Category Archives: Club News – Archived

It’s that time again! It’s time to vote for your officers and directors for 2021. This past year has been challenging to say the least. SBARC has tried to adapt by introducing ZOOM club meetings, board meetings, and now we are introducing all electronic voting. For the first time ever, SBARC will be conducting its annual election on-line. We have created a “live” ballot that you simply fill out and submit by clicking a button. A downloadable, printable form will also be available if you prefer to send in your ballot by regular mail. Our bylaws state that voting members must be “in good standing” with their dues current for at least 28 days prior to the election date. On Friday, November 6th all eligible members will receive voting instructions by email. You may begin voting as soon as you receive your email notice. Just click on the link in the email. If for some reason you don’t receive your voting information, please contact us and let us know. Voting will be allowed until midnight on November 18, 2020. The votes will be tallied and announced at the General Club Meeting (ZOOM edition) on November 20th. So be sure to vote, and we guarantee that our election will be fast, accurate, and non-controversial! Post expires at 7:00pm on Friday November 20th, 2020 but will still be available in the archives.

Bruce Gordon – N6OLT was honored in April with the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club Lifetime Member award for his many contributions to SBARC, ARES and amateur radio in general. Bruce’s first experiments in ham radio came during high school when he and a friend built crystal sets and managed to connect them to telephone lines serving their apartments houses in Cleveland, Ohio. Worked fine for a while until complaints from neighbors alerted their fathers to their adventures. Bruce got his Amateur license, W6GUX, as well as his pilot’s license during high school. (He was later licensed as N6OLT.) He graduated UC Berkeley in 1959, accepted a job as engineer at Raytheon Company  and moved to Goleta, where he bought property and he and his wife Thelma built their home. While at Raytheon, many of his designs were patented and he travelled all over the world assisting military customers. Bruce joined SBARC and lent his talents to many projects, including the repeaters and the communications van, and happily to anyone with a problem or project. At one SBARC meeting he was demonstrating new Slow Scan TV equipment and mentioned its versatility. One member said, “Bet you can’t use two Dixie cups and a string” to send pictures. Next month, he used two Dixie cups and a piece of dental floss (string) successfully. You can also visit Century Smile Dental homepage to sort out dental issues. Bruce is a legend in the art and science of direction finding. As founder of L-Tronics he designed, engineered and built thousands of portable DF units for field operations and airborne use. Variants of the L-Per are used worldwide by numerous search & rescue groups, the US Coast Guard and the Civil Air Patrol. Bruce’s dedication will not be forgotten.   Post expires at 6:03am on Tuesday June 25th, 2019 but will still be available in the archives.

The City of Goleta is offering Basic CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training if enough people sign up. They prefer a minimum of 15 students, and about 10 signed up already. Classes are scheduled for April 7, 14, and 21  for 8 hours per session if enough people sign up. These classes are offered free of charge. Some typical subjects covered include fire suppression, medical operations, light search and rescue, terrorist activities, disaster preparedness and a review with hands on disaster exercise at the end of the course. These sessions would be held at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall 770 Vala Drive (near Turnpike and Cathedral Oaks). Hours are 8AM to 5PM with a noon hour break.Successful completion of these classes results in a FEMA completion certificate. For more CERT info see the City of Goleta web site or google Goleta CERT classes. If interested, contact Jim W6JFE at 805 685 0711 or 805 259 9948 or text him at the 9948 number so he can keep the “head count”. You can also contact him via email at jim_everson@yahoo.com. This is a good opportunity to get CERT training and get ready for the next emergency! Post expires at 1:56am on Saturday April 21st, 2018 but will still be available in the archives.

Information current as of 19 December @ 8:35 AM PST (16:35 UTC): The wind has died down but the threat from the Thomas Fire to the populated areas of Montecito and Santa Barbara remains as another strong wind event is predicted for midweek.  See the evacuation map below for more details. At the present time, the linked SBARC repeaters are under “Normal Operation” as indicated by the single courtesy tone.  We have reenabled two-way access (TX/RX) for EchoLink and AllStar Link users. However, given the heightened alertness of the situation, please keep in mind that stations may be making calls with important traffic from difficult areas and only have a brief period of time where they can reach the repeater. Please allow for plenty of breaks in transmissions for emergency traffic. We encourage listeners outside of radio coverage to stream the repeater audio online. The following repeaters are linked: K6TZ 2m 146.79- PL 131.8 K6TZ 6m 51.820- PL 82.5 K6TZ 1.25m 224.08- PL 131.8 EchoLink (4376/K6TZ-R) and AllStar Link (43763) nodes are connected to the linked repeaters in TX/RX mode. This is the perfect time to practice our emergency communications skills. It is also the perfect time to practice courtesy and civility on the air. Please treat your fellow hams with patience and respect.  

Your tax deductible donations are specifically needed this year to help SBARC maintain and improve it’s numerous repeater systems and emergency communications systems. Please remember the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club for your holiday giving! Post expires at 1:00am on Wednesday November 29th, 2017 but will still be available in the archives.