The meeting was held in the Kanata Room at Sobey’s in Kanata.

The following members and guests were present:

Name Call Sign Position
Tom Zinck VA3NFA President
Rick Bandla VE3CVG V.P. / Webmaster
Harold Hamilton VA3UNK  
Tim Evangelatos VE3MY  
Doug Leach VE3XK  
David Conn VE3KL  
Al Penney VO1NO Guest
Rene Kahle VA3XK  
Manfred Kahle VA3WK  
Brad Smith VE3BSM  
John Christensen VE3IAO  
Justin Schmidt-Clever VE3QYR Guest
Dean Denter VA3CDD  
Graham Ide VE3BYT Secretary

Ken Asmus, VA3KA, Treasurer, was absent.

Before the meeting we had a preliminary look at the Helix Antenna that David has constructed. Al showed a slick Antenna-to-Boom quick connect/disconnect bracket that is available from Ham Radio Outlet in the USA. This would be helpful for rover activities and other temporary installations for rapid deployment and dismounting of antennas.

Tom called the meeting to order at 7:30. He noted that elections will be held next month at the December meeting. Self-nominations (Volunteers) are welcome.

APRS project - Brad gave an update. The 1274 TNC planned for the Prince of Wales Drive site does not work. Brad has a 1270 for this site. Minor upgrades will be made at Cornwall and Brockville, then Kingston - for which he has a TNC. Brad noted that the Rideau Lakes ARC is putting up an APRS digipeater, and another may be installed in the deep east, between Ottawa and Cornwall.

903 MHz Beacon - Graham reported that because of the damage to the original antenna, he is constructing an improved version for the Prince of Wales site. Parts are mostly made, awaiting assembly.

David writes a continuing series of articles on antennas, transmission lines and related subjects. These appear regularly in The Canadian Amateur and in a New Zealand journal. The articles usually require extensive research to prepare. David has a section on the RAC web site where background and complimentary material is available. There are interesting links here, and Java Applets that David has prepared for such things as predicting and calculating received signal strength, for example. Go to www.rac.ca, then to TCA, then to Hot Links.

Tom will be giving a talk November 17 to the Ottawa Valley Mobile Club on his Rover expedition during the last VHF/UHF contest, complete with a PowerPoint presentation. Tom will show this to the WCARC at our December meeting.

Manfred reported that he has not done any more to date on his neat APRS decoder/display terminal. Members are looking forward to its completion and several have indicated that they would like to duplicate it.

Graham had a mini Show and Tell - bright blue and white LED ‘tea lights’, a good source of these LEDs for projects. These are expensive when you buy them in the raw at electronics supply stores. The tea lights are available for $1.95, complete with batteries, a micro-sized switch and a case that has to be cut apart to get at the goodies.

David showed and described his Helix antenna that he built for 435 MHz. This one is based on the Emerson model. Emerson and Cebik disagree with Kraus’ (W8JK, SK) contention that in an axial-mode helix antenna, gain continues to increase with additional turns, to any practical length. The dimensions in the Emerson model, developed from computer modeling, are somewhat different from those defined by Kraus. David and Clare, VE3NPC, will be measuring the performance of this antenna and comparing it to one of similar size that is based on Kraus’ design recommendations.

There was some discussion of the Beverage antenna for receiving on the 160 meter band.

A new project is being considered - to design and build circularly-polarized isotropic antennas for use next April in the world-wide isotropic antenna contest.

The next meeting will be on December 6, 2005, with the election of officers, refreshments, and other festivities.

The Kanata Room at Sobey’s has been booked for December and January.

Graham Ide VE3BYT
Secretary.

Please advise me of any errors or omissions in these minutes at ve3byt@rac.ca.