Sonoma County Radio Amateurs

May 31-June 1 Technician Class and Exam

The Next Technician Ham Class Scheduled. 

The class is primarily a video course presented by a team of instructors, this time at the Sebastopol fire station the weekend of May 31-June  1.

The Saturday session runs from 8:00 AM until 5:30 PM.  The Sunday session  begins at 8:00 AM.

The VE session led by Brian N6IIY begins at 2:00 PM Sunday afternoon and continues until candidates have completed their examinations.

There are quizzes and Q&A sessions following each segment with lots of breaks and plenty of time for lunch each day. 

To sign up for the class contact SCRA’s mentoring chairman, John Breckenridge WB6FRZ  at (707) 217-1017.

73,

John WB6FRZ

Posted in Announcements

May Meeting Announcement

Recently, a group of our members supported a team of Santa Rosa Police Department runners during a footrace from Baker to Las Vegas.  Radio communications and APRS tracking were essential aspects of this effort.  Members of the group will present an informal report and picture slide show at our May 7th meeting, beginning at 7:00 PM at Luther Burbank Art and Garden Center, 2050 Yulupa Way, Santa Rosa, CA.  See you there!

Posted in Announcements

Field Day 2008!!

June 27, 28 & 29

Field Day 2008 is coming up fast!! Our goal is to “bring amateur radio to Main Street, USA”. This year, we will be at the Youth Community Park, across from Piner High School, on Fulton Road in Santa Rosa (it’s as close to Main Street as we could get!). The dates are Friday afternoon through Sunday early afternoon, June 27, 28, and 29.

If you have never participated in Field Day before, you do not want to miss this event. This is a great way to get your feet wet on the HF bands; there’s no lack of activity! It is also a wonderful opportunity to learn how to put a station together, from finding power for the radio to radiating a signal.

We will start setting up Friday afternoon, probably starting about 4:00 pm. The event officially starts at 11:00 am Saturday morning and runs until 11:00 am Sunday morning.

The current plan is to enter as a “2A” classification, which means two HF transmitters, plus a GOTA (Get On The Air) station. If we have more equipment and antennas, we might put a third HF transmitter on the air.

A new twist this year is the Educational Activity Bonus, which replaces the Demonstration Mode bonus. This is meant to be a learning exercise, with emphasis on “activity”; it is NOT merely a demonstration of some aspect of ham radio. It is very “hands-on”. I have a few ideas of what we might do, but if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

I need to get a gauge of how many people are interested in attending. So, please let me know if you would be interested in any of the following:

• Antenna and station setup Friday afternoon
• Setup Saturday morning
• Operating
• Attending the Educational Activity
• Organizing dinner Saturday evening and/or breakfast Sunday morning
• Tear-down on Sunday after 11:00 am

Thanks and I hope to hear from as many as possible!

73,

Brian Torr, N6IIY

(707) 575-5871 (home)

n6iiy@arrl.net

Posted in Announcements

February 2008 Short Skip

The February 2008 Issue of Short Skip has been posted to the Newsletter Tab.

-KK6JAB

Posted in Announcements

Welcome to the New SCRA Website

The Sonoma County Radio Amateurs Website has been re-located, and is now running on a new Content Managment System (CMS.)  This will allow the website to be very dynamic, and allow everyone who maintains a section of the site to post their own updates, and manage their own section of the site.

This means that the website will most likely be much more up to date, and updated much more often than it has been able to be updated in the past, when only the webmaster could perform updates.

Please let us know of any problems that you encounter.  Thanks!

73!

Posted in Announcements