An ARRL Special Service Club since 1970
Will the amateur airwaves fall silent? Since the dawn of radio, amateur operators—hams—have transmitted on tenaciously guarded slices of spectrum….
Source: IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News
Martin Hickey-AJ6CL distributed a survey to operators from the various clubs across the county to collect numbers of QSO’s made in order to highlight the accomplishments of hams in Ventura County. This informal survey is independent of the scores that operators submitted to the ARRL as official Field Day entries. Official Field Day results are published in the December issue of QST.
Continue reading “Field Day Results”
Orv Beach-W6BI reports the camera on the mesh network on Chatsworth peak captured the quick work to put out a small brush fire in Simi Valley off Cochran Street late Sunday afternoon. In addition to screen shots, live video of the fire fight was streamed on YouTube.
Source: Ventura County Star
Extend rabbit ears to 17” or so for 2 meter use; for 6 meters, use the rabbit ears fully extended and add 12” clip lead at ends of the dipole. (Channel 2 TV used frequencies just a bit higher in frequency than the 6 meter band.) Use power meter, SWR bridge, or internal metering in the transceiver to achieve lowest VSWR. Meant for QRP use only! Plastic Schedule 40 PVC pipe in one-foot sections, with PVC couplings, makes for a simple mast, which can be put in a suitcase for travel or in a day pack for hill-topping/SOTA use. – Pete, N6ZE
This month marked the one-year anniversary of the M7.1 Ridgecrest earthquake. Amateur radio operators can now report the effects of an earthquake, their experiences and the extent of the damage via radio using the “Did You Feel It” (DYFI) form on Winlink Express. This information is transmitted directly to the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) “Did You Feel It?” system which creates community earthquake intensity maps. The form allows amateur radio operators to become citizen scientists who contribute to earthquake research and support earthquake education and preparedness in their area.
Here’s a presentation on DYFI Winlink from Oliver Dully-K6OLI at k6oli@arrl.net.
Continue reading “DYFI on Winlink”The next regular club meeting on Thursday, July 16, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. will be conducted via Zoom video conferencing software as we continue social distancing efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19. Details on how to access the meeting are below.
Topic/Guest Speaker – Deep Space Communications and the Deep Space Network: Stephen Townes-WB4ILW will the Deep Space Network, an international array of giant radio antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions. He will also give us an overview of the fundamentals of deep space communications and aspects of flight hardware. Dr. Townes is the Chief Technologist of the Interplanetary Network Directorate and Manager of the Technology, Standards and Spectrum Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is the current President of the JPL Amateur Radio Club.
Continue reading “July Club Meeting Information”
The wildly successful “Auxiliary Bored Meetings” will continue on a new schedule beginning Monday, June 29, 2020. The informal nets have been running four times daily on the Bozo repeater. Over 7,500 calls from 275 unique hams have been logged on the nets. Under the new schedule, the net will be called to order at 9 A.M. Monday through Saturday. The Saturday morning net will run 9 A.M. to noon and the repeater will linked with Paul Strauss’ (WD6EBY) repeater network for full Ventura County coverage. Starting July 11, 2020, there will be a second Saturday net at 9 P.M.
Continue reading ““Bored Meetings” and Zoom Gatherings to Continue On a New Schedule”1. If you would like to report your Field Day score to the ARRL, submit your official entry at: https://field-day.arrl.org/fdentry.php
2. If you have questions about what category or class to use, send me a brief description of how you operated and we’ll figure it out! My e-mail: aj6cl@cvarc.org
3. You can check the status of your Field Day entry on this website: http://field-day.arrl.org/fdentriesrcvd.php
73, Martin -AJ6CL
By Joe Tischler- KN6JGX
No man is an island unto himself even during a pandemic. Thanks to seven men, including my three sons, and four weeks, my new hex beam antenna is in place and well established. I was originally going to fasten the mast to the chimney but that changed when my youngest son Adam suggested otherwise. When you consent to a little help you open the door to additional ideas, some good some not.
Continue reading “Raising a Hex Beam Antenna”