Our June 2007 elmer night was all about repeaters. Joe, KR3P did a talk on repeater operation and local repeater history. Covering from the first manual repeaters long ago to today, Joe discussed the progression through time to where we are today including the 1st area D-Star repeater installed by the North Hills ARC on 443.350. Joe has built, installed, programmed and operated many repeater over his lifetime and is the repeater coordinator for the Western PA repeater Council. http://www.wprc.us/ Thanks Joe!

Our July 2007 elmer night was all about AMSAT and the new Eagle project. Our presenter was Jim Sanford, WB4GCS, project manager for the Eagle satellite project. Jim covered many areas with a very well put together PowerPoint presentation. The night was very well attended, everyone learned a great deal. The new eagle satellite is going to be a high-earth orbiting bird and will give much longer talk time. It will have more redundancy and ground testing than any other AMSAT satellite before it. It will use the latest in DSP and SDR technology to perform better than any other AMSAT satellite! The launch date for this latest AMSAT bird is not finalized yet. Thanks Jim for the great elmer night!

Our May 2007 elmer night was all about QRP operating with John, K3WWP and Tom, KB3LFC of the North American CW QRP Club. John and Tom brought to the clubhouse some of the radios and keys they personally use for their QRP contacts. The term QRP means to transmit a signal using less than 5 watts, sometimes less than 1 watt! John showed us his book of QSL cards from many states and countries he has contacted over the years. While the talk was mainly centered around CW (Morse code) operating the same principles apply to phone and digital QRP operating.

John and Tom prefer using simple wire antennas. John uses a wire antenna that is partly in his attic and partly in his yard! He says that he was made at least one QRP contact a day for many years!

The NAQCC sponsors many awards and challenges to keep members interested and having fun. Please check out their informative web site at http://www.arm-tek.net/~yoel/

Membership is free and there are a great bunch of operators to keep you busy for years.

Thanks again to John and Tom for the fun and informative elmer night. We hope you make it back to Skyview many more time. Also thanks to all that came up and asked questions, lots of good information to be had.

On April 24th 2007 we had an elmer night about traffic handling. It was hosted by Kent, N3KB at the Skyview clubhouse. Kent put together a really nice presentation showing how the National Traffic System works, its history and many details that are involved in handling official traffic.

Kent brought up all the normal forms and info sheets that a traffic handler would need including all the descriptions of and HX codes and proper use of the header information.

There were many questions asked and many myths busted. Feel free to check into any of the local traffic nets including the one on 3983 LSB nightly at 6:00pm and nightly on 146.880- at 8:00pm. The net regulars are more than happy to teach you the ropes and your help is always needed.

Thank you Kent for the fine presentation and to all that came up to the clubhouse this night.

The May elmer night will be on QRP, or low power radio operations with your host John, K3WWP of the North American CW QRP Club. The Skyview clubhouse at 7:30pm on Tuesday, May 29th.

The elmer night for June will be AMSAT and the Eagle project with your host Jim Stanford, WB4GCS of AMSAT. The Skyview clubhouse on Tuesday, June 26th at 7:30pm.

Last Update June 8, 2008