3rd Annual Earth Day Special Event
a SUCCESS!
While for technical reasons this year’s event fell a bit short of expectations in the QSO count,we all had great fun setting up antennas, John Wendling, KD8QMU’s solar system, and our two stations. A mysterious source of RFI made it difficult to receive the weaker 40 meter stations and reception on 20 was worse, but that didn’t prevent Larry Shimerka, KC8VZZ from making a solid contact with the Dominican Republic. QSL cards have already begun to pour in — four so far, and it’s still early.
As we know, tracking RFI is always a challenge and a great learning experience.The good news is that this week I was able to conduct a proper search for the RFI tha resulted in a very interesting discovery. Following up on my efforts,
Tom Pechnik, AC8EH took the mission further and we now have some real possibilities to check out. More on this RFI saga at our May 4th meeting, including audio and video clips.
Thanks to Ken Osicki, K8OAE for assisting in whipping up a tremendous pancake and sausage breakfast that powered us through the morning.
We promoted our event widely, using QST magazine as well as Amateur Radio Newsline and various bulletins and newsletters and the effort seems to have inspired several other clubs to operate similar Earth Day special event stations. That’s a good feeling.
Thanks to Ken Osicki, K8OAE, Larry Shimerka, KC8VZZ for their photos that you can see in our the album on this site. Or you can go directly by this link. https://www.parmaradioclub.com/albums/gallery2/
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At the May 4th meeting we’ll discuss simple dipole designs and I’ll show the easy-to-make 20 meter antenna and common mode balun that I made for Earth Day. Here at my QTH it got me excellent reports from the Czech Republic, Puerto Rico and Oregon before bagging it up for the event.
You’ll see some neat gadgetry that makes it easy to hang a dipole from your favorite tree or structure. And I’ll show you how you can create super sleuth antennas from inexpensive, readily available materials.
If you have a related tool or other antenna gadget, bring it for show and tell. We’re all about learning.
Hal Rogers, K8CMD
President, Communications Director