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The 50 MHz and Up Group is an educational and public service amateur radio organization centered in the San Francisco Bay area. The group is interested in developing and utilizing communications on frequencies from 50MHz up through light-waves. The group is open to any related topics that might be of interest to members, such as: technology, design, construction, operation, public service, contesting and antennas. Learn more . . .
Contact
For questions about this group or about programs and activities, please contact the 2016 President, Mike Lavelle K6ML: miclevel (at) comcast [dot] net
To send a memberform with your updated information or to join, please go to the Membership tab.
Meeting Announcement
Our next meeting of the 50MHz and Up Group of N. Calif will be a regular meeting on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016 at 7pm. Our meeting will be at the usual TI conference building, room 2. You get there from Kifer Rd as shown on our meetings page (click on meetings in the selection bar)
Our program will be:
- Introductions and new business
- "What's All This Noise About?" A Brief Refresher on MDS, SNR, Noise Temperature and Cascaded Noise Figure
- Roundtable: Tales of the August Contest, Plans for September
- Roundtable and Show and Tell; What have you been up to lately?
Special Additional meeting in September
Most of the Sept 1 meeting will be about the 10GHz and Up contest. So the following lecture will be sponsored by the IEEE Antenna and Propagation Society (AP-S). This will be on Tuesday, Sept. 6 and the location will be in the very same location as our regular meeting. Everyone is welcome and there is no charge.
Easy to manufacture and very high performance microwave or millimeter wave horn antennas by Jeffrey Pawlan, WA6KBL
In addition to antennas, Jeffrey will begin with a short review of using inexpensive copper water pipe as a very low loss medium to connect your radio to your antenna. He will discuss modes, polarization, and the easy ways of working with these in circular waveguide. Jeffrey designed ultra high perrformance feedhorns for the 10GHz and 24GHz bands. They will illuminate your offset dishes very efficiently and eliminate the additional noise from behind and below the antenna. The designs will be shown along with a comparison of the simulated and the actual measured results. Some new research will be shown with a broadband design for the 30 - 38GHz millimeter wave band.
Tuesday, Sept 6, at the usual TI conference building, room 2. You get there from Kifer Rd as shown on our meetings page (click on meetings in the selection bar)
Networking time with Food and Beverages begins at 6:30 PM with the talk starting at 7:00 PM.
Please Register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ieee-antennas-and-propagation-society-meeting-tickets-26834933007 (click here)
for the food orders.
Minutes from the August 2016 meeting by Brian Kline
Mike Lavelle called the meeting to order at 7:14pm.Announcements and Upcoming Events
DeAnza swap meet, September 10
ARRL 10 GHz and Up contest Second weekend September 17-18
MUD (Microwave Update) 2016, St. Louis Missouri October 13-15
New Business
Mike provided a brief overview of the Tune up party results. The complete results and photos are on the Articles tab of this website
This ended our formal business
The formal meeting was adjourned and followed by a round table discussing the first weekend of the 10GHz and Up contest, and other recent microwave activity.
The meeting ended at 9:00 PM.
Beacons
Microwave Beacons in operation UPDATED The following beacons are known to be operating as of 04-16-2016:
| Name | Grid | Coords | Freq | Call | Power | Ant | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mt Vaca | CM88wj | 38.415, -122.116 | 10368.325 | W6ASL | +30dBm | 10dBi omni | CW ID |
| Mt Allison | CM97bl | 37.500, -121.872 | 10369.192 10369.225 10368.625 24192.010 47061.017 |
AD6FP/R W6QI/B WA6QDP |
+17dBm +30dBm total out +17dBm +12dBm |
10dBi omni 12dBi omni open WG |
CW ID, drifts ~10 kHz Linear translator: Output is 11-55 kHz above beacon Input 600 kHz below desired output CW ID FM ID, aimed to Los Gatos |
| Mt Leeson | CM97ae | 37.167, -121.924 | 10367.990 24191.975 47087.99 79919.92 |
KF6KVG | +20dBm +20dBm +5dBm -5dBm |
2.5" horn 1.5" horn 1.25" horn 0.6" horn |
FM ID, locked, aimed NW FM ID, locked, aimed NW FM ID, unlocked, aimed NW no ID, locked, aimed NW |
| Bear Mtn. | DM06ir | 37.747, -119.281 | 24191.990 | W6BY/B | +27dBm | 20 slot omni | locked, IDs as DM07IC, will fix |
| Mt Frazier | DM04ms | 34.775, -118.969 | 10368.310 | N6CA/B | +31dBm | 14dBi omni | CW ID, locked |
| Heaps Peak | DM14kf | 34.235, -117.141 | 10368.370 | ? | +?? dBm | ??dBi omni | CW ID |
| Palos Verdes | DM03ts | 33.747, -118.336 | 10368.300 | N6CA/B | +32dBm | 14dBi omni | CW ID, locked |
| Santiago | DM13fr | 33.712, -117.534 | 10368.330 | KE6JUV | +27dBm | 10dBi omni | CW ID, locked |
| San Miguel | DM12mq | 32.697, -116.935 | 5760.000 10368.360 24192.050 |
K6QPV/B N6IZW/B K6QPV/B |
+34dBm +27dBm +34dBm EIRP |
10dBi omni 12dBi omni horn |
- CW ID, locked CW ID, locked, aimed to LA |