The Lenoir Amateur Radio Club used the Ham radio station at FCW this past weekend to participate in the November Sweepstakes. For portions of Saturday and Sunday Hams across North America made contacts with each other, exchanging locations, calls and a sequence number. FCW is pleased to be able to provide a facility for such events.
All posts by Michelle Suddreth
VE Exams
Ham Radio VE exams will be given at FCW at 12 noon on Saturday, November 17. Anyone interested in obtaining or upgrading an Amateur Radio (Ham) license is welcome to attend. Study materials may be found at http://www.qrz.com/ht/
A question and answer session for any topic of the VE exams will be on Saturday, November 10, at 12 noon.
This event is open to anyone wishing to obtain or upgrade an Amateur Radio license. The fee is $10 per attempt.
UPDATE: The exams resulted in two new Technicians and two upgrades to General. It was decided that FCW will host VE exams every four months.
Fright Night
FCW held our own version of a Haunted House. The “Fright Night” was Friday, Saturday and Wednesday, October 26, 27, and 31 from 6-9PM. There will be candy, slushies, popcorn, a tour through the space and our “Trail of Horror”.
The trail was set up in the “pole” area behind our space which was loaned to us by our landlord (One Putt, Inc.) for the event. Ross — the “master of the macabre” designed a tour which included a graveyard, mad scientist’s lab, dark forest, and executioners row. There were much larger events around, but, this was our first year and ours was FREE. We had around 100 persons attend the event and everyone had a good time.
Now we have new ideas for next year to make the Fright Night bigger and better. Many thanks to Ross and the crew for a fantastic job.
Machining Project
FCW recently offered a Beginning Machining workshop, covering basic Milling, Drilling, and Turning operations. The workshop allowed the participants to make a small air/steam wobbler engine. Rich Goldner was the instructor and there were seven participants in two groups. The workshop took 16 hours spread over 4 weeks.
Raw stock of Aluminum and Steel was used in the project. The base was cut, faced and drilled, the cylinder cut, faced and drilled, and the piston, crank and flywheel turned on the lathe. The CNC mill was used for the milling and drilling operations. Besides the milling, drilling and turning training, the project also involved the setup of the mill and lathe, tapping, and precision measurement.
This workshop was restricted to current members of FCW but another is planned that will be open to the public.
Digital Electronics Workshop
This Summer, FCW held a workshop in Digital-Electronics: Gates. The five participants were introduced to the essential gates (AND, OR, NAND, NOR, XOR, XNOR, and NOT) that make up all digital systems. Hands-on lab exercises using digital trainers and solderless breadboards allowed the participants to connect the “chips” to switches and indicators so as to illustrate the basic logic functions. Describing digital circuits using logic diagrams, truth tables, and Boolean equations was also introduced.
The workshop was conducted by Michelle Suddreth, who has 30 years of experience with digital design and troubleshooting.
This is the first of 5 workshops in digital electronics. In addition to the workshop on Gates, additional workshops are planned as “MSI – Encoders, Decoders, and Multiplexing“, “MSI – Flip Flops, Counters, Shift Registers“, “Sequential Circuits“, and “Introduction to VHDL“.
These should provide enough information to allow additional circuitry to be used with microcontrollers or PLDs.
Amateur Radio Field Day
On June 23-24, FCW operated a Field Day Station for the ARRL Field Day. The purpose of Field Day is to allow Amateur (HAM) Radio operators:
-To test equipment
-Gain experience in operating under non-optimal, or emergency conditions
-Introduce the public to Ham radio
-To socialize
Field Day is in the form of a contest in which Hams contact stations all over the country. This was the first serious use of the FCW station – call sign K4FCW, and so, was essentially, an experiment. Despite our main antenna not being available, things worked out ok as two HF transmitters were active. Even with temporary antennas the station made contacts with 29 states and 2 provinces. Thanks to Buck for the loan of some gear and Ross for the loan of a slushie machine. We now know what to improve for next year.
Meeting Modifications
Due to numerous space, personal, and common projects, FCW will start having a project/build meeting each Tuesday at 7PM. In addition, Business meetings will be alternate Saturdays, with the other Saturdays being project/build meetings. Saturday meetings will continue to be at 3PM.
Open House/Cookout (Phase II)- June 2
FCW is nearing the end of Phase II of construction at the site. This will mark the opening of new areas.
- The classroom – will be able to handle 16-20 students in a seated environment. The room can also be used for computer training, demos, and movies.
- The model shop– will eventually house the model railroad which is to be moved in this Summer. It will also house model making equipment and tools for making scenery, props, and models for railroad, airplanes and others. There is a large viewing window in the railroad area.
- The ham radio station – K4FCW. This will start off with HF and VHF equipment.
These will join the Machine Shop, Electronics Shop, and Wood Shop to support FCW activities.
The opening of these areas will be celebrated with an Open House and Cookout on Saturday, June 2 from 10AM to 6PM. The day will be filled with:
- Tours
- Demonstrations of various science and technical topics
- Games
- Activities for all ages
- Food
Guests are welcome!!
Electronics Workshop Successful
The Electronics Workshop at FCW on April 28, 2012 can be considered a success. Rich Goldner conducted the 4 hour workshop for four participants, covering various electrical topics including:
- Parameters – Current, Voltage, Resistance, Power
- Measurements – using a DMM
- Use of a solderless breadboard
- Component identification
- Basic series and parallel circuits
- A transistor as a switch
- The 555 timer
Thanks to the Granite Falls Radio Shack, who provided materials for this workshop.
This is the first of numerous workshops which will include electronics, soldering, machining, ham radio, programming, and other topics.
Basic Electronics Workshop
A Basic Electronics Workshop will be conducted at FCW from 10AM -2PM on Saturday, April 28, 2012. This workshop is intended to introduce simple electronics concepts to those with no electronics background.
Topics include:
- Voltage, Current, Resistance and Power
- Measurements
- Component Identification and purposes
- Simple Circuit Configurations
Lab exercises will be included to:
- Use a multimeter to make measurements
- Connect simple electric and electronic circuits
Rich Goldner will be the instructor. He has extensive experience with electronic and microprocessor circuits. There are 6 slots available. Leave a message for Rich or the general FCW contact to reserve a place.