General Club Meeting – January 20th, 2017

Not only will this be the first club meeting for 2017, this will also be Inauguration Day! Whether you are celebrating or lamenting the day, you have something decidedly non-partisan and non-political to look forward to in the evening, the SBARC Monthly General Meeting. Our guest speaker, Cecilia “Cici” Johnson of Sun Pacific Solar Electric here in Santa Barbara, is going to explain just how easy it is go get yourself that brand new, state-of-the-art solar system of your very own. No more brown-outs or black-outs. In past presentations we have been honored to have others from her company tell us about how solar has been evolving over the years — and what is available now is so much superior than it was even a few years ago. Don’t miss this exciting and worthwhile presentation. Don’t miss out on the hand-out flyers and other information. You will be glad you were there! We hold SBARC 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. Bring a guest and put the date on your calendar. Post expires at 11:00pm on Friday January 20th, 2017 but will still be available in the archives.

General Membership Meeting – November 18, 2016 Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 1937 hours by President Brian Milburn, K6BPM Attendance: A quorum of 38 was present. 1. Pledge of Allegiance led by President Brian Milburn. 2. All those present introduced themselves and their call signs. 3. President Brian Milburn asked those who brought a home brew item to talk a few minutes about it. Five presenters came forward to describe their items. 4. President Brian Milburn, K6BPM, introduced the slate of candidates to serve as officers and directors for 2017 and called for nominations from the floor. There being none, Jay Hennigan, WB6RDV, moved nominations be closed, Dennis Schwentner, WB6OBB, 2nd. Motion passed. 5. Members picked up ballots for the election. Break for distributing ballots, counting ballots, reviewing and voting for home brew. Program presented by Michael Ditmore and Jim Knight of Novim. President Brian Milburn announced the winners of the election of 2017 Board of Directors: President: Brian Milburn, K6BPM Secretary: Dorothy Oksner, K6DSO Treasurer: Tom Saunders, N6YX Directors: Theo Howe, KK6YYZ; Levi Maaia, K6LCM; Bob Muller K6CTX; and Michael Taylor, K6RQV. Home Brew Winner was Hayden Brooke, KK6OYV, with the Loop Antenna he made. There being no further business to conduct, the meeting was adjourned at 2145 hours. Respectfully Submitted, Dorothy Oksner, K6DSO, Secretary Post expires at 6:35pm on Monday December 12th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.

General Club Meeting – November 18, 2016

[Darryl – KF6DI] The November 18, 2016 SBARC Club meeting will be a Triple Header. First, this will be our Sixth Annual Home Brew night. Bring whatever you have that you had a hand in — designing, building, modifying, running — all will count. Put something in writing next to your entry to let us know about what you did. You can even demonstrate it. Second, this will be our chance to vote for those whom we want to serve SBARC on our Board of Directors for the year 2017. A slate was proposed at our October Club meeting and can be found on here. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor from those in good standing for those in good standing, should they accept the nomination, in addition to those nominated last month. Be sure to bring along your SBARC membership card so we can quickly verify your eligibility to vote. We have two guest speakers who will honor us and inspire us with a most interesting program about Novim, the group formed at the University of California campus in Santa Barbara to create a collaborative problem-solving approach to address widespread and complicated problems, modeled after approaches at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP). Michael Ditmore, W7HUT, who is multi-term Past President of SBARC and is the Executive Director of Novim, began his business career with IBM as a systems engineer. After receiving an MBA from Stanford in 1970, he relocated to Germany as Director of European Operations for Canberra Industries. Following the sale of his division in 1972, he returned to California, joining a startup – ROLM Corporation, where he served as regional manager for marketing and sales. The company was sold to IBM in 1979. Michael subsequently founded and sold 2 high technology medical device companies. In 1995 Michael co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of the Systems and Software Consortium, a non-profit association of 150 companies whose first project was the creation of the Pacific Technology Center in Goleta, the largest high tech incubator in southern California at the time. Michael currently serves on the Director’s Council of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB, and is a life member of both the USAF Academy Association of Graduates and the Stanford Alumni Association. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of Junior Achievement of California; the Executive Board of Santa… Continue reading

Club Meeting August 19, 2016

Via Darryl, KF6DI – Our August 19, 2016 Club meeting we are in for a neat presentation from Benjamin ‘Ben’ Kuo, KK6FUT, from Newbury Park. Jim Fortney, K6IYK, our ARRL Santa Barbara Section Manager sent out a note announcing the recent appointment of Ben as Technical Specialist for the Santa Barbara Section and Ben will regale us with much of his collection of small electronic projects that he either designed or built or both. He is very enthusiastic about building things and wants to impart that excitement to our members and show them how they can also have as much fun with Amateur Radio as he has. At this meeting we will also raffle off 2 more of those neat handheld frequency counters and, hopefully, the neat shelf system that we didn’t sell quite enough tickets for last month. Bring your tickets from last month’s meeting. Please join Ben Kuo and us for dinner at Cody’s at 5:30 PM before the meeting. I am certain you will enjoy yourself! Post expires at 1:00am on Saturday August 20th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.

Annual SBARC Bazaar August 20th

The annual SBARC Bazaar will be held this year on Saturday August 20th, 2016. Setup will begin at 06:00 to 07:30 with selling to begin at 08:00 and continue to 11:30. Equipment you donate will be sold to raise funds for the club. There will also be a consignment table 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” 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 Dave K9KBX at (805) 896-8823 to sign up to help. You can also contact Brian K6BPM at k6bpm@sbarc.org. Post expires at 11:00pm on Saturday August 20th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.

Program for the July 15, 2016 General Club Meeting

(Darryl – KF6DI) Do you recognize the fellow above standing next to the 7-foot tall rack of broadcast equipment? Some of you might remember him as attending, as well as helping answer questions after, the extremely interesting meeting put on by Orv Beach, W6BI, in February of this year. He is none other than Tom King, KA6SOX, husband of Marina, KA6JWL, and father of Justin, KJ6ZRT. Tom has been in the broadcast business for quite a while and has made a very good name for himself at practically every AM and FM radio station in our area as well as many out-of-town stations. At one time, not that long ago, he could even be seen working at dizzying heights atop broadcast radio towers at various stations. That is an activity that can take a toll on a body. Tom says that he is through with climbing towers! Tom is equally at home with the electronics inside the studios as he was with it up those towers. Today he much prefers to work on all that indoor gear! Wouldn’t you? Have you ever found yourself listening very carefully while tuning your receiver dial and asking yourself, “What are all these strange sounds at the bottom of the HF bands?” At this SBARC Club meeting Tom will explain the explosion of the HF Digital Modes, what they sound like and how they are used. If you appreciated your introduction to the Digital Mesh Networking discussion in February, you are bound to gain much knowledge at this meeting as well! It is meetings such as this one that will enhance your pleasure of Amateur Radio. The more you understand it the more you enjoy it. Don’t miss Tom’s presentation! Also, at this SBARC meeting, you will hear from President Brian Milburn, K6BPM, about our Digital Mesh Network and how you can get involved with it. By now you have probably heard that there is a whole lot of progress being made on the project and that more and more of us are finding it very exciting. Brian will also let us know more about how the Club Station is evolving. Levi Maaia, K6LCM, would like to tell us about our newly-formed Telecommunications group and what they are doing. Darryl Widman, KF6DI, will be introducing the newest hams and license upgrades from our VE Session held this past Saturday. Also, at this meeting, we… Continue reading

Field Day 2016

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 still have several time slots to fill, so we would really appreciate your help. Operating/logging time slots are only 2 hours long, so it won’t put a very big dent in your weekend plans. Your club needs you! Let’s make this a fun field day for everyone. The plan is to bring the Rover Friday afternoon to the South Park area of Elings. Tom, N6YX expects to arrive between noon and 1 pm. He will take the road that the hang gliders use, then drive through the field to South Park area. We will need a crew of four or more to assemble the antenna and put it on the Rovers mast. The antenna only weighs 60 pounds, but it is about 12 feet long and 10 feet wide. We will test the radio and check digital modes. We should be finished before 4 pm Friday. Tom will arrive again Saturday morning about 9 am. He will work with someone else for the first shift. Shifts are two hours during the day and evening until 9 pm. Other operators / loggers will arrive for each shift. From 9 pm to about 6 am, there will be two or three for the night shift. We will operate until 11 am Sunday morning. The Rover will remain parked from Friday afternoon to Sunday about 1 pm. I don’t expect more than six people at a time. I don’t know how many from the club will be participating. We need at least 16 people for a full 24 hour operation. We need a minimum of 10 for a 12 hour operation. If you can help out with operating, logging, set-up or take-down, please contact us as soon as possible. Post expires at 11:00am on Sunday June 26th, 2016 but will still be available in the archives.