OCRA Membership Meeting Notes – September 11, 2017
Quick Notes:
- Location: Efland Baha’i Center
- Introductions:
- VE Session – 3 candidates
- Hillsborough annual Hog Day this weekend, September 15 and 16.
Officer’s Report:
Treasurer:
- 74 membership dues are current and an appropriate reserve balance is in our accounts
- Please consider using Amazon Smile to support OCRA. Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible Amazon Smile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. This year, OCRA has received nearly $50 from Smile purchases.
Show and Tell:
- Over the weekend of September 4th, Chuck (KW4KZ) placed the Ed Fong orders. The order included 11 radios, 5 antennas, and one 50ft real of coax. Shipping should occur in the next several weeks.
- Andy (W4KIL) recently purchased a Radiooddity GD-77, a digital mobile radio (DMR), dual band handheld. Andy mentioned Durham DMR is very active, and with this radio and Internet connection, you can make contacts to other DMR repeaters all over the world.
- Wilson (W4BOH) demonstrated a push/pull butterfly capacitor, which contains two stators and a rotor arranged in such a way that turning the rotor will vary the capacitance between the rotor and either stator equally. This has the great advantage that current flows through two series capacitors from stationary plate, across the rotor to stationary plate without any sliding contacts. Wilson’s capacitor was manufactured by Barker and Williamson and would have cost roughly $25 in the early 1930’s, or nearly $500 in today’s dollars. Wilson explained how this capacitor suppresses 2nd harmonics. For more information on suppressing harmonics, please visit the following site.
- Dan (KR4UB) elaborated on the importance of equal balance, which supports longitudinal balance required for maintaining voice signals along telephone lines, and how perfect symmetry for balance in computers allowed for longer Ethernet lines, thus securing Ethernet as an affordable networking technology.
DIY:
Interested in building your own air variable capacitor, check out the links below.
- http://www.eham.net/articles/5217
- http://www.instructables.com/id/air-variable-capacitor-from-scrap-aluminum-sheets/
Emergency Preparedness:
As this day represented the 16th anniversary of 9/11, and with the recent hurricanes in the Gulf, we felt the need to reflect and discuss the importance of amateur radio and being prepared for emergency events. Several notable best practices we discussed, included the following:
- The importance of a generator. Gas generator’s work well, as long as there is gas. The recent events in the Key’s illustrates that gas may be difficult to find and limited in supply. A dual fuel solution, or propane or natural gas may better if power outages are sustained beyond a few day, and one has access to a large propane tank, or existing natural gas line.
- Also, be sure to have cash on hand. If power outage is widespread, banks will be closed. However, during the day, restaurants may have ability to serve food, but may not accept credit cards, if power is out…in this situation, cash is king.
- The Red Cross Hurricane Safety Checklist provides a good starting checklist to follow on hurricane preparedness.
Equifax Breach
We had a very informative discussion on the recent Equifax breach. Dan (KR4UB) provided a document with links to the various credit rating bureaus. We discussed the values and challenges of credit freezes. We would encourage people who are interested to research the value of credit freezes and determine if it makes sense given your personal situation.
Adro (KV7D) sent an email (September 18) via the yahoo reflector with helpful information, including malicious websites not to visit and emails to delete.
Please let me know of any errors or omissions.
73, Keith (W1KES)