CVARC is planning a special amateur radio event for Saturday, April 20, 2024, with the goal of keeping alive the spirit of camaraderie and togetherness among hams in the Conejo Valley. Let’s connect over the air and in person. The idea is to have some fun. Feel free to participate in whatever part of this event interests you.
Rover Roundup Contest: 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.
Picnicat Conejo Community Center:Noon to 3:00 P.M.
David Arata-KA9WMI and Casey Cryer-KJ6GSV at the 2023 Visalia DX Convention.
It saddens us to announce that CVARC member Dave Arata-KA9WMI passed away on April 10th after a brief illness. Below is a tribute message from his friend and fellow ham, Casey Cryer-KJ6GSV:
In our unique hobby, everyone seems to find something special that they enjoy above the other aspects of ham radio. Some love the tech, some love the versatility, and others love the people. For me, Dave Arata was all about people. Dave and I met at Winter Field Day 2023, which was my first field day and introduction to the social side of ham radio. Dave and I instantly hit it off and it felt great to chat about radios without feeling like I was speaking Mandarin.
Dave comes from a family of hams. His dad, Russell Arata (KA3RRS), his brother, Joe (KZ4DN), and his son, Matthew (KB9IVG). Their love for ham radio shows the legacy Dave leaves behind.
Dave and I had a great time at the 2023 Visalia DX Convention. We explored all the latest ham radio gear and enjoyed the seminars together. Dave’s upbeat spirit and wealth of technical know-how made him a truly unique person. He was always ready to help tackle any radio question I had. Folks like Dave leave a lasting impact on those around them and his presence will be truly missed by everyone at CVARC.
The memorial service for David will be held on Monday, April 29th at 10:00 AM at Holy Cross Catholic Church, located at 13955 Peach Hill Rd in Moorpark. All are welcome to attend.
The 2M Slim Jim Antenna will be constructed with the group, all materials provided. A discussion on the theory will be made and can be seen at the website listed below.
The design is based on this with a 1inch PVC pipe for stationary self-supporting or can be coiled up for portable use. Will also work on 70cm band but not as efficiently as the 2M band.
By using the larger 450 Ohm ladder line vs the 300-ohm ladder line, this antenna is larger but much easier to construct. The design can be made smaller by using RG-174 coax and 300-ohm ladder line or twin lead, but I found that soldering the coax to the twin lead difficult since multiple locations may be needed to be tried/re-soldered for best tuning.
We have class sessions approaching fast… starting Saturday May 4th, continuing on May 11th, 18th, 25th and June 1st. We’ll have a Technician License class from 8:00 A.M. to noon, and an Amateur Extra license class from 12:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. All classes are in the Community Room of the East County Sheriff Station, 2101 E. Olsen Road in Thousand Oaks.
The Technician class will be using the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual, 5th Edition:
Our club members enjoyed our last two general meetings very much. February featured Ed Zimmermann-N6XEW testing various handheld transceivers on a spectrum analyzer, with “oohs” and “ahhs” from the crowd as we watched the screen for spurious emissions. At our March meeting Keith Elliott-W6KME showed us how random metal items such as guitar strings and a white board shelf can become radio antennas under the right circumstances. I’m excitedly looking forward to the April 18th general meeting, where Nadya Seal Faith of the Santa Barbara Zoo will show us how radio “fox-hunting” has real life applications in animal conservation.
Other events to note for April are the Spring Fling-Rover Roundup contest and picnic on Saturday, April 20th, and the 2-meter J-pole portable antenna build on Saturday, April 27th at 9 A.M. at the East County Sheriff’s Station. See our Technical Director James Smith-KK6YAM to sign up for the build project and to get more information.
It looks like we may finally be getting some normal pleasant California spring weather after what has seemed like the longest winter ever. Enjoy the outdoors while you can and get in that POTA and SOTA fun wherever you may be.
The next regular club meeting will be held on Thursday, April 18, at 7:30 P.M. at the East County Sheriff’s Station.
Topic: Radio Tracking in Animal Conservation: Nadya Seal Faith of the Santa Barbara Zoo will be joining us via Zoom to discuss how VHF radio telemetry is used in animal conservation. Nadya will share her experiences tracking animals such as California condors and island foxes.
Special note: if you can’t attend the meeting at the Sheriff’s station you can still participate via ZOOM, details below.
Huston Herman-KK6WT conducted a successful SOTA activation March 21st on Waterman Mountain (W6/CT-012.) Waterman Mountain, at 8,041 feet, is a prominent peak in the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County within the Angeles National Forest and San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.
CVARC member Charlie Richards – KN6CX wrote an article on his portable 20-meter Zepp antenna for the March issue of QST Magazine. For space considerations, the QST editors trimmed some information from Charlie’s article including some background on the Zepp antenna and some of the theory on how it operates. Charlie sent along his full version of the article which we have added to the Technical Articles on this website. It’s a great read, here’s a quick link to Charlie’s article.
CVARC held a VE session on February 11, 2024. There were 8 candidates, and 8 new licenses or upgrades were earned: 3 Technician, 3 General, and 2 Extra. Among those who earned new licenses or upgrades at the session were:
