antenna upgrade package and augmented with hardware supplied by John King and John Mills.
After cleaning up all existing coax and topping up the battery the repeater was tested and found to be much improved. Besides this new antenna system, there are two spare runs of coax, the control antenna, and a backup 2 meter antenna on the tower.
Members are reminded that Rich Travers (N1ZSR) runs a net each night at 7 PM (details on Web site) and with the improved operation of the W1SYE machine, increased club usage is encouraged.
You can see a few photos of the antenna work on the photo tab.
2013 Officer List
After a special election was held during the March 11th meeting, the following officers were elected to serve the membership during 2013:
Next Meeting: Monday April 8, 2013 at Portsmouth Fire Station.
The next meeting of the NCRC will be held Monday, April 8th starting at 7:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Portsmouth Fire Station
Useful Repeater Directory for Smart Phone Users
I had stumbled across what is billed as “The World Wide Repeater Directory” today: http://www.rfinder.net/blog/
While not a free service ($9.95 per year for a subscription), their IOS and Android Apps provide an new way for hams to access repeater information on-the-go. I purchased the iPhone App to try it out ($9.95, but that includes the year-long subscription). The App knows my location from the phone GPS and can show the visual location of repeaters on a map, or simply list them (by distance, frequency, or call sign).
I think I now have a permanent replacement for the pocket repeater directory I used to by each year, then promptly misplace. Plus mapping the locations seems far more useful than simply seeing a list by region.
73, Bob, WB4SON