It is with great pleasure that I look forward to serving on the CVARC Board as President this year. When I look at the membership list I see the names of quite a few people who I haven't met, or that I have spoken to only briefly. In future columns I want to address various club matters, but this month I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce myself to those of you who do not know me.

I was born in the UK in 1957 and started tinkering with things electrical at the age of ten years or so. I was influenced greatly by a neighbor, Doug Hill, G8BEH. As well as showing me the wonders of the ex-military radios that were readily available in those days, he also introduced me (through discarded equipment from his workplace) to digital logic. That was something that was not widely available to the experimenter in those days. So my early experience was a weird combination of vacuum tubes (valves as we call them in the UK), relays, and digital ICs.

At about 14, I started to study for my "City "&" Guilds" Radio Amateur's Exam with a friend who had similar interests. In those days there were just two classes of Ham license, Class A (all bands) and Class B (2m "&" above). The written examination was the same for both licenses, the only difference being a 12 WPM Morse test for Class A. Both of my parents are proficient in Morse Code, due to their wartime activities - Dad from being a wireless operator and gunner in the RAF and Mum from her work as an operator at an intercept Listening Station. However, the skill did not seem to be passed down in my genes and I made very slow progress. My friend also found it difficult, so we decided to go for the Class B license. We both passed the exam and I got my callsign, G8LOF, in about 1975. It took a while to get on the air. I started with entirely valve equipment, a "rockbound" homebrew transmitter and a converter feeding an ex-RAF R1155 HF receiver. I bought the 2m converter, used, from an ad in the local newspaper. The seller was a young Ham about my age, who I still keep in touch with. I migrated to converted commercial mobile radio equipment and then to used commercially-built Ham rigs. I remained active on 2m and 70cm for several years. In my university days, telephones in student houses were virtually unheard of, so there was quite a bit of Ham Radio activity as a result. After graduating with a B Eng. (EE), I went to work for Marconi Radar. I remained active for a while, but gradually I became busy with other things and so I drifted away from the hobby. A lot of things happened in the next twenty years or so, but from a Ham Radio perspective the story does not continue until 2003. That was when my son Ben, then 12 years old, expressed an interest in Ham Radio. As some of you already know, that was how I became re-licensed. My friend who sold me the 2m converter also drifted away from Ham Radio… and last time I was in England he told me that he couldn't see himself getting back into the hobby. That was at the beginning of my three-week vacation. By the time I left the UK he had re-applied for his license. You can talk to Graham (G8INP), or his kids Clare "&" Andrew (M3INX and M3INZ) on Sundays on the K0AKS EchoLink repeater! A few weeks ago I tracked down Doug, G8BEH and emailed him to thank him for helping me all those years back. So, although I was first involved in Ham Radio a long time ago, in many ways I'm just starting out. A lot of things happened in Ham Radio in the twenty years or so that I was away from the hobby… PSK31, EchoLink, easier code tests, computer logging, tiny mobile HF rigs, to name a few. I feel lucky to live in the Conejo Valley, because CVARC is a great group and you have made me so welcome. I hope that I will be able to give something back to you by serving on the board.

73

Steve, AE6NX

January Tech Talk - So how does my 2 meter radio work, or for that matter any modern synthesized radio? Want to understand radio terms like Dual - Triple - or even Quad Conversion, Mixer, first or second IF, VFO, LO, AGC, PLL? Have some we haven't mentioned, well bring them to the meeting. Come join us for Radio 101, a tech talk presented by Hugh Bosma, KF6HHS, at our January CVARC club meeting. The meeting will begin at 7:30 PM at the Elks LOodge on Conejo School Rd., with a social session prior to the meeting from 7 PM to 7:30 PM. Hope to see you there.

CVARC hosts FCC License Examinations at 8:30 AM on the second Sunday of even numbered months at the Ventura East County Sheriff Station on Olsen Rd. (near the Reagan Library). CVARC conducts exams for all license classes . Exam candidates must bring a form of government issued photo I.D., the original AND a photocopy of any existing license or Certificate of Exam Element Completion, a Social Security (or government issued Taxpayer I.D.) number, and $12 ARRL VE Exam fee (cash is preferred). No advance reservation is necessary, walk-ins are welcome. Advance notice is needed for special circumstances, such as reading the exam to sight-impaired candidates. If you have any questions, contact CVARC VE Coordinator Jeff Reinhardt at 818-706-3853.

CVARC now has two automated email lists. The first is for official CVARC announcements. Traffic on this list will consist only of announcements related to CVARC business or events. Members may not post directly to this list. The second is for general discussion, and any member of the list may post to it. To join one of these lists, please go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CVARCAnnouncements/ or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CVARCDiscussion/

As with any Yahoo Group, you can also subscribe by email by sending mail to:

CVARCAnnouncements-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or
CVARCDiscussion-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Questions or comments should be directed to steve@stevechampion.com

Steve Champion, AE6NX

We had the opportunity to test out Regional Emergency HF radio communications as a part of this year's November Hospital Drill. The purpose of this yearly state wide drill is to test hospital emergency preparedness. All of the Ventura County area hospitals, including Los Robles, and Ventura County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) participated. ARES/RACES is involved in the drill each year since amateur radio is the backup communications system for the hospitals. If telephone, cell phone, and internet service goes down, our ARES/RACES VHF nets are the only means that the hospitals have to communicate with each other, law enforcement, and the Office of Emergency Services. In this year's drill, the hospitals sent information for state agencies in Sacramento to the ARES/RACES radio room at East County Sheriff Station via our county 2 meter emergency net. The traffic was then passed on 40 meter lower sideband HF radio to the Auxiliary Communications Services (ACS) Southern Region in Los Alamitos (near Long Beach) in accordance with state wide emergency communications protocol. Los Alamitos forwarded the traffic to the California Office of Emergency Services in Sacramento by the California Emergency Services 40 meter HF radio Net (CESN).

A little back ground on the agencies handling our traffic is probably in order.

The California Office of Emergency Services is officially know as the "Governor's Office of Emergency Services". The Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES) is located in Sacramento and coordinates overall state agency response to major disasters in support of local governments. The office is responsible for assuring the state's readiness to respond to and recover from natural, manmade, and war-caused emergencies, and for assisting local governments in their emergency preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. During major emergencies, OES may call upon all state agencies to help provide support including the California National Guard, Highway Patrol, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Health Services, Social Services, etc. OES is the "grantee" for federal disaster assistance, principally from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). OES maintains the State Emergency Plan, which outlines the organizational structure for state management of responses to natural and manmade disasters. OES coordinates the statewide Fire, Law Enforcement, and Telecommunications Mutual Aid Systems. During emergencies, OES activates the State Operations Center (SOC) in Sacramento to coordinate state operations and federal resources. Instead of concentrating all response efforts in this center, that task is assigned to three Regional Emergency Operations Centers (REOCs). The three regions are the Coastal Region covering the coastal counties from Monterey to the Oregon border, the Inland Region with responsibility for the San Joaquin Valley and all inland counties north to the Oregon border, and the Southern Region covering the southern part of the state. The REOCs are located in Oakland for the Coastal Region, Sacramento for the Inland Region, and Los Alamitos for the Southern Region. We in Ventura County belong to the Southern Region and report to Los Alamitos.

The Auxiliary Communications Services (ACS) is the volunteer emergency communications segment of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services. ACS consists of a broad spectrum of volunteer telecommunication experts including commercial radio technicians and engineers, the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), Civil Air Patrol (CAP) communicators, and other unpaid professionals. The mission of ACS is to provide support for any possible communication needs which OES may have in preparation for and during major natural and manmade disasters. ACS is also organized into the same three regions as OES (Coastal Region, Inland Region, and Southern Region) and maintains offices and communications facilities at each of the three REOCs.

During a major disaster in Ventura County, most of our ARES/RACES activities will involve providing hospitals, law enforcement, cities, and private organizations such as the Red Cross with local communications support WITHIN the disaster region (within Ventura County). With telephone and cell phone networks either down or over loaded, our radio communications support is critical to these agencies in organizing and implementing the disaster recovery efforts. Providing this support is the purpose of our extensive VHF/UHF radio network and most of our ARES/RACES training. However, within the first few hours following a major disaster these same agencies must begin communicating with their counter parts at the state level and with other facilities OUTSIDE the disaster area to obtain supplies, equipment, and additional personnel to help deal with the recovery. The important point to realize is that if the agencies that we are supporting can not communicate within the disaster area (within Ventura County), they can not communicate with anyone outside the disaster area either. That is why it is necessary to establish HF communications with the ACS Regional Emergency Operations Center in Los Alamitos, or directly to the State Operations Center in Sacramento if Los Alamitos is down.

During the hospital drill our HF operator at East County Sheriff Station (Bruce Elbert K6ZB), as well as operators at EOCs in Santa Barbara, San Diego, and several other locations were checked into the Los Alamitos ACS HF net. Los Alamitos was also communicating with Sacramento on the CESN HF network. The traffic passed on the net included information on the nature of the illnesses forcing people into the hospitals, attempting to determine if the illnesses were part of a coordinated terrorist attack, and the ability of the hospitals within the affected areas to handle the problem. Las Vegas also checked in and offered mutual aid support in the form of medical supplies. Several times during the drill Bruce passed traffic to Los Alamitos from stations that Los Alamitos could not directly hear.

Providing highly reliable Regional HF communication is a different problem than what most of us in amateur radio are familiar with. Our primary amateur radio HF focus is in on working DX stations in far away countries. This focus is critical for Health and Welfare emergency communications to remote areas of the world, and even across the United States, in times of disaster. However, when supporting our own disaster relief works during a local natural disaster, our focus has to be different. Instead of long distance communications we must provide our relief workers with highly reliable communications directly to government agencies located throughout California, 24 hours a day for as many days as needed regardless of what the HF radio propagations conditions are. That is a tough job! It is also a fascinating field of study and an opportunity for amateur radio HF operators to get involved in ARES/RACES in a very serious way. This is the focus of the ARES/RACES HF communications work that we are doing at East County Sheriff Station.

Ken Larson, KJ6RZ

EC for Area 2

The winners of the CVARC Holiday Party prizes are Youngsters' Prize: Ben Champion AE6NY, White Ticket Prize: Kate Champion KG6TWK, and Red Ticket Prize: Will Newman AE6JR

Holiday party pictures by Alan Masson are on the website under Pictures.

Ventura County Area 2 ARES/RACES members are encouraged to check in every Tuesday night at 7:00 pm on the Area 2 Check-in Net. Specific ARES/RACES times and frequencies are as follows:

Net Control operations for the weekly ARES/RACES Area 2 check-in is run from the ARES/RACES communications center at East County Cheriff Station on Olsen Road each Tuesday at 7:00 PM. Visitors are welcome and have the opportunity to operate the station equipment. Contact Jerry Goldman KC6SO ( 805) 492-3749 if you plan to attend. RACES members, should remember that their RACES card is issued for only two years. When your card is due to expire call Jackie ( 805) 646-2551 at the Office of Emergency Services in Ventura to renew your card. For questions concerning ARES/RACES call Area 2 Emergency Coordinator Ken Larson KJ6RZ ( 805) 495-9435 or go to the ARES/RACES secion of the CVARC website at http://www.cvarc.org.

The Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club is an ARRL affiliated Special Service Club. Meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month, unless otherwise noted. Meeting location is at the Elks Lodge, 158 Conejo School Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA. Meetings start at 7:30 pm. with a pre-meeting social and technical assistance session, for those who are interested at 7:15 pm. Meetings are open to the public, and members are encouraged to bring their friends.