G.O.T.A. Seminar

“Getting On The Air”

Forming Now!

The Salvation Army together with the Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club

will hold a 2 part seminar where you can develop your

Amateur Radio License Getting On The Air skills

This is your next step after becoming licensed. This is your chance to learn the how to and techniques of Emergency Communications on Ham Radio and the excitement of Getting On The Air.

This seminar is to upgrade your current Technician skills!

Seminar Times…

Part 1 Thursday March 28, 2013

Part 2 Thursday April 4, 2013

At 7-9 pm

The Salvation Army

3950 Clayton Road, (at West St.)

Concord 94521

Registration is required.

Class is FREE but there is a $5 materials fee – No Textbook is needed.

Follow up training continues throughout the year.

 Stay tuned at www.SATERNConcord.org

To sign up email: HamRadioClass@gmail.com (http://us NULL.mc1848 NULL.mail NULL.yahoo NULL.com/mc/compose?to=HamRadioClass null@null gmail NULL.com)

For voice mail or fax: 925 465-9554

Chuck Graham, KI6DCD

EDS/SATERN Training Coordinator

Salvation Army Concord Corps

The East Bay Section’s Technical Coordinator Kristen McIntyre K6WX and her son Christopher KG6SVI were among those interviewed August 2 on KALW-FM (http://www NULL.kalw NULL.org/) about the magic of Amateur Radio. The story touches on ham radio topics such as CW, youth, DX, the unpredictability of propagation, and emergency communications.

This interview neatly sidesteps a common problem with media stories about ham radio: in most cases the journalist is clueless about our hobby. Apply the Walter Cronkite solution: in this case, the reporter is himself a ham, Mike Meenan ND6MM.

Read and listen to this story (http://www NULL.kalw NULL.org/post/chatroulette-there-was-ham-radio).

Amateurs in and near the ARRL East Bay Section are invited to participate in a brief radio activity on Saturday morning, June 9, 2012 in support of the American Red Cross Bay Area, a served agency of ARRL East Bay Section ARES®.

Early on June 9, Red Cross emergency response vehicles (ERVs) will be driven from their bases in six counties to a central location for semiannual cleaning and restocking. As they drive, their crews are asked to make frequent two-way radio contact, on a Red Cross frequency, with the Red Cross Disaster Operations Center (DOC) in Oakland. However, the transmissions are simplex, and terrain often prevents contact. The Red Cross invites assistance from the Amateur Radio community in tracking its ERVs that morning.

Between 7:30 and 9:00 am PDT on June 9, licensed amateurs are asked to listen for transmissions from these vehicles on a Red Cross frequency, 47.420 MHz (FM mode). They will be calling or replying to “Oakland DOC” and will identify themselves with 4-digit numbers as their tactical IDs. Any amateur who hears such a transmission, whether or not it is acknowledged by Oakland DOC, is invited to call “Oakland DOC” via Amateur Radio to report the vehicle’s ID, its location if that was heard, the time of the transmission, and his or her own Amateur Radio call sign.

Hams at Oakland DOC will be listening for reports on two Amateur Radio repeater systems: the Vaca Valley Radio Club repeater on Mt. Vaca in Solano County at 145.470 MHz, minus offset, PL 127.3, and the linked Bay-Net system. Bay-Net has a UHF repeater in the East Bay at 443.975 MHz PL 100.0, has several repeaters in the South Bay including 443.225 MHz PL 100.0, and is available via EchoLink and IRLP; see the Bay-Net Web site (http://www NULL.bay-net NULL.org/). The American Red Cross Bay Area thanks the Vaca Valley Radio Club and Bay-Net for their cooperation.

On these repeater systems, Oakland DOC will be announcing its availability to accept reports but will not be operating a directed net. Other amateurs may occasionally use these repeater systems for other purposes that morning, so please stand by until the frequency clears or ask the users if they will stand by for a moment so you can make your report.

Though not all dual-band HT or mobile ham radio rigs receive frequencies as low as 47 MHz, many do. We hope that hams with that capability, including those participating in the ARRL June VHF QSO Party beginning later that morning, will enjoy this challenge.

These two webinars, from the Atlantic Division, are being made available to members in the Pacific Division. Please note that the times listed are EDT. The two subjects are highly recommended.

American Red Cross and Amateur Radio

The American Red Cross is an important ARES® served agency. The Red Cross serves the public in many disaster situations including on site relief, disaster assessment, evacuation and sheltering those persons displaced in an emergency. This webinar describes the Red Cross activities and the role amateur radio can play in providing vital communications support. The intention is to provide Red Cross and amateur radio operators with a basic understanding of mutual expectations and needs in the sheltering environment and stresses efficient and accurate communications using various amateur modes including NBEMS (http://www NULL.arrl NULL.org/nbems).

The date and time are: Wednesday, April 4, 2012 from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm EDT. To register, go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/803987488 (https://www1 NULL.gotomeeting NULL.com/register/803987488)

Winlink 2000 Webinar

This session will focus on Winlink 2000 (http://www NULL.winlink NULL.org/) used for EmComm purposes. Presenters for this session will be Steve Waterman K4CJX, Lor Kutchins W3QA, Dave Skolnick KO4MI and Phil Sherrod W4PHS.

The date and time are: Tuesday, Apr 24, 2012 9:00 pm to 10:40 pm EDT. To register, go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/656044145 (https://www1 NULL.gotomeeting NULL.com/register/656044145)

A rumor has recently been circulating about a shut down of 440 in Northern California. This is NOT true. I received the following from Dan Henderson at ARRL:

Bill, Bob, Bob, Jim et al:

Not sure of how this rumor got started but we need to be very clear and firm. There is no current proposal to our knowledge (or to the FCC’s -yes I checked) to institute a quiet zone around Beale AFB, there is no proposal to stop 70-cm operations in Northern California. I suspect someone has elaborated on statements made at Bob Vallio’s Division Cabinet meeting from early December.

This kind of rumor hurts our position. It works people up about something that is frankly not on the table. Yes, the mitigation work to harmful interference to the Beale PAVE PAWS radar needs to continue and is going to continue. It is not a “ok we looked at everyone once and you can go back to old operations.” Yes, there is a lot of work still to be done by the Amateur community. Yes, the FCC is going to consider license modifications or other actions against specific individuals that continue to cause interference and refuse to seriously attempt to resolve the problem despite several requests. Those that insist on playing games refusing to meet their obligation to eliminate their harmful interference will eventually have to answer to the FCC’s inquiry.

But at this time to the ARRL’s knowledge, there is no proposal on the table to establish a quiet zone around Beale on the 70-cm band. Could this change? Absolutely, especially if the amateur community fails to meet its obligation as a secondary user on the band.

I respectfully ask that you as ARRL leadership in the affected area circulate these comments. And I ask that the person who posted this rumor to the NARCC reflector please immediately retract his post to that reflector. We need your help in stopping this rumor before it runs rampant, Thanks for your serious and immediate attention to this.

73

Dan Henderson, N1ND
Regulatory Information Manager
ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio™
860-594-0236
dhenderson@arrl.org