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April URAC Meeting Show your shack

Last Friday was the monthly URAC meeting at the Think Café. As usual, there was good attendance for dinner before the start. Brought to order at 7:30 PM, this night’s topic was SHOW YOUR SHACK, a program put togeter by Scotty K6ZNL. She arranged a slide show of station pictures which were then described by the owners. Everyone had a very interest shack, and some included their Antenna setup. There were 6 presenters for the program; it was a fun change for the meeting.

March URAC Meeting Catalina DXpedition

We had a good showing last Friday at the Think Café for dinner. When the meeting was called to order (about 19:20) URAC’s own Diana Feinberg, AI6DF, gave a great presentation of the IOTA station operation on Catalina Island. There were many pictures and diagrams of the set up at Two Harbors. Dianna was there with the PVARC Group, of which some were also URAC members participating. Her presentation started with the boat trip over, which was very smooth, and covered lugging all the equipment to the site once the boat docked. The set up of antennas and radios was very interesting. They had a visitor during the set up and take down … a Catalina Buffalo (or Bison) named George who showed up in many slides. He seemed interested in the goings on, though I don’t know if they made him a Honorary Ham?

They seem to have made a good many contacts, both in the US and some DX. All in all, fun was had by all. There was a tour of the place were they all stayed, which had a nice outdoor covered kitchen and communal Rest Rooms. Thank you, Diana, for a most interesting program. Great Job!

February 2014 URAC Meeting

There was a good showing last night for dinner at the Think Cafe, which was followed at 7:30 PM by the URAC Monthly Club Meeting. Our guest speaker, URAC’s own David Ziskin AG6E, presented a very interesting program on Marine Radio. We learned of differant radios commercial ships and private vessels carry, how the various frequencies are meant to be used, and of some important channels that ships may or may not monitor depending upon their circumstances. He talked on the specifics of, and reasons for using, proper phonetics on the air. He also spoke of maximum VHF communication distances, the difference between line of sight and radio horizon, and provided the formula for determining that horizon limit (Horizon-in-miles = square root of [2 x antennae height-in-feet]). Sea Stories from his personal experiences brought the information to life, and rounded up a great program! Thank you, David, for a most enjoyable evening.