January 2022 – HamGab

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Secretary’s Beat – Meeting Minutes

No minutes due to Christmas dinner.

Hamfester’s Dues

Hamfesters Radio club values your participation in the club. We need your dues support to keep the club running. Standard dues are $20/yr. And $10/yr for spouse or other family member. Current members will remain on the mailing list which announces the availability of HamGab and other important club news. In the early spring of the year, I remove those members who are delinquent from the list. Contact Brian, W9HLQ, if you are not getting these email announcements.

For the new members (and old members who forget!) here is a review of the dues process for Hamfesters. The final date for dues is the 31 st of December which pays for the following year’s dues. To facilitate the collection of dues I set up a table to make it easy for you to pay your dues. The table is set up for the October and November meetings. If you are going to pay in person I appreciate you pay your dues at either the October or November meeting. Thank you.

If you can’t attend either of these meetings, feel free to mail in your dues; payable to “Hamfesters Radio Club”. Send to Brian Davis, W9HLQ. When paying in person, we are equipped to accept your Visa or Master card if you don’t have cash handy. Also you can pay anytime online at our web site found here: https://www.hamfesters.org/main/club-information/

You can check your dues status by going to the Hamfesters web site and clicking on the “Members Only” link on the left side of the page. The years that you have paid for are shown as a two digit number for the years you have paid. You will need a password to access this information. If you are a paid member, contact any Hamfester officer to get the passcode.

BEVERAGE ANTENNA HITS 100

from Westlakes Amateur Radio Club November 2021 Newsletter

Harold Beverage experimented with receiving antennas similar to the Beverage antenna in 1919. He discovered in 1920 that an otherwise nearly bi-directional long-wire antenna becomes unidirectional by placing it close to the lossy earth and by terminating one end of the wire with a resistor.

In 1921, Beverage was granted a patent for his antenna. That year, Beverage longwave receiving antennas up to 14 km long had been installed at RCA’s Riverhead, New York. Belfast, Maine.

Perhaps the largest Beverage antenna—an array of four phased Beverages 5km (3 miles) long and 3 km wide—was built by AT&T in Houlton, Maine, for the first transatlantic telephone system opened in 1927.

A Beverage antenna that can be improvised for military field communications, from a 1995 U.S. Army field manual. Rather than being grounded, the resistor is attached to a second lower wire which serves as a counterpoise, an artificial ground for the transmitter. The antenna’s main lobe, its direction of greatest sensitivity, is to the right, off the end of the wire that is terminated in the resistor.

The Beverage antenna consists of a horizontal wire one-half to several wavelengths long, suspended close to the ground, usually 3 to 6 m high, pointed in the direction of the signal source.

At the end toward the signal source it is terminated by a resistor to ground approximately equal in value to the characteristic impedance of the antenna considered as a transmission line, usually 400 to 800 O. At the other end it is connected to the receiver with a transmission line, through a balun to match the line to the antenna’s characteristic impedance.

Unlike other wire antennas such as dipole or monopole antennas which act as resonators, with the radio currents traveling in both directions along the element, bouncing back and forth between the ends as standing waves, the Beverage antenna is a traveling wave antenna; the radio frequency current travels in one direction along the wire, in the same direction as the radio waves.

The lack of resonance gives it a wider bandwidth than resonant antennas. It receives vertically polarized radio waves, but unlike other vertically polarized antennas it is suspended close to the ground, and requires some resistance in the ground to work.

Directivity increases with the length of the antenna. While directivity begins to develop at a length of only 0.25 wavelength, directivity becomes more significant at one wavelength and improves steadily until the antenna reaches a length of about two wavelengths. In Beverages longer than two wavelengths, directivity does not increase because the currents in the antenna cannot remain in phase with the radio wave.

Your Password Secure Enough?

I fear a lot of people have no idea if their passwords are secure enough.

Protect your email account at all costs! If a hacker can get to your email account, they can have other sites send a reset password to the email. Now the hacker has access to your Amazon account, Paypal, etc!

For Sale By Owner

These items for sale by Gene W9PNG – $400 takes everything!

SOLD!!

email me at hamgab@hamfesters.org if interested or see me at the club meeting

Hamfesters VE Testings

Hamfesters conducts FCC authorized VE (volunteer examiner) tests for Technician, General, and Extra class licenses monthly.

Date: 2nd Saturday of each Month

Location: Oak Forest City Hall, 15440 Central Ave, Oak Forest, IL 60452

Time: 0900 hrs

Walk-ins accepted with FRN number in hand

Exam Candidates: You are REQUIRED to register in the FCC CORES system and receive a FCC Registration Number (FRN) before exam day. Already Licensed? Please bring your Amateur License and Copy of Your License. Also, Bring any CSCE from previous Exams and A Copy if FCC has not acted upon.

Exam Session Requirements
Candidates could go directly to the FCC CORES User Account and Registration
page: https://apps.fcc.gov/cores/userLogin.do

FEES: (currently $15) for the test. We urge you to bring the exact amount of cash. NO CHECKS or CREDIT CARDS EXCEPTED!

VE Coordinator: Al Bukowski – N9ZD

N9ZD@ARRL.NET

PLEASE – NO TELEPHONE CALLS!

Exam Day
What to Bring to an ARRL Exam Session:

1. One legal photo ID (identification):
   a. State Driver’s License
   b. Government issued Passport
   c. Military or Law Enforcement Officer Photo ID card
   d. Student School Photo ID card
   e. State Photo ID card
2. If no photo ID is available, two forms of identification:
   a. Non-photo State ID card (some states still have them)
   b. Birth certificate (must have the appropriate seal)
   c. Social security card
   d. Employer’s wage statement or Minor’s work permit
   e. School ID card
   f. School or Public Library card
   g. Utility bill, bank statement or other business correspondence that specifically names the person; or a postmarked envelope addressed to the person at his or her current mailing address as it appears on
   the Form 605.
3. Students/minors without a photo ID need to bring only one of the above items if a legal guardian presents their photo ID; otherwise two non-photo IDs are required. Minor children (under the age of 18) may be accompanied in the room by an adult during the test.
4. FCC Registration Number (FRN): VECs are required by the FCC to submit your FRN with your license application form.
   New license applicants MUST create an FCC user account and register their Social Security Number (SSN) in the FCC Commission Registration System (CORES) before attending exam sessions.
   Registrants will be assigned an FRN which will be used in all license transactions with the FCC. Examinee Must bring their FRN number to the Exam Session.
   For instructions on how to register your SSN and receive an FRN from the FCC, visit the FCC’s Registration page and the FCC’s Registration instructions page. Per FCC rules, a valid email address is also mandatory on the application form.
5. If applicable, bring a printed copy of either your official Amateur Radio license or a reference copy available from the FCC website, or the original(s) and photocopy(s) of any Certificates of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE) you may hold from previous exam sessions. If your license has already been issued by FCC, the CSCE showing license credit is not needed. The photocopy(s) will not be returned.
   Instructions on how to obtain an official FCC license copy are on our Obtain License Copy web page.
6. Two number two pencils with erasers and a pen for in-person sessions.
7. A calculator with the memory erased and formulas cleared is allowed. You may not bring any written notes or calculations into the exam session. Slide rules and logarithmic tables are acceptable, as long as they’re free
   of notes and formulas. Cell phone must be silenced or turned off during the exam session and the phones’ calculator function may not be used. In addition, iPhones, iPads, Androids, smartphones, Blackberry devices
   and all similar electronic devices with a calculator capability, may NOT be used.

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Janurary 2022 Contest Calendar

From WA7BNM Contest Calendar Website

+ AGB New Year Snowball Contest	0000Z-0100Z, Jan 1
+ SARTG New Year RTTY Contest	0800Z-1100Z, Jan 1
+ AGCW Happy New Year Contest	0900Z-1200Z, Jan 1
+ WW PMC Contest	1200Z, Jan 1 to 1200Z, Jan 2
+ AGCW VHF/UHF Contest	1400Z-1800Z, Jan 1
+ QRP ARCI New Years Sprint	1500Z-1800Z, Jan 1
+ ARRL Kids Day	1800Z-2359Z, Jan 1
+ ARS Spartan Sprint	0200Z-0400Z, Jan 4
+ YB DX Contest	0000Z-2359Z, Jan 8
+ SKCC Weekend Sprintathon	1200Z, Jan 8 to 2359Z, Jan 9
+ ARRL RTTY Roundup	1800Z, Jan 8 to 2359Z, Jan 9
+ EUCW 160m Contest	2000Z, Jan 8 to 0700Z, Jan 9
+ NRAU-Baltic Contest, SSB	0630Z-0830Z, Jan 9
+ NRAU-Baltic Contest, CW	0900Z-1100Z, Jan 9
+ DARC 10-Meter Contest	0900Z-1059Z, Jan 9
+ Midwinter Contest	1000Z-1400Z, Jan 9
+ 4 States QRP Group Second Sunday Sprint	0100Z-0300Z, Jan 10
+ UBA PSK63 Prefix Contest	1200Z, Jan 15 to 1200Z, Jan 16
+ Hungarian DX Contest	1200Z, Jan 15 to 1159Z, Jan 16
+ North American QSO Party, CW	1800Z, Jan 15 to 0559Z, Jan 16
+ ARRL January VHF Contest	1900Z, Jan 15 to 0359Z, Jan 17
+ Run for the Bacon QRP Contest	2300Z, Jan 16 to 0100Z, Jan 17
+ BARTG RTTY Sprint	1200Z, Jan 22 to 1200Z, Jan 23
+ North American QSO Party, SSB	1800Z, Jan 22 to 0559Z, Jan 23
+ SKCC Sprint	0000Z-0200Z, Jan 26
+ CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW	2200Z, Jan 28 to 2200Z, Jan 30
+ REF Contest, CW	0600Z, Jan 29 to 1800Z, Jan 30
+ UBA DX Contest, SSB	1300Z, Jan 29 to 1300Z, Jan 30
+ Winter Field Day	1900Z, Jan 29 to 1900Z, Jan 30

Club Information

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Photos from the Christmas Party

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Notice: Beginning with Feb 2021, all HamGab issues will be gluten and salt-free. This is part of my commitment to provide you with the healthiest and environmentally friendly reading possible. You will notice no degradation in image quality due to the clever design of the editor. If you choose to print HamGab we suggest you use low-fat, vegetarian-based ink in your printer.