Radio Active Times, Issue 7, November 2025

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The official newsletter of the Handiham Radio Club. Issue 7, November 2025.

Greetings from the Editor

It is hard to believe we are near the end of the year; it feels like Easter was just last week. As I prepare for Thanksgiving, I can’t help but be so thankful to be part of a group like Handiham. It is such a delight and joy to see club members helping each other, not only with ham-related issues but with any other issues and concerns. What a great family to be part of. So to all my Handiham family, may you have a Thanksgiving filled with food, fun, family, friends and open frequencies.

Mélanie Carriveau, KN4ZSY, Editor in Chief

Contributions Wanted

If you have something related to ham radio or technology that you want to share with the club, please submit it to our Editor in Chief, Mélanie Carriveau, KN4ZSY. There is no deadline for submissions, and the submission guidelines are quite flexible.

HRC Daily Net Statistics for October 2025

By Jerry Maccoux, W0UH, HRC Net Manager

October marks the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2025, and we started the quarter by setting another milestone and breaking a couple of records.

On October 29, 2025, the HRC daily net checked in its five-thousandth station since the beginning of January. Marvin, KF0VBY, a Technician Class operator, checked in from Nebraska to help us reach this milestone. The week of October 27–31 marked our second milestone: 30 consecutive weeks with more than 100 checked-in stations.

This month we set 3 new records:

  • During the first week of October we logged 159 stations, passing our weekly record of 156 set in September. (Remember that the first two days of that week belonged to September.)
  • We logged 634 stations in October, passing September’s total of 627.
  • We held 28 nets in October, and 24 of them logged more than twenty checked-in stations.
Check-ins by net, October 2025
Net Check-ins
Monday 80
Tuesday 92
Wednesday morning 124
Wednesday evening 112
Thursday 111
Friday 115
Check-ins by week, October 2025
Week Check-ins
Week 1 (beginning Wednesday) 102
Week 2 132
Week 3 140
Week 4 128
Week 5 132
October total 634 (average 22.64 per net)

Net manager’s note: A major reason for the increase in check-ins is the number of new stations checking in. Club members are spreading the word about the HRC net, which also adds to our radio club’s growth. Thanks to every HRC daily net participant.

Be sure to drop in at 11:00 AM Central time, Monday through Friday, for our daily nets:

  • EchoLink: HANDIHAM conference server, node 494492
  • DMR: talkgroup TGIF, TG 3141
  • AllStar: node 473670

New Club Members

The following people have recently joined the club:

  • Robert Lowrence, N4VET
  • Anthony Vece, W2AJV
  • Kevin Roberts, KM4GGC

Welcome to all our new members!

Article 1: The Parasitic Array

By Jerry Maccoux, W0UH

The phrase “parasitic array” sounds ominous, off-putting, daunting and not very doable to many hams. My goal in this article is to reduce the fear around adding a parasitic array to your arsenal. At the very least, you’ll know how to put together a simple beam. For exact measurements, you might consult an online beam calculator.

The theory behind parasitic configurations is used acoustically every day. A guitar, for example, is tuned so that its strings reinforce one another: the four lowest strings are tuned E, A, D and G, each a musical fourth apart, which makes the guitar more resonant. Change that configuration, as some players do, and the guitar loses some of that resonance, which can give a stark effect. And if a guitar had only one string, its volume would drop greatly.

A parasitic configuration can increase signal strength, directionality and performance. Because arrays range from very simple to complex, you can build one that improves performance to whatever degree you want.

I created my first parasitic antenna by accident. It was an 11-meter dipole I had cut too short. I laid a longer piece of wire on my table and began absent-mindedly rolling it toward and away from the dipole, when I noticed the noise level on the CB increase. A ham friend told me that if I could fix it in place, I would have what radio operators call a two-element Yagi. Basically, a Yagi beam is a dipole fixed to a boom with another wire running parallel to it, cut to a length that makes it resonate along with the dipole.

Building a wire beam for 15 meters

Let’s pretend we want to improve our reception on 21.2727 MHz. A parasitic array, a beam, would do this nicely, with no need for an amplifier.

  1. Start by building a half-wave dipole for 21.2727 MHz. Divide 468 by 21.2727 and you get 22, so your dipole will be 22 feet long. Cut the wire in half, so each side is 11 feet long, a quarter wave at this frequency. Connect one side to the center conductor of your coax and the other side to the shield.
  2. To increase gain on transmit and receive, cut another piece of wire about 5 percent longer than your dipole. Five percent of 22 feet is about 1 foot 1 inch. Unlike the dipole, do not cut this wire in half.
  3. Hang the dipole between two poles. About a quarter wave (11 feet) away, hang the uncut wire between two poles.
  4. To add more gain, cut another piece of wire 5 percent shorter than the dipole and hang it between two poles about a quarter wave (11 feet) away, on the other side of the dipole.

Now you have a three-element beam. Each element has a name. The longest element is the reflector. The dipole is the driven element, meaning it connects directly to your transceiver through the feed line. The shortest element is the director. The two free elements, not connected to anything, resonate along with the driven element of your array.

To make this a rotatable beam, you would mount the elements on a boom. For larger antennas you don’t want to rotate, fixed wire installations work best.

Vertical arrays

The parasitic idea isn’t limited to dipole arrays. Operators on 10, 20 and 40 meters install two- or three-element vertical arrays. For 20 meters, the active vertical, the driven element, is about 16 feet 7 inches tall and connects directly to the transceiver. A director about 16 feet 1 inch tall is installed about a quarter wave, roughly 16 feet, away from it. It resonates, giving gain on both receive and transmit.

How much difference does it make?

A two-element beam typically gives about 3 dB more gain than a simple dipole, which is like doubling your transmitter power in the direction the beam faces. Its front-to-back ratio, how well it hears signals off the front compared with off the back, is often 10 dB or more. Each added director adds a little more gain.

Try a beam for 2 meters

  1. Make a half-wave driven element for 146.25 MHz: divide 468 by 146.25 to get the length in feet, then cut it in half for the two sides.
  2. Make a reflector 5 percent longer than the driven element.
  3. Attach the reflector at the back of the boom, and put the driven element (the dipole) about a quarter wave in front of the reflector.
  4. To make your beam stronger, add a director in front of the driven element, 5 percent shorter than the driven element. Keep adding directors until you get the performance you want.

If you install your beam with the elements pointing from the ground to the sky, that is a vertical installation. If the elements point, for example, from east to west, that is a horizontal installation.

Tuning your array

If you build a parasitic array, tune one element at a time.

  1. Make sure your driven element, the dipole, resonates where you want it.
  2. Add your reflector. Slide it along the boom until you get a good SWR; it should end up very close to a quarter wave from the driven element. Once you’ve found the best position, lengthen or shorten the reflector for the lowest SWR.
  3. Add your first director, sliding it along the boom to find the lowest SWR. You may need to tune this element a little. It will also be about a quarter wave from the driven element.

I build my booms out of PVC pipe and T fittings, and you can clamp the elements to the fittings with hose clamps. Connect your feed line to the dipole element by clamping each side of the feed line to each side of the dipole. Once the dipole is tuned for your frequency, wrap the connection with electrical tape, then silicone the snot out of it.

The beam I made was never measured with an SWR meter, because I hadn’t yet rejoined Handiham and had never heard of a talking wattmeter. I used it to improve my reception of NOAA weather radio. When I turned it toward the NOAA station I wanted, it was like hooking my receiver up to an amplifier. I did transmit on it several times. The radio I used is still on the air; it happens to be in cross-band repeat mode at this very moment, working well and doing fine. I may have to revisit another 2-meter beam.

Calendar of Upcoming Events

November 2025

  • November 17, 1500–2359 UTC: Celebrating the 154th birthday of the National Rifle Association. K7GST, Yavapai Amateur Radio Club, Paulden, Arizona. Frequencies: 7.250, 14.250, 21.335 MHz.
  • November 18–22, 0000–0000 UTC: K9L, club’s 66-year celebration. K9UXZ, National Trail Amateur Radio Club, Effingham, Illinois. Frequencies: 7.235, 14.235, 1.975 MHz.
  • November 21–30, 1600–2359 UTC: CACTUS special event. K7RST, Radio Society of Tucson, Tucson, Arizona. Frequencies: 14.038, 14.335 MHz.
  • November 21–22, 0000–2359 UTC: In support of the University of Southern Mississippi annual powwow. W0W, Pine Belt Amateur Radio Association, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Frequencies: 7.033, 14.033, 14.260 MHz; digital on any band.
  • November 25, 1100–1700 UTC: 100th anniversary of the first contact between Norway and the USA, by LA1A and 1YB. LA100A, Midt-Tromsgruppen av NRRL (LA6M), Sørreisa, Norway. SSB 14.320 and 21.280 MHz; CW 14.030 and 21.030 MHz.

December 2025

  • December 1–7, 0000–2359 UTC: QCWA anniversary special event. W2MM, Quarter Century Wireless Association, Sandpoint, Idaho. CW: 3.540, 7.035, 14.040, 21.050, 28.050 MHz. SSB: 3.810, 7.244, 14.262, 21.365, 28.325 MHz. Standard FT8 and FT4 frequencies.
  • December 1–11, 1300–2200 UTC: Pearl Harbor Day commemoration. W2W, Amateur Radio Club of the National Electronics Museum, Hunt Valley, Maryland. Frequencies: 14.241, 14.041, 7.241, 7.041 MHz.
  • December 6, 0000–2359 UTC: Christmas in Bethlehem. W9WWI, Clark County Amateur Radio Club of Indiana, Bethlehem, Indiana. Local repeater W9JBQ, 146.850 MHz, no tone; and 7.2 MHz.
  • December 7, 3:00 PM Central time: Handiham Radio Club Zoom meeting.
  • December 7, 1700–2200 UTC: Pearl Harbor Remembrance, USS Wisconsin on the air. N4WIS, USS Wisconsin ARC, Norfolk, Virginia. Frequencies: 14.264, 7.264, 7.064 MHz.
  • December 7, 1700–2100 UTC: Tubac, Arizona, Luminaria Nights. WE7GV, Green Valley Amateur Radio Club, Sahuarita, Arizona. Frequencies: 14.242, 14.250, 14.260 MHz.
  • December 11–14, 1400–2200 UTC: WX3MAS special event. WX3MAS, Christmas City ARC, Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Frequencies: 14.265, 7.270, 3.850 MHz.
  • December 13, 1430–2200 UTC: Ike’s Atoms for Peace anniversary. K3S, Nuclear Ship Savannah Amateur Radio Club, Port of Baltimore, Maryland. Bands: 40, 20, 17, 15 and 10 meters.
  • December 13, 1700–2359 UTC: Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. NI6IW, USS Midway Museum Ship, San Diego, California. Frequencies: 14.320, 7.250, 14.070 MHz; PSK31; D-STAR on Papa System repeaters.
  • December 18–19, 2359–0300 UTC: Annual 160-meter AM Night on the GCARA 1936 Net. NM4A, Greater Cincinnati Amateur Radio Association, Union, Kentucky. Frequency: 1.936 MHz.
  • December 19–24, 1500–2359 UTC: Christmas in Bethlehem, New Mexico. KC5OUR, Valencia County ARA, Peralta, New Mexico. Frequencies: 7.183, 14.283, 21.283, 28.383 MHz.

Handiham Radio Club Board, November 2025

  • President: Jerry Maccoux, W0UH
  • Vice President: Tom Behler, KB8TYJ
  • Secretary: Mélanie Carriveau, KN4ZSY
  • Treasurer and Handiham Program representative: Lucinda Moody, AB8WF
  • Immediate Past President: Linda Reeder, N7HVF
  • Technology Committee Chair: John Glass, NU6P
  • Outreach Committee Chair: Peter Atkinson, KD9VTU
  • First Member at Large: Darrell Horst, KM6KFW
  • Second Member at Large: Christoph Bungard, DF9WM

To reach the club or any board member, please contact the Handiham Radio Club through the Handiham Program.