NFARL is a long-time supporter of the North Fulton libraries; many of the ham radio books available in libraries in the areas served by our club were contributed by NFARL in years past. Early in 2009 our executive team surveyed the North Fulton libraries and discovered that the books on hand at all of the branches needed to be updated. The Joule Thief project was commissioned to fund the books. The books have been purchased, and delivery to the five North Fulton libraries has been completed. Following are pictures from the presentations at each of the five libraries. Jim, W4QO […]
Continue readingArticles
JOTA 2008
NFARL hosted a Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) station on Saturday, Oct. 18 with about 20 members and 20 Scouts attending. The special event callsign W4S was obtained and nearly 100 QSOs were made. Three “stations” were in operation – HF, 2M with Echolink, and a “pure” Echolink station from a computer. It was a gorgeous day, but a chilly 50 degrees to start. In addition, a Radio Merit Badge class for Boy Scouts was held with 12 attending. The class was taught by AE4CW, AK4IK, KB7WO and W4QO. 10 scouts passed at the class with the others having some […]
Continue readingHam Radio is a Real Value
by Mike Herr, WA6ARA (Originally published in AIRWAVES, The newsletter of the Sierra ARC, May 2008. As extracted from the ARRL Club News – June 3, 2008 – Norm Fusaro, W3IZ – Editor – to subscribe, edit your ARRL profile ) As a kid in the ’60s I hung around my father, WB6MNX, and his ham buddies. The talk in those days was pretty much similar to now, what features their new rig had. But one thing I now note is that each ham had but one rig, yep, just one rig. It was usually a HF rig, and it was used both in the […]
Continue readingTen Ways to have the Most Fun in Ham Radio
by Jim Stafford, W4QO. February 6, 2008. When non hams, who are looking at getting their ham licenses, ask me what they should do, I give them this list of what I think are the 10 things to increase their ham radio FUN!! I’ll write this as if I’m speaking to YOU the prospective ham. If you are already a TECH and tired of those 2M repeaters, you may skip step #2, but do NOT skip the others! more …
Continue readingThe Half-Square versus the Loop Skywire
by Jim Stafford, W4QO Appeared in QRP Quarterly, Fall, 2006 Up until about 8 years ago, I had an 80 foot tower with a TH-6DXX on it. It was quite fun working QRP with it on 20 thru 10 meters. Reports of “WOW, you can’t be QRP!” or “are you pulling my leg?” were quite common. But then an unfortunate incident involving a bulldozer and a hooked guy wire meant the tower was no more. Oh, it’s still out back awaiting the day when I can put it back up (if I ever do). I had been using a full […]
Continue readingHam Shack Lightning Protection
By Hal Meyers – K4JHM SK First of all, lets get some basic concepts in mind. The thing that “gets” our equipment is the voltage difference between the various conductors coming into the equipment, not the magnitude of the voltage. Lets just take a simple modem as an example. It has two sets of conductors coming into it: the power and the `phone line. If you get a transient on one of these conductors but not on the other, then there will be a potential difference between the two sets of conductors. This is what zaps the device. In the […]
Continue reading