Check out the newest club newsletter to learn more about our next Lecture and Lab project—an electronic calculator kit able to do math in base 10 or base 16, and to decode resistor color bands. We’ll be building this kit on March 28th. Hope you can join us!

The contest calendar for the weekend shows some interesting events; there’s the ARRL DX Contest, phone weekend, as well as the Novice Rig Roundup where you need to listen well around the frequency where you’re transmitting—the other station might only be able to transmit on a single, crystal-controlled frequency. There’s also the John Rollins DX contest, for rigs designed before 1970, brought to us by the Antique Wireless Association.

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Our next club meeting will be this Tuesday, March 3rd. John Galvin, N5TIM, will speak about Winlink radio messaging, something that can be pretty challenging. I hope you’ll come on out to learn more.

The contest calendar shows a generous variety of events this weekend, including the North American QSO Party RTTY weekend, and QSO parties for both North and South Carolina.

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That’s a lot of 2s today, isn’t it? There will be even more in a couple of years. Today was a really fun Lecture and Lab, and I hope hams who participated can share their experiences—and share any questions they still have—on tonight’s net.

Our next club meeting will be on Tuesday, March 3rd. John Galvin, N5TIM, will speak about Winlink radio messaging, something I’ve been struggling with lately. I hope you’ll come on out to learn more.

If you check the contest calendar for this weekend, you’ll see a very brief high-speed CW contest coming up on Sunday, and the CQ WW 160-meter SSB contest is in progress right now. Please note that logs are due within five days of the contest, and contacts not in the other station’s log result in a penalty. If you participate, please turn in a log. Speaking of which, if you participated in Winter Field Day, please remember that logs need to be turned in this month. Please do so, if you haven’t already.

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I hope you’re at, or that you just attended, today’s Dallas County SKYWARN class. If you didn’t, you still have more chances…though they may be farther away.

The biggest club news this week is that our popular Lecture and Lab activity is starting back up after taking a break for the holidays. One week from today, on Feburary 22nd, 2020, we’ll be building an internet connected LED Marquee Scroller Clock based on a WeMos D1 Min and a LED matrix panel. It can be configured via WiFi to display/scroll news, local weather, and a lot more. The kit cost will be $10.00, and you should bring your soldering iron and tools, if you can. Don’t have a soldering iron? Don’t have experience? Don’t worry. Almost everyone who attends brings extra tools. Come on out to the Dallas Medical Center at about 10:00 am on the 22nd and have fun!

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Our next club meeting presentation—this Tuesday—will be by Jim Eatman, KG5WAW.

What are “standing waves”? What causes them? Why is “high SWR” a problem? How do antennas affect SWR? And, what are the properties of various types of transmission lines (coax and ladder line)? Come find out and see a short standing wave demonstration using a NanoVNA.

Come to the meeting and learn more!

The K5RWK fox hunt may be back on this weekend, on 144.50 MHz…but I haven’t been able to confirm that.

The contest calendar for this weekend mentions several QSO parties, including the a 10-10 phone event,  and state parties for Vermont and Minnesota.

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Are you having fun yet? Winter Field Day begins today! Participate with a club if you can, or at home if you prefer…but this is a great day to be on the air. The DARC is participating in the K5T special event station at Alford Media Services in Coppell, Texas. This is a one-day only operation; if you get the urge to join up with a club in the small hours of the morning, the Richardson Wireless Klub will be operating for the full 24 hours.

The only other contest I noticed this weekend is the CQ 160-Meter CW Contest. There’s no reason you can’t do both.

UPDATES: Tom, N5HYP, reports that some more technical information about the satellite with the battery problems can be found here. Larry, N5PQO, reports that you can find more information about the web SDR that lets you listen to the Qatari geosynchronous satellite at this site: https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

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Winter Field Day is less than 7 days away! Sign up for your preferred operating time and be prepared to have fun. The DARC will be participating in the three-club special event station K5T on Saturday, January 25th, 2020.

Remember that there’s no Lecture and Lab this month due to Winter Field Day…and please don’t forget to pay your dues if they’re due.

There are a lot of small contests and operating events going on this weekend, and one big one: the North American QSO Party is taking place right now.

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Winter Field Day is fast approaching! Sign up for your preferred operating time and be prepared to have fun. The DARC will be participating in the three-club special event station K5T on Saturday, January 25th, 2020.

Remember that there’s no Lecture and Lab this month due to Winter Field Day…and remember that you might need to pay your dues.

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