Metrocrest Amateur Radio Society
News
President’s Corner
June 2018
Welcome to the most exciting month in Amateur Radio! Yes, it’s June!
This weekend is Ham-Com - the third largest ham convention in the United States. Ham-Com has moved back to the Plano center location. That’s on Spring Creek Parkway just east of US 75 Central Expressway.
Come and have fun! Upgrade your license. Attend interesting seminars. Fill in the gaps in your shack. Get ready for Field Day
Many of your favorite ham shops will be there – DX Engineering, Main Trading (MTC Radio), Ham Radio Outlet, and more. Sadly, I think The Wireman is now an SK so I don’t know if they will be there or not. But all the main manufacturers will be there, so check out the new announced systems from Yaesu and Kenwood.
DUES ARE DUE! Dues need to be in before the end of June for the 2018-2019 year. You can go to the website www.kb5a.org, bring a check to the meeting on the14th, or mail it to the club address: Metrocrest Amateur Radio Society, 12895 Josey Ln Ste 124-449, Farmers Branch, TX 75234. But get your payments in this month, please.
We are converting to Ham Club Online, as previously announced, so expect an email from that system soon.
Play Day will NOT be on the Saturday after the club meeting this month. We have moved it to the Field Day weekend. That gives you two whole weeks to test and configure all the new gear you pick up at Ham-Com to get ready for Field Day!
Field/Play Day will be at the Argyle location - same as last year. A few changes this year - we will not have a “formal” Field Day. We can start setting up on Friday evening if you have antennas you want to try, for example. We’ll have a few radios and antennas you can use, probably, but the real concept behind Field Day is for you to see if you can go to the field and operate. So bring your equipment and play! We will have bandpass filters you can borrow
We’ll have the facility all weekend so there’s no time pressure. You can hang out until it gets cool(er) on Saturday evening to take down your antennas. You can stay and operate overnight if you want to. At least one ham wants to set up a pop-up canopy and operate from the back of his truck. The idea is to get out and have fun!
We’ll also be programming radios or teaching HT “boot camp” or learning new kit that you bought at Ham-Com - just like a regular Play Day.
Note that we are not planning to cook and feed. We asked for volunteers to help organize Field Day and no one stepped forward, so you can run into Argyle to grab lunch or if enough people are interested we could take up a collection and order pizza delivery.
That gives you the last weekend in June to rest and recuperate, and figure out what else you need to rock a killer ham station or field rig.
In July Andy is planning to kick off a series of Software Defined Receivers (SDR) using a very inexpensive (think $20) plug in SDR. We’ll combine a guest speaker in July with the first of a series of Play Day sessions to get everyone installed and enjoying these amazing devices.
See you at Ham-Com, the next meeting, most Saturday mornings at Hams & Eggs and Field Day!
73,
Kevin Grantham, N5KRG
President