The very popular SBARC annual Christmas party will be held this year on Sunday, December 20, 2015 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. The location is: Rusty’s Pizza Parlour – 270 Storke Road in Goleta across the street from Storke Road entrance to the Home Depot Parking lot. Save the date, come early and stay late! Post expires at 4:00pm on Sunday December 20th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
Our meeting this month was a busy one. First, it was our annual election night to select board members for the coming term. The results of the election are here. It was also our annual “Home Brew Night” and people brought all kinds of interesting things they created themselves to show and share with others. We were also treated to a presentation from Wayne Overbeck, N6NB, the inventor of the world-famous ‘Quagi’ antenna and now the holder of the all time DX Microwave record. He has had successful contacts from Palos Verde California to the volcano tops of Hawaii on various UHF and microwave bands. His amazing skill and resourcefulness has made him a legend in the UHF+ DX realm. On top of that, Wayne is an excellent speaker and his humor and comfortable speaking style is particularly engaging. We all hope we will have the opportunity to hear him speak again and hear more stories of his remarkable DX quests. If you would like to listen to the audio recording of the meeting, including Wayne’s presentation, head over to the Audio Archives area, or listen to the embedded audio below. http://www.sbarc.org/audio-archives/General%20Club%20Meetings/2015-11-20%20General%20Club%20Meeting.MP3 Post expires at 3:57pm on Monday December 21st, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
There is a LOT going on this month, and it there was ever a meeting you don’t want to miss, it’s this one. First off, there will be a lot good of HF, VHF, UHF, and Microwave gear, as well as a few amplifiers on sale. This is from a donation to the club and 100% of the proceeds will be used to benefit the club! It is also election night. We will elect our Board of Directors for 2016, so be sure you come and make your vote heard! A slate was proposed by the nominating committee in October and additional nominations will be accepted from the floor. In addition, this will be our Fifth Annual Home Brew night. Bring whatever you have that you had a hand in — Designing, Building, Modifying, Ruining — all will count. Put something in writing next to your entry to let us know about what you did. Don’t be embarassed — be proud. Bring it! Now on to our speaker! Our guest speaker for the evening will be Wayne Overbeck, N6NB, the inventor of the world-famous ‘Quagi’ antenna and now the holder of the DX Microwave record of all time, which will be his subject for the evening. 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. This will be Wayne’s third presentation to SBARC. We are honored! 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. This is probably the biggest meeting of the year, so try to make it. We’ll see you there! Post expires at 1:33am on Saturday November 21st, 2015 but… Continue reading
This is just a reminder that all members are invited to attend Board of Directors meetings. Meetings are not secret or private. All the board members are club members first, and we have just been elected to make sure all the club business gets done. If you have something you would like to bring up with the board, and idea or even a complaint, you are free to contact a board member to have it put on the agenda and present it in person. Board meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month at 7pm at the Red Cross (upstairs). Again, everyone is welcome, any time. Post expires at 12:53pm on Monday November 30th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
This months meeting was thrown into disarray because of monumental traffic problems caused by the closure of I-5 and other roads hit by heavy rains and floods. Our regularly scheduled speaker Orville K. Beach, W6BI was unable to make the meeting because of the incredible traffic delays coming from his home in Simi Valley. Many members were forced to abandon their plans to attend because even the local side street traffic was bumper to bumper. That didn’t stop us from having a great meeting though. The highpoint of the meeting was the well deserved presentation of the SBARC Lifetime Achievement award to “Jug” – WA6MBZ. Jug has spent decades dedicating his time to the furtherance of Amateur Radio and service to SBARC. The award was given to recognize his considerable contributions to our club and our hobby. Jug has always been on the cutting edge of amateur radio technology going all the way back to our very first area wide repeater systems. His contributions are everywhere and almost everything the club has done over the years has benefitted from Jugs expertise. He is the embodiment of the spirit of experimentation and a “real” amateur radio enthusiast in every sense of the word. Congratulations Jug! The rest of the meeting was basically a “ragchew” and listening to Jug relate stories about the early days of amateur radio in Santa Barbara. It was a real treat to all that were able to attend. Post expires at 10:48pm on Monday November 16th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
This month’s presenter will be Orville K. Beach, W6BI. Orv is a member of the Simi Settlers Amateur Radio Club of Simi Valley, California. He hereby announces to the world that he is All Digital, All the Time! 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 Orv brags that his last HF SSB QSO was in 1975… Although he enjoys digital more than analog radio, he says that his Principal interests are technical as well as ragchewing. Which brings us to Orv’s topic that he is looking forward to presenting to us at our Club meeting. If you haven’t already heard of it, you will surely hear about it during his presentation. It is called, “Digital Mesh Networking for Amateur Radio.” Come with an open mind and let Orv fill it with lots of interesting concepts that are probably new to you. 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 7:14am on Saturday October 17th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
Darryl, KF6DI – Thank you to each of you good folks — Eric Satterlee, KG6WXC, from Port Hueneme; Bill Gross, W6FF, from Goleta; Bill Talanian, W1UUQ, from Goleta; Harry Rouse, K6PDQ, from Goleta; Ken Alker, KA6KEN, from Goleta; Bob Muller, KB6CTX, from Santa Barbara; Dorothy Oksner, K6DSO, from Carpinteria; Rick Whitaker, KG6VLB, from Santa Barbara and Tom Saunders, N6YX, from Goleta — we had a fun, successful and profitable Bazaar! Starting many weeks ago with the gathering of Junque for our sale from as far away as the Satellite Amateur Radio Club’s Swapfest and Barbecue, from our Club Station at the Red Cross and from homes around the area and moving a whole lot of it from our Club’s storage container Friday afternoon and then actually taking it home with us overnight and then bright and early Saturday morning bringing it all over to the Goleta Union School District and unloading it from our vehicles and laying it all out in the rear parking lot there in a pretty orderly fashion and then continuing right into selling of much of it to our Club members and visitors so that they might enhance their collections, somehow we actually cleared around $1,250. Hey, that’s pretty good for a Saturday morning. It even outdid last year’s effort. You know, if it weren’t for each of you pitching in and helping in whatever manner you did, this wouldn’t have happened. You were all terrific and I want you to know how much I appreciate what you did. So much of what makes a successful event is often unseen by the members. But that’s fine. I have always felt that the ones having the most fun were the ones who rolled up their sleeves and pitched in for the effort. It was a very nice day. The weather was delightful, the doughnuts were delicious, the drinks were cold and the coffee was hot. Without naming names, you each helped out in your own way and we all appreciate what you did. I got a bit of sunshine on me which felt good. Around noontime you might have seen Mr. John Moon stuffing what looked like tons of unsold test equipment into his van to be carted off to parts unknown. For that he crossed our palms with a couple hundred bucks. Pretty good for stuff no one would want. For many years he has come to… Continue reading
