Category Archives: Club News

What’s happening at K6TZ in Carpinteria?

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The SBARC open house last Sunday on October 30 held at the Chrisman Channel Islands Center (CCIC) was a howling success! Thank you all for coming and participating in the tour of the facility, the raffle, and eating the pizza. The CCIC is the location of our new K6TZ Club Station (K6TZ @ CCIC). We were invited to develop a radio station there in Carpinteria over a year ago by Marla Daily, president of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation and we received a $35,500 grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) to fund the station With the radios on the air and major construction complete, we are ready to activate the station! On December 10 & 11, the CCIC will be open for a major fundraising event for the Santa Cruz Island Foundation. Marla has requested that SBARC members be on hand to demonstrate the radio station that is equipped with 2-meter and HF radios and monitors showing the Santa Barbara Channel marine and air traffic. So, I’m recruiting members for our new K6TZ @ CCIC Committee to operate the station. Instruction and training will be provided by appointment. This is a great opportunity for everyone, including Montecito, Ventura and Carpinteria operators to use the state-of-the-art radio equipment and to put this station to good use. Please contact me, Dorothy Oksner, K6DSO, at oksner66@gmail.com with your suggestions and willingness to help in any  way that you can, especially for the December 10 & December 11 event. Dorothy Oksner, K6DSO K6TZ @ CCIC Committee Chair Post expires at 8:32am on Sunday December 11th, 2022 but will still be available in the archives.

General Club Meeting – October 21, 2022

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 The October  meeting will feature a presentation by Steve Noll, WA6EJO, on antennas and propagation. This is a MUST-SEE meeting for everyone. Steve does great presentations with lots of actual hands-on examples using his collection of 10 GHz gear and visual aids. This will be a live demonstration exploring radiation patterns and polarization of a variety of antennas from ground planes to loop Yagis to helices, plus actual demonstrations of a variety of propagation phenomena including ducting, refraction, diffraction, knife edging, Fresnel zone, velocity of propagation, and more. If you would like to know more about the black magic of radio waves and how to use them, you don’t want to miss Steve’s presentation. He is an expert in the field. Steve Noll, WA6EJO, has been active in Ham Radio for the past 40 years. He pioneered 2-way Amateur Radio Laser communications in the late 1970s and operated an experimental 23 centimeter repeater and an X-Band beacon in Ventura for many years. Steve chaired several of the West Coast VHF/UHF Conferences in the 1990s where he also built and ran the antenna gain and pattern plotting range. He is a member of the Amateur Television Network and is a founding member of the MAKE Ventura makerspace. Steve retired from Advanced Photonix after 22 years as their Senior Test Engineer. We will also be hosting this meeting on Zoom, but you won’t get as much out of the presentation as you will if you attend in person! Please try to get there, you won’t regret it! SBARC General Club Meeting Friday, October 21 at 7:30 PM Goleta Union School District Board Room 401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta Zoom Details Topic: SBARC General Club Meeting Time: Oct 21, 2022 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83600275793?pwd=QnBEMXVrOVozcS9BRUF0OFZFc3Bldz09 Meeting ID: 836 0027 5793 Passcode: 326930 We hope to see you all at the meeting! Post expires at 11:00pm on Friday October 21st, 2022 but will still be available in the archives.

Slate of Candidates for 2023

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This year I appointed 3 members to serve on the nominating committee. The 3 members were Dave – AI6VX, Doc – W6EW, and Tom – N6YX. They completed their mission and presented a slate of nominees at the last board meeting. I want to thank Dave, Doc and Tom for volunteering for this important function. The slate of nominees for 2023 are as follows: Brian Milburn K6BPM President / CEO Larry Martinez WA6MVJ Secretary Tom Saunders N6YX Treasurer / CFO Levi Maaia K6LCM Director at Large Dave Schmidt AI6VX Director at Large Wayne Beckman AF6GX Director at Large Mike Wapner K6QD Director at Large Matt Lechliter W6XC Director at Large We will officially be opening additional nominations for all positions at the October 21 2022 meeting. Any member in good standing can nominate another member in good standing for any elected position above. A member in good standing is any member who is paid up on their dues. Additionally, a nominee must be a member in good standing for the period of 28 days prior to the election. This year, that day is October 21, 2022. This year we will be allowing on-line voting, mail in voting, and in-person voting. As such, there are various cutoff dates we need to set so that we can do all our work behind the scenes. Here is the schedule: October 21 – Open nominations from the floor at meeting. November 6 – Nominations from the floor close at midnight. November 10 – Mail-in and online voting begins at midnight. November 16 – Mail-in and Online ballots close at midnight. November 18 – Election night – In-person voting, tallying, etc. There is also a bylaws change proposal on the ballot this year. The bylaw changes mostly involve the way we now handle the membership system, and the way we pay bills and expenses. Normal procedures such as auto-pay, credit card and debit card purchases, were never addressed in the current Bylaws, however it is the way we pay most bills and expenses. The proposed changes merely bring the Bylaws up-to-date with the times. You can view the proposed changes here: https://sbarc.org/Downloads/BylawEdits_10-2022.pdf Brian – K6BPM President, Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club Post expires at 7:51pm on Sunday November 20th, 2022 but will still be available in the archives.

General Club Meeting – September 16, 2022

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Our speaker this month will be Dave AI6VX. Dave is one of our board members and will be giving  presentation on Allstar. He has built several Allstar nodes using different methods, and will explain about each of them.   Download Powerpoint Presentation SBARC General Club Meeting Friday, September 16, 2022 at 7:30 PM In-person Meeting Goleta Union School District Board Room 401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta Doors open around 7:00pm We hope to see you all at the meeting!   Post expires at 1:02am on Saturday September 17th, 2022 but will still be available in the archives.

Airband 121.5 MHz Receiver Wide-Area Deployment

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For several decades SBARC has sponsored monitoring of the emergency beacon channel on 121.5. This was originally prompted and set up with L-Tronics receivers at several locations. Today we have a blend of L-Tronics and FAA 121.5 GRR receivers. The L-Tronics receivers shall in time be replaced by GRR receivers. Presently we have two GRR receivers in service, one at UCSB, and one at Santa Ynez Peak. A third unit shall be installed at the La Vigia TCF facility followed by a fourth unit at either La Cumbre or Diablo. This program is being privately funded by Bill, W1UUQ for as a public service benefit for public safety. If you are interested in more details, please contact us.

General Club Meeting – August 19, 2022

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Our speaker this month will be Orv Beach W6BI. Orv will be bringing us up to date on the progress of the tri-county mesh networking project. Orv is almost single-handedly promoting mesh networking to make this a robust and reliable addition to our bag of emcomm tools. Many of us have mesh nodes deployed, but most of us have not kept up with the latest firmware, equipment and buildout progress. The Mesh community continues to grow and improve.  This will be a very informative meeting and anyone interested in Mesh Networking should make plans to attend.   SBARC General Club Meeting Friday, August 19, 2022 at 7:30 PM In-person Meeting Goleta Union School District Board Room 401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta Doors open around 7:00pm ZOOM Details Check-ins begin around 7pm. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88210060495?pwd=aE9kYjVBVGU1V1NzTkYzU3hLSmx3UT09 Passcode: 830180 We hope to see you all at the meeting!   Post expires at 12:02am on Saturday August 20th, 2022 but will still be available in the archives.

July 2022 General Club Meeting – Wayne Overbeck, N6NB

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Presentation by Wayne Overbeck, N6NB, the inventor of the world-famous ‘Quagi’ antenna and now the holder of the DX Microwave record of all time. Wayne is a sought-after speaker in the Amateur Radio community. Retired Professor of Communications, emeritus, from California State University in Fullerton with Ph.D and J.D. degrees, he has too many accomplishments to mention in a short introduction. The “Quagi” antenna, a combination of a quad and a yagi, was invented and developed in Wayne’s back yard in 1972 and is still a favorite of VHF / UHF Amateurs all over the world. In 1996, Wayne’s name appeared on the FCC’s OET-65 bulletin as one of the committee members who developed the U.S. radio frequency safety standards. He integrated and mass-produced a “tool-box transverter” system that covers the Amateur bands from 6 meters to 10 GHz. Wayne continues to inspire us in Amateur microwave and VHF/UHF as he leads Hams in local, interstate and international radio contest outings. An attorney and member of the California BAR since 1975, Dr. Overbeck brings broad knowledge and experience to the Amateur Radio Community. Post expires at 9:14am on Saturday July 16th, 2022 but will still be available in the archives.