Severe Weather
When there is a threat for severe weather, tune into either the Macon 146.805 or the Chilicothe 147.225 repeaters, NOAA All Hazards Radio, or local broadcast media.
Field Day
ARRL Field Day is June 25-26 this year!!! Where will you be that weekend?
[UPDATE]: Field Day will be this weekend (June 25th and 26th) at the Poteet Ranch on Jupiter Road, just like last year. We will have our carry in picnic on Saturday June 25th at 7:00 P.M. The club will provide the burgers and buns. We hope you can attend and we could use your help setting up antennas Saturday morning and helping operate beginning at 1:00 P.M. Saturday until 1:00 P.M. Sunday during Field Day this year.
We will be having a Field Day organizational meeting at the Poteet Ranch Friday June 24th at 5:00 P.M. We’ll be going over Field Day rules, actually setting up the computer WriteLog logging program and linking the computers. Those there can get some practice using WriteLog.
The Macon County Amateur Radio Club is starting its plans for Field Day 2011. The ARRL Field Day page can be found by clicking here. The Macon Club has planned to hold this years event up near Axtell again. If you would like to find a Field Day event in another city you can do so by using the ARRL Field Day Locator.
The Macon ARC will be operating 3A (3 transmitters, class A club portable) with our club callsign NØPR, We will have a GOTA station signing ABØC. There will be plenty of food and fun to be found.
Below find the directions to our Field Day site.
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John Tate, NØKTP SK
Macon, Mo — John Owen Tate, 60, of Macon, MO, passed away on Sunday, April 24, 2011, at the University Medical Center in Columbia, MO.
John was born on March 18, 1951, the son of Arthur William and Harriett Edith (Barney) Tate in Quincy, IL. At age 12, when his mother died of cancer, John moved to Macon to live with his Aunt and Uncle, Eva Jane and Ben Barney. He attended Macon Schools graduating in 1969. John then attended Missouri Valley College in Marshall, MO, graduating in 1973. John did graduate studies at the University of Kansas and at the Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO. He began a career of an educator, teaching in 1974 at New Cambria, MO, then from 1976 to 1997 at Macon R-1 Schools in science education. John then worked for Maloney’s Heating and Air and Electric as a receptionist until the time of his death. He also worked for the City of Macon and the County of Macon as an Emergency Management Director for many years. John received a certificate of Distinguished Service from the State Emergency Management Agency for his services and his design of disaster operations for the City and for the County. His plans have been incorporated in existing plans even to this date. John had a passion for weather, geology, family history, and amateur radio. He was a member of the Macon County Amateur Radio Club, and the Macon County Repeater Council. John’s main passion was the study of birds. He was an avid birdwatcher and bird educator; publishing a monthly newsletter on birds and sent to those who had taken his birding classes, and to those who expressed an interest.
John is survived by his family of friends, students, and colleagues.
John was preceded in death by his mother and father, one brother, Arthur William Tate, Jr. and his aunt and uncle, Eva Jane and Ben Barney.
Funeral services will be on Saturday, April 30, 2011, at 4:00 pm at the Greening-Eagan-Hayes Funeral Home in Macon. Private burial will be at a later date. The visitation will be this Saturday, April 30, 2011, from 2-4 pm at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be left to the John Tate Memorial 6th Grade Science Award.
Next MCARC and MARC Meeting
The next Macon County ARC (MCARC) and Macon Area Repeater (MARC) meeting will be held at the Macon City Community Development Building next to Ben Franklins on April 28th at 7:00 P.M. Please attend if possible. If you have never been to a meeting here and have trouble finding it, check out this map or give us a call on the Macon 146.805 MHz repeater. Or you can call me at (660)676-3219 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (660)676-3219 end_of_the_skype_highlighting for directions.
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Spotter Training 2011 Recap
Larry Ballew, ABØHP, and Dale Bagley, KØKY, attended the weather spotting course put on by the National Weather Service in Kirksville on April 6th. Larry and I both left town the next day and I haven’t gotten any reports on what happened at the NWS Spotter Training in Macon on April 7th. Andy Bailey, the course instructor, said that they were no longer issuing I.D. number numbers for spotters. We will discuss some of the specifics at the upcoming MCARC and MARC Club meeting. Veron Cash, N3TRE was in charge of the Spotter Training in Shelbyville, MO on May 30th.
[Webmaster Update]:
There was a good turnout of MCARC members and people from the non-ham population in Macon at the NWS Training on April 7th. The club representatives at the the training included (but not limited to) Jesse Jones, KDØETU, Ralph Howard, WD6BGN, Sharon Clark, NØRQX, Steve, KCØHIW, and Sharon, KCØKJB, Foltz, Steve Mallet, KCØAMJ, and Matthew Chambers, ACØUR.
The Great Central U.S. Shake-Out
There will be an Earthquake drill called the Great Central U.S. Shake-Out at 10:15 A.M. on April 28th. This seems to be a practice for individuals to practice their precautions in case of an earthquake.
There will be a National Level Earthquake Exercise: May 16-20, 2011, to test the eight overarching Exercise Objectives defined during the planning process for NLE 11 at all levels of government (Federal, State, and Local). Several of the State ARES groups will be involved in this exercise and we have been asked to help with the Hannibal Emergency Management’s as part of the activity.
Items of Interest
Jackie Hearrold, NØOID, reports that he has renewed his Amateur Radio License using the W5YI program.
Jerry Chezum, KØJMO, is doing well following double knee replacement on April 12th. We were all amazed and glad to see Jerry at breakfast at the Apple Basket on April 16th.
Dale Bagley, KØKY, now has a 40m and 80m dipole up at his home QTH. Thanks to Charlie Roberts, WBØHLW, who helped with the testing and construction of the antenna. Works great!
Matthew Chambers, ACØUR, has been racking up the countries recently. He worked 72 new DX countries during the recent CQ WW WPX Contest. That antenna must be really great, and I’m guessing it’s good to have young ears.
The Club Station, NØPR, has received a bunch of new DX cards and they will be brought to the next meeting to share.
The KAB302 Series 5 Hydragon Thyratron HF Amplifier
The following article was published in the Nixa ARC Open Mic Newsletter in the April edition by former Macon Co ARC member Thad Huff, KCØAQG. Nice article Thad.
Several years ago, after the debut of the Umac 606 power phantasatron, I became interested in “not so legal limit” amps for the shack. I spent quite some time prototyping ultra high power tube amplifiers that could be used in the home ham shack. My goal was to have the ability to produce at least 100 times legal limit. At this point you may already be asking why you would want to operate an amp that could produce much more power than legal limit. The answer is simple really, real hams like real power, and bragging rights. Nothing says I’m on top of the game by announcing that you are operating an amplifier based on the KAB302 Series 5 Hydrogen Thyratron or “K5″ forshort.
KAB302 Series 5 Hydragon Thyratron HF Amplifier upon completion
Fortunately, most home snow have 200 amp electric service, this allows for just enough energy to power one of these unusual amps in your shack, providing that allother circuits in the house are turned off. Even the most conservatively designed, efficient K5 based amplifiers will tax your main utility feed so extreme caution must be taken. The power supply will have to be completely customized for split phase 220, unless you have a real hams dream, 3-phase power toyour home. After studying the electric supply of the Hydrocombobulator. I decided thebest approach would be tohave a custom supply unit manufactured with multiple babinski type windings formed of pre-famulated tetranucleotides all surmounted by malleable algorithmic shielding. The quadroseptic rectifiers would then be doped in yttrium Y90 ibritumomab tiuxetan to providea level of efficiency never before achieved. Keep in mind throughout the process that we only have around 40,000 AC Watts to play with here, in the average home so efficiency is of absolute importance.
