Itchen Valley Amateur Radio Club - News

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Well that wasn't a normal Club meeting!

Posted: 09 Jul 2016 02:19 AM PDT
http://www.ivarc.org.uk/news/well-th...l-club-meeting

Discussing things with the Chairman this morning he felt we ought make some
comment about last night's somewhat robust meeting, especially since we had
an ex-member from 5 years ago there who must have wondered, what on earth
had happened.

There has been strong and divided opinion by a couple of members about the
value of the Steppir to the club. Whilst it has been used several times in
the past, over the last couple of years the club has moved more toward
contesting and it has been pretty much unused. One thought had been to sell
it and use the proceeds to fund a dedicated HF contest rig (a Kenwood
TS-590s). Last night the Chairman had the difficult and unpleasant task of
trying to remove the emotion from the discussion and bring the matter to
the club members. He did an excellent job and the club voted to:
Keep the Steppir to allow for the possibility that the club may, in the
future, do more special event and JOTA/TDOTA stations where it would be
useful
Purchase a 2nd hand TS-590S, funding it either completely or partially from
the sale of other unused equipment most of which has been donated via SKs
(and a very big THANK YOU to people who do think of the club in this way)
Unfortunately it is inevitable that the club needs the occasional meeting
to conduct club business but we don't want too many of these - the point of
the club is to learn stuff and hopefully have a bit of fun doing so.

Next meeting will be the Club Junk Sale on 22nd July - bring lots of
change, even more carrier bags and make sure you've emptied your car boot
ready to take all your purchase home.

"IVARC via rec.radio.info Admin" wrote in
message ...

Itchen Valley Amateur Radio Club - News

///////////////////////////////////////////
Well that wasn't a normal Club meeting!?

Posted: 09 Jul 2016 02:19 AM PDT
http://www.ivarc.org.uk/news/well-th...l-club-meeting

Discussing things with the Chairman this morning he felt we ought make
some comment about last night's somewhat robust meeting, especially since
we had an ex-member from 5 years ago there who must have wondered, what
on earth had happened.

There has been strong and divided opinion by a couple of members about the
value of the Steppir to the club. Whilst it has been used several times in
the past, over the last couple of years the club has moved more toward
contesting and it has been pretty much unused. One thought had been to
sell it and use the proceeds to fund a dedicated HF contest rig (a
Kenwood TS-590s). Last night the Chairman had the difficult and
unpleasant task of trying to remove the emotion from the discussion and
bring the matter to the club members. He did an excellent job and the
club voted to:
Keep the Steppir to allow for the possibility that the club may, in the
future, do more special event and JOTA/TDOTA stations where it would be
useful

woo hoo must have been a good bounce up!!!!...whats a steppir?

"Jim GM4DHJ ..." wrote in message
...

"IVARC via rec.radio.info Admin" wrote
in message ...

Itchen Valley Amateur Radio Club - News

///////////////////////////////////////////
Well that wasn't a normal Club meeting!?

Posted: 09 Jul 2016 02:19 AM PDT
http://www.ivarc.org.uk/news/well-th...l-club-meeting

Discussing things with the Chairman this morning he felt we ought make
some comment about last night's somewhat robust meeting, especially
since we had an ex-member from 5 years ago there who must have wondered,
what on earth had happened.

There has been strong and divided opinion by a couple of members about
the value of the Steppir to the club. Whilst it has been used several
times in the past, over the last couple of years the club has moved more
toward contesting and it has been pretty much unused. One thought had
been to sell it and use the proceeds to fund a dedicated HF contest rig
(a Kenwood TS-590s). Last night the Chairman had the difficult and
unpleasant task of trying to remove the emotion from the discussion and
bring the matter to the club members. He did an excellent job and the
club voted to:
Keep the Steppir to allow for the possibility that the club may, in the
future, do more special event and JOTA/TDOTA stations where it would be
useful

woo hoo must have been a good bounce up!!!!...whats a steppir?

robust=bounce up...tee hee..love it....hate clubs......

Steppir is a junk antenna that works on the principal of a trombone slide.

The Steppir uses a stepper motor to move the trombone elements in and out.

If you ever saw the workings inside of a General Motors or Ford 1990's style automobile window crank that used a cog and a tape with holes punched in it to advance or rewind the tape in a reel - this is about as close as I can come to describing it to you without getting more technical.

It is basically a 3 element beam - depending upon the model, on one band, and a crude type of dipole antenna on other bands.

It has no appreciable gain on most bands, because the antenna cannot physically change the distance between elements or boom length.

The antenna is for people that only has room enough for one beam antenna, and wants to work multiple bands.

It is usually owned by some LID that has a whole bunch of money and no working knowledge of how an antenna works.

They are usually bought by those individuals that are vain, and wants to brag that they own everything, nothing but the best!

You can usually find these people usually Flex radios or Elecraft, big amplifiers - etc, anything that costs a whole lot of money, but doesn't really work well - for the amount of money that they paid for it.

Hence, as you already read, this club owns one, but no one uses it!