ARDF Transmitter Hunt, 4/20/13 at Schabarum Regional Park
by Marvin Johnston
The next southern California on-foot hidden transmitter hunting event
will be Saturday, April 20, 2013 at Schabarum Regional Park. If you are
a beginner, there will be entry-level two-meter fox transmitters just
for you, set by Joe Moell K0OV. For more experienced radio-orienteers,
there will be a 5-fox two-meter international-rules course of moderate
difficulty, set by Marvin Johnston KE6HTS. An optional 80-meter fox
transmitter or two may also be on the air.
A ham radio license and knowledge of radio equipment are not required.
Experts will be on hand to teach you the basic techniques of on-foot
radio direction-finding (RDF). Also expect to see some folks training
to compete in the 2013 USA ARDF Championships that will be in North
Carolina this October.
If you don't have the antenna/attenuator system for on-foot foxhunting
on two meters with your ham radio handi-talkie or scanner, you can
easily make one during this session. If there is sufficient interest,
Marvin Johnston KE6HTS will conduct a clinic for building his kits for
measuring-tape yagis and for 90 dB offset-type attenuators. An
assembled/tested attenuator in a special housing that goes inside the
boom of the yagi is also available. If you wish to build kits at this
workshop, you must register in advance by sending e-mail to
marvin(a)west.net, so he will have the kits reserved in your name waiting
for you.
It takes about an hour to put the kits together with tools and soldering
irons that will be provided. If you're not an electronic technician,
don't worry because there will be plenty of experts to help you. We
want you to succeed! Then with your HT and the kitbuilt equipment, you
will be all set to hunt.
All transmitter hunting begins at 10 AM. The starting point for the
advanced course will be a different part of the park, so if you plan to
take on that course, please arrive at the gathering area before 10 AM so
we can transport that group to the starting point and do starts at
five-minute intervals. Beginners will start from the gathering area and
will not need to be transported. If there is an antenna/attenuator
clinic, it will start at 11 AM and there will still be time to hunt the
beginner transmitters after that. Courses will close at 3 PM.
For the advanced 2-meter course, orienteering flags and electronic
scoring will be used at each transmitter. If you have an "e-stick," be
sure to bring it. Please donate $5 for the advanced course to cover
expenses related to the use of Los Angeles Orienteering Club's e-punch
equipment and maps. No donation is requested for the beginner course
and the 80-meter transmitter hunt.
If you have them, bring a handi-talkie, receiver, or scanner covering
the two-meter band for each person who will be going ARDFing. If you
have directional antennas, attenuators, or other on-foot RDF equipment,
be sure to bring that too. Make sure that all batteries are fresh. For
those with no radio gear, some extra ARDF receiver/antenna sets will be
available. Be sure to bring anything you'll need while going after
those radio foxes, such as munchies, bottled water and sunscreen. For
map plotting, bring your own compass, protractor and pencil.
Trails are primitive in some areas of the park, so wear sturdy shoes.
All ages are welcome, but young children must be accompanied by an adult
at all times.
Schabarum Regional Park is on the south side of Colima Road, just east
of Azusa Avenue in Hacienda Heights. (Thomas Guide 678-G4) A map to
the site is in www.homingin.com. There is a vehicular entry fee for the
park, so carpooling would be a good idea. Upon passing through the
entry gate, drive south (straight ahead, don't turn right) and continue
to the end of the road (about 0.7 mile). Park in the last parking lot
near the restrooms. Look for the orange and white orienteering flags
and signs. Call K0OV on 146.52 simplex if you have trouble finding the
gathering area within the park.
73,
Joe Moell K0OV
9 years, 12 months
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Heard sparks lately?
by Darryl Widman
>From EDN Magazine
Sparks
John Dunn - March 11, 2013
An antenna for the 40-meter ham radio band is a pretty large thing. A half-wave dipole antenna is around 66 feet long from end to end. Mine was center fed with RG-11/U coaxial cable terminated with a PL-259 type of UHF connector at the transmitter end of the coaxial cable feed line.
One day, I had disconnected that cable from my transmitter for some reason or other and just left the open PL-259 sitting there. Thunderstorms started rolling through.
Suddenly I noticed a sound. It was "snap..........snap...........snap........................snap....snap.." and so on at a varying rate. I couldn't imagine what it was until I saw the open PL-259. There were quite energetic sparks jumping across the gap between the connector's center pin and its outer shell. It wasn't even raining at that moment, but there was enough charge buildup via that dipole antenna for electrostatic discharge (ESD) activity to be going on and to make me very nervous.
I just left the cable totally alone and let it spark to its heart's content until the thunderstorms had gone.
Lessons learned:
ESD events don't require direct hits from lightning
Never design anything that's going to be connected to an antenna without providing an intentional discharge path as protection from electrostatic charge build-ups.
4 Comment(s)
Flagstaff Rich
This is one of those things that every generation rediscovers. Lightning protectors were used back in the early days of radio, too, and they evolved into quite a clever design. The ones I refer to were cast from clear glass and had a pair of neon bulbs within - one from each side of the ladder line to ground. The casting was in the shape of a battleship and when the bulbs lit she appeared to be firing a broadside! I hook mine up for grins when conditions are right for some naval action.
3.12.2013 4:05 PM EDT
Reply
EIMEWORRY
I first saw the antenna build-up effect while fishing as a kid off a lake Michigan pier. The static in the air accumulated on my fishing pole and discharged with static hisses.
3.12.2013 3:25 PM EDT
Reply
G Man
Neat story! Nothing like a lesson learned eh! Kinda bummed it didn't involve the connector being in the "lap" vicinity and causing mayhem that can only be laughed at later. After all, what is life without some good hair raising stories? But I am not one to laugh at others pain, glad it all turned out well. :-)
Living in the radar world was a never ending source of "surprises". Interesting that those old radios tolerated so much.
3.12.2013 1:33 PM EDT
Reply
AC0QG
When I was a boy, I liked to do shortwave listening and installed a dipole antenna on the roof. I had read that to protect my receiver, I should add a Neon lamp from the antenna to ground and a knife switch to ground the antenna. After doing so, I noticed that if the knife switch was not closed, the lamp would be continuously lit. The antenna was picking up enough induced voltage from the nearby overhead power lines to energize the 50V lamp.
3.12.2013 1:14 PM EDT
10 years
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Public Safety communications and cellular
by Bill Talanian
<http://www.noozhawk.com/>
Noozhawk.com Santa Barbara & Goleta Local News
Andrew Seybold: New Reason to Approve More Cell Sites
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/030113_andrew_seybold_new_reason_m…
By Andrew Seybold
[]
[Writers disclaimer: I am a consultant, educator
and writer in the area of wireless
communications. I consult to commercial
<http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/print/030113_andrew_seybold_new_reason_mor…>wireless
networks, device vendors, the public safety
community and others. But I have never been hired
by any company, organization or person to support
new cell sites. I am a believer in wireless and
understand, because of my work, that without cell
sites wireless will not be the pervasive technology that many want it to be.]
Soon the commercial cell sites will have some new
tenants: public safety, fire, EMS, sheriffs and
police. In February 2012,
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama>President
Barack Obama signed the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Class_Tax_Relief_and_Job_Creation_Act_o…>Middle
Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012
that contained provisions for the establishment
of a new public safety network for data and video
services and $7 billion to build out this network
nationwide (not enough funding but a good start).
This new network is needed because commercial
networks are not capable of meeting public
safetys needs. The public safety community and
commercial broadband operators will work together
to build out this Nationwide Public Safety
<http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/print/030113_andrew_seybold_new_reason_mor…>Broadband
Network (NPSBN).
This new network will provide interoperability,
enabling first responders and various agencies
across the United States and locally to be able
to communicate via text, data and video. This
will help our first responders serve all of us
better and more safely. Even in Santa Barbara
County, while the
<http://www.sbsheriff.org/>Sheriffs Department
and police can communicate with each other, they
cannot communicate directly with fire services,
<http://www.police.ucsb.edu/>UCSB police, or other city and county agencies.
The NPSBN is a cellular-type network that will
require many more cell sites than we currently
have allocated for public safety. In Santa
Barbara County, we have six mountaintop sites for
the Sheriffs Department and
<http://www.sbcfire.com/>County Fire to provide
<http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/print/030113_andrew_seybold_new_reason_mor…>voice
communications, but we will need 60 to 70 sites
to provide data and video for our public safety community.
That means that public safety will need to share
sites with the commercial operators to build its
network. On the commercial side, the additional
cell sites will benefit the 32 percent of
<http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/print/030113_andrew_seybold_new_reason_mor…>wireless
customers who no longer maintain a wired phone in
their homes and provide more capacity for the
rest of us. The county and the city will need to
take this into consideration when evaluating new cell sites moving forward.
Most network operators plan to add many more
sites each year than the citys and countys
capacity to approve them because of the way in
which each site must be handled one at a time.
If the county and city had a long-term policy to
approve cell site expansion, this process could
be fast-tracked to the advantage of the citizens
of the area, the city or county, and the wireless
operator, resulting in less cost for each of these entities.
The commercial operator must prove that the site
it has selected is the best to add coverage or
capacity where it is needed. Counties and cities,
by law, are not permitted to use health concerns
to deny these
<http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/print/030113_andrew_seybold_new_reason_mor…>applications,
but they are permitted to consider aesthetics and
other issues to make sure that the cell sites
that are approved meet the requirements of the
county or city. Because of the increased demand
for wireless
<http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/print/030113_andrew_seybold_new_reason_mor…>broadband
services, which is growing at a rate of more than
100 percent a year, over the next five years
cities and counties will have to deal with at
least a 50 percent increase in cell site permit
requests. Now is the time to standardize the
procedure for site approval to facilitate network expansion.
Now when the county, city and residents of this
area oppose a new cell site, they might also be
opposing this new public safety communications
network that could end up saving their lives in
the future. I know that most people want cell
sites but not near their own homes or
<http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/print/030113_andrew_seybold_new_reason_mor…>schools
because of
<http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/print/030113_andrew_seybold_new_reason_mor…>aesthetics
and health concerns. However, if a cell site is
located on a tower, a pole or a faux tree and is
higher, rather than lower, any possible radio frequency exposure is reduced.
So the smart thing to do is to approve cell sites
that are higher rather than lower, and to
remember that these sites will, in the near
future, also be used for public safety
communications services that might be critical to you someday.
Andrew Seybold is a Santa Barbara resident and
head of <http://www.andrewseybold.com>Andrew
Seybold Inc., which provides consulting,
educational and publishing services.
<http://www.andrewseybold.com>Click here for more
information. The opinions expressed are his own.
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/030113_andrew_seybold_new_reason_m…
10 years
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