Sept. Meeting – Ed Fong on J-Pole Collinear Gain

 Our guest speaker for the September  meeting will be Ed Fong (WB6IQN).  His talk this month will be the DBJ-UHF  5dB gain base antenna (US patent – 2,124,424). A GMRS version is also available. This antenna was featured in CQ Magazine in Summer of 2012. The DBJ-UHF is a highly effective 5dB base antenna at only 37 inches tall and no radials.  There have been over 8,000 sold since its introduction ten years ago.  It requires no radials and is a DC shorted design so no lightning arrestor is needed.
Biography –  Ed Fong was first licensed in 1968 as WN6IQN.  He later upgraded to Extra Class (with full 20 WPM CW)  with his present call of WB6IQN.  He obtained the BSEE and MSEE degrees from the Univ. of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. from the Univ. of San Francisco.  A Life Senior Member of the IEEE, he has 12 patents and over 40 published papers and books in the area of communications and integrated circuit design.  Presently, he is employed by the University of California (previously at Berkeley and presently at Santa Cruz- Silicon Valley) as an instructor teaching graduate classes in RF design, antenna design and High Speed interface design.  During his 40 year career he has performed worked for Motorola, National Semiconductor, Phillips Semiconductor and Advanced Micro Devices.”

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.

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
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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.

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/ .

John Portune’s Yagi Power Point

Build a Yagi

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 Fredrick 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.

Getting up and running with Allstar

Allstarlink is a method of connecting repeaters and personal hotspots together with voice over internet protocol (VOIP). Martin (KN6GWQ) will provide an overview of Allstar, how to operate an Allstar enabled repeater, and information on building your own Allstar node. A live demo will be demonstrated. If you have any interest in connecting to repeaters throughout the world, please join us for this presentation.

About the Speaker

Martin (KN6GWQ) is a computer engineer specializing in data acquisition, motion control and PCB design. Currently he works on helping maintain the K6BJ and KN6GWQ repeaters and is the developer of Ham Tracks (an Android APRS client). His interests in ham radio are presently APRS, repeaters, repeater controllers and Allstar.

Let’s rally and support Martin on this intriguing topic,

I say again….7PM this month.  We are starting earlier to
accommodate our speaker–Brian Williams from TN07.  They’re in
Tennessee.  I checked out their web site TN07.com and was excited
to see the bevy of ham radio products.  It should be very interesting.

Please come to our in-person meeting at La Posada if you can.  If you can’t
or are deterred by the expected rain, we’ll be running the zoom and you can
catch Brian’s talk (and VOTE) on the zoom meet.  Full info about La Posada and maps to get there as well as the zoom link are on our K6BJ web page.

Candidates have been nominated for all open positions on our board as follows:
President–Jerry W6OJE
Vice President–Ben KN6NDM
Treasurer–Rich W6RCG
Secretary–Mike W6MLB
At-large–Jim KN6NCG
          Martin KN6GWQ
Nominations will also be called for from the floor at the beginning of the
vote taking, immediately after the guest speaker’s presentation.

So PLEASE,PLEASE, PLEASE, join the meeting two days from now and VOTE!
————————————————————
Jerry is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: K6BJ SCCARC Zoom Meeting
Time: Nov 17, 2023 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
        Nov 17, 2023 07:00 PM
        Dec 15, 2023 07:30 PM
        Jan 19, 2024 07:30 PM
        Feb 16, 2024 07:30 PM

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

—

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Meeting ID: 869 8329 4191
Passcode: 3749

Everything You Wanted to Know About FT8 (and possibly more)

FT8 quickly swept the ham radio world by storm soon after its appearance in 2017.  Some call it a curse. Others call it a blessing. DXers call it another useful way to chase DX.. NJ2X (Michael Maher) will give a talk on FT8 along with a live demonstration. The talk will delve into practical matters as well as tips on how to exploit FT8 for DXing.  Bring your FT8 questions.

About the Speaker

Michael (NJ2X) enjoys chasing DX and constructing homebrew antennas.  NJ2X is the first amateur radio operator to earn the ARRL Triple Play award three times: 1) Hillsborough, NJ; 2) Export, PA, and 3) Aptos, CA.  Michael has also earned ARRL DXCC awards for phone, digital, 10 Meters, 15 Meters, 17 Meters, 20 Meters, and 30 Meters.  He is presently working on completing the DXCC Challenge award (with 770 confirmed contacts so far) and completing contacts with all 3007 US counties for the Worked All US Counties award (with 2024 confirmed contacts so far).  Michael also posts articles on his website NJ2X.com.

Hi everyone.  I am very happy to announce that the speaker at our September
live/zoom hybrid SCCARC meeting will be none other than Don Taylor, K6GHA.
The subject will be entitled “WRTC 2022: Participating in the Olympics of Amateur Radio”.
As many of you know, Don is a very upbeat and interesting voice on the airwaves and his talk should
be interesting and entertaining.  So, please save the date:  Friday, September 15th.

To make things even more interesting, your board of directors has decided that we’ll have
Pizza and Salad available for the live attendees.  Because of this, we will be starting at
7 PM at La Posada to give folks time to find a table, fill your plate and settle in for Don’s
talk which will begin at 7:30–the regular meeting time.

73,
Jerry Lucha W6OJE

QST QST  Calling all K6BJ Club Members
We earnestly request your (Live or Virtual) presence at NEXT FRIDAY’s SCCARC Club Meeting.

There are two reasons.
First, we will have a great speaker and a subject that could be useful for many of us.
Second, we have a proposed change to our Bylaws that we plan to introduce for your consideration and
we will be voting on the change at the September meeting.

Here is a little on the planned presentation from our speaker, John Portune:

    August 18th 7:30 PM Pacific time is confirmed for the Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club (K6BJ) 
    on the topic of “Simple Sleeve Dipole From Coax.”

    Feel free to record the session for your members’ reference.
     There’s a short description on w6nbc.com and a short bio .   John Portune W6NBC

Here is the background on why your board believes that we should change the Bylaws:

At our next regular third Friday club meeting on August 18, we will have the formal reading of
the proposed change  (which we discussed at our last board meeting).   This reading is so that
the proposal can be voted upon at the September meeting.

The proposal: 
Change our Bylaws, Article V, Section 4. 
from: 
“Fifteen percent of the membership of the Club shall constitute a quorum.” 
to instead: 
“Ten percent of the membership of the Club shall constitute a quorum.” 
——————————————————————— 

This  proposal will be voted on at our following regular club meeting Friday, September 15. 
Here is the article in our Bylaws that governs changing them:

“ARTICLE IX. AMENDMENT OF BYLAWS: 
 These bylaws can be amended at any regular meeting of the 
 Club by a two-thirds vote, providing that the amendment has been 
 submitted in writing at the previous regular meeting.” 

Rationale : 

Our club Bylaws say we must hold a election at our November meeting each year.  At times we’ve had unfortunate trouble reaching the number of participants to achieve a quorum for the needed annual election. 

 (now we have 154 members total) 
10% = 16 members 
15% = 24 members 

According to Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised, the “requirement for a quorum is protection against totally unrepresentative action in the name of the body by an unduly small number of persons.” 
Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (pre-Covid pandemic) also states that the quorum set in an organization’s bylaws “should approximate the largest number that can be depended on to attend any meeting except in very bad weather or other extremely unfavorable conditions. 

It pains me to mention it.  But, we have not had 24 members at any of our meetings in recent memory.  Hence the desire
to have a more practical quorum.

HERE AS A REMINDER IS THE ZOOM LINK FOR NEXT WEEK’S MEETING.  OR, PLEASE LET’S MEET IN PERSON
AT LA POSADA ON FREDERICK ST.
——————————————————————— 
———————————————————————————-
W6OJE is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: K6BJ SCCARC Zoom Meeting
Time: Aug 18, 2023 07:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86983294191?pwd=QkIyODI4ZCtBN2MrbkhXTXU2TFlxUT09

Meeting ID: 869 8329 4191
Passcode: 3749
—————-
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,86983294191#,,,,*3749# 
———————————
For a telephone-only join, Dial: 
  (669) 900 9128 
Meeting ID: 869 8329 4191
Passcode: 3749
——————————————————————–
73,
JERRY W6OJE

Club Meeting now In Person (at last)

Your board is happy to announce that we have arranged for a venue where we
can all meet in person.  We are going to attempt to hold the April 21st 
SCCARC club meeting there and also host the traditional zoom meeting at the
same time.
Location:  La Posada Retirement Community Lounge
609 Frederick St.
           Santa Cruz, CA

The entrance is on Frederick Street between Gault and Hanover.
Visitor Parking spaces inside the facility are few but there is
usually adequate on-street parking on Frederick or Gault.  Also
the medical facility directly across the street will be empty
Friday evenings and that would be a possibility.  Please do not
park in La Posada resident spaces as you could get blocked in by
the assignee and have no way of leaving after the meeting.

The meeting room will have plenty of chairs and tables for our use.
Also there are vending machines for soft drinks and snacks.

We will have a greeter at the entrance and are asked to sign in on
a sign-in sheet once you get into the meeting room.  Peter KE6RAX
will be there, also, to show you the ropes.

This first meeting will probably be a work in progress and we want to
attempt it and learn from any issues that may arise.  Our continued use
of this venue will, of course, depend on our being good citizens, leaving
the room as clean as we found it, and not causing parking problems.
I know we will do our best to maintain our hosts trust and respect.

My thanks to Richard K8SQB for running this first meeting and to Jim KN6NCG
for handling the zoom, video and IT requirements.

Below is a map showing the entrance and parking possibilities.
73,
Jerry W6OJE
SCCARC President

SCCARC March Meeting and Presentation by W6OJE

Many Mathematical models have been proposed to predict the quality of radio links or station coverage maps or coverage radii.  One well-respected model for predicting VHF/UHF/Microwave communications is the ITS-Irregular Terrain Model, or Longley-Rice Model.  

Roger Coud’e (VE2DBE) has developed a software package called Radio Mobile that uses this model in a user friendly way. It connects with on-line Terrain, Land Cover and map databases and allows easy entry of your station parameters (location, radio and antenna specs). It can predict pretty accurately, performance of a link between sites or map your station’s coverage to mobile or hand held users based on statistical success criteria you can set.

I plan to share my screen while I go through the process of entering the required parameters into Radio Mobile and we investigate some point-to-point paths between members’ QTH’s and other members and/or repeaters.  We will also generate coverage maps that take into account available terrain elevation data that is relatively fine-grained (on 30 foot spacing grids).  I hope it will be fun and introduce you to a very useful tool that some may not have known about before.

Jerry, W6OJE

November Club Zoom Meeting and Election of Officers

November 18 Club meeting guest speaker will be Kerry Veenstra(K3RRY), discussing his home Starlink connection system. We will also have Club Officer elections.

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

October 21, SCCARC Zoom Club Meeting

Build a 10-meter Moxon Antenna with John Portune W6NBC
Great project for a new ham wanting to experience the coming peak of Sunspot Cycle 23. Also, for experienced hams — easily extended to lower HF bands. Excellent for portable and field day operation.

John Portune W6NBC
Native of Los Angeles, CA.
Licensed 1965, Extra 1972.
10 yr. resident of UK. MØGCK.
Commercial Licenses: GROL, General Radio Telegraph.
Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Oregon State University 1960.
Career (Retired) TV broadcast television engineer/instructor, KNBC Ch 4 Los Angeles, Sony Broadcast, San Francisco. Ham magazine author: QST (over 25 articles to date) and others.
Frequent free radio club Zoom presentations and live at ham expos. Active on HF, VHF, UHF – SSB, FM, digital modes, ham satellites.
Steam railroading, pipe organ and sushi enthusiast.
Married KF6OEB. 3 children, 12 grandchildren +.
jportune@aol.com, website w6nbc.com

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. 

August Club Meeting -N6SBN on SDR

Craig N6SBN will give a presentation on Software Defined Radio for the August 2022 Zoom meeting. Craig ran the SDR station at field day.

(more…)

John Portune W6NBC  June Meeting Speaker

CLUB MEETING FRIDAY, JUNE 17 FEATURES GUEST SPEAKER JOHN PORTUNE (W6NBC)
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to build a stealth HF Attic Antenna that will work well and never bother your HOA neighbors! John Portune (W6NBC) will once again join our virtual Club meeting and show us how to build…
Hidden HF Attic Antenna from Inexpensive Cardboard Tube and Copper Tape
The loading coil for a concealed attic antenna need not be heavy and expensive to build. Here are two inexpensive designs. Details of an efficient 40-meter version only 25ft. long, less than 1/2 the length.

Here is a link to John’s biography: https://www.w6nbc.com/documents/BioW6NBC.pdf
John Portune W6NBC
Native of Los Angeles, CA.
Licensed 1965, Extra 1972.
10 yr. resident of UK. MØGCK.
Commercial Licenses: GROL, General Radio Telegraph.
Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Oregon State University 1960.
Career (Retired) TV broadcast television engineer/instructor, KNBC Ch 4 Los Angeles, Sony Broadcast, San Francisco. Ham magazine author: QST (over 25 articles to date) and others.
Frequent free radio club Zoom presentations and live at ham expos. Active on HF, VHF, UHF – SSB, FM, digital modes, ham satellites.
Steam railroading, pipe organ and sushi enthusiast.
Married KF6OEB. 3 children, 12 grandchildren +.
jportune@aol.com, website w6nbc.com

JOIN US ON JUNE 17 FOR A FUN AND EDUCATIONAL EVENING THAT WILL DELIGHT EVERY DIY OPERATOR.

73,
Becky
KI6TKB

SCCARC Monthly Zoom Meeting Jan. 21

CLUB OFFICER ELECTIONS THIS FRIDAY

GUEST SPEAKER : JOHN PORTUNE (W6NBC): AUTO TUNERS

Jeff AE6KS was the Presenter for the Oct 2021 Club Meeting

Our October guest speaker was Jeff Liebermann on the topics of ADS-B (aircraft tracking) and AIS (ship tracking) using affordable at home setups, along with resources to view tracked results.

Jeff’s Biography

After graduating with a BSEE from Cal Poly Pomona in 1971, I did 2way radio repair for
Pacific Mobile Comm and other small radio shops. I then went to Alpha Electronics to
design 2way radio accessories. In 1973, I worked for Standard Communication (now
part of Yeasu) on radio accessories. I then moved to Santa Clara where I worked for
Intech designing HF/VHF/UHF marine radios. In 1981, I went to Granger Assoc to work
on a 900MHz SCADA system. In 1984, I went back to Intech to help design HF driver
and power amplifiers. In 1984, I continued to work as an RF design consultant, and
started doing computer repair out various offices in Santa Cruz. I officially retired in Dec
2020.
During much of my career, I was involved in various aspects of ham radio under call
signs WB6EEP, WB6SSY, and AE6KS. I’ve built and helped build VHF/UHF repeaters,
designed antennas, and repaired radios. Some of these can be found on my web site
at:
http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/pics/Old%20Repeaters/
http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/pics/home/test-equip-mess.jpg
http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/antennas/

Club Meeting Aug. 21

The August 21 Club meeting will feature Nate Preston (KM6THA) will present a virtual tour of the new repeater equipment and building upgrades (improved ventilation).
Richard (K8SQB) will also give a brief presentation on the International Lighthouse and Lightship Special Event this weekend, where he will offer entry-level contesters a chance to participate at our local K6L Special Event Station near the Santa Cruz Lighthouse.
The Zoom information will be available soon

For those who missed the June 19 club meeting on Field Day, it is available on Zoom.

Once it has finished uploading, people can download and/or stream it as they see fit.

The zoom video is at: http://ulmo.solar/k6bj/zoom_0.mp4

The zoom audio is at: http://ulmo.solar/k6bj/audio_only.m4a

SCCARC Meeting: Vertical Antennas  

The guest speaker for the January 17 Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club meeting is Ron Skelton.  The topic will be the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Vertical Antennas.   

CLUB MEETING March 17

Hi Santa Cruz and SLVARC Hams!

This Friday 3/17 at the Santa Cruz Red Cross, Don K6GHA will share his experience at Europe’s version of Dayton’s Hamvention – the HAM RADIO hamfest at Friedrichshafen, Germany. This three day event was quite the experience, and Don will fill us in on the fun and excitement while comparing/contrasting this event to its US counterpart.

Who knows – after Don’s talk, you may find yourself longing to head to Germany in mid-July for the 2017 version!

When: Friday, March 17, 7:30 PM

Where: American Red Cross, 2960 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz

See you there!

—
73,
Tom K6TG

Club Meeting Friday Nov. 18   The Election

At our regular club meeting on Friday evening, we want to accomplish our
annual board election and have fun again.  Please consider joining the club
board, as any officer or member.  We need your name in nomination for 2017,
and please attend this Friday meeting for voting in any case.  If you will
assist, before Friday please notify the nominating committee secretary
David, WS2I, <dhcopp@yahoo.com> and/or any board member for relay, or all of
us.  <grin>  Especially we are in search of at least a new 2017 treasurer as
our current treasurer Jake, W6JJJ, has become even busier at work.

At the same meeting Friday we plan to watch a interesting new federal
training video providing an overview of our Communications Unit (COMU)
within the ICS structure.  From the “Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Office of Emergency Communications – Interoperable Communications Technical
Assistance Program (OEC-ICTAP)” we will learn about the:
–ICS model as it applies to expansion and delegation
–Necessity for communications support in incident management
–Organizational components and structure of the Communications Unit
–Availability of trained personnel and how to obtain COMU training

Cap KE6AFE

Club Meeting Friday Oct. 21

Third Friday Club Meeting topic, HT Night.  Please bring your favorite HT
(and your spare battery if you have one charged).  We can compare notes and
share HT issues and tips, see how they do; what we like about them, tricks
or problems.  I’ll show you mine, and ..

73, Cap KE6AFE

K6BJ.org website says,

SCCARC Club Meeting
Next regular club meeting will be the Third Friday evening October 21 at
7:30pm.
The meeting is held at Santa Cruz Red Cross building.

2960  Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95062.
Talk-in on K6BJ repeater, 146.790- PL94.8.