Tag Archives: A3

January 2019 Club Meeting

We held our January AEA Amateur Radio Club meeting on Thursday January 31, 2019 at 11:30 AM in A3 dining room B.

Attendees were:

  • Kirk Crawford KK6KC
  • Bob Lanahand KK6WYW
  • Judy Kerner KK6GCB
  • Jason Bayonne
  • Andrew Lin KM6TWS
  • Ryan Noguchi (via Skype)
  • Thomas Fagan (via Skype)
  • Victor Lin (via Skype)

During the meeting we had a presentation and demonstration of Winlink Global Radio Email by Bob Lanahan

Winlink demo image
Audio of the January 2019 meeting

A3 Antenna Report

On Tuesday August 30, 11:30 AM, Kirk Crawford (KK6KC), Thomas Essenpreis (KB9ENS), and Bob Lanahan (KK6YWY) investigated the antenna situation for the A3 Shack.  We disconnected All the antenna cables in the room and then Bob and I (KK6KC) went to the roof while Tom stayed in the shack to test.  We found that the HF Antenna is broken.  It had been obviously cut off.  This most likely happened when the roof was recoated.  The other antennas all seem to be present.  They are all monoband-verticals. See the picture below for a diagram:

A3 Roof Antennas
A3 Roof Antennas

We used a shorted SO239 connector to figure out which antenna is which and analyzed the antennas that we could.

The Antenna Cables that go to the shack are:

  1.  #38 70cm (440MHz)
  2. ATV
  3. #45 23cm (1.2 GHz)
  4. #43 2m (144 MHz) SWR=1.25 @ 144 MHz
  5. #39 1.25m (220 MHz) SWR  = 1.04 @ 219 MHz
  6. #41 HF (Antenna is broken)
  7. 23cm (1.2 GHz)
  8. #42 2m (144 MHz) SWR = 1.04 @ 145 Mhz

We connected antenna 8 to the 2m radio used for the morning nets, and the other 2m to the packet setup.

Conclusions:

We need a new HF antenna on A3 to replace the missing one. I recommend a multi-band vertical type due to the limited space on the penthouse.   Your recommendations are welcome.

The club should also invest in a multi frequency antenna tester that can cover all the antennas we have. The AA-1400 Antenna Analyzer by RigExpert was recommended by Tom. It is capable of measuring from .1-1400 MHz and costs about $1079 (on Amazon).

73,

Kirk Crawford

EDIT:

Some Pictures of the HF Antenna Mounting point:

HF Mount Viewed from below
HF Mount Viewed from below

HF Antenna Mount
HF Antenna Mount