June SCCARC Meeting: Field Day Overview

The location has just been confirmed for the Monterey Bay Academy on San Andreas Road. Watch for future posts about schedules and sign-ups.

We can all look forward to a clear presentation about Field Day plans at our SCCARC June 16 hybrid meeting, 7:30pm at La Posada in Santa Cruz.

QST to all members of SCCARC and SLVARC clubs:

Hi,
We are still in need of a Food Coordinator (or co-coordinators) for Field Day and
also a General Volunteer Coordinator and a Safety Officer.

Main Duties of the Food Coordinator would be to buy food either for Friday Evening
and/or for the Saturday Evening Pot Luck/Sunday Morning Brunch meals. The clubs have
a budget so you won’t have to worry about paying for it.

The volunteer coordinator is needed to help lay out and replenish/store the food,
arrange tables and chairs, erect signage, set out warning tape on guy wires, antenna stakes,
etc. etc;

Safety Officer will be responsible for running down the ARRL FD Safety Checklist
and certifying that safety requirements were followed.

We also always need lots of willing hands during setup (Friday Noon-5pm) and Tear Down (Sunday 11-3PM).

Please contact myself or Richard K8SQB if you are willing to take one of the above leadership roles or if you are able to help in any way. We’ll plug you into the overall team effort.

Jerry Lucha W6OJE
SCCARC Club President
(650)424-9660

SCCARC Monthly Swap Meet

Greetings, All,

The Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club will once again hold monthly Swap Meets at the Club Station parking lot in Upper DeLaveaga Golf Course area and Shakespeare Santa Cruz, beginning this month.

The Meets will be the third Saturday of each month, May through October, 8am-noon.

Please bring items you want to sell, trade or give away,and tell your friends to do the same.

Tentative Fox Hunt at 10am.

Monthly hands-on workshops each month, TBA.

For May, refreshments of coffee and doughnuts only. BBQ possible in the future.

Write this on your calendar and please invite others from the area to join in.

Thanks so much!

73,

Becky

KI6TKB

May ‘23 Club Meeting “Building A RF Snooper Probe”

Our guest speaker will be W6NBC John Portune. John will be presenting a Easy to Build Inexpensive “Snooper” Probe for Detecting and Solving Stray RF on Your Coax and in Your Shack. Our monthly club meeting is at 7:30pm on May 19.

This is a hybrid club meeting. It will be both in person and on Zoom. The location for the meeting is the La Posada, 609 Frederick Ave, Santa Cruz. Corner of Frederick and Gault just off
of Soquel Ave.

.
Zoom link:

Topic: SCCARC May Meeting – May 19th 7:30 PM
Time: May 19, 2023 19:30 Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85615873602?pwd=dFdIWW9INURuaXZxcTVZcDhjekljdz09

Meeting ID: 856 1587 3602
Passcode: 214ugx
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,85615873602#,,,,*536033# US
+17193594580,,85615873602#,,,,*536033# US

Strawberry Fields Bike Ride

We again have an opportunity to provide communication support for the Strawberry Fields Bike Ride on Sunday, May 21st.

There are five rest stops that will require two radio operators plus opportunities for those with vehicles that can transport bicycles safely and new this year: SAG ride alongs. If you don’t have a vehicle that can transport bikes, we can put you with one of the non-ham SAG drivers.

These are the possible assignments. If you have a favorite assignment, there is a place in the sign-in form to request it.

Rest Stop Hours (approx)

Burrell CalFire station 0830-1030hrs
Calfee Design 0800-1330hrs
Royal Oaks Park 0830-1430hrs (note earlier start time)
Gizdich Ranch 0900-1530hrs
Pajaro Valley High School (net control) 0700-1730hrs

Also: SAG vehicles 0800-1700hrs both as drivers and ride alongs!

Here is the link to the sign-in form: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D4DA9A822A4F4CE9-strawberry

This event is available to all hams and counts as an ARES event participation event.

Thanks for your help & 73,

Dan N6RJX dan@slvares.org Edit

Let’s Talk Field Day (in person)

The April SCCARC meeting is this Friday the 21st. The topic will be FIELD DAY! We need input.
The meeting will be first in person meeting since Covid. If you can’t make it person it will also be on Zoom. There is directions to La Posada meeting location and the Zoom link below.

Your board is happy to announce that we have arranged for a venue where we
can all meet in person. We are going to attempt to hold the April 21st
SCCARC club meeting there and also host the traditional zoom meeting at the
same time.
Location: La Posada Retirement Community Lounge
609 Frederick St.
Santa Cruz, CA

The entrance is on Frederick Street between Gault and Hanover.
Visitor Parking spaces inside the facility are few but there is
usually adequate on-street parking on Frederick or Gault. Also
the medical facility directly across the street will be empty
Friday evenings and that would be a possibility. Please do not
park in La Posada resident spaces as you could get blocked in by
the assignee and have no way of leaving after the meeting.

The meeting room will have plenty of chairs and tables for our use.
Also there are vending machines for soft drinks and snacks.

We will have a greeter at the entrance and are asked to sign in on
a sign-in sheet once you get into the meeting room. Peter KE6RAX
will be there, also, to show you the ropes.

This first meeting will probably be a work in progress and we want to
attempt it and learn from any issues that may arise. Our continued use
of this venue will, of course, depend on our being good citizens, leaving
the room as clean as we found it, and not causing parking problems.
I know we will do our best to maintain our hosts trust and respect.

My thanks to Richard K8SQB for running this first meeting and to Jim KN6NCG
for handling the zoom, video and IT requirements.

Below is a map showing the entrance and parking possibilities.
73,
Jerry W6OJE
SCCARC President

Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club K6BJ is inviting you to a
scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89028899447?pwd=Z0x0Y0Q2WWNjM0I5ajQ1SWwxUklIQT09

Meeting ID: 890 2889 9447
Passcode: dRRy7h
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,89028899447#,,,,*776950# US
+17193594580,,89028899447#,,,,*776950# US

The Return of CAKE

CAKE Crumbs April 8, 2023 10 AM to Noon or thereabouts

CAKE returned, located at Loft Coffee, 2701 Cabrillo College Drive, Aptos

CAKE – Coffee/Caffeine Assisted Knowledge Exchange was initiated in
the days of yore by W6WO Ronald Skelton (SK) to assist fellow hams in
the exchange of ideas, sharing new tools or simply an opportunity to
observe what others brought to the meeting.

April 8, 2023 CAKE was attended (at the very least) by

Ann H. KE6BQA
Bruce H. KN6DBR
Eric S. WA6HHQ
Eric Z. KK6IZY
Mike B. W6MLB
Jim W. KN6NCG
Ben I. KN6NDM
Gary W. K6PDL
Richard A. K8SQB
Rich C. KN6UZL

Discussions covered many and varied topics from the current solar
cycle, DXing, antenna placement and inexpensive durable sunglasses.
Ann H. brought a broken adapter cable Richard A. offered to fix (part on order.)

The main presentation was Eric S. who brought an Elecraft K4 and some
fascinating gadgets which allow for recording a band of radio signals
to laptop computer, which may be played back into a
receiver/transceiver for demonstration purposes (because the moment
you need everything to work right there’s a solar flare or such), a
GPS time reference by Leo Bodnar Electronics and LIME SDR (using GNU
SDR,) which play a roles in this endeavour. It was really something
to tune around and hear radio signals without and antenna hooked up.
Such a setup would be very useful for introducing new hams to net
operations or working HF.

Another topic was various HF nets, including the local 10m net, run
Mondays from 7 PM to 7:30 PM on 28.308 USB and California Hawaii Net,
Saturdays at 7 AM (local time) on 14.340.

Next CAKE will be at Loft Coffee on April 22nd, 10 AM to Noon.

Richard
K8SQB

Please join us for Ham Fun Night on April 20 beginning at 7:00 PM

Here is an invitation to join the San Benito County HF Radio Operators virtual gathering and informational evening.

Join in the fun on April 20.

73, Becky, KI6TKB

HF Night friends,

Our next HF Night will be Thursday 4/20/2023 beginning at 7:00PM and ending at about 8:30PM.

Aprils speaker will be Clark Stone, KK6UGA, and Clark will present on how to build a Ham Clock See Clark’s project description below:

HamClock is a freeware Linux application that aggregates and displays relevant information for amateur radio operators, including a world map, DX spot reports, local and DX weather, UTC and local time, solar activity, etc. It runs on a standalone Raspberry Pi single board computer and the information can be displayed on a connected monitor as well as in a web browser or a remote VNC connection. I’ll go over basic information and resources on how to build your own HamClock running on a Raspberry Pi and some of the useful features for DX operation.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83499462819?pwd=Z1hyV0Z2K0VYWXNlUmZnZ0NNK1JNZz09

Meeting ID: 834 9946 2819

Passcode: 791684

One tap mobile

+16699009128,,83499462819#,,,,*791684# US (San Jose)

+16694449171,,83499462819#,,,,*791684# US

Dial by your location

+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)

Meeting ID: 834 9946 2819

Passcode: 791684

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kkqHgezJV

Thank you, Clark! See you all on April 20^Th!!

73’s, W6KRK

Jack Kirk Sr, 831-637-0344, W6KRK@ARRL.net

Big Sur Marathon needs Ham Operators

Hello all this is Jeff – KG6UYZ,

BSIM2023 is fastly approaching, 78 days and counting. BSIM is looking for amateur radio volunteers to support this year’s marathon.

If you’re new to the BSIM and or are interested in volunteering to operate this year’s marathon please respond back.

If you guys have any questions, comments or concerns, please email me in a new email, your questions, comments or concerns.

If you know of anybody else that would be interested in volunteering please forward this onto them and have them email me.

I have attached this year’s volunteer form as well.–

Jeff Ackerman
kg6uyz@gmail.com

SCCARC March Meeting and Presentation by W6OJE

Many Mathematical models have been proposed to predict the quality of radio links or station coverage maps or coverage radii. One well-respected model for predicting VHF/UHF/Microwave communications is the ITS-Irregular Terrain Model, or Longley-Rice Model.

Roger Coud’e (VE2DBE) has developed a software package called Radio Mobile that uses this model in a user friendly way. It connects with on-line Terrain, Land Cover and map databases and allows easy entry of your station parameters (location, radio and antenna specs). It can predict pretty accurately, performance of a link between sites or map your station’s coverage to mobile or hand held users based on statistical success criteria you can set.

I plan to share my screen while I go through the process of entering the required parameters into Radio Mobile and we investigate some point-to-point paths between members’ QTH’s and other members and/or repeaters. We will also generate coverage maps that take into account available terrain elevation data that is relatively fine-grained (on 30 foot spacing grids). I hope it will be fun and introduce you to a very useful tool that some may not have known about before.

Jerry, W6OJE

SCCARC Monthly Zoom Meeting, March 17, at 7:30 pm

This is a NEW Zoom Meeting link for March 2023 – – – REVISED MARCH 16 pm

Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club K6BJ is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: SCCARC March Meeting 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Time: Mar 17, 2023 19:30 Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82751791255?pwd=WUFjcnBLZUhwQlQrTDZyWW9oQW5Ddz09

Meeting ID: 827 5179 1255
Passcode: V97g8e
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,82751791255#,,,,*486134# US
+12532050468,,82751791255#,,,,*486134# US

Dial by your location
+1 669 444 9171 US

Meeting ID: 827 5179 1255
Passcode: 486134

John Reinartz K6BJ Testimonial Banquet 1960

The testimonial banquet program for John Reinartz K6BJ February 1, 1960 at the Villa Hotel, San Mateo.

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Watsonville 147.945 repeater status update

As I’m sure you all know, the Watsonville 147.945 linked repeater was taken out of service a few weeks ago due to the sale of the tower at Fire Station II.

The repeater has been transported to my home shop and re packaged into a simpler foot print. I am attempting to put it back on the air shortly in a temporary location, utilizing the make-shift link.

The new anticipated location for the repeater is going to be the roof of the Watsonville Hospital. WCH management has given their blessing and will not require any rent. Several path studies have been run and the simplex UHF link path appears to be as good as was the case at the Fire Station location.

In order to make an installation into the Hospital building, management has informed me that a set of plans will need to be generated and approved by a State Hospital Management agency before we can cut a hole for coax entry into the radio vault. Once we get an approval that Hospital Management said they would press for, the hospital staff said they would do the work to create the coax entry hole.

I’ll put out another status update as soon as there’s a change to report. K6BJ can currently be accessed from the Pajaro Valley region using the K6RMW 443.050 repeater; PL 94.8. The repeater is being disabled on Sunday evenings to help with the Internet based nets.

73 . . .
Bob Wiser K6RMW

Sea Otter Classic

Neighboring Ham Radio groups

The 2023 Lifetime Sea Otter Classic will be held on April 20-23, 2023. Help from amateur radio operators has been a vital resource for communication in the Fort Ord National Monument backcountry. Thank you to those of you who have volunteered in the past.

The Lifetime Sea Otter Classic attracts thousands of athletes and spectators and is now regarded as the world’s premiere cycling festival. The areas where we assist have little or no cellular or repeater coverage. It is an excellent opportunity for demonstration and practice of emergency communications and help build readiness for a real disaster.

This year help will be needed for the following times:

Thursday 4/20 – Enduro Support – Morning through mid afternoon

Friday 4/21 – Back Country Support – MTB Gravilla Backcountry Radio – Very Early Morning to Mid Afternoon.

Saturday 422 – Back Country Support – MTB Fuego Backcountry Radio – Very Early Morning to Late Afternoon.

Sunday 4/23 – Back Country Support – MTB Fuego Backcountry Radio, and Robles Tour – Very Early Morning to Late Afternoon

Camping is available directly from the event (https://www.seaotterclassic.com/camping/ – subject to availability and sells out quickly – some campgrounds are already sold out) or we have the option of camping for no charge in the Laguna Seca paddock.

Ham radio operators will be primarily working radios including ham radios and/or commercial/public safety radios (i.e. You may be asked to coordinate on a public safety frequency to guide in an ambulance while the medic provides care). We’ll always try to pair experienced hams with new hams as needed. First aid and course marshal support will be provided by National Ski Patrol as in the past.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you’re interested in volunteering. We’ll need a volunteer waiver signed and we will have more details available soon.

Volunteers receive a volunteer T-Shirt, a pass to the Sea Otter Classic Festival (a $70 value), and a lunch.

Please note that the times and details are subject to change, but we will keep you updated if you volunteer. Please keep in mind that end times are estimates. In most cases the event will end earlier, but if we have a significant incident, demobilization may go much later and especially in the backcountry, exit routes are closed to vehicle traffic during the event. Updates will be available at http://sbcara.org/otter (It is still early and this page is still being updated for this year – 2022’s information is here for reference).

To sign up please go to this link https://tinyurl.com/soc2023hro or if this doesn’t work for you, feel free to just reply to takeuchi@sbcares.org via e-mail.

Also, please go to https://sea-otter-classic.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=68024 and in the password field, enter the word “Radio” (without quotes) do not enter anything else on the page and click on “Submit”. The page will update with the Amateur Radio shifts. Click on the check box to click on if you’re available and interested in that volunteer activity. All the events are for the backcountry at Fort Ord. For “Group – Organization Name” please select “San Benito Amateur Radio Association”. You can fill out your information. Under “Is anyone volunteering with you” please enter “None”. We need a separate submission for each volunteer. Sign the disclaimer by clicking the check box and entering your name and submit. You’ll receive an email from Jeff Lindenthal to confirm your registration. This process needs to be done for each volunteer.

Like many ham radio groups, we’re migrating to groups.io for our email system. If you’re volunteering this year, please go to https://sbcara.groups.io/g/soc and sign up for our email system so you can get updates. The nice thing about this is that this year, you can see emails, even those before your sign up, and don’t have to store them on your own email system. I send out the information about on-line volunteer registration as soon as it is available. I can also sign you up for updates, but you must confirm your email in order to receive updates.

Please pass this email along to anyone you think might be interested. We’re going to have challenges since some of our regular volunteers aren’t available this year due to the change of date this year.

Thanks & 73,

– Timothy S. Takeuchi – sbcares.org
San Benito County (XBE) COM-L: Communication Unit Leader – W6TST
Chief ACS/RACES Officer / ARES DEC: District Emergency Coordinator / ARRL PIO

Sea Otter Classic Volunteer Communications Leader

Holiday Gathering

Richard K8SQB, Becky KB6TKB

Gary K6PDL, Maggie K6ACT

Bruce AC6DN

Bruce KN6DBR

Paul N6CRZ

The club met on Sunday December 18, for our annual Holiday Gathering and installation of new Club Officers.at Woodhouse Blending & Brewing in Santa Cruz.

New 2023 SCCARC Club Officers

Congratulations to the 2023 Club Board leaders elected at last night’s meeting. Thanks to good Club member response, we easily had a quorum, with 41 operators checking into the meeting! Thank you!

President: Jerry (W6OJE)

Vice President: Richard (K8SQB)

Secretary: Mike (W6MLB)

Treasurer: Cap (KE6AFE) Incumbent

At-Large: Ben (KN6NDM)

At-Large: Jim (KN6NCG)

Ex-Officio: Craig (N6SBN)

Many thanks to the outgoing Board for their service:

President: Craig (N6SBN)

Vice President; vacant

Secretary: David (N6DTA)

Treasurer: Cap (KE6AFE) remaining in office

At-Large: Gary (K6PDL)

At-Large: Vince (KM6YHE)

73 and Happy Thanksgiving,

Becky

KI6TKB

Ray Wentz W6LPW SK

Ray was the son of a ham radio operator, and had been licensed since
he was a teenager. He had worked in the electronics and aerospace
industries. He was an active member of St. Andrews Church in Ben
Lomond.

For many years, Ray taught evening classes which enabled many SLV
residents to obtain their ham licenses. He was also a captain of the
Get-On-The-Air station on Field Day, coaching newcomers to make voice
contacts on 40 meters.

-John AC6SL

Ray wonderfully assisted and promoted ham radio operations in our community for many years. Among other fine efforts, I remember Ray’s work in support of our club’s 100-year anniversary event at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History in 2016.

We won’t forget Ray’s cheerful smirk.

73, Cap KE6AFE

Last Swap Meet of the Season

Pictures from the last swap meet on October 8 at the Shakespeare Santa Cruz site by our club repeater.

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September Club Meeting -Craig, N6SBN will finally talk about SDR

The September 16 K6BJ club meeting will have a presentation on the basics of SDR radios given by our club president Craig N6SBN. There will be discussions on the set up and operation of SmartSDR. Following the presentation, we will open up the meeting for a question and answer period. Craig running the SDR station at field day.

SCCARC is inviting you to our monthly meeting.

Note: Due to county’s currrent restriction, Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club meeting are held on the third Friday at 7:30pm via ZOOM.

Topic: SCCARC Monthly Meeting
Time: 07:30 PM Pacific Time Every month on the Third Fri, until Nov 18, 2022

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82518128630?pwd=UTZVN0pjeTVVODR3Y24rUlFTWkdzQT09

Meeting ID: 825 1812 8630
Passcode: 408373
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,82518128630#,,,,*408373# US (San Jose)

Meeting ID: 825 1812 8630
Passcode: 408373
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kesy4IPgb

Russ Mackey NW6U SK

My dear friend and favorite ham radio mentor/elmer Russ Mackey, NW6U, passed away yesterday. Russ was a member of our Club these last 32 years and was our vice president when I was first licensed. Chairing the repeater committee, Russ spent countless hours over years working on our Club’s repeaters, remotely and in-person.. Supremely knowledgeable in many fields, and he knew more about repeaters than anyone I’ve ever known. Russ was always kind and supportive. 73, Cap KE6AFE

SCCARC – SLVARC Field Day 2022

A joint Field Day of the Santa Cruz County Amateur Radio Club and the San Lorenzo Valley Amateur Radio Club held June 25-26, 2022 at the Bonny Doon Airport in the Santa Cruz mountain’s