Simi Settlers’ Amateur Radio Club
Short Circuit
March 2011
Inside this Issue
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Static & Sparks
March Program
Static & Sparks continued
N6R Special Event Results
Nets of Interest
Club Project Update
ACS Corner
Coyote Two Moon
Pizza Night!
February General Meeting
Minutes
Events
Simi Settlers’ Leadership
Letter From the Editor
Simi Settlers’ Amateur Radio
Club
P.O. Box 2125
Simi Valley, CA 93063-2125
simisettlers.org
Simi Settlers ARC Yahoo Group
March 2011 Program
Static
tatic & Sparks
General Meeting
By President, Rick Galbraith
W6DQE
March 10th Program
K4M Midway Atoll 2009
DXpedition Video
Thousands of people once
worked on Midway, but today
only a handful of dedicated staff
and volunteers remain. Their
ongoing mission is to bring the
atoll back to its natural state and
maintain a precious national
monument.
Working closely with Midway's
new caretakers and mindful of
the sensitive environmental
issues, this DXpedition
demonstrated how Amateur
Radio is now a welcome activity
inside one of America’s most
protected wildlife reserves.
Included will be comments and
pictures from Joe Partlow
W6JWP who was stationed
stationed, and
was first licensed as a Novice,
on Midway during the 1970's.
Location:
Simi Senior Center
3900 Avenida Simi
Simi Valley CA
Hello Simi Settlers,
I am always amazed how fast
time flies and even more how
there never is enough time in the
day for all those projects on my
long list. But a member that
always seems to make time for
our club is Jim Hutchinson
KI6MZ. With his
h continued efforts
in fine tuning our upcoming club
building project of the Field
Strength Meter, he certainly put
on another great presentation
last meeting with the testing and
comparison of the much talked
about HT rubber duck antenna.
Showing us that this Field
Strength Meter is a must have
for the ham radio operator.
At our last board meeting Jim
talked about presenting this
project to our neighboring clubs
of CVARC and VCARS. So as of
now it looks like we will start
building these units in early
summer.
Continued on page 2...
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March 2011
Simi Settlers’ Short Circuit
Continued from page 1...
On the operating front we have been invited again by Richard Johnson N6HJD to participate in the
Strathearn Park Simi Valley History Day on June 18th. We will be operating as a special event station using
the Club call sign W6SVS which our member Mike Tweedy KV6I is the trustee of the clubs call sign. Frank
Valdez KI6OQ is already talking about putting up a 20 meter beam and a long wire for 40 meters hooked to
the top of the wind mill in the center yard of Strathearn Park. This will be a good warm up for us as it is the
weekend before ARRL Field Day. So we all will have some great opportunities coming up in the month of
June.
Speaking of special events it was a great honor to be a part of President Ronald Reagan's 100th Birthday
celebration using the call sign "N6R". Al Febraro W6AAX contacted VCARS regarding the special event,
and I am certainly glad he did get the Simi Settlers involved. So Al W6AAX, Frank KI6OQ, Ray KI6LKD and
myself all had the privilege of being a part of the great event. Again thank you to VCARS and Peter Heins
N6ZE for inviting us to be a part of N6R's centennial celebration.
Hope to see or hear all of you at our next meeting, pizza night or on the radio.
73, Rick
W6DQE
SSARC President
N6R Special Event Results
Special Events Station"N6R" operated to Celebrate the 100th Birthday of the 40th President of the United
States of America, Ronald Reagan on Sunday, February 6th, 2011
During three days of activity, 2067 2-way ham radio contacts were achieved with Special Event aficionados
& President Ronald Reagan followers. Modes used were SSB, FM, CW, & PSK-data on Amateur Radio
Frequencies from 3.5 MHz through 446MHz. 14MHz SSB alone, yielded 1631 QSOs. All 50 U.S. states &
all Canadian Provinces were contacted. In addition "N6R" established contact with the US Virgin Islands,
Puerto Rico, Martinique, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guam, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Peoples Republic of China, & The Russian Federation.
"N6R" operations were presented by the Ventura Co. Amateur Radio Society (VCARS) and assisted by
members of Simi Settlers Amateur Radio Club (SSARC) as well as other local amateur radio operators.
Primary Operators were: W6AAX (SSARC); W6DQE, SSARC Pres.; KE6IMP(VCARS); WB6L (VCARS);
KI6LKD, (VCARS/SSARC); KI6OQ (SSARC); KK6UE(VCARS Pres.); KI6YN (VCARS); N6ZE (VCARS
Public Information Officer) Administrative assistance by Paul Lunnquist, NS6V. A special "Thank You" to
KG6CLT, KI6DJV, WD9DPK, KC6JSO, & KJ6RZ for facility assistance provided on Sunday, 06FEB2011.
See N6R on QRZ.COM for complete results: http://www.qrz.com
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March 2011
Simi Settlers’ Short Circuit
Nets of Interest
Simi Settlers Sunday Evening Net 147.180 +600 pl186.2 Sundays at 8:30 pm
7.030 MHz
CW-QRP
Saturday mornings at 9am
3.908 MHz
LSB
Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday nights at 8pm
Condor Connection Monday nights at 7pm (Plays Newsline)
223.940
-1.6 MHz
156.7 Thousand Oaks
224.720
-1.6 MHz
156.7 Frazier Mountain
Club Project Update
Jim Hutchinson KI6MZ demonstrated his progress on the Field Strength meter
being developed as a club project. As part of his demonstration several HT's and
antennas were tested with the following results:
WI6O: Kenwood th-79 with old rubber duck 16.0db, Pryme long wire 13.3db
KJ6HDD: Wouxun with bnc Diamond 13.3db, bnc Slim 10.5db, stock 16.0db, bnc
kenwood skinny 13.1db, VX-1 14.7db, VX-3 14.0db; Kenwood f-6 bnc 16.0db, bnc
slim 14.5db, sma 36.3db
KE6WEZ: VX-8 Stock 23.3db, triband Diamond 16.9db, Pryme-bnc
11.7db; Wouxun with stock 19.1db, Pryme-bnc 11.7db
W6AAX: Kenwood f-6 with Diamond dualband 15.9db, Jetstream 17.2db, Diamond
triband 14.0db
KI6OQ: Kenwood f-6 with Diamond 22.0db, Pryme 18.7db
20 Db
10 Db
6 Db
3 Db
2 Db
1 Db
0.5 Db
0.1 Db
100.0:1
10.0:1
4.0:1
2.0:1
1.6:1
1.26:1
1.12:1
1.02:1
example: If the difference in DB of two antennas is 3 DB, then the power ratio
2.0:1
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March 2011
Simi Settlers’ Short Circuit
ACS Corner
Bandit Trail Run Follow up
The 3rd Annual Bandit endurance trail run was held on 20 Feb 11 and a
group of Ham Radio Operators provided communications support for
the event. The race consisted of 50K, 30K, and 15K runs with the
runners going to one or more of the aid stations that had radio support.
The Ham radio operators assisted in tracking the runners and providing
other voice communications as needed. Runner information was mostly
passed to Start using packet radio (digital communications) by sending
Runner Tracking Reports. These reports were sent to the "SIMEOC" tnc
mailbox in the Ham Radio Room at the Simi Valley Police Department. The reports were retrieved by "Start" and
placed in a spreadsheet to track the runners.
We had radio support at five different stations:
Station 1: Was the Start/Finish at Corriganville Park and was manned by
Mike Watts - KJ6HDD, Joe Partlow - W6JWP, and Steve King - KE6WEZ.
Station 2: Was located at the intersection of the Corriganville and Rocky
Peak Fire Road trails and was manned by Brian Fawcett - KG6WHO and
Peter Grace - AI6PG, who hiked in from Station 5. They gave Start a
"heads up" as the runners started the final decent back to Corriganville
Park and the Finish line.
Station 1
Station 3: Sal, SAR and Race Volunteer - Picture
by Greg W6GRG
Station 3: Was located at the intersection of Chumash Trail and Rocky
Peak Fire Road and was manned by Joel Wadman - KF6TZN, Greg
Riegert - W6GRG, and Salvador Rivera - KJ6AHV. This was an
especially "hectic" location with them seeing runners up to three times
and from three directions.
Station 4: Was located at Evening Sky Drive and the Los Llama Trail head and was manned by Rick Tate - KQ6NO,
Rick Slater - AG6AY, Stewart Stone - KG6BOV, and Yoshio. They saw the 30K runners once and the 50K runners
twice.
Station 5: Was located at the 118 freeway and the Rocky Peak Fire Road trail head and was manned by Brian Fawcett
- KG6WHO and Peter Grace - AI6PG. They helped track the 50K runners who had to tack this short loop to make the
full 50K.
All the Ham operators said they enjoyed the event, were glad to be able to practice and use their equipment in a "real
world" type of situation and were willing to do it all again next year.
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March 2011
Simi Settlers’ Short Circuit
4th Coyote Two Moon March 18 - 20
From Dan Dicke Electric res0xgcr@verizon.net
th
This will be our 14 year supporting these crazies. First ten years were the Coyote
Four Play supporting four events. The last 3 years have been one venue in the Ojai
mountains. Here it is the first invite to C2M 2011! I can always use more people that
would like to learn the use of packet and good training in an always changing
environment.
Here is the website: http://coyotetwomoon.com/. This event is a multilevel event.
The event has a 100 mile run, a 100 K run, and then the runners have options to run what their body feels like that
day. The event lasts 40+ hours.
Propagation can and does change many times throughout the event keeping us on our toes which is a great learning
experience for all to keep the communication lines open. The mountain top locations can get extremely cold…in the
teens with wind chill dropping it from there. Some of the locations have snow.
Packing is the layered look due to the temp changes from the day time in the 40’s to night time in the teens.
Equipment is crucial with duplicate and triplicate sets of radios, antennas, coaxes, power supplies, batteries, and
generators. There is usually around 130 – 160 runners to track. The mountain top locations I try to have at least three
operators so that they can sleep in shifts. The “Solid Ground” (Drive in) locations have two operators.
Dan
And don't forget the ACS Net (ARES/RACES) every Tuesday beginning at 7:05 pm on our local repeater
147.930 – pl 127.3, and then continuing at 7:30 pm on the county repeater at 146.880– pl 127.3.
Pizza Night!
March 3rd 6pm Toppers Pizza 2408 Erringer Road.
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March 2011
Simi Settlers’ Short Circuit
Simi Settlers Amateur Radio Club
General Membership Meeting, February 10, 2011
Call to Order:
President Rick Galbraith, W6DQE, called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm. Rick
welcomed everyone to the meeting held at the Simi Valley Senior Center. The
recitation of The Pledge of Allegiance was performed. Four Board Members
were present. The total attendance was 20 with 4 visitors.
Introductions:
The usual round of introductions was not held this month.
Announcements: Rick spoke about the Special Event operation to commemorate the 100th
Birthday of President Ronald Reagan. Sponsored by VCARS, the call “N6R”
was activated for the event. Rick operated on 20 meters from his home station
and Al Febraro, W6AAX operated on Sunday from the Sheriff’s station ACS
operating room. The reported total QSO count for the Feb. 5th-7th event was
2,067. Stephen King, KE6WEZ, spoke about the Bandit Trail Run that will be
Sunday Feb. 20. He welcomed any volunteer radio operators to come by. The
event will use the 147.180 repeater for communications. Rick mentioned that
the DX Convention in Visalia will be April 15 to 17 this year.
Program:
For our program this month, Jim Hutchinson, KI6MZ, gave a talk about the
prototype Field Strength Meter that he has built. He described the different
types of F.S. Meters that exist and the many uses they have. Jim is developing
the meter to be a Club project. He described the components the FSM will use
and estimated the total parts cost per unit, based on building ten, to be $125.00.
A demonstration was given with members testing their HT radios with different
antennas. Jim had the display of the F.S. Meter projected at the front of the
room. Each member keyed their radio from the same spot across the room
from a pickup antenna feeding the F.S. Meter. Signal level differences could
clearly be seen with this very interesting demonstration of how useful the Field
Strength Meter can be.
Break:
A refreshment break was taken at 8:38. The refreshments were provided by our
Vice President, Frank Valdez, KI6OQ.
Member Drawing: The progressive membership prize drawing was held and the name drawn was
Ralph “Rusty” Hemenway, K1GGS, who was not present to win the $5 prize.
The prize fund will therefore increase to $10 for our March 10, 2011 meeting.
Prize raffle:
The raffle prize drawing was held with the winners selecting the prize of their
choice. The Grand Prize was a battery charger-maintainer. Ray Campbell,
KI6LKD, won the grand prize after all the regular prize winners’ tickets went
back into the drum.
Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 8:58pm.
Submitted by: Secretary, John Percival, WI6O
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March 2011
Simi Settlers’ Short Circuit
Events
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 7:30pm VCARS General Meeting
The Cameron Center 288 Greenmeadow Dr. Newbury Park, CA 91320
http://www.vcars.org – and join http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/VCARS_discussion/ to stay on
top of developments.
Thursday March 10, 2011 7:00pm Simi Settlers General Meeting
Simi Valley Senior Center
3900 Avenida Simi, Simi Valley, CA 93063
note start time – we must be out by 8:55pm.
http://www.simisettlers.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SimiSettlersARC
Friday, March 11 7:30pm VCARC / K6MEP club meeting
Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
4360 E Main St # E San Buenaventura (Ventura), CA 93003
http://www.qsl.net/k6mep/
Next Fox-Hunting Event: March 13, 2011 at Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area
For e-mail notification of these events, you can join the southern California ARDF mailing list. More
info at: http://homingin.com/joemoell/ardfinla.html
Wednesday, March 16, 2011 7 pm W6JW Santa Clarita Club General Meeting
Santa Clarita Senior Center
22900 Market Street Santa Clarita, CA 91321 http://www.w6jw.org/
Thursday, March 17, 2011 7:30 pm, CVARC General Meeting
East County Sheriff's Station (ECSS) 2101 East Olsen Road Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
http://www.cvarc.org/
Saturday, March 26, 2011 7 am W6TRW Swapmeet (7am) and Exam Session (10am) Redondo
Beach, CA http://w6trw.com/swapmeet/swapmeet.htm
Sunday, April 10 2011, 8:30am Ham Radio License exam session at
Ventura County Sheriff's E County Station
2101 E Olsen Rd (Between 23 Hwy & Reagan Library);
Community Room, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 Walk-ins-Allowed.
Contact: Jeffrey M Reinhardt (818) 706-3853
See: http://www.cvarc.org/ for more information
Club Picnic
How does May 7th sound for a picnic in the park? Come to the next meeting and let us know!
Strathearn Park History Day June 18th
And the Simi Settlers will be there and on the air. Look for us at the park or on 7.260Mhz and 14.255Mhz
for phone or 14.040 - 14.045Mhz for CW.
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March 2011
Simi Settlers’ Short Circuit
Simi Settlers’ Leadership
President
Rick Galbraith W6DQE
Vice President
Frank Valdez, KI6OQ
Secretary
John Percival WI6O
Treasurer
Norbert Rehaut, W9YPM
Committee Chairpersons
Webmasters
Peter Grace
AI6PG
Edwin Grace
KI6LSH
Repeater
VACANT
ex-President
Peter Grace
AI6PG
Newsletter
Joe Partlow
W6JWP
Membership
VACANT
PIO
VACANT
Field Day
What will you do?
Youth Coordinator VACANT
Historian
VACANT
Elmer
VACANT
(805) 433-4513 cell
Rick@keymaterial.com
ffvaldez@dslextreme.com
percivaljohns@cs.com
nrehaut@dslextreme.com
pcg@acm.org
(805) 285-3063 cell
(805) 428-7903 cell
KI6KSV
pcg@acm.org
joe.w6jwp@gmail.com
Advisor
Bill Everett
wildpoky45@earthlink.net
Advisor
Jim Hutchinson KI6MZ
jhutch17@adelphia.net
Advisor
Brad Rife
speedy@earthlink.net
Advisor
Spencer Smith N6IWY
KI6KSY
(805) 583-1127
n6iwy@sbcglobal.net
Letter From The Editor
Wow! A lot of things coming up in the next few months leading up to Field Day. I really
appreciate all the support I've received since I took over the newsletter. I expect to hear from
the rest of you and look forward to finding out how you're spending your Ham Radio moments.
A few words, a picture, a project whatever you'd like to share.
- 73 Joe W6JWP
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