Tag Archives: Meetings

General Club Meeting Coming Up on April 15, 2016

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(Darryl – KF6DI) In 1957 the world was in its 12th year of a Cold War with the Soviet Union. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union stunned the world with its surprise launch of Sputnik-1, a two foot diameter 180 pound man-made satellite orbiting the earth every 92 minutes. This Soviet achievement caused the United States and Canada to build a massive military defense system which would give warning of an attack by “orbiting bombs.” ICBMs had not been invented yet. That system, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System, will be described in detail by a person who worked on the BMEWS project for 400 days in Northern Greenland. Skip Aubry was first licensed as KN2LXC in 1955. In 1964, while serving in the United States Air Force, he was a certified Electronics Counter-measures instructor for *SAC EB-47 bomber flight crews. * Strategic Air Command In 1968 he joined RCA Service Company as a Tech Rep and was assigned to support the RCA BMEWS presence in Northern Greenland. As an RCA Tech Rep he was initially a BMEWS radar System Engineer and later a BMEWS Computer operator. While in Greenland he was licensed by the Danish Government and was active on the ham bands for more than a year as OX5AC. Come find out more about this fascinating fellow at our April SBARC Club meeting and about what it was like to think that during the next few seconds our lives and those of our neighbors could be turned upside down. We hold our Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club meetings 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. Post expires at 1:00am on Saturday April 16th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.

General Club Meeting – March 18, 2016

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We had a packed meeting this month in more ways than one! It was very well attended with a 59% increase in members in attendance compared with our recent averages. On top of that we had three presenters too! It started off with Jon Kent of the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Aero Squadron. Jon explained what the Aero Squadron does and related some great stories. Jon has been a volunteer for decades and has flown many missions in support of local law enforcement, county government, and emergency services. He is truly a dedicated to public service, and is an inspiration to all of us. Gear, gear and more gear! The tables were packed with radio equipment that immediately drew interest from our members. Bill Talanian W1UUQ showed off some of his one-of-a-kind creations that help him support a wide variety of services including air observer support, repeater maintenance, and emergency services support. Also displayed on the main table was a repeater, controller, amplifiers and other gear slated soon for SBARC service. Out third speaker, Matt Lechliter, W6KGB, explained what it all was. Matt treated us to an extremely informative hour explaining how he hand builds our repeater systems for us. Although we seldom hear him on the air, he is nevertheless hard at work repairing our existing equipment and building new things for our future. Matt typically takes Motorola and GE commercial repeaters had hand fabricates new parts and electronics to turn them into top quality amateur radio repeater systems. Calling his creations “home-brew” does not do them justice. They are every bit as professionally constructed – if not more so – that the finest factory made ones. SBARC is extremely lucky to have people like Bill and Matt on our team. There is nothing “amateur” in what they do. Post expires at 1:50am on Wednesday April 20th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.

March 18, 2016 General Meeting Program

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Come to our March 18 Club meeting and hear about the forward upgrade plans for the hilltop repeater sites for the Mesa site and about our 220 MHz Repeater Site at Santa Ynez Peak. Matt Lechliter, W6KGB, will brief everyone about these upgrade plans. These upgrades are now underway and should be available for the users by mid-year. How many of you have had the pleasure of meeting Jon Kent of the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Aero Squadron? Jon holds the rank of Captain in that fine organization. Want to know why the Sheriff would want to get into a smaller aircraft and fly it over residential areas? Why would he fly it over forested areas?  Maybe Jon can fill us in. At our meeting, Jon will be ably assisted by our own Bill Talanian, W1UUQ. If you have no plans for dinner before the meeting, you might like to join Matt, Jon, Bill and us at Cody’s in the Turnpike Shopping Center at 5:30 PM. We hold our Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club meetings 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. Feel free to bring a guest! Join or renew your membership in SBARC while you’re there. Submitted by Darryl, KF6DI Post expires at 11:40pm on Friday March 18th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.

February 2016 General Club Meeting: Amateur Radio Mesh Networking

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Orville Beach, W6BI spoke at SBARC’s February General Club Meeting. Orville is a member of the Simi Settlers Amateur Radio Club of Simi Valley, Calif. who says he is now All Digital, All the Time! Orville spoke to the group about the success of digital mesh networking in Ventura County and encouraged Santa Barbara-area hams to join in the the fun of using 0ff-the-shelf wireless networking gear to create private IP networks using the exclusive ham allocation in the 2.4 GHz band. Listen to audio from his presentation below and learn more about the software his is using that is coming out of the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN) Project.  

Program for General Club Meeting – February 19, 2016

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Our speaker this month will be Orville Beach, W6BI. Orville was scheduled to speak last fall, but the closure if I-5 that evening created a colossal traffic jam, and he was forced to turn back. This time, hopefully, things will be back to normal and Orville will be able to make it to our meeting in good time. Orville K. Beach, W6BI, is a member of the Simi Settlers Amateur Radio Club of Simi Valley, California. Orville claims he is now All Digital, All the Time! He earned his Novice license in 1967 with the call of WN6WEY and has held an Amateur Extra class license for the past 17 years and has acquired the vanity call of W6BI. As an example of All Digital, All the Time, look at his operating style: CW for four years RTTY for 11 years (teletypes, homebrewed terminal units, then homebrewed computer interfaces and programs) VHF Packet radio for about 10 years – helped build up a packet network down the California coast and east to Tucson QRT off and on for a couple of years Pactor for 2 years PSK31 off and on for a couple of years 2014..  Digital Mesh radio on the microwave bands Although he enjoys digital more than analog radio, he says that his principal interests are technical as well as ragchewing. Orville’s  topic will be, “Digital Mesh Networking for Amateur Radio.” This should prove to be one of the more interesting topics we have had recently, so everyone should try to male the meeting. We will be hosting Orville for dinner before the meeting at Cody’s in the Turnpike Shopping Center at 5:30 PM. Everyone is welcome to join is. We hold our Club meetings 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. Post expires at 11:00pm on Friday February 19th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.

General Club Meeting – January 15th 2016

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Our January meeting featured a presentation from Theo, KK6YYZ. Theo’s presentation included a slideshow that illustrated the installation of a home emergency power generator and he went over all the various considerations necessary for proper installation. His presentation was also punctuated by some lively discussion on electrical equipment grounding, electrical codes, and other good questions. You can listen to the audio part of the presentation below: Post expires at 11:12am on Friday February 12th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.

General Club Meeting Coming Up January 15th

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For the first Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club meeting of the year, the January 15, 2016 meeting will be a good one! One of our own members, in fact one of our Board members, Theo Howe, KK6YYZ, a local electrician by trade, will be giving us a wonderful presentation on “Installing a Home Generator system.”     Theo will be explaining: How to choose a system with features that are right for you Correctly sizing your Generator Permitting and Covenants Can I install this myself or do I need an electrician mckinney texas to sort this out? Choosing fuel type Interconnecting with your home electrical system There will be a Question and Answer period with Theo and Al Soenke, WA6VNN, a Past President of SBARC and one of Theo’s customers, who can speak from experience and will give valuable insight from the owner’s perspective. Our Club meetings are held 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. Bring a guest. Join SBARC or re-join SBARC. If your membership expired at the end of the year, this is the time to renew it for another full year of Amateur Radio fun! You may join or re-join SBARC by downloading the Membership Application or by filling one out at the meeting. Our annual dues are still only $24 per year. Post expires at 11:51pm on Friday January 15th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.