CAKE Notes Feb 10 2018

All CAKE meetings celebrate inquiring minds such as those in action today with Tom KW6S, John N5HPB, Kerry K3RRY, Eric KK6IZY, Reed N1WC, Glen KG0T, Fred KJ6OOV, Peter K6UNO and Ward AE6TY.

Tom presented a mystery object and after much discussion we had to admit it remained a mystery, we took some comfort in agreeing that it probably was unrelated to radio. Tom then showed the main RF board of commercial receiver with a freq range from KHz to GHz. Some components were suspect and Tom is likely to replace them, such confidence and ability is rare indeed. Tom mentioned that he will be selling a number of HF radios and amplifiers at the next De Anza Flea Market

Fred had recently returned from the ARRL Specialty Convention in Arizona and provided a copy of a paper presented by Tom Schiller N6BT entitled Antenna Efficiency Evaluation Using Drones. This is well worth close study but what stood out were the claims made about the reliability of NEC2 in simulating the performance of some horizontal antennas and some cases where vertical antenna calculations become unreliable.

Ron mentioned that antennas had been foremost in his mind for the past two weeks. You may recall Ward’s question about data reliability vs limitations of NEC 2 modeling software such as EZNEC. Clearly the Garbage In Garbage Out law applies but Ron promised extra due diligence before offering a response and this work is in progress. It seems a visit by Steve Stearns would be in order and we will see if he can join us once again. Ward told us he was investigating how to analyze copper-steel wire without much discussion. This then provides us with our question de jour. What would you like to know about copper-steel wire and why?

As usual there were several topics in the air including: loops for receive only (John). The loss factor of water, amazing tales of a warranty, current level of Graph Processor Units, popularity of the FT8 digital mode and high power semi conductor components (Ward et al). An individual vintage 2N753 transistor, neatly packed for sale, was shown as an indication of how semiconductors have evolved over a relatively few decades.

Ron spoke of finding a 3.5 inch floppy disk and located an old PC with a drive in his garage. The disk contained a treasure trove of 100 antenna models as EZNEC .EZ files. If you would like these files let Ron know, he wondered why no models of small loops were included when there were two with helical elements.

Finally thanks to those who relieved me of items donated by Jeff AC6KW and a reminder that there are 2m yagis and various sections of Al tubing that deserve new homes

Wishing you radiant times ahead

Ron W6WO