NEWS
This section will serve two purposes:
Inform about important new entries on this web page (articles, documents etc.)
Inform about news related to our hobby
Example:
Nice example of the news format can be found
here.
SLAMS have met for the first time in 2012. Six of us plus very welcome guest - Bob N0IS arrived at DENNY's on Dorsett Rd. today (Jan. 8, 2012). Plenty of things to discuss, even used the Wi-Fi connection to the Internet provided by the restaurant.
!! We have moved our meeting start time to 8:00am (used to be 8:30) !!
We have been meeting at "Panera Bread" for one year. Our "old" meeting place, "DENNYs" on Dorsett, now has Wi-Fi Internet access, so one of the reasons why we moved away is no longer valid. Some of us prefer the "Bread Company", some prefer "DENNYs". We have more space at "Panera" but better selection of food at "DENNYs". Time to decide where to continue with our meetings.
Members of our group will receive an email with invitation to vote for one place or the other. Simple majority of votes received until January 1, 2012 will decide our meeting place for the next year..
Final results as of 2012-01-01 11:00 am:
We have received an email from one of the SLAMS members who claims that the Yahoo voting system doesn't allow him to vote using his email. WIth his vote, the score is 7:3 in favor of DENNYs.
Mike N0OBI and Herbert AF4JF made a suggestion to move SLAMS meetings somewhere else and suggested " Bread Company" on Westport Plaza.
Suggested "St. Louis Bread Company / Panera Bread" location is
here:
73 Herbert,
AF4JF
Five SLAMS members participated on the Fall SPRINT Microwave contest on October 16, 2010. Short report available through our
Outdoor Activities page.
Results of SLAMS vote about restricting this web site and THE_SLAMS email conference to frequencies above 900MHz are available
here.
14 members out of 22 voted as follows:
Based on the results, we will NOT restrict THE_SLAMS email conference or SLAMS web site to topics above 900MHz. However, we will add following definition to the web site and to the "welcome" message for new members of THE_SLAMS email group.
>>>
“The SLAMS web site and “THE_SLAMS” email discussion group were created to support the main SLAMS goal - promote, encourage and support ham radio art on microwaves. We focus on microwaves, but also generally accept VHF related topics, especially weak-signal activity and contesting. The general goal is to encourage people to expand upper band capabilities over time: add one new band per year, add more power to an existing band, higher antennas, more gain on the antennas, develop rovers, etc."<<<
SLAMS meeting on Sunday October 3rd. was attended by 11+1. It wasn't easy to talk to people sitting at one end of the joined tables while you were seated at the opposite end.
Minutes of Meeting will no longer be published on this web site. SLAMS members will receive them through THE_SLAMS email reflector.
Several SLAMS members tried to attend second part of the "ARRL 10GHz and Up" contest on Sunday 09/19/2010. Rainy weather prevented us from more activity. What we did is described
here.
The week of April 26 (2010) was full of SLAMS activities:
- John WB9PNU contacted Net Control station on 144.240MHz (WB9LYH) in Wisconsin on Wednesday again (400 miles). Herbert AF4JF copied Mark WB9LYH too but didn't have enough RF power for a QSO.
- John, Herbert and Dave KB0PE participated on a 432MHz SPRINT contest, same as Kevin W9GKA, Harry WA0CNS and Zack W9SZ. Dave KB0PE even went to our favorite hilltop in EM49ua for this event!
- Dave KB0PE went to Taum Sauk mountain EM47pn to give us new grid on 432, 1296 and 10368MHz. John and Herbert worked him on 432 and 1296MHz during their trip to EM49ua, EM58as and EM48xs on Friday 04/30. Neither weather conditions nor microwave propagation were in favor of our activities, so we didn't manage to make 10GHz contact with Dave on the Missoouri's tallest mountain top today.
- There were two more events taking place on Saturday 05/01:
MAD Day
SPRINT Microwave contest
(look
here for details)
John, Herbert and Jim N5MU met once again at Denny's for breakfast on Saturday 05/01 and then proceeded with microwave activities. Since no SKEDs were scheduled, we didn't go outside of St. Louis and tested several close locations instead. See
John operating from his car configured for "rover" operation (YMCA parking lot in EM48sq).
- Dave KB0PE went back south to EM47rw on Sunday 05/02 to give us some more QSOs from that grid.
Meteor shower calendar for 2010
here.
FIrst SLAMS beacon is On the Air! Operates on 10368.9MHz FSK. More info
here.
Several SLAMS members attended the SPRINT microwave contest this weekend (10/17/09). Several pictures were added to the section of Member Activities.
Station OK2KKW published some information about their equipment. This is a station with long history of good results on all bands above 50 MHz, although their equipment is more in the average area than comparable to "big guns" in Europe, especially when if comes to radiated power levels. Nice article with pictures and lots of links is available here.
Nice article about laser communication on 461 THz (red light) here. Another nice article about using LNBs from surplus satellite TV LNBs here. (Both links from OK2KKW web site).
The SLAMS participated on the "ARRL 10 GHz and Up" microwave contest that took place on September 19-20, 2009. Check the "Member Activities" section for pictures!
==>>> Please be aware that SLAMS no longer maintains individual email list! You will no longer receive even a group email invitation for our next breakfast meeting!
Should You want to be on the list of SLAMS email recipients, then please join the group through purple invitation button on the ROSTER page of this web site. <<<==
Do you know what MOONRAY stands for? It was short for "MOON RELAY" - the NASA approved idea for installing open ham radio repeater on the Moon! Amazing details
here (info from
OK2KKW web site).
Info about "Biggest Space Party" called
Echoes of Apollo and more from
VK3UM as found on
OK2KKW web.
John WB9PNU with Mel K0PFX, Jim N0OBG and Herbert AF4JF participated on ARRL VHF Contest 2009 as a Rover station 06/14/2009. Some pictures located
here.
New world record on 10 GHz Rain Scatter was achieved in Europe, see details
here.
S.F.B. Morse was born 218 years ago - on April 27, 1791. More info about the creator of a single-wire telegraph system and Morse code
here.
Be aware that some people do not like big dish antennas as we do .. more
here.
Would you like to know if this sunspot cycle will behave like the stock market? Do you care when either hits the bottom? Learn more from
NASA.
HAM signals were
bounced off Venus and
detected back here on Earth. That makes entire new area of HAM activities called EVE (Earth-Venus-Earth) possible!
John, WB9PNU completed 10GHz QSO with
Zack, W9SZ on Saturday 03/07/09 at 15:45 UTC using 2-way CW. John was at home in EM48tn while Zack was in EN50rl, more than 164 miles away.
Later the same day, at 23:08 UTC, John also worked Dave, KB0PE on 10GHz "home-to-home" 2-way SSB. Congrats!
(2008-12-27) - Herbert
AF4JF assembled a latching relay driver board from a kit provided by
W6PQL. This kit is using SMD parts. Soldering tools and technique are described
here. Assembled board looks (and works) very nice!