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 – May 2023

    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/

  • General Meeting – March 2023 – Choosing the Right Field Antenna

    Our program this month is Choosing the Right Field Antenna with Tom Witherspoon K4SWL.  Tom has a long history with making contacts in the field (I think we would call it portable) and has experience with a wide variety of field antennas and hopefully will guide you to select the one that works best for you.

    Click the image or this link to view the recording.

  • General Meeting – February 2023 – Bob Heil K9EID

    Our program this month is a legend in ham radio – Dr. Bob Heil K9EID.  Bob has a long and storied career in the music business but he is an Audio Engineer at his core, and he has a “formula” on how to set up your transmit audio so that you sound the best that you can (and break through those pile-ups).  So prepare to be entertained with a few of his stories and come away with better sounding audio.

    Click the image to view the recording

    https://files.k5rwk.net/s/FJQqFo9kagbc9Ds

    Bob has some interesting stories about his background. If you want to get to the part about adjusting your radios, it’s at the 48:00 minute mark. If you want detailed instructions for your radio, look here: https://heilhamradio.com/dsp-settings/

  • RWK President’s Dinner 2023

    RWK held an actual live, in-person President’s Dinner on January 8, 2023! While that shouldn’t be big news, it has been three years since we were able to hold such an event (the last President’s Dinner was in 2020), primarily due to the pandemic. We had 82 members and guests, some good Italian food and desserts, good fellowship and eyeball QSOs, a recap of 2022 (a bit too long – sorry about that!), some humorous and serious awards, and 20 door prizes.

    I was happy to recognize Dave Russell W2DMR has having traveled the longest distance to get to the dinner – a bit over 54 trillion miles (around the sun)! I got to provide special thanks to Logan Ki5NON and his father Travis KI5PGM for shepherding “Wheatley” throughout 2022 in support of our RWK Foxhunt program. I was proud to award Larry Pollis KI5UXC with RWK Elmer of the Year for 2022 (read more below), and I was glad to award Eric Robertson WW9K (formerly W5MWM) with the Golden Microphone as the “Voice of the RWK” for his presence on the 147.12 repeater. Eric is always quick to respond with a friendly greeting to anyone that pops up on our main repeater (which more of you should do!) and he is the embodiment of an active, involved RWK member, having participated in most all of our 2022 activities (cause you know that we keep attendance records!). We need more members like Eric!

    Special thanks to Doug Kilgore KD5OUG (for wrangling Aboca’s), Shawn Prestridge KI5PXG (for his audio equipment and for providing tunes during the event), and the entire RWK Board and especially Josh Barfield N4NZ for collecting and dispatching our lot of door prizes to their new radio homes. We will have the full complement of pics uploaded to the website soon.

  • General Meeting – December 2022 – Holiday Hospitality and RWK Systems 101

    Please join RWK on Monday December 12th for our December General Meeting.  We’re going to have an expanded RWK Holiday Hospitality Hour with lots of sweets and treats, and coffee, hot cocoa and other holiday beverages. Andrew KE5GDB will be giving an abbreviated “RWK Systems 101” program, geared to educate (or remind) all of RWK on just what we have on the air for you as RWK Members to use. It will be very informal and there will be lots of opportunities to ask questions. Even though we will have our usual simulcast on Zoom, I really encourage you to show up in person, enjoy some holiday treats, and say hello to members that you haven’t seen in a while. For those of you that are new hams (or just new members), it’s your best opportunity to meet your fellow RWK members and find out more about all the great repeaters and systems that are available to you.

    The December meeting will be In-Person as well as simulcast on Zoom for those that do not want to attend in-person, but we hope that you will attend in person as it’s hard to distribute Holiday Snacks through Zoom.  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 that have joined in the last couple of years 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! We have a lot of ground to recover.

    If you have any additional questions about the meeting, please send me a direct message (remember the $5 fine for reply to the list!)

    We look forward to seeing you on Monday!
     

    Thanks and 73,
     
    Chip Coker KD4C
    RWK President 2022

    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 for the map.

    – – – – – – – – – –

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

    Topic: RWK Social Hour/Beau’s Korner/General Meeting Zoom invitation

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

    Join Zoom Meeting

    https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89618532653?pwd=RzRPZDdlWW1NTzNxanlOUFZCZksrZz09

    Meeting ID: 896 1853 2653

    Passcode: 489712

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

© Richardson Wireless Klub K5RWK, Box 830232, Richardson, TX 75083.                       admin login