May 2025 Announcements
See our ARRL Sacramento Valley website for photos and further details.
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Operate at our California State Fair Amateur Radio Special Event Station!
The ARRL Sacramento Valley Section invites all radio amateurs and clubs to participate in the July 11-27 California State Fair Amateur Radio Special Event Station and Exhibit!
Have fun while promoting our amateur radio activities, clubs, literature, services and outreach to the general public!
Our Exhibit and Station will operate on-the-air using the Special Event 1x1 callsign K6C in Cal Expo’s air-conditioned Building B during the Fair. Cal Expo will supply gate and parking passes to our volunteer exhibitors.
We welcome licensed radio amateurs and affiliated clubs who can assist at our Exhibit and Special Event Station in shifts like 10 am-1 pm, 1-4 pm, and 4-7 pm during the weekends of July 11-13, July 18-20, and/or July 25-27. You don't need to belong to a club or group to participate.
Join our volunteer exhibitor team now through the online form at https://sacramentoares.org/2025-california-state-fair-demonstration-station/
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The Carmichael Elks Lodge ARC Swap Meet will be on Sunday, May 25 from 7 am to 11 am at the Carmichael Elks Lodge, 5631 Cypress Ave, Carmichael, CA 95608. Be sure to stop by and say hello at our ARRL Sacramento Valley Section booth!
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The Berryessa Amateur Radio Klub announces their repeater at Berryessa Peak has a new call sign: K6BER. The prior call KE6YUV has served from 1995 but had no relationship to the club. All other details remain the same. For full details on the repeater and the club visit: https://www.barkradio.org. The repeater features an Early Morning Round-table chat net at 7:00 AM Monday through Friday. All are welcome.
Bill Ragsdale K6KN
BARK President
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The ARRL Sacramento Valley Section-wide VHF and HF Net will be conducted on Thursday evening, May 15, first on the WD6AXM FM repeater on 146.085 MHz, then on 3880 kHz LSB +/- 3 kHz for QRM.
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Section Manager Nomination
Thanks to our section members who have endorsed the nomination for my re-election as Section Manager. I appreciate your confidence and support and will gladly continue serving as your Section Manager if you so desire.
The upcoming election for the Sacramento Valley Section Manager and its procedure is fully explained on page 71 of April QST.
From arrl.org: "Whenever more than one member is nominated in a single section, ballots will be mailed from Headquarters on or before July 1 to full members of record as of June 6 which is the closing date for nominations. Returns will be counted August 19. Section Managers elected as a result of the above procedure will take office October 1."
"If only one valid petition is received from a section, that nominee shall be declared elected without opposition for a two-year term beginning October 1."
73, Dr. Carol Milazzo, KP4MD
ARRL Sacramento Valley Section Manager
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Sacramento ARES April 12 DF Exercise Report
April 12, 2025, by Sacramento County ARES EC, Jay Ballinger, N6SAC
Read the full report at https://sacramentoares.org/big-game-hunting-2025-results/
This is the After Event Recap from our 2025 Big Game Hunting event. This was a direction-finding event but without the driving and walking around from similar Fox Hunting events.
I chose a location that was not as good as the 2024 Big Game Hunting event. Downtown Sacramento, on the top floor of the parking garage directly north of the Capitol seemed like a good compromise location. It was high, but not higher than the buildings around me. In fact, 925 L Street was directly west of me (right across the street behind my truck) and probably served to reflect my signal quite effectively. Since we did not have any participants from Yolo County, I figured this would be acceptable.
I operated in four Rounds - starting with 50 watts PEP and working down to 25 watts, then 10 watts, and finally 5 watts.
The stations performing the hunting offered signal reports for each round, and if they had a directional antenna, they provided a compass heading from their location.
Overall the team performed very well and I think many learned some new things about their directional antenna. This location proved to be pretty good with most stations able to hear me even at HT strength. Next time we will need to pick an even more challenging location.
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Thanks to all who visited our ARRL Division Director Tony W7XM and Section Manager Carol KP4MD at the ARRL Information Booth at the March 22 Loomis Hamfest.
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Our ARRL Pacific Division Town Hall Zoom Meeting scheduled for May 3 is cancelled and pending a rescheduled date.
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May Major Operating Events:
- May 10-11 - Canadian Prairies QSO Party;
- May 17-18 - AR QSO Party;
- May 17-19 - W6SFM Bug Roundup;
- May 24-25 - CQ WW WPX CW Contest
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May 17 Hot RF Nights Exposition at William Jessup University
This year's Hot RF Nights, sponsored by the Sierra Foothills Amateur Radio Club, will be held Saturday, May 17 from 3-8 pm in the main parking lot of the William Jessup University campus, 2121 University Ave, Rocklin CA 95765.
This event features an exposition of mobile radio, Parks on the Air, and emergency and special event set ups, as well as catering by Fat Cat, Root Beer and Orangesicle ice cream floats and a free door prize drawing.
This no cost event is open to all individuals, enthusiasts and clubs. Follow the Sierra Foothills Amateur Radio Club web page at W6EK.org for updates.
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Section Manager arrl.org Email Address Restored. Please address email for the Sacramento Valley Section Manager to kp4md@arrl.org Thank you.
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Intentional interference is increasingly reported in our section and elsewhere around the nation. At the 2023 ARRL Pacificon Convention forum entitled "Dealing with Intentional Interference" ARRL and other amateur radio leadership presented and discussed resources and strategies to assist radio amateurs, clubs, groups and repeater owners in controlling this problem.
Local direction finding (DF) teams have been organizing to collect evidence of these incidents.
If you experience intentional interference, here below are several ways that you can immediately assist:
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Dealing with a deliberate jammer is emotionally difficult. But if we’re to successfully get rid of them, everyone involved (and I do mean every single ham) must remain calm. We must also be patient, as it can take a while.
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This may be the most important of all; do not attempt to engage with the jammer, or even acknowledge their presence. Although some of them may do what they do because they have a beef with the repeater owner, club, or another ham; most jammers do it for the same reason others engage in destructive behavior; to get attention. We must deny them that attention. So, control your anger and don’t tell them to stop, threaten them or even acknowledge that the interference is occurring.
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If the level of interference allows it, continue with your QSO or net as if the interference was not there.
If conversation is not possible, you may be able to QSY to an alternate frequency. Otherwise, just sign off as if you’ve naturally finished and go radio silent until the jammer leaves. They may return when you do, so you’ll have to do this several times, until they get the message that they won’t get the satisfaction they’re looking for.
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Do not discuss the jammer on the air, even when jamming is not present. Understand that just one ham losing control and engaging with the jammer or acknowledging the interference, even in passing, is enough to undo the efforts of everyone else.
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In case of repeater interference, each repeater owner has the ability--or should have the ability--to constantly monitor the repeater and if all else fails shut it down in instances of abuse. Running a repeater is not much different than allowing access to your home base station by anyone who wants to use it.
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Control operators can and should immediately disable the repeater when any illegal activity occurs, and keep it disabled until attempts at the illegal activity end. They can monitor the repeater’s input frequency for this.
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You should report a repeater's failure to control intentional interference to the ARRL-FCC Volunteer Monitor (VM) program.
Collect and submit recordings of the interference marking the date, time and frequency as evidence.
The ARRL-FCC VM program has the resources to motivate owners to control their repeaters responsibly.
To report clear violations of FCC Part 97, particularly instances of unlicensed operation, repeated deliberate interference, and operation outside of a licensee’s authorized frequencies, send the report via email to Riley Hollingsworth (K4ZDH), ARRL Volunteer Monitor Administrator, at K4ZDH@arrl.net.
Important: include the following information in your report…
- Frequency (MHz) of incident:
- Time of incident (UTC):
- Date of incident:
- Call sign(s) of station(s) being reported:
- If a repeater, call sign of repeater involved:
- Description of alleged incident being reported:
- Your full name (person submitting report)
- Your call sign:
- Your email address:
- Your phone number:
All reports will be acknowledged, reviewed, and the person submitting the report will receive a response as quickly as possible.
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