SCCARC – Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club

March POTA at Seacliff SP

Last Saturday the SCCARC met at Seacliff State Beach for the monthly POTA event.

There was a large turnout and at least five HF phone stations were deployed. It was reported Keenan K6MML had 72 contacts of both phone and CW. Jim, KN6NCG and Craig, N6SBN and Tom, KO6BTX were among the group of operators who set stations up. Craig cooked up some excellent hot dogs.

Also there was a contingent of Meshcore enthusiasts including Ned N6ZOZ, John N5HPB and even Dave WB6DWP, who had a node in his pocket. Ron K6EXT brought his handmade yagi antenna and it worked beautifully. He had many successful pings aiming it at area Meshcore repeaters. Mike, W6MLB assisted with an extendable mast from his truck.

It was a perfect sunny day, not too much wind and a very comfortable temperature. Fun was had by all who attended.

Andrew, N6AAG

Monthly Club Meeting – KO6BTF on Building an MMDVM Hotspot

Welcome to the club

Welcome to the club. Thank you for keeping our club thriving for 110 years since our
founding!

Read on to (re)acquaint yourself with the club.

How to get evolved

The most common ways members communicate with each other is on K6BJ (146.790-,
94.8 PL) and online, using our email reflector at https://k6bj.groups.io/, but those are
just two of many ways club members connect. Here are more ways to get involved:

On the air

In our Monterey Bay VHF/UHF region there are many nets. They often occur on our
club’s VHF repeater, K6BJ at 146.790 MHz output, 146.190 MHz input, with a
PL/CTCSS tone of 94.8 Hz, or channel 6 on the XCZCOMM frequency list
at https://xczcomm.com/index.php/frequency-list/

To read the full Welcome Letter that includes activities and frequency listed in the Monterey Bay Area. Click on this link.Welcome to SCCARC & K6BJ

It’s Time to Renew

Hello All Club members, Want-to-be club members and New members,

We are starting off the New year with Winter Field day at the Sheriff Posse Center in January.

I know we are all excited for the new year and what’s before us.

I want to thank you all who have become members and support SCCARC. We have many members who not only pay their dues, but also go above and beyond with donations…and we all thank you. I sent all paid members emails this past week.

In a couple months we will submit our names to ARRL for the club. You are not on that roster until we have received your dues.

We will be Celebrating our Club’s 110th year anniversary this year. Check it all out at https://k6bj.org/wordpress/

And to join the Club and be on our roster for 2026, go here:

Thanks for your support,

Loyd

Xmas Party ‘25

Our Christmas party was held this Sunday December 7 at the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Posse House. We had a great potluck with good food and cheer.

Click here to see the 2025 Xmas Party

SAR Bonny Doon

Santa Cruz ARES was activated by the Sheriff’s Search and Rescue organization for a missing person, Jeannie Burke.

ARES was on sight Wednesday evening November 19th. Operations went on through Sunday November 23rd. The operations took place at the Martin Station, “Station 32”, in Bonny Doon. There were 80-100 SAR personnel searching in the rugged terrain in the area.

The first night ARES had two teams in the field tasked with relaying information to and from remote area around Moore Ranch Road off Smith Grade. The location was where a possible sighting of the missing person was reported.

High Bird air support was deployed to relay information to and from teams on the ground because communications were so difficult.

ARES was tasked with relaying information such as team assignments. Other information was relayed such as gate codes and sheriff officers meeting with ground teams. ARES kept logs of all events of note.

The photos don’t show everyone. We had different blocks of times and in some cases different locations.

Some members of our club were our Vice President Jim KN6NCG, our secretary Lisa KN6IAB, Roberta AJ6KN, Dan N6RJX, JoMarie KM6URE, John N6QX, Pete KN6TYR, Tom KO6BTX, Glen AK6FM. Other ARES members who were involved were Tammy KG6DQW and Mike K9VF. There may be others of you. Let us know.

The W6TUW repeater was a great help at times.

The National Guard came in Sunday with tracking and text message passing devices for search teams.

As of this writing Jeannie Burke had not been located. We hope for the best and wish her family well.

Andrew, N6AAG

New Board for SCCARC for 2026

Officers for next year’s 2026 term

President: Ben KN6NDM, Vice President: Jim KN6NCG, Treasurer: Loyd KO6CWI, Secretary: Lisa KN6IAB

Board Member At Large: Martin KN6GWQ, Andrew N6AAG, Keenan K6MML