Category Archives: Announcements

Club Meeting Friday August 9th at 7pm

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Hourglass on a beach

Please join us for our monthly club meeting on Friday August 9th at 7pm. Jacques KN6VQ will be giving a presentation on contesting. We will also be talking about club activities through the rest of the year. Please join us in-person at: Grace Lutheran Church 6190 Telephone Rd, Ventura 93003 or via Zoom (details below). Thank you! Dave AI6VX Topic: VCARC August Club MeetingTime: Aug 9, 2024 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meetinghttps://zoom.us/j/98296525365?pwd=yRaVEYuGH2mwrcWsafPURcaCrSPp5Z.1 Meeting ID: 982 9652 5365Passcode: 452178

Pres Says – July 2024

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Hourglass on a beach

Time passes by differently at different stages of one’s life.  When I was still in school, there was school time, then Summer break time.  After graduating from college, there was no more Summer break time – it was work, then the weekend.  Gone were the days when I would have a large block of time off.  Lately, at least for the past 10+ years, it’s been ‘The Holidays’, then the 4th of July. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas go by in a blur, then it’s all over until ‘The 4th’.  And after ‘The 4th’, next thing I know it’s Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas again.  Another trip around the Sun, another year older. It’s all going by too fast for me. Field Day 2024 was so far in the future at the start of the year, and yet here we are already past it by 2 weeks.  What a great weekend that… Continue reading →

Field Day 2024 Photos

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Field Day 2024 is now in the history books. The Oxnard College location was once again was a nice place to spend 24+ hours with fellow club members and visiting hams. It was great to see everyone spreading out and setting up your stations, helping others, and watching and hearing you all operate. The food was great (thank you meals and menu planning committee folks) and big thanks to the folks at the end that helped tear down and clean up. I believe we left the place in better condition than when we arrived. If you took photos, please share them! You can either email me photos or send me a link to a file sharing location and I can get them up on the website. Meanwhile here’s photos that Robert took during Field Day 2024. Enjoy! Dave AI6VX

VCARC FIELD DAY 2024 INFO

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Graphic logo with the text "K6MEP Ventura County Amateur Radio Club California USA". Image is a cartoon drawing of the islands off the coast of Ventura, with seagulls and 1 sailboat

The Ventura County Amateur Radio Club will be holding our annual ARRL Field Day event this weekend from 11am Saturday June 22nd through 11am Sunday June 23rd at Oxnard College. Club members will be setting up their equipment in the field adjacent to parking lot B (corner of Bard and Rose), and during the 24 hour period, will be making contact with as many other ham radio operators as possible. Map to event is here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Gr8xajyJHbaCBfZn8 If you have been curious about ham or emergency communications, this would be the perfect event for you to stop by, see what is possible, and ask questions. We will even have a GOTA (get on the air) station set up where you can experience the fun of making contact with another ham operator. With the current solar cycle, we’ve had great success in reaching far away stations such as Australia with just 50… Continue reading →

Ventura County Board of Supervisors Declares June “Amateur Radio Month” on June 18, 2024

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ARRL Field Day 2024 logo

Waiting for the Amateur Radio Proclamation to be Announced by Supervisor Kelly Long District 3 Chair of the Board of Supervisors Jeff Reinhardt AA6JR Public information Coordinator ARRL – Santa Barbara Section listens as Rob Hanson W6RH Ventura County ACS Radio Officer and Ventura County ARES District Emergency Coordinator speaks to the Board of Supervisors about the Auxiliary Communications Service and Amateur Radio Emergency Service community service. Andy Ludlum K6AGL Assistant Section Manager ARRL – Santa Barbara Section presents details of amateur radio volunteers and projects in the Ventura County community. Jeff Reinhardt AA6JR Public information Coordinator ARRL – Santa Barbara Section presented a slide show about amateur radio and its contributions to the nation as well as our local communities. This slide depicts three club’s Field Day locations and Jeff invited all attendees to come out and see for themselves how emergency communications can be established under field conditions.

Slides From June 14th 2024 Club Meeting

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ARRL Field Day 2024 logo

Thank you all for coming out to our club meeting Friday June 14th. We had a good working meeting to go over our Field Day 2024 plans. As promised, here is a link to the slides presented out our meeting. Slide 15 has the details on loading N3JFP logging software onto your laptop. Slide Deck A Zoom invite for our meal planning and N3FJP tutorial will be listed on our club calendar and over Groups.io Field Day 2024 is right around the corner! Dave AI6VX

President’s Message – June 2024

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Boston Dynamics Spot with person

President’s Message – June 2024 Field Day 2024 is here! What seemed so far off in the distance is now a mere 2 weeks away.  Our June club meeting will be 100% focused on final Field Day planning.  To help with the planning, and to get the latest information, please try to attend this meeting in-person or over Zoom. Our HF nets are taking off!  The last few 40M nets have been amazing.  Strong signals locally and up and down California.  We even have a non-club member check in regularly from the South Western tip of Utah.  We had 16 check-ins at one of our recent 40M nets, 13 of which were from outside of our area!  If you haven’t been working the HF bands, give it a try!  And don’t be afraid of calling out CQ.  I’ve noticed there seems to be a lot of friendly folks that tune… Continue reading →

VP Message – June 2024

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Image of Jacques KN6VVQ

Hello Ventura County Hams, Can you believe that we are just over two weeks away from Field Day, how has the first half of this year gone by so fast? Our Field Day Committee has been busy planning all the technical aspects of handling one of the largest turnouts in the country, and we are looking forward to a fun 24 hours of operating at Oxnard College. We started the day with 12 stations last year, let’s try and make it 13 this year! Even if you haven’t attended any of the Planning Committee or General Membership meetings, that doesn’t mean you can’t participate. On the contrary, we would love to have you come out and operate with us! There will be plenty of great food, camaraderie, and on-air time for all. No rig? No problem. There will be lots of radios for you to jump on the air and… Continue reading →

Club Project Build May 18, 2024

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Club Project Basics demonstration

After the ham exam, held at the Grace Lutheran Church, Dave Schmidt AI6VX and Mark Thompson AE6GD put on a club project build-basics demonstration. John Gartman W6JPG, Chris Dimond KJ6QOP. Burt Auerbach KA6BJA, Larry Gray K6LWG, Ben Holmes, K6QV, Duane Smeckert KO6ACQ and Robert Shank KM6RSS watched Dave demonstrate the correct way to create wire connectors with Anderson Power Poles and saw Mark show the many ways to remove components from a circuit board. Dave also went through the steps of preparing an RG8X-B coaxial for a crimped PL-259 connector. Dave shows how to add an Anderson Power Pole while Ben, Chris, and Mark watch. Mark used several soldering techniques including a solder-sucker, solder remover using braided wire, temperature-controlled soldering iron and a hot air gun. No fingers were burned although some rosin smoke enhanced everyone’s enjoyment of the demonstration. Dave used three cable insulation cutters to obtain the best… Continue reading →

Ham Exam held on May 18th

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Ham Exam

Our club hosted its second ham exam this year (the first was held on March 9th at the Dudley House); this was the first time we held it at the Grace Lutheran Church 6190 Telephone Rd, Ventura CA 93003. The Church has a lot of parking and meeting room space, great seating and Dave brought the donuts! Six people attended; two received their technician license and two received their amateur extra license. Dave AI6VX (upper left), Larry K6LWG (walking at center), John W6JPG (far right), and Robert KM6RSS (taking the photo), administered the test as Volunteer Examiners with the ARRL as the VEC. Our next exam is scheduled for July 13 (8:30 AM) at the Grace Lutheran Church. All applicants must pre-register for an exam by sending an email to licensing@vcarc.club with your information. We will reply within a day to confirm your spot, and include information on what you will need to… Continue reading →