Category Archives: Club News

Here is something interesting that may interest some of our engineering oriented members. The Science and Engineering Council of Santa Barbara has regular monthly luncheons that are open to the public. The luncheons are held at the High Sierra Restaurant (old Elephant Bar). The SEC is a group of engineers and scientists that are active in the local area. Activities include: Monthly Luncheon Programs which provide a forum for presentation of topics of interest, and a opportunity for meeting fellow engineers, scientists, and business professionals. Compilation of a Technical Services Directory of SEC members. Monetary awards, certificates and trophies to Science Fair winners in all divisions with presentation by winners at the April SEC Luncheon. Sponsorship of Scholarships for local college students in the sciences. The scholarships are funded through the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. Join SEC on Facebook or LinkedIn (SEC membership not required).  

This year our Annual Bazaar will be hosted by Santa Barbara Electronics Supply. Come look at all the cool electronics gear and accessories your local amateur radio club is selling! Support our public service efforts and emergency communications infrastructure! When: 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, July 22 2017 Where: Santa Barbara Electronics Supply, 1503 Cook Place, Santa Barbara, CA Located behind the Airport Control tower, on the ocean side of Hollister All proceeds benefit the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club, a 501(c)(3) non-profit public benefit corporation which operates solely on member dues and contributions from the community. We are a wonderful community of helpful people, and we (and Santa Barbara Electronics Supply) appreciate everything you can do to support us!   Post expires at 12:00pm on Saturday July 22nd, 2017 but will still be available in the archives.

SBARC General Club Meeting Friday, July 21, 2017 @ 7:30 PM 401 N. Fairview Ave. in Goleta Imagine sitting in your living room using an inexpensive hand-held radio and making crystal-clear, static-free contacts throughout California, the United States, and the WORLD! This is not only possible, but it’s easy to do using Digital Mobile Radio (DMR). And, we’re doing this now, right here in Santa Barbara! This month, SBARC hosts a special presentation by Michael Rickey, AF6FB on the new and quickly growing DMR digital voice mode. Michael will give us a demonstration on how DMR works and explain how the PAPA system is supporting a build-out of DMR repeaters in Southern California, making it easy to stay connected to the network throughout our region. DMR is unlike most other digital voice modes used on VHF/UHF FM in amateur radio as it is supported by several major radio manufacturers including several low-cost imports commonly used by amateurs. You can click here for quality industrial products at fair rates to ease your manufacturing process. DMR networks can be accessed from repeaters here in Santa Barbara and also through home-brew and professionally built hotspots. You can get on the air with DMR with a Tytera MD-380 HT for as little as $80 and access thousands of talk-groups around the world and even chat with fellow SB hams dabbling in digital on our very own SBARC DMR talk-group. Most DMR repeaters can access the same talk-groups available on any other repeater. So no mater where you travel, you can radio home. DMR also uses TDMA to support multiple users per FM repeater pair and at 12.5 kHz wide, it is far more efficient than traditional analog wide-band FM. We will be raffling off a BRAND NEW TYT MD-380 DMR radio. Someone will go home with this on meeting night, so come early and buy your tickets! SBARC General Club Meetings are held at the Goleta Union School District, 401 N. Fairview Ave. in Goleta, right across the street from the Goleta Library. Doors open at 7:00 PM and the meeting starts at 7:30 PM. Put the date on your calendar and bring a guest!

As a reminder, all amateurs are welcome to participate in ongoing discussion about the Whittier Fire on SBARC repeaters. Please keep transmissions short (less than 10-15 seconds) unless you have urgent traffic. Always yield to stations with urgent traffic and leave long pauses between transmissions for breaking stations. The County of Santa Barbara is posting official updates on the Whittier Fire on its website. Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club repeaters on Santa Ynez Peak remain on the air. The 145.180 MHz repeater on Santa Ynez Peak is presently linked to 146.790 MHz on the Santa Barbara Mesa. These linked repeaters are functioning as the club’s main channel for communications related to the fire. For live updates from radio amateurs observing the fire and monitoring emergency frequencies around the county, listen to a live audio stream of SBARC’s linked repeaters. Air Command tactical frequencies with local air tanker traffic: These frequencies are simplex so an external antenna will help with reception. Air Tac 02: 169.150 MHz FM Air Tac 05: 167.950 MHz FM – Levi, K6LCM