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.
Presentation of the SBARC Lifetime Achievement Award to Jug WA6MBZ (right) by Brian K6BPM (left) at the October 2015 General Club Meeting.
Our old friend Jug – WA6MBZ passed away on Friday January 7, 2017 after a long illness. Jug was a long time member of SBARC and had his hands in project after project over the years. Jug also served on the SBARC Board of Directors and on various committees. He was instrumental in getting the club station activated several years ago, and was frequently the first in line to try new modes and radio technologies.
For many years Jug was known as the “Trivia Master” on the morning Cuckoo Net. He dutifully read a trivia question every morning. He had a special computer where he stored trivia questions – prepared years in advance – on every topic from radios to thimbles and drink coasters. Jug was also an officer in the 220 MHz Spectrum Management Association (220SMA), the 220 MHz frequency coordination group for Southern California.
Anyone that ever visited his house knew of Jug’s commitment to amateur radio. Radios and computers were packed into every available square inch of space he could find. His roof bristled with every form of antenna. He also had a few vehicles completely outfitted with everything from HF radios to GHz equipment along with solar panels to keep the batteries charged. He was the consummate “ham” and could build anything – and did! Amateur radio has lost one of the last of the “real hams”. You can read this post here if you need solar panel installation services.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held for Jug on Thursday, January 12 at 10:00 am at Our Lady of Sorrows Church.
Please leave your stories and remembrances in the comments.
Post expires at 7:15am on Thursday February 9th, 2017 but will still be available in the archives.
The SBARC Telecommunications Services Committee continues testing the link between the K6TZ 146.790 and W6YJO 145.180 repeaters. The 146.790 machine is located on the Mesa in Santa Barbara and serves the Santa Barbara South Coast and portions of Ventura County. From atop Santa Ynez Peak, 145.180 has wide-area coverage including Santa Barbara North County. Signal reports and link quality reports between the two repeaters are appreciated.
Additionally, the following VoIP nodes are now online for incoming connections to the system only: AllStar Node: 43763; EchoLink Node: 4376. Amateurs wishing to connect via smart phone are encouraged to download and install the EchoLink app for iOS or Android.
The meeting was called to order at 1937 hours by President Brian Milburn, K6BPM
Attendance: A quorum of 38 was present.
1. Pledge of Allegiance led by President Brian Milburn.
2. All those present introduced themselves and their call signs.
3. President Brian Milburn asked those who brought a home brew item to talk a few minutes about it. Five presenters came forward to describe their items.
4. President Brian Milburn, K6BPM, introduced the slate of candidates to serve as officers and directors for 2017 and called for nominations from the floor. There being none, Jay Hennigan, WB6RDV, moved nominations be closed, Dennis Schwentner, WB6OBB, 2nd. Motion passed.
5. Members picked up ballots for the election.
Break for distributing ballots, counting ballots, reviewing and voting for home brew.
Program presented by Michael Ditmore and Jim Knight of Novim.
President Brian Milburn announced the winners of the election of 2017 Board of Directors:
President: Brian Milburn, K6BPM
Secretary: Dorothy Oksner, K6DSO
Treasurer: Tom Saunders, N6YX
Directors: Theo Howe, KK6YYZ; Levi Maaia, K6LCM; Bob Muller K6CTX; and Michael Taylor, K6RQV.
Home Brew Winner was Hayden Brooke, KK6OYV, with the Loop Antenna he made.
There being no further business to conduct, the meeting was adjourned at 2145 hours.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dorothy Oksner, K6DSO, Secretary
Post expires at 6:35pm on Monday December 12th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.
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.
[Darryl – KF6DI] The November 18, 2016 SBARC Club meeting will be a Triple Header. First, this will be our Sixth Annual Home Brew night. Bring whatever you have that you had a hand in — designing, building, modifying, running — all will count. Put something in writing next to your entry to let us know about what you did. You can even demonstrate it.
Second, this will be our chance to vote for those whom we want to serve SBARC on our Board of Directors for the year 2017. A slate was proposed at our October Club meeting and can be found on here. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor from those in good standing for those in good standing, should they accept the nomination, in addition to those nominated last month. Be sure to bring along your SBARC membership card so we can quickly verify your eligibility to vote.
We have two guest speakers who will honor us and inspire us with a most interesting program about Novim, the group formed at the University of California campus in Santa Barbara to create a collaborative problem-solving approach to address widespread and complicated problems, modeled after approaches at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP).
Michael Ditmore, W7HUT, who is multi-term Past President of SBARC and is the Executive Director of Novim, began his business career with IBM as a systems engineer. After receiving an MBA from Stanford in 1970, he relocated to Germany as Director of European Operations for Canberra Industries. Following the sale of his division in 1972, he returned to California, joining a startup – ROLM Corporation, where he served as regional manager for marketing and sales. The company was sold to IBM in 1979. Michael subsequently founded and sold 2 high technology medical device companies.
In 1995 Michael co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of the Systems and Software Consortium, a non-profit association of 150 companies whose first project was the creation of the Pacific Technology Center in Goleta, the largest high tech incubator in southern California at the time. Michael currently serves on the Director’s Council of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB, and is a life member of both the USAF Academy Association of Graduates and the Stanford Alumni Association. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement of California; the Executive Board of Santa Barbara Partners in Education; and the Stanford Business School Alumni Association. He also served on advisory boards for the NASA Ames Incubator and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Jim Knight, WA6RNV, also a long-time member of SBARC, Novim’s Executive Vice President, was a co-founder in the start-up of Amber Engineering, Inc. in December of 1981. Over a period of twelve years the company grew to 200 people and was acquired by Raytheon Company in 1992. He retired as Senior Vice President in 1994. Jim and three other partners subsequently started Indigo Systems Corporation in March of 1996, which grew to 230 employees before being acquired by FLIR Systems in January 2004.
Jim served for 5 years as a member of the Board of Directors of the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce beginning in 1993 and later in a supporting role with the Government Relations Committee. Jim currently serves on the Director’s Council of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB, and is co- chair of the Government Relation Committee for the Goleta Chamber of Commerce. He served on the Board of Directors of UCSB’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Engineering Management and currently serves on the steering committee for the South Coast Business and Technology Awards dinner sponsored by the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara.
We meet 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. Guests are welcome!
Post expires at 9:00pm on Friday November 18th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.
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.
