THE LIVE WIRE

A Publication of the Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Society, Inc.
July 1998  

President: William (Buddy) Rodgers-KA4END, 19 Wintergreen Ln., Taylors, SC 29687
Vice President: Mitchell Hawkins-KD4VXP, P.O. Box 41, Pelzer, SC  29669
Treasurer: Carroll Smith-WA4WYE, 202 Agewood Dr., Simpsonville, SC 29680
Secretary: John Chism-ND4N, 139 Mustang Circle, Simpsonville, SC 29681
 

         Special Field Day Announcement!!         BRARS, Inc. will participate in the ARRL 1998 Field Day Contest, Saturday, June 27 and Sunday, June 28. Set up will begin Friday afternoon, June 26. The location is the Farm Day Site, in Dacusville, just off highway 186.
        Camp sites are available at $14 per night. Everyone is needed. We need help! We need operators, loggers, coffee makers, set-up crew, knock-down crew, etc, etc. Any member, potential member, or friend that has not signed up, please contact Johnny Allison, WD4DYH or President Buddy Rodgers.

        Notice: The next BRARS, Inc. meeting will be on Monday evening, July 6, normal
place, normal time. That is at the Greenville Technical College ( Auditorium
CE-350) starting about 7:00 PM for coffee and low fat donuts and the meeting starting at 7:30.
        We have extended our agreement with the College and will use the Auditorium for the rest of 1998. The only change will be in September, where, as last year, the College will be closed on Labor Day and our meeting night will be changed to the second Monday night, September 12..This announcement will be repeated in the next two newsletters.

        Hamfest Report  Paid attendance was up from the past two years ( 1351 plus Dealers and Vendors ). We had the largest ever tailgate flea market. We made a reasonable profit which may be used soon to get our 61 repeater back in good operating condition. The Hamfest committee thanks all who attended and all who helped out for adding to the success of the Upstate Hamfest...

        Silent Keys:

        Dan McAuliff, K4WD died at his residence in Seneca on May 6, 1998. Dan was a long time member of BRARS, Inc. and he was also a founding member of the Keowee-Toxaway Amateur Radio Club. Dan was survived by his wife, Lorraine Schmitz McAuliff and by two daughters and a son plus several grandchildren.

        Albert Gorze, K4FYS of  Travelers Rest, died June 5, 1998. Al was a member of BRARS, Inc. and a veteran of the Korean War. He was survived by his wife, Martha Fletcher Gorze and a daughter, Cindy Gorze Roper. He was also survived by two sons; Albert Trey Gorze III and Barry Steven Gorze.

 

The Wonderful World of Radio!  A History

        ( Editor’s note: We plan for these brief articles to be preface to a series on the history of The Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Society, Inc. Hugh Anderson-W4FNS, a charter member of our club has agreed to start work on the local club history this summer and we will include excerpts from this history in our newsletter. Please join me in thanking Hugh for this in advance. Any member, past member, or friend of the club that has historical information about the club or information about amateur radio in the early  years of Greenville is requested to make the information available to any club officer.)

        The history of radio, communications using wireless transmissions and
reception of electromagnetic energy, can be traced by several branches of the evolution tree. No, even though the names on our boxes look and sound like Japanese, radio did not start in Japan, neither was it invented in Russia. The Japanese however, can be credited with major developments and improvements.

        One branch to explore is the discovery and understanding of electromagnetic energy, the concept of the wave-like character and the laws and principles of physics that define and help us understand “radio waves”. When we explore this branch, we find the names of English, French, and German scientists who worked during the 1800’s to lay the foundation. People like Andre M. Ampere (1775-1836) , H. C. Oersted , Michael Faraday, and H. R. Hertz all contributed to the understanding of the electromagnetic
waves. Faraday was also considered as the inventor of electrical induction. He reported the invention of induction in an 1831 publication. Later on, Faraday, who also did much work on voltaic cells ( called batteries today ) was honored by naming a unit of electrical energy for him. A “faraday” is the quantity of electricity needed to electroplate one gram equivalent weight of any metal ( remember high school chemistry?).

        James Clerk Maxwell and H. R. Hertz are known because they converted the ideas of Faraday into the notation of mathematicians; a mathematical  understanding of electromagnetic waves. Hertz later discovered that the electromagnetic waves could be propagated through space and he was successful in measuring both the wave length and velocity of the propagated waves. This lead to the conclusion that light waves were another form of electromagnetic radiation and subject to the same laws of physics.
 
        The next group of experimenters and inventors used the work of the earlier group as stepping stones and  attempted to develop a means to communicate over longer and longer distances. This group, including Marches Guglielmo Marconi ( 1874-1937), invented extensive hardware including valves ( vacuum tubes) , giant antenna systems ( then called aerials), radio frequency detectors, and other electrical devices. Marconi thrived during this period and accomplished the first transatlantic radio communication
in 1901 as the letter “S” in CW was transmitted and received between Wales and St. John’s Newfoundland.      ( to be continued)

p.s. Marconi’s company was selling table top transceivers in 1914! The main
problem was that there were only a few people to talk to on 80 meters and they only spoke Morse!

Special thanks to Amor - N2FY for the following article:   Just another gadget?

Ever see some gadget at a hamfest or radio store that, at first glance, seemed to be a very worthwhile reason to part with some of your zealously guarded hard cash?  You know, the kind of thing that just sort of whispers to you... “take me home, take me home!”  The only problem is, once you do take the plunge, you get the darn thing home only to say to yourself... “now, what the heck am I going to do with this little beauty; how am I going to use it?”

I found myself in that situation a while back.  Sold some photography gear (to buy ham gear!) and had a couple of hundred dollars left when the smoke cleared.  The “gadget” in question was an MFJ SWR Analyzer (Model MFJ-259). Well, my $200 changed hands and I took my analyzer home.  I didn’t have a real need to use it for a while, and began to think that perhaps I had made a big mistake. But, here’s where my story takes a turn for the better.  I’ve been putting up a couple of vertical antennas and, remembering the painstaking efforts I went through in the past on a similar venture, I figured... what the heck.  I had the analyzer, why not use it?  Well, to make a long story short, use it I did, and it was great!  I could see
exactly where the antenna was resonating, so I knew just which way to make the adjustment.  It was really slick.  Flushed with success, I checked out a
couple of existing antennas (that were working fine) just to see what was what.  The analyzer told me everything I wanted to know, right from ground level! Needless to say, I’m impressed.  If you like to do antenna work from time to time, this little unit sure can help you.  Though not cheap (about $200 as mentioned before) consider it a tradeoff with talking over your antenna frustrations with a therapist!  It covers a range of 1.8 to 170 MHz, so you can even check out that 2 meter mobile whip.  It’s definitely NOT “just another gadget.”  N2FY

        Thanks again Amor... Carlisle Rogers-WA4ULE  Editor
 


 

Minutes of the  6/1/98  Club Meeting
 

 

KF4WVB D.L. (Dave) Wilkin 304 E Celestial Dr Greer SC 29651
KF4YFX G.M. (Gary) Goudelock 322 Brushy Creek Rd  Easley SC 29642-3103

 

 NOTE that the July and August meeting place will not change, will be held at present location.
 

John E. Chism, ND4N
Secretary, BRARS Inc.