Andy Ludlum – K6AGL

Summer is already winding down and CVARC’s “Summer” Picnic is going to fall just on the wrong side of the Equinox! The picnic will be Saturday, September 24th from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. We’ve reserved the picnic area just north of Thousand Oaks High School – the same spot where we had our Winter Field Day in January. The address is 2525 Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks.

We’re planning on doing a little operating and a lot of eating and socializing. The club will provide a picnic lunch of sandwich wraps, potato salad, fruit salad, chips & dips as well as soft drinks. If you have a favorite side or desert you’d like to share, bring it along! There’s no charge for CVARC members and guests.

You can come as early as 8 a.m. to set up your radios. We’ll have AC power and we’ll be setting up a tri-band beam antenna that will be available to all. Bring whatever gear you’ve been wanting to experiment with. The picnic is all about having fun with the hobby.

We’re still working out final details, but the annual CVARC Holiday Party will be Thursday, December 1st at the Best Western Posada Royale Hotel and Suites in Simi Valley. We’ll have menu details and costs soon.

We will have two raffles at the party. First, from all the tickets that have been sold for the monthly club meeting raffle, we’ll select the winner of a donated Yaesu FT-7900 Dual Band Mobile Transceiver. You must be present at the party to win this prize.

We will also have a larger, special prize raffle. While we will pick the winning ticket at the party, you will NOT need to be present to win. We saw how many of you were eying the goodies our June speaker – Kevin Zanjani of Bioenno Power – brought with him. Tim Wheeler – K6POI worked with Kevin and selected a nice solar/battery package for our special raffle.

It will include:
80 Watt Foldable Solar Panel for Charging Power Packs (BSP-80)
12V, 12Ah LFP Battery (ABS, BLF-1212WS) – Battery & Charger (2A)
12V/24V, 30A Solar Charge Controller for LiFePO4 Batteries (SC-122430T)
It’s a great package - a $330 value - that will allow you to take your radio anywhere. We’ll begin selling $10 tickets to get into this raffle starting at the September 15th meeting.

Christian Ylagan-K6CAY will not be at the September meeting, he’s out of town for his son’s wedding, congratulations! But, I will have all the equipment necessary for you to purchase raffle tickets or pay dues by cash, check or credit card.

As I’ve mentioned, we’re already at work planning programs for 2017. It’s also time to begin looking for members willing to serve on the CVARC Board for January to December 2017. It may seem a bit early to begin thinking about this, but we like to present a slate of candidates for the Board at our October 20th meeting and then we vote at the November 17th meeting. Additional nominees can be made from the floor at either meeting.

I know a number of board members, including myself, plan to stand for reelection. But others will choose a different role or want to move on to other things which creates opportunities for new people to join the Board.

It doesn’t take a lot of time. You don’t have to have a long history with the club or great technical knowledge. In fact, there are plenty of former Board members who can help you with advice on any position. I’ve found being on the Board to be both interesting and fun. You can see the duties of the various Board positions in CVARC’s bylaws on our website. Whether or not you choose to run, please participate in the process as the Board members are elected to make decisions on behalf of you, the club’s membership.

73,
Andy-K6AGL