Serving Radio Amateurs in Michigan's Washtenaw & Wayne Counties

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ARROW Exhibits at Ann Arbor Maker Fair

On Saturday, May 6, 2023, I was joined by Joe AC8ES, Ed KC1DYK, James AE8JF, and Ralph AA8RK at the Ann Arbor Creativity and Making Expo (AACME). Formerly called the Ann Arbor Mini-Maker Faire, this is the first post-pandemic instance of this event.

From L to R: interested attendee, Ed KC1DYK, Joe AC8ES, Dan KB6NU, James AE8JF, another interested attendee. Photo: Ralph AA8RK.

While the number of exhibitors and attendees was down from 2019, I think everyone had a great time. In addition to ARROW, exhibitors included:

  • Skyline High Robotics Team
  • Maker Works
  • All Hands Active Makerspace
  • Retro Computing SIG

and several others. There was even a woman there doing some creative upholstering.

We had a couple of interesting things to show people:

  • Joe, AC8ES, brought his parabolic, double biquad WiFi antenna project.
  • Ed, KC1DYK, brought a nanoVNA and the coil and variable capacitor that he built from a soda can.
  • I brought my assortment of keys and code practice oscillators to demonstrate Morse Code and got many of the attendees to send me their names in code.

Joe, AC8ES, demonstrating his parabolic, double biquad WiFi antenna. Photo: Lisa Giannati Photography.

I also brought my KX-3, and we set up the 40m/20m inverted-vee antenna out in the courtyard.

Ed, KC1DYK, tossing a line up into a tree so that we could raise the inverted-vee antenna. Photo: Joe AC8ES

Unfortunately, band conditions weren’t all that great, so we didn’t make a lot of contacts. Also, being so close to the building probably didn’t help.

One of the highlights of the afternoon was meeting one particularly smart high school student. She came up to our table, just as we began packing up. As it turned out, she had either just completed, or was working on an antenna similar to Joe’s. We gave her the spiel on ham radio, and I think we convinced her to get her Tech license. I’m also going to try to get her to come to Field Day.

Thanks to all who attended and all who helped out with the event.

 

April General Meeting: Direction Finding Presentation

The ARROW club had a great general meeting on April 12 at Marsh View Meadows Park with nice weather and great discussions. We had a presentation on direction finding given by Jay WB8TKL.

 

 

2m/70cm Yagi Build Session

We had our first build session on Feb 18th 2023 for our Yagi antennas for our upcoming fox hunt. There will be another build session soon and our April General meeting will have a presentation on fox hunting.

2023 Winter Field Day

ARROW had a successful winter field day / POTA event on January 28-29 at the Brighton State Recreation Area (K-3384) making 230 Qs. Thanks to everyone that supplied equipment, help setup/teardown, and operate the stations.

Operator Total QSOs
Dinesh, AB3DC 82
James, AE8JF 67
Matthew, KE8UUE 53
Ryan, W8RSM 14
Ulrich, AC8PL 14

 

ARROW Jan 11th General Meeting: Special Guest Dr. Tamitha Skov “Space Weather Woman”

Our next general meeting is on January 11th at 7pm (pre meeting check in starting at 6:30pm)
For more information please contact AE8JF or info@w8rp.org

Meeting Presentation: The Rise and Relevance of Space Weather Impacts on Amateur Radio in Solar Cycle 25
Similar to terrestrial weather, “Space Weather” causes a wide variety of issues that affect our daily lives. From the disruption of amateur radio communications and satellite GPS signals to the beautiful light displays of the aurora, this talk gives an overview of Space Weather and the multi-faceted impact it has on society. We begin with the origin of space weather phenomena at the Sun and the different ways these solar phenomena affect Earth, especially radio propagation. The extreme Space Weather events during the hurricanes of September 2017 will be used as a real-world demonstration and illustrates a new kind of a “perfect storm” in our modern world. Such examples show why Space Weather is becoming a critical component of modern weather and highlight how public perception and consumption of Space Weather science is changing.

Presenter: Dr. Tamitha Skov “Space Weather Woman”Tamitha Skov
holds B.S. degrees in physics and physical chemistry, as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geophysics and planetary physics from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2004 she joined The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles where she worked as a Research Scientist in the Physical Sciences Laboratory for nearly 20 years. In 2019 she also joined Millersville University as an adjunct professor, teaching a graduate curriculum in space environment, communication and policy. Tamitha works primarily in the fields of solar and space physics research and in the testing of spacecraft materials in realistic space radiation environments. She has been an instructor at The Aerospace Institute and has served as an audio forensics analyst and instructor for the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC), funded by the Department of Justice. Her forecasting work as the “Space Weather Woman” is widely known on social media such as You Tube, Twitter, and Facebook. Tamitha has been featured in Popular Science Magazine, MIT Technology Review, and on television shows for The Weather Channel, The History Channel, NASA TV, and ARTE TV. She makes regular appearances online for TMRO Space News and for HRCC’s Ham Nation (formerly on TWiT TV), doing space weather forecasts under her amateur radio callsign WX6SWW.

www.spaceweatherwoman.com

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