For a year or more now, several ARROW members have been experimenting with mesh networking, specifically Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN). In this talk, which was presented ARROW’s monthly meeting on Wednesday, September 14, 2022, Jay, WB8TKL explains some of the basics and how we’re trying to set up a network here in Ann Arbor.
If you weren’t at Field Day this year, you missed a good time. The weather cooperated, the ionosphere cooperated, and everyone who was there had a good time. Below, are some photos from the event. For more photos, go to the ARROW Field Day 2022 Photo Gallery.
The weather was pretty nice for Field Day. Temperatures were moderate, and there was plenty of blue sky.
We set up four stations: 2 CW stations, a phone station, and the GOTA station. Here, Arun, W8ARU, is pulling the night shift at one of the CW stations.
Pictured here is Joe, AC8ES, at the phone station.
Matthew, KE8UEE (in the blue shirt, lower right), was our GOTA station star this year, racking up 100 contacts.
Max, the son of Charles, W8HAX, also worked the GOTA station and scored some points for us.
This guy also paid a visit to the GOTA station. We couldn’t get him to make any contacts, though.
Jay, WB8TKL, did another fine job with the public information tent this year. He also brought out the portable tower that you can see in the rear of this photo.
We also got a visit from our new Section Manager, Les, W8MSP. Here, he poses with Ralph, AA8RK, and Governor Whitmer’s proclamation declaring last week to be Amateur Radio Week in Michigan.
Mark, W8MP, took a motley crew up in his plane, and Dinesh, AB3DC, took this shot of our FD setup.
From L to R, the flight crew consisted of Dinesh AB3DC, Dan KB6NU (rear seat), Matthew KE8UEE, and Mark W8MP. In addition to getting an aerial photo, Matthew made his first aeronautical mobile contact!
The ARROW Mobile and Portable (AMP) Team met for the second time in 2022 on Monday, June 20 in Hunt Park. 15 ARROW members showed up and really had a great time. Perhaps the highlight of the evening was the ARROW Monday Night Net. With most of the net’s check-ins at the park, it was almost like we were holding the net in stereo.
The next AMPTeam meeting will be on Monday, August 15, at a location to be determined. If you would like to suggest a park for this meeting, contact Jay, WB8TKL.
Here are some photos from the outing:
Matthew, KE8UEE, our newest and youngest member heating up the air waves.
Jay, WB8TKL’s “go kit” includes both HF and VHF/UHF capabilities.
Ryan, K8RHH, having a blast with his mag loop antenna.
Dinesh, AB3DC (is that Delta Charlie or Dog Cat?), operates an FT-891A with a Buddistick antenna. He may be the only who worked any DX on Monday.
Mo, KE8BZH, working hard to make contacts.
Dan, KB6NU, crouched over his KX-3. He wasn’t having much luck early on, but managed to eke out 3 CW QSOs later in the evening.
Our Arrow general membership meeting will be this Wednesday, March 9. We will continue with our virtual meeting format on Zoom.
Zoom details for the Arrow meeting:
Wednesday March 9, 2022, 6:30 pm US/Eastern standard time
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 922 8443 6755
Passcode (all lowercase): arrow
To start the meeting we will talk about some of the current and future club activities.
Then Loren Anderson KE0HZ from Colorado Springs, CO will be joining our zoom meeting to give a presentation about the FCC Report and Order Governing RF Exposure.
Our Arrow general membership meeting will be this Wednesday, February 9. We will continue with our virtual meeting format on Zoom. We will keep our usual timing; informal gathering starting at 6:30 pm, and our program will start at 7:00 pm.
Zoom details for the Arrow meeting:
Wednesday February 9, 2022, 6:30 pm US/Eastern standard time
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 922 8443 6755
Passcode (all lowercase): arrow
This month, our featured presenter will be our own Jay Nugent, WB8TKL.
Jay’s title and description:
“Providing the Power needed to run Emergency Communications”
-or-
“When All Else Fails…Or at least until your battery dies”
This presentation will cover station power needs for long-term communication deployments (or Grid down), determining your Power Budget, various battery chemistries, discharge curves, charging profiles, generator backup, and we go in depth into Solar Power, PWM-v-MPPT, PV technology, the myth of “Excess Energy”, how to ‘Rack Up’ some PV, and how to do 12VDC on a more massive scale.
This presentation is being produced for the upcoming DHS/FEMA/MSP Interoperability Conference scheduled for early March, in Traverse City. You fine folks will be my first victims..err…audience to see this presentation. Your feedback will be used to polish up any rough spots.