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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July Membership Meeting - July 19, 2024 - 7 PM

 

IT'S TIME

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Geochron World Clocks have been a standard in Amateur Radio for many years. With new digital modes, time has become even more important. The Geochron mechanical World Clock was the only way to see the Sunrise and Sunset on Earth in real-time, in sync with the Earth’s 23.4-degree axial tilt against the Sun, at the time.   President Reagan presented a Geochron as a gift to Mikhail Gorbachev as an example of American Engineering. These photogenic mechanical world clocks have also appeared in motion pictures like The Hunt for Red October.  In 2018, Geochron created the digital Geochron, with features specifically developed for a Ham Radio audience.

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Presenter: Patrick Bolan, KJ7ZSU

 

Our presenter, Patrick Bolan – KJ7ZSU, has been the owner of Geochron since January 1, 2015, recently celebrated his 30th wedding anniversary and recently completed a 48-state tour visiting Geochron owners on his motorcycle.  Patrick had an early career in construction management building Fred Meyer markets and Home Depots, but armed with his M.A. and an M.B.A., has been a small business owner for the last 20 years.

During his presentation, Patrick will dive deep into his early relationship with Geochron, how he became the owner and how the product line has transitioned from mechanical to digital. If you have ever seen the beauty of a Geochron, you will really enjoy this presentation.

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October 2024 Membership Meeting

 

Topic: Stealth Operation from Hotel Rooms and Other Unlikely Locations

​Ross Ballantyne VK1UN will talk about operating during his travels including inside various hotels and some other unlikely places. He had planned to present this material at the May 2024 Four Days in May Symposium but ran into some travel issues preventing him from making the appearance. He will be adding some recent material regarding some new innovations on tuners. He will talk about all operations and the various equipment and gear that are necessary. He will provide a systematized approach to the optimization of QRP AND very portable operations.

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Presenter Bio:

Ross Ballantyne - VK1UN/VK8UN/EX0AA/6O0O/G6BTE

 

Ross was first licensed in Australia 1978 with the callsign VK3YKX. He has studied medicine, languages, linguistics, computer science and international Law. 

 

He has had multiple interesting career paths, including Civil Service in Australia and as a Customs Officer. He started United Nations postings in 1992 to Cambodia, South Africa, Bosnia, Iraq, Western Sahara, East Timor, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan along with duties in many neighboring countries.

 

Ross got hooked on WSPR in March 2008 and has since operated in many countries while performing his work. He is primarily based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan with a ring of 5000m mountains around.  

 

Ross has also held some other call signs including T61AA, 4W6UN, custodian of 4U1ET, CN2UN, S07UN, 9A9UN, T9/9A9UN, C91UN, XU0UN and reciprocal permits for VR2 (HKG) in Denmark.

 

His favorite call is for his Somali/Puntland lifetime license: Six Oscar Zero Oscar 6O0O

 

He has done a lot of traveling to some great locations around the world.

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MEETING LOCATION:

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NEW LOCATION: Building A, Room 207

 

Pima Community College NW Campus

7600 N Shannon Rd,

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For a MAP to the meeting location, see below:

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(OVARC Groups.io Link (members only), click HERE)

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