Blog

Hey there.

After chatting with Rick N1RM over the holiday I decided to replace my old dipole with an off center fed dipole. I primarily wanted this because I wanted lower SWR with wider bandwidth so I can use more power on 80 meters. It turns out to be very beneficial for at least 4 bands that I normally use over a single wire!

Part of this project was to build my own balun because I didn’t want to buy one. Contrary to popular belief, I’m as cheap as every other ham I know. They cost about $100.

Normally with my projects I’d just put in the new antenna and move on but I decided to put proper design notes together and publish in a new section of our web site I called DIY in hopes it could also help others.

I pulled a bunch of information from various sources which I have published in this page on our web site.

Check my work. Build your own! If you want to publish your own DIY project let us know and we’ll get it out there.

73,

John
W5ODJ

The annual election of officers of the Loudoun Amateur Radio Group, Inc. is coming at our January meeting. All members present may vote, so please be prepared to pay your dues prior to the start of the meeting if you have not already done so, and you must be present in order to vote. Remember, too, that the dues for the 2020 calendar year are (generally) $25.00.

As our Constitution and Bylaws require, the Board of Directors of LARG met in November to identify and recommend a slate of Officer candidates for the election coming at our January meeting. Following our established practice, we will open nominations from the floor to permit write-in candidates in addition to the nominations offered by the Board. We will use written ballots, to be distributed at the meeting. As in the past, immediately upon completion of balloting and counting, we will announce the results.

It is my pleasure to announce the candidates nominated by the Directors.
President – Doug Coulter, K4AIU
Vice-President – Mike White, N4PDY
Treasurer – Steve Edwards, KN4HOZ*
Secretary = Jim Babcock, N4FAF*
* incumbent

We have accomplished many good things during the concluding year. I look forward to many more in 2020. To all of our members, families, and friends I bid you a joyous holiday season and prosperous New Year.

For the Board of Directors,
Dave Putman, KE4S
Chairman

80m – 3675 KHz on 13 DEC 2019 Open 0100Z
Listening 3810 KHz for General class ops to check-in

QNI:
KoZR Jeff
WoMPM John
K8SYH Bill
N4PD Paul
K3WD Bill
KE4S Dave, net control

Closed 0121Z

10m – on 28.405 MHz
No net tonight
KE4S Dave, ncs

Net convened on 3544.5 KHz at scheduled time. We were down from the normal frequency to avoid traffic on 3545. Only two of us tonight – Bill K3WD and Dave KE4S. Had a nice chat about our equipment before closing at 8:20PM. Please join us next Tuesday at 8:00PM. 73 de Dave KE4S

Sorry I was unable to join in tonight. I’m out of town again. Looking forward to seeing you as well as others at our upcoming party event this Saturday night. K0ZR

The Nov 16th meeting files and ARISS presentation have been uploaded to the members area for those unable to attend yesterday.

Called the net schedule at 8:00PM with KT9N, W5ODJ, and KE4S in the conversation. Good signals from all, and I was happy to report I have put my SteppIR back in service after 6 months of making repairs and upgrades. Now I need to start work on my 160/80 meter inverted L – it still is giving problems, but at least I can get on the air on 80 with a G5RV. Chris reported some heavy QRM in northern Leesburg, but John and I had good copy on him. Thanks for checking in – others are welcome to join us each Tuesday evening, and we operate at the speed of the slowest participant. 73 de Dave KE4S