Helicopter to the Radio Site at Diablo Peak on Santa Cruz Island

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Diablo Peak (or Devil’s Peak) on Santa Cruz Island is one of the most inaccessible places in California. At 2,429 feet above sea level, it is the tallest mountain on an ocean island in the contiguous 48 states. The Santa Barbara Wireless Foundation and SBARC maintain public safety and amateur radio telecommunications facilities at Diablo Peak on Santa Cruz Island. A crew of volunteer amateur radio operators set out with the help of the Santa Barbara County Air Support Unit (and its newly acquired Blackhawk “Firehawk” Helicopter) to perform maintenance at the site on December 2, 2020.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 12/3/2020

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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 interesting net tonight with 11 check-ins plus net control Brian, K6BPM. Tonight’s topics included:

  • Work done on Santa Cruz Island (Diablo Peak) on behalf of SBARC.
  • Bozo Repeater.
  • When can a non-Ham transmit over Ham radio?

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local (2000 Hrs) and see what interesting ham radio questions might arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week.

Yaesu FT-950

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Yaesu FT-950. 100 watts, all bands 160 – 6 m plus general coverage receiver. Pristine condition, latest firmware.  Built-in antenna tuner.  DVS-6  voice memory unit installed. Cosmetically perfect. Original non-smoking owner. Yaesu MH-31 mic, original documentation, and boxing included.  $650.

Paul W1PR    w1pr@arrl.net

Edited by Michael Williams – W0JFB. Expires 3/03/2021

Election Results: Your 2021 Board of Directors

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The election results are in and here is the not so unexpected results:

2021 Executive Committee
President and Chief Executive Officer: Brian Milburn, K6BPM
Chief Financial Officer: Tom Saunders, N6YX
Secretary: Dorothy Oksner, K6DSO

2021 Directors At Large
Director At Large: Dave Schmidt, AI6VX
Director At Large: Wayne Beckman, AF6GX
Director At Large: Levi Maaia, K6LCM
Director At Large: Michael Taylor, K6RQV

Thank you everyone who voted in our very first online voting experiment!

Post expires at 2:25pm on Monday November 23rd, 2020 but will still be available in the archives.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 11/19/2020

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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 interesting net tonight with 15 check-ins plus net control Frank, K6FLD. Tonight’s topics included:

  • Discussion about online ham testing during the Covid 19 pandemic situation.
  •  Discussion about tomorrow nights club meeting regarding the annual board of directors election and then tracking Transpacific airliners on VHF, HF and ADS-B.
  • Questions from the amateur extra exam question pool.

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local (2000 Hrs) and see what interesting ham radio questions might arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week.

November General Club Meeting: Tracking Transpacific Airliners

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0:00 Pre-meeting chatter
26:30 Meeting Start and Intros
53:30 Tracking Transpacific Airliners Presentation Start
1:27:10 Questions & Answers

Meeting Presentation Slides (pdf)

Our November Club Meeting was host to our Board of Directors election as well as a presentation by Levi C. Maaia – K6LCM on using your ham equipment and/or computer or smartphone to listen in on transpacific airline traffic on the VHF and HF bands.

Hams aren’t the only ones using HF on a daily basis for reliable, long-distance communications. Airline pilots use HF frequencies from 2800 kHz to 22 MHz as their primary means of communication with shore stations during oceanic flights. These comms can be received by anyone with an HF SSB tuner and provide interesting data points for HF propagation. Aircraft are even sending PSK over HF! Levi showed us a tracking demonstration of a flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) as well as pointed us toward some resources for tracking and listening in on our own, with or without a radio!

HP-8595E Spectrum Analyzer

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HP-8595E Spectrum Analyzer: 9KHz to 6.5GHz. Includes Options 105 and 041. Needs calibration but will display signals/spectrum up to 6.5GHz. Good for peaking general go/no go applications.  $650 Price is firm, as is, cash and carry. Additional spectrum shots available upon request. Contact Michael K6RQV at mst1956@cox.net

Edited by Michael W0JFB – 11/15/2020, Expires 2/15/2021