Traditional Amateur Radio Contesting Faces a Demographic Cliff04/08/2021 Frank Howell, K4FMH, followed up his two-part National Contest Journal (NCJ) series, “The Demographics of Contesting,” with a post to his Social Circuits blog, called “Lemmings over a Demographic Cliff?” (His original articles appeared in the July/August and September/October 2020 issues of NCJ.) Howell points to data […]
News
March 2021 Volunteer Monitor Program Report
March 2021 Volunteer Monitor Program Report04/08/2021 The Volunteer Monitor (VM) Program is a joint initiative between ARRL and the FCC to enhance compliance in the Amateur Radio Service. This is the March 2021 Volunteer Monitor Program Report. The FCC delayed action on the renewal application of a General Class licensee in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, in order […]
The Santa Cruz County CERT/ARES Radio Exercise
CARE: the Santa Cruz County CERT/ARES Radio ExerciseBy Allison Hershey (KM6RMN) Santa Cruz County has experienced quite a number of disasters over the last few decades, and one of the effects has been the rise of a vibrant disaster-preparedness community. There are a hodgepodge of organizations ranging from animal rescue to education/networking groups, all loosely […]
A Consolidated, Advanced Emergency Communications Training Program
Rachel Kinoshita / KK6DAC relates that she is developing a consolidated, advanced Emergency Communications training program for San Mateo County. Rachel writes, “It will consist of three courses targeting beginners, intermediates and advanced communications. SCARES will then be able to take that material out to the various cities to get the CERTs and COADs trained in […]
The Hernandez Valley Repeater is Now in Service
QST: The Hernandez Valley repeater is now in service. This reference courtesy Ron / KD6ZXG: “We finished the first phase of our Hernandez Valley repeater project. The repeater is now in service and serves the extreme southeastern part of San Benito County. Specifically, this repeater covers the Bitterwater, Clear Creek and Hernandez Valley region of […]
A Strong Arm
When a strong arm is devoted to moving and lifting loads that need to be rearranged, we can appreciate the result when it is us who have benefitted from the effort. In the case of the Santa Clara Valley section, we have been experiencing such effort when it became clear that many changes needed to […]
Pacificon 2021
Assistant Section Manager John Parks / W6JPP, relates that preparations for Pacificon 2021 are underway. Details regarding the event, currently scheduled for October 15 through 17, are here — http://www.pacificon.org/ There’s also a good image of John on the landing page ! […]
Bob Heil from Heil Sound
Bob Heil / K9EID gave a fascinating presentation at PAARA’s Zoom meeting on April 2nd, 2021. Here’s a summary of that event, from the organization’s website: “Bob Heil from Heil Sound” “Bob Heil, K9EID: A reflection of one’s many contributions to the sound industry and amateur radio. Bob will share stories from his earlier days […]
Secret Isotropic Antenna Project
Presenting two current writings by Suellene Petersen / K6CPA, our Public Information Coordinator: Secret Isotropic Antenna Project In our last newsletter, we had a stunning report from Allison Hershey that revealed that a secret underground lab existed at UCSC wherein the students had invented an Isotropic Antenna. Unfortunately for Allison, her spies who discovered this […]
Santa Cruz ARES AECs Build Isotropic Antenna
by Allison Hershey (KM6RMN) Antenna specialist for the Santa Cruz area Ares group, Neil Stoddard (KN6JOI), had successfully held a series of workshops for members since January 2021. Designed to teach less experienced members antenna fundamentals, these workshops had started simply and gradually introduced more complex concepts with each venture. Neil and his students were […]