Assorted Radio Gear For Sale

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Various items are all $30 or less!

Visit the Club Station on Saturday mornings or pay online here.

  1. NanoVNA: Cheap way into the world of VNAs! Bright 2.8″ display and internal battery. Covers 50KHz to 900MHz. Comes with two launch cables and O/S/L calibration fittings for $20. Picture (Listed 4-04-2022)
  2. Autek RF1 Antenna Analyzer: Compact, very accurate, covers HF.  Will demo upon sale if desired. Comes with an accessory kit for $25.  Picture 1 – Picture 2  (Listed 4-04-2022)
  3. Calrad Selectable 45744 Power Supply: 6,9,12 volts at a maximum of 1 Amp $10. Picture (Listed 4-04-2022)
  4. MFJ Antenna Bridge: Model 204B works for $10. (Listed 3-23-2022) Picture
  5. Drake Dummy Load: DL300 Model 1550. Good condition 0-160MHz tests out at 51 Ohms w/a calibrated DVM. Will provide de-rating curve upon sale for $20. (Listed 3-15-2022) Picture 1 / Picture 2
  6. HYS Two Meter Mobile Antenna: Lip mounted NMO base w/6′ of RG-58A/UHF terminated into a PL-259 connector $10. (Listed 3-01-2022) Picture
  7. Telecom Test Set: – Mint condition Telco Test Set. If you know what you’re looking for you know what this is! $25. (Listed 2-21-2022) Picture
  8. Henry Amplifier Model C30AB02: A little rough around the edges but works! 4/5 Watts In 30 Watts out. Range 136MHz-174MHz. Can be tuned anywhere in this band. Currently tuned to 150MHz area, puts out 25 Watts at 2 meters. Draws about 8 amps. $30. (Listed 2-07-2022) Picture
SBARC Fundraising Item
Available at the Club Station
Open every Saturday from 9am until noon.

Updated 4/06/2022 W0JFB

General Club Meeting – February 15, 2019

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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.

Diablo Peak Island Camera is back and better than before!

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Thanks to many generous donations via our GoFundMe campaign, the SBARC Telecommunications Services Committee is happy to announce that we have an operational  live webcam on Diablo Peak on Santa Cruz Island! Diablo is the tallest mountain on an ocean island in the lower 48 and a strategic location for gathering all types of scientific data including ship and aircraft traffic, weather and cloud patterns and amateur radio linking.

Live video feed from Diablo Peak on Santa Cruz Island

In September 2018, the legacy standard-definition camera stopped functioning. While we have raised enough funds to install this new HD camera, there continue to be ongoing expenses necessary in order to keep it operational. We continue to raise funds to support this impressive high-definition replacement unit.

The camera allows aviators, mariners, researchers and public safety teams to ensure the safety of their island missions by providing a glimpse of the conditions in all directions around the island, in the channel and out to sea. It is an especially important asset for fire watch both on the island and looking back toward the Santa Barbara South Coast.  Unlike many strategic webcams, this live camera is available to anyone interested in taking a virtual trip to this remote, secluded promontory and peering off into the deep blue yonder!

Levi C. Maaia, K6LCM
Co-Chair, Telecommunications Services Committee
a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit corporation

Remember to Renew Your Club Membership!

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This is a good time to renew your club membership. If you have not joined the club yet, or let your membership lapse, this is a good time to do that too! Your club dues help support the substantial infrastructure the club offers including the repeaters as well as the club station. Membership is ONLY $24 a year. That is only $2 per month and your dues are very much needed and appreciated and helps the club keep everything up and running. You can now also pay your dues online and even set up automatic annual payments!

Remember… the board changed the policy on when dues can be paid. You can now pay your dues any time of the year and your “anniversary” date will be on the same date each year. So joining any time during the year will cover a full 12 months.

January 2015 SBARC Club Meeting

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3dprinter

3D printer in action

The January Club Meeting featured an interesting presentation by Julianne Walsh on 3D printing. She brought along a working 3D printer to demonstrate and a couple of “home brew” printers to show. 3D printing is going to be the revolution of the decade and will soon be able to print almost everything from tools to human organs. Thanks Julianne for the great presentation!

Post expires at 11:00pm on Monday February 2nd, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 8/27/2026

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The audio archive of this and other SBARC nets have been indefinitely discontinued. Hopefully the audio recordings will be resumed before too long by another local ham enthusiast with the technical ability and resources necessary to do so.

We had another interesting net tonight with 8 check-ins plus net control Ken, KA6KEN. Tonight’s topics included:

  • General discussion including HVAC, A/C refrigerants, etc.
  • Ham callsign prefixes.

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local and see what interesting ham radio questions might arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 8/20/2026

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The audio archive of this and other SBARC nets have been indefinitely discontinued. Hopefully the audio recordings will be resumed before too long by another local ham enthusiast with the technical ability and resources necessary to do so.

We had another interesting net tonight with 4 check-ins plus net control Dave, AI6VX. Tonight’s topics included:

  • Verizon’s Cell Phone Booster, is it a repeater or does it just connect to wireless network?
  • Cell phone coverage.
  • HamVoip/AllStar.

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local and see what interesting ham radio questions might arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week.

SBARC Club Meeting August 21, 2026

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This months meeting is going to be a little different than usual. If you attended the last meeting, we talked about getting our members getting set up to do MeshCore communications. So this meeting is going to be a HANDS ON and we will help everyone get set up and on the air.

MeshCore is an OFF-THE-GRID messaging system and works whether you have internet/cellular or not. If everything is down, you can still communicate. 

THIS IS NOT COMPLICATED. If you can use text messages on your smartphone, you already know how to use this. It also requires repeaters, but SBARC/SBWF has already installed 9 repeaters that blanket most of the area with coverage.

You only need 2 things to get set up, a smartphone and a small “Companion” transceiver.  The smartphone app is called MeshCore. It is available for FREE on the iPhone App Store and also on Google Play App Store for Android users.

There are a lot of options for companion nodes. There are several models that are ready to go, right out of the box, or you can build one yourself, There are several kits available, or you can buy the individual parts and assemble them yourself. This may not be a good option for many users because you need a little experience choosing and using transceiver boards, batteries, and all the assorted little parts that go along with it.

I evaluated some of the off-the-shelf units and found one I particularly like and think would be a good option for a lot of our members. They are called “ThinkNode M1”. Everything is assembled and ready to use. They use a Nordic processor which is very power efficient. They have a built in battery that provides about 2.5 days of use on a charge. They also have built-in GPS which is switchable so you can use it only when needed. This is nice because GPS cuts your battery life in half, GPS is rarely useful, so being able to turn it on and off is very useful. They also use an ePaper display that only uses power when the display changes. These are very small and lightweight, and you can easily put one in a pocket.

We purchased a few of these and they will be available to club members for a $63.00 reimbursement at the meeting. Tax and Shipping is included. You can also purchase these on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/0bxv9g7N. They are currently on sale as of this writing.

There are many more off-the-shelf systems available on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=meshcore. You will also see bare boards with display as well. Remember that these also require a battery, case, and 915 MHz antenna.

This meeting will NOT be on Zoom.

Please join us this Friday!

SBARC General Club Meeting
Friday, August 21, 2026 at 7:30 PM (Doors open at 7pm)
Goleta Union School District Board Room
401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta

Post expires at 1:58am on Thursday October 22nd, 2026 but will still be available in the archives.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 8/13/2026

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The audio archive of this and other SBARC nets have been indefinitely discontinued. Hopefully the audio recordings will be resumed before too long by another local ham enthusiast with the technical ability and resources necessary to do so.

We had another interesting net tonight with 6 check-ins plus net control Dave, AI6VX. Tonight’s topics included:

  • Looking for folks that might be interested in attending Defcon August ’27 for free (Save $600) by helping at the Ham Radio Village antenna building contest. Contact Eric, KG6WXC.
  • Levi, K6LCM was able to have Claude AI pair his pc Bluetooth with his new LED strip lights controller and then pick up the METAR of any airport and display colors according to the current weather at that airport.
  • When taking a call, cell phone offered the phone itself, it’s speaker and another unidentified device which was not paired with the phones Bluetooth.

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local and see what interesting ham radio questions might arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 7/30/2026

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The audio archive of this and other SBARC nets have been indefinitely discontinued. Hopefully the audio recordings will be resumed before too long by another local ham enthusiast with the technical ability and resources necessary to do so.

We had another interesting net tonight with 8 check-ins plus net control Warren, KN6ZZI. Tonight’s topics included:

  • Converting a PostScript file to .pdf (for making a circular slide rule).
  • Follow up on discussion about SteppIR UrbanBeam 2 element Yagi antenna diagnostics.
  • Discussion on whether or not “Mattermost” chat platform would be useful to SBARC nets. (Eric, KG6WXC offered to set up a trial for SBARC to evaluate).

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local and see what interesting ham radio questions might arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 7/23/2026

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The audio archive of this and other SBARC nets have been indefinitely discontinued. Hopefully the audio recordings will be resumed before too long by another local ham enthusiast with the technical ability and resources necessary to do so.

We had another interesting net tonight with 7 check-ins plus net control Ken, KA6KEN. Tonight’s topics included:

  • Modulation differences between SBARC repeaters.
  • Field Day 2026.
  • SSB and CW HF frequencies using volume versus gain for readability.
  • AllStar.
  • MeshCore repeaters.

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local and see what interesting ham radio questions might arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week.

Ameritron and Mirage Amps Get New Life

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ITU Corporation has acquired Ameritron and Mirage RF Amplifier brands from MFJ Enterprises. Its has previously acquired HyGain and Cushcraft lines from the now defunct MFJ so some of our favorite brands are getting new life.

Read the article here:

https://www.lintonnews.com/itu-corporation-acquires-ameritron-and-mirage-rf-amplifier-brands-from-mfj-enterprises-free-article/

Post expires at 7:35am on Saturday August 1st, 2026 but will still be available in the archives.