EAST ALABAMA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
This is the internet home of our Club. Welcome to all!
EAST ALABAMA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
This is the internet home of our Club. Welcome to all!
UPCOMING DATES AND EVENTS
Check back here often to stay aware of upcoming meetings, events, or other important dates related to The Club or ham radio activities.
Subscribe to the Club Calendar on Your Mobile Devices:
ARRL’s Logbook of The World® (LoTW®) Being Upgraded
ARRL’s popular logging system, Logbook of The World (LoTW®) is being upgraded. Changes to the underlying database and to its hosting solution (moving hosting to the cloud) are major aspects of the upgrade.
LoTW will be unavailable from June 27 to July 2, 2025, to complete these upgrades
Read more about the upgrade on the ARRL website here: https://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-announces-logbook-of-the-world-systems-upgrade
AMSAT Designates New Satellite SO-125
AMSAT has designated the HADES-ICM satellite (launched in March) as SO-125. This SDR-based bird can transmit up to 0.25 watts (battery permitting). The uplink frequency is 145.875 MHz, and the downlink is 436.666 MHz. The repeater operates with an open squelch and does not require a sub-tone. Read more about it on the AMSAT website here: https://www.amsat.org/two-way-satellites/hades-icm/
Caution - Beware of Reverse Polarity Connection to Ham Radio
Even the best among us have seen the sparks fly when incorrectly using jumper cables on an auto battery. Hopefully, that resulted in little or no damage, but connecting your radio or other electronic device with polarity reversed could result in considerable damage and could "let the smoke out" of your equipment. Some modern radios have reverse polarity protection in the form of a diode installed in series in the supply line (preferably a Schottky diode is used to minimize voltage drop and battery consumption. Remember question 6B02 from your Extra exam?). Some, however, do not. Anderson Powerpoles incorporate reverse polarity protection features. Additionally, and more importantly, using measures at the power source (e.g., the battery) is simple and good.
See this great example provided by a Club Member of how he protects against reversed polarity at the source! Link to Photo.
Tech Talk
Monthly topics from the technical side of things:
December, 2024: Single Side Band
January, 2025: Antenna Resonance and Bandwidth
February, 2025: Near-Vertical Incident Skywave, or “NVIS” Antennas
March, 2025: Understanding Standing Wave Ratio (SWR)
April, 2025: The Art of Soldering
May, 2025: Which Coaxial Cable Should I Use
June, 2025: How the Sun Affects HF Radio Propogation
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