Hello Everyone!
It’s time for our April WVARA meeting. Please join us this Wednesday (April 11th) at 7 pm in Meeting Room 5 at the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, 2731 N. First Street at Plumeria Drive (southwest corner) in San Jose.
Most of us come in through the side entrance on the southwest side of the building — look for our red WVARA sign on the side where they park all the Red Cross trucks. Cookies will be served, and of course, visitors are welcome! If you haven’t been to the Red Cross, “talk-in” is usually available on the Association’s repeaters; 2m/220 are good choices, and our 6-meter machine is working pretty well these days I hear!
At the beginning of the year, we asked “What is your amateur radio-related new years resolution?” and several of us (including myself) answered that 2018 was the year to get into CW.
Learning CW can be intimidating, though; you might tune to the CW subbands on one of these contest weekends and hear a blur of dits and dahs at 45+ WPM and wonder if anyone could possibly be decoding or sending at that speed.
Our guest might be able to help with that: Rob Brownstein (K6RB) is one of the founding members of CWOps and the CW Academy. CWOps is a club of CW operators that sponsors a weekly CW contest that occurs every Wednesday at three different times. CW Academy is a program put on by the CW Operators’ Club aimed at increasing the number of competent CW operators on the HF CW sub-bands. It addresses all levels of enthusiasts: from those aspiring to become licensed operators who want to learn and use Morse code; to veteran operators who are intent on increasing their CW skills, speed and activity.
Rob Brownstein, K6RB, was first licensed at age 11 as KN2UMU in New York City’s borough of Queens. He has maintained a consistent level of operational activity for 56 years. His preferred operating mode is CW and he spends nearly 99 percent of his time ‘pounding brass.’ His preferred activities are rag chewing and contesting with CW.
Bobby (K0XI) will also talk about Back Country Weekend at Henry Coe State Park, it’s not too late to get involved. Our May meeting will be dedicated to All Things Field Day.
A few of us usually meet for dinner somewhere near the Red Cross around 6 pm prior to the meeting and anyone is welcome to join. This month we’re going to go back to Dish’n’Dash just a block down the street:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/dish-n-dash-san-joseDon’t worry, we’ll keep Panera Bread in the rotation, and if Dish’n’Dash isn’t your first choice, there will likely be a few still going to Panera, just ask on the repeater.
Hope to see you there!
73, Bill/W9KKN
