Field Day 2015 – UPDATED

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Camino Real Marketplace

Field Day 2015 Location

Field Day is an intense 24 hours of ham operations. SBARC will have the Rover set up at the Camino Real Marketplace near the movie theater.

Setup will begin on Friday June 26th at 12:30 hours and operating will begin on Saturday June 27th at 11:00 hours and continue nonstop until Sunday June 28th at 11:00 hours.

Operators are needed for 2 hour time slots during these times. Operation will be on SSB, CW and Digital Modes. People will also be needed to meet, greet, and explain amateur radio to the general public.

Contact Tom – N6YX at 805-967-7351 or tsaund@cox.net to sign up for this fun event!

UPDATE – June 10, 2015 – From Tom N6YX

You are welcome to join the SBARC Field Day event. Field Day starts 11 AM, Saturday, June 27 and runs for 24 hours. We will be located at Camino Real Market Place, about 70 yards south of the movie theatre.

The club will operate as a 1A station (single transmitter). We will make hundreds of short HF contacts to stations in US, Canada, Mexico, Hawaii. Contacts will be made using phone, CW, and digital modes. This is a great learning experience for new as well as old hams.

We need help with setup Friday afternoon, operators, loggers, and greeters for the public.

Setup involves the assembly and mounting of an antenna on the club’s Rover van. We will check out the equipment to make sure everything is working properly before we start operating Saturday morning.

Loggers enter contact information into a computer. It is a very simple program that is used to log station call sign, operating classification, and ARRL section information from each contact.

Technician class and unlicensed individuals can operate as long as there is a properly licensed ham as the control operator. You do not need any experience to be an operator or logger.

This is a great outreach event for the public. This is why we chose the Camino Real mall for this event. We get a lot of interest from the public. Greeters answer simple questions about ham radio and get interested people to sign up for more information or to start a license class.

You are also welcome to stop by and check it out.

Post expires at 11:00am on Sunday June 28th, 2015 but will still be available in the archives.

Regional Electronics Sources

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Because Marvac Santa Barbara has closed down permanently, we’re asking that people let us know about electronics stores in neighboring communities. We are going to put up a list of these so local hams and electronics hobbyists will have some alternatives when they need supplies and parts.

Please let us know the name of the store, location and address, telephone, and what kind of items they carry. Submissions can be sent to webmaster@sbarc.org.

Newsline Off The Air For Now

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Our normal broadcast of Amateur Radio Newsline on Wednesdays at 7pm will be off the air for the time being. Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF has had some serious health issues in recent months and Newsline has continued with the help of temporary volunteers. New volunteers are needed to continue operation and they are actively being solicited. So until some new people can be brought on board to help keep things running again, weekly production of Newsline will cease. We wish the best for Bill and hope for a speedy recovery.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – Thursday May 21, 2015

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Note: The time stamp at the beginning of each topic was recorded using Windows Media Player and the downloaded Mp3 audio archive of the net for 5/21/15 found here.

The Technical Mentoring and Elmering net on Thursday 5/21/15 was lightly attended compared to most with 6 check-ins, 2 side responders and net control (K6HWN). Thoughts are that some regulars may have gotten a head start on the Memorial Day weekend.

10:15 First up, Shackmaster Dave had an idea about extending Glenn’s (WZ6WZ) 220 beam antenna to Santa Barbara. The background is that Glen has already installed a 220 transceiver and beam antenna pointed right at 224.08. The question is if they (in Lompoc) can hear the 19.79? repeater that they might be able to use a single 2 meter transceiver at low power to communicate to Santa Barbara. Glenn didn’t know offhand if they can hear it or not but will do the research and get back to Dave.

13:45 – Hayden (KK6OYV) had an update about the fractional wave (loop) antenna that he’s building. Apparently there is a Yahoo group found here dedicated to the concept that Hayden’s been following and he has visited John’s (AG6LJ) house and seen how great his fractional loop antenna performs. Hayden mentioned that his primary motivation to build the antenna is that his station has a lot of electrical noise and the noise floor of his rig is rather high and the fractional wave antennas are not affected as much by that as other antennas. Today he finished the frame of the antenna and now has to finish installing the capacitor control unit and wind the copper wire (strapping) around the frame. Shackmaster asked Hayden if he already has a quality vacuum capacitor and Hayden said no, he’s not sure what value of capacitor he will use yet. Richard (K8NDS, the inventor of the fractional wave) said the antenna Hayden’s building will get him on 10-20 meters with a 5-100pf variable capacitor but Hayden’s also heard of others using a 10-350pf capacitor and getting as low as 40 meters. He’ll be consulting with Richard on that and keep us informed. For those who might be interested check out Richard’s QRZ page and the Yahoo group mentioned above.

17:00 – Brian (K6BPM) asked if anyone is familiar with SIP (Single Inline Package) resistors which are resistor “packs” with one common lead and 8-10 other leads enabling the user to use one small package to supply a common resistance to many components in the circuit. Brian purchased some dual value 220/330 ohm SIPs and there is no explanation of how they work and he couldn’t measure what should logically be true with a meter. No one really had an immediate answer so he’s going to bring some with the paperwork down to the SBARC Club shack to show Dave and with his help they should be able to figure this out. Stay tuned to future TM&E nets to learn the answer!

33.04 – I (K6FLD) started a discussion about a new special mode we’ve been experimenting with during the ATV Special Modes net occurring every Tuesday night at 8:00 PM. Basically it involves the ability to send e-mail over radio without having to be connected to the Internet. Go to Winlink.org to learn more about this very useful mode that should be of interest to any amateur radio operator. Imagine an emergency or disaster situation where all power, phone and cellular networks are down, maybe after an earthquake. If you have backup battery or other backup power (as all good hams should) you will still have the ability to get communications out via e-mail to inform family members in other areas of your situation and that you’re okay. The basics are that you download a program called RMS Express and install it on your computer (hopefully the one with battery backup). Download the guide here and go through the setup and start composing and sending e-mail over the radio. All that’s required is an interface between the computer and radio such as a Signalink USB and off you go. As a matter of fact, some folks have been successful without the interface by holding their microphone to their speaker during the operation! I won’t go into all the details of how the Winlink network operates but please look into this very important mode at Winlink.org and listen to the audio archive. Other uses have been for mariners at sea communicating with e-mail via radio, campers, explorers etc. in remote areas without internet access.

53:50 – Cyril (AF6GW) checked in and mentioned that some other capabilities had been experimented with using 2 meter packet to send e-mail over a repeater. He didn’t remember exactly all of the details but you can learn more here.

Tune in to the SBARC Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net next Thursday at 0800 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 Technical Mentoring and Elmering net each week and join in with questions and /or answers to and contribute the knowledge of new and seasoned amateur radio operators alike.