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 – September 2023 – EME Adventures on the Microwave Bands

    Our September RWK Meeting should be an interesting one. We have Al Ward W5LUA from the North Texas Microwave Society (NTMS) presenting on EME Adventures on the Microwave Bands. For you new hams, EME stands for “Earth Moon Earth”. Yes, that means communicating using the Moon as a big reflector! In the old days, you would need a huge yard and massive antennas and power amplifiers to have an EME QSO. Now you can do it with modest sized antennas that can fit in a neighborhood backyard (and of course a bit of skill!). Al will show us how to get hooked on this rare mode!

    Click the image to view the meeting recording

    Additional Resources:

    Presentation Slides from Al Ward W5LUA (pdf)

  • General Meeting – August 2023 – HF Noise Mitigation

    Our guest speaker for the August meeting will be Mike Ritz W7VO.  His talk this month will be HF Noise Mitigation. An educational seminar to help both new and experienced amateurs who are on HF and finding themselves plagued with noise. We’ll learn what “noise” is, about the various sources of noise, and how to mitigate those noises using a variety of techniques. This will be followed with a live “noise tracking” demonstration using a low cost AM receiver, and also a low cost SDR and loop antenna.

    [recording]

  • General Meeting – July 2023 – A Highly Effective UHF Base Antenna

    Our guest speaker for the July meeting will be Ed Fong (WB6IQN).  His talk this month will be the DBJ-UHF 5dB gain base antenna (US patent – 2,124,424). This antenna was featured in CQ Magazine in Summer of 2012. The DBJ-GMRS is a highly effective 5dB base antenna at only 37 inches tall and no radials.  There have been over 8,000 sold since its introduction ten years ago.  It requires no radials and is a DC shorted design so no lightning arrestor is needed.

    Click on the image to view the recording

    Ed’s CQ Magazine article: https://files.k5rwk.net/s/cDDjfRJMgZLqJL3

    Ed is also the inventor of the DBJ-1 and DBJ-2 antennas that were featured in the February 2003 and March 2007 QST.    His most recent antenna was the TBJ-1 – a triband base antenna that was published in March 2017 QST (US patent 9,608,336). Ed will give a history on how these antennas were developed and the theory on how and why they work so well.  There is no “black magic” to antennas.  He will explain in a non-mathematical manner to convince you for overall performance and simplicity his approach is one of the most practical.

  • General Meeting – June 2023 – Contesting Move to the Next Level

    Our program this month is Radio Contesting: Move to the Next Level by Gary Sutcliffe W9XT. Gary is an avid contester and writes a column for the ARRL National Contest Journal (NCJ). If you’ve participated in a minor way but were intimidated, frustrated, or wanted to know how to get better as well as make it more enjoyable, Gary has some tips. And even if you have no desire to become an avid contester, his suggestions can help in lots of facets of ham radio.

    Click on the image above to view the recording

    Visit Gary’s website (w9xt.com) for tips on antennas and other contesting techniques. If you are an ARRL member, you can read all his past work in the National Contest Journal (NCJ) archives online.

  • General Meeting – May 2023 – Antenna Analyzers

    Our program this month is Antenna Analyzers – What’s Really Going On by RWK Member Kevin Grantham N5KRG. Smart Hams use antenna analyzers every day to save work while building and tuning antennas – but few know what’s going on inside the analyzer box?  Kevin will attempt to get us “in the know” on these useful devices.  We will also have a sampling of various antenna analyzers to look at before the meeting – If you have a favorite analyzer, bring it and show it off.

    Click the image to play the recording
  • General Meeting – April 2023 – Making Ferrite Toroid Baluns for Dummies

    Our program this month is Making Ferrite Toroid Baluns for Dummies by John Portune W6NBC. Few hams know how to select a toroid and know how many turns on it to make a 1:1, 4:1 or 9:1 balun. The radio books are only confusing. John will present the 3 simple steps using very little math and a free on-line calculator. There is no mystery here.

    Click the image to view the meeting recording.

    If you would like to view the slides from John’s presentation (pdf), they are here: https://files.k5rwk.net/s/sNDYzYGrRgweyip

    Here are some of the tools (links) that John refers to in his presentation:

    Amidon Ferrite Toroids Calculator: https://coil32.net/online-calculators/amidon-ferrite-torroid-calculator.html

    Ugly Balun Calculator: https://www.translatorscafe.com/unit-converter/en-US/calculator/coil-inductance/

    Identifying Unknown Toroids: https://archive.org/details/Name_That_Core

    Source for ferrites: https://www.fair-rite.com/product-category/inductive-components/toroids/

    Handy Weatherproof Project Boxes: https://www.amazon.com/Zulkit-Dustproof-Waterproof-Electrical-Electronic/dp/B08MYW6WLL/

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. 

Beau’s Korner Mentoring

Before the meetings (usually starting shortly after 6:00), we have informal sessions where you can 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.

Upcoming Events

Past Meetings

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