View this email in your browser

October Membership Meeting

The next Upper Rio FM Society general membership meeting will be held at 6:30 PM, Tuesday October 8, at Sandia Presbyterian Church. The church is located at 10704 Paseo del Norte NE. See http://www.urfmsi.org/activities/meetings for a map,

The purpose of the meeting is to conduct normal business of the URFMSI as may be appropriate.

Members and visitors alike are invited to attend. Please bring a fellow ham along, or someone who is interested in becoming a ham or is curious about what we do.

Our technical presentation this meeting will be given by Larry Goga, AE5CZ. Larry will talk about vector network analyzers (VNAs) and in particular the NanoVNA (see image above). Larry will cover VNA fundamentals, trace the history of the NanoVNA, explore its hardware and software, and how to get started using one.

Repeater Report

HUB

All the repeaters are back on line. The tower work to remove old coax and un-used antennas is complete. During the tower work some antennas were repositioned and re-allocated for improved repeater performance. The technical team has been doing some software updates and is looking into a timing issue.

Sandia Crest

Ice and wind last winter left the antenna at a near horizontal position. That was corrected this past summer. The antenna was remounted to the vertical position and a site inspection found no other problems.

Diamond Memorial Repeater

Some minor tower work needs to be done to reseal a connector and to straighten an antenna before the winter weather hits.

Microwave Ridge Repeater

The fall site inspection was performed on September 29, 2019. All is well at this site, no problems found. During this site visit a Low Voltage Disconnect panel was installed to protect the batteries

La Mosca Repeater

During the site inspection on June 25, 2019, two problems were noted. One guy wire dead-end was broken and the 94 receive antenna coax needed to be redressed. Both problems were fixed this past summer. Other tasks completed at La Mosca include:

A low voltage disconnect panel installed to protect the batteries.
An ice shield was installed over the internet dish and the linking antennas.
The outside of the shack was repainted.

Above: Jim Dalton painting the La Mosca shack

Above: The La Mosca shack before and after a new coat of paint
Below Left: Russell Herring and Jon Pendley Installing the ice shield
Below Right: Russell Redressing the 94 receive coax

Below: Jon Pendley performing some general antenna maintenance

Below: The new low voltage disconnect and Polyphase system at La Mosca

Capliia

Because of the power pole damage to our tower last fall, the replacement 0.96 antenna was mounted temporarily low on the tower before the winter weather set in. We are planning a tower workday at the site in mid October to

Move the 0.96 antenna from its present level to the top of the tower
Run new coax cables to replace those that were damaged.
Re-install the ice bridge to protect the coax between the tower and the shack.
Replace the small temporary battery that was installed last spring with a new 100 Amp Hr AGM battery.

Tapia Mesa

This repeater is operating normally with no problems reported. However, we do need to replace the backup battery at the site.

Duke City Hamfest

It was a great hamfest with a lot of hams and non-hams at the event. We had a number of club members stop by our table and others that are interested in joining the club. Including two new hams, that plan to join the club when they get their call sign.

Other Club News

Amazon Smile

We are pleased that club members have signed up for the AmazonSmile program and listed the URFMSI as their charitable organization. Signing up to AmazonSmile does not add cost to the items you buy, but provides much-needed funds back to the society.

Membership

Please remember to go to our website and check your membership status. We have a large number of members that are past their membership expiration date. Because of the Capilla problem, the club needs your support. You can check your membership status by clicking on the link under "Membership Status" on the upper right of the Society's home page.

Next BoD meeting

November 21, 2019

Next General meeting

January 14, 2020

Announcements

Socorro Hamfest

The annual Socorro Hamfest will be held on October 19, 2019 at the New Mexico Fire Academy, 600 Aspen St., Socorro. For more info visit https://www.socorronm.org/events/socorro-hamfest/ or https://www.socorroara.org/https://www.socorroara.org/.

Fall Tailgate

November 9, 2019 at Intel's south parking lot, Rio Rancho

Silent Keys

Carl Dellinger (KR5DHO), July 13, 2019

Public Service Events

Duke City Marathon

Volunteers are needed to provide communication support for the 2019 Duke City Mamathon, The marathon will be held on October 20, 2019. Albuquerque area amateurs have supported this event for more than 20 years. Volunteers may contact Ed Ricco, N5LI at n5li@arrl.net.