W8UM Amateur Radio Club held a meeting on November 11, 2010 (Thursday), at 6:30 pm in 1200 EECS on North Campus. We invited Dr. Anthony. W England (W0ORE) to give us a talk on "Amateur Radio Woven Through My Career as a Geophysicist". Dr. Anthony. W England is an AOSS and EECS Professor at the University of Michigan and former NASA Astronaut. His research interests are in radiative transfer and remote sensing. He is the second ham-astronaut in space and flew aboard shuttle Challenger in 1985. He had on board both Amateur Radio voice and TV capability. Signals sent from W5RRR at the Johnson Space Center to his spacecraft were the first live ham TV signals ever received aboard a shuttle. The pictures he transmitted from space to school and scout children as part of the SAREX operation were the first ever ham pictures from space to ground. The abstract of his talk is shown below:

~~~~~~~  Abstract of the talk  ~~~~~~~

The presentation on "satellite communications" is designed to provide a broad introduction into this method of radio communications. The content of the presentation is directed towards the novice radio enthusiast and will provide the information necessary to access the many amateur radio satellites that predictably circle the globe each day. The content of the presentation will include an overview of satellite classification, tracking and operating satellites, and what type of radio you need to make your first satellite contact. The slides of the presentation can be found here

W8UM Amateur Radio Club held its next monthly meeting on October 14, 2010 (Thursday), at 6:30 pm in 1311 EECS on North Campus. We've asked John Palmisano (KB8OIS), a research technician assistant at the UM Hospital to present a talk on "satellite communications". The abstract is shown below:

~~~~~~~  Abstract of the talk  ~~~~~~~

The presentation on "satellite communications" is designed to provide a broad introduction into this method of radio communications. The content of the presentation is directed towards the novice radio enthusiast and will provide the information necessary to access the many amateur radio satellites that predictably circle the globe each day. The content of the presentation will include an overview of satellite classification, tracking and operating satellites, and what type of radio you need to make your first satellite contact. The slides of the presentation can be found here

The first meeting of the W8UM Amateur Radio Club was held on September 30, 2010 (Thursday), at 6:30 pm in 1014 Dow on North Campus. Those who were radio hams were able to ragchew with fellow radio hams, while those who were not were given an opportunity to learn more about ham radio and everyone were given the opportunity to learn more about the Club, its facilities and helped decide what activities the Club should pursue this year.

As part of the agenda we asked Prof. William Becher (AA8RW), a fellow radio ham and retired adjunct EECS professor, to acquaint us with some of the exciting activities the Club might undertake this year along with a brief overview of the Club. He explained the simple path to becoming an FCC licensed ham radio operator. Also on the agenda was a tour of the Club radio shack by Steve Culp (K8QKY), our Club station manager.

Professor Christopher S. Ruf presented a talk on "The Discovery of Lightning on Mars with a Radio Telescope" during our meeting on April 15, 2010 at 6:30pm in EECS 3427. You can find out more about him from his website. We also held a Vice President election during the meeting.

~~~~~~~  Abstract of the talk  ~~~~~~~

Observations of Mars by a specially modified 34m radio telescope made during a large dust storm on the planet show clear signs of strong and sudden bursts of electrical discharge, i.e. lightning. The telescope was modified using a high order moment (kurtosis) microwave detector that was developed for other reasons - to detect the presence of low level radio interference in terrestrial passive microwave observations of thermal emission from low earth orbit. The kurtosis detector was fortuitously also able to discriminate between Mars' thermal emission and non-thermal emission by the lightning. Spectral features of the kurtosis measurements suggest that Schumann Resonance fields are present and that they are modulating the lightning.

Professor Edwin Olson (KB0IJO) gave a talk on Multi-robot Communication and Coordination for the MAGIC 2010 Robotics Competition during our meeting on March 11, 2010 at 6:30pm in EECS 3433. You can find out more about him from his website.

~~~~~~~  Abstract of the talk  ~~~~~~~

Addressing a desire to replace humans with robots in dangerous combat situations, the Department of Defense has organized a robotics competition to accelerate the development of autonomous robotics algorithms. The APRIL robotics lab, in the University of Michigan's Computer Science and Engineering department, is competing with a team of robots capable of autonomously exploring and mapping an urban environment (indoors and outdoors), identifying and pursuing suspects, and disarming improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Using a large number of robots allows the system to complete missions more rapidly, but creates a number of coordination and communication challenges. In this talk, I will give an overview of the competition, as well as describe how our robots coordinate. I will address several engineering issues critical to success, including message passing protocols, packet routing, and how we make use of a heterogeneous set of radios on each robot.

Photos courtesy of Zihong Lian, KD8MLT

Photos courtesy of Chunpeng Wang, BG6CCQ /KD8MLS

Photos courtesy of Zihong Lian, KD8MLT

We were able to start repairs of the satellite antenna last Saturday (23 Jan). The repairs were needed due it being completely wrapped up on itself from being rotated too far. We found that the coax lines for the 70cm and 2m antennas were damaged beyond repair and needed to be replaced. We also found that the control lines for rotation motor were in question so we removed everything and brought it down to the shack for further repairs. Pictures follow:

W8UM went to the Hazel park ham fest on Sunday, January 17th and boy was it a blast! We took all of our excess equipment and donated supplies that we had no need for and sold a majority of it! All told, we made a profit of over $300 which will go directly to fueling the club in future activities.

The shack has a plethora of space left over and we will be going in soon to give it the white-glove treatment!

Pictures of the Ham Fest are Coming Soon...

The new W8UM Tower and HF/VHF/UHF antenna system was erected on Monday July 30, 2007. Have a look at the Tower Construction page to see photos of the tower and antennas going up on top of the EECS building.

The new tower and W8UM station overhaul was made possible through the generous support of the College of Engineering, EECS Department, and the club's alumni and current club members. Thank you for your support!

A view of the tower and the Yagi-Uda antenna arrays (photo Mark WD8DPA)

Field Day 2007, a mighty success!

The ARROW/UM-ARC clubs had another great Field Day out at Domino's Farms. Stay tuned for results. The UM-ARC team with notable ops Dennis KT8X, Steve K8QKY, Richard KD8APA maintained high QSO rates on the HF bands using the U-M Microwave Geophysics vehicle equipped with the club's CL-33 Yagi-Uda on a custom rotating mount (courtesty Dave WS8P).