CAKE Aug. 24, 2019

CAKE notes for August 24 2019

What a very pleasant surprise; we had two ladies join us today Roberta AJ6KN (extra class licensee), and Karen (waiting on her extra class license) We appreciate their talent and enthusiasm. Congratulations and welcome to you both.

Also in attendance were Richard K8SQB,Gary K6PDL, Ray KF6GPE,Steve K6SBW,Arthur KE6DRD, Richard W1WUH, Glen KG0T, and your scribe Ron W6WO. Our typical CAKE QRM was S9 and Ron was frankly rather overwhelmed at times by the several topics being discussed simultaneously.

We expect no CAKE session to be devoid of antenna discussion and today it centered around operating mobile/portable. The inverted wire vee for portable HF seems hard to beat as is a J-pole for mobile VHF/UHF. Grand Master W4RNL (SK) gave particular attention to J-poles, contact Ron for a copy of his study. A multi-band HF vertical is hard to beat for small spaces. Karen was interested in learning more about popular radios. As just one option Ron suggested looking at a Yaesu FT857D’.

Glen and Arthur had their heads together discussing the pros and cons of micro processors. An eavesdropper (like Ron) might be interested to learn that a microprocessor costing $10 may be considered expensive. Glen has much to share on the topic of their hardware and programming. How about a talk on the subject Glen?

Arthur showed an item he has made of the kind one sees being worn at Ham Fests. It was a matrix of about 10×10 LEDs I assume it can be programmed to display messages. How about a demo Arthur? BTW I have just been reading about a competition to create a game limited to 10 lines of BASIC code. It is now an annual event with contestants in 20 countries.

We discussed some strange behavior of modern batteries. For example batteries used in my hearing aid must be exposed to air before installation. In another example Ron recently had portable device which showed no sign of life. It seemed reasonable to suspect the battery so the existing 4V NiMH item was replaced with a new one from a sealed package. The device only reacted by showing a low battery condition. The issue was to suspect the battery or the device. In times of stress an English man’s answer is a tea-break, after which both the device and owner recovered. Go figure !

73 BCNU Ron W6WO

FYI The next regular session wil be on September 14 which I will be unable to attend