SBARC Annual Bazaar – Saturday July 22, 2017

This year our Annual Bazaar will be hosted by Santa Barbara Electronics Supply.

Come look at all the cool electronics gear and accessories your local amateur radio club is selling! Support our public service efforts and emergency communications infrastructure!

When: 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, July 22 2017
Where: Santa Barbara Electronics Supply, 1503 Cook Place, Santa Barbara, CA
Located behind the Airport Control tower, on the ocean side of Hollister

All proceeds benefit the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club, a 501(c)(3) non-profit public benefit corporation which operates solely on member dues and contributions from the community. We are a wonderful community of helpful people, and we (and Santa Barbara Electronics Supply) appreciate everything you can do to support us!

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Post expires at 12:00pm on Saturday July 22nd, 2017 but will still be available in the archives.

July General Meeting: DMR Radio Presentation

SBARC General Club Meeting
Friday, July 21, 2017 @ 7:30 PM
401 N. Fairview Ave. in Goleta

Michael Rickey, AF6FB
(website | QRZ)

Imagine sitting in your living room using an inexpensive hand-held radio and making crystal-clear, static-free contacts throughout California, the United States, and the WORLD! This is not only possible, but it’s easy to do using Digital Mobile Radio (DMR). And, we’re doing this now, right here in Santa Barbara!

This month, SBARC hosts a special presentation by Michael Rickey, AF6FB on the new and quickly growing DMR digital voice mode. Michael will give us a demonstration on how DMR works and explain how the PAPA system is supporting a build-out of DMR repeaters in Southern California, making it easy to stay connected to the network throughout our region.

DMR is unlike most other digital voice modes used on VHF/UHF FM in amateur radio as it is supported by several major radio manufacturers including several low-cost imports commonly used by amateurs. You can click here for quality industrial products at fair rates to ease your manufacturing process. DMR networks can be accessed from repeaters here in Santa Barbara and also through home-brew and professionally built hotspots. You can get on the air with DMR with a Tytera MD-380 HT for as little as $80 and access thousands of talk-groups around the world and even chat with fellow SB hams dabbling in digital on our very own SBARC DMR talk-group.

Win a new TYT MD-380 DMR radio!

Win a new TYT MD-380 DMR radio!

Most DMR repeaters can access the same talk-groups available on any other repeater. So no mater where you travel, you can radio

home. DMR also uses TDMA to support multiple users per FM repeater pair and at 12.5 kHz wide, it is far more efficient than traditional analog wide-band FM.

We will be raffling off a BRAND NEW TYT MD-380 DMR radio. Someone will go home with this on meeting night, so come early and buy your tickets!

SBARC General Club Meetings are held 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. Put the date on your calendar and bring a guest!

Annual Hamfest – Sunday August 27, 2017

stowgroveOur annual Hamfest will be held at Stow Grove Park on La Patera Lane in Goleta just before it intersects Cathedral Oaks Rd. We will be in Area 2, a smaller and more shady location than last year. This once-a-year SBARC event will run from 9:30 AM until 2:30 PM. We’ll have raffle prizes, bingo clash legit games, fantastic Tri-Tip barbecue, transmitter hunt, and plenty of time to visit with your friends.

Order your dinner and raffle tickets online here!

 

Our raffle prizes will include a Yaesu FT-70DR with System Fusion digital, 2m and 440 and the TYT MD-380 DMR radio.
You can purchase raffle tickets online and do not need to be present to win!

Get your raffle tickets online here!

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Post expires at 11:00pm on Sunday August 27th, 2017 but will still be available in the archives.

Whittier Fire Operations

Live camera view from UC San Diego's High Performance Wireless Research & Education Network (HPWREN) looking west from Santa Ynez Peak

Live camera view from UC San Diego’s High Performance Wireless Research & Education Network (HPWREN) looking west from Santa Ynez Peak

As a reminder, all amateurs are welcome to participate in ongoing discussion about the Whittier Fire on SBARC repeaters. Please keep transmissions short (less than 10-15 seconds) unless you have urgent traffic. Always yield to stations with urgent traffic and leave long pauses between transmissions for breaking stations.

The County of Santa Barbara is posting official updates on the Whittier Fire on its website.

Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club repeaters on Santa Ynez Peak remain on the air. The 145.180 MHz repeater on Santa Ynez Peak is presently linked to 146.790 MHz on the Santa Barbara Mesa. These linked repeaters are functioning as the club’s main channel for communications related to the fire.

For live updates from radio amateurs observing the fire and monitoring emergency frequencies around the county, listen to a live audio stream of SBARC’s linked repeaters.

Air Command tactical frequencies with local air tanker traffic:
These frequencies are simplex so an external antenna will help with reception.
Air Tac 02: 169.150 MHz FM
Air Tac 05: 167.950 MHz FM

– Levi, K6LCM

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 7/06/2017

The audio archive of this net can best be 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 another good net tonight with 11 check-ins plus net control, Brian, K6BPM and some chat room visitors! Tonight’s subjects included:

  • DMR hot spots, are they repeaters in a sense?
  • How do I communicate with someone with a 7 letter call sign on packet radio?
  • How does DMR compare or contrast to EchoLink?

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local (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 net each week and join in with questions and /or answers to and contribute the knowledge of new and seasoned amateur radio operators alike.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 6/29/2017

The audio archive of this net can best be 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 another good net tonight with 9 check-ins plus net control, Levi, K6LCM and some chat room visitors! Tonight’s subjects included:

  • A follow up on one of last weeks topics – What do the number of bits per sample have to do with SDR. (Hint: The higher end of the ADC being used the more bits per sample & better representation of whats coming in on the RF signal).
  • Popular RTL-SDR dongles, 8 bit or 12 bit?
  • With digital modes such as JT-65, are they low power (QRP) modes or weak signal modes and what’s the difference?
  • Problems with Signalink with regards to gain and Windows settings.
  • Regarding a total eclipse of the sun, how might it affect amateur radio?
  • Digital Mobile Radio and SharkRF openSPOT – What is it and why is it currently the cutting edge of ham radio for the future?

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local (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 net each week and join in with questions and /or answers to and contribute the knowledge of new and seasoned amateur radio operators alike.

Field Day 2017

SBARC will be holding our Field Day exercise beginning Saturday, June 24th at the Club Station at the Santa Barbara American Red Cross headquarters on the corner of State Street and Alamar. The Club Station will open at 9am and remain open as long as there are Field Day participants.

We have various capabilities available including HF and digital modes. If there are enough participants, we may also set up the Rover and add some additional capabilities there too. Please come by, stay awhile and make some contacts.

If you haven’t been to the Club Station before, it is on the parking lot level in the rear of the main building. You enter the parking lot on Alamar.

Post expires at 12:00pm on Sunday June 25th, 2017 but will still be available in the archives.