CVARC Holiday Party – Sign Up & Pay Now

Join CVARC members and their spouses at our annual Holiday Party, complete with a buffet dinner, awards and raffle prizes.  The Holiday Party is on Thursday, December 19 starting at 6:00 at the Best Western Posada Royale, 1775 Madera Rd., Simi Valley. The cost is $27.50 per person. Sign up and pay at the November club meeting, or send your payment to CVARC, PO Box 2093, Thousand Oaks, CA 91358 by December 1.

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CVARC Discussion Moving to Groups.io

Recently, Yahoo announced major changes with all Yahoo Groups including our group, CVARC Discussion.  As of October 28th, new content could no longer be uploaded to the site.  All previously posted content on the site will be permanently removed after December 14th.

Obviously, this did not meet our Club’s needs, so we began the process of moving to a new group service, groups.io.  If you are an ACS member, you are already familiar with groups.io.  Other clubs and organizations have made similar moves.

The good thing is you don’t have to do anything to be a part of the CVARC discussion group on groups.io.  The migration has been completed.  If you were a member of the Yahoo group, you should have received an email telling you that your email address has been used to subscribe to the new group.  You can set your preferences for message delivery by going to the group’s home page.

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A Mini DX-pedition to Mt. Pinos

On Saturday, November 2, Andy Moorwood-K3CAQ and Bill Willcox-KF6JQO went on a mini DX-pedition to Mt. Pinos, the mountain in the Los Padres National Forest located on the boundary between Ventura and Kern counties.

The summit of Mt. Pinos is 8,847 feet, making it the highest point in Ventura County. To reach the summit, however, means a three mile hike. Understandably, Bill and Andy chose to operate from the Nordic Base, which is still an elevation of roughly 8,300 feet.

During their two hours on 20M they made a total of 9 contacts, including stations in Ohio, Wisconsin, Vermont, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Colombia. They reported hearing an operator in Grand Cayman but say they were unable to make the contact.

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November Club Meeting Information

The next regular club meeting is Thursday, November 21, 2019 (always the third Thursday) at the East County Sheriff’s Station’s Community Room, 2101 E. Olsen Rd, Thousand Oaks at 7:30 pm.

Talk-in coordination is on the Bozo repeater, 147.885 (- 127.3)

Oliver Dully-K6OLI and Tran Huynh-K6NH

Topic/Guest Speakers – AREDN Mesh and Emergency Communications: Oliver Dully-K6OLI and Tran Huynh-K6NHI will discuss the AREDN Mesh Tunnel used for the Baker 2 Vegas Relay Race. 

Raffle Prizes: 28 ft. Heavy Duty Fiberglass Telescopic Pole, Triband Portable VHF/UHF Antenna, Helping Hand Soldering Tool

Pre-Meeting Dinner: Join fellow club members for dinner at 5:00 p.m. at Bandit’s 589 N. Moorpark Rd. Thousand Oaks.

Upcoming CVARC Programs

More SPRINT Ops with Pete Heins-N6ZE

October 9, 2019  – 70 cm (420 – 450 MHz) SPRINT Operation

Just 8 days after participating in the 135 cm (222 -225 MHz) SPRINT, Woody-WA6WDY, and I traveled again to the top of Stunt Rd. in the Santa Monica Mountains (DM04qb) to participate in the 70cm (420 – 450MHz) SPRINT. From our location more than 2000 feet above sea level, with an unrestricted RF horizon in many directions, 100 watts of SSB & FM, and an 18 element horizontally polarized Yagi, we made 20 contacts (QSOs) in Ventura, Los Angeles, & Orange Counties in 1.5 hours of operating. Interestingly, we worked 8 stations in both Ventura County and in Grid DM13 to the East/Southeast of Los Angeles. Thanks to CVARC/VCARS/ACS members who got on.

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President’s Message

Wow, what a great weekend of radio fun!

This past weekend was the 54th Annual California QSO Party.  This was my second year participating.  I operated for about 7 hours, over the two days, and I managed to make contacts in 26 California counties, 27 states, 3 Canadian provinces and two other foreign countries (France and Honduras).  79 contacts in all.  I worked fellow CVARC member Bob Hughes-K6HHW and heard Norm Campbell-AB6ET as we both tried to work an Italian station.  I also heard Pete Heins-N6ZE.  Hopefully other CVARC members were in on the fun, especially those who recently upgraded to General.

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135 cm (222- 225 MHz) SPRINT Report by Pete Heins-N6ZE

Unlike my 2 meter Fall 2019 SPRINT operation on Thousand Oaks’ Tarantula Hill for last week’s event, Woody-WA6WDY, and I traveled to the top of Stunt Rd. in the Santa Monica mountains (DM04qb) to participate in the 135cm (222 – 225 MHz) SPRINT. From our location, more than 2000 feet above sea level and with an unrestricted RF horizon in many directions, 100 watts of SSB & FM, and a 7 element horizontally polarized Yagi, we made 13 contacts (QSOs) in Ventura, Los Angeles, & Orange Counties in just over one hour of operating.

Several stations which we contacted were more than 40 miles distant; one, WA6EJO, used just a handheld with whip antenna from Ventura.

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