Category Archives: Articles / Keyer

Tag for articles that would normally have gone into the Keyer

FIELD DAY JUNE 27-28 WITH SET-UP THE AFTERNOON OF JUNE 26 AT OXNARD COLLEGE’S DUCK POND

By | | , , ,
Comments Off on FIELD DAY JUNE 27-28 WITH SET-UP THE AFTERNOON OF JUNE 26 AT OXNARD COLLEGE’S DUCK POND

VCARC Field Day 2026 at Oxnard CollegeJune 27–28, 2026 with set-up after noon on June 26 The Ventura County Amateur Radio Club (VCARC, K6MEP) invites hams, families, and the public to join its annual ARRL Field Day operation on the beautiful Oxnard College campus. The event will take place in the grassy area west of Parking Lot B (near East Bard Road and South Rose Avenue) from approximately 11:00 AM Saturday through 11:00 AM Sunday (local time), aligning with the official ARRL Field Day period of 1800 UTC Saturday to 2059 UTC Sunday. Field Day is amateur radio’s largest annual emergency preparedness exercise. VCARC will set up portable stations powered by emergency sources (generators, batteries, etc.) to simulate real-world disaster communications. Visitors can watch operators make contacts across HF, VHF, and other bands, learn about ham radio, and see live demonstrations of emergency messaging. The public is warmly welcome —… Continue reading →

Silent Key – John Gartman, W6JPG Longtime Treasurer, Ventura County Amateur Radio Club

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Silent Key – John Gartman, W6JPG Longtime Treasurer, Ventura County Amateur Radio Club

It is with deep sadness that the Ventura County Amateur Radio Club announces the passing of our longtime Treasurer, John Gartman, W6JPG. This morning, John returned home with honors. As his wife, Peggy, lovingly shared: “My wonderful husband John returned home with honors this morning.Thank you to all who’ve been with us during this horrible time.He loved us well and will always be with us.” John served our club faithfully for many years, quietly and reliably handling the treasurer’s duties with care and dedication. He was a valued member of our ham radio community and a man who loved his family deeply. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his wife and all his family. Our club and the airwaves will be a little quieter without him. Rest easy, John.73, old friend — you are now Silent Key.

Station Setup Techniques to Prevent Field Day RFI (excerpt)

By | |
Comments Off on Station Setup Techniques to Prevent Field Day RFI (excerpt)

Advice from multi-station operators on how to minimize intermodulation and RFI. Conrad Trautmann, N2YCH ARRL Technical Editor, Keith Elliott W6KME Contributor and Member VCARC and CVARC ARRL Field Day in California Now, let’s apply these principles to your club’s Field Day operations, or to any multi-station portable operation. Keith Elliott, W6KME, from the Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club, AA6CV, in southern California has successfully run Field Day for his club for 3 years using 23 stations that are able to operate at the same time. Antennas Keith maximizes use of the space allowed in the Field Day rules and selects antennas that will provide maximum isolation between one another, providing good signals aiming north/northwest. By lining up the three identical HF antenna arrays end to end, the nulls at each end of the dipoles aim at each other, minimizing the amount of RF getting into the adjacent array. They use… Continue reading →

Clement Alberts KM6OKZ has been elected as our President and Burt Auerbach KA6BJA has been elected as our At-large Board Member

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Clement Alberts KM6OKZ has been elected as our President and Burt Auerbach KA6BJA has been elected as our At-large Board Member

At the February 8th board meeting, the attendees were Secretary Alan AK6MF, Treasurer John W6JPG, At-large Board members Clement KM6OKZ, Jeremy KN6JMD and Robert KM6RSS. Also attending were Dave AI6VX and Burt KA6BJA. At our January club meeting, Clement indicated that he would like to volunteer to become our club President, so at last night’s meeting, he resigned his board position and was unanimously voted as our interim President. Since Clement’s board position was open, the directors asked for nominees and voted unanimously for Burt to become an interim at-large board member. At this time, the only unfilled director’s position is Vice President. If you are interested in being nominated to this office, you must be a licensed ham radio operator and a club member in good standing. The VP role is to “assume the duties of the President during any absence of the President. The Vice President shall be… Continue reading →

ZACHARY (Zak) Cohen, N6PK — A Heartfelt Farewell

By | | ,
Comments Off on ZACHARY (Zak) Cohen, N6PK — A Heartfelt Farewell

On January 27, 2026, surrounded by family, we lost Zak Cohen, N6PK — a quiet giant in our Amateur Radio family. Born in January 1942 and licensed in 1961 during his Navy service, Zak didn’t just operate a radio; he built trust, confidence, and community with every kind word and steady hand. He mentored countless new hams with endless patience — never rushing, always encouraging, always following up. In emergencies, his calm voice brought reassurance to the net. In everyday life, he reached out to families of Silent Keys, offered wisdom to the overwhelmed, and friendship to anyone who needed it. He was a member of K6MEP and was happy to provide county updates during our meetings. Zak’s legacy lives in the operators he steadied, the nets he strengthened, and the people who are better hams and better humans because he took the time to care. We miss you deeply,… Continue reading →

The HP 3420B Differential Voltmeter Ratiometer by Clement Alberts KM6OKZ

By | |
Comments Off on The HP 3420B Differential Voltmeter Ratiometer by Clement Alberts KM6OKZ

A little over a year ago I started hunting for the title of this article.   It is as its name implies it is a DC voltmeter good down to about 20ppm.  I’ll talk about it some after giving you some of the backstory.  I’d been looking one to acquire for well over a year.  A few months ago, I found one, bought it and promptly found out I got scammed.   Got my money back though.  A second stroke of better luck in November proved more productive.  I located a 58-year-old example in Berlin Germany (viz a viz the Max Planck Institute) for a reasonable price.  That’s not to say there were no hurdles.  The seller didn’t want to ship to the USA.  Bribing the man made him agree to shipping it.  Once shipped it had to tediously wend its way through Germany, endure a flight to New York, languish for… Continue reading →

VP Says – December 2025

By | | ,
Comments Off on VP Says – December 2025

Hello Ventura County Hams, I can’t believe it’s December and another year of fun radio activities is coming to an end. “Where did the time go?” I say to myself every year at this time. The club had a great 2025: lots of fantastic weekends at our portable operation sessions, entertaining speakers at our monthly meetings, Field Day was a blast as always, and we welcomed many new hams to our ranks through our VE testing sessions. From my perspective, this has been an incredibly fruitful year for our club! As Dave AI6VX mentioned in his Pres Says message, the club needs members to step up and help out next year. We are still looking for a club President, Vice President, and Secretary. I wish I could commit to a full year of service to the club in one of these positions, but I will continue to help out when… Continue reading →

Pres Says December 2025

By | | , ,
Comments Off on Pres Says December 2025

Welcome to December! Today is December 5th.  Thanksgiving was just last week, and next week Friday December 12th is our Club’s Decemberfest celebration.  The weekend after that is the last weekend before Christmas, and 1 week later is Jan 1st, 2026 !  Crazy how time flies, but this is how it goes for me every year.  Does time go too fast for you too?  I’ve read that our brains mark the passage of time based on new things we do or encounter.  Change nothing and do the same thing over and over again, and time will whiz on by.  Change things up, do new stuff, experience new things – when you look back, it will feel like time didn’t go by so fast.  Based on my current perception of time, I need to change things up. Something new I am building is the same portable vertical antenna that Ben K6QV… Continue reading →

The HP 6209B Power Supply

By | |
Comments Off on The HP 6209B Power Supply

By Clement Alberts KM6OKZ I recently wrote a little article about my adventures with the Tek 577 curve tracer that Robert Shank KM6RSS was kind enough to sell me.  Recall for a moment that the 577 was designed to be used with semiconductor devices.  In my case, I wanted to look at the four 7838 pentode power output tubes on the Fisher 400 stereo amplifier my father gave me back in 1968 (that being an entire project in itself).  The 577 is capable of supplying control sufficient grid and plate voltages to power the 7868-vacuum tube.   It cannot however supply a separate voltage to power either the screen grid or the filaments.  The filaments were simply powered by DC supply.  The screen grid required my obtaining a HP 6515A power supply. This adjustable little joker can output almost 2KV.   The screen grid only required 350V.  The only thing I didn’t… Continue reading →