Author Archives: AI6VX

Congresswoman Julia Brownley Presents $963,000 To The County of Ventura for Regional Public Safety Radio Project

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Outdoor image of smiling people all helping to hold a large check

VENTURA, Calif. – On Wednesday, April 3, Congresswoman Brownley presented $963,000 to the County of Ventura to upgrade the region’s 15-year-old analog simulcast radio communications system. The funds will go toward establishing a state-of-the-art digital radio communication system which will utilize 700MHz frequencies. The upgraded radio system will be used by all public safety entities throughout the county to improve communications interoperability for public safety and first responder individuals as they respond to incidents and disasters. “The importance of ensuring our law enforcement and public safety entities in Ventura County have access to high-quality, reliable communications equipment cannot be overstated,” said Congresswoman Julia Brownley. “Not only will this state-of-the-art communication system facilitate better communication and coordination between agencies, but all of our cities and residents will benefit from streamlined services that will lower costs and redundancies. This is truly a win-win for everyone across the region. In advocating for this… Continue reading →

The Keyer Has Been Retired

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Image of an antique morse key, mounted on stained wood

The Keyer has been a monthly Ventura County Amateur Radio Club newsletter containing articles, information on past and upcoming club events, and news about the club and ham community. Written by members, officers, and local hams, this newsletter has been tirelessly assembled by many editors over its 88-year history. Today, with the internet, we no longer have to wait until the next newsletter to provide you with up-to-date information. Within minutes an article or news item can be posted on our new website, and include vibrant photos and clickable links. Because our new website duplicates many of the functions the Keyer provided, the Keyer has been retired. The April 2024 issue was the last one. A big thank you to all the Keyer editors over the years, and especially to Robert KM6RSS – our most recent editor. Your work will live on in the archives. Dave AI6VX

CQ’ers Club – Another Successful Meeting!

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On Saturday April 20th, Jacques KN6VQ held a successful CQ’ers club POTA activation/meeting at Ventura State Beach Park. In attendance was Jacques, Larry K6LWG, Burt KA6BJA, Peter W6PJG and Dave AI6VX. Though the sun never came out, other hams around the world did. Working 10M and 20M a total of 52 QSO’s were logged. Many out of state QSO’s were made, including GA, WA and OR. A few DX QSO’s were also made with Jacques winning the distance record by capturing Australia, Overall we all had a great time while also practicing calling CQ, listening through pileups, and working with logging software. If you would like to join in on the fun, you’re in luck! The next CQ’ers Club meeting will be Saturday April 27th, again at Ventura State Beach. You can park for free by using the street adjacent to the park by the Marriott, or by parking on… Continue reading →

HF Transceiver and Linear Amplifier

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ICOM IC-7300 – $800 I bought this radio for our cabin in Idaho but stumbled into a Kenwood 890S that took its place. Iunboxed the radio and used it a few times to ensure it worked before hauling it to Idaho. With that,it’s essentially brand new and still under factory warranty. I did purchase the receive only antennakit that takes about 5 minutes to install if you would like to at a “listening” antenna. For completedetails, you can get all the specs here as well as a manual. https://www.icomamerica.com/lineup/products/IC-7300/ Ameritron AL811H Linear Amp, Like New – $1,100 800+ Watt, 10 to 160 MetersNote: 10Meter modification done & wired for 220 operation. This was bought to go with my iC 7300, but will be using my Kenwood 922A instead. It is like newwith about 2 hours of time on it. For full specs and manual, you can go here:https://mfjenterprises.com/products/al-811h Contact: Tack… Continue reading →

Field Day 2024 Planning Meeting

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ARRL Field Day 2024 logo

Are you planning on participating in our 2024 Field Day event? If so, please attend our first planning meeting over Zoom this Thursday April 18th at 7pm. Zoom details can be found on our calendar, or for those on Groups.io, in the reminder email that will be sent out the day of the meeting. Field day this year is June 21 – 23, and there are many ways you can participate. Come and help us make this year’s Field Day fun and engaging.

Our New Website is Live!

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Image of Dave Schmidt AI6VX

As you can see, our club’s new website is now live! I have checked many of the pages and links to make sure nothing broke after the switch, but I’m sure I missed something. If you find an error, send me an email to president@vcarc.club and I’ll get it fixed. We also now have an active FOR SALE section! Do you have ham radio or related gear you would like to sell? Let me know what you have, the condition, photos and your contact info and I will get it posted I want this website to be useful for YOU, and that you will visit often. If you have suggestions or additions, I want to hear it. If you want to post an article to the website (especially for those folks that contributed to the Keyer), send me your article and I’ll get it done. As this site matures, we… Continue reading →

An Engineer Looks at Science Part 4

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Image of Reese West KQ6TTA

By Reese West KQ6TTA lot of the life of an engineer is solving problems which are inadequately stated, withinadequate data, time, and money. This note is one engineer’s look at what scientists havebeen doing with their time and effort. If you read it you will find: This idea is easily attacked so let me add fuel to that. Although we see time as thingshappening ‘now’, there can exist precognition, conscious knowledge of an event before ithappens. Also, I believe that lightning is partially in NTNS. If you want to understand spritesand ball lightning, at least examine NTNS. This effort and writing are dedicated to Robert Shank KM6RSS, who encouraged andhelped read and polish my efforts over several years.L. West KQ6TT DEC 5, 2023

April 2024 Vice President’s Message

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Image of Jacques KN6VVQ

Hello Ventura County Hams, Wow, this year seems to be flying by! With 2024 moving at such an accelerated pace, it is timeto start thinking about one of our biggest days of the year: Field Day! Field Day is less than three months away, which means we need to start brainstorming abouthow we want to run our event. I would like to preface what comes next with this: I understandthat some of you have been operating field day with VCARC for many years and have enjoyedthe laissez-faire environment of the past. I get it, and I’m not trying to completely revamp howthings are done. That being said, I have a few ideas on how to make things slightly moreorganized. The ultimate goal is to make time spent on air more efficient, and the event morewelcoming to our new ham friends and members. I will give a short overview of my… Continue reading →

April 2024 President’s Message

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Image of Dave Schmidt AI6VX

Happy April everyone!  I hope nobody got fooled on the first, and if you were the one doing the fooling, I hope your joke went over well.  I promise I won’t make any April Fool’s jokes in my Keyer articles this year. March was a busy month for our club!  We started with a presentation on coax by Mark Thompson AE6GD, followed by a successful VE session, picnic and portable operations the next day at the Dudley House.  I can still taste those burgers off the grill with the melted cheese and carmelized onion, the potato salad, cookies, oranges, chips, etc.  Great – now I’m hungry 🙂  Congratulations to Jacques KN6VVQ, our club Vice President and now Amateur Extra!  He earned his Extra that morning in our VE session and passed with flying colors.  Be sure and congratulate him when you see him. Saturday the 23rd, many of you turned… Continue reading →