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MGRC White Noise Newsletter
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Maple Grove Radio Club
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If you are having trouble reading this newsletter in your email client try turning off "Dark Mode." Also, you can always read it online from the newsletter archives.
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MGRC Mission Statement
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Maple Grove Radio Club provides education to current and future amateur radio operators, with the goal of serving the public. We are a reliable communications resource for events and emergencies in Maple Grove and surrounding communities.
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President’s Message October 2023
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Thanks everybody who volunteered for the Twin Cities Marathon. This is the biggest ham radio public service event of the year in the metro. Although it was cancelled, we were ready to go. I would like to give a big shoutout to Stephen Cullen, KF0AED. He volunteered to assist organizing Net 1, but we didn’t have anybody else so we put him in charge, and he rose to the occasion
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Our other big volunteer event was the Osseo Lions Roar Parade. As usual, we did a great job. Jim and Ruth get better at this every year, and it goes more smoothly each time.
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The 2023 ARRL Minnesota State Convention is just around the corner. Although the early bird pricing has ended, you still have time to register. Don’t miss it!
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Gordon Patenaude, WA0WSR, Clay Bartholow, W0LED, and Paul Gilsdorf, KF0GEX, continue to teach our Labs class every month, and it’s getting very popular. They are currently studying SWR and feed lines, which will continue on Monday Oct 2nd. Contact Gordon to get in on the class.
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Get the word out, our General License Class will be on Monday evenings starting October 9th, for about 10 weeks. Contact me if you’d like to upgrade your tech license or would just like a review. We can also use help teaching, so if there’s a particular topic you’d like to teach let me know. The best way to learn something is to teach it! I’ll be sending out a syllabus with the schedule of topics soon.
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Originally published: January 3, 2022
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Revitalizing batteries by bringing ‘dead’ lithium back to life
Islands of inactive lithium creep like worms to reconnect with their electrodes, restoring a battery’s capacity and lifespan.
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Researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University may have found a way to revitalize rechargeable lithium batteries, potentially boosting the range of electric vehicles and battery life in next-gen electronic devices.
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As lithium batteries cycle, they accumulate little islands of inactive lithium that are cut off from the electrodes, decreasing the battery’s capacity to store charge. But the research team discovered that they could make this “dead” lithium creep like a worm toward one of the electrodes until it reconnects, partially reversing the unwanted process.
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Adding this extra step slowed the degradation of their test battery and increased its lifetime by nearly 30%.
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“We are now exploring the potential recovery of lost capacity in lithium-ion batteries using an extremely fast discharging step,” said Stanford postdoctoral fellow Fang Liu, the lead author of a study published Dec. 22 in Nature.
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An animation shows how charging and discharging a lithium battery test cell causes an island of “dead,” or detached, lithium metal to creep back and forth between the electrodes. The movement of lithium ions back and forth through the electrolyte creates areas of negative (blue) and positive (red) charge at the ends of the island, which swap places as the battery charges and discharges. Lithium metal accumulates at the negative end of the island and dissolves at the positive end; this continual growth and dissolution causes the back-and-forth movement seen here. SLAC and Stanford researchers discovered that adding a brief, high-current discharging step right after charging the battery nudges the island to grow in the direction of the anode, or negative electrode. Reconnecting with the anode brings the island’s dead lithium back to life and increases the battery’s lifetime by nearly 30%. (Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.)
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Lost connection
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A great deal of research is looking for ways to make rechargeable batteries with lighter weight, longer lifetimes, improved safety, and faster charging speeds than the lithium-ion technology currently used in cellphones, laptops and electric vehicles. A particular focus is on developing lithium-metal batteries, which could store more energy per volume or weight. For example, in electric cars, these next-generation batteries could increase the mileage per charge and possibly take up less trunk space.
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Both battery types use positively charged lithium ions that shuttle back and forth between the electrodes. Over time, some of the metallic lithium becomes electrochemically inactive, forming isolated islands of lithium that no longer connect with the electrodes. This results in a loss of capacity and is a particular problem for lithium-metal technology and for the fast charging of lithium-ion batteries.
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However, in the new study, the researchers demonstrated that they could mobilize and recover the isolated lithium to extend battery life.
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“I always thought of isolated lithium as bad, since it causes batteries to decay and even catch on fire,” said Yi Cui, a professor at Stanford and SLAC and investigator with the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Research (SIMES) who led the research. “But we have discovered how to electrically reconnect this ‘dead’ lithium with the negative electrode to reactivate it.”
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Creeping, not dead
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The idea for the study was born when Cui speculated that applying a voltage to a battery’s cathode and anode could make an isolated island of lithium physically move between the electrodes – a process his team has now confirmed with their experiments.
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The scientists fabricated an optical cell with a lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide (NMC) cathode, a lithium anode and an isolated lithium island in between. This test device allowed them to track in real time what happens inside a battery when in use.
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They discovered that the isolated lithium island wasn’t “dead” at all but responded to battery operations. When charging the cell, the island slowly moved towards the cathode; when discharging, it crept in the opposite direction.
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“It’s like a very slow worm that inches its head forward and pulls its tail in to move nanometer by nanometer,” Cui said. “In this case, it transports by dissolving away on one end and depositing material to the other end. If we can keep the lithium worm moving, it will eventually touch the anode and reestablish the electrical connection.”
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When an island of inactivated lithium metal travels to a battery’s anode, or negative electrode, and reconnects, it comes back to life, contributing electrons to the battery’s current flow and lithium ions for storing charge until it’s needed. The island moves by adding lithium metal at one end (blue) and dissolving it at the other end (red). Researchers from SLAC and Stanford discovered that they could drive the island’s growth in the direction of the anode by adding a brief, high-current discharging step right after the battery charges. Reconnecting the island to the anode increased the lifetime of their lithium-ion test cell by nearly 30%. (Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
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Boosting lifetime
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The results, which the scientists validated with other test batteries and through computer simulations, also demonstrate how isolated lithium could be recovered in a real battery by modifying the charging protocol.
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“We found that we can move the detached lithium toward the anode during discharging, and these motions are faster under higher currents,” said Liu. “So we added a fast, high-current discharging step right after the battery charges, which moved the isolated lithium far enough to reconnect it with the anode. This reactivates the lithium so it can participate in the life of the battery.”
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She added, “Our findings also have wide implications for the design and development of more robust lithium-metal batteries.”
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This work was funded by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Vehicle Technologies under the Battery Materials Research (BMR), Battery 500 Consortium and eXtreme Fast Charge Cell Evaluation of Li-ion batteries (XCEL) programs.
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SLAC is a vibrant multiprogram laboratory that explores how the universe works at the biggest, smallest and fastest scales and invents powerful tools used by scientists around the globe. With research spanning particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, materials, chemistry, bio- and energy sciences and scientific computing, we help solve real-world problems and advance the interests of the nation.
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SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science.
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Ref: https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2022-01-03-revitalizing-batteries-bringing-dead-lithium-back-life
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Maple Grove Radio Club in-person meetings!
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In-Person meetings are on the first Tuesday each month.
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The meeting starts at 1900 hrs (7:00pm CDT) at the Chester Bird American Legion Post 523 located at 200 Lilac Drive N Golden Valley, MN 55422. Here is a link for directions.
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Presentation by Will Oliver (KF0ADU) on the History of the Robbinsdale Club.
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Meeting ID: 948 0429 0777
Password: 674964
Phone: 1-312-626-6799
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MGRC Weekly Practice Net
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Our weekly Net is on Wednesdays at 20:200 UTC (8pm), on 147.000, positive offset, tone 114.8. We use directed Net protocol and will have a new question for discussion every week. Please call in if you can reach the K0LTC repeater.
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We need a Net operator for the 3rd Wednesday of the month. If you'd like to receive Net operator training please contact President@k0ltc.org.
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TALARC The American Legion Amateur Radio Club
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TALARC has approved MGRC members in good standing to be honorary TALARC members. If you are interested contact Stephen Cullen, KF0AED at kf0ade9@gmail.com. Please include your Name, Callsign, Email, and when you joined MGRC, if known.
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Classes
Lab Class
- 1st Monday of every month at 5pm
- The Lab Class will meet October 2nd at Gordon Patenaude's house: 10909 Independence Ave. N. Champlin, MN. 55316. Topic continues to be on S.W.R. and antennas. Please let Gordon know if you'll be coming.
Info: Gordon Patenaude - WA0WSR.
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General License Class, Fall 2023
- ‼️Monday evenings starting October 9th, for about 10 weeks.
- To get answers to your questions, email registrar@mnyarc.org
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MGRC COMMITTEES AT WORK
BUILDING COMMITTEE
Chair: Jerry Dorf – N0FWG
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- Next meeting - Lot's to discuss!
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First Thursday 6:30 October 5th.
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See calendar for details.
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TALARC
Chair: Tim Arimond – N0BYH
o Shack is operational with HF and VHF/UHF stations.
o Honorary memberships.
▪ Contact Stephen Cullen if interested. KF0AED9@gmail.com
▪ Just need to be an MGRC member in good standing to be eligible
o Meetings 4th Thursday of each month at 7pm.
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October Club Calendar of Events
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Board Members
• President: Benton Jackson – K0BHJ (2018)
• Vice President: Zack Whitney – K0ZTW (2021)
• Secretary: William Oliver – KF0ADU (2022)
• Treasurer: Paul Odens – K0AID (2023)
• Trustee K0LTC: Jerry Dorf – N0FWG
• Board Member: Tim Georgi – KD0SFH (2018)
• Board Member: Kelly Murphy – KB0LTY (2019)
• Board Member: Clay Bartholow – W0LED (2021)
• Board Member: David Englund – K0NOC (2022)
• Board Member: Gordon Patenaude – WA0WSR (2023)
• Board Member: Stephen Cullen – KF0AED (2023)
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