SARA This Week: May 2 – May 8

SARA gathers daily via on-the air nets and ragchews. We continue to hold virtual meetings and Eyeball QSO Parties via WEBEX including the Tech Topic Thursday session, the monthly  member meeting, monthly Board meeting, and event planning meetings. Over the summer season, “Radios in the Park ” will allow SARA to gather outdoors tri-weekly for an outdoor Eyeball QSO party.  Although we’d love to gather in-person, our current on-air and virtual gathering plan continues to be the best choice for the health and safety of all our members. SARA leadership is staying in contact with the Stillwater Public Library and Boutwells Landing with hopes to be able to resume Thursday Eyeball QSO Parties at the Library and monthly meetings at Boutwells this fall. And the SARA Breakfast on the 2nd Saturday may return yet this summer.

Sunday Fusion – now on the WØJH repeater

“Sunday Fusion” SARA’s digital voice hangout is every Sunday evening at 7:00 PM. “Sunday Fusion” makes use of the System Fusion C4FM digital voice capabilities of the repeater along with WIRES-X and YSF connectivity, It is an informal “hangout” for those who want to explore the System Fusion capabilities of their radios.

“Sunday Fusion”  is a System Fusion C4FM digital voice-only hangout. Using the System Fusion C4FM digital voice capabilities of the repeater along with WIRES-X and YSF connectivity, it is an informal “hangout” for those who want to explore the System Fusion capabilities of their radios.

The problem previously identified with the YSF reflector connection is being addressed. It’s a touch more complicated than originally thought, but Doug N9TOW has the reflector hardware and is working on updating and stabilizing the hotspot. The YSF reflector will be an option for joining the Hangout again soon.

Join Bob WØGAF and the rest of the group hanging out on System Fusion direct via the repeater or connect via WIRES-X to the W0JH-Room 63969 or the YSF reflector US SARA-QRX-FCMG 64144 (temporarily offline). Tonight at 7:00 PM

May SARA Monthly Meeting

The monthly meeting of the Stillwater Amateur Radio Association is this Saturday, May 8th. This will be a virtual meeting via the SARA Webex teleconference room. Our guest presenter this month is Frank Howell, K4FMH on “Price vs. Performance and Satisfaction in an HF Transceiver.”  Frank has written a 2-part article on the topic which appeared in the ARRL National Contest Journal across the Jan/Feb 2021 and Mar/Apr 2021 issues. Frank has compiled data from 3 sources: introductory retail price, receive performance as measured by Rob Sherwood, and overall satisfaction by hams. This has resulted in a very interesting review of price vs performance & satisfaction over the years.

The Webex meeting session opens with Morning Coffee starting at 8:15 AM CDT (13:15 UTC), and the meeting begins at 9:00 AM CDT (14:00 UTC) with the program.  The business session will follow. Join the virtual meeting at in the SARA Webex room at:
https://stillwateramateurradioassociation.my.webex.com/meet/w0jh

Remember that our monthly meetings now feature the program first, followed by the business session.

Radios in the Park 2021

It could not have been a better evening for the 1st Radios in the Park gathering of the season this past Thursday. Although I did not get a count, but there were a lot of members – new and longtime – who came out to Valley View Park to finally see and be seen by our many friends from SARA. Collin, KEØIYN posted a time-lapse capture video of the evening on the  SARA – Stillwater Amateur Radio Association Facebook page. You find the page here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/527705810939785

Additional dates are May 20, June 10, July 1, July 22, Aug 12, Sept 2, and Sept 23.  The May 20th session will feature a “Tailgate Swap” so bring your “surplus” amateur radio gear and help it find a new home.

RITP is held at Valley View Park, 5421 Osgood Ave N in Oak Park Heights starting around 5:30 PM and going until around 8:00 PM.  Reservations for the pavilion have been secured with the City of Oak Park Heights. We are required to follow all State and CDC health and safety guidelines including face masks and social distancing. Please help us comply with these guidelines. Attending the event is your choice.

The test of livestreaming did not occur this past Thursday. I was busy doing an initial cleanout of the club’s trailer following the 15 month storage hiatus and a mouse residency!

SARA’s groups.io email reflector

The newest benefit for SARA members is the StillwaterMNAmateurRadioAssoc group on groups.io.  If you haven’t yet joined, why wait? Join now:

https://groups.io/g/StillwaterMNAmateurRadioAssoc.

This group is an email reflector for all things SARA and amateur radio. You can post questions, projects, activities and amateur radio experiences that you can share with SARA members are encouraged. This is an SARA members-only group and requests to join will be approved based upon your current membership status.

Topics are only limited in that they are to be amateur radio-related. Questions about antennas, steps to “tuning up” an antenna, how to use a piece of test gear, tracking RFI issues, programming a radio, figuring out a new radio, showing a new piece of gear, SARA events and activities, licensing questions, … the list is endless!

Sign up now and start sharing your questions and sharing your knowledge.

Technical Topic Thursday

The next Tech Topic Thursday is May 13th. This session will feature Joe Eiesenberg KØNEB, CQ Magazine’s kit building editor, for an evening of “Kit Building Techniques for Success.” The June 10th session is planned to be a live in-person session at the Radios in the Park gathering that evening, which we also intend to stream on Webex.

SARA members have exclusive access to the Technical Topic Thursday playlist on SARA’s YouTube Channel. Sessions available include:

This week’s SARA activities