October General Club Meeting

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Presentation of award to Jug WA6MBZ by Brian K6BPM

Presentation of award to Jug WA6MBZ by Brian K6BPM

This months meeting was thrown into disarray because of monumental traffic problems caused by the closure of I-5 and other roads hit by heavy rains and floods. Our regularly scheduled speaker Orville K. Beach, W6BI was unable to make the meeting because of the incredible traffic delays coming from his home in Simi Valley. Many members were forced to abandon their plans to attend because even the local side street traffic was bumper to bumper.

That didn’t stop us from having a great meeting though. The highpoint of the meeting was the well deserved presentation of the SBARC Lifetime Achievement award to “Jug” – WA6MBZ. Jug has spent decades dedicating his time to the furtherance of Amateur Radio and service to SBARC. The award was given to recognize his considerable contributions to our club and our hobby. Jug has always been on the cutting edge of amateur radio technology going all the way back to our very first area wide repeater systems. His contributions are everywhere and almost everything the club has done over the years has benefitted from Jugs expertise. He is the embodiment of the spirit of experimentation and a “real” amateur radio enthusiast in every sense of the word. Congratulations Jug!

The rest of the meeting was basically a “ragchew” and listening to Jug relate stories about the early days of amateur radio in Santa Barbara. It was a real treat to all that were able to attend.

Post expires at 10:48pm on Monday November 16th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.

SB HackerSpace Developing an APRS WX Telemetry System

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2015-10-16_10-32-53Our friends at the Santa Barbara HackerSpace are developing the tiniest ever 1.6 oz APRS Weather Data board for weather balloon flights and private weather stations. Their little device is called the Tracksoar and it contains a GPS receiver, a 2m transmitter, weather sensors, and an Arduino compatible Atmega 328P microprocessor.

They have launched a KickStarter campaign and are looking for backers. The campaign closes November 8, 2015.

For more information visit the project website at: http://tracksoar.com

The KickStarter campaign can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1250163085/tracksoar-aprs

Disclaimer: KickStarter campaigns involve risk. If participation in this project interests you and you have never backed a crowd-funded project before, please read this to ensure you understand the risks involved.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – October 15, 2015

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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.

Tonight’s net was yet another good and informative experience with 9 check-ins, net control (K6HWN) and 8 chat room visitors. Subjects discussed tonight were:

  • An update on police scanner jargon / protocol and a helpful link to it at http://www.mendosa.com/code.html. Authorized radio unit designations can be found about 3/4 of the way down the page.  Thanks for the link goes out to Hayden (KK6OYV).
  • Cable / connector required to set up an AllStar node.
  • More discussion about AllStar and its usage.
  • Ground rods and why the recommended depth is 8 feet.

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.

 

October 16th General Club Meeting Program

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Orville K Beach W6BIThis month’s presenter will be Orville K. Beach, W6BI. Orv is a member of the Simi Settlers Amateur Radio Club of Simi Valley, California. He hereby announces to the world that he is All Digital, All the Time!

As an example of All Digital, All the Time, look at his operating style:

CW for four years
RTTY for 11 years (teletypes, homebrewed terminal units, then homebrewed computer interfaces and programs)
VHF Packet radio for about 10 years – helped build up a packet network down the California coast and east to Tucson
QRT off and on for a couple of years
Pactor for 2 years
PSK31 off and on for a couple of years
2014.. Digital Mesh radio on the microwave bands

Orv brags that his last HF SSB QSO was in 1975…
Although he enjoys digital more than analog radio, he says that his Principal interests are technical as well as ragchewing. Which brings us to Orv’s topic that he is looking forward to presenting to us at our Club meeting. If you haven’t already heard of it, you will surely hear about it during his presentation. It is called, “Digital Mesh Networking for Amateur Radio.” Come with an open mind and let Orv fill it with lots of interesting concepts that are probably new to you.

We hold our 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 7:14am on Saturday October 17th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – October 8, 2015

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The time stamps shown below are best followed by downloading the .Mp3 file for the appropriate date here and listening with Windows Media Player.

Tonight’s Technical Mentoring and Elmering (TM&E) net was another informative one with 10 check-ins plus net control (K6HWN) and 7 chat room participants. The subject matter included:

  • Police scanner jargon / protocol for patrols such as 32 Adam, 32 M, 32 K or just 32.
  • Affect of a dipole or long wire up in a tree (a lot of foliage) or even touching a branch and maybe even bending a little.
  • Slingshots, weights & pulleys, etc. when hanging a dipole or long wire.
  • Modulation meter vs. Power meter.

Tune in to the TM&E Net next Thursday at 8:00 PM or 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.