The club periodically holds workshop/seminar/build sessions, typically on the 4th Wednesday of the month.
Workshops are intended to be educational. Some involve an activity such as building or practicing operating procedures, others are presentations by subject matter experts, and still others consist of roundtable discussions on technical topics.
Handout materials (usually PowerPoint presentations) and/or video generated for workshops are made available here. This is particularly useful when handouts contain links to web pages or documents.
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Date |
Title |
Description |
Presenters |
| 1/22/2025 | An End Fed Random Wire Antenna | Theory of a portable/temporary operations antenna that uses a 9:1 transformer to be built in a future in-person session at the clubhouse. | Randy WB4SPB |
| 5/22/2024 | Field Day Search and Pounce | Search & Pounce operating for Field Day | Randy WB4SPB |
| 1/24/2024 | Numbers Stations | The W7OS intercept agents participated in a cold-war throwback cryptography exercise sponsored by the Marine Radio Historical Society -- a description of the exercise. | Randy WB4SPB |
| 5/24/2023 | Propagation under a more active sun | Propagation fundamentals and implications of Cycle 25's increased activity. | Randy WB4SPB |
| 4/26/2023 | Field Day Operating 2023 | Search & Pounce (primarily) operating for Field Day. | Randy WB4SPB |
| 11/23/2022 | The 60M Band | Operating on 60M | Randy WB4SPB |
| 10/26/2022 | W7OS Museum radioset assembly considerations | All the things Museum operators have to think about when putting together a classic radioset from our various assets. | Randy WB4SPB, Dan KD7SV |
| 7/27/2022 | Rig Interfacing | An overview of computer<>radio interface considerations, informed by our recent Field Day activities. | Randy WB4SPB |
| 4/27/2022 | Parks On The Air operating | An overview of POTA operations and suitable logging applications. | BJ KO7T |
| 3/23/2022 | Resources for Monitoring Propagation | A look at resources available online for predictive, passive and active research into HF conditions. | Randy WB4SPB |
| 5/26/2021 | Evaluating RF Exposure | New FCC rules in effect on 5/3/21 require most of us to evaluate RF exposure using the same standards that apply to other radio services. The good news is that online calculators usually make this pretty easy. | Randy WB4SPB |
| 3/24/2021 | Understanding Receiver Weak Signal Performance In the Presence of Strong Signals | We exploit portions of a YouTube video by Rob Sherwood NC0B (link found in the slide deck) to learn about receiver performance and interpreting his test data. |
Steve AF7YD Randy WB4SPB |
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8/26/2020 |
Equipment, signals, RFI, cables, connectors: a great introduction to the way typical cable systems are put together (video: ~90 minutes). |
Patrick K7DKP |
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| 6/24/2020 | Field Day Search & Pounce operating | Tips for Search and Pounce operation on Field Day. | Randy WB4SPB |
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5/27/2020 |
Steps to get N1MM+ ready for your Field Day at home. |
Randy WB4SPB |
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1/22/2020 |
An orientation for new Technician-class operators. |
Randy WB4SPB Verna KF7SCB |
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10/24/2018 |
IRLP procedures and etiquette |
Randy WB4SPB |
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3/28/2018 |
An orientation for new hams or those who have upgraded or newly become active. |
Randy WB4SPB |
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10/25/2017 |
An introduction to the use of plastic breadboards to design and prototype circuits. |
Mike W7MWF |
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1/25/2017 |
An reprise and update to the presentation of February 2016: |
Randy WB4SPB |
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12/28/2016 |
Targeted at new hams and at those who may have been licensed for a while but haven't been sure what to do next |
Randy WB4SPB |
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5/25/2016 |
Field Day operation |
Randy WB4SPB |
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4/27/2016 |
Transmission lines and other features of 4NEC2 |
Randy WB4SPB |
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3/23/2016 |
Advanced topics using the free software program 4NEC2 to analyze the performance of various types of HF antennas. |
Randy WB4SPB |
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2/24/2016 |
Using the free software program 4NEC2 to analyze the performance of various types of HF antennas. |
Randy WB4SPB |
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9/23/2015 |
An introduction to amateur radio and the Radio Club of Tacoma |
Mike W7MWF |
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8/26/2015 |
A look at the club website from the "admin" perspective ... |
Joe K7ZG |
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5/27/2015 |
Workshop materials explain all about Field Day and plans to have W7DK on the air in Class 6A at Western State Hospital site June 27-28, 2015. |
Rich KR7W, Randy WB4SPB |
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4/22/2015 |
LTSpice for Hams - workshop |
Bob AD7WU |
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3/25/2015 |
Propagation Workshop |
This month’s topic: A Propagation Primer - We'll discuss the basics of ionospheric propagation for HF communication, and we'll look at some Internet tools that hams can use to predict propagation or observe it in realtime. |
Randy WB4SPB, Mike W7MWF |
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2/25/2015 |
Click on the link to the left and download a pdf file with 58 pages of useful info that will help you design simple antennas for the HF bands. |
Randy WB4SPB, et al |
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11/26/2014 |
An introduction to training software and various internet and on-air resources for building code skills. |
Randy WB4SPB, Rich KR7W, Mike W7MWF |
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8/27/2014 |
CW Operations Workshop |
Workshop materials include: |
Rich KR7W Randy WB4SPB |
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6/25/2014 |
“Using the Internet to enhance your ham radio experience” -- Especially for the newly licensed: a jump-start on internet resources already found and used by experienced hams. |
Randy WB4SPB, Dave W7HTJ, Mike W7MWF |
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5/28/2014 |
Get Ready for Field Day |
Introduction to Field Day rules, procedures and actual operating/ logging practice using radio sets in the clubhouse |
Rich KR7W, Bruce WE7P, Mike W7MWF |
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4/23/2014 |
From Picnic Table to Peak |
A discussion of portable operation using light-weight equipment in various environments, with pictures! |
Rich KR7W |
