Radio Society of Greater Bixby

Field Day isn’t that far off, only another 6 weeks to make sure the generator works and the LifePo batt is charged. Everybody at the meeting had the rules (1.4 MB ‘Field Day 2026 Packet’ from the ARL) and we discussed whether to go to one of the local clubs and help out their Class A stations or stay home and work Class 1D or 1E, or both. Rules have changed over the years, you no longer have to stay on a band for an hour, and clubs working like 3A or 4A can have a free GOTA station As Well As a VHF/UHF station to talk to locals on their HTs. (Can’t log people who go home after helping the club.)

John KI5OYW has a QRP rig and an 80/40 fan dipole at home. We advised him, and Tom WA5MAZ who lives not far, said he’d help out with a local test of John’s station. (OYW is also on 2M and 440.)

Rich ZQG brought in specs from a home made 4A power supply; an 8A (maybe more) Motorola that’d served a school bus program for a quarter century (renewed by Rich), and a 20 Amp Kenwood (those pictured above). The 4 Amp weighed 3.1 lbs in a small aluminum chassis, and the Kenwoood at five times the capacity, weighed 5x as much, 14.8 pounds. Inexplicably, the mid size Motorola was 16.9 pounds. Oh weight, they do have a reputation for reliability. One detail on the Mot, it did not have a variable resistor to adjust voltage, instead 2 resistors in series, possibly custom selected at the factory to produce 13.8 out from the series regulator. (Variables can fail at the sliding contact after decades.) Rich said when he got it, no longer working, the two resistors had drifted a bit and the output was 15.5 Volts. (3 to 4 decades under the dispatcher’s desk.)