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Tag for articles that would normally have gone into the Keyer

VP Says – March 2025

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 Our guest speaker for the March 14th meeting was Dr. Ed Fong (WB6IQN). As many of you may know, he is the inventor of the DBJ-1 and DBJ-2 antenna that was featured in the February 2003 and March 2007 QST. His most recent antenna was the TBJ-1 – a triband base antenna that was published in March 2017 QST. His DBJ-1 is a highly effective dual band VHF/UHF base station antenna and the DBJ-2 is the portable roll-up version. The DBJ-2 won the QST Plaque of the Month Award. Both of these antennas are featured in the ARRL VHF Antenna Handbook and also in the ARRL Antenna Classic Handbook. There are over 40,000 of these antennas in use today. About half are used by hams and the other half by government and commercial agencies. Dr. Fong has extensive knowledge of RF design and teaches at UC-Santa Cruz. His students learn… Continue reading →

Pres Says – Feb 2025

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Boston Dynamics Spot with person

Welcome to February! January was an exciting month in more ways than one.  There were many days of Santa Ana wind conditions, along with wildfires that caused unprecedented destruction.  In past years I was never very concerned with the high winds. This year was different.  The wind gusts at my house were insane.  Getting alerts via Watch Duty were concerning. I took two days off from work just in case we needed to evacuate.  We refreshed our bag of important documents and photos that were originally put together the night the Thomas Fire broke out. Cars were fueled up, the cat carrier was ready.  Thankfully we didn’t have to evacuate.  Thankfully the barranca upwind from us didn’t catch fire. We fielded phone calls, texts and email messages from friends and families in other states and countries.  They had seen the fires out here and wanted to know if we were… Continue reading →

VP Says – February 2025

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January, to me, came and went very quickly. During the month, our club members and friends enjoyed the following activities: Of course, our club held all of the weekly nets (Monday Night 2m/70cm, Wednesday Night 40m and Sunday afternoon 10m) and were joined by club members, local Ventura County hams, and some “long distant” hams from back East and the Mid-West on our 10m net. Remember that if you act as net control for our Monday Night Net in a given month, you will receive three raffle tickets (up to six if you are net control twice or more during a given month). February brings a number of activities to our club: See you all at the Friday the 14th club meeting (Valentine’s Day) at the Grace Lutheran Church 6190 Telephone Rd. Ventura CA 93003 where Paul Strauss, WD6EBY, will present “Ventura County Repeater Status”. Please bring your ideas, energy… Continue reading →

Pres Says – January 2025

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Borrowing a line from a long running soap opera – “Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives” (pictured is one of our recent gorgeous sunsets) Welcome to 2025!  Another trip around the Sun, the holidays are behind us, and wind and fire warnings seem to have replaced our rains.  As I am typing this we are on day 1 of 2 days of a “Life-Threatening & Destructive Windstorm!!!” (exclamation points from NOAA)  On the upside, the days are finally getting longer. I hope you all are safe, have power, and are not impacted by this windstorm. Decemberfest was great!  I hope you all enjoyed getting together as much as I did.  Great conversations, good food, nice gifts, fantastic decorations, and trivia!  We are already reserving the location for next year (thank you Robert) and will use the next 350+ days to address some of the… Continue reading →

VP Sez – January 2025

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Happy New Year 2025! As your club Vice President, I will focus on program planning, as well as supporting our president, Dave AI6VX. My first action is to obtain great speakers and topics for our monthly meetings. I have used our groups.io website to reach out to everyone with a poll, asking for volunteers to present. I have also contacted local hams (and YouTubers) directly, who have expertise in technical subjects. Finally, I have contacted various ham-related businesses who have or might want to provide our group with important information. Members Clement Alberts KM6OKZ, Tim Tenopir KN6JGB, Dave Schmidt AI6VX , Phil Cohen WA6BUZ, Mark Thompson AE6GD, Pat Anglum N6XTM, Geoffrey Dann N3CFX, Paul Strauss WD6EBY and John Kitchens NS6X have already volunteered to present, as well as YouTuber Stu AG6AG and businessman (antenna engineering professor) Ed Fong WB6IQN. Additionally, Cory Gibson of DX Engineering is presenting NVIS at our… Continue reading →

Pres Says – December 2024

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Time change, cooler weather, shorter days, nuisance amounts of rain, 2 elections, VE session, and Thanksgiving.  Whew!  November was full, and here we are racing through December. Decemberfest is right around the corner!  Instead of our regular club meeting at Grace Lutheran Church, in December we will be having a Decemberfest dinner and celebration at Black Bear Diner in Ventura.  Cost for club members in good standing (paid up for club year 2025), plus up to 1 guest is $20 per person.  Non club members, or attendees above the member+1 guest, will be charged  $39.  We currently have 55 people signed up, doors open at 6:30pm and food will be served by 7pm.  There will be trivia, a slide show of the year’s activities, a gift exchange, and the Monday Night Net raffle drawing!  It will be a fun way to end the year.  If you haven’t yet let us… Continue reading →

The shape of light: Scientists reveal image of an individual photon for 1st time ever

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News in Space.com By Victoria Atkinson Using a groundbreaking new technique, researchers have unveiled the first detailed image of a photon — a single particle of light — ever taken. Researchers in Birmingham have created the first image of a photon, a lemon-shaped particle of light emitted from the surface of a nanoparticle. The theory that made this image possible, reported Nov. 14 in the journal Physical Review Letters, enables scientists to calculate and understand various properties of these quantum particles — which could open up a range of new possibilities across fields such as quantum computing, photovoltaic devices and artificial photosynthesis. Light’s quantum behavior is well established, with over 100 years of experiments showing it can exist in both wave and particle form. But our fundamental understanding of this quantum nature is much further behind, and we only have a limited grasp of how photons are created and emitted, or of how they change through space… Continue reading →

SCOTUS Agrees to Review Appellate Ruling on Congress Giving the FCC Too Much Power

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(Redstate.com By Becca Lower | 2:41 PM on November 23, 2024 suggested by Clement Alberts KM6OKZ) The United States Supreme Court has agreed to take up a review of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling, on a case that could help curb federal power that’s been allowed to spiral out of control during the Biden-Harris administration. via the NYT: The Supreme Court, which dealt a major blow to the power of federal agencies in June, agreed on Friday to consider another: whether Congress violates the Constitution by delegating broad discretion to them. The so-called nondelegation doctrine has been largely dormant since 1935, when the Supreme Court struck down New Deal laws for granting too much leeway to agencies with insufficient guidance. …. The new dispute concerns an $8 billion fund that helps pay for telephone and broadband services for poor people and residents of rural areas. Overseen by the Federal Communications Commission, the Universal Service… Continue reading →

Pres Says – November 2024

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Pres Says – November 2024 Remember when Halloween was far away?  We are now almost a week past it. Remember when Thanksgiving was so far away? It’s just over 3 weeks from now.  Remember when Decemberfest was so far away?  Yeah, that’s coming up quick!  But I am getting ahead of myself. The month of November is important for our club as we hold elections for officers.  So not only do you get to vote for our next President of the US, two days later you get to vote for our club’s next president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and board members.  So far most of the nominees are familiar incumbents, but we have some new folks too running for office..   Current club members (paid up for 2025) are eligible to vote and run for office, and we have 3 ways for you to vote.  #1 – In-person at our November… Continue reading →

Pres Says – Oct 2024

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It’s October!  We’re in the last quarter of 2024 and we have a lot of holidays in the next 3 months ahead of us.  Weather has been pretty nice, and though I keep hearing about a heat wave coming, so far our temps have been mild.  That said, I can feel that Autumn is here. Speaking of weather, hurricane Helene has demonstrated why 2-way radio, especially ham radio, is still important and relevant. I’ve read the emails and visited links from the ACS/ARES Groups.io page about isolated people and towns, and how ham radio has been the only way for folks to get the help they need and messages sent out.  In preparation for this article, I checked to see if communication was still a problem, and sure enough it still is.  Even though cell providers have deployed mobile cellular nodes, and many workers to repair damaged fiber optic lines… Continue reading →