Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – June 16, 2016

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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 another good net tonight with 18 check-ins! including net control, Levi K6LCM and some chat room visitors! Tonight’s subjects included:

Note: Tonight’s net was heavily concentrated on the current Scherpa wild-fire situation North of Santa Barbara.

  • Discussions and comments regarding the current Scherpa fire North of El Capitan.
  • When using a repeater to coordinate an emergency, how do you know if and when to switch to simplex?

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.

Upcoming General Meeting – June 17, 2016

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Mike Bales, KI6VBK(Darryl KF6DI) – Mike Bales, KI6VBK, is the CEO and co-founder of the Santa Barbara Hackerspace, which was founded 6 years ago in his garage. Mike moved from San Diego to Santa Barbara to attend Santa Barbara City College to get a start on a degree in Electronic Engineering. He was frustrated with the limited access to the labs there and couldn’t afford the equipment that was required for an electronics project he was working on. 

His life changed when he attended the Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo that year and discovered the concept of hackerspace. He thought that there must be others in a similar situation in need of space and equipment for personal and school projects given Santa Barbara’s many schools so he decided to try and start a hackerspace. Hackerspaces are community-operated physical places, where people share their interest in tinkering with technology, meet and work on their projects and learn from each other. 

SB Hackerspace started small, about a half dozen people meeting in Mike’s apartment / garage for the first 6 months or so. Once they built up a small core group they rented their first space on Aero Camino in Goleta and quickly grew and acquired more members. 

Mike has a day job as a systems administrator for a small IT company which manages networks and equipment for 30 clients in the Santa Barbara area, in addition to running the hackerspace, and developing open source weather balloon trackers and other neat projects. 

If you would like to know more about this young, exciting group of people and what they are doing, you are invited to drop by and pay them a visit. The Santa Barbara Hackerspace is a fun and friendly setting for makers and hackers to build, experiment and learn together. They welcome all participants, no matter their level of skill or experience. Their general meetings are on Saturdays from 2 pm until late, and there are usually people there during the evenings on most weeknights. So, you can drop by their location on Saturday after you leave the SBARC Club Station, which closes around noon, and while you are there you can also join their mailing list for updates!

Post expires at 9:00pm on Friday June 17th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.

The Mesh Goes Over the Mountain

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Eric KG6WXC installing a mesh network node on Santa Ynez Peak

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

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.

SBARC Telecom Group Meets for First Time

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Telecom Group Meeting - June 4th 2016

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.

For Sale – Radio Reciever and Electronic Components

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The following items are for sale or free.

  • 3mm & 5mm LED’s – Great for lighting up your next DIY project!
  • High Voltage Capacitors – Available in a variety of different styles and ratings
  • 555 Timers – FREE in reasonable quantities

Daryl also has many other electronic parts, many in the original packaging. He invites a shopping list of components you may need, and he will give them to you for a good price or for free.

Contact – Daryl KF6DI – 805.565-5577

Updated – 3/26/2020

May 20, 2016 General Club Meeting

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Dick Norton on his DXpedition to Ascension Island

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.