Lecture and Lab, August 2022

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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WMPLOTA 2018

WMPLOTA 2018 – “Wallmart Parking Lots On the Air” is a special event and award scheme for amateur radio satellite operators that encourages the practice of portable operation in the ubiqitous and easily accessible location of Walmart parking lots.    Scheduled to take place Apr 28-29, 2018 Additional details and links on the official web site http://wmplota.org