San Antonio Hams

Howdy!

I’d like to personally invite you to attend the 48th Annual Central States VHF Conference.

If you’ve ever wondered about what it takes to get on the VHF/UHF and Microwave bands, this is an excellent conference to attend. You’ll want to attend our VHF-101 introductory class. This year’s conference theme is QRO, or making high power on the VHF and up bands. We have an impressive list of speakers supporting this topic and many other topics including oscillator design, antenna construction, station design and construction.

We’ve poked, prodded and twisted arms to get THREE unique speakers this year:

•  – Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR, from FlexRadio Systems presents an analysis of system noise and its effect on station performance at the Friday luncheon
• – Jim Klitzing, W6PQL, from Klitzing Electronics will discuss component selection for projects at the Saturday luncheon
• – Our banquet speaker is Jimmy Treybig, W6JKV. Jimmy has done over SEVENTY six and two-meter DXpeditions to over 50 countries. He’ll be sharing his perspectives on family and DXpeditions.

The conference will feature noise figure and gain measurement, sun noise measurement, prizes, a rover-row and dish-bowl, a swap fest and an excellent lineup of vendors.

The family program starts off on Thursday evening with a chartered boat tour including a meet-and-greet with a catered BBQ dinner and an opportunity to watch one of the largest colonies of Mexican Free-Tailed bats emerge for their evening dinner run. Even though you live here in Austin, you may not have had an opportunity to take one of these boat trips and having done one last year, I must say they are a lot of fun and not to be missed! Please note: the boat trip is filling up fast so if you are interested in this trip, register ASAP!

On Friday, the ladies program ventures out to Fredericksburg for shopping, wine tasting and to soak up the culture and then on Saturday on to the Natural Bridge Caverns for a tour of the underground caves and on to the San Marcos Premium Outlets for more shopping.

The RMG team has worked hard to make sure you and your family will have a blast at the conference. But we know that even with all the fun and education we’ve lined up, the big draw is you: other hams from in and out of the area travel to this conference to meet up with others that are doing unique things in the VHF world and they want to get an opportunity to talk with you about your exciting projects and plans. Please join us for the fun! To find out all the details on everything I’ve mentioned, visit the link below:

http://www.csvhfs.org/2014conference

Then, register today for the conference:
http://www.csvhfs.org/2014conference/2014Registration.html

It’s important to register early so we can have adequate transportation for the family events.

JULY 2nd is the deadline to get conference discounted hotel rooms.
http://www.csvhfs.org/2014conference/lodging.html

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop us an email and we’ll get right back to you (austin2014@n5ac.com).

73’s and see you in Austin!
Steve Hicks, N5AC
2014 CSVHFS President

Be sure to join us at the 48th Annual CSVHF Conference on July 24-27 in Austin, TX. Visit www.csvhfs.org for more information.

Field Day is coming up soon, on June 28-29th, so here are a few thoughts (and facts) as you plan your group’s operation.

A FEW TIPS FOR ANY FIELD DAY OPERATION – I’ve posted some of this before but I think they should be repeated. (I’ve updated them a bit for 2014) 1. When setting up antennas within close proximity: If you are using wire antennas such as dipoles, and they run parallel to each other there will be interference on your HF operating bands in the form of hash so arrange them at right angles to each other and at slightly different heights.

If you use wire antennas such as dipoles, try to stay away from trap dipoles and use full length antennas instead. You may also wish to run your dipoles in different configurations such as have one as an “inverted V” and another as a sloper, etc. An antenna cut to the exact band you are using will decrease interference to and from other bands.

Do not compromise by using trap or “all band” antennas. (The only efficient “all band antennas” are a log periodic and a “fan dipole” NOT a “folded dipole” or others that claim they use “balancing resistors” as this only wastes RF energy in the form of heat.) With others you may make a few contacts, but they are junk and will cause harmonic radiation. Do not fall for any ads claiming “miracle antennas”.

Don’t waste your watts! Dedicated operating needs the right antenna. Wasted energy on trap antennas (some of your RF energy is used up in the form of heat) and that equals an inefficient radiator, especially as you go lower in frequency. On HF, try not to use vertical antennas as they receive too much man-made noise from sources such as generators, street lamps, etc.

Using a Yagi style antenna for Field Day may look impressive, but be careful that the “focused energy” doesn’t interfere with other operations. Know as well, that transmitting focused energy may be all well and good, but it, in receiving signals it can also make your station “deaf” from directions so you may have to waste time turning the beam…. is it worth it? —–  READ ON, THERE’S LOTS MORE INFO! —-

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