Due to the emergency relief efforts underway in Nepal because of the earthquake, it is requested that all hams stay clear of the frequencies 14.205 kHz, 7.100 kHz, 3.600 kHz, 18.160 kHz and 21.360 kHz. These are all +- 10 kHz.
Our scheduled topic this month will be on emergency training. Learn about CERT training, emergency communications, and how to best serve your neighbors and community during an emergency. As amateur radio users, we are able to provide a valuable service that others can’t. So be sure to attend. We will be meeting at the normal place, Goleta Union Schools Admin. Board Room – 401 North Fairview Avenue – across the street from the public library. The meeting starts at 7:30 but come early and socialize! Post expires at 1:00am on Saturday April 18th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
Update: The SBARC team will be operating on or around 7.225 and 14.240 during the contest. If you can’t participate, please try to contact them on these frequencies during the contest to get them more points! SBARC will participate in this spring’s Rookie Roundup contest at the club station on Sunday April 19th between 11:00 and 17:00 hours local time. During the Rookie Roundup, a “Rookie” is any radio amateur licensed within the current calendar year or in the previous two calendar years, regardless of license class. Operators exchange the call sign of the station they’re working plus their own call sign, first name, two-digit number of the year first licensed, and state, Canadian province, Mexican call area, or “DX.” The goal of Rookie Roundup is to encourage newly licensed operators in North America (including territories and possessions) to operate on the HF bands and experience competitive Amateur Radio operating. Experienced operators are encouraged to participate and help new operators — either on the air or in person. This is a terrific opportunity for new operators to get on the air and learn contesting skills. Old Timers may want to consider opening up their stations to rookies and serving as a contesting mentor. The more operators on the air, the more fun the Roundup will be for everyone. Review the rules before the event, and get familiar with logging and log submission processes too. Rookies exchange information with as many other stations as possible on the 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meters. Rookie entrants are encouraged to read “HF Contesting – Good Practices, Interpretations and Suggestions.” For more information and to sign up for the “team” contact Theo KK6YYZ, at theohowe@hotmail.com or (805) 896-4421. Post expires at 11:30am on Sunday April 19th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
At tonight’s club meeting, ATV & Digital Modes Net controller Brian Milburn (K6BPM) provided SBARC members with a glimpse of the fun that can be had on HF with digital modes. By tunneling into his shack computer, Brian was able to project his own software defined radio (SDR) on the presentation screen at the meeting for a live demo of JT-65. JT-65, originally designed for Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) communication, has become tremendously popular on the HF bands for its ability to perform under extremely poor conditions. Those in attendance seemed intrigued by the prospect of being able to work stations around the world to fatten their logbooks even under the most dire band conditions. Although Brian’s SDR setup is quite impressive, one doesn’t need to spend a lot of money to get on many of the numerous HF digital modes, including JT-65. Even many older HF radios support computer interfaces such as SignaLink and RigBlaster, which are more than adequate for dabbling with free digital mode software like Fldigi and WSJTX. Listen to an audio recording of Brian’s presentation from our audio archive: Post expires at 7:39pm on Friday April 17th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
You can listen to this past weekends event, the Barbara Ireland Walk for Cancer, in our audio archives section. You can look under the “Saturday Mornings” group and the event will be listed as “2015-03-14 Saturday Morning”. You can download it directly by clicking here. If you are thinking about volunteering for an upcoming event, and wonder what we do and what to expect, take a listen and you can see how an event is coordinated and what SBARC does to assist during these events.
It is almost that time of the month for the monthly Club Meeting. This month our presenter will be Brian – K6BPM. You may have heard Brian doing the Weather portion of the Reg Dawe Memorial Cuckoo net on Wednesdays and Fridays, or as net control of the ATV Digital Modes Net on Tuesday evenings. He is also one of our board members this year. Brian will be speaking on using Software Defined Radios (SDRs) and digital modes. He will be demonstrating these live, on-the-air, so all of us can see how these thing work and why operating digital modes is becoming so popular. So be sure to attend. You will be guaranteed to walk away with a better understanding of how easy digital modes are to use. We will be meeting at the normal place, Goleta Union Schools Admin. Board Room – 401 North Fairview Avenue – across the street from the public library. The meeting starts at 7:30 but come early and socialize! Post expires at 1:00am on Saturday March 21st, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
Do you have organizational skills or want to participate and help get everything in place for a major Club event? The board of directors is looking for team leaders for the various aspects of organizing two major upcoming events, Field Day (June 26-28) and Hamfest (Aug 9). This year Hamfest and the Bazaar will be combined into one event. At this time we are planning on having this combined event at the Elks lodge. We are still finalizing plans for Field Day, but are planning on having something fun and exciting. Team leaders will have responsibility for helping to plan and execute various aspects of these once-a-year events. You will be helping to coordinate volunteers, logistics (the mighty McLeod Brock is there to save for the day!!), You can also look at this site to know more , event day activities, and working with the Board of Directors in making sure these events are well run and fun for everyone. This is a good opportunity to get to know other club members better, learn more about how the club operates, and practice your leadership skills. If you can volunteer, please go to the “Contact Us” form here on the website, complete it and let us know. We’ll get back to you right away. You can also contact us directly by email by sending an email to info@sbarc.org. We’ll make sure your email gets to the right person.
