CAKE Meeting Notes Oct 8

CAKE October 8, 2016

As always it was a pleasure to meet at The Abbey on a lovely sunny day. Those present included  Glen KG0T , Ward AE6TY, Gary K6PDL, Chuck W1WUH, Peter AB6WM, Kerry K3RRY and John N5HPB

We were sad to be saying “fare thee well” to Peter who is moving to Canada and hope that he will join the ranks of Ex Patriot CAKE Bakers It is also encouraging to know that we have sufficient interest to attract those with  Ph.D behind their name- like John

Our discussions today were rather dominated by what we variously understand about SWR, and what it really means in practical terms. It was agreed  by all that keeping the SWR measured at the radio near 1:1 is a way to keep the radio happy by avoiding excessive currents and voltages.
Beyond that agreement there was much discussion on SWR and how it may and may not  be improved.  Their seems to be a disconnect between practical experience and what a reliable program like SimSmith is telling us.

There was brief discussion on antenna modeling programs  and the free program called  MMANA was favored by Ward and Glen. Ron mentioned that he had recently spent a great deal of time with EZNEC models (that include common-mode chokes)  in the hope of finding something interesting-more to come on this

Discussion on QRP during the previous CAKE meeting triggered  Ron’s interest which had laid dormant for over10 years. Much has developed in that time and with the desire to “melt solder” again a kit has been ordered from QRP Labs. This is their  Ultimate 3S- QRSS/WSPR kit and appears to be a very well engineered product so expect to hear more about it.  The acronym stands for Very Very Slow  but it could also mean Question Ron Skelton’s Sanity

Don’t overlook the opportunity to meet at the Aptos home of Ward AE6TY for our next CAKE session on the 22nd.  This will include a presentation by Glen on SDR subjects

Spread the joy of infrastructure-free communications !

73 Ron W6WO