LabNLecture

Rescheduled! DARC Lecture and Lab for October 2025

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A 435-MHz yagi antenna, made from aluminum wire and pvc pipe, sits on a dark red backbround.

The DARC Lecture and Lab for September 2025 has been RESCHEDULED! The event will take place on October 25th, 2025.

You can download the lab notes here and the original “cheap yagi” paper here.

Please join us for the October, 2025 Lecture and Lab. Tony Mendina, NT5TM, will introduce the famous “cheap yagi” series of antennas, and participants will built a 435-MHz yagi antenna suitable for AMSAT or fox-hunting use. Thanks to donations of valuable materials by Virginia, NV5F, and Rollin, WA5RFG, the kit cost will be only $10.00. Remember that you don’t need to be a DARC member to attend our event. We’ll meet up at our usual meeting location at 10:00 AM on Saturday, October 25th. Please watch this post for more updates about tools and instructions.

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DARC Lecture And Lab March 2024

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2M Fox Hunting Yagi Antenna Build

Join the DARC for Lecture and Lab March 23, 2024 from 10am until 2pm. Attendees will be building an inexpensive 2M yagi beam antenna using 1″ tape measure sections for antenna elements and a three foot length of 1/2″ PVC pipe. This antenna is suitable for HAM radio fox hunting and other radio direction finding activities in the 2 meter HAM band.  You can purchase the antenna kit on site, cost of the kit is $15.00.  Builders with their tools will need to come to the Dallas Medical Center March 23, 2024 from 10:00 am – 2 pm ish to purchase, assemble and test their antenna. First come first served and as always this event is open to anybody licensed or not, and you do not need to be a member of the DARC to attend.

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DARC Lecture And Lab Feb 2024

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Anderson Power Pole Workshop

Anderson Power Pole

Join the DARC for Lecture and Lab February 24, 2024 from 10am until 2pm. This will be an Anderson Power Pole Workshop – This Workshop will give you a complete overview of Anderson Power Poles and how they are used in HAM Radio. Participants will have a choice of building two kits: one kit has eight different essential Power Pole accessories and handy bag and the other kit is a fused distribution box complete with a volt meter and USB charge ports. You can purchase either kit or both. Builders will need to come to the Dallas Medical Center Feb 24, 2024 from 10:00 am – 2 pm ish to assemble their kits . First come first served and is open to anybody licensed or not, and you do not need to be a member of the DARC to attend.

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September 2023 Lecture and Lab: build an active fox hunt attenuator

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If you’ve ever tried to find a hidden radio transmitter, or if you’ve ever wanted to…or if you’ve ever wondered how close you could get to finding a “jammer,” this month’s Lecture and Lab is for you!

We’ll be building the KC9NON active attenuator kit, an easy-to-build device that lets you get up close and personal with the radio transmitter that you’re hunting. The kit cost is only $20.00, and the tools needed are simple: a soldering iron, solder, wire cutters, wire strippers, and a small screwdriver are all that you really need. A hot glue gun and a needle-nose pliers were enough for me to finish my build. You’ll also need a jumper cable with BNC connectors (it can be very short, 2 feet is plenty), and a BNC-equipped antenna and radio, or else a set of adapters.

We’ll be meeting at 10:00 AM on Saturday, September 23rd, in the 3rd-floor community room at the Dallas Medical Center, 7 Medical Parkway Dallas, TX 75234. There are 15 kits available, first-come-first-served.

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Lecture and Lab, August 2022

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The QFH Antenna, courtesy of Eugene Ruperto, W3KH

The latest revision of the instruction sheet and information guide is now available. I’ve also added some information about on-line resources.

The August, 2022, Lecture and Lab will be held in-person at the Dallas Medical Center on Saturday, August 27th, at 10:00 am. We’ll have an antenna build and a presentation, too. The antenna we build will be a 137-MHz helicoidal loop antenna pair for receiving weather satellite images and aircraft radio voice transmissions. The presentation will discuss the best software tools for decoding satellite imagery for yourself. The antenna will be very easy to build, and the cost will be only $30.00. 20 kits will be available!

You’ll need to bring a soldering iron and some general hand tools such as a tape measure, a sharpie, and your favorite set of files. The club will provide the antenna parts, but not the receiver: you’ll want to have a device that can receive signals at about 137 MHz. Most ham radios can’t do that, so now’s the time to check on your scanner or even order an RTL-SDR dongle or one of its competitors like an Airspy or SDR-Play. You’ll also want an adapter from a PL-259 connector to whatever connector your receiver uses.

I hope to see you there!

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DARC Lecture and Lab August 2021

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These are the easy-to-build cores of the 1:1 balun and 1:49 transformer you’ll be assembling.

Join the DARC for Lecture and Lab August 28th, 2021 from 11am until 2 pm Central Time virtually via Google Meet. (The virtual meeting ID/Link is always on the W5FC event calendar) You will get to build two easy kits: a 1:1 choke balun and a 49:1 impedance transformer. Both will be enclosed in waterproof PVC enclosures and neither kit will require precision soldering. The balun will be constructed to hang below the center of your dipole, and the transformer will be set up for use at one end of an end-fed half-wave antenna. To pick up your kit, you will need to come to the front parking lot of the Dallas Medical Center on August 21st, 2021 from 10:30 – 11:30 to pick up your kit from the Dallas Medical Center parking lot from Tony, NT5TM.

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DARC Lecture And Lab April 2021

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DIY Custom Shack LED Lighting Controller

DIY WiFi LED Controller Kit

Join the DARC for Lecture and Lab April 24, 2021 from 11am until 2/3pm Central Time virtually via Google Meet. (The virtual meeting ID/Link is always on the W5FC event calendar) You will be assembling a 12 volt custom LED lighting controller for your HAM Shack based on the QuinLED board with a WiFi enable Wemos board programed with WLED. In this LnL you will solder and assemble a complete WiFi enabled LED controller – it even comes with a case and a length of LEDs. Like previous virtual LnL events, participants will need to come to the Dallas Medical Center Apr 17, 2021 from 10:30 – 11:30 to pick up their kits from the Dallas Medical Center parking lot from Bill KF5ZBL.

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DARC Lecture And Lab March 2021

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Anderson Power Pole Workshop

Anderson Power Pole

Join the DARC for Lecture and Lab March 27, 2021 from 11am until 2pm virtually via Google Meet. This will be an Anderson Power Pole Workshop – This Workshop will give you a complete overview of Anderson Power Poles and how they are used in HAM Radio. Participants will have a choice of five different Power Pole accessory kits to purchase and build. Like previous virtual LnL events, participants will need to come to the Dallas Medical Center March 20, 2021 from 10:30 – 11:30 to pick up their kits from the Dallas Medical Center parking lot from Bill KF5ZBL.

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Lecture and Lab 7/27/2019: A UPS for your RPi!

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raspberry pi FMV34K4JU31TTMJ.LARGEThis Saturday’s Lecture and Lab will focus on a DIY Mini UPS suitable for use with a Raspberry Pi or charging your phone. It has 5v and 12v outputs and uses only 1 18650 Battery.  The cost will be $10.  Bring your soldering iron, hot glue gun, clippers and screwdriver.  If you don’t have any of the above, we will have extra on site.

If you’ve got something else you need to work on, don’t worry! All the “regulars” will be bringing our tools, and we’ll do our best to help.

Lab And Lecture May 2019

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Anderson Power Pole Workshop

Anderson Power Pole

Join the DARC for Lab and Lecture May 25, 2019 from 10am until 3pm at the Dallas Medical Center. This will be an Anderson Power Pole Workshop – This Workshop will give you a complete overview of Anderson Power Poles and how they are used in HAM Radio. Participants will have a choice of five different Power Pole accessories to purchase and build.

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