Club Meeting August 19, 2016

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Via Darryl, KF6DI – Our August 19, 2016 Club meeting we are in for a neat presentation from Benjamin ‘Ben’ Kuo, KK6FUT, from Newbury Park. Jim Fortney, K6IYK, our ARRL Santa Barbara Section Manager sent out a note announcing the recent appointment of Ben as Technical Specialist for the Santa Barbara Section and Ben will regale us with much of his collection of small electronic projects that he either designed or built or both. He is very enthusiastic about building things and wants to impart that excitement to our members and show them how they can also have as much fun with Amateur Radio as he has. At this meeting we will also raffle off 2 more of those neat handheld frequency counters and, hopefully, the neat shelf system that we didn’t sell quite enough tickets for last month. Bring your tickets from last month’s meeting.
Please join Ben Kuo and us for dinner at Cody’s at 5:30 PM before the meeting. I am certain you will enjoy yourself!

Post expires at 1:00am on Saturday August 20th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.

Annual SBARC Bazaar August 20th

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The annual SBARC Bazaar will be held this year on Saturday August 20th, 2016. Setup will begin at 06:00 to 07:30 with selling to begin at 08:00 and continue to 11:30. Equipment you donate will be sold to raise funds for the club. There will also be a consignment table where you can bring items you want to sell if you like and the club will accept a 10% “commission” from those sales.

stnmapThe Bazaar this year will be held in the parking lot at the Club Station in the Red Cross parking lot. It will be fun to have it “at home” this year, and the Club Station will be open during the entire time. The Red Cross building is located on the corner of State Street and Alamar. The parking lot behind the main building, and the entrance is on Alamar.

We will need help and people with pick-up trucks and/or hand trucks to move the equipment and set things up and clean up afterwards. Sales people are also needed. Please contact Dave K9KBX at (805) 896-8823 to sign up to help. You can also contact Brian K6BPM at k6bpm@sbarc.org.

Post expires at 11:00pm on Saturday August 20th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.

3D Printed Powerpole Distribution Box

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In my never-ending effort to upgrade my home and portable stations, I directed some effort toward improving my power connections. After some research, I decided to use Anderson Powerpole connectors. These are the standard ARES power connector and they have been thoroughly tested and used by Amateur Radio operators around the world. After crimping and installing the connectors on all my radio power cables, I ran into an issue. How do I power more than one radio from a single power source? Looking around online, I found a couple of companies that sold Powerpole distribution panels, but most of them did not fit the bill. They were all too expensive or too large for my application.

After looking around some more, I decided to explore some homemade options. I ran across this design, freely available on the popular 3D model sharing site, Thingiverse. I downloaded the files and had a friend print the box on his Makerbot Replicator 2 3D printer. The print turned out quite nicely, and all the components that I ordered from Mouser fit perfectly. Each side of the box snapped together cleanly and after a few weeks of everyday use at my home station, I can confidently say it works like a charm and will be a convenient piece of equipment for years to come! Total cost: $7.63 + S/H.

The following is a time-lapse and build log of the distribution box for those of you that might want to build one of your own!

 

Time-lapse –

In real time, the building portion of the project only took around 30 minutes.

Click below to continue reading.

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Need Operators For Ventura Marathon & Bike Ride.

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Our friend Stewart – KG6BOV is still looking for volunteers for the 100 mile event they have scheduled for the weekend of September 10-11.
The Bike Ride, like last year, is primarily in Santa Barbara. If you could check your calendars and get permission from the significant others (or bring them along for the day!), please let me know your preferences and availabilities.
People are needed for the following locations:

AID STATION A Casitas Pass Rd 100M / 100K (25.2)  34°23’19.48″N 119°24’49.30″W

AID STATION B Ortega Ridge Rd 100M / 100K (38)  34°26’9.55″N 119°35’27.96″W

AID STATION C Dos Pueblos HS  100M (53.2 / 63.2)  34°26’6.52″N 119°48’8.67″W — Riders pass here twice

AID STATION D  Shoreline Park — 100M (72)  34°23’48.52″N 119°42’25.04″W

AID STATION E  Rincon Beach Park — 50K Turn-Around (15)/100K(49.3)/100M (88.2)  34°22’35.55″N 119°28’46.94″W

If you can help, contact Stewart KG6BOV at stewart.stone@verizon.net.

Post expires at 5:29am on Sunday September 11th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.