Club builds 2-meter Slim Jim Antennas

The Rusk County Amateur Radio Club (and friends) had a "build night" last Thursday evening. The project was a 2-meter Slim Jim antenna built from 450-Ohm Ladder Line. The antenna is easy to build and rolls up small enough to fit in a large pocket or backpack.

"That was really a lot of fun and a great learning time for sure!" said club member Stephen Freeman.

The club purchased enough supplies for several antennas and everyone got involved! The most difficult part of the build was soldering the SO-239 Bulkhead connector to the antenna. A couple of antenna analysers were on hand to test the SWR and make the antenna perfect.

For more information about the antenna, see this website.

NWS Teaches Storm Spotting Class

There was a good crowd for storm spotting class last night at the Henderson Civic Center. Nearly three dozen people showed up for the annual class taught my a meteorologist from the Shreveport office of the National Weather Service. 

Several of those attending the class were firefighters or EMTs along with a several amateur radio operators. There were even a few teenagers on hand who wanted to learn more about weather. 

The class was a "combo" class which includes the basic storm spotter training along with parts of the advance-level training. Topics included cloud identification, the life-cycle of a thunderstorm, proper reporting methods and criteria and even a primer on reading sophisticated radar scans.