May Membership Meeting - May 17, 2024 - 7 PM

 

Pico Ballooning

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In an effort to stimulate interest in Ham Radio for younger members, Brendon Holt, KC5VCW and Jeff Vollin, KC6WFU embarked on a new aspect of radio: Tracking small balloons that can fly for extended periods of time and distance. These balloons are NOT the high-altitude balloons that many in the Ham community might be familiar with.  Those balloons typically go very high then burst and descend locally.  The subject of this talk are Pico balloons, and these are intended to level out at a stable altitude, then travel horizontally for long distances, including circumnavigating the globe!  We have launched 3 balloons to date, and this presentation will describe our experience so far, and where we plan to go.

 

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Presenter: Jeff Vollin, KC6WFU

 

Jeff Vollin is a Ham Radio operator in Tucson Arizona. He has been licensed since 1991, with recent upgrades to Extra Class.  Jeff's primary interests are in satellite communications, precision time and frequency, radio propagation, and electronic design. Jeff retired from Raytheon in Tucson in 2021 and is currently a member of the Raytheon radio club, the Catalina Radio Club (CRC). Jeff also taught electrical engineering at the University of Arizona, with courses in Power Electronics and Analog Electronic design.  Jeff is currently a community member of the U of A Radio Club, K7UAZ.

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June Membership Meeting - June 21, 2024 - 7 PM

 

The Search for Amelia Earhart

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We have a fascinating presentation for our June meeting. Rod Blocksome - K0DAS has been part of a worldwide effort to find Amelia Earhart’s airplane. Joe-KC2J and I had the privilege of seeing an expanded version of Rod’s presentation at the Flex Radio Hamvention Banquet. 

So how does this relate to amateur radio? Directly, probably little however there is a massive amount of communications going on between the research vessels, land based operations and under water apparatus. These research expeditions are very long and expensive and require the utmost communications to ensure safety of the equipment, ships and personnel.

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Presenter: Rod Blocksome, K0DAS

 

Rod grew up western Kansas and attended Kansas State University where he received advanced degrees in electrical engineering. He has been a ham for many years and served as a communication officer in the US Air Force during the Viet Nam era. Rod went on to work at Collins Radio and had a 42-year career there. Since his retirement he has been involved in many volunteer activities including being a research analyst in the search for Amelia Earhart's Airplane lost at sea near Howland Island in 1937.  He has participated in three deep ocean sonar searches in 2002, 2006, and 2017 - and the work continues.

Rod served as the Midwest Division Director for the ARRL and resides in Robins Iowa just north of Cedar Rapids. 

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