What’s happening at SBARC? Here you will find the latest club news, events, projects, net activities, and news from our special interest groups (SIGS).
Be sure to check in frequently so you don’t miss out on any of the interesting things going on with the club and its members!
We have moved content for the Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net here, and content for the Digital Modes Net here.
The audio archive of this net can best be followed by downloading the .mp3 file for the appropriate date here and listening with the media player of your choice. You can move the progress slider forward or backward to the subject of interest to you.
We had another interesting net tonight with 6 check-ins, and net control Frank, K6FLD. Tonight’s topics included:
Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local (2000 Hrs) and see what interesting questions will arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week and join in with questions and /or answers and contribute the knowledge of new and seasoned amateur radio operators alike.
The March 15 meeting will feature a presentation by Steve Noll, WA6EJO, on antennas and propagation.
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.
SBARC General Club Meeting
Friday, March 15, 2018 at 7:30 PM
Goleta Union School District Board Room
401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta
We hope to see you all at the meeting!
Post expires at 11:53pm on Friday March 15th, 2019 but will still be available in the archives.
The audio archive of this net can best be followed by downloading the .mp3 file for the appropriate date here and listening with the media player of your choice. You can move the progress slider forward or backward to the subject of interest to you.
We had another interesting net tonight with 12 check-ins, and net control Ken, KA6KEN. Tonight’s topics included:
Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local (2000 Hrs) and see what interesting questions will arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week and join in with questions and /or answers and contribute the knowledge of new and seasoned amateur radio operators alike.
Over the past two years, there has been an explosion of interest in DMR amateur radio. Many SBARC members have been bitten by the DMR bug and they are chatting around the world on global Brandmeister talkgroups using hotspots and repeaters. While much of the attraction of DMR is the ability to work DX on a handheld transceiver, many local operators hang out on the local SBARC Brandmeister DMR Talkgroup (TG 31073). In fact, every Tuesday night, the Digital Communications and Technology Net moves from 2m FM to TG 31073 at 21:00 Pacific Time.
If you aren’t on the air with DMR yet, not to worry. You may be able to chat on TG 31073 with a radio you already own! K6TZ operates a multimode digital repeater at La Vigia on the Mesa in Santa Barbara. We have recently reconfigured this repeater to bridge traffic from Yaesu System Fusion radios to TG 31073 using a new protocol called YSF2DMR. If you have a newer Yaesu radio, you may be digital-ready right now. Many new Yaesu amateur radio models available support System Fusion and are capable of connecting to the K6TZ digital repeater in order to bridge from System Fusion to DMR and TG 31073.
Joining the local digital chatter on TG 31073 via System Fusion on the Santa Barbara South Coast is fairly straightforward. Just follow these steps:
Hope to hear you on DMR/System Fusion. If this interests you and you want to learn more, join us every Tuesday night at 20:00 (8:00pm) on the K6TZ 146.79 FM repeater for the Digital Communications Net. Then QSY with us to DMR TG 31073 at 21:00 (9:00pm).
Last August our topic was DMR radio. Since then I have had a lot of requests for another DMR presentation, and since some new capabilities have become available, I thought this would be a good time. A lot of members have purchased DMR radios and would like to know more about their use and capabilities. A lot of our members have also purchased and Yaesu System Fusion radios as well. In fact, the Yaesu FTM400 mobile radio is probably the most popular general mobile radio in the Santa Barbara Area. There are probably 20 or more SBARC members with these radios but only use them for regular FM. Yaesu YSF radios are digital capable, but use a different digital protocol. Now it is easy to use your Yaesu YSF capable radios to communicate on DMR on the SBARC or other favorite talkgroup. At this meeting, we’ll show you how and do some demonstrations.
So bring your DMR radios and Yaesu YSF HT’s if you have one. And, bring your questions about this or DMR in general. SBARC is lucky enough to have their own dedicated talkgroup, and we need to utilize it more. With this new capability, hopefully we can get more members to come over and give digital a try.
SBARC General Club Meeting
Friday, September 21, 2018 at 7:30 PM
Goleta Union School District Board Room
401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta
We hope to see you all at the meeting!
Post expires at 11:00pm on Friday February 15th, 2019 but will still be available in the archives.
We can’t see it from town, but the back mountain range is covered with snow! This is the view from the Diablo Peak live stream today. The camera is pointed at the City of Santa Barbara and you can see it in the foreground. Click on the picture to view it in a larger format.
Post expires at 1:00am on Wednesday February 13th, 2019 but will still be available in the archives.
The rainstorm over the weekend brought us a nice little surprise when we opened up last Saturday. The outer doors to the club station are apparently not too waterproof! When the storm came through around dawn, it brought with it some high winds that hammered that side of the building with rain, and we had quite a bit of water come in covering most of the main room floor, and extending into the inner radio room a bit. Bill W1UUQ led the mop-up crew since he had the most experience swabbing decks! No damage done and the club station floor got a much needed mopping.
Post expires at 8:00am on Monday February 11th, 2019 but will still be available in the archives.
