The Richardson Wireless Klub > General Meetings

General Meetings

RWK General meetings occur on the second Monday each month at the St. Barnabas Presbyterian Church in Richardson (and simulcast on Zoom for those unable to attend in person). The meeting officially starts at 7:00pm but we have a social hour and mentoring round table ready to go by 6:00pm. Info for upcoming meetings as well as recordings of past meetings are available below.

  • General Meeting – April 2024 – Receiver Performance – Signals and Noise

    There’s a BIG EVENT coming on Monday!  Please join RWK on Monday April 8th for our General Meeting. (oh yeah, and there might be an Eclipse too)

    In-person VE Testing begins at 5:30 and the RWK Social Hour begins at 6pm.  Please enjoy coffee and cookies and chat with other members!  If you have radio questions, please be sure and stop by our Beau’s Korner Radio Operating position – we’ll try to show you some new things and help you get answers.  At 7pm we will begin our program. 

    Our April RWK Meeting will be on “Receiver Performance – Signals and Noise” with our own Ken Noblett N5UA. Multi-mode receivers will be discussed. What makes a poor, good,  better,  best receiver in the real world presence of weak signals, fading, noise and interference. Ken will share his experiences developing receivers to perform in tough environments, and what you can do to optimize your setup.

    As usual, the meeting will be In-Person as well as simulcast on Zoom for those that do not want to attend in-person.  We will also have a recording available on the K5RWK.org website after the meeting is over.

    Please wear your RWK Nametag!  We have lots of members and everyone needs a little help in matching callsigns to smiling faces.  If you can’t find (or don’t have) your RWK nametag, we will have blank paper nametags and you can order a replacement for a nominal charge.  I’d like everyone to introduce themselves to at least two members that they haven’t previously met face-to-face!

    Meeting Location: St. Barnabas Church, 1220 West Belt Line Road, Richardson TX 75080.  Park in the rear parking lot and enter from the rear.  Click this for the map.

    We look forward to seeing you on Monday!

    – – – – – – – – – –

    If you can’t come in person and want to attend on Zoom, you can use the following link:

    Topic: RWK Social Hour/General Meeting Zoom invitation

    Time: RWK Social Hour & Beau’s Korner at 6:00 PM / Program starts at 7:00 PM

    Join Zoom Meeting

    https://zoom.us/j/94737740567?pwd=QllKd1Ava0lma3FtbDVwdDZKVGlMUT09

    Meeting ID: 947 3774 0567
    Passcode: 081381

  • General Meeting – March 2024 – Simple Homebrew Yagi Design

    Our March RWK Meeting will be on “Making Home-Brew Yagi Design Simple, and a Simple Low-cost VHF/UHF Design.” with our old friend John Portune W6NBC. Hams tend to fear building their own Yagi beams, thinking that only professional radio engineers can design Yagis. The equations seem way too complex and the many on-line Yagi calculators all conflict with each other, and they do not know which one to trust. GOOD NEWS. Ham yagi design is really simple as this presentation shows. Only three easy to remember no math, no calculator rules of thumb yield results that can’t be distinguished from yagis designed with the calculators and the fancy math. The presentation also shows how to build a durable inexpensive VHF/UHF beam from easy to obtain materials.

    Click the image to view the recording

    John’s slides for this presentation are available at http://w6nbc.com/slides/YAGI.pdf

  • General Meeting – February 2024 – Locating Power Line Noise

    Our February RWK Meeting will be on Locating Power Line Noise (and other RFI) with is Jeff Stuparits, W4DD. Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) can be generated from many different devices and can decrease or totally eliminate your ability to hear stations on your HF or VHF radio.  In today’s modern world of numerous electronic devices in and around our homes, it’s not a matter of if you have RFI but how many devices are generating it and how significantly is it interfering with your Ham Radio receiving ability.  It can also affect other services like AM radio, FM radio, Over-the-Air TV, DSL Internet, public safety communications, and even cellular telephones.

    Click the image to view the recording of the meeting

    Here is a PDF of the presentation slides – Thanks to Jeff W4DD

  • RWK President’s Dinner 2024

    If you haven’t heard, we’re having an actual President’s Dinner on Sunday Jan 7th 2024 at 5pm.   Doug Kilgore has again approached Aboca’s Italian Grill (the site of the last RWK Dinners in 2020 and 2023) and they will open on a (normally closed) Sunday evening for our dinner.  The cost will be $25/per person, which given all the changes in the restaurant industry in the last few years I think is a great price.  We are asking RWK members to pay the per-meal charge (plus any cash bar purchases) and the RWK will cover the facility and service charge for the restaurant staff. 

    Doors open at 5pm and there will be a social hour and cash bar. Dinner will be served (buffet style) at 6pm and will consist of salad, two entrees, vegetables, bread, two desserts, and coffee/tea. We will have a short year-end wrap-up presentation and a bunch of awards, including the 2023 Warren Bruene Award.

    We also are planning some good door prizes – currently the list is over 20 prizes between $200 and $25 (there is no “grand prize”). This year we will be repeating last year’s system for door prizes – you will be given 5 tickets upon entry (part of your dinner ticket purchase) and you can “vote” on which prize(s) you want by placing tickets in the bin for that prize. If you want to win a single prize, you can put all of your tickets towards that prize (increasing your chance of winning it). If you want multiple prizes, then put a ticket in each of the bins for those prizes. If you run out of tickets, you can get more tickets ($1 each or 6/$5). We think this will be a fun way to do prizes this year (without sticking you with a prize you’re not interested in).

    Please see the button below to purchase your ticket(s) to this event. We can take a few purchases in person at the door but we really prefer that you purchase in advance as we have to commit to a head count with the restaurant in advance of the Dinner (so that everyone has enough food).

    Buy your dinner ticket(s) here:

    1. Click the “Buy Tickets Now” button (–>)
    2. Select Ticket Quantity in Cart
    3. Select Payment Method to check out (you may pay with PayPal or Visa/MC/AmEx)
    4. Fill out the payment form to complete your charge.
    RWK President's Dinner 2024
    RWK President's Dinner 2024
    $25.00
  • General Meeting – December 2023 – Holiday Hospitality + New UHF Multi-Mode Repeater

    Our December RWK Meeting will be an RWK Holiday Hospitality Hour similar to what we did last December. We’ll have a selection of Treats and Hot beverages and round table seating. We will do our usual meeting announcements and then have a shorter program from Andrew KE5GDB on the uses of our new UHF multi-mode repeater. Bring your favorite HT to the meeting and be prepared to discuss why you like it.

    Click the image to view the recording

  • General Meeting – November 2023 – Annual Show&Tell Night

    For November, it’s time for the 2023 annual K5RWK Show and Tell meeting. You’ve been working on that special ham project all year/month/week. Please share your success or lessons learned. We would like you to present it at the meeting.

    {meeting video and content coming soon]

Our Meeting Location

St. Barnabas Church
1220 West Belt Line Road
Richardson TX 75080

Meeting is in the church’s assembly room (Providence Hall). Park in the rear parking lot and enter from the rear.

Click this LINK for the map. 

Meeting Night Schedule

Our meeting night schedule is shown below:

Ham Radio License Testing

Starting at 5:30pm, Our RWK Volunteer Examiner Team conducts Ham Radio License Testing for prospective hams as well as license upgrades. Visit our Ham License Testing page if you are interested and would like to register.

RWK Social Hour

Starting at 6pm, come hang out with other RWK Members and catch up with eyeball QSOs, while enjoying Coffee and Cookies. Please wear your RWK Nametag so everyone will put a face with a callsign.

Beau’s Korner Mentoring

Before the meetings, we have informal sessions where you can operate a radio or pose questions to seasoned operators or “Elmers” who have plenty of experience and expertise in amateur radio equipment and on-the-air operations. Feel free to come by early and ask questions, or be an Elmer for somebody else.

Main Program

At 7pm, we begin our formal program, consisting of short announcements and upcoming schedule items, followed by a featured presentation on a ham radio subject. We do not conduct a “business meeting” as part of our General Meeting (we have a separate, but open, Board of Directors meeting to conduct the business of the club).

Past Meetings

Click on any of the Past Meetings to view the meeting recording:

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