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.
Our guest speaker was Dick Norton, N6AA, our ARRL Southwestern Division Director. Dick spoke on the latest activities of the American Radio Relay League and how they influence our lives as hams. He brought us up to date on the Amateur Radio Parity Act and how we still need to contact our Congressperson Lois Capps and both of our Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and push for them to sign on as supporters of their respective bills in the House and the Senate.
Dick also talked briefly about the contest for the Santa Barbara Section Manager between our present Manager Rob Griffin, K6YR, of San Luis Obispo and Jim Fortney, K6IYK, of Camarillo. The ballots will arrive in early October in the mail boxes of ARRL members.
The highlight of the Club meeting was the video presentation about President Jay’s recently departed wife and best friend in the world Winnie, KA6OFZ, SK. The well produced video showed Winnie running a QSO between her students and the astronauts passing overhead aboard the International Space Station.
Listen to the full audio of the meeting here: http://www.sbarc.org/k6tz-repeater-live-audio-and-archive/general-club-meetings-audio-archives/
Post expires at 8:38am on Thursday October 15th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
Bob KB6CTX checking the voltage level
Ken KA6KEN and Tom N6YX checking out the Rover
This Saturday was pizza day at the shack, but the rover got a little attention too. The backup batteries were getting old and would not hold much of a charge so they were replaced by Tom N6YX, Bob KB6CTX and Ken KA6KEN.
By the way, Bob is our “Rovermaster” and Makes sure everything is kept in good repair. The Rover is fully equipped to handle emergency communications any time it might be needed. It carries an onboard repeater, antenna mast, an HF radio, VHF and UHF radios, and plenty of gear to rig up whatever might be needed. Come on down for pizza on the second Saturday of the month and take a tour of the Rover. It’s impressive capabilities rival anyone’s home shack. And it’s totally mobile and self sufficient.
KG6VLB Riding in the Marshall-mobile
A yearly tradition for SBARC, we are providing communications for Santa Barbara’s annual Fiesta Parade! Left, is special events operations coordinator Rick KG6VLB (facing backwards?) riding along with Parade Marshall 1.
This year marks the 91st anniversary of the Fiesta Historical Parade. It is unique to Santa Barbara and features floats depicting episodes from the history of the state and city. Descendants of local Native Americans, Spanish Pioneers, the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West, and local service clubs and organizations all reenact historical scenes. It is one of the nation’s largest equestrian parades, featuring over 600 horses, as well as many antique carriages, coaches and wagons. SBARC members and other amateur radio volunteers monitor the parade route from the beginning to end from the west end of Cabrillo Boulevard, up to State and Sola Streets.
Photo by SBARC member Dorothy K6DSO.
The Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club operates a web cam at Diablo Peak, located 2,474 ft above sea level on Santa Cruz Island, off the coast of Santa Barbara. The camera is an Axis P5522-E pan-tilt-zoom camera with a resolution of 704×480 pixels. The camera was offline for several months but access has been recently restored.
The images are captured at the peak and transmitted to the mainland over two 26 mile and 32 mile links using 802.11g WiFi technology. Images are captured and transmitted every 10 minutes during daytime. Enjoy!
Haydn – KK6OYV
Haydn KK6OYV might be one of our youngest members, but he is way ahead of the rest of us in bringing the true spirit of “homebrew” to the hobby. Last year, Levi K6LCM launched his DJI quadcopter in the club station parking lot with a small “store and forward” repeater attached. That repeater would hear a transmission, store it and rebroadcast it. It was an interesting experiment and after getting used to the delay, was a lot of fun.
Haydn took this experiment way further. He incorporated a fully functioning lightweight cross-band repeater designed by Bob KK6EYV, and he built the quadcopter from scratch using various components he found afters hours of research. The quad’s frame is strong and and durable and the motors were selected for weight and performance. It lacks the sophisticated electronics and GPS capability that high end quads like those from DJI have, but is more than makes up for that in power. It can climb to 400 feet in just a few seconds and Haydn’s piloting skills more than compensate for the electronics in the DJI that make those machines easy to fly.
Haydn suspends the small repeater from about 8 feet of fishing line below the quadcopter. The repeater dangles a length of wire that acts as the antenna. The repeater itself runs off a 9 volt battery. This is a big improvement over the original 12 volt design from last year. It has squelch and other adjustments on board that allows Haydn to fine tune the circuits, almost literally, on the fly.
It actually works! Speech is clearly audible the repeater performance is just as you would expect from a repeater. We had some issues with interference so work will continue to find frequencies that work best. Haydn’s great ideas don’t sit idle on the workbench. He builds them and makes them work. For him, the sky’s the limit.
Post expires at 5:23pm on Tuesday August 4th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
Story and Photo by Michael Stout -Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Post expires at 1:35am on Saturday August 15th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
Many thanks to Rebecca Anderson of the American Red Cross for get great presentation on “Be Red Cross Ready.” Rebecca specifically focused on the types of emergencies we might face in Santa Barbara and explained how we can prepare ourselves in advance so that we can survive the first few days of an emergency on our own. No matter how well we think we are prepared, we can always learn something new. We certainly did this night. Virtually everyone walked away with additional knowledge as well as some great handouts from the Red Cross.
The full audio is available in the General Meeting Audio Archives section.
Post expires at 7:15pm on Saturday August 1st, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.
