August Club Meeting

HF Digital Chat and Messaging: VARAC and JS8Call

Glen, W6GJB, has been a Ham, on and off, since 1958.  He has been published in QST and the Handbook, and made presentations at Visalia and the Pacificon Antenna Forum.  He particularly likes trying new things, including new operating modes, which is the subject of tonight’s presentation.

Swap Meet August 17

On Saturday August 17 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

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.  

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!

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/ .


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.

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  


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


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.

 

Holiday Gathering

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


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