Club Meeting July 19 / Swap Meet July 20
The meeting will be Kerry K3RRY and John AC6SL presenting the Field Day results. SCCARC meets at the La Posada Retirement Community Lounge. 609 Frederick St. Santa Cruz, CA
The club meets at 7:00PM, on the THIRD FRIDAY of the each month (except December). We also host the traditional zoom meeting at the same time.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86983294191?pwd=QkIyODI4ZCtBN2MrbkhXTXU2TFlxUT09
Meeting ID: 869 8329 4191. Passcode: 3749
On Saturday July 20 the Swap Meet will be 8am-noon, with a BBQ at 10:30am or so. People are encouraged to bring equipment to sell, trade or give away. Bring your own table/tailgate or tarp and shade canopy if desired. Coffee & donuts in the morning, with a BBQ lunch provided,. Donations accepted.
Field Day in Review
FD on KSBW TV YouTube link here
You will have to turn your volume way up to hear the audio.
A Typical Field Day???
It was a typical FD. Our CW station had a generator that was failing He was hung up on and off all weekend. The Digital logging computer died . The Winlink struggled. We expected and planned to feed people at breakfast and dinner. All of the people were hungry at lunch. So, we shifted breakfast and dinner to lunch both days. We didn’t have a cook, so, someone from the public stepped in and cooked burgers through the mid day…. They even went to the nearby Safeway to buy more food. When we figure out who they were, we’ll thank them. We didn’t know about KSBW until an hour before they showed. Fortunately, one of our lesser-known hams stepped to the plate and spoke with them… He knew the news crew from other events. When we needed a tractor, one of our absolutely new hams brought one.
So, it was a very typical FD. Looked like a big, fun, shiny public event on the outside, on the inside, experienced FD ops were struggling. (Normal).
The big problem for the Santa Cruz/SLV club is we are having problems finding locations to set up. The field we were at may have a sub division on it next year. We may need to shift to Monterey county or find a place up the coast.
Craig N6SBN
Sign up to volunteer for ARRL Field Day!
The Club needs your HELP to make this the best Field Day ever.
Help us make Field Day a fun and exciting weekend of amateur radio operation, education, and community building!
- Sign up to volunteer now using this link: https://forms.gle/1ipwY5LLXtEDiQJw5
- When: Friday, June 21 to Sunday, June 23 (main event day is Saturday, June 22)
- Where: The former “Par 3” golf course in Aptos, next to Sea Cliff Inn located at the end of Old Dominion Court (off State Park Drive and across from the Rancho Del Mar Shopping Center)
Field Day Notes – Craig Harlamoff
Jim Wasson, Gerry, Becky, Roberta, Gerry, John AC6SL, Jim Muller and I met at the Aptos Par 3 field for our site visit. Previously, the grass had been 5′ tall. It has since been cut down. We discussed placing the station locations and welcome desk on the property. Jim was able to set stakes and ribbon to mark each location. We noted that the road going into the PAR 3 still has deep ruts. If there is a ham with a tractor of some type, we could use it for leveling the road and station sites. Please let us know. Renting one would be costly.
Becky has been reaching out to the community and public officials to visit. We did a radio show at the Santa Cruz Voice yesterday. Peter is gathering information for the visitor tables. We reached out to the Scouts and they’re uncertain if they will visit Field Day. We hope to have Greeters at the entry location and at each Station to answer questions. We could have Murs radios at each location to allow visitors to pass messages. Visitors would be encouraged to try the GOTA station.
Rich Cannings was able to generate a sign up sheet for Volunteer station builder assistants. This sign up sheets will help us stay organized and address volunteer shortages. Station builders would help out on Friday afternoon and the Sunday morning . Station builder assistants should wear clothing to protect them from the sun and should bring a hard hat and gloves. The Station Captains can really use the help with pushing up masts and setting mast guy lines. A few extra hands makes all the difference at Field Day.
We could use a volunteer to set a dining area. We could use several tables and chairs under a pop up tent. We have informal plans to cook meals for the club members working at Field Day. Much of this will be a pot luck, with different hams bringing different food items. Fortunately, Safeway is next door if we’re short something.. I have the griddle, if you can flip burgers then we could use your help. Saturday morning will be much the same… A pot of coffee and flipping pancakes.
Station Captains have solicited for assistant operators. Positions are limited so please check the sign up sheets. In any case, the Assistant should work closely with the Station Captain prior to the event. Personally, I know that I can only run the fast paced digi station for an hour before I need a break. Rick Muller will have people assisting with his phone station. We had two incidents where people wanted to camp or set stations independent of our Club at the Par 3 site. We had to decline their interest and suggest they work with the existing FD station Captains to participate.
Roberta, Mike Bryks, Ben Irao and Lisa will make the core of the greeters. Greeters will at fix positions. As the public approaches a working FD Station, the greeter will welcome them, talk about the specific station they’re assign to. They will encourage the public to pass a message using the Murs Radios. Hopefully this will make it fun for the public and greeters. The ARRL has specifically asked for greeters. The ARRL section manager for SCV has specifically asked for pictures of our greeters in actions. Who knows, you might find yourself on the front cover of QST. In times past, we’ve gained new club members from our greeter efforts. Lisa has volunteered to take pictures for the ARRL and our post FD report.
We could use a “Safery Officer”. The ARRL has a document that describes Fire Safety, Antenna Safety and so on. The Safety officer (and deputy) would be on site the entire event. This position is worth 100 points. For the most part, the safety officer would distribute the fire extinguishers, make sure that antenna guy wires or well marked and generators are fire safe.
This is our plan. Visitors or Scouts may or may not show up. But we want the greeters in position should they show up. The Solar conditions have been up and down. I pray that we have good signal propagation for the FD weekend. In any case, the process of organizing and setting a Field Day has always been an interesting challenge. I’ve enjoyed working with the club members on this project in all the years we’ve had FD.
Larry Edler WB6MVK SK
We learned this week that our club’s long-time member, Larry Edler, WB6MVK/sk, passed away on April 29th at the age of 90. Larry’s daughters, Elizabeth and Catherine, are still in the process of planning a memorial service for Larry.
73, Cap KE6AFE
May Club Meeting, N6SBN Gives a Overview of FD 2024
Craig Harlamoff, N6SBN will discuss our upcoming field day 2024. A retired Santa Cruz Sheriff and a Ham for 25 yrs. Lives in Capitola. Craigs family has lived in the Soquel area since the 1850s. Interested in computers, ham, motorcycles and travel.
Field Planning
The Santa Cruz ARC and San Lorenzo Valley ARC will be doing a Field Day event Friday through Sunday, June 21st the 23rd. This will be at the old PAR 3 Golf course (field) behind the Seacliff Inn. (State Park exit). The public will be invited for Saturday only.
As with most years, We will have Five team Captains for the different radio modes, Phone, Digi, CW, FM and Winlink. We will have an ARES tent for educating the public about ARES. We will have an information desk with Greeters talking with the public.
Rich Seifert has generously allowed his contest call sign for the FD event. K6MMM. Previously, we’ve used N6OTA for the Gota Station. We’re reaching out to JV for use of his OTA call sign for our GOTA statoin.
The ARRL has specifically asked for club member “greeters” to welcome the public and describe the event. We’re asking for Volunteer “Greeters”. We have made some outreach to the Boy Scouts. I understand that we have a club member who teaches Radio to the Scouts. We’ll ask for his attendance if the Scouts schedule an appearance.
We are generating sign up sheets for able club members to assist with station building Friday afternoon, and break down Sunday around 10AM. Volunteer station builders should wear clothing to protect themselves from the sun. Volunteers should bring gloves and a hard hat for any antenna work.
We will have a few positions open for back up operators. Back up operators will be in close communication with Mode Captains prior to Field Day. Personally, I can only run FT4 at a furious pace for an hour at a time. I will be grateful for the assistance. This is a great way to get a taste of Field Day Ops. Some back up operators work night shift. I know Jason TKO will probably work Digi all night. If you’re a night person, coordinate with the team Captains for Night ops.
We have a need for club members who can cook up food for Friday night, Saturday and Sunday morning. Some of our best times have been Saturday night, eating dinner together.
We are generating sign up sheets for 1) Assistant station builders. 2) Back up operators 3) Greeters and 4) food prep. These lists will be available to club members on the Field Day drive. A link will be posted to the K6BJ club web site in the coming days.
The rest is the nitty gritty of Field Day. Board members will be contracting for an ADA porta potti. Meal Planning, Sign posting, Public communications and finding the above mentioned volunteers. We could use a photographer on Saturday to record the event, for our “Post” Field Day presentations.(pictures are great). Many clubs get Drove Videos of the working stations.
Each year, there are challenges at Field Day and with the club members coordinated help, we’ve managed the difficulties.. I’m confident that this group will put on a great event. There is a lot of personal satisfaction being part of a group representing the Santa Cruz County ham clubs.
– Craig, N6SBN
Field Day June 22, 2024
Local Amateur Radio Clubs test their communication skills for the next natural disaster. When the next disaster strikes, hundreds of Amateur Radio (Ham radio) operators will be ready to assist local government and medical agencies in Santa Cruz County and beyond. These volunteers will demonstrate their radio and relaying skills on Saturday, June 22, in Aptos during their annual Field Day event.
The general public is welcome to attend and participate. Admission is free.
This year’s Field Day site is in the large open field behind Sevy’s (Severino’s) on State Park Drive in Aptos. It is the former site of Par 3 Golf Course and the three large aluminum antenna poles by Highway One. Follow directional signs from the entrance on Old Dominion Court, just off State Park Drive. We hope to see you there.
The club will need volunteers to help set up and break down stations. We will need help with Greeting the public and setting up food. Watch for the sign up sheets.
What is Field Day
Produced by ARRL, the national association for amateur radio http://www.arrl.org
ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. On the fourth weekend of June of each year, thousands of radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations.
Wednesday Radio Coffee Klatch
The club has an informal get together each Wednesday between 10am and noon at the Loft Coffee in Aptos. It is a chance the meet other hams in the area and speak radio. So grab a cup of coffee and join us.
CAKE at the Loft
There is a CAKE Meeting [Coffee Assisted Knowledge Exchange] on the second and fourth Saturday of each month between 10am and noon. This is a chance to delve into the technical design issues of radios used by hams.
The Loft is a coffee house located at 2701 Cabrillo College Drive, Aptos, CA.
Swap Meet is Back
SCCARC Swap Meet will happen up at the Repeater building on the Third Saturday of this month May 18.
New Batteries for K6BJ Repeater
Thanks to all of our club members for enabling today’s major upgrade to our K6BJ VHF repeater battery power system! Now the repeater is running on the (recently board approved) two brand new LiTime.com 12V 300Ah LiFePO4 Lithium batteries in parallel, with a new battery charger and remote sensing capability. Thanks especially to Martin, KN6GWQ, for configuring, procuring, and installing (today) the new VHF repeater battery power system! This can enable the repeater to last on the air for a very long time without any PG&E commercial power!
Swap Meet is Back
SCCARC Swap Meet will happen up at the Repeater building on the Third Saturday of this month May 18.
New Free Standing UHF Repeater in Corralitos Area
Announcing a new free standing UHF repeater in the Corralitos area. This new repeater is not linked or connected with any other system, and is intended for a second operational repeater in the Corralitos region, especially during emergency type situations. It is located at the same site as the 146.700 Corralitos repeater.
OUTPUT INPUT TONE CALL
————— ————— ———— ———–
444.500 / 449.500 PL 94.8 K6RMW/C
The repeater is analog only and requires PL to access. It also transmits PL on the output for tone squelch operation if desired.
Here is a current listing of all K6RMW repeaters:
CORRALITOS:
146.700 / 146.100 PL 94.8 K6RMW/C FREE
444.500 / 449.500 PL 94.8 K6RMW/C FREE
WATSONVILLE HOSPITAL:
147.000 / 147.600 PL 94.8 K6RMW FREE
147.945 / 147.345 PL 94.8 K6RMW/W LINKED K6BJ
443.050 / 448.050 PL 94.8 K6RMW FREE
Let me know if anyone has any questions about any of these systems.
Bob Wiser K6RMW, Owner/Trustee K6RMW repeaters
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/ .
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
.
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 have questions about the fields, each one has an i link (a green “i” in a circle) that shows Field Day Entry Form Help for the field.
- You also can consult the Field Day Rules at https://contests.arrl.org/ContestRules/Field-Day-Rules.pdf
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
Here is (left to right) Harry (W6HPB), Craig(N6SBN), and Cesar (KG6BJR), talking about digital radio platforms, Field Day and trucks.
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.
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
Richard K8SQB, Becky KB6TKB
- Richard K8SQB, Becky KB6TKB
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.
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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.
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/8251
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
Gary K6PDL, Maggie K6ACT
Swap Meet and Club Station Cleanout 5/22/22
A worldwide collection of QSL cards from Cecilia Huntoon a SWL (shortwave listener)
https://k6bj.org/wordpress/archives/5659