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August 222MHz and Up Distance Contest

From the top of Tarantula Hill, N6ZE/R made a few evening contacts on 70 cm, including one with W6JWP.

By Pete Heins-N6ZE

For several reasons, the August 222MHz and Up Distance Contest was a unique and different contest for me. Several clubs in the local area had made special plans to help less experienced hams gain operating experience by utilizing 2 meter handhelds and mobile rigs to make QSOs during this year’s COVID-19-modified Field Day. They also encouraged operation on 6 and 2 meters during the “CQ VHF Contest.” For this reason, I heavily promoted this year’s “ARRL 222 MHz and Up Distance Contest” to encourage local area stations to participate and gain more experience in this part of the hobby.

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Saturday Swap Meet Taking Off

The on-air swap meet after the Saturday morning “Bored Net” is growing with new items added every week. The swap meet is managed by Keith Elliott-W6KME and follows the 9 A.M. net on the Bozo repeater (147.885, minus offset, 127.3.) Check out available items through this link to an updated spreadsheet. Contact Keith at W6KME@arrl.net for more information.

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August 9th VE Session Cancelled

The August 9th VE session has been cancelled. We still do not have access to the Community Room at the East County Sheriff’s Station.  Other (outdoor) locations are not yet available and our first priority is to provide a safe environment for both examinees and VEs.

If you are interested in getting a license or an upgrade, you do have the option a taking a fully-remote exam. The program runs well and you should be able to get a license/upgrade in a timely manner. Because of the complexity of setting up these testing sessions, they do ask that only examinees who are consistently passing practice exams sign up for the remote exams. For more information go to https://blog.hamstudy.org/2020/06/so-you-want-to-take-a-remote-exam/.

For more information contact the CVARC VE Coordinator Andy Ludlum-K6AGL at k6agl@cvarc.org

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Ham radio and emergency comms: Filling the USGS ‘donut hole’; (via ITU News)

By Adam Davidson, W9AS (This article is republished with permission of the author and the Amateur Radio Safety Foundation, Inc.)

On July 2nd, shortly before midnight local time in Hawaii, a dozen amateur radio operators did something nobody had ever done before—something that shows the best in amateur radio and could herald a transformation in the role ‘hams’ (another name

Source: ITU News

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Field Day Results

Martin Hickey-AJ6CL distributed a survey to operators from the various clubs across the county to collect numbers of QSO’s made in order to highlight the accomplishments of hams in Ventura County. This informal survey is independent of the scores that operators submitted to the ARRL as official Field Day entries. Official Field Day results are published in the December issue of QST.

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Multiband TV Rabbit Ear Antenna

Extend rabbit ears to 17” or so for 2 meter use; for 6 meters,  use the rabbit ears fully extended and add 12” clip lead at ends of the dipole. (Channel 2 TV used frequencies just a bit higher in frequency than the 6 meter band.) Use power meter, SWR bridge, or internal metering in the transceiver to achieve lowest VSWR. Meant for QRP use only! Plastic Schedule 40 PVC pipe in one-foot sections, with PVC couplings, makes for a simple mast, which can be put in a suitcase for travel or in a day pack for hill-topping/SOTA use. – Pete, N6ZE