Various holiday commitments dictated that we had to start work on the newsletter very early this month. So as I sit down to write this, the Holiday Party is still very much on my mind. Firstly, I have to say that it exceeded my expectations in all respects, and everyone that I have spoken too seems to agree on its success. Several people congratulated me as if it was my entirely my doing… but I’d like to make it very clear that the event was very much a team effort.

A number of things just came together, both by design and by fortuity. Tom and I had been to several events at the Cameron Center before, so we knew what to expect of the facility. The City can be a bit unpredictable with regard to opening up the place but, as it turned out, they were early this time. Hugh was the first to get there and he had most of the tables and chairs up by the time I arrived. Matt and John managed to make the place look very festive. The pre-arranged set-up crew and the early arrivers pitched in gladly and the facility was transformed from an empty house to a party in a few minutes.

The mix of items for the potluck was quite balanced although (as with most potlucks) everybody was operating on the principle that “too much is just about right”. As someone pointed out to me, that is a lot better than the opposite! I was a bit concerned about “traffic flow” in the kitchen, but someone figured that out and we looped outside through one door and back in through another. There were a couple of organizational hiccups, but they were quickly dealt with by people who knew how to focus on fixing the problem without fuss.

When I originally volunteered to run the auction, I envisaged a small side-event with maybe a dozen items. It turned out that, due to the generosity of the donors, we had a total of 36 lots. I had not seen Jeff in action as an auctioneer before and, although I had no doubts that he would do a good job, I was very impressed with the way he did it. With so many items, it could have easily been a protracted affair that dragged towards the end… but Jeff kept it moving right along and I have not laughed so much in a while. Thanks to Jeff, bidders got into the spirit of things pretty quickly. The “quality” of the donations was just about right. We had a good mixture of high-end items and… well, let’s just say “more affordable items”. Not that I was a good judge of which was which. Several of the items that I thought that we would have to put in the dumpster attracted some competitive bidding. A couple of items that I thought would be quite popular did not attract any interest. Not that the ultimate price-tag of any one item is of great consequence. All of the items were donated outright, and the proceeds went to a very good cause. After the dust had settled, we took in a total of $526 (higher than originally reported) so it was well worth the effort! The candidates at the VE session the next day chipped in $30, so the club has sent a check for $556 to the Toy Drive. Thank You!

At the end of the evening everybody was very good about pitching in to help clear up, and we were able to return the building to an empty shell in just a few minutes. The man from the City sometimes arrives up to lock-up exactly at the appointed hour – but that was not the case this time. So that was another thing that fell into place.

A couple of people mentioned to me that they wanted a souvenir copy of the Auction Catalog… so if you still do, please email me and I will send one. It seems likely that the auction will become a regular event, so bear that in mind when you sort through your treasures. I will be making some space to collect items earlier next year.

So once again: Thank You, Thank You to everyone who helped with the event. To me, it was a good example of what can be done with teamwork.

73 de Steve champion, AE6NX

Ken Walkey, a retired Walt Disney imagineer, has raced all kinds of vehicles, from rails (dragsters) to Bonneville streamliners (class C/BGS) for many years and has enjoyed a life-long love of cars. He spent many of his childhood years in the Burbank area working on hot rods. He was in college when the Korean conflict broke out. He joined the Navy and served a tour in Japan and Korea, followed by three years in Hawaii in an air transport squadron. While stationed on Oahu, he built a “rail” and a ‘50 Ford business coupe for racing with parts shipped over from the mainland. He was also instrumental in forming the Hawaii Timing Association for the first organized drag racing in the islands, at Kahuku.

After leaving the Navy, he came back and went to work at Paramount Pictures, One of his first assignments was to work on the parting of the Red Sea in the Ten Commandments. Meanwhile, Ken was completing classes at the Lockheed Amateur Radio Club where he was licensed as WB6RSP. He enjoyed the challenge of building radios, and the never ending challenge of antennas.

In 1957 he went to work at Walt Disney Productions in the camera service department. During this same time frame he was voted chairman of the of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, San Fernando Valley Chapter. Ken was also a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and attending classes in cinematography at USC. Ken moved to Panavision, Inc. as a mechanical engineer and spent the next ten years with the development of the panaflex camera, the standard of the motion picture industry today. Ken also served on the “Cine Technical Committee of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Science” (think Oscars).

Anxious to compete and break records again, Ken contacted Granada Datsun and obtained sponsorship for a new “lakester” he was building. In 1973, Ken set a new F.I.A. and Bonneville (wheel driven) land speed record in the F/gas lakester class at 186.170 mph, using Datsun engines. In 1976, Ken crashed this vehicle at the Bonneville Salt Flats, severely injuring himself. In 1978, he rebuilt the car and put his sponsor behind the wheel and achieved a 200.005 mph two-way average. His sponsor was now a record-holder and a member of the Bonneville 200 mph club.

In his work life, Ken was busy working on the EPCOT exhibit, then on the design of Splash Mountain. Now an Assistant Chief Mechanical Engineer at Disney, Ken was agonizing on the decision between building at Vari-eze Kit Plane or a new streamliner for land speed racing. In 1989 he took his unpainted streamliner to Bonneville and ran 226 mph right off the trailer. He went on to set many records, and in 1990 joined the 200 mph club with a 289.294 mph two-way run. He has since raised to speed to well over 300 mph, and was inducted into the “Hot Rod Hall of Fame” in 2001. He was also a participant in the first international Land Speed event in Lake Gairdner, South Australia.

Ken remains a significant contributor in the land speed community. He acted as the Vice-President of the Board of Directors for the Southern California Timing Association, as well as the Bonneville Nationals, Inc. He is currently a Technical Inspector at Bonnevillem and is the announcer for the summer meets at El Mirage dry lake in Southern California. He is also a member if the Utah Salt Flats Racers Association (USFRA) where he serves as a inspector and line starter.

Ken’s streamliner, “Grandpa’s Toy”, race car #122 has been retired for the last two years and is looking for a new owner. If you are interested it is at http://www.landracing.com/news/300mph.htm

Ken is now a general class amateur W6RSP and he enjoys working DX on 20m and works the HF bands 10 through 80m

Please join us in welcoming what is sure to be another interesting speaker!

CVARC closed 2005 with one of its largest VE Sessions in a long time. The session served 18 candidates, with an extraordinary three candidates going from no license to Extra in one sitting. One candidate recorded perfect scores on every element, including the Element One code test.

Congratulations to all candidates and thanks to the VE Team that makes it all possible!

VEs that assisted include Greg Lane K6SDW, Rob Hanson W6RH, Frank Sain KA6BPA, Noel Van Slyke K6NVS, Ken Larson KJ6RZ, Steven Reinhardt K6SJR and Jeff Reinhardt AA6JR.

Congratulations also to CVARC Education Coordinator Karl Moody, whose ham classes continue to show extraordinary success.

The 2005 CVARC Christmas party went off without a hitch thanks to the efforts of a number of people, as Steve mentioned, but I would like to share some of the details for those of you who were unable to make it this time. It was a family affair, held at the Cameron Center in Thousand Oaks. The Cameron C enter is a pleasant location with more than enough space to hold us without having to squeeze in, a relatively roomy kitchen, and adequate parking for our attendees. The front room made for a delightful gathering place, with nice ambience and its size and shape allowed the auction items to be visible to all of the attendees throughout the evening and dinner so everyone had a chance to inspect the lots before the bidding started. There were also additional rooms, so we were able to set up a TV/VCR to entertain the youngest attendees who seemed uninterested in the auction.

Tom Stough and the Hansons were able to have dinner ready at the appointed time, with a minimum of fuss, and with quite delicious results. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, carrot pudding, casseroles, chili (several kinds), fruit and vegetable trays, chips, dips, sodas and “adult beverages” aplenty. Without having outrageous amounts left over, there was more than enough of everything so everyone was able to have as much as they cared for. I found the carrot pudding to be surprisingly tasty.

Most of the attendees arrived shortly after the party started so we had a great opportunity to chat and meet spouses that we rarely get to see, and generally socialize in small groups. After dinner Jeff Reinhardt, our “celebrity auctioneer” started the bidding on the first items and kept us all engaged from beginning to end. I was absolutely amazed that the entire auction seemed to fly by, and those who were looking for some bargains (including yours truly) were able to fight over our “treasures”. I hope we do another auction next year, but this one set some mighty high standards! The raffle of the red ticket prize, the kids prize, and the holiday party raffle prizes followed, and was a lot of fun. Since I had tickets in the drawing, I elected to have an impartial third party draw the tickets. Steve Champion’s three year old daughter Alice was happy to draw the tickets, and draw them she did! Hugh Bozma KF6HHS won the red ticket prize, an Astron 13.8VDC power supply. Matt Marzec KG6UPO won the kids prize, an Alinco DJ-196 2 Meter handheld which I am sure he will put to good use. The holiday prize raffle third prize went to Neil Waybright KG6QEL (me!) who won the Alinco DJ-596 2 Meter/440 MHz HT. The second prize was a ICOM 2100H 50 Watt 2 Meter FM Mobile which was won by Roger Rowe W5RLR (who was out of town on travel, but you don’t have to be present to win). The grand prize, an Alinco DX-70 HF/6 Meter Transceiver plus 23A power supply, was won by Bill Hughes K6HB.

The only thing that would have made the party better would to have had even more of the club members present. If you weren’t able to come this year, the board hopes that you will be able to this coming year.

One final item of interest: The proceeds of the auction were donated to the ARRL toy drive, to be used to purchase presents for children in the areas devastated by hurricane Katrina. We were able to raise a total of $556.00 (counting a denotation given at the VE session) which was sent in the overnight envelope with the VE test results to ARRL headquarters.

The ARRL newsletter mentioned in an article that it took three trucks to take the 4500 presents from Memphis to the gulf coast. Country singer Patty Loveless (the national chairperson for the toy drive campaign) and a number of ARRL officers and employees saw the convoy off on its way. W1AW also “went mobile” and joined the convoy beaconing the convoy’s location on APRS and participated in a national special event.

The toys in the toy drive also included special packages for older children with electronics experiment kits intended to spark children’s interest in science, electronics, and perhaps amateur radio one day.

Thanks for helping out in all these efforts, and we wish you a happy and safe holidays.

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.