Club News

W8SMK, SK

So far this hasn’t been a great year for DELARA membership. This past month, we bid goodbye to a cherished founding member of DELARA, Ken Bird W8SMK. Ken lost his battle with cancer, and his loss will be felt by DELARA for a long time. Ken was first licensed in 1973, and went right to work for the club’s Field Day effort in ‘74 (Ken with black hair in white jacket). Ken was gruff and to the point- you knew where he stood! But in the tradition of ham radio, Ken was always there to help- including antenna work whenever anyone needed it! Ken was dedicated to our club- writing the original newsletters for years, and service as Secretary-Treasurer for years. Perhaps the largest footprint Ken left in Delaware County was the venerable 145.17 repeater bearing his callsign. We are taking steps to preserve the W8SMK call on this repeater as a memorial to Ken.

New Club Officer

I'm happy to announce that Larry AC8YE has been appointed Treasurer and Secretary by our Executive Committee. Larry will serve out the remainder of the Ken's 2021 term. I can't think of a better choice for the club, and am grateful to Larry for stepping forward to volunteer. Please welcome Larry to his new post. - Mike W8MDC PS: I'm sure there are a few checks in-transit for club dues. If you mailed in your dues and haven't seen the check clear, please bear with us. We'll get everything caught up shortly. Larry is also a lead digital guru for the club! He has put hours into the art of interfacing radios to transceivers, and can be heard on digital nets teaching and training. Larry’s call is also frequently heard on the Ohio ARES HF nets Tuesday evenings.

For Sale / Wanted

I am selling my Ameritron ALS-1306. The price is firm unless you are a member and no it doesn't go up. A member good buddy deal is $2000. I have always had good service from it and the only complaint was when I transmitted on 40m it would set off the security alarm for the basement door. A short fix to keep the alarm people from calling me was to put the basement door circuit in bypass but that didn't fix anything. I had the alarm guy come out and even he was stumped. It wasn't until I took the amp out of the rack mount where it's always been kept that I noticed something. The radio, amp and power supply all have grounding posts with wing nuts. The radio had a ground wire but the amp and it's power supply did not. I ran ground wires to the two units...separate wires and not daisy chained...and the alarming situation is now resolved. I might be able to work someone on 20m from the Delaware area. 40m might be better and 80m a diffident maybe if anyone wanted to hear the 7300 bare foot and then with the wattage pumped up a little...or a lot. Wally W8WLK