Monthly Section News Summaries
Monthly Summary for October 2009
November 19, 2009
=Amateur Radio Technology Day is scheduled for December 12th at SLAC National
Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park. There will be an outstanding speaker
and a GOTA (Get On The Air) station. For more directions and more
information visit the website at http://www.fars.k6ya.org/amtechday/.
=The annual SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) will occur December 5, 2009, from
0000 to 2400 UTC. WX6MTR in Monterey will be participating. SRD is the NWS
way of saying "thanks" to amateur radio operators who provide weather
information during hazardous weather. The official SRD web site
(http://hamradio.noaa.gov) contains further information.
=Maker Faire 2010 is coming! Mike, KI6QNZ, ASM Coordinator for the Faire, is
still looking for participants. If anyone has any interesting projects, let
Mike know. Michael Pechner, KI6QNZ – Assistant Section Manager,
mikey@mikey.com
=The new ARRL Emergency Communications course is taking shape. The former
Level 2 and Level 3 Emergency Communications courses are being updated and
combined into one new course. The new course will focus on emergency
communications training for leaders and managers. The title of the new
course is Public Service and Emergency Communications Management for Radio
Amateurs.
Expect this new course in January 2010. It has been developed in a lesson
format and will be posted on our website and, as such, it will be viewable by
any ARRL member. Members will need only log in to the ARRL website to see
the course material. It will not be a mentored course.
=Upcoming November contests that will create very heavy band loading include
CW Sweepstakes (Nov 7-8), Phone Sweepstakes (Nov 21-22), and CQ World Wide CW
(Nov 28-29). These events have been running on the same weekends for
decades, so no one should be surprised that they will be loading up the bands
again this year. Take this opportunity to inform yourself and your group and
to adjust your operating technique and plans. Reasonable and informed
expectations coupled with flexibility and a spirit of accommodation will help
us all make use of our spectrum more effectively at any time of the year or
solar cycle.
=Pacific Division Leadership meeting for 2009 is on December 5. Please
contact me for details. ASMs, DECs are invited as are club officers, but
only two representatives per club will be allowed.
=West Valley Amateur Radio Association has been sent its 50th anniversary
certificate as an ARRL affiliated club! Congratulations!
=ARRL Field Day 2009 Scores have been published in December 2009 issue of QST
magazine (online available at
http://www.arrl.org/contests/results/2009/fd.pdf). A huge congratulation goes
out to our local team at W6YX - Stanford University Amateur Radio Club who
once again has taken 6th place nationally with a score of 17,448 on 5499
QSOs. This is the 7th consecutive top 10 national finish for W6YX.
=K6LY came in at 95% percentile of all stations and 94% percentile of 3A
stations (#19 out of 305). They were the third best of 3A station in CA, and
the best 3A station north of LAX and west of the Mississippi river. K6LY was
only about 100 CW or PSK QSOs shy of being the best 3A station west of the
Mississippi. Congratulations to K6LY and to all section stations operating
Field Day 2009.
=2009 ARRL November Sweepstakes Phone Contest will take place November 21-23,
2009. The November Sweepstakes contest is perhaps the largest domestic
contest of the year and always delivers on its promise to be an exciting and
rewarding radio adventure. To learn more visit www.arrl.org/contests/rules
2009/novss.html for complete rules.
All section members interested in this and other contesting events are
encouraged to join the NCCC - The Northern California Contest Club. More
information can be located at their website http://nccc.cc.
=Internationally known PhD astronomer and author Cliff Stoll, K7TA, will be
speaking on the "Physics of DX" at the January 21st meeting of the Northern
California DX Club. Cliff has twice been the banquet speaker at Dayton ('93 &
'95) where he was said to have 'wowed' the crowd and is perhaps best known
for his book "The Cuckoo's Egg - Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer
Espionage" and the companion PBS - NOVA program entitled "The KGB, the
Computer, and Me" which chronicled his decisive role in catching hacker
Markus Hess in the 1980s while he was employed at Lawrence Berkeley National
Labs. Cliff will bring his unique perspective to our favorite hobby and the
subject of the physics and technology in DXing. Wow, this is not to be
missed.
This is a FREE event for all local amateurs & guests but seating will be
limited so plan to arrive early. Dinner begins at 6 pm and the
meeting/presentation will take place at 7:30 pm at Harry's Hofbrau, 390
Saratoga Ave, San Jose, CA 95129. More information will be available in
December at http://ncdxc.org.
=NCVEC is to Release New Technician Question Pool to Public in January 2010.
The Question Pool Committee (QPC) of the National Conference of Volunteer
Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) is due to release the new Technician class
(Element 2) question pool to the 14 VECs on December 1, 2009. Each question
pool for the three Amateur Radio license classes -- Technician, General and
Amateur Extra -- is reviewed on a four-year rotation. This new Technician
class pool will become effective on July 1, 2010.
=The wiki-based SCV web site on PDARRL.org is up and running. Tom, K1TW,
k1tw@arrl.net, is getting the content on both old and new sites up to date.
Send him your corrections and get your club access to the wiki. Here's the
link: http://www.pdarrl.org/scvsec/index.php. =The primary open position is
Section Emergency Coordinator.
This is YOUR Section; please consider helping all of us by filling one of
these important positions. See [http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/org/] for
information on the ARRL Field Organization and all appointee positions.
Page last modified: 07:38 PM, 24 Oct 2009 ET
Page author: n2rhv@arrl.org
Copyright © 2009, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
