Meetings

Date:  March 13, 2010
Time:  10 AM
Location:  Cache County Sheriff's complex 3rd floor, 1225 W 200 N, Logan

The Bridgerland Amateur Radio Club (BARC) meeting topic will be "Amateur Radio Astronomy".   Dale Hooper will be our guest speaker.  Dale works at the Space Dynamics Laboratory and is a member of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA).  

Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies.  The visible light spectrum from stars is just a small part of the overall electromagnetic emissions of stars and other objects in the heavens.  With radio astronomy, astronomical phenomena that are often invisible in other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum can be studied to obtain a much clearer picture of stars and galaxies than is possible by means of optical observation.  Stars, planets, galaxies, clouds of dust and gas, and other matter in space are sending out electromagnetic energy all the time.  There are also other classes of objects, such as Radio Galaxies, Pulsars and Masers.  The radio frequency range of most importance to radio astronomy that can be observable from earth is approximately from 1 centimeter to 10 meters.

The world's second radio telescope was built by an amateur radio operator, Grote Reber, in 1937.  Amateurs use a variety of equipment, sometimes modified satellite receivers and dishes, to build their radio telescopes.

Be sure to attend our March club meeting to learn more about Amateur Radio Astronomy.  See you there.

Date:  February 13, 2010
Time: 10 AM
Location: Cache County Sheriff's complex 3rd floor, 1225 W 200 N,  Logan
 
The Bridgerland Amateur Radio Club (BARC) meeting topic will be "PC in the Shack".  We will be showing a selection of PC programs that are for the amateur radio operator that you can use with your VHF/UHF radio , HF radio, or just your computer.  Some of the programs are UI-View, Winpack, Winlink, Echolink, DV-Dongle, Ham Radio Deluxe, DXLab, VOAProp, Beacon Time Wizard, VHF Propagation Maps, and a few others.  We'll have some radios and computers set up.  We will give brief demonstrations of these programs so you know what they are and some of their features.
See you there.
 

Date:  January 9, 2010
Time: 10 AM
Location: Cache County Sheriff's complex, 1225 W 200 N,  Logan
 
The Bridgerland Amateur Radio Club (BARC) meeting topic will be on antennas, home brew and commercial.  Want to know how to build antennas using items such as coax, wire, pvc pipe, aluminum rods, copper pipe, and other parts?  Then be at our club meeting for some how to build information on antennas.  There will be presentations on making a G5RV and a dipole antenna for the HF bands, vertical VHF dipole, copper J-Pole VHF antenna, and a helical VHF antenna.  Will also talk about a home built hand held yagi UHF antenna and a commercial hand held VHF/UHF yagi antenna.  This will give you information so you can make your own antenna. 

Hope to see you there and then you can go home, build an antenna and get on the air. 

For those of you who got a new handheld for Christmas and need some help on operating and programming it, bring it along with its instruction manual to the club meeting.  We will have a session after the club meeting to help you with your new handheld radio.

All you Elmer’s out there….  Bring your HT programming stuff to the club meeting and help with the programming of the HT’s.

Our November club meeting is the BARC Elections for officers and board members for 2010.  All positions are open:  President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Board member. Please consider running for a club office or serving on a committee.
All members of BARC are eligible to vote and run for office. Please keep an eye out for the November Ohm Town News for the ballots, club bylaws and instructions.
Kay Hargis, N7KH, will talk about his DXing experiences, QRP and minimal station requirements, QSL cards, Logbook of the World and other DX topics. He holds awards for #1 DXCC Honor Roll, DXCC Mixed, DXCC Phone, DXCC CW, WAS, WAC, 5BDXCC, and others. He operates on HF, VHF, and UHF, using CS, Phone and digital modes.
Be sure to attend our club meeting this Saturday to learn what DXing is all about.
As always, refreshments and visiting with friends.

Brent Carruth, AD7VF, will be giving a presentation on antennas, input impedance, designing impedance matching networks. Some of the types of antennas Brent will talk about are dipoles, Yagis, loops, quads, helicals, and arrays and the far-field radiation patterns of some of these types. Brent will begin with transmission lines and explain how antennas radiate. Then he will discuss input impedance and some techniques for impedance matching for a center-fed full wave dipole and an end-fed half wave dipole such as the popular J-pole antenna.
 
Also, part of the meeting will be to help others learn how to use the radio they received for Christmas. If you have a new radio you would like help programming or learning how to use, please bring your radio and manual if you have one.
 
As always, refreshments and visiting with friends.