Dan Pooler (AC1EN), a teacher at Hudson Memorial School in Hudson, NH, and a Nashua Area Radio Society member, worked with the school and other NARS members to present an exhibit to students and their families promoting HAM Radio and highlighting some of the activities of our club to them. Dan reported that “STEM Night at HMS was a big success.
HMS Steam Night
We had over 100 5-8th graders attend the HMS STEM Night, with over 400 people attending the event. Students and their families could watch SubZero Ice Cream demonstrate how they created ice cream, learn how pickles are made, program robots, shoot off Alka Selzer Rockets, make math art, and play games with family and friends along with visiting the NARS booth.”
Lining up for HAB Exhibit
Fred Kemmerer (AB1OC): shown here explaining aspects of our High-Altitude Balloon activities to some students. Anita Kemmerer (AB1QB), Mackenzie Pooler (KE1NZY), and Sam Hergenhahn (KC1PVZ) also participated at the event .
This big
Dan Pooler (on the left) at the High-Altitude Balloon exhibit.
Morse Code Exhibit
NARS Exhibits at Hudson Memorial School STEM Night
Our exhibits included:
A Fox Hunting display
A remote HF Radio Station, where students heard amateur radio operators from Australia, Greece, Lebanon and other countries.
An ISS /Satellite exhibit including a Raspberry-Pi based video of the HMS ISS contact video,
A Morse Code display with keys and practice exercises.
A High-Altitude Balloon display
Remote HF Radio Station
Special thanks and appreciation to NARS Vice President Jamey Finchum (AC1DC), who worked with Dan and the school to plan NARS’ participation in the event.. Thanks also to Fred (AB1OC) and Anita (AB1QB) Kemmerer, who graciously took the time to provide the displays and attend and share their love of the hobby with the students and their families.
HMS Principal Keith Bowen told me in an email after the event, “It was great having your group participate in our STEAM night. Students and families enjoyed their experiences.”
Hudson Memorial School will also be the location for NARS Summer Field Day 2023. Please check the forums on n1fd.org for updated info.
The Astron SS-30M is a popular metered, switching power supply rated at 30 A. It is commonly used to power 100W radios.
In spite of a ubiquitous changeover to LED illumination, Astron persisted in using incandescent illumination in their power supply meters until a few years ago.
This article discusses the replacement of incandescent bulbs in power supply metering with LED illumination.
Caution. Before proceeding with any disassembly, verify that the line cord has been unplugged from the power supply, or from the wall outlet. There is no isolation transformer in these switching supplies, so it is particularly dangerous. The cover is fastened with Torx screws to prevent tampering.
Procedure
Upon opening an older Astron SS-30M [1] power supply, it was discovered that the meter scale backlighting bulbs could not be replaced without meter disassembly. That got me thinking about whether I could install my own incandescent bulbs or LEDs to replace what was inside the meter housings.
When I checked the Astron website, I found that retrofit circuit boards [2] to backlight these meters were being offered for $3 each. The boards come complete with integral, white, surface-mounted LEDs, integral dropping resistors, and wiring pigtails. I immediately ordered two of them. This was a lot easier than retrofitting the old circuit boards with new LED bulbs and dropping resistors.
Meter disassembly is shown in Figure 1. The meters may be removed with their wiring harnesses and connectors intact. No desoldering is required to remove the meters from the next higher assembly. It is suggested that one of the harnesses and its mating connector be marked so that identification is easier during reassembly.
The meters are held to the power supply face with four spring clips (shown). These must be removed before the meters can be removed from the power supply face. Once the meters have been removed, the two screws that clamp each of the meters faces to the meter cases are removed (shown). Then, the meter faces may be swung upward to expose the meter movements. Care should be taken during this operation to remove any epoxy, RTV or plastic cement from the seam that holds the front face of the meter to the plastic meter housing. This may be done with a sharp blade. Once removed, each of the meter faces is set aside with its matching meter movement.
Figure 1. Astron SS-30M Power Supply Meter Disassembly. Take care when disassembling the meters so that the meter needles aren’t bent. Pair the meter scales with the correct meter movements. The current meter is to the left and the voltage meter is to the right. If an incorrect meter scale is paired with the wrong meter movement, one of the meter harnesses will not be long enough to reach the correct chassis connector.
The next step is to remove the meter scale. It is fastened to the meter movement with two small screws. I grasped both sides of the meter scale with one hand while removing these screws with a jeweler’s screwdriver to prevent the scale from moving and damaging the meter needle. Once the meter scale has been removed, the internal meter movement and backlight bulbs are visible. The backlight bulb printed circuit board is held to the meter case with one small screw. This screw is removed with a jeweler’s screwdriver. Again, take care not to damage the meter needle.
Next, the printed circuit board is pulled up and away from the meter movement without touching the needle. Once out of the meter movement, the wires that power the board are snipped close to the old circuit board to leave the pigtails connected to the meter housing. The polarity of the lamp wiring is evident from the wire colors outside the meter case. In my supply, pink is used for the positive lead and black for the negative lead.
After stripping the insulation from the pigtails and tinning them, the new LED circuit boards were installed. A short length of very fine shrink tubing was slipped over each of the pigtails that had been soldered to the new circuit board at the factory. Next, the old pigtails were soldered to the new pigtails by paying close attention to the polarities. The pigtails on the retrofit are red and black.
Once soldered, the shrink tubing is slipped over each splice to prevent any chance of a short circuit between the meter circuit and the lighting circuit. Don’t heat gun the shrink tubing without protecting the meter movement. If the tubing is small enough, it may not be necessary to shrink the tubing at all.
Next, it was time to install the new circuit board in the rear meter housing. Care should be taken to protect the meter needle from the spliced leads when the board is installed with one screw. Once installed, any extra wire may be stuffed underneath the circuit board with a pair of long needle nose pliers.
Finally, the meter face is swung down over the rear meter housing, and the meter face is fastened to the rear meter housing with the original screws.
Once the meters have been reinstalled with the spring clips that hold the meters to the front panel, reconnect the meter wiring harnesses to the correct chassis connectors.
The next step is to fasten the top cover to the power supply with four Torx screws. Once closed up, an AC power cord may be connected and the supply may be powered up. If everything has been wired correctly and the wiring harnesses have been plugged into the correct sockets on the chassis, the meters should be illuminated with bright white light and the voltage meter should read what the supply was set to prior to disassembly. See Figure 2.
Figure 2. Astron SS-30M LED Meter Backlight Retrofit Completed. The OEM incandescent meter bulbs have been replaced with OEM LED bulbs supplied as a replacement part by Astron. It appears as though the left meter is illuminated by different color LEDs. That is not an artifact. When I checked my newer LED illuminated supply meters, the color and brightness were not a perfect match.
2023 Field Day is ham radio’s open house. Every June, more than 40,000 hams throughout North America set up temporary transmitting stations in public places to demonstrate ham radio’s science, skill, and service to our communities and our nation. It combines public service, emergency preparedness, community outreach, and technical skills all in a single event. Field Day has been an annual event since 1933 and remains the most popular event in ham radio. ARRL Field Day is always held on the 4th full weekend in June.
NARS 2023 Field Day preparations are beginning now. Field Day has been a very important part of our club and even though it is not a competition, we have had top results for many years. Our club call sign is N1FD, we often use these phonetics for it: Number One Field Day. In 2021 the ARRL and NARS got together to promote Field Day and we were on the cover of QST magazine.
Field Day Cover
Here is an article about last year’s Field Day to give you a better idea about the event.
Field Day can be a complex project.
Field Day provides clubs with a number of opportunities. The obvious is to have a chance for members to gather and operate together. The event also provides a chance for members to participate in a complex group project. Some of us had experience with projects of similar complexity in our careers but others never did. Working together collaboratively on a project like this is a good basis for friendship and memories of the shared experience are long-lasting. From the initial planning until the last piece of equipment is returned to storage this is a team effort.
Team effort
Building Skillsets in the Club.
One of our goals as a club is to build a skill set within the club that persists as members move in and out of active participation in these activities. We have members this year who have years of past experience doing this and others for whom this is their first exposure to it. Members who were prime contributors a few years ago may no longer participate. After this Field Day, we will have a new core of experienced members who can handle these tasks and share their own experiences to mentor the new members who will follow them. We strive to build a culture that continues to promote the continued building of the required skills in the club to share with future members.
Joe and Lee
Lee KC1GKJ and Joe AC1LN were members of NARS for less than a year when they became the Station Team for 2022 Summer Field Day. Joe took on the role of Team Lead. Fred AB1OC provided training on station setup and shortly after they tested their newfound skills and created a full-scale test setup in Joe’s basement of the stations prior to Field Day. Lee is the former Treasurer of the club and Joe is the current Treasurer. They both became known to the club via their participation in Field Day and their leadership in the event translated into leadership in the club.
Training and Mentoring
Training and Mentoring are an important part of Field Day. We have helped many new members to become licensed in the past year, but it is important to help them get on the air as well. Field Day is a great opportunity for new Hams to help out with building stations and develop operating skills. The Nashua Area Radio Society accomplishes this through training and hands-on opportunities during Field Day. We encourage you to sign up to operate our stations and to learn about modes and bands you may not have experience with. In addition to our planned training, we will have Field Day Coaches available to help you get started and learn to use our Station and have fun operating.
Ben GOTA
Matt WE1H is coaching Ben on the GOTA station while Aron W1AKI looks on. Ben made numerous contacts and received a Certificate of Achievement from the club to commemorate his accomplishment. Matt joined NARS in January 2022 and is now the Membership Chair on the Executive Committee.
Planning
For a successful Field Day operation, it is important to have a detailed plan for stations, antennas, operating schedules, transportation, and even food. Prior to Field Day we will identify teams to be responsible for setting up the stations, logging computers, and the network to make sure they all work together. Other teams will prepare to test antennas and also train on how to set up the antennas, rotators, and towers. The same process will take place for each of the different teams involved with Field Day. Here are the major teams:
Planning Team
Transport Team
Beam Team
Safety Team
Power Team
Station Team
Shelter Team
Tower Team
Media Publicity Team
Food Team
Scoring Team
If this sounds like a lot of work, it is. It is also a lot of fun. Sharing this experience is a great way to build friendships along with complex radio stations. If you have any interest in joining us in this event, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected]. We will make sure you can be involved at whatever level you want and will share all our skills to make sure you can do it. We can turn “I don’t know how to do that” into “I didn’t know how to do that, but I do now”.
Community Involvement
Field Day is a very public event and in addition to inviting the general public to visit us on site and join in our operations we also find many who support our Field Day efforts with donations. We are proud that so many businesses in our community support us.
Community Support
We value their support and make sure they know that we appreciate them. Here John W1SMN and Jon AC1EV present Bill of Donna’s Donuts in Tewksbury, MA with a certificate of appreciation.
Certificate of appreciation
Operating
Field Day operating begins at 2:00 PM on Saturday and continues for 24 hours ending at 2:00 PM on Sunday. This presents many time slots to come and operate. Here is Mike W1TKO operating on 40-Meters during the day.
Mike W1TKO operating.
Here is Jon AC1EV operating at night.
Night Operator
The rest of the story
We are looking for members to join our Field Day teams and take leadership roles. NARS has the skills and resources to create a successful, fun event. This is a chance for members to acquire new skills and share their own skills with us. Many of the current leaders in the club became leaders through their participation in Field Day.
My own experience is the same. After visiting Field Day in 2018, I said to myself that I needed to be a part of the next one. In 2019 I was responsible for multiple stations. Beginning with Field Day I became an active member of the club and in November 2019 became Acting Secretary and was elected as Secretary that December. Today I have been President of NARS for over a year. Field Day was the gateway of my incredible experience with NARS. I’ve made many new friends and learned so much about Ham Radio. Through the club, I have been able to experience so many things that I would never have been able to on my own and it all started with Field Day. We look forward to having you join us this year to work together to create a great event and memories that can last a lifetime.
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