The International DX Convention is coming up in Visalia on April 15-17.
Is anyone in the club going to attend? Want to give us a report afterward?
Monthly Archives: March 2016
March Meeting Moved to A1/1029 A-B
Our March meeting has been moved to A1/1029 A-B, (Atlas I and II, x64186, x64187). It will be next week, March 31, at 11:30 AM.
We will have discussion of field day preparations among other things.
-Kirk
El Segundo Repeater Status
From Mike Worshum:
Good news, the City purchased a nice industrial battery and a battery maintenance charger. Since I’m leaving town for a few days I dropped the repeater off with Carl Jacobson. He will get with his contact at Mattel and set up a date and time to install it. I’ll make another announcement once it’s on air.
The controller will have to be programed for the correct time but I can do that remotely. The other announcements should be in the controller memory. Please pass along to the club this status.
It looks like we will be back to the El Segundo repeater soon.
-Kirk
Possible Field Day Location: Top of Parking Structure
(Copied from emails)
Kirk Crawford:
After our last meeting I had an idea that we might think of as an alternative field day location. We could set up on the Parking Structure. I would propose that we install the antennas on the roof/top level of the structure, and then have our tables/radios on the level below that. We wouldn’t be able to use the EOC trailer, but we would get a significant height advantage for the antennas. It would not be as easy for retirees and others to get to since it is significantly past the security gates. What do you guys think? I got the idea from the South Bay Amateur Radio club that does their field day in the Torrance Memorial parking structure.
Archie Buchanan:
You are right, there would be a great spot for radios and antennas. It would be great.
Teresa Moore
Interesting idea. We’d get better signal, but it’s harder logistically. I’ll likely have my kids with me, and the nearest bathroom is in A6, and I can’t just send them there without going with them to badge them in. It would also be harder for a city council person (or whatever public figure we solicit) to show up. On the other hand, we don’t have to rely on Security to move the trailer.
Who is planning to come to the Aerospace Field Day? I was planning to be there for at least a few hours (my husband will be doing a Field Day exercise with his unit so he won’t be there and I’ll have all three kids, at least one of which is old enough to work a station for a while under a licensed station control operator).
February 2016 Meeting Minutes
2/26/16
AEA Amateur Radio Club Meeting
In attendance:
- Teresa Moore AG6OD
- Archie Buchanan KD6OLH
- Don Putnick NA6Z
- Ching Kong KJ6QBI
- Gerrit Sorenson
- Don Hall KK6DCX
- Kirk Crawford KK6KC
Kirk gave a repeater report; repeater is fixed and will be installed once the backup battery is purchased.
The club has more Ham It Forward licenses to give out, so if you know anyone at Aerospace that might be interested in getting an amateur radio license then let them know about this free resource.
The D8 shack is being used for contesting, Ryan Noguchi March 19-20 for various contests. The shack is available to any member who would like to participate.
The HF net to COS occurred in January, but the February net was canceled. We will try to check in to the March net on March 2 at 9 am in the D8 shack.
Kirk gave a report on the upgrades to the Buddipole.
We are starting preparation for Field Day. We need volunteers for the following positions:
PR coordinator (Don Hall)
HF Rig 1 (Kenwood) coordinator
HF Rig 2 (KX3) coordinator
VHF Rigs coordinator
Location and Trailer Movement coordinator (Kirk Crawford)
Please let Kirk know if you are interested in volunteering for one of these positions. We will most likely use VC 1 again as our Field Day location. We need to figure out what antennas we plan to use.
Tuesday March 15 we will plan to set up the Buddipole antenna and one of the HF radios in the VC1 parking lot and try to make some contacts.
The D8 remote operations plan is still not functional. There were various problems which were never overcome.
January 2016 Meeting Minutes
1-28-16
AEA Amateur Radio Club Meeting
In attendance: KK6DCX Don Hall, KK6WYW Bob Lanahan, AG6OD Teresa Moore
The daily net has been going well.
Teresa gave a report on the repeater status. Mike Worshum is working the issue. Dave Ping repaired the repeater but they still need to purchase a new backup battery which will require a vote from the city council. In the meantime, we are welcome to use the Hughes repeater.
There was a CERT exercise scheduled for February, Don Hall will check with Jason Bayonne as to the status on that.
It would be good to have a computer for the A3 shack so that the net email can be sent directly from there. Don will check into that.
No one knew the status of the monthly net with the Colorado and Chantilly offices.
We need to start thinking about Field Day, and schedule some lunchtime practices where we set up antennas and try to make contact.