September 2009 Letter from the Prez

Letter from the Prez

Summer is winding down. The days are getting shorter and it is time to get back to our monthly Saturday meetings. If you watched the website or been to any of the Thursday night Eyeball QSOs at the Stillwater Public Library, you‘ve probably been involved with or aware of all the SARA radio activities. If you have been unable to join us, here is a summary and a hint of great things to come.

The new repeater has been on the air and working great. Many of you have worked hard physically and mentally making this a great installation. I want to thank everyone that contributed the success of this project. After a few bugs were worked out, it has performed excellently. (even during some severe thunderstorms) One thunderstorm that spawned a tornado in Mahtomedi, went right over the repeater and the audio was still clean and clear. I was monitoring and didn’t hear the lightening falsely open the squelch. We still have some ideas for improvements in the works. If you some ideas or requests please let us know so we can try to accommodate them.

This year Field Day was a big hit again…so I’m told. Work sent me to Singapore, but from the emails and pictures a good time was had by all. Field Day was held at a local park in Oak Park Heights. Prior year suggestions encouraged us to concentrate more on having fun, socializing, and allowing radios to be manned as the operators liked. With this focus and the impediment of shutting down for the night, we did pretty well in points. We made the decision to have more fun this Field Day, so the towers were left behind - this minimized the workload - and everyone operated with OXB specials (Double Extended Zepp antennas). We had a number of visitors, including a group from the University of Minnesota NASA Space Group Consortium High Altitude Balloon Team. Some of these college students had an opportunity to sit down behind the radios and operate on Field Day. Since then, many of them have gotten their Amateur Radio licenses.

The SARA High Altitude Balloon Team had a few opportunities to chase balloons this summer. It seems like every time I go chasing a balloon, it is a difficult landing. The last time I went it was 60-70 feet up in a tree. The time before, I spent several hours tromping around in a swamp. I’m still waiting for my road side or farm field landing. The SARA transponder (nick-named SARA-Pod like the Saurapod dinosaur by the U of MN balloon team) works so well the U of MN is making copies. We’re in the process of building SARA-Pod II with more features and hoping for a SARA launched balloon. The U of MN will be flying an ATV camera above the State Fair on Sunday August 30th. You can receive the signal with just a UHF antenna horizontally polarized pointed towards the fair grounds. Tune your cable ready TV to Channel 58 (427.250MHz). The channel may change but it should l be on one of the channels between 57 and 60. No digital converter box is needed. The plan is to transmit from 9:00am to 9:00pm -- providing the batteries hold out. It may be repeated by the MNFAT Amateur Radio ATV club via their ATV repeater and live web link.

Now onto the great things to come…the return of our Saturday meetings! In September, I will be presenting on the technical aspects of Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning, ARHAB. There will be a presentation on the new SARA repeater WØJH/R in October. We are looking for program topics and ideas for the November and December meetings. If you would like to present, or know of a program you would like to see, let us know. We are only as strong as your participation.

Remembering the Edmond Fitzgerald at Split Rock Lighthouse is coming up in November. This has become an annual event for SARA. There are always good stories coming back from this event. Every year the theme of the stories seem to center around a lot of wood being burned for excessive heat and a lot of Manhattans being consumed.

If your schedule permits, please join us for one or all of the following –
? Thursday night Eyeball QSOs at the Stillwater Library at 6:00
? Saturday, September 12th’s monthly meeting at 9:00am at Boutwells Landing. Remember there is also a breakfast at Joseph’s in Stillwater before the monthly meeting.
? Lunch at the Old Country buffet the second Tuesday of the month (September 15th).

Thanks and 73,
RicKØBRennan
SARA President