THE AIRWAVES October 2014

SIERRA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB

An ARRL Special Service Club

RACES ARES

P O Box 1442 Ridgecrest California 93556-1442

BOARD President Dave Aubin KJ6VRV aubindav@verizon.netFirst VP Paula Herr N6VGW 608-3176 n6vgw1@gmail.com

OF Second VP Tammy Johnson KG6VYA 793-0348 kg6vya@arrl.netSecretary Bill Burns WA6QYR 375-8566 bburns@mediacombb.net

OFFICERS Treasurer Julie Stephens KI6YRA 446-3095 KI6YRA@webstephens.com

SARC OWNED AND MAINTAINED REPEATERSRandsburg WA6YBN 145.34 MHz (-), PL 100.0 Hz, Wide Area, Emergency PowerRidgecrest WA6YBN 147.00 MHz (+), PL 107.2 Hz, Local, Emergency Power

SARC CommitteesTechnical Assistance: Mike, WA6ARA 375-5324 Public Relations: Paula, N6VGW 608-3176Program: Tammy, KG6VYA, 793-0348 Airwaves Editor: Mike, WA6ARA 375-5324RF Interference: Bill, WA6QYR 375-8566 Emergency:

THE AIRWAVES CALENDAREvery IWV Emergency Net 730pm

WA6YBN Repeater-147.00MHz+600KHz offset, 107.2 tone

Monday Visitors Welcomed!

75 Meter AM Rag Chew netNight 8pm 3935 Kcs

13 Oct SARC General Meeting

USO Building 7:30pmProgram - Brian N6CVOs 2-yr Expedition to the South Pacific

11 Oct Man vs Horse Ride / Run

11-12 Oct Pacifcon

18 - 19 Oct Jamboree On The Air

15 Nov Ridgecrest Desert Classic Mountain bike ride

15 Nov Petroglyph Festival

15 Nov FOX HUNT ! - details inside

07 Dec OTHTC Ultra Marathon

Every Even Month, Second Saturday

11 October Volunteer License Exam SessionLocation: Guns 4 Us, basement classroom417 East Ridgecrest Blvd, Ridgecrest CANo handicapped access Pre-reg by 06 October. Limited to 9 applicants. All must register at 9 AMContact Elvy Hopkins NØLV 760-384-3589E-mail <lvrh7589@iwvisp.com>

President's ShackDrove down and had breakfast with the California City Ham club this past month. What do you talk about? Ham things, of course. Repeater issues, DX contacts, a swap meet one of the guys went to. It was a pleasant thing. We also learned about a local non-ham event, the Wasteland Weekend, which is sort of a recreation of Mad Max. Drove up the Eastern Sierra on 395. Tried out a few of the repeaters on the way. North of Lone Pine, I tuned Mazourka Peak at 146.76, listened for a bit, heard nothing, then sent out “W6TLA, Monitoring”. Right away I had a response from W6KRF and had a lengthy QSO on a little bit of everything, but he gave a

list of repeaters that I could use on the drive north. Which worked good all the way to Tahoe. I was so jazzed to have that quick contact and the friendly chat. My point is that I’ve found hams to be typically friendly, and it’s ok to get out of the house, meet folks in other places. You get to put faces to those voices on the radio. Makes the next time you contact them much more personable.October! This begins the busy season, well, busier than it has been. Coming up this month are several events. Oct 11 has three: the Man vs Horse Ride/Run, the VE exam, Pacificon (10/10-12). Oct 18-19: JOTA, Oct 25 Bill Thornburg Horse Endurance. These things are fun! You get to practice your emergency net skills, including your skills in setting up a mini camp, even if it is just a camp-chair!

73Dave, W6TLA

Minutes Sept 8, 2014 SARC Board meetingThe agenda was discussed by the Board. Those officers planning to stay on for another year were; Bill, Paula; Julie; and Tammy. The need for a nomination committee was discussed.

Minutes Sept 8, 2014 SARC meetingThe meeting was opened at 7:34 with the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Thanks to Sandy, KJ6VRW for the snacks. There were 3 visitors from Cal City (K6ZZ, KI6VC and KK6JTV). Upcoming events were discussed: 20 Sept T-hunt; 11 Oct Man vs Horse ride; 18 Oct JOTA; 25-26 Oct Bill Thornburg Horse ride; 15 Nov Desert Classic; 15 Nov Petroglyph Festival; 7 Dec OTHTC marathon. Summits on the Air is this weekend. The need for an election committee was announced. The program was by Mike, WA6ARA on HR4969 the House bill that would require the FCC to have reasonable accommodation protections to those amateurs who are living in deed-restricted communities. This extends PRB-1 to include hams in housing with CC&Rs that prevent antennas. We need to write our house representative Kevin McCarthy to have him co-sponsor the bill.The door prize and 50/50 drawing ($18.50) went to Vic, KI6VC of Cal City. The meeting was closed at 8:30.

Submitted by Bill WA6QYR SARC Secretary

Treasure's ReportBeginning Balance $9,050Income $20Expense $(564)Ending Balance $8,506Reserve ($1,000)Available Cash $7,506

Expense are for the new projector, room rental, po box fee and ice cream social.

Julie Stephens

SARC TreasurerKI6YRA

SARC October ProgramThe October presentation will be Brian N6CVOs 2-yr Expedition to the South Pacific and will include a bit about the expedition, their humanitarian work, solar and wind power, boat systems (mainly electrical), and of course radio/s including using HAM Radio as a day to day survival tool. In the Ham Radio section he will touch on the gear, antennas, grounding, legalities, Winlink, Airmail, HF APRS, Weather FAX, GRIB Charts, etc.

Emergency Council Meetings The Emergency Council in Ridgecrest meets every second Thursday of the month at 1130 am at the Kerr McGee Center . The room is in the Northwest section of the center. If you are interested in emergency operations, RACES / ARES, try to make the meeting. It is recommended to park on the west side

Need your QSL cards checked?When going for various ARRL and CQ awards, you need proof that you made the contact. These days it is done either electronically, i.e. Log Book Of The World (LOTW) and / or the good old traditional QSL card. If you are using the QSL cards, then your choice is to send off those hard won QSL cards to the ARRL black hole and hope they come back, or you can go to a QSL checker who is certified by ARRL to verify your contacts. In the past you could go to the various hamfests such as Pacificon and stand in line with the checkers. But now we have a friendly card check at California City. He is Bob Selbrede, K6ZZ. He can do card checking for ARRL awards and for CQ awards like WAZ. His contact info is in QRZ.com.

SARC T- Hunt Report

The September T-hunt was great. Ryan, KJ6HBY and Erin, KJ6MQM, were the foxes for the hunt. The signals were variable and miss leading, but eventually, with a little help form the foxes, ended up in the same spot. Then the hunting really got under way. We sweep around and around, looking for the hidden transmitter. After several of us nearly stepped on it, Richard, KJ6VRX, found it, barrid underground with a piece of plastic pipe hiding the antenna.

The next Fox hunt will be on 15 November. We will be starting at 0900 at Crest Donuts. Get those t-hunting antennas ready the the dust of the attenuators, check out the handhelds and gas up the car. Richard, KJ6VRX will be the fox for the hunt.

(Note: With several other items on line for November 15, we may need to revisit the date)

California City Amateur Radio Club ChangesThere has been some changes to the California City Amateur Radio Club. Their club meetings are now on the third Wednesday of the Month, 7 PM, at the Cal City Senior Center. Also their weekly net has moved as well, now on Wednesday nights (except the club meeting night) at 7pm on the Randsburg Repeater 145.340 (-) 100.0 Back up 147.480 Simplex

Upcoming ActivitiesAs is typical in the fall, there are a lot of activities coming up. The front page lists them, but here are some more details.

11 October - Man vs Horse Ride / Run - we helped with this one on it's first run last year and have been asked to help again. This has both horses (plus riders) and runners on the same course. More info at the club meeting and the Monday night net. Talk to Tammy, KG6VYA for details.

11 - 12 October - Pacificon - This is the premier west coast amateur radio show and get together. A few of us go annually and is worth it. Check out Pacificon.org for details.

11 October - VE session - Mark, W6BST, will be looking for volunteers for the VE session in October

18 - 19 October - Jamboree On The Air - We have supported this in the past. Haven't heard if we will be asked again this year, but let's hope so.

15 November - SARC Fox Hunt

15 November - Ridgecrest Desert Classic - This is the mountain bicycle ride that we use to support years ago. It went dark for a long time but has been restarted recently. We have been asked to support it. There will be a need for 4 - 5 stations. Contact Mike WA6ARA for details.

15 November - Petroglyph Festival - This is a new event. Not so much a service event but a chance to get out in the public. Do we want to set up a demo station? Listen in on the Ridgecrest Desert Classic?

07 December - OTHTC Ultra Marathon - We expect to be asked to do this one again. Will need about 5 - 7 stations to cover the event. More detail later. Contact Mike, WA6ARA for details.

13 December - VE session - Mark, W6BST, will be looking for volunteers.

Fun StuffNote: This is a series of articles about fun stuff we are all doing in amateur radio. If you have

something to share, please send it to the Airwaves editorAs part of our annual trip to Montana, Paula, N6VGW and I (WA6ARA) try to go routes and have fun along the way. Part of this year's excursion we stopped by Crater Lake in Oregon for a few days. While there we did a a couple of Summits On The Air, or SOTAs. These were Wizard Peak and Mt Scott. While Mt Scott has been activated often, Wizard Island has never been activated. Wizard Peak is on Wizard Island, in the middle of crater lake. No walking there, it is a boat trip to the docks. So, Paula and I paid the boat fee and headed off to Wizard Island. This is a hiking trip, you first hike down the crater to the lake. As it turns out, this hike is the steepest in the park. So we hiked down some 700 feet to the boat docks. Not bad. A nice boat ride brought us to the docks of Wizard Island. Wizard island is a second volcano that has grown out of Crater Lake. The rocks, soil, everything is volcanic in nature. The initial hike up the Wizard Peak is a scramble over the volcanic rocks and lava flows. There is a trail, sort of, to follow. As you go the rocks get smaller to almost resembling soil and the trail actually becomes more defined. Walk, walk, walk, about 700 feet up! Once at the top you are on the edge of the Wizard Peak caldera. Time to set up the station.

The trusty KX3 was brought along as the rig along with the portable vertical I have been using. We set everything up along the edge. I was concerned we would have a hard time making contacts, being a bit in a hole of crater lake. But the QSO rolled in, no problem at all. The interesting part was we became a point of interest for the tourists visiting the top along with us. We were asked the typical questions which Paula handled as my PR representative. And then the photo started. Several just had to have a photo of these guys hanging on the side of a peak and using morse code to talk to the world.After all was done, we climbed back down (700 ft), met the boat, back to the docks and then a steep, long climb back up to the road, another 700 ft.

We also did Mt Scott. As I mentioned, it had been activated many a time, so nothing special there. It is a nice 1400 ft climb, good trail and beautiful views from the top. What made it interesting was after we got down, we drove to the village store for fuel and a well desired ice cream. On our trip back to the camp site we passed the Mt Scott trailhead and we were called on 146.52 from Eitanne, K7ATN, a well known SOTA activator. Turns out he had seen our car earlier (with call sign license) and was now on top of Mt Scott! Had a nice chat and invited him to a camp after he got down. We had a nice eyeball QSO with Eitanne and Paula fed him a well needed dinner.

For Sale50 ft extension cord 3/#14 wire free.Copper wire enamel coated #14 many feet coils $1 each.Sears Home and Camp 1600w 120v 60 cycle generator $100TVRO dishes 10 ft, 6 ft, and 5 ft free2 motor home motorized Az/el 5ft TVRO dishes $10 each6 ft and 4 ft 19 inch racks $5 eachARRL Handbooks 1946 to 1999 $1 each Security camera with c mount lens $10RCA BW TV camera with c mount lens $5HP 5381A 80 MHz counter $156 meter Ringo vertical antenna $102 meter to 6 meter transverter TenTec $301 ton chain hoist Harbor Freight $10Car battery jumper cables $1Bill WA6QYR 247 Rebel Road 375-8566 bburns@mediacombb.net

www.qsl.net/wa6ybn/

Open Area Repeaters

Status Location Call Freq in MHz Tone Notes Distance

UP WA6YBN 145.340 (-) 100.0 Wide Area, Emergency Power S 18.6 Mi

Down WA6YBN 146.640 (-) S 2.5 Mi

UP WA6YBN 147.000 (+) 107.2 W 2.5 Mi

Standby WA6YBN 147.060 (+) 100.0 Club Portable Repeater, used only for events SW 1 Mi

UP N6BKL 52.680 (-) 82.5 S 18.6 Mi

UP WI6RE-2 145.050 Packet Node (ELPASO) S 10 Mi

DOWN WA6YBN-10 145.05 RMS Packet - WINLINK 2000 S 2 Mi

UP Calif City KG6COM-10 145.05 RMS Packet - WINLINK 2000

UP WI6RE 144.390 S 10 Mi

UP WI6RE 147.975 (-) 100.0 S 10 Mi

UP

K5GFM 146.970 (-) 123.0

E 15.9 Mi

UP Little Lake W6TD 147.210 (+) RF Linked to Mazourka Peak NW 24.9 Mi

UP Bird Springs KF6FM 146.085 (+) 141.3 WSW 27 Mi

UP Mazourka Pk W6TD 146.760 (-) RF Linked to Little Lake N 96.5 Mi

UP K6OX 146.730 (-) 100.0 SSW 80 Mi

UP Keller Pk KE6RYZ 146.385 (+) 146.2 SSE 104 Mi

UP Sawmill 145.450(-) 156.7 Lake Isabella area W 60Mi

UP W5HMV 447.020 (-) 123.0 SE 2.6 Mi

UP WI6RE 446.500 100.0 W 2.8 Mi

UP WI6RE 448.800 (-) 100.0 S 10 Mi

UP NC9RS 927.0125 (-) 88.5 Input: 902.0125 – Linked to others - NC9RS SW 2.0 Mi

Email to wa6ybn@gmail.com to report invalid data.

Last Update: June 1, 2014

Randsburg

RidgecrestTranslator, No Squelch Tail, Emergency Power

RidgecrestAllstar #27178, Echolink #518309, Info *510

IWV Emergency Net Mondays @ 7:30 PM

Ridgecrest

Randsburg Linked to other 6m repeaters in SoCal. Net

Thursdays @ 6:30 PM

El Paso Pk

Ridgecrest

El Paso Pk APRS W1 Digi, iwvaprs.net – KI6PSP@gmail.com

El Paso Pk Allstar Node usually on WINSYSTEM

Trona

RF Linked to 447.020. 6m Remote Base on FM call frequency 52.525 MHz - Controls: Rx 61, Tx 62, Off 63

Wide coverage of Indian Wells Valley - swrrc.org

Hauser Pk Near Palmdale, Wide coverage of Antelope Valley

kpra.net - Near Big Bear, Wide SoCal Coverage

Ridgecrest RF Linked to 146.970. Input is about -4 KHz off.

Ridgecrest IRLP-3741, contact tiplerek@iwvisp.com for codes

El Paso Pk IRLP-3877 - WinSystem.org

Ridgecrest