SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY SECTION Report for the month of April 2014

SM Dan Pruitt, AE6SX- ASMs K6YK and N2NS, ACC W6DPD, SEC KF6FIR, OOC N1VM, STM K6RAU, PIC K6QI, TC W6TE. Hi, Temperature is increasing and I hope all of your antenna projects are in place. My favorite time of the year is coming up. That is Field Day and your planning should be well on its way. If you are like me, there is still a lot to do. One eye is always looking at emergency communications and especially now with the drought affecting so much of the San Joaquin Valley and associated forests and mountain areas. The public service events that we have been practicing will be valuable during events like fires, food distributions, cooling centers and more. Remember the more volunteers that we have the less work for the rest of us. The ARRL Centennial Convention in July is accumulating many interesting speakers, presenters and vendors. If you can make the event, you will not be disappointed. Make your reservations as soon as possible. However, if you cannot attend then Pacificon is designated as a regional Centennial event. This brings to the West Coast much of what was at Dayton and Hartford, this year. For us in the San Joaquin Valley, Santa Clara is very close and accessible from both ends of San Joaquin Valley. I hope to see you there. I want to make an appeal to all those out there that wish to keep the hobby going, we need to mentor the youth in amateur radio if it is to continue. Participate in Scouts, student organizations, after school functions and maker fares. Create dialogs with your relatives about ham radio even if they themselves are not interested they may know someone who is. I know you are aware of this, I suggest we think about it a bit more often. Remember to post your events like Field Day, VE exams, public events, club meetings and license classes on the ARRL web site. You might be surprised at who will just show up to take a test or check out your club. Enjoy playing radio in the upcoming contests, museum ship weekend and Field Day. I plan on operating this Field Day. Monitor Google APRS, if I decide to operate mobile, hi hi. 73; Dan Pruitt, AE6SX NEWS: From ARRL newsletters. Read complete articles from April to now. ++ 04/07/2014 | ARRL Releases First Repeater Directory App for Android Devices The League has released a free Repeater Directory Android app . ++ 04/07/2014 | Amateur Radio-Developed Software Assisting in Search for Missing Airliner Ham radio-developed software is being put to use in the search for the missing Flight MH370. ++ 04/09/2014 | HI-SEAS Project Inaugural Ham Radio Event Will Commemorate Gagarin’s Space Flight A simulated Mars expedition will operate a special event station every weekend. ++ 04/11/2014 | HAARP Facility in Danger of Being Dismantled The HAARP Ionospheric research facility in Alaska could shut down entirely this year. ++ 04/14/2014 | FUNcube/AO-73 Transponder Will Be Active Each Weekend. The FUNcube-1 transponder will be available every weekend. ++ 04/15/2014 | Gear Up Now for ARRL Field Day 2014! Field Day gear is available now from ARRL. ++ 04/16/2014 | Amateur Radio Volunteers Provide Critical Support for 30th Challenge Cup Relay An annual relay race involving thousands of law enforcement personnel gets Amateur Radio support. ++ 04/19/2014 | KickSat Has Been Deployed in Low-Earth Orbit The KickSat CubeSat now is in orbit. ++ 04/28/2014 | Armed Forces Day 2014 Cross-Band Communication Test Set for May 10 The annual Armed Forces Day cross-band communication test will take place May 10. ++ 04/30/2014 | Convention Forums to Feature Presentation by Nobel Laureate Joe Taylor, K1JT Nobel Laureate Joe Taylor, K1JT, will be a speaker at the ARRL Convention. ++ 04/30/2014 | Massachusetts to Host USA ARDF Championships June 5-8 The USA ARDF Championships will take place June 5-8 in the Boston area. ++ 05/05/2014 | Canadian Radio Amateurs Gain New 472-479 kHz Band Hams in Canada now have a band at 472-479 kHz. ++ 05/05/2014 | Tiny KickSat “Sprite” Satellites May Not Deploy ++ 05/06/2014 | Ham Radio Volunteers Shift Gears to Handle Mountain Bike Event Emergency Volunteers helping communications for a mountain bike race found themselves handling a real emergency. ++ 05/08/2014 | FUNcube-2 Launch Set for June 19 FUNcube-2 will launch as part of the larger UKube-1 satellite on June 19. ++ 05/08/2014 | ARRL to Celebrate its 100th Birthday at Dayton! ARRL’s actual 100th birthday will coincide with the last day of Dayton Hamvention. Contests: May 2014 + CWops Mini-CWT Test 1300Z-1400Z, May 14 and 1900Z-2000Z, May 14 and 0300Z-0400Z, May 15 + RSGB 80m Club Championship, Data 1900Z-2030Z, May 14 + UN DX Contest 2100Z, May 16 to 2100Z, May 17 + Portuguese Navy Day Contest, Digital 0800Z-2359Z, May 17 + His Maj. King of Spain Contest, CW 1200Z, May 17 to 1200Z, May 18 + Aegean RTTY Contest 1200Z, May 17 to 1200Z, May 18 + EU PSK DX Contest 1200Z, May 17 to 1200Z, May 18 + Baltic Contest 2100Z, May 17 to 0200Z, May 18 + UA2 QSO Party 1300Z-1659Z, May 18 + CWops Mini-CWT Test 1300Z-1400Z, May 21 and 1900Z-2000Z, May 21 and 0300Z-0400Z, May 22 + CQ WW WPX Contest, CW 0000Z, May 24 to 2359Z, May 25 + The Day of YLs 0600Z, May 24 – 1800Z, May 25 + SARL Digital Contest 1300Z-1600Z, May 25 + MI QRP Memorial Day CW Sprint 2300Z, May 25 to 0300Z, May 26 + CWops Mini-CWT Test 1300Z-1400Z, May 28 and 1900Z-2000Z, May 28 and 0300Z-0400Z, May 29 June 2014 + ARS Spartan Sprint 0100Z-0300Z, Jun 3 + NRAU 10m Activity Contest 1700Z-1800Z, Jun 5 (CW) and 1800Z-1900Z, Jun 5 (SSB) and 1900Z-2000Z, Jun 5 (FM) and 2000Z-2100Z, Jun 5 (Dig) + 10-10 Int. Open Season PSK Contest 0001Z, Jun 7 to 2359Z, Jun 8 + VK Shires Contest 0600Z, Jun 7 to 0600Z, Jun 8 + SEANET Contest 1200Z, Jun 7 to 1200Z, Jun 8 + Alabama QSO Party 1600Z, Jun 7 to 0400Z, Jun 8 CLUBS CLOVIS ARP ++ AE6GE, Rob, continues to be creative with T-Hunts. Plans for the California Classic Century ride are in place for May 17. The FAME group (Fresno Area Mentors & Elmers) had another group get their hams license. www.k6arp.org/ FRESNO ARC++ Doyle W6OEZ commends Jack AC6LT, for his decade of service as the BS (Basic Science) Net Control. Jack, an avid DXer, wants to play more radio! Gearing up for the June VHF contest Erik, NI6G, sported his January FM only SJV Certificate. Tom, WB6HYD, showed the 5 level chart of Morse Code similar to those given him in the Boy Scouts. It was help when first learning the code. Charles W6DPD posted links to the Juno Experiment results from last October. Hams were definitely heard! Vic K2VCO is relocating to 4X land so the antennas came down and the pictures are in “Skip”. This link is about brass-pounding during Lincoln’s presidency – http://www.futilitycloset.com/2014/03/17/western-union/. www.w6to.com LOS BANOS ARC ++ April meeting pictures in the news letter with the announcement of Dan AE6SX, SJV SM speaking at the May 10 meeting. www.aa6lb.org SIERRA ARC ++ Visitors! On 8 April SARC hosted a visit by San Joaquin Section Manager Dan Pruitt and Salvation Army Captain Breazale. In route to Mono County, they were reviewing ARES and SATERN Amateur radio disaster communications. May’s program will be Skywarn Storm Spotters. Good advice regarding operating during a repeater failure. www.qsl.net/wa6ybn/ SEQUOIA ARG ++ Amateur Radio Credited in Rescue of Wayward Hikers in Kern County. THE MESSAGE OF AMATEUR RADIO as recounted by Don, KW6PMC. www.n6krv.org STANISLAUS ARC ++ Quarterly newsletter starts with a calendar of the next Quarters Public Service events. A review of a prim o burger spot by Paul W6UHF. The next Hamcram is in August. A reprint of the June 1984 newsletter describing Field Day plans. Great read. Centennial Conventions has attracted 5 members to Hartford. An article discusses the prizes being offered. There is very interesting reading of FCC enforcement vs. household items like ballasts, doorbell xfrmrs etc. Don, KR6US shares “RADIO WAVES” discussing ARISS, Satellites and school participation. www.saraclub.net STOCKTON DELTA ARC ++ Paul N6KZW reminds us of the contribution of Amateur Radio in the 2013 Boston Marathon. He also gives an update on the USS Lucid (N6MSO) and Museum Ship Weekend, June 7-8. He also posted a form letter for club recruiting. Great idea. NZ6Q won “Single Operator – Low Power” category in the SJV for the 2013 CW Sweepstakes last November. The history of the ham bands after WWII. www.w6sf.org TURLOCK ARC ++ A demonstration of DMR radio was presented at the April meeting. The raffle was won by Darren, K6RDJ and it was a CS 700 DMR radio. Also posted in April’s ARCOVER, “A Combo DMR & D-Star Radio” announcement submitted by Loren, K6GPA. UP UP And Away By Grady, K6IXA, is an article describing parachute flying! Fascinating read. It’s Alive! An story by Grady, K6IXA about replacing a 220MHz repeater with a new one. www.w6bxn.org. The following Amateurs became Silent Keys since the last report: KJ6OUA Thomas. He will be missed. Traffic for April 2014: ORS: W6SX 1, WS6P 1746, K6RAU 25 Total 1772 PSHR: W6SX 23, WS6P 190, K6RAU 82 Mark your Calendars: Dayton Hamvention® May 16-18, 2014 — Regional ARRL Centennial Event, Dayton, Ohio . For details see www.hamvention.org . May 30-Jun 1 Nevada State Convention, Virginia City, Nevada. Go to www.nvcon.org for more information. SEA-PAC 2014 Regional ARRL Centennial Convention is June 6 – 8, 2014, Seaside, Oregon. For more information go to www.seapac.org/. Pacificon 2014/Regional ARRL Centennial Convention is 10 through 14 October 2014. Details at www.pacificon.org/. International DX Convention is April 17-19, 2015 in Visalia. Check www.dxconvention.org for information. Need to take an Amateur exam? Are you having an exam? Check the ARRL web page, www.arrl.org/arrlvec/examsearch.phtml for exam information. You can also search for Amateur Radio Classes in your area and register your exam. Instructors can also register classes there. Card Checking in the Section: You can get cards checked for awards within the section. W6XK, K6ZZ, and W6DPD can check your cards for DXCC in accordance with the rules for field checking. DXCC card checkers may now check cards dated from Nov 15, 1945, including Deleted DXCC Entities. K6ZZ can now check 160 Meter Cards. DXCC card checkers may, at their discretion, check cards for WAS, WAC, and VUCC. W6DPD and K6ZZ can check cards for the CQ Awards, WAZ, DX, Field, and Prefixes. The card checkers may also check applications for the IARU Region 2 Award. ARRL Special Service Clubs may appoint a HF awards manager for WAS and a VHF Awards Manager for VUCC. The Webinar by Hank Garretson, W6SX, has been posted to the WWROF webpage (www.wwrof.org) under the Webinars link. Hanks presentation will be of particular interest to “Little Pistols” and those who are space limited. It’s worth checking out! Hank added a link to the elevation plot which can be viewed at http://www.heywhatsthat.com/ Also the Ladder Snaps in the presentation can be found at http://www.73cnc.com/product_p/ls100.htm You can e-mail Hank at w6sx@arrl.net for additional details. The K6RAU (our Traffic Manager) Morse Code Instruction Course is available at www.pdarrl.org/K6RAU or www.pdarrl.org/k6rau. No need to know a “dit” from a “dah”, simply with paper and pencil, and following the instructions. San Joaquin Valley Nets: The Noontime net meets on 7.268.5 MHz. This net handles a lot of messages. Daytime Region 6 Traffic Net meets daily at 3:30 pacific time on or near 7.275 MHZ. This one is probable not in operation at this time. The California Traffic Net meets daily on 3.906 MHZ and 6:00 PM local time. The Golden Bear Amateur Radio Net meets nightly at 7:00 PM local time on 3.975 MHZ. Northern California Net (NCN), the Section Traffic Net, meets nightly on 3.533 MHZ at 7 PM Pacific Time. San Joaquin Net meets Monday-Saturday on 3918khz, at 6 PM Pacific Time. Western Public Service System (WPSS) meets nightly on 3952khz, roll – at 7:30 PM local Pacific Time. The Mission Trail Net meets nightly on 3.856 MHZ at 8:00 PM local time. Northern California Net 2 (NCN2) The slow speed training session of NCN, meets nightly on 3.533 MHZ at 9 PM Pacific Time. Handling traffic on CW is a good way to improve your CW skills. CWops Tests are held every second and third Wednesday of each month at 1300Z, 1900Z, and 0300Z (Thursday). Info and rules at http://www.cwops.org/cwt.html . NNNN ——————————————————————– ARRL San Joaquin Valley Section Section Manager: Dan Pruitt, AE6SX ae6sx@arrl.org ——————————————————————–