Slate of Candidates for 2023

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. You can view the proposed changes here: https://sbarc.org/Downloads/BylawEdits_10-2022.pdf Brian – K6BPM President, Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club Post expires at 7:51pm on Sunday November 20th, 2022 but will still be available in the archives.

SBARC Summer Potluck Barbecue – September 22nd 2024

Please join us for a good old fashioned summertime potluck barbecue. SBARC will host this years get-together at Stow Grove Park on La Patera Lane in Goleta just before it intersects Cathedral Oaks Rd. We will be in Area 2 This once-a-year SBARC event will be held on September 22, 2024, from 10:00 AM until 2:30 PM. With all the various projects going on related to the relocation of our repeaters, this will be a welcome break. This year will work much the same way as last year. SBARC will supply delicious 1/3 lb. hamburgers and cheeseburgers with all the fixings for all SBARC members and their immediate families. For non-members, burgers will be $5 each. You are welcome to bring your own beverages and we will have cold sodas and water available for $1. Since this is a potluck, we are encouraging everyone to bring something to share. You can bring a salad, potato chips, beans, hot dish, cookies or other desert, whatever you like and whatever you have time for. We hope you will join us for a relaxing meal and take the time to catch up with old friends. Of course, we can always use a little help setting things up before the event and cleaning things up afterwards. If you have a little time we would surely appreciate your help. Please RSVP so we know how much food to buy. Call our message line at 805-456-K6TZ (456-5689) or send a message through our Contact Us link and let us know if you are attending and how many people you will be bringing. Hope to see you there! Post expires at 1:05am on Monday September 23rd, 2024 but will still be available in the archives.

Club Meeting August 16, 2024

We’re making big progress on the relocation of equipment and repeaters from the La Vigia site. A lot of work has been competed and some new things are going to be introduced. We think you will be excited to hear what’s coming so you won’t want to miss this meeting. These past few meetings have allowed us to get some very valuable input from our members. Our job is to look out for your interests and to provide services and activities to help you enjoy amateur radio. Your participation and feedback have been very important in guiding our efforts and we appreciate your attendance. We want to make sure you feel you have a seat at the table as we progress to the next chapter in SBARCs 103 year old story. Make sure you bring a pencil and paper with you as we’re going to give you some new frequencies and other details. If you have a DMR radio, bring that along too. Many of you have probably forgotten DMR programing basics, so I am going to do a short refresher explaining how to add new channels. We hope to see you this Friday! SBARC General Club Meeting Friday, August 16, 2024 at 7:30 PM (Doors open at 7pm) Goleta Union School District Board Room 401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta Doors open at 7pm, meeting starts at 7:30pm Zoom Details: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88295475871?pwd=ovaOOzpvuao80c6GvsKjCBR2rnhsPM.1 Topic: General Club Meeting – August 16, 2024 Time: August 16, 2024 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Post expires at 11:14pm on Monday September 16th, 2024 but will still be available in the archives.

Moving on up!

Sometimes adverse events help spawn productive projects! With the relocation of the K6TZ repeater to TV Hill, we have been forced to make room for other things, and Michael K6RQV, Jim W6JFE and Bob KO6AKG spent several hours reorganizing the shack. If you have been there in the past year, you might have noticed that thighs can get a little cluttered. RQV’s organizing skills have come in handy. Not only did we move everything from our storage locker in Goleta to out new container, we got the shack cleaned up to boot. Post expires at 3:36pm on Friday August 30th, 2024 but will still be available in the archives.

Relocation Phase Two Underway

Big thanks to everyone who pitched in on Saturday to help with the move from our expensive storage locker to our brand new container. This portion of our relocation project is more than halfway complete. We still have three more shelf units to move and more storage items to relocate, and we will be able to vacate our storage locker for good, saving us about $6000 a year, and possibly more as the rent surely would have been bumped up another hundred dollars a month later this year. Here’s where we stand as of today: The main repeater has been relocated to TV Hill. All operating equipment at La Vigia Hill has been moved or decommissioned. The 446.400 repeater was temporarily reinstalled to cover some areas of the Mesa. Shelves were installed and equipment moved to long term storage in Santa Ynez. Half the shelves and about half of the remaining storage items moved to the new container at the Red Cross. We will be moving the rest of the storage items next weekend and will put out a worker help request later in the week. If you haven’t yet signed up to the project mailing list, you can do so by sending a blank email to workers+subscribe@sbarc.org. We are mailing list members about dates, times and location when we anticipate needing help, and if you can help, that’s great. Post expires at 8:23am on Tuesday August 20th, 2024 but will still be available in the archives.

K6TZ Repeater Update

A quick update on the K6TZ repeater situation … We are aware that the move of the K6TZ 146.79 repeater to TV Hill / KEYT-TV Studios has had a significant impact for some users. Some who had reliable coverage using a handheld transceiver in the past have been unable to make reliable contact now using the same. Others, particularly on the Riviera and in Montecito, have experienced improved coverage with the repeater move. With this in mind, we have begun a search for a solution that can preserve the best of these changes while improving usability for those who are experiencing a degradation in service. For the time being, the K6TZ 70cm repeater on 446.400 (minus offset, 131.8 Hz PL) has been restored to service at Vic Trace (aka La Vigia, aka Talanian Communications Facility) and linked to the SBARC Hub network, until we can find a more permanent solution. I encourage you to try this 70cm linked repeater if you have difficulties using 146.79 or any other linked repeater from your location. Signal reports are appreciated. I am also trying to keep our K6TZ Repeaters & Data Systems page current to reflect the real-world state of the SBARC network. -Levi, K6LCM K6TZ Trustee

New Antenna Goes Up at KEYT

If you haven’t heard, we were offered a place for our main K6TZ repeater (146.79) on TV hill, the decades old home of KEYT. Much of the credit goes to Senior Reporter John Palminteri. John was one of the first to report on our situation, and immediately stepped up to help. We are extremely grateful. Here is Wayne AF6GX up on the KEYT mast installing a new Comet tri-band antenna. The tri-bander will provide some flexibility if we decide to change things later on. It will work for 2 meter, 440 and 220. This is the first step in relocating the repeater. Next, we’ll be performing some coverage tests to get an idea how our coverage might differ from the current location. Next, we’ll be preparing to relocate the 440 input from UCSB and adding a microwave link back to the shack at the Red Cross. Then finally, we’ll be moving the repeater and other connected equipment. There will likely be a day or two down-time when we do the physical repeater move. There is a lot of stuff to disconnect and reconnect and test. Our repairs at Santa Ynez Peak and Diablo Peak on Santa Cruz Island will remain on-the-air and linked through the period. Post expires at 1:00am on Wednesday July 31st, 2024 but will still be available in the archives.