What the heck is that: ÄRTEN™ Workshops Continue …

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The ÄRTEN™ project held it’s fifth bi-weekly workshop on April 3, 2023 at FabNewport.  Project members and students from Pull It Apart! – FabNewport joined in a “What the heck is that?” gameshow to identify electronics gear stored in the hamshack closet at All Saints STEAM Academy.  SPOILER ALERT – from left to right the team identified an antenna rotator controller, a signal generator, a Heathkit® power supply and its matching amateur radio transceiver the venerable HW-101.

Glowing with gameshow success, project members then attempted to integrate an Ethernet-enabled CO2/Temperature/Humidity sensor from TEMCO Controls with a notebook controller.  Unfortunately, the aura of invincibility wore off and attempts to communicate with the device were unsuccessful; no habla IEEE 802.3!   Stay tuned.

NCRC April Meeting

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NCRC’s April Meeting will be a hybrid in-person and Zoom meeting from 7:00pm to 8:30pm on Monday, April 10.  A ZOOM invitation will be sent out the weekend before.  In-person will be at St. Barnabas Parish Hall, 1697 East Main Rd. at Fairview Lane, Portsmouth, RI.  Minutes and Business Meeting slides will be posted as available.

Doors open at 6:00pm for a pizza and social hour from 6:00 to 7:00pm. Join us!

Andrew Staub KC1OKI will give a special presentation entitled “Drone Law / Drone Love” after the business meeting. Slide deck is available here.  And a video of Andrew’s presentation here.

NCRC welcomes new club member Andrew KC1OKI to share his legal experience and drone enthusiasm in this not-to-miss talk/demo. Andrew will be bringing examples of his home-built racing/freestyle drones, as well as a selection of homebrewed ultralight drones that are called toothpicks, and some factory built “whoops” meant for indoor flying. All of these utilize ham frequencies for video transmission. The plan is to project video during his presentation so that members can appreciate what it looks like when flying various drones. Andrew KC1OKI notes there is a veritable ton to discuss on this topic, including the laws and legal considerations for drone pilots.

ARRL Club Commission Program

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One of the benefits of being an ARRL Affiliated Club is having the ability to participate in the Club Commission Program. This program allows NCRC to earn a commission for enrolling new and renewing ARRL members.  New memberships will earn NCRC $15 and renewals $5 commissions. Members can renew at any time without losing time. If your renewal is normally in July and you renew in May, the time is added to your July date.

Participation in the program is simple:

  1. Each new or renewing ARRL member should print and fill out the membership application for Affiliated Clubs.
  2. Each new or renewing ARRL member should print the NCRC 2023 ARRL Club Commission Form. and indicate in the blue box whether they are a new or renewing member.
  3. Payment in FULL can be made to ARRL by check, credit card, or cash.
  4. The new or renewing ARRL member should then snail mail both forms with FULL payment to ARRL for processing.  Mailing address for the ARRL is indicated at the bottom of the forms.

It’s that simple!  ARRL will process the forms: you’ll be an ARRL member and NCRC will receive a commission check from ARRL.

In the spirit of 2023 and ARRL’s Year Of the Volunteers, the ARRL is offering the additional promotion to clubs using the Club Commission Program:

For every five new members signed through the Club Commission Program through the end of 2023, ARRL will give NCRC a copy of The ARRL Handbook, which will be used as a prize during an upcoming meeting or event.

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MESHing Around: ÄRTEN™ Workshops Continue

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The ÄRTEN™ project demonstrated a five (5) node MESH network at the March 20, 2023 FabNewport workshop.  The network consisted of: a range-extended GL.iNet AR150-Ext node (on tripod); a regular GL.iNet AR150-Ext; two GL.iNet AR300M16-Ext; and a Microtik SXTSQ Lite 2.  In addition, K1YBE demonstrated collecting CO2 measurements with two Vaisala GMP343 probes.

ÄRTEN™ Project goals were reviewed and consensus reached on a way forward using an Ethernet-enabled CO2 sensor.  A lively discussion on environmental monitoring in general and CO2 monitoring in specific ensued.

Details on the all aforementioned equipment can be found here.

ARRL Foundation Club Grant sponsored ÄRTEN™ microwave/mesh networking workshops continue at FabNewport on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month at 3:00pm.

Contact K1YBE for more info.

NCRC celebrates Pi Day Eve with social event & March Meeting

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Newport County Radio Club held its first ever (pizza) Pi Day Eve celebration in conjunction with its March monthly meeting.  A big shout out to the 29 members attending in-person and the 14 attending virtually via Zoom.  Real-world attendees enjoyed Philly steak and cheese; pepperoni; veggie; and cheese pizza pies along with a French meat pie as well as several dessert pies including apple and pumpkin.  See the March meeting announcement for presentations and minutes.

K1YBE cuts pizza pie with official K1JSM template

N1SMX with pumpkin Pi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Official K1JSM professionally wood-worked template and the K1YBE “paper doll.”