Category Archives: Club News

The Amateur Radio Parity Act H.R. 1301 is in jeopardy of not passing into law unless the U.S. Senate acts to pass it before the holiday recess. This may or may  not directly affect you now but ensuring access to reasonable antennas for amateurs across the nation supports the health of our hobby and ensures that all amateurs will have on-air capabilities, especially in an emergency. CLICK HERE to send emails to Sen. Boxer and Sen. Feinstein. Let them know that you want them to pass the Act NOW: H.R. 1301 has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives and has the endorsement of the ARRL and the American Red Cross. It is now up to the U.S. Senate to send the Act to the White House. Here’s what ARRL has to say about the matter: ARRL once again is calling on its members to urge their US Senators to support the Amateur Radio Parity Act (H.R. 1301) when it comes up in the Senate during the “lame duck” session of Congress that adjourns in mid-December. The House of Representatives approved the bill in September, but if the Senate does not follow suit, the bill will die, and the entire process will have to be repeated. ARRL Hudson Division Director Mike Lisenco, N2YBB, who chairs the ARRL Board’s Legislative Advocacy Committee and has been heavily involved in efforts to move H.R. 1301 forward, said today, “The clock is ticking!”

Did you know that ARRL CEO Tom Gallagher, NY2RF, is a member of SBARC? Tom Gallagher, NY2RF, of West Palm Beach, Florida, succeeded David Sumner, K1ZZ, as the chief executive officer of ARRL on April 18, 2016 . He oversees all activities at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. Licensed in Pennsylvania in 1966 as WA3GRF (and later N4GRF in North Carolina), Gallagher is a member of the West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group (and the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club). He describes himself as “an incurable HF DXer and inveterate tinkerer” and credits his first visit to the Franklin Institute’s Amateur Radio station W3TKQ in 1963 for inspiring his interest in ham radio. Amateur Radio led to an early career in broadcasting. He was a cameraman and technician with WGBH-TV in Boston, the CBS Television Network, and Metromedia’s WIP Radio in Philadelphia. He joined ARRL following 3 decades as an international investment banker and financial services executive. His career has included senior leadership positions with JP Morgan Chase & Co and CIBC Oppenheimer & Co in New York, and with Wachovia Capital Markets in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and as CEO of the Secondary School Admission Test Board in Princeton, New Jersey. Gallagher has served on boards, both public and non-profit, including two NYSE companies, the NPR affiliate in Charlotte, the Executive Board of The PENN Fund at the University of Pennsylvania, and The International Center of Photography. Gallagher graduated magna cum laude with a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and he holds an MBA from The Wharton School. He is a graduate of The Lawrenceville School, where he held the Nicholas Noyes scholarship. In addition to ham radio, Gallagher enjoys saltwater fishing and sailing which, he confesses, is sometimes just an excuse to operate maritime mobile. Editor’s note: Biography info credit ARRL website.  

Bob – K6CTX, SBARC’s Rovermaster has assembled a list of local go-to frequencies to consider scanning, especially during special events, emergencies or disasters. This is intended to be a starting point for the most active local frequencies of interest and not necessarily a comprehensive list of all possible public safety channels. Click here to view the SBARC Repeater-Scanner Frequencies Sheet in Google Sheets format. From there you may copy/paste or download the file for local manipulation.

Submitted by Bill – W1UUQ – Seldom in ones lifetime do we get very close to royalty. Outside of a small group of like professionals I try to avoid any political event or pomp with any head of state. That is until I served in the upper NE corner of Thailand on the Laotian border in the mid 1960’s. On a few occasions the King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej, made visits to NE Thailand for official ceremonies. As part of the Military Advisory Group (MAGTHAI) I would have access to official Thai events and invited to attend as a foreigner (falang) with the military. The King was granted HS1A in 1989 but as far back as the mid 1960’s we knew the HS1A call sign was always reserved for the King. During the mid-sixties ham radio was out of bounds within the local population except for a small number government officials and ex-pats, mostly Americans. As Fred Laun, K3ZO, points out in the ARRL release the King would get on 2 meters only. I operated as HS3WT (my initials) along with a handful that kept ham radio going even though it was not recognized by the ARRL. The war in SE Asia was in full swing as the US built up the Thai regional forces supporting US Forces in Vietnam and the so called secret-war in Laos. Radio was always viewed with great suspicion by local officials regardless of affiliation so it was best to have close contact with local military officials. But as Americans if you had an official US military or government connection it made the process much easier. There was no reciprocity with the US during this period. The King and I were both about the same age and both of us were born in Massachusetts. If I ever had the opportunity to speak with the King there was plenty to talk about. Usually I would team up with Don Riebhoff, K7ZZ/HS3DR, (now deceased). Typically a local ceremony in this region was void of any press or foreigners although a US Embassy official would be represented. These events were strictly for the Thai people and it was best to simply remain unseen in the background and stay quiet. The King in military uniform and his wife Queen Sirikit would usually arrive in his Avro twin at the UdonThani Royal Thai Air Base then helicopter to the local… Continue reading →

Thanks to some very hard work by Eric KG6WXC, and with some help from Levi K6LCM, we now have a live, near real-time map online that displays the status of our mesh network. Each mesh node has settings where the node owner can enter their station coordinates, and many users have done this. Eric devised a way to poll the network and read the coordinates and other details about each node and display them on a map. Then he went further, and calculated the link quality between nodes and displays that as a color coded line on the map. This is a great addition to our network toolbox and a fun thing to check out. We can see how the network is performing at in a visual, easy to understand format. Check it out here! Post expires at 8:19am on Wednesday November 30th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.