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RARC MONTHLY MEETING7:00PM NOVEMBER 18

GLENWOOD STATE BANK

PROGRAM: QUESTIONS / ANSWERS

O P E N M I CA NEWSLETTER OF THE

RUNESTONE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB, W0ALX

W0ALX RARC, 2301 S Le Homme Dieu Drive NE, Alexandria, MN 56308www.w0alx.org Alexandria Rpt: 146.790- 442.025+ (88.5) Sauk Centre Rpt: 147.255-

NOVEMBER 2014PRESIDENTIAL SPLATTER Pictures in this edition are the work of Mike W0MKE and John W0JAR...tnx guys for your good work. We didn't catch everybody at W0W but most are pictured. We did have a SSB and a PSK31 station operational for most of the time. Since the operation was really laid back we only made 59 qsos and to date we have a limited (6) request for certificate and/or card qsl card.

Your Board of Directors met on October 28 to discuss the future of the club. The minutes of that meeting will be available to you at the November meeting. Among other things, the board came up with a slate of nominations for club offices and a change in monthly meeting day and time. You are encouraged to attend the November meeting to get the details.

Over the last several months I have enjoyed HamNation as streamed live on TWiT TV via the web. Bob Heil, Don Wilbanks, George Thomas, Gordon West and others are entertaining and have a great deal of information to share. It seems to be geared more to the novice level ham, however, they do get into some fairly serious technical material from time to time. Check them out LIVE on Wednesdays at 8pm CST. You can, of course, watch the show at a later date if you wish. I believe that you can review a listing of all their shows on WikiHamNation.

CU November 18.....73 Bill KG0DX

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

REMEMBER THE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARTY AT THE FORADA SUPPER CLUB ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9 BEGINNING AT 6:00PM...JOIN THE GROUP FOR FUN AND GOOD FOOD.....

~Santa

Polishing the R7 vertical

UPCOMING EVENTS:Nov 11: Look for Special EventsNov 15: 8:30am Sat Coffee, Depot, AlexandriaNov 15-17: ARRL November Sweepstakes, CWNov 18: 7:00pm RARC Monthly Meeting, Glenwood

State BankNov 27: THANKSGIVING DAYNov 29-30: CQ World Wide CW

Dec 6: 8:30am Sat Coffee, Trucker's Inn, Sauk CentreDec 9: 6:00pm Christmas Party, Forada Supper ClubDec 20: 8:30am Sat Coffee, Depot, AlexandriaDec 25: CHRISTMAS DAY

2014 NET CONTROL AND GOODIES

MONTH NET CONTROL GOODIESJANUARY KC0UTN/NN0Q KG0DXFEBRUARY W0KCJ W0KCJMARCH NN0Q N0CEAPRIL N0RCL KD0UTAMAY KD0MOM KD0RAVJUNE KB0INZ N0NYVJULY KD0UVA KD0UVAAUGUST KC0UTN PICNICSEPTEMBER N0CE N0CEOCTOBER KB0INZ W7ISDNOVEMBER KG0DX KC0UTNDECEMBER KC0UTN CHRISTMAS

PARTY

Minutes of the Runestone Amateur Radio Club

Meeting of October 21, 2014

Club President Bill Klundt(KG0DX) called the meeting to order at 7:01PM at the Glenwood State Bank in Alexandria, MN.

Attendance: Bill Klundt(KG0DX), Jim Horn(KB0INZ), Roger Haffner(KD0UTA), John Ross(W0JAR), Norm Yeutter(W0KCJ), George Schouweiler(N0RCL), Alden Mattocks(N0MIC), Wayne Stephanson(KD0AAA), Wayne Johanson(WA0EBZ)

Minutes of Meeting of September 16, 2014 were accepted without amendment. (W0JAR/W0KCJ)

Treasurer’s Report: General Fund $3265.20+$0.00-$10.00=$3255.20 Coffee Cash $267.91+$9.65=$277.56 Trustee Report: Norm(W0KCJ) reported that he has paid $10.00 dues to the Minnesota Repeater Council. There were no changes in our repeaters’ frequencies, etc.

Education Report: None; Technical Report: None; Public Info Report: None

Old Business:

EOC station – Bill Klundt will meet with Tom Egan of Douglas County Sheriff Department in the near future. An 80m loop antenna might help the RF noise problem but it probably would not be mechanically practical on the roof.

W0W Event – Club participation was not good. 59 contacts were made, from which probably only about 10 requests for certificates will be received.

Discussion about the club’s decline – Participation in the club’s activities is decreasing. The Saturday breakfasts have low attendance. Bill said, “We gotta do something!” Bill will not be continuing as club President after the January 2015 meeting. There still is no nominating Committee other than Bill, nor much probability that all of our club offices will be filled. Topics discussed: Should we disband the club? Should we meet less frequently? Should we do the meetings as part of the Saturday breakfasts? Should we shut down the repeaters? (Consensus was “no”.) What impact would disbanding the Club have on the SuperLink System? (Probably not much, as the Barnesville node is in need of about 700ft of feed line in order to communicate with the Alexandria node.) We are not in a position at present to sponsor the Boy Scout Venturing Group. We need to do more ham radio education classes and VE sessions.

Replacement of Board Member - To fill out the term of the non-participating, non-dues-paying member of the Board of Directors, President Bill Klundt appointed Wayne Johanson (WA0EBZ) to the position.

The annual Christmas party will be at the Forada Supper Club Dec. 9, 2014 at 6:00PM.

Wayne Stephens will contact Casey Freund about the $50 reimbursement we voted last month to pay him.

Adjournment (KD0AAA/KD0UTA) at 8:56PM

Are knobs and buttons toast?

By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU

In a recent column on EETimes (http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?doc_id=1324283), an old colleague of mine, Martin Rowe, says, “Knobs and buttons are slowly on their way out. Get used to it.” He’s referring to the controls on oscilloscopes, but if he were a ham, he might just as well be talking about amateur radio transceivers, too.

We already see this happening in amateur radio. FlexRadio, and a couple of other companies, already make transceivers with no front panel controls. You must have a computer to use them.

Might we even start to see this with handheld and portable equipment? For example, how much cheaper could they make a Baofeng if to use it, you had to also have an Android or iPhone app to act as the human interface?

To be honest, I haven’t really thought about this much myself. I’m enough of a dinosaur to still prefer buttons and knobs, but having to use on-screen controls certainly doesn't turn me off. Rowe claims, however, that “as the old-timers retire (or in our case as older hams become SKs), younger engineers (or young hams) will expect every user interface to function like a phone or tablet. Don’t believe me? Just wait.”

I got several interesting replies to this idea on my blog. Bill, AD8BC says, "What would be fun would be an open-source mobile radio. I picture an RF deck with a Raspberry Pi and touch screen for control, the Pi would simply tell the RF deck where to tune and handle the interface and scanning functions, it would ship with a stock app, but you could make your own. Built in support for SDR stuff, packet, APRS, remote operation…."

Most commenters, however, even the younger guys, stillseem to prefer analog controls. Lucien, DH7LM, says, "I’m a newly licensed ham and I like both – experimenting with advanced computer stuff like SDRs and the great feeling a real radio provides!" Grant, KJ6ZZD, says, "Knobs perform some tasks better than a screen can. Knobs provide some tactile feedback that a screen just can’t."

So, what do you think? Are knobs and buttons toast, or do you think there's still some life left in analog controls?

Think we have enough separation??

Let's see, what screw? where? how?

Just interested, or an OO, Official Observer?

Kenwood 450s, PSK 31, and Trail Mix. About everything a digital ham would need.....