Category: President’s Message

Hello CVARC members, families, and guests!

May is upon us and a very busy month for amateur radio in Ventura County. We have the Ride to Defeat ALS, the CVARC J-Pole Build, and the Mountains to Beach Marathon. If you have not volunteered for an event before, these events are a great way to get started. 

Congratulations to the 20 newly licensed/upgraded operators from the CVARC VE Session held on April 16^th. We look forward to hearing you all on the air soon!

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Hello CVARC members, families, and guests!

It’s April and you know what that means, ARRL Field Day 2023 is three months away.
That means is time to start getting your gear in order, testing setups, batteries, radios, computers, and antennas.  June 24^th will be here before you know it! 

The CVARC General meeting is Thursday April 20^th at 7:30 P.M. The topic: The Evolution of CW. Our very own Norm Campbell-AB6ET looks at how wired telegraphic electromagnetism evolved into wireless electromagnetic CW radio waves.

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Hello CVARC members, families, and guests!

What at crazy February we all had. Rain, wind and snow! Make sure to keep your batteries charged and stations in peak operational condition. Daylight saving time starts March 12^th. It is a great time to check batteries, smoke detectors, refresh go bags, check dates on your emergency food/water, and change the AC/heater filters.

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Hello CVARC members, families, and guests!

January 2023 is in the books. Boy, it sure flew by. And February is half over.  The Ides of March are almost upon us.  Be sure to get on the air February 15^th thru February 21^st as some of our club members will be on the air as W1AW/6. The CVARC Winter Field Day was held on Saturday January 28^th at Dos Vientos Park.  The event was amazing. Ron Topolinski-K6CPR had his 5-year-old grandson pounding his name in CW and sending 73! The Acorn showed up and snapped a few pictures. Thank you to our public relations board member April Taylor-KN6QQW.

The CVARC general meeting is Thursday, February 16^th at 7:30 P.M. Topic: DXpedition: Paul Ewing-N6PSE is the founder of the Intrepid DX Group and has organized and participated in eight DXpeditions to very rare DX and exotic locations around the world, including Northern Iraq, South Sudan, and Yemen. Paul will discuss his visit to North Korea and how he got and lost permission for a DXpedition.

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Happy New Year CVARC members, families, and guests!

WOW! January 2023.  Seems like only yesterday I was elected as 2022 CVARC President. It has been an amazing year. And I am looking forward to a year of new club activities. We held our first antenna build project in three years last October. Thank you, Nathan Eng-W6EN for putting that together. I think a few more builds will need to be added to the calendar for 2023.

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Hello CVARC members, families, and guests!

Wait! It’s November?  What happened to October?  In just a little over a month we have the CVARC Holiday Banquet on December 15^th in place of our normal monthly general meeting. If you have not purchased your tickets for this wonderful event, you can do so at the November 17^th General Meeting.  There’s more information here. At our November meeting we will be electing our 2023 Board of Directors, please plan on attending. The 2023 Board of Directors is elected by a vote of members attending the meeting.

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Hello CVARC members, families, and guests!

Where has 2022 gone!  I cannot believe how quickly 2023 is coming at us. And with that we have the CVARC Holiday Party on December 15^th. The event will begin at 6:00 P.M. at the Best Western Posada Royale, 1775 Madera Road, Simi Valley. It’s a time to meet and socialize with other members and enjoy some great food. There will be a traditional turkey dinner with all the fixings as well prime rib, and of course desert.  As I understand, you can go back for seconds! We encourage you to attend. Tickets are $30 per person.  As Zak Cohen-N6PK is so very fond of saying, “we need more people!” Reserve your seats now with Zak at n6pk@cvarc.org. There will be two raffles conducted at the party. 

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Hello CVARC members, families, and guests!

Woah, it has been a hot week. Stay out of the sun, stay hydrated and be prepared for flex alerts and grid and equipment failures.  Where I am in Newbury Park, we have experienced two unscheduled power outages in the past week.  Each outage was greater than 4 hours.

The CVARC General meeting last month was about batteries, solar and emergency power, which was very timely as September is National Preparedness Month. Visit https://www.ready.gov for more detailed information and guides. In the past, Southern Californians have been conditioned to prepare for earthquakes. Well, times have changed and if anything, the last three years have shown us that evacuations due to fires are now a reality. With the aging electrical infrastructure and greater demand, power outages are becoming more common.  

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Hello CVARC members, families, and guests!

The CVARC General meeting last month was awesome! It was about go kits, we had no less than 15 go kits on display. It was great to see all the different kits and talk to the builders.
Thank you to all who brought in your builds.

At our August 18th CVARC General Meeting at the East County Sheriff Station, the topic will be Emergency Backup Power. A panel will discuss several approaches to emergency power including home-brew solar/battery set ups, UPS, and other power storage and generation systems. If your E-power is mobile, bring it to the meeting. It is going to be an interesting discussion. I will be bringing my portable 1700 Wh home brew battery power and describe how I use it both in the home and portable.

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Hello CVARC members, families, and guests!

It’s now July, I have seen my first June bug!  CVARC Field Day 2022 at Lake Sherwood, Saturday and Sunday June 25-26, was well attended by our local officials, guests and many members. Propagation was memorable, it was non-existent. Regardless, a great time was had by all and a special thanks to Mike Felio-K6MJF, Kat Hunley-KK6VQN, Robert Hunley-KK6VQO and Bill Wilcox-KF6JQO, for a most excellent BBQ.  It was a feast for the record books. A big thank you to all who worked behind the scenes to get it all setup and torn down! To Gary Bostrup-KM6DMM, who secured our site, and of course, Martin Hickey-AJ6CL whose excellent work kept us all moving in the same direction. Martin, thank you!

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