President’s Message

This month I had planned to write about my first time participating in the CQ World Wide contest but, with everything that’s going on around us, it seems a little superficial.

It’s been a difficult week for us here in the Conejo Valley.  First, of course, there was the horrific incident at the Borderline Bar & Grill, and now the fires. 

I’m sure many of us have spent countless hours, these last few days, gathering and exchanging information by watching the TV news, checking the internet, and calling/texting/tweeting our family members and friends.  The VCFD, VC Scanner and Ben Kuo-AI6YRs Twitter feeds have been especially helpful in monitoring the situation, as are websites like VCemergency.com and even Facebook

Of course, many of us likely spent a fair amount of time monitoring our radios.  It’s great that, as hams, we’re able to monitor police and fire frequencies to stay informed.  It’s also helpful to be able to exchange information about fire activity and road closures with other hams on Bozo and other local repeaters.  Thanks to Zak Cohen-N6PK, Stu Sheldon-AG6AG, Kat Hunley-K6VQN, Todd Kleopfer-KD6RCM, Arie Izhak-WA6RIE, and Ben Kuo-AI6YR for their work and contributions.

Times like this remind us how important it is to prepare.  Some people always have “go bags” packed with clothes, toiletries, medicines and other essentials, and are always ready to go.  If you do, you should probably change out items, perhaps seasonally or, if you have young children, annually as sizes change.  You might want to make a checklist of things to take with you; photo albums, important papers, computers or hard drives.  You might consider putting important papers on a thumb drive or adding them into a secure app on your phone, such as 1Password.  Take stock of the dry and canned food you have on hand, and supplement as needed.  Put together a kit for your cars.  Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Thank you to all the police and firefighters.  Stay safe, my friends.

73,

Stu-AD6SF

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