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Thank you to all who came out for the White Elephant Sale. It was good to see Ron WA9RHU pay us a visit at our meeting. Ron was a member back in 1966 when according to Ron, our club used to meet in Marquette Park in Chicago. He is a member of the Chi-Burban and 160 groups. Come by more often Ron! Special thanks to Jim, W9JPR, for running the meeting in my absence, Cathy and Bob for their efforts in handling the coffee, pop and water and Cindy for the donuts.

Help Wanted: Someone to handle the coffee, pop and water etc. at the upcoming meetings. The person that handles this has to be at every meeting early in order to set up the coffee, and get the pop and water refrigerated. You will also be responsible to purchase these items (which you will be reimbursed) and all the necessities. Then at the break, be sure to have everything set up including the donuts (purchased by Cindy and brought to the meeting). All garbage needs to be emptied. Other members are always pitching in to help. If seriously interested, please get in touch with me.

HEALTH AND WELFARE: Best wishes and prayers go out to any members who are not feeling well and struggling with your health matters. We are keeping you all in our thoughts and prayers.

EDUCATION: By now the General Class will be close to finishing up. Good Luck to everyone. Kudos go out to Brian W9HLQ, Mike K9ACM, Kurt WB9FMC for so generously giving of your time to present these classes. Thank you also to Southbridge Church for letting us to once again use your facility to hold the classes. We truly appreciate it.

NEW MEMBER: Welcome to new member, Chuck LaPointe, N9ALO. Chuck has been inactive many years and is looking to get active again.

APRIL MEETING: Due to the COVID-19 virus situation, the National Weather Service has stopped all weather spotting presentations. That includes the Hamfesters planned April spotting program. In addition, the Hamfesters Board has decided to cancel the April general meeting.

Should conditions permit, we will offer the Weather Spotting program at the May 1, 2020 general meeting. Check back to the website for further updates as the situation changes.

RUMOR HAS IT: Hamfesters T-Shirts may be available soon for purchase again.

As always, we ask you to keep an eye on the website for the most current happenings in our club. Remember to Like us on our Hamfesters Page and spread the word about our great club too! We are the fun place to have a good time of fellowship at all of our events!

Thank you to all of you for your continued support of the best Ham Radio club around!

73, Nora Pointer KC9MLV
President of Hamfesters Amateur Radio Club of Crestwood
P.S: If you need to reach me, please email me at: npointer92@gmail.com

Secretary’s Beat – Meeting Minutes

Hamfesters Amateur Radio Club Meeting March 6, 2020 7:35pm

Roll: Jim W9JPR, Ed W9EOL, Patti KC9LYE, Nora KC9MLV absent
Members here tonight 32, visitors 8 including N9CPD Charles, W9DQO Rick, KD9AQO Brian,
WA9RHU Ron, Welcome Everyone!

Important information: I (Patti KC9LYE) received a call from Nora KC9MLV, on 3-13 The April 3rd (Fri) club meeting is canceled due to COVID 19. The weather spotters class will take place on Friday at 7:00 pm on May 1st. The board meeting will be Monday, March 23rd.

Membership: By Brian W9HLQ, Hamfesters has a new member Neil WA9FTU.

Minutes: The Feb. club minutes were approved by John KB9FQB, & Ed WA9EOL

Treasures Report: By Ed WA9EOL, Club has received money from dues, & Split the pot raffle. The club spent money on door prizes and ILL Sec. of State.

Education: By Brian W9HLQ, a General license class will begin on Wed. March 11th at 7:00 pm, at SouthBridge Church.
We have six students. The class will be taught by Brian W9HLQ, & Mike K9ACM.

Refreshments: By Don KC9EQQ, we need volunteers to take over bringing; water, pop, coffee, & donuts to our monthly club meetings. You will be reimbursed, by Ed W9EOL. And, if you want to volunteer for only one task, that’s fine. If nobody volunteers by June, then there won’t be treats. Thanks to Cathy KC9NRH, Bob N9KWG, & Cindy N9CAS for bringing refreshments.

Secretary Report: By Patti KC9LYE, First, our hamfest is Aug 2, 2020, please buy/sell tickets, get them from Jim W9JPR, & Dave N9KPD.

Important date changes:

• Our annual picnic Friday, July 10 (2nd Fri.)
• July 31 Friday will be our club meeting.
• There will be NO CLUB MEETING IN AUGUST!
• There will be board meetings on July 27th (Mon), and Aug. 24th (Mon.).

Publicity: By Jim W9JPR, newspapers were emailed about tonight’s meeting.

Programs: Tonight White elephant sale, No club meeting on April 3rd,
May 1st., at 7:00 pm Weather Spotting.

Field Day 2020:By Jim W9JPR, we need a call sign for the GOTO station,
the call sign must be an Extra class license. We need laptops with logging software installed. Jim needs pictures from FD 2019.

Adjournment: Dave N9KPD & Don KC9EQQ, at 7:50 pm.

Split-the-Pot winner Cindy N9CAS

Door Prize winners: Mel NE9A, Don KC9EQQ, Kurt WB9FMC, Patti KC9LYE,
Bob N9KWG, & Rollo KD9JMO

CQ Field Day

de Jim Riley W9JPR

I’m writing this at the beginning of an extra week of spring break due to the Coronavirus. This year’s Field Day will go on as planned unless the virus situation gets totally out of control—like no toilet paper in the restrooms.

In searching through Hamgabs of the past, I was unable to find any mention of where Field Days were to be held. It was like a deep, dark secret. So, to remind everyone in the present and inform those in the future, Field Day 2020 is (or was) June 27 and 28 at Southbridge Church, one block West of Harlem on 155th St. or, if you prefer, Wheeler Drive. Setup begins at 0800 and operations run from 1800Z Saturday to 1800Z Sunday.

There has been one nomination for this year’s GOTA call and I think it’s a good one: Gene Phillips W9PNG. Since there will be no April meeting, any further nominations must come to me via email or phone. If no other nominations are made by April 3, W9PNG will be our GOTA call.

I have downloaded and read this year’s FD rules and see no substantial changes from last year. Also, W9AA has been placed in the ARRL’s Field Day locator.
Radio Amateurs of Canada has added a new section effective April 1. Prince Edward Island will be designated PE. If you are supplying a logging computer to any of our FD stations, make sure you download Field Day version 6.2 from N3FJP.com.

Below you’ll find a list of participants in last year’s Field Day. If your name is on the list, please let me know if you can or can’t repeat. If you’re not on the list, you are welcome and encouraged to become part of the best Field Day team anywhere. See me at a meeting or call at my roster number. Please note, KB9FQB will not be able to provide a digital station this year. Let me know if you are able and willing to fill the gap.

If you’re listed as a photographer and you haven’t done so, please get me your pictures ASAP for inclusion in this year’s Field Day presentation at the June meeting. Barring any virus-related quarantines or lockdowns, I look forward to seeing you at the May meeting.

Fretting Corrosion in Electrical Contacts

Fretting and other forms of corrosion that can impact the performance of our radio shacks
If you live near a train line, busy road, or area where there is lots of tectonic plate motion you will at some point experience fretting corrosion. Fretting corrosion is caused by very tiny vibrations that overtime deposit a microscopic layer of oxidation on the inside of your connectors surfaces. In most cases, you need at least a 100X or better magnification to actually see the corrosion. Although our main interest here is to mitigate fretting corrosion between our coaxial connectors used for our radio stations, you can also apply this knowledge to your Internet, phone, and / or cable TV provider’s cable connectors as well. Figure 1 shows what fretting corrosion looks like at 200x.

Although this article is focussing on fretting corrosion, always keep in mind that galvanic corrosion can also plague our lives. Figure 2 shows the key causes of galvanic corrosion when dissimilar metals come in contact with each other. This becomes important when we choose ground rods, grounding clamps, and the methods we use to form the electrical connection between them. The same is true with antenna mounts and towers. Always keep both types of corrosion in mind when choosing your station components. 

There are other factors that can cause corrosion as well. Atmospheric conditions can accelerate corrosion. Humidity and temperature is a major factor. Snow and ice further add to the issue. Water can seep in between connections between a ground rod and the ground clamp you use and when it freezes it can create air gaps. 

Figure 1 – Fretting corrosion on crimped connectors.

Figure 2 – Galvanic corrosion caused by dissimilar metals.

Fretting corruption occurs because their are very tiny air gaps between your coaxial connector’s threads (i.e. PL-259 Male) and the panel mount or intermediate couplers (i.e. SO-239 Female) it is screwed into. It also occurs around the center conductor of your coax. Soldering the center conductor will help greatly (and is a best practice), but it will not completely prevent fretting corrosion around the center conductor contact surfaces. 
To solve fretting corruption you need to fill those air gaps in-between your connectors with a conductive lubricant. Solid lubricants are the best to use, but any lubricant will eliminate or drastically reduce the occurrence of fretting corrosion. 

Real-World Experiment and results My house is in the proximity of the 80th Ave train station. When the freight trains come by overnight I can feel them while laying in bed overnight. As an experiment, I monitored my Comcast Cable connections and noticed over the course of a couple of years my signal strength degraded. I spoke to a friend of mine who is a senior VP with Comcast. I shared the same paper I will reference near the end of this article. I had a supervisor come on-site and I provided a conductive lubricant. It was placed on the threads of the coaxial “F” connector on each end of the cables. We were using quad shielded RG6 (type 77) cable with nickel-plated connectors. After collecting logs and reviewing them over a two year period we confirmed that we stopped or at least dramatically slowed down the fretting corrosion. After six years of monitoring, I have empirical evidence that fretting corrosion is something no Ham or Cable user should ignore.

When choosing an anti-fretting corrosion conductive lubricant you need to keep a few things in mind. You will use very little lubricant and therefore should buy only a small tube or jar. Most conductive lubricants will dry out over time even if they are tightly sealed. This is because the plastic used in their containers overtime will allow the atmosphere to seep in. To lengthen the life of your lubricant it is recommended that you store your tube of conductive lubricant inside of two (one pint or on quart) freezer bags. You could also place it in a glass jar with a baseline screw cap with an O-ring seal. Which is what I do.

There are many great products on the market, but you should stick to the major brands if possible. Conducto-Lube silver lubricant/grease can be used on:
Connections, switches, hinge joints, breakers, RF transformers, and virtually anywhere a conductive lubricant/grease is needed.

When choosing an anti-fretting corrosion conductive lubricant look for the following attributes:

1. Most conductive lubricants will contain silver, copper, gold, carbon, or other conductive metal flakes or powder.
2. The better quality lubricants are Hydrophobic. That is, they displace and exclude water from the contact’s mating faces even better than PPE’s (Polyphenol ethers).
3. For the best performance choose Lubricants that meet or exceed MIL-A-907F and MIL-PRF-907F ratings.
4. Dielectric strength measures the maximum voltage a lubricant can withstand without losing its conductive properties. 
5. Reduces sliding friction so contacts connect with lower mating force. They experience reduced wear with repeated connection and disconnection. Static friction stays the same so that contact’s retention force is unchanged
6. Prevents contact fretting corrosion that can plague contacts that experience any vibration, even minor like from fans.
7. Choose Synthetic lubricants that contain no silicone or petroleum distillates. Not a waxy, greasy, oily or hard coating. Does not attract dirt.
8. Bonds to metal creating a tenacious film that prevents corrosive materials from getting to the metal. Better than waxes, AX7-C film is self-healing and survives being scratched.
9. Offers operating temperature ranges exceed whatever operation temperature the connector or contact itself is rated for. Typically -70°C (-94°F) to 250°C (482°F). Of course, these are fairly extreme temperatures. At a minimum, you should be close to the colder end of the spectrum and probably around 65.6°C (150°F) for the hotter end of the spectrum.
10. The lubricant’s film does not migrate, has very low vapor pressure and is very long-lasting. 
11. Won’t damage any metals or materials typically used in electrical connectors or contacts.
12. Built-in UV tracer dye makes applied material glow under ultraviolet light so coverage is easily verified.
13. Non-flammable formulation
14. RoHS compliant
15. Made in the USA

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P154-74 FRETTING CORROSION IN ELECTRIC CONTACTS E. M. Bock and J. H. Whitley You can find the full article at: http://application-notes.digchip.com/166/166-47938.pdf

Gregory D. Rosenberg (AB9MZ)

Reverse-Sale at the White Elephant!

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Thank You Mike Kiley

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VE Testing

Hamfesters VE Testing Report for HamGab
Al Bukowski N9ZD – VE coordinator

Hamfesters Amateur Radio Club VEs offer Amateur Radio License Testing for those who want to get their first ham license, or Amateur Hams who want to upgrade to a higher class license. Examination sessions are available on the second Saturday of each month. We will assist you with all the necessary paperwork prior to taking your exam. Please make sure you are studying the latest question pool that can be found on the internet, through ARRL publications or Gordon West books. The Exam fee is $15.00 (CASH ONLY – Please NO Checks or Credit Cards.) Also please bring a photo ID with you to the exam. If upgrading, bring your original signed Amateur License and a photocopy we can send with the test results.

If you need information on how to print your FCC License, please go to this url for information. http://www.arrl.org/obtain-license-copy

The exam sessions are held at the Oak Forest City Hall 15440 S. Central Ave. Oak Forest, Il 60452. Please arrive by 9:00 AM. We begin testing promptly at 9:15 AM. Please enter through the marked Police door entrance at City Hall and look for the ARRL Amateur Radio testing signs for directions.

Future VE Exam dates are as follows:

• April 11th, 2020
• May 9th, 2020
• June 13th, 2020

*******New General Class License Exams were implemented on July 1, 2019. You will need to study the new General Class Question pool found here. >>> http://www.ncvec.org/downloads/2019-2023GeneralClassQuestionPool.pdf

Please, it would help the VE Team to pre-register and/or if you have any other questions regarding our test sessions, please contact Al, N9ZD via e-mail at: N9ZD@arrl.net

A Special ‘Thank You’ to All the VE’s volunteering there Saturday morning to assist me at the Exam sessions.

Club Information

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Pics from March Meeting

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