April Club Meeting, Rob Brownstein  K6RB on CW Skills

Rob Brownstein  K6RB BIO.

I was first licensed in June 1958 as KN2UMU at age 11. In April 1959 I passed my general and became K2UMU. I upgraded to extra class in 1970, then moved to California in 1973. My call sign was changed to NS6V in 1982, and to K6RB in 1997. I am primarily a CW operator spending about half my time rag chewing, and the other half, contesting with a modest station. I am a member of CWops, the Northern California Contest Club (NCCC), and FOC.

Giving Back…

These days in addition to the usual activities, I help hams acquire and/or improve their CW skills. The CW Operators club (CWops) sponsors a three-time-per-year CW training program. I volunteer as an advisor to a group of students each of the three semesters. The program has become very popular. Information is available at https://cwops.org/cw-academy/ . In addition, since January 1 2020, several operators in various time zones get on 40 and/or 80 meters, at 7 PM local, between 7.035 and 7.045 and/or 3.535 and 3.545, operating at 15-20 wpm, and offer QSO practice to those who want to improve their CW skills. They will be heard calling CQ and adding “GB” after their callsign sequence. That will identify those operators as volunteers who are there to offer QSO practice. My sked is Tuesday, Friday and Sunday at 7 PM local (PT or PDT). The schedule for others can be found at https://cwops.org/giving back/ .

April 19 Club Meeting New Time 7:00 PM

You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: K6BJ SCCARC Zoom Meeting
Time: Apr 19, 2024 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
        Every month on the Third Fri, 6 occurrence(s)
        Apr 19, 2024 07:00 PM
        May 17, 2024 07:00 PM
        Jun 21, 2024 07:00 PM
        Jul 19, 2024 07:00 PM
        Aug 16, 2024 07:00 PM
        Sep 20, 2024 07:00 PM

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 869 8329 4191
Passcode: 3749
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Antenna Repair

Antenna Repair at the old SCCARC club shack located by the K6BJ repeater site, in DeLaveaga park, circa 2008.


POTA – “Parks on the Air”


An informal group worked Pota Seacliff state beach.  It was a very nice warm day.   About 25 people visited the group.  I was able to talk to several people in the community who became seriously interested in the sport.

 Craig  Capitola Village  N6SBN


The PowerPoint from John Portune’s Build a Yagi

Build a Yagi – Feb. 16 Club Meeting

Speaker will be John Portune W6NBC. The meeting will February 16 at 7:30 PM. Both Zoom and in person at La Posada Retirement Community, 609 Frederick St, Santa Cruz.

Hams tend to fear building their own Yagi beams, thinking that only professional radio engineers can design Yagis. The equations seem way too complex and the many on-line Yagi calculators all conflict with each other, and they do not know which one to trust. GOOD NEWS. Ham yagi design is really simple as this presentation shows. Only three easy to remember no math, no calculator rules of thumb yield results that can’t be distinguished from yagis designed with the calculators and the fancy math.

The presentation also shows how to build a durable inexpensive VHF/UHF beam from easy to obtain materials.

Winter Field Day in Aptos

The club’s first Winter Field held on Saturday 27 at the Aptos Grange Hall.

SCCARC Winter Field Day

Jerry, Jim, John and I had a site visit at the Aptos Grange.  The Grange is a big multipurpose building on Mar Vista, next to the freeway.   We found suitable places for antennas across the back and freeway sides of the building.  There was quite a bit of space inside which included a kitchen and bathrooms.  The price was manageable. The Grange is available on Saturday the 27th.  We hope to put on a club Winter Field Day event at that location.   I would hope that club members would find time to stop by and visit.  

We discussed the scope of the Winter Field Day event.  The Grange is occupied on Sunday.   We decided that we would make the event a Saturday only event. The lunch and dinner would be potluck.  Interested operators were Gerry and John D on GOTA and Phone.   Craig and Jason will set a Digi station.  Jim was going to set a VHF/Vara. Mike may try Satellite.  

 In my case, I’m glad for all the walk in visitors with Digi experience.  They would be welcome to try their hand at PSK. (Jeez, let me have a break).  We have openings for QRP. If you want to try this, give us a call.

 It’s a good idea to look at the Winter Field day rules. For example, they don’t allow FT8. They said this mode was not suitable for emergency traffic. The message handling is different from the summer FD message.   The rules can be found at https://winterfieldday.org/

   When talking about this event, it will be more like our previous one day, Lighthouse activation events.  The antennas and stations will be smaller and more portable.  We’ll be inside to protect operators and the public from the weather. We would streamline the setup, meals, power to keep the event manageable.  The plans are still in flux. operators are bringing better ideas every day.  As mentioned above, the event will not get too large or ungainly.  The aim is towards a basic, portable, streamlined event.  I would hope that we get visitors like we had at the popular K6BJ swap meet events.

  As with all previous Field Day events, both summer and winter,  I came away having gained experience in setting a Field Stations.    
—

Our Holiday Gathering 2023

The December 17 meeting was the annual Holiday Gathering and the installation of the 2024 board members. This is the second year that the meeting was held at the Woodhouse Blending and Brewing. Even though it was a little wet out we all stayed dry and enjoyed good food and beverage.


Newly Elected SCCARC 2024 Board

Greetings all.  
Thanks to Cap’s prescience in suggesting the By Laws change
that set our 10% quorum requirement, we did have a quorum last night and were
able to successfully elect the slate of officers to lead your club in the coming year.

Our thanks to all who took the time to join us at La Posada in person or to log in
remotely to the election meeting via the zoom link.  The members below will be
installed next month during our holiday party at Woodhouse Blending and Brewing
on Sunday, Dec 17th.  (2pm-~4:30  families welcome).   

  • President                  Jerry Lucha               W6OJE         
  • Vice Pres.                  Ben Irao                    KN6NDM     
  • Treasurer                  Rich Cannings          W6RGC         
  • Secretary                   Mike Bryks                W6MLB        
  • At Large                     Jim Wason                KN6NCG        
  • At Large                     Martin Greatorex   KN6GWQ  

So thank you again for heeding the call and we hope to see many of you at the party.

73,
Jerry W6OJE    

Future hams from Troop 604

.

Operations at the Summit begin early next week, with Scouts present from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Scouts arrive on Wednesday, July 19. Operations will continue until Friday, July 28.

Suggested Ways to Contact K2BSA at the Jamboree:

SSB in Mhz: 28.390; 24.960; 21.360; 18.140; 14.290; 7.190; 3.940

EchoLink: K2BSA-R Demonstration Station (node 4566); WV8BSA-R VHF Repeater (node 6544); W6BSA-R UHF Repeater (node 8977); Conference *JOTA-365* (node 480809)

D-Star: WV8BSA and Reflector 033A

Any help you can give is appreciated. Thank you in advance for helping introduce youth to Amateur Radio.  They are the future.


SCCARC / SLVARC Field Day 2023 Slideshow

Field Day 2023

The San Lorenzo Valley Amateur Radio Club and the Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club have joined forces for Amateur Radio Field Day 2023 (info) at the Monterey Bay Academy in La Selva Beach, CA. We set up on Friday, June 23 and operated on Saturday, June 24, and on Sunday, June 25, 2023.

K6MMM Aggregate Club Score for Field Day

Whew! Field Day is over!

If you made contacts using stations at the clubs’ Monterey Bay Academy Field Day site in Watsonville, then your contacts will be part of the clubs’ Field Day score, which I will submit. (We used the callsign K6MMM.)

However, If you made contacts at your own QTH, then you used your own callsign and you will submit your own Field Day score. When submitting your own score, you can contribute your contacts to the K6MMM “aggregate club score.” You still will get credit for your own contacts, but your score also will become part of the K6MMM aggregate club score.

Here is how.

1. Collect the information needed for your submission.

2. Go to the form linked to below, and enter the data. Here are the values to use for the first four fields:

  • “Your Call” is your call sign (which you used to make contacts).
  • “GOTA Station Call” can be left blank.
  • “Location” is the ARRL section that you used in the Field Day exchange, which probably was “Santa Clara Valley” (find it in the pulldown under US Call Area 6).
  • “Club or Group Name” is “k6mmm”.

That last item is the important one. As you start to type “k6mmm”, the form will autofill. Accept the value “k6mmm”. Here is the link to the form.

https://field-day.arrl.org/fdentry.php

3. Enter the rest of your information.

If you want more information about the Aggregate Club Score, then check this PDF:

http://arrl.org/files/file/Field-Day/2023/1_63-Aggregate%20Club%20Scoring%20FAQ.pdf

I hope that you enjoyed Field Day, wherever you were!

Kerry, K3RRY

FD Summary

The weather changed from warm to cold and back again depending on which way the wind was blowing.  We had some interference on 40 meters.
There was a great team effort setting up and breaking down the stations.   We had very good attendance.  There was a wall of people watching the 
Digi station running all day.  Gota made a number of contact’s with new people.   The use of Lithium batteries allowed us to work without generator noise.   The operators worked as a team solving a dozen issues before starting this event.  
Included are a few pictures of us breaking down the stations.

Craig , Capitol Village N6SBN


West Valley College Flea Market Report

This morning I packed in the last sale items I was to take up to the flea market at West Valley College and arrived about 7 AM to set out my stall.  Mostly re-homing a number of consumer electronics items with a few hammy ones as well.

Weather was good and cleared up early, sales went in waves, mostly at 9 AM, then again about 9:30 AM, by 11 AM it was mostly bargain hunters.  A couple of familiar faces stopped by and acquired some items, Don K6GHA and Bob K6XX, they were more successful than I in eluding the siren song of whatever it was my neighbor was selling out of an oft visited plastic tub labled: Phidgets / Weights

By 11:30 AM most of my sales had concluded and I was about to pack up, but not without exploring the contents of said tub.  Sales had exceeded expectation so I was feeling I could possibly acquire something very small if deemed necessary.  The board in the tub were Phidget 1046 bridges and a variety of load cells 1, 3, 5, 10, 20 Kg.  These we have all encountered without likely knowing so.  The items were part of a project in building a store where items taken from shelves would be known by their weights.  I acquired a couple boards and eight load cells each for a meager sawbuck. They look like they could have possibilities, such as measuring windload on a mast or such.

By 12 noon all sellers are required to be packed up and out of the lot.  Further information about the Electronics Flea Market may be found here:

https://www.electronicsfleamarket.com/

Phidget 1046 and load cell information may be found here:

https://www.phidgets.com/?tier=3&catid=98&pcid=78&prodid=1027

Richard, K8SQB


June 17 Swap Meet and Fox Hunt

Yesterday’s Radio Swap Meet at Upper DeLaveaga Park was fun!  The morning started of with heavy fog, but the sun made a guest appearance near the end.

Many thanks to Michael (NJ2X) for loaning us the use of his Fox Box!

Below are some photos.  

We will have monthly Swap Meets on the third Saturdays (8am-noon) through October.  Look for monthly topics of hands-on educational workshops each month.

73, Becky. KI6TKB

The Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club will once again hold monthly Swap Meets at the Club Station parking lot in Upper DeLaveaga Golf Course area and Shakespeare Santa Cruz, beginning this month.

The Meets will be the third Saturday of each month, May through October, 8am-noon.

Please bring items you want to sell, trade or give away,and tell your friends to do the same.

Tentative Fox Hunt at 10am. Monthly hands-on workshops each month, TBA. For May, refreshments of coffee and doughnuts only.  BBQ possible in the future.

Write this on your calendar and please invite others from the area to join in.


The Olympics of Amateur Radio

The Olympics of Amateur Radio – WRTC 2022
– Don K6GHA 6/12/2023

The World Radio Team Championship (WRTC) 2022 (postponed to 2023, due to COVID) will be held for 24 hours on the second full weekend in July from Bologna, Italy. This event is a ‘once every four year’ radio contest and has been called the Olympics of Amateur Radio. The world’s best operators qualify regionally based on contest scores, and it has worldwide participation. 

WRTC tests operator’s contesting abilities in CW and SSB operation by defining a common playing field (antennas and power) and scoring contacts to determine world champions in two-man team over 24-hour of nonstop competition.

Bottom line, it is the best test of one’s radio operation acumen, and in one weekend crowns the best operating team in the world for the next four years!

There is a lot of background on the WRTC including WRTC History, the contestant selection process, the completion rules and regulations, and the judging (yes, each team has an a “on-site referee”. Judges are also on duty, but they are behind the scenes). I’ll include some links for those who want to dive deeper into the dits-and-dahs of the WRTC. 

However, you may ask at this point why I’m writing about this event? It is a bucket list item for me to travel to a WRTC location. And it all started from just trying to make a contact with just one of the WRTC 2014 teams on SSB with 100w. A half dozen QSL Cards confirming my success came from WRTC teams in 2014. I did it, I was hooked! From Santa Cruz this year may be a bit more challenging, but it will be a great contact if you can make it, and if you do you should receive a COOL QSL Card.

Santa Cruz and Central California is a hotbed of exceptional world class contest operators. In fact, this will be the third time Bob K6XX will be a participant and reaching for the gold. He will accompany the team captain Alan KH6TU/AD6E, who is representing Oceania in this year’s competition. OC2 is mainly Hawaii, plus some minor islands in the region. 

As for me, I’ll be part of the support crew. I like to think of my role like being a pit crew in auto racing. Well, maybe more like the ‘auto hauler’ getting the car to the track. There is a lot of equipment which has to be hand carried from Santa Cruz to Bologna, and I’ll be part of the transport and set up team. 

You may ask why you would go to half way around the world to attend this event. I’ll be meeting some of the world’s best operators, and I’ll be in close proximity of the 60+ teams that make up the WRTC. While operating as I4/K6GHA from my hotel room, I’ll be running a QRP (5 watt) rig to do my best to ‘work’ all of the WRTC Teams, and collect those QSL Cards during the competition! By adding the “I4/” in frontof my call I’ll taking advantage of the “reciprocal license agreement” with Italy (To find out more look at the link provided). 

There is a lot more to come from this adventure. At some future date I look forward to sharing a slide presentation on “what it is like from the sidelines at WRTC 2022”.  

The contest Exchange information and Rules for the contest are under the IARU (International Amateur Radio Union) HF World Championship contest. Yes, the contest does really has that highfalutin’ name! The WRTC is a superset of this contest and runs concurrently.  

My recommendation is to try to jump into the action, you never know with who around the world you will make a contact. But if you listen for only WRTC Special Call signs the QSL card from the participants is cool!  Sunspots should help us here in six land for 10, 15, 20, or 40 Meters. If you dodecide to try, the sent exchange is really simple: signal report (Phone 59, or CW 5NN) and ITU zone 06. When a WRTC or IARU Op acknowledges your call sign, they will call you and give their signal report and ITU Zone Number, your response is simply “five nine six”. You need nothing more. So:
1) Be ready to break the pile-up with your call
2) listen well 
3) be brief! 
4) and, send in your log!

The team hopes to work you from Bologna, Italy. 
Grazie Mille, Ciao! 

73, de K6GHA- (I4/K6GHA in Bologna Italy). 

References and links:

IARU Rules and Information: http://www.arrl.org/iaru-hf-world-championship

WRTC Italy 2022 Home – https://www.wrtc2022.it/

WRTC History – https://wrtc.info/wrtc-history/

WRTC Qualification Rules – https://www.wrtc2022.it/en/selection-criteria-7.asp

Amateur Radio Reciprocal Agreement – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_international_operation

Hams at Dayton

Hams start going to Dayton for the technology. They keep going for the people.

Dayton, Ohio becomes the center of the amateur radio universe every third weekend in May. That’s when the Dayton Amateur Radio Association holds Hamvention, the largest gathering of radio amateurs in the world. This year, approximately 30,000 converged for the event.

Most people start going to Hamvention for the technology, and there was plenty of that this year. All the major manufacturers were there, including (in alphabetical order) Elecraft, Flex, Icom, Kenwood, MFJ, and Yaesu. There were some less well-known manufacturers there, too, including Alinco, HobbyPCB, QRPLabs, and QRPWorks. They were joined by a host of niche suppliers, who make and sell everything from antennas to Morse Code keys to batteries. And, of course, there’s the flea market, where you can find all kinds of weird and wonderful electronic stuff.

People come for the forums, too. The theme for this year’s Hamvention was Innovation! and many of the forums emphasized this aspect of amateur radio. This year’s forum lineup included presentations on digital communications, software-defined radio, fast-scan TV, and Linux-based ham radio software.

People over technology

Technology was certainly the initial draw for me, but it’s not why I keep returning. I didn’t buy a single thing this year. What keeps me going back are the people. Every year, I meet old friends, hams who I’ve only met on the air, and make new friends.
Last year, for example, I had dinner on Saturday with a fellow with whom I’d had many CW contacts, but never met in person. In fact, because we were operating CW, I’d never even heard his voice. We hit it off so well, that we again met for dinner this year. Not only that, we expanded our circle to include several other hams who we’ve worked before.

Here’s another example. On Friday, an old friend came up to the booth to say hello. As it turns out, he was recently elected to the board of directors of the Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA). About 15 years ago, I was a member of QCWA, but let my membership lapse when I became disenchanted with the organization.

One of the reasons for my departure was that they actively discouraged me from starting a chapter here in Southeast Michigan. Their reasoning, as I recall, is that there was already a chapter in Michigan, even though its activities were mostly on the west side of the state. That made no sense to me at all.

This didn’t seem to make much sense to my friend–the newly-elected QCWA board member–so we plan to explore this further at a later date. Who knows? We may yet form a SE Michigan chapter of QCWA.

This is just a small sample of the people I met this year. I also got to talk to some podcasters and YouTubers, a couple of fellows who recognized me from reading my blog or listening to me on the ICQ Podcast, and hams out in the flea market who had some interesting stories about the stuff they had for sale. You never know who you’ll run into, what stories they’ll tell you, and what you’ll learn from them.

It’s meeting people that keep me returning to Hamvention. If you’ve never been to a Dayton Hamvention, I’d encourage you to go at least once. If you do, I”m going to guess that you’ll go back, and it won’t be for the technology, but for the people.


Dan Romanchik, KB6NU, is the author of the KB6NU amateur radio blog (KB6NU.Com).hen he’s not at Hamvention, he teaches ham radio classes and operates CW on the HF bands.

The Return of CAKE

CAKE Crumbs April 8, 2023 10 AM to Noon or thereabouts

CAKE returned, located at Loft Coffee, 2701 Cabrillo College Drive, Aptos

CAKE – Coffee/Caffeine Assisted Knowledge Exchange was initiated in
the days of yore by W6WO Ronald Skelton (SK) to assist fellow hams in
the exchange of ideas, sharing new tools or simply an opportunity to
observe what others brought to the meeting.

April 8, 2023 CAKE was attended (at the very least) by

Ann H. KE6BQA
Bruce H. KN6DBR
Eric S. WA6HHQ
Eric Z. KK6IZY
Mike B. W6MLB
Jim W. KN6NCG
Ben I. KN6NDM
Gary W. K6PDL
Richard A. K8SQB
Rich C. KN6UZL

Discussions covered many and varied topics from the current solar
cycle, DXing, antenna placement and inexpensive durable sunglasses.
Ann H. brought a broken adapter cable Richard A. offered to fix (part on order.)

The main presentation was Eric S. who brought an Elecraft K4 and some
fascinating gadgets which allow for recording a band of radio signals
to laptop computer, which may be played back into a
receiver/transceiver for demonstration purposes (because the moment
you need everything to work right there’s a solar flare or such), a
GPS time reference by Leo Bodnar Electronics and LIME SDR (using GNU
SDR,) which play a roles in this endeavour.  It was really something
to tune around and hear radio signals without and antenna hooked up.
Such a setup would be very useful for introducing new hams to net
operations or working HF.

Another topic was various HF nets, including the local 10m net, run
Mondays from 7 PM to 7:30 PM on 28.308 USB and California Hawaii Net,
Saturdays at 7 AM (local time) on 14.340.

Next CAKE will be at Loft Coffee on April 22nd, 10 AM to Noon.

Richard
K8SQB

John Reinartz K6BJ Testimonial Banquet 1960

The testimonial banquet program for John Reinartz K6BJ February 1, 1960 at the Villa Hotel, San Mateo.

View Fullscreen

Watsonville 147.945 repeater status update

As I’m sure you all know, the Watsonville 147.945 linked repeater was taken out of service a few weeks ago due to the sale of the tower at Fire Station II.

The repeater has been transported to my home shop and re packaged into a simpler foot print.  I am attempting to put it back on the air shortly in a temporary location, utilizing the make-shift link.

The new anticipated location for the repeater is going to be the roof of the Watsonville Hospital.  WCH management has given their blessing and will not require any rent.  Several path studies have been run and the simplex UHF link path appears to be as good as was the case at the Fire Station location.

In order to make an installation into the Hospital building, management has informed me that a set of plans will need to be generated and approved by a State Hospital Management agency before we can cut a hole for coax entry into the radio vault.  Once we get an approval that Hospital Management said they would press for, the hospital staff said they would do the work to create the coax entry hole.  

I’ll put out another status update as soon as there’s a change to report.  K6BJ can currently be accessed from the Pajaro Valley region using the K6RMW 443.050 repeater; PL 94.8.  The repeater is being disabled on Sunday evenings to help with the Internet based nets.

73 . . .
Bob Wiser K6RMW

Holiday Gathering

The club met on Sunday December 18, for our annual Holiday Gathering and installation of new Club Officers.at Woodhouse Blending & Brewing in Santa Cruz.

New 2023 SCCARC Club Officers

Congratulations to the 2023 Club Board leaders elected at last night’s meeting.  Thanks to good Club member response, we easily had a quorum, with 41 operators checking into the meeting!  Thank you!

President: Jerry (W6OJE)

Vice President: Richard (K8SQB)

Secretary: Mike (W6MLB)

Treasurer: Cap (KE6AFE) Incumbent

At-Large: Ben (KN6NDM)  

At-Large: Jim (KN6NCG)    

Ex-Officio: Craig (N6SBN)

Many thanks to the outgoing Board for their service:

President: Craig (N6SBN)

Vice President; vacant

Secretary: David (N6DTA)

Treasurer: Cap (KE6AFE) remaining in office

At-Large: Gary (K6PDL)

At-Large: Vince (KM6YHE)

73 and Happy Thanksgiving,

Becky

KI6TKB


Ray Wentz W6LPW SK

Ray was the son of a ham radio operator, and had been licensed since
he was a teenager. He had worked in the electronics and aerospace
industries. He was an active member of St. Andrews Church in Ben
Lomond.

For many years, Ray taught evening classes which enabled many SLV
residents to obtain their ham licenses. He was also a captain of the
Get-On-The-Air station on Field Day, coaching newcomers to make voice
contacts on 40 meters.

-John AC6SL

Ray wonderfully assisted and promoted ham radio operations in our community for many years.  Among other fine efforts, I remember Ray’s work in support of our club’s 100-year anniversary event at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History in 2016.

We won’t forget Ray’s cheerful smirk.

73, Cap KE6AFE

Last Swap Meet of the Season

Pictures from the last swap meet on October 8 at the Shakespeare Santa Cruz site by our club repeater.

September Club Meeting -Craig, N6SBN will finally talk about SDR

The September 16 K6BJ club meeting will have a presentation on the basics of SDR radios given by our club president Craig N6SBN. There will be discussions on the set up and operation of SmartSDR.  Following the presentation, we will open up the meeting for a question and answer period.  Craig running the SDR station at field day. 

Craig K6SBN, Rich KN6TRY
Photo by K8SQB

SCCARC is inviting you to our monthly meeting.

Note: Due to county’s currrent restriction, Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club meeting are held on the third Friday at 7:30pm via ZOOM.

Topic: SCCARC Monthly Meeting
Time: 07:30 PM Pacific Time  Every month on the Third Fri, until Nov 18, 2022

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82518128630?pwd=UTZVN0pjeTVVODR3Y24rUlFTWkdzQT09

Meeting ID: 825 1812 8630
Passcode: 408373
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,82518128630#,,,,*408373# US (San Jose)

Meeting ID: 825 1812 8630
Passcode: 408373
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kesy4IPgb

Russ Mackey NW6U SK

My dear friend and favorite ham radio mentor/elmer Russ Mackey, NW6U, passed away yesterday. Russ was a member of our Club these last 32 years and was our vice president when I was first licensed. Chairing the repeater committee, Russ spent countless hours over years working on our Club’s repeaters, remotely and in-person..  Supremely knowledgeable in many fields, and he knew more about repeaters than anyone I’ve ever known.  Russ was always kind and supportive.  73, Cap KE6AFE

SCCARC – SLVARC Field Day 2022

A joint Field Day of the Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club and the San Lorenzo Valley Amateur Radio Club held June 25-26, 2022 at the Bonny Doon Airport in the Santa Cruz mountain’s


Swap Meet and Club Station Cleanout 5/22/22

Vacating the station building after years of collecting stuff with the help of Craig (N6SBN), Cap (KE6AFE) and Mike (K6MLB).



A worldwide collection of QSL cards from Cecilia Huntoon a SWL (shortwave listener)

https://k6bj.org/wordpress/archives/5659

Early QSL Cards from the Central Coast

https://k6bj.org/wordpress/archives/5655