TARC NEWS 4th QUARTER 2012

Transcription

1 TARC OFFICERS President Jan Ferguson W4REN phone Vice President Jeff Thompson W3HVU phone Treasurer Tom McArdle WB4FJS phone Secretary Sherry Ferguson KU4ZO phone Bob Farrington W4YBI phone Archie Shetler WN3DHI phone Duane Pocock KF4FQW phone Derek Roberts KJ4UFX phone TARC NEWS 4th QUARTER 2012 The Presidents Corner Let me just start by saying that I hope all of you had a very happy and safe holiday season in other words a very merry Christmas. Everything went well at the Ferguson household. Two of Sherry s children and all the grandchildren were here for Christmas. Thank goodness they have all adopted me. They were here for Thanksgiving also. That was a lot of cooking for Sherry, so much food. We all are very blessed. Her son, Carl who has his Dad s call K4CWG and lives in Tennessee was not able to attend. I hear he will be here for the Orlando Hamfest. Our Christmas party on December 8 th was a lot of fun. I believe everyone attending had good food, good conversation and were entertained rather well. Clara KE4YQL did a marvelous job as hostess. Thank you very much Miss Clara. We had 46 guests. Thanks to all who donated to our food drive for North Brevard Charities. We received a nice letter of appreciation. In this newsletter you will also find the plans for a whole house surge suppressor that I showed you and talked about at the November meeting. Please come out to our next club meeting on January 22 nd and bring a friend. Jan W4REN Tarc club meeting is each 4th Tuesday. 7PM At the Masonic Lodge at 19 N. Washington 1

2 P A G E 2 Lets continue our food drive all year, bring a can of food to club meeting 2

3 Minutes for the 4TH Quarter P A G E 3 October 23,2012 Minutes The minutes for October can be summed up in a few lines. October is always our Pot Luck Dinner meeting, so after the usual greetings and introductions. The food was blessed and we all had a great meal November 23,2012 Minutes 1-The Meeting was called to order by W4REN Jan 2-The pledge of allegiance was recited after which we all introduced ourselves. 3-The treasurers and secretary s reports were read and approved. 4- We had our yearly officer elections with a few changes. Our 2013 Officers are Jan Ferguson W4REN President, Jeff Thompson W3HVU-Vise President Tom McArdle WB4FJS Treasurer, Sherry Ferguson KU4ZO Secretary. The 4 elected board members are Duane Pocock KF4FQW, Archie Shetler WN3DHI, Bob Farrington W4YBI and Derek Roberts KJ4UFX 5-Tom WB4FJS told us that he has reserved our pavilions for the Mosquito Net Tailgate at Sand Point Park on March 23rd and for Field Day at Fox Lake Park. ARRL 2013 Field Day is June It was also discussed that the Field Day Chairman Warren W4CEL chose the Pillion by the water because we can be seen as people are coming into the park and not just when they are leaving the park. 6-Jan presented a program on a whole house surge protection. He offered to give out the plans with a list of parts you will need, along with helpful instructions for building your own. 7-We were dismissed to have our refreshments. December meeting was our Christmas party 1-Make new friends, meet great people from the US and around the world. 2-Use ham radio for community service such as bicycle rides, races, parades ETC. 3-Furnishi communications for shelters when they open for all kind of emergencies, which are usually weather related. 4-Use you ham radio to communicate with the world and friends when you go camping or hiking, great from a mountain top. 5- Support recovery efforts in emergencies. 6-Talk through satellites or with astronauts on board the International Space Station. We hope you get involved and add other things you can do with ham radio Things you can do with Ham Radio 3

4 Page 4 Caption describing picture or graphic. Caption describing picture or graphic. SURGE PROTECTOR DIAGRAM 4 ARRL DISTRICT MEETING COCOA

5 Whole House Surge Protector P A G E 5 This is a surge protector that is modeled after the one I have for our house and have used in other locations with great success. I liked the ease of repair of the modules when needed and they did need it. That means they were doing their job. Each module is made up of a number of parallel rows of series connected back to back zener diodes. The original units used 5KExxx diodes which were rated at 5000 watt-seconds per diode or a total of watt-seconds per column. These were also quite expensive at over $5 per diode. This equated to at lease $50.00 every time it did its job. These became unavailable and I tried replacing them with the 1.5KExxC with good results. These only dissipated 1500 watt-seconds of energy each and need replace more often but were only about $0.50 each in bulk. A good trade off. The 5KE28C original units had an individual clamping voltage of 28 volts for a total of 224 volts total. Remember you have to consider peak rather than RMS voltage in this case. I.e. 132 volts RMS times which equals volts peak. The original units targeted for 224 volts peak, so I did also and ended up at a clamping voltage of 216 volts peak. That is why the two different value diodes in each string. The xx in the part number is the clamping voltage. I.e =216. The order that they are wired in the string is not important but I tried to connect the 30 volt diodes in a group with a slight separation and then the 22 volt units. This made it easier to keep track of which value to replace it they were totally destroyed. And they were sometimes. I have found the solder melted off the connections after a strong strike. Make sure each leg is protected with a 20A fuse. Very important. Connect the protector into your main panel if possible on a separate breaker if possible but if not any place is better than nothing. DON T forget the fuses also. They blow faster than a breaker. Indicator lights down stream from the fuses are nice to make it easy to see if repair is necessary. Trouble shooting and repair is a snap. If repair is necessary turn off power to the protector. TURN OFF POWER TO THE PROTECTOR. Did I mention turn off the power to the protector? Check across one diode in each string. I have found usually all eight diodes in the string blow and some times several strings. A shorted diode means it is bad. A really quick fix to get it back in operation is to cut just one bad diode out of each bad string and replace the fuse. This way you can get the unit back in operation very quickly and then remove it and replace it when the weather gets better or you get more diodes if you don t have any spares. In case I didn t mention it turn the power off before trying to troubleshoot or repair the protector. I will bring the commercial and home built protectors to the January meet along with some other hardware I have picked up since November. January TARC meeting is on the 22nd,the 4th Tuesday. Please come, we love seeing all of you. Jan W4REN 5

6 Orlando Ham Fest is coming up on February 8th,9th and 10th We have a table in building 3 it is W-14 and club members are welcome to put items on it. I do have tickets for sale for $ The will be $12.00 at the gate and I will have them at club meeting January 22nd Remember our Mosquito Net Tailgate on March 23,2013 at Sand Point Park, we hope you can come out and participate. Amateur radio exams are given at your convenience by your W5YI exam team please call KU4ZO to schedule your exam. Titusville Amateur Radio Club Post Office Box 73 Titusville Fl To 6