December 7th meeting
Our final meeting of 2015 is an important one. This is a business meeting and we have some important issues to discuss. Among the topics will be proposed constitutional changes that are designed to address some critical areas that were not addressed when we adopted our By Laws. I hope you will be present to voice your opinion.
Election Decided by acclamation
Since there was only one candidate for each office, the PRC Board of Officers for 2016 was decided by acclamation at the November 16th meeting. This is a provision made possible under Article 6 of the Club By Laws.
Please welcome and congratulate our officers for 2016 and get to know those you’ve not yet met.
Hal Rogers K8CMD, President
Jeff Ronay KF8CQ, Vice President
Jim Bis N8FND, Treasurer
John Mallow KA8VTV, Secretary
CHRISTMAS PARTY
This will be the last opportunity to inform Larry KC8VZZ if you plan to attend our December 14th Christmas party at Lunas at Pearl and Brookpark Roads. For complete information, check the previous post.
How high are you?
Ever wonder why you’re not able to hit a repeater or other station with your VHF/UHF radio? We’ve known that those bands are “line of sight” so structures and natural topographic elevations can totally block your “view” of the other station. How high would your antenna need to be to reach the other station? Thanks to Mark Wensel KB8RST (who maintains the KB8WLW repeater), on a recent 10m net we learned of a web site where you can get those answers. Elevation Map is a handy resource.
Use it like a travel map. From the MENU select DIRECTIONS . Then enter your address (A) and another station’s address (B). A line will appear between A and B. Right click on the balloon at each location and and click “i” to read the elevation at that location. Click MENU and a box will appear that gives “walking” information between the two points. The data includes the lowest and the highest elevation between A and B. You might find your signal has a straight shot at the other station or you could find there’s is a point along the route that’s higher than your target. Click MENU again and add a way point and you now have a 3rd location you can drag along the route, reading the elevation at various points and find the actual location of an offending peak. Of course, this site will only tell the elevation of topographical “obstructions”. I had to play with it to get the hang of it but it will work for you. Thanks, Mark for passing this tool along!
Check the site at www.elevationmap.net
Hal Rogers K8CMD, Communications Director