Annual SLAMS/BARS Lunch 2024

We, the SLAMS group, have met at our favorite Chandler Hill Winery for the 8th annual lunch in a row. This is a traditional meeting that closes the year of our microwave activities, we use it to discuss the results and make plans for the next year. At least in theory. The weather wasn't really friendly today, so we only had a fewn participants. Evenn the winery was far less busy than usual

Kevin AD7OI with his wife Tammy KI7GVT, Ron KO0Z with his wife Debbie KC9ULA and myself (Herbert AF4JF) with my dog Darcey, soon to be licensed K9DOG. Darcey was too short to sit at the table, so she ate her lunch under it.

Chandler Hill Winery

KC9ULA, KO0Z, KI7GVT and AD7OI at the table

AF4JF taking selfie of himself

Darcey listening to the conversation

Some of our members expressed concerns about sitting outside in the cold .. this winery has indoor and outdoor seating. The outdoor seating is either open or covered. We usually sit in the covered section, with big heaters. The place certainly is not cold.

Covered outdoor seating

One of nearby heaters

Heater installed above our table

The food was tasty as usual. We had lots of fun discussing the usual ham radio topics. In addition to that, Kevin just received his private pilot license, we discussed that in length. Two hours flew by and we took leave. Hope to meet there again in bigger numbers next year!

Microwave Activity (MAD) Day on November 2, 2024

Once again did the SLAMS guys try to spread some radio-activity in the Saint Louis area. It was a nice, warm day with temperature in upper 60's, blue skies .. perfect for family activities. Which turned out to be a problem, at least in the Pere Marquette park where Herbert, AF4JF went with his furry companion Darcey.

The plan was to try all our microwave bands between Eagles Roost (in the Pere Marquette park) in EM48rx where Herbert AF4JF was going to set up, Ron KO0Z who picked our favorite parking lot at the Community College in Cottleville in EM48qs and Harry WA0CNS who went to his favorite High Ridge, EM48rl. The distance between Herbert and Harry was about 34 miles, distances between Herbert and Ron or Ron and Harry were about half that.

Herbert had to cross the two rivers that separate Saint Charles, MO from Grafton, IL on a ferry. That was not exactly problematic, despite the fact that Herbert's car did not fit on a ferry (too many cars) and had to wait one extra round trip of that floating vehicle. Where are all these cars going?

.... of course, they all went to the Pere Marquette park. The parking at the park visitor center was completely full. So was the usual parking lot at the first viewing point at Eagles Roost where we usually park and operate from. Second parking at the Flagpole was crowded as well, so Herbert went to the next spot that we never used before because it was blocked by heavy foliage with no open view.

Surprise! The park people finally decided that "viewing point" has something to do with "seeing" and cut all the bushes that blocked the view. See following pictures. Even better, nobody from the other visitors expected this, so this parking was EMPTY.

This is South

Darcey supervising station setup

Herbert set up all his bands from 902MHz to 122GHz. Space in the back of the SUV is somewhat limited, so the higher bands (on tripods) were tested first and the lower bands with a logatithmic beam had to wait after the tripods were moved aside.

10GHz station in front

The topic of this MAD day was to test if we can make QSOs betweens us and Harry WA0CNS who was using his home made SDR transceiver PLUTO with Raspberry Pi front end, running only about 250mW. Not too surprising result - yes, QSOs with the PLUTO were made on 902MHz, 1296MHz, 2304MHz and 3400MHz. In addition to that also on 10368MHz using our "big" stations with 3W of power.

We were quite tired when we started the journey back home. All of us made it safely and added another chapter to the book of successful microwave activities in our area.

AF4JF waiting for the ferry to get back to Missouri and home