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.
June 17, 2023 Saturday of Father’s Day WeekendNewlove Picnic Grounds, Orcutt Hill GPS: 34˚ 50’ 40.6 ” N, 120˚ 22’ 42.8 ”
Turn off Hwy 101 southbound 1.8 mi. south of Clark Ave., Orcutt. (Just past yellow sign).
Admission & Parking: FREE
Talk-in: 145.14 (-) PL131.8
Hours: 9:00 AM, till 3:00 PM
Prize drawing 12 Noon, tickets: $1 each at the fest
Swap Tables Available $20.00, Tailgate sellers welcome $20.00: (limited number)
HF station you can use. Stop by, make a contact or two. Technicians, try out HF.
T-hunt if available, TBD: On-foot
Every year at our May general meeting we celebrate Old Timers Night. This allows us the opportunity to honor those with multiple decades of experience in amateur radio. Many of our more “seasoned” members have been SBARC members for most, if not all of their time as licensed hams. This is good opportunity to thank them for their service to the club and to the amateur radio community in general.
Also this month we are going to watch a slide show from Bill Theeringer W8PEY. He recently went on an Honor Flight trip to our nations capital. The Honor Flight organization is a non-profit that arranges FREE flights and tours to Washington DC for our armed forces veterans. Special activities are arranged for these groups to give them a day of honor for their service. From their website:
Our mission is one of gratitude.
For their service, sacrifice, and selflessness.
Join us as we proudly celebrate America’s Veterans with a day of honor in our nation’s capital.
Coincidentally, Bill also won the “Longest Licensed HAM” title at last years Old Timers Night. We have quite a few veterans in our membership and this should be interesting to them and everyone.
This is an in person meeting and will also be available on Zoom and YouTube.
SBARC General Club Meeting
Friday, May 19, 2023 at 7:30 PM (Doors open at 7pm)
Goleta Union School District Board Room
401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta
Zoom Details:
Topic: SBARC General Club Meeting – May 19, 2023
Time: May 19, 2023 07:00 PM Pacific Time Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81903854789?pwd=eG9uWU5UOTNHVm9QN2dxeHR4WE9DQT09
Meeting ID: 819 0385 4789 – Passcode: 902783
Post expires at 11:00pm on Friday May 19th, 2023 but will still be available in the archives.
A great friend to SBARC and many of its members became a silent key last week. Andy and Bill W1UUQ were responsible for many of our most ambitious projects and much of the hardware we use. Andy last presented to SBARC on May 15th 2020, exactly three years ago. This was during the Covid lockdowns and he graciously joined us over Zoom. You can watch the presentation at: https://youtu.be/kyPbZkOS2dw
Andy was a substantial force in amateur radio as well as in first responder communications. His accomplishments were only exceeded by his professional stature. I can’t think of a better tribute to Andys life than one offered by Matt W6XC, so here it is.
Friends,
With a heavy heart, I must relate that our friend, colleague, mentor and rock, Andy Seybold has become a silent key. For those who know Andy, we will miss his gregarious personality, his way of storytelling, his wisdom and his great friendship. He is truly a legend of the wireless industry. And a powerful force to be reckoned with. You could always count on him being direct and telling you what you needed to hear. Nobody would work harder for an issue they were passionate about than Andy. What became FirstNet is a prime example.
Andy was on the ground floor of nearly everything over the last 55+ years in telecom. Earning his BSEE from Drexel University, Andy’s start was in the east. A Quaker and Pennsylvania native, his career began there. Later working in Ohio, California, New York and many destinations throughout his career, coming up from being an installer and tech in two-way to a consultant heeded by the US congress, he earned everything by dedication to his craft. A wordsmith to be sure, Andy authored numerous documents as he came into his truest stride. He authored many articles, gave many presentations, held training courses, and co-authored 2 books. He advocated stridently for Public Safety including the D Block Initiative, later becoming FirstNet, convincing Congress to set aside this spectrum. Andy was very successful in networking with industry leaders and policymakers alike. He truly brought people together and advocated for the best solutions as he saw them.
Andy received many awards during his career. Working for General Electric, RCA, Motorola, Biocom among others, he was part of many firsts. Andy has been a longtime member of another RCA, the Radio Club of America, becoming an RCA Fellow in 2000. Likewise a member of APCO. Receiving many awards including RCA’s Samoff Citation (2010), NPSTC Leadership Award (2012), multiple Sales awards from General Electric and Motorola from his early career, APCO President’s Award (2011), and most recently the IWCE Lifetime Achievement Award this past March.
Andy was a prime contributor locally, when I had the privilege of meeting him through another mutual close friend, Bill Talanian. Andy, Bill and I worked closely together on multiple non-profit projects. Andy provided many donations, consultation and other support to the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club (SBARC) and with Bill birthed the Santa Barbara Technical Advisory Council (SBTAC) which later became the Santa Barbara Wireless Foundation (SBWF). Andy made presentations to multiple local clubs and has been a great friend to many here. I have Andy and Bill to thank for truly accelerating my career in this industry. It has been a great honor to work with Andy and benefit from his wisdom.
And I couldn’t say all of this without acknowledging that, as the wise saying says, behind every successful man is a good woman. Linda has been Andy’s bride and tireless partner for many years. They have enjoyed a unique relationship anyone would find beautiful to witness. Completing each other, supporting each other, an example we could all learn from.
Godspeed, my friend. Thank you for all you’ve given.
Respectfully,
Matt Lechliter
ARS W6XC
Post expires at 5:45pm on Thursday June 8th, 2023 but will still be available in the archives.
Our speaker for our April meeting will be Gene Swiech WB9COY. Gene will tell us how a team of STEM Ham Radio mentors have taken NOAA Sondes and re-purposed them for Amateur Radio use, adding cameras for high altitude JPEG photos. He will walk us through the modifications performed on a Sonde, and how to build out an infrastructure to receive the streaming data that creates a JPEG photo. Gene does this in conjunction with high school students who are performing the launches, building receiving ground stations and antennas.
We will be having our meeting in the regular place – in person – and we’ll also Zoom the meeting for those than can’t make it in person.
SBARC General Club Meeting
Friday, April 21, 2023 at 7:30 PM
Goleta Union School District Board Room
401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta
Doors Open at 7:00pm and the meeting will start at 7:30pm
SBARC K6TZ is also inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting if you can’t make it in person.
Topic: SBARC General Meeting – April 21, 2023
Time: “Doors” open at 7:00pm and meeting starts at 7:30pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87609763720?pwd=ZDFvM24wNHVpUWRXWWlyZXdSOWtCZz09
Passcode: 363709
Post expires at 11:42pm on Friday April 21st, 2023 but will still be available in the archives.
Levi, K6LCM, a member of the SBARC Board of Directors and the K6TZ Trustee, was on TWiT Network’s FLOSS Weekly on March 22, 2023 with Doc Searls to take a deep dive into open source and radio. They discussed many of the club’s data gathering tools and the unique telecom sites around Santa Barbara County. Watch and download!
We’re back! In person meetings are back to stay for awhile. Once again, we had a presenter lined up for this month but we had to reschedule until next month because of a conflict with other plans. But we’re on for April and I think you will enjoy the presentation.
This month we’re going to talk about Artificial Intelligence, specifically ChatGPT. ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot that can communicate with users in natural language and provide information or assistance on a variety of topics. It is designed to simulate human conversation and provide helpful responses to users’ queries in real-time. The chatbot uses machine learning algorithms to understand user inputs and generate appropriate responses. It can be used for customer support, personal assistance, or general information seeking purposes.
Like it or not, this IS the next big thing and it WILL affect you in all kinds of ways. We’ll have a presentation and some demonstrations that are sure to be interesting!
SBARC General Club Meeting
Friday, March 17 at 7:30 PM
Goleta Union School District Board Room
401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta
Doors Open at 7:00pm and the meeting will start at 7:30pm
SBARC K6TZ is also inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting if you can’t make it in person.
Topic: SBARC General Meeting – March 17, 2023
Time: “Doors” open at 7:00pm and meeting starts at 7:30pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82745882888?pwd=TGMzVzNrTmp6eiswcU9jK0I3OEI3dz09
Passcode: 514505
Post expires at 11:00pm on Friday March 17th, 2023 but will still be available in the archives.
We had a presenter lined up for this month but we had to reschedule until next month because of a conflict with other plans. So, we needed to come up with something else this month. Last year I tried to do a presentation over zoom about using a software defined radio (SDR) to operate the popular digital mode FT8. Unfortunately it was a failure because I needed to run Windows on a Mac to run the SDR software. Running 2 operating systems, the SDR software and Zoom was too much for my laptop so I was unable to get things working. This year, things have changed. The software I use is now available in a native Mac version so I’m going to try again. Levi K6LCM helped me do a test last night and everything worked great. So we’re on!
We are going to be using Zoom again this month but it looks like we may be able to return to the old location for future meetings. That’s good news. we have a few things we need to do, but hopefully we’ll be able to get back to regular in-person meetings next month.
SBARC K6TZ is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: SBARC General Meeting – Feb 17, 2123
Time: “Doors” open at 7:00pm and meeting starts at 7:30pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84625496314?pwd=TFlndlR3UU5rNnBDdVA1V1h3cnkyZz09
Meeting ID: 846 2549 6314
Passcode: 172026
Post expires at 11:00pm on Friday February 17th, 2023 but will still be available in the archives.
