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.
Eric KG6WXC installing a mesh network node on Santa Ynez Peak
On Sunday June 5th we reached a new milestone in the mesh network buildout. Tom – KA6SOX, Eric – KG6WXC, and Scott – KM6COI all spent their Sunday up on Santa Ynez Peak installing mesh nodes to allow us to reach Solvang and the Santa Ynez Valley. They installed one node pointing at Gibraltar Peak, and another pointing towards the Solvang area. We likely reach much further than Solvang too but have not tested limits of coverage yet.
One of our goals has been to reach into the north county area, and this brings us one step closer. Our members in the Santa Ynez Valley can now link up with us in the greater Santa Barbara area and participate in mesh activities and nets.
In other news, we are now linked with the Ventura County mesh network group. They have been doing this for awhile and have a few more nodes than we do, but we’ll see what we can do about that! With the Ventura county link, our range has extended to well over 60 miles. The Ventura group even has a Sunday evening MeshChat net and the Santa Barbara crew can now participate.
One of the SYP Mesh Nodes
We are also adding services like crazy here and now provide an SBARC web forum, three different email platforms including the Winlink 200o system, a packet radio gateway, three NTP time servers including one that synchronizes via GPS satellite signals, IRC chat, and more. And, there is still plenty of things to explore!
Photos courtesy of Scott – KM6COI
Post expires at 3:26pm on Friday July 8th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.
Telecom Group Meeting – June 4th 2016
The new, and improved SBARC Telecom Group met Saturday June 4th for the first time. The Telecom Group is led by Bill W1UUQ and Levi K6LCM (co-chairs) and composed of members of the repeater and microwave crew that has maintained our infrastructure for years, and several members of the digital operations and mesh network group. Many members of the digital group have skills that will enable more people to share the load in maintaining and improving SBARC’s already amazing infrastructure. The SBARC digital group will be able to assume more responsibility for day-to-day repeater operations and programming, packet radio and APRS, weather stations, and other things that have overburdoned the telecom group for years. In the very near future, we will have some very powerful new repeater features available to the club, and this collaboration will ensure that the talents and skills available to the club are most efficiently utilized. Note: Missing from the picture is Brian K6BPM because he was taking it!
Post expires at 6:53am on Friday August 5th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.
Dick Norton on his DXpedition to Ascension Island
Our guest speaker for the night was Dick Norton, N6AA, Director of the Southwestern Division of the American Radio Relay League. It is always a pleasure to hear Dick speak. He began with some ARRL news and updates, then treated us to a talk and slideshow about a DX Expedition he participated in on Ascension Island! It was quite interesting and Dick’s mix of information and humor is always fun.
It was also Old Timer’s night, and the winner of the earliest licensed ham was Joe – K6DXW. He has been licensed for over 50 years! Also on display was cherished pieces of vintage radio equipment and old photos from our members collections. If you missed the meeting, you missed the opportunity to see some really interesting gear. We have come a long way!
The audio for the meeting is in two parts. Head over to the Audio Archives and enjoy Dick’s presentation..
Post expires at 7:46am on Wednesday June 22nd, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.
The audio archive can best followed by downloading the .mp3 file for the appropriate date here and listening with the media player of your choice. You can move the progress slider forward or backward to the subject of interest to you.
We had a good turn out tonight with 7 check-ins plus net control, Garrett (AG6RQ) and some chat room visitors! Tonight’s subjects included:
Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net next Thursday at 8:00 PM (2000 Hrs) and see what interesting questions will arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the TM&E net each week and join in with questions and /or answers to and contribute the knowledge of new and seasoned amateur radio operators alike.
We’ve recently upgraded our packet radio capabilities here in Santa Barbara. Very popular back in the 80’s, packet lost much of it’s appeal with the advent of the Internet and email. However, for those of us interested in digital modes, packet radio is making a comeback. Unlike out normal HF oriented digital modes, packet lets us communicate with email like messages between users locally, and users of other packet systems around Southern California and beyond.
The K6TZ-3 packet station on La Cumbre Peak offers a PBBS (SBPBBS) system for messages and a Digipeater (SBDIGI) for relaying packet messages to other systems. It runs on a Kantronics KPC3 TNC and broadcasts on 145.050 at 25w. It has incredible reach easily reaching other packet stations down the coast of California. Recent modifications were to add KA-Node capability. This allows us to connect to out KN-Node (SBNODE) and connect to other KA-Nodes. You can connect from node to node to “chain” a connection from here to almost anywhere within a reasonable distance. Similarly, others can reach us from remote locations the same way.
I also installed two of my own packet stations here locally. They are mostly for fun and have nowhere near the coverage the La Cumbre Peak station has. However, they allow me to have my own mailbox system and people can leave me a message on my own systems.
Packet radio is far from dead. In a SHTF emergency, packet capabilities will allow 100% accurate text based messages to be sent quickly and easily. In my opinion, this is an extremely valuable skill to have and even if its popularity is not what it once was, it enhances our capabilities as individual amateurs as well as a club. It isn’t as complicated as it may seem, and is actually fun and challenging.
We discuss and operate packet on the Tuesday night SBARC Digital Modes Net, so if you have an interest, be sure to check in.
– Brian K6BPM
A file photo of the La Vigia communications site atop the Mesa.
Effective April 15, the former GE Mstr II repeater and its associated ACC RC-850 on 146.790 at the La Vigia site has been decommissioned. In its place is a GE MSTR III which will act as a surrogate system without any bells and whistles. It has the required time out timer and a CW ID. All synthesized voice announcements, autopatch and macro functions are disabled for the time being. The remote 2-meter receiver at UCSB and voter will be temporarily offline.
As explained by Matt Lechliter, W6KGB, at last months club meeting, the Mstr II will be converted to a uMstr with the addition of a new RLC Club Controller. Essentially the former repeater retains the same electronic design configuration. However, all the mixed cabling used for multiple variants will be discarded which will make the system easier to maintain by improving the common interconnections. A single RLC controller is now capable of handling six serial interfaced independent systems, multiple macros, and planned system interfaces tailored to the needs of emergency services and daily users. Commonality of a single controller will have the capability to interface the six-meter repeater, 440 IRLP repeater, the UCSB remote link and voter, ELT receiver, NWS warning system, etc. Command integration of the 146.79 (at La Vigia) and 145.18 (at Santa Ynez Peak) repeaters will be possible via ethernet controls over the club’s microwave data system. Most importantly the controller will be ethernet capable which will ease the load on control operators through remote computer-enabled configuration. We shall try to maintain the basic configuration of the previous club and ARES net functions as best possible. But no two systems have the same design features and capabilities so we must adjust and learn. As we move forward the first task is to upgrade the MSTR II to a uMstr. This should take about 2 months. Meanwhile the task of interfacing the six-meter and 440 system will be on-going. In time you shall see a much more capable system.
Mstr III mounted on top in rack above the Mstr II. Mstr
II and controller has been removed for modification to a Micro-Mstr.
A last word about the RC-850. The controller was way ahead of its time in the 70’s. It has served the club extremely well by performing a myriad of timed macro’s, voice synthesizer, paging variants, auto-patch capabilities, plus many control bells and whistles as a single system controller. The limitation of the 850 was interfacing of remotes or additional functions plus finding personnel who wanted to spend their time understanding the unique command software controls and becoming a good control operator-engineer. Hat’s-off to the ACC people. They designed a controller that worked flawlessly for over 35 years. But time moves on. Hopefully the new system will attract competent technical people who love to work with systems integration.
–Bill Talanian, Trustee
K6TZ & W6YJO Repeater Systems
![Beale AFB PAVE PAWS radar systems[1]](http://www.sbarc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Beale-AFB-PAVE-PAWS-radar-systems1.png)
PAVE PAWS (FPS-115) ballistic missile early warning radar at Beale Air Force Base in California
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.
