WAARC member Dave N4MW (our resident microwave expert) recently acquired several VHF/UHF high power amplifiers from a Silent Key estate.  The amps were constructed by a engineer ham and are really well built.  Dave brought them for show and tell at the recent weekly Wednesday lunch.  If you’re interested in upping your VHF/UHF game contact Dave directly for further details (n4mw@n4mw.com).

We had a good turnout at Jimmy’s Saturday. While there the owner told Bill (NR4C) he had a flat tire. So after we all finished, we gathered in the parking lot to change Bill’s tire. Dave (AJ4XV) and Vinny (KX4HH) did the hard part while a group supervised. How many HAMS does it take to change….

AJ4XV and KX4HH work to get the spare tire out.

KX4HH works on the tire.

How many HAMS does it take to change …

WAARC Saturday morning breakfast broke its own attendance record Saturday August 4th when 23 folks gathered for breakfast at the Five Brothers Restaurant, one more than the most recent record breaking meal (that’s over 25% of the club membership…couldn’t get everyone in the picture!).  By the way, Five Brothers will be closing soon and moving to a new location in spring 2019.  The family also owns The Astronomical Pancake House on Rte 60, another of our regular breakfast spots.  Don’t be late for breakfast on Saturdays or you may have to sit at the “kids table!”

Dino.

In addition to the club’s weekly Saturday breakfasts there is another group that meets every Wednesday for lunch at Anna’s Brick Oven Restaurant (2021-D Richmond Road) beginning at 11:30 a.m.  The restaurant provides a private room and the conversations are always lively and someone usually brings something along for show and tell.  At a recent gathering Dave, N4MW, demonstrated his portable record player that actually travels around an album as it sits stationary and the needle follows the record grooves.  He used a Morse Code practice record to demonstrate the device and it actually worked quite well traveling around the record like a model train.  Dave, WA6ILT, and his XYL Christine, who recently moved to the area, joined in for the latest get together.   Everyone is welcome to join in the fun, hope to see you there soon!

WAARC member Dave N4MW recently assisted his friend Fred WB4KXS in assembling a custom rack mount radio enclosure for his new Icom IC-7300 HF radio, speaker, power supply and antenna tuner.  Dave is a master at putting together racks of equipment and would be a great resource for anyone considering doing something similar.  Fred’s lighted call sign cutout really adds to the professional appearance of his setup.

During our July club meeting Mike Logan KM4UWO, Head of the Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Laboratory at NASA Langley, presented his experiences supporting the federal response to Puerto Rico last year following Hurricane Maria.  Deploying as a volunteer under the federal government’s SHAred RESources (SHARES) High Frequency (HF) Radio Program he provided critical communications support to federal agencies.  Mike arrived as follow on to the ARRL’s volunteer deployment and shared his lessons learned and recommendations for our own preparedness in the event of natural or man-made disasters here at home.

Saturday July 7th is our second special event of the year. K4RC will be on the air from 10AM-4PM commemorating the 242nd anniversary of Independence Day in the United States.

The group will meet for Breakfast at 7am at Capitol Pancake House (802 Capitol Landing Rd). From there we will proceed to the William Randolph house for set-up. Members are encouraged to come setup, operate and tear down the station. Come for any part or all day.

If you are trying to work K4RC from home, we will be operating on 40M in the morning, around 7.265 MHz +/- QRM, and possibly switching to 20M around 14.265 +/- QRM if band conditions permit. Look for K4RC on your favorite spotting cluster to see where we are.

Directions to William Randolph House: On Lafayette St turn on to Botetourt St and proceed 1 block to Franklin St and turn left. Parking is in the lot on the right. Walk along the path to E Nicholson St to the William Randolph House (should be easy to spot with the antenna in the trees)

WAARC participated in ARRL Field Day on June 23-24, 2018. As in the past, the club entered as a class 2A station, along with a GOTA (Get On The Air) station and a VHF station.

Set up began on Friday morning, beginning with a gathering for breakfast. There was a decent sized group for a weekday breakfast, rivaling some of the large groups for the weekly Saturday breakfast. This was a good thing considering the possibility of raising antennas in the rain.

The large group gathering for breakfast on Friday morning.

While it was raining heavily during breakfast, when the group shifted to the Field Day site the skies dried up, and there were periods of sunshine. There was a long enough dry spell to get the antennas up before another rain shower commenced.

Don N4DJ using a pneumatic antenna launcher to get a line in a tree for an antenna.

Saturday started out warm and sunny, perfect for a weekend-long operating event. While we were ready to go long before the 2pm start time, we were delayed by about half an hour by a small thunderstorm close by.

Throughout the weekend we had plenty of food, and plenty of people to operate both stations. At one point Saturday afternoon we even had a few new hams operating on the SSB station because there was a line to operate the GOTA station.

Ed K1NUH hard at work grilling hamburgers on Saturday afternoon.

By 2pm Sunday you could start to see some fatigue in the group. While the bands hadn’t been all that great, we ended up with 1932 contacts in the log. The total was down from last year’s total of 2100 contacts, but considering the band conditions it is a very respectable number.

Many Thanks go out to all that helped with set up and take down for Field Day. But more importantly the food committee deserves a large commendation for their work providing food for the weekend.