All CVARC members and their guests are invited to our annual CVARC Holiday Party on Saturday December 6 , 2003. As in the past, the holiday party substitutes for our December CVARC general meeting. Each year the party is a lot of fun and a great time to relax and socialize, plus each year we have great raffle prizes.

The party will be held at Rory Eikland’s home (KG6HCU)and begins at 6:00 pm with dinner planned for 7:00 pm. The dinner will be pot luck. Everyone is asked to bring a dish which may be a Main Dish, a Side Dish, or Dessert.

Please let us know if you are coming and what you are bringing to the potluck dinner, so we can be coordinated. If you are uncertain of your plans, you can call as late as Friday December 5 (the evening before the party) to let us know that you will be attending.

Hope to see you there.

Come on out to the CVARC Holiday Party at Rory's home and buy your white tickets for the prize raffle. For $10 per ticket, you get chances to win the:

GRAND PRIZE--Alinco DR-605TQ 2M/440MHz mobile with 100 memories, extended receive and many other features. The winner need not be present to win, provided you've written your name or callsign on the ticket.

"Red Ticket" prize--Alinco DM-330MVT 30 ampere commercial-grade power supply. Just perfect for powering all your radio toys! The lucky winner will be drawn from all the red tickets sold at the regular meeting raffles. For this one, you must be present at the party to win.

There will also be drawings for consolation prizes, including an assembled field strength meter kit. These also require your presence to win.

You say you forgot and threw all your red tickets away?? Fifty lashes with a wet noodle for you...but never fear: if you are "red ticket-less" on Dec. 6, I'll give you one red ticket for your potluck dish.

And don't forget...our teenage operators are eligible for the "yellow ticket" prize: a two-meter handie talkie. The person with the winning yellow ticket does not have to be present to win.

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.

The CVARC Board has voted to take a "front line" role in fighting to keep our bands usable, by opposing the "Broadband over Power Lines" (BPL) initiative being considered by the FCC.

BPL has been found by the ARRL to render the HF bands all but useless. The system uses existing electrical distribution lines to deliver broadband internet services. Tests show it creates massive interference with the reception of broadcast, shortwave and amateur radio communications. Fueled by powerful utility interests, the FCC is considering the authorization of BPL on a nationwide scale.

The ARRL (see www.arrl.org) has done extensive research showing the harm BPL can do, yet the proposal is moving forward. What can you do to help?

Come to the next CVARC meeting, and bring your check book! CVARC is prepared to match your donation with one from our club's treasury, to assist the ARRL's efforts in fighting the adoption of BPL. We need to ACT NOW, or it may be too late to save the hobby we love so much. If you can't attend, please use the handy coupon below and SEND YOUR DONATION TODAY!
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Yes! I want to help the ARRL fight BPL!

Here's my donation of $

Name: ___________________________ Call: ___________


Mail to: CVARC, P.O.Box 2093 Thousand Oaks, CA 91358-0917

During our recent visit to Cambridgeshire in the UK, Ben and I operated as M/AE6NX and M/AE6NY. We used the local 2m and 70cm repeaters to get to know local hams. We also had the opportunity to attend club meetings at two local clubs.

The clubs meet three and four times a month respectively, which made it easy for visitors such as ourselves to participate. Theme Speakers were scheduled for some meetings, with the remainder being billed as informal "Natter Nights". Members told us that they liked having frequent meetings since it gives them a feeling of being part of a group.

Cambridge ARC meets at a Community College, and by a fortunate quirk of fire regulations the building has a small attic room which cannot be put into general use. As a result the club has its own roof-top shack, which we were proudly shown.

On our first visit, a talk on Digital Broadcast Radio was given by a visitor from the BBC’s development team. Our second visit to CARC was an informal night with many of the club members working on an Antenna Noise Bridge club project . They also told us about an interesting up coming club project which will be a "Touch Keyer" using finger-to-metal contact instead of the traditional mechanical paddles.

Huntingdonshire ARC meets at a local Community Centre, and the meeting that we attended was an informal one. Several members bought boxes of items to sell or trade. We were tempted by several items but had to think of the prospect of taking "interesting" items through US Customs on our return trip.

We saw a good level of participation in the pre-meeting Morse practice sessions at both clubs, even though UK dropped the CW requirement for all licenses a few months ago.

Our other club involvement was with the Duxford Radio Society, which operates a permanent special event station at the Imperial War Museum site at Duxford near Cambridge. The museum consists of five hangars with over 180 airplanes as well as a big collection of tanks and other land vehicles. Of particular interest to us was their collection of WWII radios, and the GB2IWM station which Ben and I operated on both of our visits to the site.

We were also very lucky that our visit coincided with a special lecture arranged by the Duxford Radio Society. The society had invited a leading expert on the WWII German Enigma encryption machine. We both found his talk very interesting. The allies breaking of the Enigma code during WWII is widely thought to have shortened the war by many months, and it was fascinating to understand some of the inner workings of the machine itself as well as the techniques used to break the code. Most surprisingly, we got to pound on the keys of an actual Enigma machine! The lecture prompted Ben and I to schedule a later trip to Bletchley Park, the site where the code-breaking was actually performed.

At all three clubs, there was a lot of interest in EchoLink. While mobile in Cambridge, I spoke to N8HXV using G0ANV’s 70cm link. Since returning to the Conejo Valley I have spoken to Darryl, the link owner, and he tells me that it will be connected to the Cambridge 70cm repeater, GB3PY, as soon as the necessary regulatory paperwork has been processed. Ben and I are looking forward to keeping in touch with our new friends this way.

With the CW licensing requirement having been recently dropped, thousands of UK amateurs have found themselves with access to the HF bands. Almost everyone we spoke to who was previously limited to VHF and UHF was planning to get onto HF soon. I can’t help thinking that this will be good for the hobby in the UK. Certainly, I wouldn’t mind being a Yaesu or Icom dealer in the UK right now!

We found that there were very few youngsters involved in the hobby in the UK. So it seems that it is not just us that are experiencing this phenomenon.

So, Ben and I were able to make good use of our Reciprocal Licenses in the UK and we look forward to our next trip.

Beginning in January, a 30 minute informal social and technical period will precede each of the CVARC General Meetings. The social and technical session will begin at 7:00 pm and will give members an opportunity to socialize and to discuss technical issues prior to the beginning of the general meeting at 7:30 pm. This will be an excellent time to discuss operating conditions, up coming contests, new amateur radio products that are coming on the market, talk to others concerning problems that you may be having, to seek the advice of others on the best equipment to buy, and to just have a good time visiting.

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:

The Net Controller’s script for the Area 2 weekly RACES check-in net is on the CVARC website, in printable form. Every member is encouraged to periodically serve as net controller. RACES members should remember that their RACES card is issued for only two years. When your card is due to expire call Jackie at the Office of Emergency Services in Ventura for an appointment to renew your card. Call (805) 654-2551 or toll free from the east half of the county at (800) 660-5474. For packet, call coordinator Dan Dicke KE6NYT (805) 983-1401. To register for Red Cross Disaster Services Classes, call (805) 339-2234 ext 0 Ventura County ARES/RACES web site: http://home1.gte.net/res19999/

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.