Author Archives: Orange County Radio Amateurs, INC

DFMA Club Over-the-Air Meeting, Tuesday April 7th at 7pm

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DFMA will not be having in-person meetings until further notice due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fortunately, our hobby supports communicating from a distance. Instead of our usual monthly meeting at Bullock’s, we’ll have a special net. The net will be at 7pm on April 7th, our usual meeting time, on the linked 145.45- and 147.225+ repeaters (both have a PL tone of 82.5). You can also check-in over the Internet via Echolink/SVXLink to the WR4AGC-R node. The format of the net will be check-ins (in place of our usual introductions), officer reports, and a rag chew round table discussion.

Jack, KM4MBG, 4/3/20

OCRA-DFMA Saturday Morning Breakfast, rather Video Conference

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from Jack, KM4MBG & Chris, KK4VBE

Reminder tomorrow, April 4th, after the 9:30am Orange County Auxcomm net on the 442.150 repeater

There will be a Saturday morning video conference to help fill the void left by the cancelation of our celebrated ham breakfasts due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That net usually doesn’t last long, so we’ll try to start at 9:45am local time.

Directions for Joining:

Make sure you have a computer with good microphone and speakers (a headset often works well). There is no software to install. Use your web browser to go to URL address posted in the video conference announcement note on the OCRA-DFMA Joint Email list at the appointed time.

Thanks to Chris, KK4VBE, for hosting the server. Hope to see y’all online.

And more from Chris,

If you do not have a computer with a camera and or mic but have a smartphone you can still join in on the video call. You will need to install the Jitsi app form the app/play store.

IOS App Link https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jitsi-meet/id1165103905
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.jitsi.meet

Then at the appointed time click the link in the recently posted note on the OCRA-DFMA Joint Email list and your web browser will open and give you the option to launch the app.

73, Chris KK4VBE

Earlier note from Jack, KM4MBG,

  • WHO: As some of you know, there are various HAM groups in the area that meet on Saturday mornings for breakfast.
  • WHAT: At least one of these groups organized a virtual meeting March 28th among themselves. We had also talked about doing a virtual meeting on the DMFA net.
  • WHEN: Originally, I had called for the club’s virtual breakfast meeting to be at the same time as one of these other gatherings, but decided to defer to next Saturday, April 4th.
  • WHY: Those of use who are not introverted [1] need some socialization time. In addition, those of us who are not working from home or are unhappy with the remote collaboration tools that our workplace is using, wanted an excuse to play with technology.
  • WHERE: This wasn’t asked, but it fits the theme. For the first meeting, we’ll be using the Jitsi Meet browser application. I’ll send out more details and a reminder next week.

Many thanks Jack & Chris!

Great Time to Update the Hamshack

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From Keith, W1KES

Last month, we repainted our bonus room, A.K.A. dad’s shack after 17 years. Additionally, we added new furniture and shelves. I have spent the last several weeks organizing and optimizing the space. My shack also serves as my home office, which has received more use this past week than the previous year. With kids out of school until mid-May, I plan to spend many hours working and “hamming” in my recently renovated space.

Before

After

 

From the Land of Magic – Solar Panel Load Controller

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From the Land of Magic! a high tech solar panel load controller, built for son Pete. You can see that the latest components and construction methods are employed.

There’s a differential amp that drives an Ebay PWM speed controller ($11) to load the panels to their max power voltage, regardless of the insolaton* level. A sample of the panel voltage is compared to a Zener reference to generate the control signal to the PWM unit.The load is a 4500W water heater element in a tank in front of his regular water heater. There are three 235W panels with 29.4 V max power voltage.

I had a great talk with a dealer recently. It seems that PV power is now cheaper than heating water directly with wet panels. Cheaper panels and good inverters seem to have made a big difference.

Wilson, W4BOH

insolation* – No that’s not a mispillin’  Insolation‘ is the solar radiation (power/Unit Area) that reaches the earth’s surface, which average high sun is close to 1KW/square meter.

Controller Schematic