Category Archives: Club News

Field Day Site Selection and Planning Update

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The Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club has secured a site for the 2024 ARRL Field Day.  After considering a long list of sites and speaking with administrators of five of them, we obtained permission to operate from Girsch Park and Ellwood School, both of which are in Goleta. We selected Ellwood School for our Field Day site given that the Goleta Valley School District granted permission to operate over night, and the space available to us there is larger and quieter than at Girsch Park. Recognizing that Ellwood School is not as visible to the public as Girsch Park, and that our survey revealed a desire to make Field Day accessible to the public, we are working on a communication plan to raise awareness of our event.  Importantly, the planning team felt that conducting the 2024 Field Day in a quieter location will give us experience that we can apply to future field day events while allowing time to evaluate and negotiate with other, more public sites. We are now working hard on operations planning.  We will be in touch soon with those of you that expressed interest in getting involved.  And, we will communicate what to expect if you intend to operate your own station or a club station, or to attend socially. If you would like to help with or have questions about field day feel free to get in touch with either Warren Myers (KN6ZZI) or Mike Wapner (K6QD). Post expires at 7:35pm on Wednesday May 1st, 2024 but will still be available in the archives.

SBARC General Club Meeting – Mar 15, 2024

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We didn’t get time last month to talk about home weather stations, so we’ll doing that this month. Several club members have them, and more and more are installing them. Come learn how they work and how they can make rainy days (and the Cuckoo Net) more fun! We’ll also be bringing you up-to-date on the TCF move and what progress we’re making. We may also have an update on field Day preparations. SBARC General Club Meeting Friday, April 19, 2024 at 7:30 PM (Doors open at 7pm) Goleta Union School District Board Room 401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta Zoom Details: Topic: SBARC General Club Meeting Time: Apr 19, 2024 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85433056653?pwd=ZkhXYllRNE1kVGNOclBPbzdES3Yxdz09 Meeting ID: 854 3305 6653 Passcode: 815505

SBARC General Club Meeting – Feb 16, 2024

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Our February meeting notice is a little late, but not to worry! There is a lot going on, but the meeting will be held as scheduled. At this months meeting we’ll be bringing everyone up-to-date on the La Vigia/Vic Trace saga and what we’re doing to make sure we stay up on the air – somewhere. We’ve been working on finding alternate sites for our repeater assets as well as the various other services we maintain. We’re also going to be talking about home weather stations. Several club members have them, and more and more are installing them. Come learn how they work and how they can make rainy days (and the Cuckoo Net) more fun! We’re also going to be talking about little about this years Field Day and getting started with planning.   SBARC General Club Meeting Friday, February 16, 2024 at 7:30 PM (Doors open at 7pm) Goleta Union School District Board Room 401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta Zoom Details: Topic: SBARC General Club Meeting – February 16, 2024 Time: Feb 16, 2024 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89034781686?pwd=UDVPeE5kSmwzdWdhWnRrY0JFWFd5QT09 Meeting ID: 890 3478 1686 Passcode: 409030

Amateur Videos on Amateur Radio: YouTube

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In recent years, there has been a notable shift in the landscape of amateur radio journalism. Traditional print magazines and journals, once the cornerstone of the ham radio community, are increasingly becoming a rarity. This decline is part of a broader trend seen across many fields, where digital media is supplanting print media. As a result, much of the latest news, technological updates, and exciting new projects in the amateur radio world are moving to more contemporary platforms like YouTube. This shift has given rise to a number of popular YouTube channels that have become the new go-to sources for amateur radio enthusiasts. These channels offer a diverse range of content, from in-depth tutorials and product reviews to real-world applications and community interactions. Here is a list of some prominent YouTube channels that are leading this digital transformation in amateur radio journalism. If you have others you like, please leave them in the comments! Ham Radio Crash Course: Basics to advanced ham radio topics, tutorials, reviews, and discussions. Ham Radio 2.0: Product reviews, interviews, event coverage. KB9VBR Antennas: Antenna performance improvement, DIY projects, tips. K8MRD Radio Stuff: Educational content, real-life ham radio experiences. HamRadioConcepts: Equipment reviews, tutorials, experiments. Temporarily Offline: Mix of educational content and personal experiences. K0PIR: Software, hardware, digital modes in ham radio. Ham Radio DX: Reviews, tutorials, interviews, propagation and DXing. Dave Casler KE0OG: Educational content on amateur radio topics. KM4ACK: Ham radio technology, DIY builds, software solutions and RaspberryPi projects.

November 17, 2023 General Meeting – Election and Home-brew Night

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November meetings are always election night meetings, so members who did not vote online will be able to vote in person. Of course we’ll all be tallying up the votes and announcing the winners, so plan on being there, even if you already voted. November meetings have traditionally also been Home-brew Night!  We invite everyone to bring a something you have built, or a project in progress, to show, demonstrate, and tell your ham friends about. Home-brew is what being a ham is all about! Anyone can go buy a radio, antenna or other accessory, but to many hams, building their own gear is much more fun and rewarding. So bring something (or a lot of things) because we’re all interested in seeing what you’re up to!  We will also be hosting this meeting on Zoom, if you can’t attend in person, but please try to be there if you can to congratulate the new board members, whoever they are! SBARC General Club Meeting Friday, November 17 at 7:30 PM Goleta Union School District Board Room 401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta Zoom Details Topic: SBARC November Club Meeting Time: Nov 17, 2023 07:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86560422518?pwd=VzNua1F5WUxwcVhUTWUwRFM1SGlDQT09 Meeting ID: 865 6042 2518 Passcode: 241358 We hope to see you all at the meeting! Post expires at 8:01pm on Saturday November 18th, 2023 but will still be available in the archives.

General Club Meeting – September 15, 2023

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This month we are going to have a presentation from Gene Swiech WB9COY on Antennas Gene is going to talk about antenna types, baluns, matching networks, polarization and more. This is something we all need a refresher on, and will be very informative for our newer members! SBARC General Club Meeting Friday, September 15, 2023 at 7:30 PM (Doors open at 7pm) Goleta Union School District Board Room 401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta Zoom Details: Topic: SBARC General Club Meeting – September 15, 2023 Time: Sep 15, 2023 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81888870959?pwd=QlNVWVU2d2RHRWlOU1Z4cHUra3MyQT09 Meeting ID: 818 8887 0959 Passcode: 442446 Post expires at 1:06am on Saturday September 16th, 2023 but will still be available in the archives.

2023 SBARC Picnic – A Few Photos!

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My highlight this past weekend was going to the SBARC picnic on Sunday.  On my drive up it was raining in a few spots and I was worried we would be dealing with the wetness, but the weather ended up being really nice. Good to see and chat with everyone in person – it’s been a while. I should  have taken more photos, but here’s a few that I did take. Dave – AI6VX