Tag Archives: Events

SBARC Summer Potluck Barbecue – September 15th 2019

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You are invited to join us for a good old fashioned summertime potluck barbecue. SBARC will host this years get-together at Stow Grove Park on La Patera Lane in Goleta just before it intersects Cathedral Oaks Rd. We will be in Area 2, the same location as last year. This once-a-year SBARC event will be held on September 15, 2019, from 9:30 AM until 2:30 PM.  After last years success, we decided to keep the same format this year. SBARC will supply delicious 1/3 lb. hamburgers and cheeseburgers with all the fixings for all SBARC members and their immediate families. For non-members, burgers will be $5 each. You are welcome to bring your own beverages and we will have cold sodas and water available for $1. Since this is a potluck, we are encouraging everyone to bring something to share. You can bring a salad, potato chips, beans, hot dish, cookies or other desert, whatever you like and whatever you have time for. We hope you will join us for a relaxing meal and take the time to catch up with old friends. Of course, we can always use a little help setting things up before the event and cleaning things up afterwards. If you have a little time we would surely appreciate your help. Hope to see you there! Post expires at 1:05am on Monday September 16th, 2019 but will still be available in the archives.

Field Day 2019 – Saturday June 22 thru Sunday June 23

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This year we’re putting the “Field” back in Field Day!  We will be operating from Elings Park up on the hill where the hang gliders take off. We will be operating from 11:00am Saturday until 2:00pm Sunday, and we still have several time slots to fill, so we would really appreciate your help. We need three volunteers per time slot, two to operate the two stations (morse code [CW] and voice [SSB] this year), and one to help with outreach to the public (answering questions, etc).  We also need people to help set up before-hand, and help break-down at the end. Operating/outreach time-slots are four hours long (but if you can only do something less, we’ll still fit you in).  We are considering visiting a restaurant for an early dinner after the event Sunday – stay tuned!  Your club needs you! Let’s make this a fun field day for everyone. We will bring the Rover to just above the hang gliding area at about 10:00am on Saturday, June 22.  We will need a small crew to help assemble di-poles and erect antenna masts and pop-ups. Check out the ARRL Field Day intro and the ARRL Field Day Rules for more information.  If you want to follow along closely with field day activities, please subscribe to the field day mailing list. You are more than welcome to work a 4-hour operator shift and a 4-hour outreach shift, if you so desire, or even take two operator shifts at different stations and/or times (lowering the need for as many total volunteers). Feel free to mix it up and hang out. If you can help out in any way, please contact us immediately, and let us know what hours you are available. Ideally, we’ll be filling shifts for these seven time slots: 11am-3pm, 3pm-7pm, 7pm-11pm, 11pm-3am, 3am-7am, 7am-11am, and 11am-2pm, but again, let us know when you can help, and we’ll fit you in! Post expires at 8:00pm on Sunday June 23rd, 2019 but will still be available in the archives.

SBARC Annual Bazaar – This Coming Saturday, July 21, 2018

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The annual SBARC Bazaar will be held this year on Saturday July 21, 2018. Setup will begin at 06:00 to 07:30 with selling to begin at 08:00 and continue to 11:30. Donated equipment that has been collected throughout the year will be sold to raise funds for the club. There will also be a consignment area where you can bring items you want to sell if you like and the club will accept a 10% “commission” from those sales. The 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” again 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 Brian K6BPM at k6bpm@sbarc.org if you can spare an hour or two. Your time will be greatly appreciated and it is for a good cause! Post expires at 12:35pm on Saturday July 21st, 2018 but will still be available in the archives.

Field Day Report From Ken KA6KEN

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Dear SBARC Members, I would like to thank all those who attended Field Day this year.  The turn-out was fantastic. Elings Park was a bit cold and we never did see the sun, but perhaps that was better than hot and dusty (isn’t it amazing how it went from cold and overcast two weeks ago to 107 degrees last week)? We had two stations running (plus the Get-on-the-Air, or GOTA, station).  We used our K6TZ call for the primary two stations and K6SBZ for the GOTA station.  Our class was “2A” and our section was “SB”. We assembled and installed the massive Force-12 antenna on a rotator atop the 50′ pneumatic mast on the Rover along with an 80-meter dipole, we set up the two-element StepIR on a push-up mast (that was a feat) along with a 40/80 meter dipole, and we erected three fiberglass masts with guy ropes to support a G5RV multi-band center-fed di-pole antenna as an inverted-V at about 30′ at its center-point. Our total score was 2,236, comprised of 553 QSO’s (multiplied by 2 since we used less than 150watts for all QSOs) plus 1,130 bonus points.  For more details (like bonus points break-down), click here and download the file called “ARRL Field Day Entry Form as submitted.pdf” (note you must add the Total Bonus Points to the Claimed Score for the final score).  If you want to find out more about comparative scores check out the ARRL web site for last year’s scores; this year’s scores will not be published until November.  Also, check out the ARRL Contest Soapbox by clicking on and selecting “2018 ARRL Field Day” in the Event drop-down for pictures and comments people have posted regarding Field Day – they are still streaming in. The band conditions were not as bad as predicted.  We actually had some pretty solid runs.  In fact, the team of Dennis WB6OBB and Jim N6SXB managed a rate of 128 QSOs per hour, at their peak!  While Dennis is a seasoned contestor, this was Jim’s first; Jim was logging for Dennis.  Congrats to the dynamic duo!  Now if we could only sustain that rate, we would have scored 12,288 points in 24 hours across the two stations (including our 2x multiplier for running on emergency power).  We all have something to work toward next year! We made 273 QSOs on 20 meters, 214 on 40 meters, and… Continue reading →

Field Day 2018 – Saturday June 23 thru Sunday June 24

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This year we’re putting the “Field” back in Field Day!  We will be operating from Elings Park up on the hill where the hang gliders take off. We will be operating from 11:00am Saturday until 11:00am Sunday, and we still have several time slots to fill, so we would really appreciate your help. We need two volunteers per time slot, one to operate the station, and one to help with outreach to the public (answering questions, etc). Newly licensed (in the past year) and inactive hams – we’ll teach you how to work the GOTA station (check out the ARRL Field Day intro and the ARRL Field Day Rules for more information); so, if you are new to the hobby or just getting back into it, we have a spot for you too! We also need people to help set up before-hand, and help break-down at the end. Operating/outreach time-slots are four hours long (but if you can only do something less, we’ll still fit you in).  Your club needs you! Let’s make this a fun field day for everyone. We will bring the Rover to just above the hang gliding area at 7:00am on Saturday, June 23.  We will need a crew of four or more to assemble the antenna and put it on the Rover’s mast, but we’ll need more people to help assemble di-poles and erect antenna masts. We need a minimum of TEN volunteers to kick this off – six operators and four people for outreach (fewer for outreach since the public won’t be there during the dark hours). It would be awesome to get twelve operator time-slots filled (two people per time-slot) for a total of SIXTEEN volunteers so we can run two operator stations! You are more than welcome to work a 4-hour operator shift and a 4-hour outreach shift, if you so desire, or even take two operator shifts at different stations and/or times (lowering the need for as many total volunteers). Feel free to mix it up and hang out. If you can help out in any way, please contact us immediately, and let us know what hours you are available. Ideally, we’ll be filling shifts for these six time slots: 11am-3pm, 3pm-7pm, 7pm-11pm, 11pm-3am, 3am-7am, and 7am-11am, but again, let us know when you can help, and we’ll fit you in! Post expires at 1:00am on Monday June 25th, 2018 but will still be… Continue reading →

General Club Meeting – May 18th, 2018

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Our general club meeting this month will feature a presentation from Gene Nelson Ph.D KE5HXX on converting gas generators to propane. Many of us have generators that don’t get a lot of use but want them to be ready to go when the need arrises. We have all found that storing gas is a pain, you need to add stabilizer and remember to replace gasoline every year or two. Generators also don’t like sitting around with gasoline in them for a long time and we often find that we can’t get them started when we need them. Well, Gene has a solution and will tell us about it step by step. He will also give us an outdoor demonstration. This month’s meeting is also Old-Timers night. Come pay your respects to our old-timers and bring your old radios to show off. We’ll introduce our old-timers at the beginning of the meeting, then we’ll give everyone plenty of time after the presentation to check out members gear from yesteryear. SBARC General Club Meeting Friday, May 18th, 2018 at 7:30 PM Goleta Union School District Board Room 401 North Fairview Avenue in Goleta We hope to see you all at the meeting! Post expires at 8:02pm on Friday May 18th, 2018 but will still be available in the archives.

Annual Hamfest – Sunday August 27, 2017

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Our annual Hamfest will be held at Stow Grove Park on La Patera Lane in Goleta just before it intersects Cathedral Oaks Rd. We will be in Area 2, a smaller and more shady location than last year. This once-a-year SBARC event will run from 9:30 AM until 2:30 PM. We’ll have raffle prizes, bingo clash legit games, fantastic Tri-Tip barbecue, transmitter hunt, and plenty of time to visit with your friends. Order your dinner and raffle tickets online here!   Our raffle prizes will include a Yaesu FT-70DR with System Fusion digital, 2m and 440 and the TYT MD-380 DMR radio. You can purchase raffle tickets online and do not need to be present to win! Get your raffle tickets online here!             Post expires at 11:00pm on Sunday August 27th, 2017 but will still be available in the archives.