 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
Monthly Summary for April 2008
News last updated: Mon, May 5, 2008 at 9:36 PM ET
EMCOMM WEST 2008 at the Reno Circus Circus Hotel was a huge success. The strongest part of the show was the line up of presentations. Three tracks were going simultaneously, and all of the presenters had full rooms and good attention from their audience. At the opening session, Dennis Dura, K2DCD, ARRL's new Emergency Preparedness and Response Manager gave the keynote address Saturday morning. Dennis provided us with plenty to think about and brought us up to date on current issues. Gordon West, WB6NOA, was a popular speaker at the banquet on Saturday night and in the forum room earlier. A ham swap in the parking lot next to the hotel started things off Saturday morning. Nearly 400 attended this year's convention.
Dayton Hamvention is the location of the 2008 ARRL EXPO this year. Hamvention is held May 16-18, 2008, at the Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio. More information and tickets are available at www.hamvention.org . This is the largest face to face meeting of ham operators from all over the world and trying to describe it in one paragraph or less is tough. It is always lots of fun. Hope to see you there, too.
On May 18, 2008, is the North Hills Radio Club’s swap meet will be held at Bella Vista High School, 8301 Madison Ave, Sacramento, CA. http://www.k6is.org/ is the Internet NHRC site, and Carl Schultz, WF6J, is the contact person for this event. Contact Carl at 916-726-1673, or wf6j@arrl.net for more information. Hours are 7 to noon. Expect a VE session, dealers, free parking, and refreshments. Recognition of Emergency Medical Services will officially occur May 20, 2008, and Ham Radio will be there. For the third consecutive year, Lee Sheffield, KC6MCI, will deploy his portable station and have a special event operation at the EMS Appreciation Day. This year the event is held at the CAL FIRE Grass Valley Air Attack Base at the Nevada County Airport, 13120 Loma Rica Drive, Grass Valley. Lee's portable rig is a hand made trailer which allows him to operate all modes indefinitely. The event is scheduled to start at 9 AM and conclude at 4:30 PM. Western State Endurance Run, June 28-29, 2008 and the Western States Trail Ride (Tevis Cup), July 19-20, 2008, use amateur radio over watch for riders, mounts, and public safety. Both rides are 100 mile events from Lake Tahoe to Auburn, CA. (Endurance Capital of the World). WSER is also known as the other Field Day since 6 out of 7 years it falls on the same day as Field Day. WSER: June 28-29, 2008 and TEVIS: July 19-20, 2008. These events need more operators. If you can help out or need more information on this chance to help out and hone your skills, check out www.ws100.com/comm , or talk to Ralph Lucas, W6WRL, at 408-640-0963 (his work cell phone) or 530-367-3026, his home phone. On April 19, Yuba Sutter ARC provided over watch for riders, support personnel, and public safety for the annual Bike Around the Buttes. More than 1300 riders took part, traveling either the 100 mile, 40.1 mile, or 20 km. course. One of the most danger prone parts of the ride occurs where riders have to cross or ride along a stretch of State Highway 20 between Yuba City and Meridian. High speed traffic and bike riders use the same route for over a mile, so injuries and accidents are possible. Fifteen out of 20 operators who signed up showed up for duty and successfully conducted a perfectly safe and injury free ride around the Sutter Buttes in Sutter County.
During an April visit with El Dorado Amateur Radio Club we watched Bill Ragsdale, K6KN, of Woodland, give his presentation on Boy Scouts and Amateur Radio. Bill will give his program again at Dayton Hamvention this year. Bill has been a ham since he was fourteen, but got into scouting at age nine. When I returned home that night, I had a note from Gary Clark, KF6EWO, asking how he could he find out more about this same subject. What a nice coincidence! Bill is a good source for Boy Scout information. He can be reached at bill@billragsdale.cc if you need more information on Boy Scouts and the way Amateur Radio can be used in scouting.
There really is nothing new to report on the PAVE PAWS radar (Beale AFB) interference issue and the many 440 band FM repeaters that have shut down or greatly reduced output. Now that so many ham repeaters are shut down, we hope that DoD can find the real interference that degrades the radar performance.
Looking for fun ham radio events in which to participate? Consider the Tour de Lincoln on May 10. This bike ride is a multi course event similar to the route of past years. Contact Gary, K6GRY@arrl.net to volunteer. The ride is held in the Lincoln, CA, area. Volunteers will be well fed with a continental breakfast and a bar-b-cue lunch. Hundreds of riders are expected. Alternate contact is Roger, rbrunnquell@yahoo.com .
ON THE AIR EVENTS; May 3-4 - Microwave Spring Sprint - IPA Contest, Phone/CW - MARAC CW and SSB Contests - 10-10 Spring CW & Digital Contests - Indiana QSO Party, Phone/CW - ARI International DX Contest, Phone/CW/Digital - New England QSO Party, Phone/CW - 7th Area QSO Party, Phone/CW - Radio Club of America QSO Party, Phone - Portuguese Navy Day, Phone/CW/Digital May 10-11 - FISTS Spring Sprint, CW - Armed Forces Communications Test, Phone/Digital - Nevada QSO Party, Phone/CW/Digital - CQ-M International DX Contest, Phone/CW - 2GHz and Up World Wide Contest, Phone/CW/Digital - Alessandro Volta RTTY DX Contest - 50 MHz Spring Sprint, Phone/CW/Digital - EU EME Contest, Phone/CW Check May, 2008, QST pages 79-80 for details and page 81-82 for Field Day rules.
Your Spectrum Defense Fund dollars have been hard at work as the ARRL's court challenge to the FCC in the matter of BPL paid off as described in the full story <http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/04/25/10064/?nc=1>. This was a fairly stern reversal for the FCC. The full ruling is available at http://tinyurl.com/3lkkgw Thanks for the above to ARRL’s Contest Rate Sheet.
On May 3, 2008, the Yolo ARES unit will be supporting a CERT Drill conducted by the City of Davis Fire Department and Davis CERT. The event starts at 9:00 am and goes to Noon. The contact is Darrin Ogletree, KG6FJL, ec@yoloares.org. Also on May 3, 2008, the Yolo Amateur Radio Society will provide communications for a fun run originating at Willits Grammar School in Davis. This event starts at 8:00 am and goes to 11:00 am. The contact is Shayne Hughes, N6SPE, shayne@ucdavis.edu . On Saturday, May 17, 2008, the Yolo Amateur Radio Society will provide communications support for the Davis Bike Clubs Double Century event. The event starts at 6:00 am at the Vet Memorial on 14th Street. The event ends around midnight. The contact is Dave Nishikawa, KC7YFG, dhnishik@wheel.dcn.davis,ca.us.
Section Net is the second Wednesday evening each month—in May that is May 14. Your NCS will not be me, I will be in Dayton for the ARRL EXPO and Hamvention, so please listen for the NCS, N6BOB. Bob will begin the net on the WD6AXM repeater, 146.085 MHz, plus offset, tone 127.3 hertz at 1900 PDT. At 1930 PDT, the net will switch to 3987 kHz LSB for those who cannot participate on VHF or want to help on HF.
73, Ron Murdock, W6KJ, ARRL SACRAMENTO VALLEY SECTION MANAGER
|
| ||||
|
Responsibility for content of all posted material above rests
exclusively with the item author. ARRL staff assumes no responsibility
for errors, omissions, and accuracy of items appearing on this page. All
questions and comments should be directed to the item author.
