Monthly Section News Summaries
Monthly Summary for October 2009
Montana is enjoying a long Indian Summer, be sure to get out and enjoy
it before Winter returns and we're stuck in the house for a few months.
Holiday season is almost upon us, hope you can take time to enjoy the
company of friends and family at this time of year.
Patti, KE7VDN and I visited the "Bean Feed" put on by Todd, AE7V and his
XYL at their home in Worden, MT, last weekend. Amateurs attended the
gathering from all over the Eastern part of our state. It was a great
time and enjoyable to meet new hams and those we havent seen in a while.
Thanks to Todd and Natalie.
I'd like to again ask all amateurs in MT to read and understand the
paper by ARRL on "Appropriate Use" posted on the League website. It
has been made clear by FCC what is acceptable and what isnt. Keep
in mind that working outside the guidelines of Part 97 may expose
you to an enforcement action and possible forfiture of funds, should
the offense be judged as serious enough. I believe there will be further
actions by FCC in the future that may clear up some ofhe confusion, but
until there are changes we should follow Part 97 as written.
Grounding in many Amateur stations is poor or even nonexistant. We
must remember that one ground rod with a single #12 stranded wire
attatched isnt sufficent to protect our equipment from a surge or
static discharge near your station. Use of a "ground source" made up
of 3 or 4 8 foot rods driven close to each other and wired or strapped
together with large copper (not aluminum!) conductors is necessary to
provide needed protection. Clamps can be used, but "exothermic"
also known as "Cad Weld" techniques are lower resistance and require no
maintenance. Wire from your equipment location with heavy guage copper
wire or strap (an inch wide is sufficient in most cases). Stranded wire
exibhits reactance to high peak current flows and shouldnt be used.
Even a network of copper wire buried in the ground near the station
location would be of tremendous help in dissapating a large surge.
The trick here is to keep the surge away from the station area and
pass it to ground quickly. Ground towers at their bases, coax braids
and even look at discharge devices on your rotator cables. Check out
Polyphaser's website and information pages for further background, there's a
wealth of good advice there.
ARRL CW Sweepstakes were held last weekend. I hope many of you got a
chance to join in on the fun. Phone Sweepstakes come up shortly,
so get ready for some more action. It's an easy contest, just work as
many as you can. Check out page 95 in the November QST for more info.
MTN, W7MPK-QNI 2219, QTC-44
IMN, VE7AWG-QNI 493, QTC-88
MSN, K7YD-QNI 141, QTC-7
Thanks to all
73
Doug, K7YD
Page last modified: 02:58 PM, 16 Jun 2008 ET
Page author: k7yd@arrl.org
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