Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club

February 6, 2024February 6, 2024

License Classes Set for March

CVARC has license classes coming up in March at the East County Sheriff’s Station at 2101 E. Olsen Road in Thousand Oaks. The classes are held in the Community Room (enter from the patio to the west of the main entrance). Don’t miss this chance for a new license or an upgrade to General class!

Technician Class License Course

We’ll be meeting from 8:00 A.M. to noon on five Saturdays, March 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30. You’ll need a copy of the ARRL Ham Radio License Manual, 5th Edition, available from ARRL or Amazon (be sure to order the correct edition.) We will cover all chapters in the book, plus every question from the FCC License question pool. There is an exam session on April 14th.

General Class License Course

In a new twist, our advanced classes will now be held in the Community Room on the same days as the Technician classes from 12:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. The March classes will be for the General license. We’ll be using the ARRL General Class License Manual 10th Edition, available from the ARRL or Amazon (again, be sure to order the correct edition!)

For questions or to register, contact Keith Elliott-W6KME at keith@w6kme.org.

February 6, 2024February 6, 2024

President’s Message

Hello, CVARC Members and Visitors,

Wow, it’s already February! I hope you enjoyed our January club activities. Our January meeting about test equipment with Alan Wolke-W2AEW was very informative – everybody learned something new, and we heard some very positive feedback from meeting attendees on the air in the days following. We are fortunate to have had such a notable guest join us for a club meeting – Alan’s YouTube channel is a great teaching tool you should take a look at if you haven’t discovered it already.

Winter Field Day was a success – we had a great turnout and lots of fun socializing, as usual. The day had its share of challenges, as it was so windy, we witnessed antennas, tables, and sandwiches taking flight across the grass, but everyone made the best of it – we’re hams! I was happy to be able to meet and talk with some of our new members and had some great discussions with many of you regarding ideas for the club. Thank you to Martin Hickey-AJ6CL for organizing another successful CVARC event!

January 27, 2024January 27, 2024

Windy Winter Field Day

Antenna guying skills were put to the test at a windy CVARC Winter Field Day event Saturday January 27th as Dos Vientos Park in Newbury Park. The purpose of Winter Field Day is to practice field operation, emergency operating skills, and to have outdoor fun with other hams.

January 20, 2024

Big Raffle Winner

Shannon Porter-KO6BSK was the winner of the 2023 CVARC “Big Raffle.” Shannon now has the pleasant task of deciding how to spend the $300 DX Engineering gift certificate.

January 18, 2024February 12, 2024

February Club Meeting

The next regular club meeting will be held on Thursday, February 15, at 7:30 P.M. at the East County Sheriff’s Station.

Topic – Testing Your Handheld: Ed Zimmerman-N6XEW demonstrates how you can use relatively inexpensive test equipment to evaluate the performance of your handheld. Ed will also discuss testing band pass filters. Members are encouraged to bring an HT to the meeting for testing.

Special note: if you can’t attend the meeting at the Sheriff’s station you can still participate via ZOOM, details below.

January 16, 2024January 17, 2024

New to Ham Radio or Wanting to Upgrade?

CVARC has announced an ambitious schedule of license classes for 2024.

There will be four Technician license classes held in March, May, September, and November.

There will be two General license classes in March and September and two Amateur Extra license classes in May and November.

The four-hour classes will be held on five consecutive Saturdays, with Technician classes in the mornings and General or Extra classes in the afternoon.

Technician classes will be led by Zak Cohen-N6PK with help from other instructors. General and Extra classes will be led by Bill Willcox-KF6JQO, John Kitchens-NS6X, Ed Zimmermann-N6XEW and Keith Elliott-W6KME.

The classes will be held at the East County Sheriff’s Station at 2101 E. Olsen Road in Thousand Oaks. To save a spot in any of the classes, email Keith Elliott-W6KME, at keith@w6kme.org.

January 11, 2024January 18, 2024

January Club Meeting – Special Location

The next regular club meeting will be held on Thursday, January 18, 2024, at 7:30 P.M.

Due to remodeling at the East County Sheriff’s Station, the January club meeting will be held in the Oak Room at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza/City Hall. (Those of you who are ACS members know this room as the Thousand Oaks EOC.)

The Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza is located at:
2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91362

From the 101 freeway take the Hampshire off-ramp.
Go north to Thousand Oaks Blvd.
Go 3/4 miles west on Thousand Oaks Blvd. to the Civic Arts Plaza on the left.
Go to the “theater area” on the 2nd level of the Civic Arts Plaza.
The EOC is in the Oak Room at the east end of the Reflecting Pool.
There are no events at the Fred Kavli Theater Thursday so parking should be available in the City Hall parking lot.

Topic – Using Test Equipment: Alan Wolke-W2AEW discusses the use of basic test equipment in your shack. He’ll focus on the practical use of VOM, DMM and analog/digital oscilloscopes.

Special note: if you can’t attend the meeting in person you can still participate via ZOOM, details below.

Members gather as early as 7:00 p.m. to socialize.

January 8, 2024January 27, 2024

CVARC Winter Field Day is January 27th

Save the date – Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club will hold its Winter Field Day event at Dos Vientos Park, 4801 Borchard Road, Newbury Park, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM on Saturday, January 27, 2024.

The purpose of Winter Field Day is to foster ham camaraderie, field operation, emergency operating preparedness, and just plain on the air, outdoor fun during winter for American, Canadian, and international radio amateurs. Don’t let those winter doldrums keep you locked up in the house. Get out and play some radio!

January 4, 2024January 4, 2024

President’s Message

Hello, CVARC Members and Visitors,

First, I’d like to thank you for electing me as the new President of CVARC. I had the pleasure of serving as Vice President in 2023 – the board is such a great group of people! As far as personnel changes, our former President Ed Zimmerman-N6XEW and I have switched roles, as he will serve as Vice President this year. We would like to welcome Huston Herman-KK6WT as our new Member at Large, who will be replacing Phil Bartlett-K6UJO. Thank you to Phil for serving on the board – you are appreciated, and I really enjoyed our conversations.

As much as I’ve gotten to know many of you already, I figured I should start out by introducing myself and give you some background information that will answer some common questions.

January 2, 2024January 2, 2024

Hand Keys in January 2024

By Norm Campbell – AB6ET

It’s that time of year when hand keys, Morse Code, and the way it was on CW is on the air again.

Every year on New Year’s Day it’s SKN, Straight Key Night sponsored by the ARRL. Everyone is encouraged to get on the air for the special event, not a contest, simply to talk with others using hand keys of some type.

Straight keys are considered to be regular hand keys, cootie keys, bugs, and even makeshift keys such as wires, beer can tops, and paper clips. I know paper clips are used because I talked with John-WI6O who was using just such an arrangement.