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 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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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