Those of you who were at the April CVARC meeting will already be aware that CVARC has two new Board Members. I'm very pleased to welcome Mary Ho and Dave Davis to the Board as Members at Large. The two Member at Large positions have been vacant since January, and we are very pleased that Mary and Dave have stepped forward to fill them. Dave Davis has also volunteered to take on the running of the Raffle. Thanks Dave!

For those of you who are relatively new to CVARC, I'd like to explain a little bit about the function of The Board and what serving on it entails. I hope that all members will consider serving on the Board at some time.

Like any volunteer organization, the day-to-day running of CVARC involves some important tasks and decisions that have to be taken care of. The vast majority of these are not particularly time-consuming or complicated, but they still have to be done. To illustrate that, consider insurance. Without it there is very little that we can do as a club, so it is vitally important. Selecting and purchasing a policy is not hard, but obviously it does still have to be done. Then there are other things, such as arranging Field Day, that are usually handled by an ad hoc committee consisting of both Board Members and others. The function of the Board in that case is to make sure that such a committee does actually get formed at the appropriate time, that it has the resources to do the job, and that it gets the help it needs if it runs into something unexpected.

So, does that mean that serving on the Board is boring? Absolutely not! That is for a couple of reasons. The first is that, in addition to the day-to-day running of the club, the overall direction of the club must be determined. Everything the Board does is on behalf of, and for the benefit of, the members. However, for practical reasons, it is clearly not possible to ask the entire membership their opinion on every issue. There is considerable satisfaction in taking part in the process of making sure the club meets that aim. The second reason is that (and you might be surprised to hear it) Board Meetings are fun. Even though we do actually use Robert's Rules to conduct business, the meetings can hardly be called formal... and even though we don't have a Board Jester position there is nevertheless considerable competition for the title.

So how much time does it take? Well, there are the Monthly meetings that I have already mentioned. They last roughly 2 and 1/2 hours. Usually there is something else to take care of between meetings, maybe a couple of phone calls or an email or two. Some positions involve more of this sort of thing than others, so maybe the best way to cover that is to describe the Board positions as they now stand. I say "as they now stand" because the responsibility for some tasks moves around from year to year, depending on people's skills or preferences.

President: Chairs the Board and General meetings. Writes a monthly message for the newsletter
Vice President: Performs the role of the President in their absence. Arranges guest speakers
Secretary: Takes minutes at meetings. Stores official records, such as insurance documents
Treasurer: Takes and writes checks. Keeps track of the budget. Collects and opens the mail. Maintains the Membership roster
Publisher: Maintains the web pages and edits the newsletter
Education Coordinator: Organizes licensing classes.
Technical Coordinator: Deals with technical issues. Interference. Field Day
Operations Coordinator: Manages the Comm Van. Interface to ARES/RACES
Public Relations Coordinator: Publicity. Interface to the ARRL
Social Coordinator: Make sure social events happen
Member at Large I: Miscellaneous. Raffle
Member at Large II: Miscellaneous

I hope that by now it is apparent that being a long-time member of the club is not a pre-requisite for serving on the board. Neither is being a long-time ham. I do hope that you will consider serving on the Board one year. The position of President has a two year term limit, so as a minimum that position must change. But I believe that it is good for the club as a whole if all of the Board positions change periodically, if only to encourage us to experiment with new ways of doing things from time to time.

73 de AE6NX

Our speaker for this month is a representative from the County Health Department to talk about the possibility of a bird flu (H5N1) pandemic, how it might occur, and how it would be fought by public health agencies from all over the US. The H5N1 designation for this virus is based on the proteins on the surface of the flu virus. The United States has been remarkably fortunate in not having experienced a dreadful pandemic since the 1918-1919 "Spanish flu" (H1N1) pandemic which killed more than a half a million Americans (far more than died in battle during the war). More than 50 million died world-wide after a previously mild strain suddenly went from a minor bother (mortality less than 1/10th of 1 percent) to a 2.5% mortality rate (a 25x jump) and changed from very low rates of infection until almost 1/3 of the population contracted the disease. Scientists are interested in the current bird flu since it has many similarities to the 1918 strain before that one became deadly (the 1918 strain was also a bird flu that rarely infected humans at first and the current bird flu is actually thought to be a descendants of the 1918 strain). This information and more is available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol12no01/05-0979.htm and other public health sites.

The appearance of a Tamiflu-resistant variant strain in Korea this year has meant that only one of the four existing anti-viral flu medicines have consistent capability to affect the course of the disease, and while its production is being ramped up, not enough is available.

Come and hear this interesting presentation about the issues, what public health agencies are doing, and perhaps what you might be able to do.

The planned speaker for June will be the Field Day committee members speaking on the preparations and plans for the upcoming field day activities.

At the July meeting, Jonathan Fox ( KT6LA ) will present a photographic tour of CBS Television City. Tours of the facility at Beverly and Fairfax in Hollywood are not normally available. We will get an inside look, however, at the CBS Television Network production facility. This technical tour will cover everything from the ground floor to the roof. Popular TV shows produced here include The Bold & Beautiful, The Young & Restless, Price is Right, Late Late Show, Tyra Banks Show, Dancing with the Stars, and American Idol. See what it takes to put together one of these productions.

Jonathan, who has only been a ham for about a year, has been in broadcasting for 36 years. Starting out, while attending the New Jersey Institute of Technology, his first radio experience was on a 33,000 watt FM station covering parts of NJ, NY and PA. The first TV experience was at a CBS affiliate in Atlanta, GA as a transmitter engineer. Following college graduation, he joined the Engineering and Development department at CBS in New York. The Broadcast Center in NY, CBS News - Washington and CBS TVC in Hollywood were some of locations of his work. Eventually, Jonathan decided to make Los Angeles his home and he is now the Audio Maintenance Supervisor of CBS TVC.

Please join us for both of these interesting events!

The 22nd annual Crusin' the Conejo bike ride was this past Saturday, May 13th (http://www.cvcbike.org/crusin/). This is a multi-route ride, with 21, 35, 62 (challenging metric century), 68 (moderate metric century), and 103 mile (full century) courses through moderate to mountainous terrain. The moderate metric century route climbs 3000 feet over the course, the challenge metric climbs 4500 feet, and the full century climbs more than 6000 feet. This year the event attracted over a thousand riders, and local amateur radio operators were out in force to support the event. Hams are paired with volunteers from the biking community (mostly CVC Bike Club members) to staff the "support and gear" (SAG) wagons that travel the course assisting downed cyclists, providing emergency communications, and transporting riders with minor injuries back to the M.D. at the start/finish area.

Each year local ham radio operators provide radio communications for the event, including a net control station at the Start/Finish line at SkyWorks, SAG-wagon riders, and warning positions at two of the points of the routes where the largest numbers of serious injuries occur. Because of the mountainous terrain over much of the course, cell phones are virtually useless a large portion of the time, and even ham radio may need to relay through better positioned stations, even with the benefit of high-level repeaters.

Making A Difference

This year, as in most, there were injured riders that went down hard in areas with no cell phone coverage, and very limited car traffic. The availability of the SAG wagons to rapidly get to the scene of any events and to establish reliable communications back to the net control station was invaluable in getting emergency assistance dispatched quickly and directly to the scene of serious accidents. A number of the participating amateurs brought their APRS gear they recently constructed and were able to beacon their p osition back to net control while within the communications coverage area of one of the area digipeaters. This is an area that might be more fully explored next year.

Ham radio was able to provide a highly visible, helpful presence that a large group in the biking public now identifies as a key part of "help is on the way". As an organization and as a group of hobbyists, we can't buy or influence our way into this sort of grass-roots recognition, we have to earn it. Katrina showed the country that hams can make an important difference, and we helped continue to show local residents that same thing. Several times while they were futilely trying to use their cell phones we would pull up and have consistent and reliable communications, demonstrating conclusively that amateur radio is not an anachronism, and has an important role to play.

Crusin the Conejo is one of the largest regularly scheduled events hams from the club support, and we could use even more help from volunteers. The work is relatively easy and there is a spot for everyone, of every experience level, and since the entire event is conducted on VHF/UHF frequencies, any license class can participate.

Cold rain fell the night before and the evening after, but partly cloudy skies prevailed throughout the day for our first-ever RDF session at Topanga State Park. The air was fresh and clean at 1200 feet in the Santa Monica Mountains. Except for wet grass and a little mud on the trails, the running and walking conditions were perfect. Most of the regular California radio-orienteers who will be competing at the USA ARDF Championships came out for a practice run. Bob Cooley KF6VSE was headed down Interstate 5 from his home in Pleasanton but had to turn back when he heard that the "Grapevine" mountain pass was closed due to snow and ice. LAOC has mapped only about 335 acres of the park, so the advanced course could only be about 3 kilometers long. That made for faster-than-normal times, as follows.

Thanks to some extra publicity aimed toward the Topanga Canyon area hams by Dick Norton N6AA (ARRL SW Division Director) and Rob Hanson W6RH (Conejo Valley ARC), several of them came out and tried transmitter hunting for the first time. Equipment was limited, so they combined into groups of two or three and learned from one another. Terry Newman AE6JR, who is rapidly becoming an expert, found two of the beginner transmitters quickly and then set out on the advanced course, where he found all but one.

The single 80-meter transmitter was 0.6 kilometer away and was taken on by three hunters. Only two of them found it, with times as follows:

After the hunt was over and all the transmitters were retrieved, several of the participants ended up at an Italian restaurant in Fernwood to debrief the hunt and plan future events. Information about past and future events can be found at http://www.homingin.com (this link has been added to the CVARC.org "links" web page).

73,

Joe Moell K0OV

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.