As you may have noticed, we are trying some new things at CVARC. Some people say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. On the other hand, Ham Radio is a very broad hobby and we try to have something for everybody – both existing members and prospective ones. So let’s be open to trying some new things, keep those that work, and learn from those that don’t.

Many CVARC members have expressed an interest in helping young people to get on the air. One of the ways that we are trying to reach out to younger ham radio enthusiasts is to have something specifically for them at our monthly meetings. Starting at this month’s meeting, there will be a special session for our younger members and their friends. The upper age limit is nominally 18, but we are flexible. The session will start at 7:00pm, and will be run by Ben Champion, AE6NX. There will be a hands-on activity and snacks. If you know any young hams, or youngsters who are interested in becoming hams, please encourage them to come to one of these sessions.

Also for our younger members, we are putting together a lending library. We hope this will allow them to have easy access to some of the great technical books that are available. The collection will be brought to monthly meetings and may be checked out.

For all members, young and old, there is the new weekly CVARC net. This is will be held every Thursday except for the night of our meeting. This is an opportunity to keep in touch with CVARC friends even if you don’t spend much time on the air. The net will be held on Bozo at 8pm (147.885, minus 600kHz shift, 127.3Hz tone). We thank N6JMI for permission to use the repeater.

We have also announced the inception of the Worked All CVARC Members Award. Even if you are not a serious paper chaser, this is the one award that you should try for. Look for details elsewhere in the newsletter.

Another program that we are pleased to establish is the Every Member On The Air (EMOTA) program announced by Karl, KE6WVZ, in last month’s newsletter. If you have any unused ham equipment, please consider donating it to CVARC so that we can get another local ham on the air. Your donation may even be tax deductible, depending on your circumstances. If you don’t have a rig and would like to get on the air, you may speak confidentially with Karl or any Board Member.

Our new email lists (Yahoo Groups) are gradually building members. At the time of writing about 40% of CVARC members have joined the General Discussion group. This group now has a For Sale & Wanted section where members can post ham-related items.

You can join the Official Announcements and General Discussion groups by visiting:

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

or just search for "CVARC" in the Yahoo Groups directory.

You may see some new faces at the March CVARC meeting. We have been talking to the Simi Settlers ARC about the possibility of doing some joint activities with them. Their club meetings are on the same Thursday as ours, so we decided to invite their club to visit us on March 10th. Please join me in making our Simi neighbors welcome.

So, as you can see, we are trying out some new ideas at CVARC. I hope that New really will mean New & Improved. Please participate in some of the new activities and give feedback, good and bad, to the Board.

73 Steve champion, AE6NX

Adrian Popa will be our speaker for the March 10th CVARC Club meeting. Adrian will be speaking on the history and state-of-the art for communications satellites. After working for over 50 years in the aerospace and automotive industries, Adrian retired from HRL Laboratories LLC (formerly GM Hughes Research Laboratories) in Malibu, CA in August 2000 where he was the Director of Programs in the President's Office.  Since retiring he has been consulting for Boeing and has been working with 5th grade math students at the Conejo School and also at the Braille Institute in Santa Barbara where he has developed sensors to aid blind science students. Adrian also has answered over 400 physics and engineering related questions submitted by students and teachers to the Washington University Medical School's, award winning MAD SCIENCE website http://www.madsci.org.

Adrian received his BS in Engineering with honors from UCLA in 1969. In 1991 he graduated from the USC Graduate School of Business Administration. He has been a visiting lecturer at Caltech, UCLA, USC and at the Chalmers Institute for Technology in Gotenberg, Sweden. He has 10 patents and is a co-author of two editions of the CRC/McGraw-Hill Handbook of Laser Science and Technology (1980), (1991). Adrian has published his work in several leading journals and periodicals including the Scientific American Magazine. He was an Army aviator during the Korean War era and is a Life Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers IEEE).

It takes more than studying for and passing a licensing exam to understand what ham radio is. Having a large collection of Amateur Radio books on hand is something that is very helpful to young hams wanting to answer the question: "what is ham radio?" Unfortunately, a huge cache of ham radio literature is something very few young radio amateurs have access to. From the March general meeting onwards, a collection of ham radio literature will be brought to each meeting for young hams to browse and borrow. If you wish to donate any literature to this library, please contact Ben, AE6NY at ben@benchampion.com, or by phone at (805) 493-2564.

The club is building a lending library for our younger members. Do you have any old editions, or extra copies, of Ham Radio related books? If so, you may like to donate them to us to start the library. This is one way that you can assist young hams. Just bring books to a CVARC meeting, or we can arrange for pickup. Monetary donations to the library are also welcome. Please contact Ben Champion if you can help: 805-493-2564 or ben@benchampion.com 

Come one, come all to a new CVARC social activity...from the comfort of your own ham shack!  Our first on-air meeting will be on Thursday, March 3 at 20:00 local (that's 8:00 P.M. for 12-hour folks).  We'll meet on the N6JMI repeater (Bozo), 147.885 MHz, minus offset, PL 127.3 to tell lies..er stories, trade equipment and get technical advice.  Let's continue to meet every Thursday night, except for the second Thursday of each month when we meet in-person at the CVARC club meeting. This net will be open to all licensed amateurs, not just to CVARC members. I'll start things off, but won't run a directed net. (That is, of course, unless someone breaks in with emergency or priority traffic.) Please remember to keep it clean, positive and fun.  Also, we'll need to clear out at 9:00 for the Promise Keepers Net.

Elsewhere in this Newsletter, you'll read about the new Worked All CVARC Members Awards.  Here's a great opportunity to log your contacts!  I look forward to chatting with you all.

73, Tom Stough, WØUFC
Social Chair

While you have your CVARC newsletter in your hand, please take a moment to check the date on the address label just above your name. This is the date that your CVARC membership expires. We can only send out newsletters to expired members for a brief grace period, so please renew now if your date comes up soon (or if it has passed!). You can renew using the Membership Application Form on the back of the newsletter.

Worked All CVARC Members: WACM:  Yes indeed Wack em' but don't hurt em.

Rules:  Starts March 2005.

Two certificates will be available, the CVARC 50 Award certificate and the Worked All CVARC Members (WACM) awarded.

Each amateur radio operator that has logged and confirmed radio contacts with 50 CVARC members, per the logging requirements specified below, will receive a CVARC 50 Award certificate.  The first amateur radio operator that Works All CVARC Members within a calendar year from January 1 through November 25, per the logging requirements specified below, will receive a special WACM certificate and "prize" at the December CVARC Holiday Party.  The CVARC 50 Award certificates are available to all amateur radio operators. You must be a CVARC member to receive the WACM Award.

Logging specifications

Log sheets must be used to log radio contacts with CVARC members. Contacts must be sequentially numbered in the log. Each log sheet entry must contain the following information:

1. Sequential number for the contact.
2. Date and Universal time (Zulu) of contact.
3. Call sign of the CVARC member contacted.
4. First and last name of the CVARC Member contacted.
5. Mode of operation and Frequency (Band).
6. Approximate duration of contact.
7. Form of confirmation received from the contacted member.

Log Confirmation Instructions

The following must be sent to award program coordinator, Greg Lane K7SDW, to qualify for either a CVARC 50 Award, or the WACM Award.

1. A copy of the log sheets used by the amateur radio operator to log contacts with CVARC members. Log sheets can be sent either hard copy or as an email file in "text" form.

2. One of the following must be used to confirm each radio contact with a CVARC member:

      a. Emails sent between both parties.
      b. 3 x 5 card received from the contacted member.
      c. QSL card received from the contacted member.
      d. A letter sent via the U.S. mail from the contacted member.

The confirmation must contain all of the information described in the above logging specification.

3. The date of submission of log sheets for the WACM award will be either:

      a. The envelope post mark on log sheets mailed to Greg Lane,
      b. The date and time stamp on log sheets emailed to Greg, or
      c. The time and date log sheets are personally delivered to Greg.

4. Valid entries must be sent to Greg Lane, k7sdw@juno.com , prior to 23:59 Z on 25 November 2005 to qualify for the WACM award. Log book entries and confirmations for the CVARC 50 Award can be sent to Greg at any time.

Good luck and have fun. Many modes are available as well as many techniques of finding and scheduling contacts to fill out your log sheet.

73s Greg Lane, K7SDW

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 $14 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.

The CVARC Discussion group now has a For Sale/Wanted area, available to all members of the group. Members of the group may post ads for Ham Radio related items. You are also encouraged to use the discussion group to send out email related to items For Sale or Wanted.

To add to the For Sale/Wanted list, go to:

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

... and click on "Database". After entering the Database area, you will see a For Sale/Wanted table to which you can add items.

Steve Champion, AE6NX

Ventura County Area 2 R.A.C.E.S. 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) 241-9187 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.