WVARA Beach Party POTA Saturday, November 9, 2024, from 9:30 am to about 3:30 pm

Manresa Main State Beach, day use picnic area

POTA: US-3469
1445 San Andreas Rd, Watsonville 95076 (Admission fee or CA state park pass needed)

The West Valley Amateur Radio Association (WVARA) is having a Beach Party POTA. It is a chance to get outside, have fun and play radio with old and new friends. We always welcome and enjoy seeing members and non-members, meeting new hams, and showing off and explaining our hobby with interested non-hams.

If you’re recently licensed, stop by and make some new friends. Perhaps you can get a little help with a cantankerous HT, some antenna advice, or check out different gear and operating modes.

If you don’t have a license and are interested in what amateur radio is about, come by and ask questions, see some of what we do and try getting on the air.

If you are a ham and interested in POTA (Parks on the Air), but not sure about what to do or not yet registered, we can help you with that. It is easy and free!

To spice it up a little, we’re going to:
• Try getting some kind of a kite antenna up and make some contacts using it 

• Award a few prizes

We have some great prizes we’re going to award. Prizes will be awarded by random drawing.

To enter a drawing, you’ll need to check in with “Beach Party Control”, receive a ticket for the appropriate drawing, and provide enough contact information so we can get in touch with you if you win something but are not around at the drawing .

For licensed hams, we’ll have a SOTABEAMS Band Hopper II 20m-40m antenna package, a PackTenna Mini In-line RF Choke and other fun and useful items to award.

If you are not yet licensed, but are interested, we’ll have a separate drawing for a copy of Gordon West’s 

Technician FCC Amateur Radio License Preparation book (10th Edition, 2022-2026 questions).

Food: Logistics:

We provide: charcoal, grilling tools, basic condiments, bottled H2O.
You bring: whatever you want to grill/eat, perhaps a side dish, snack or desert to share.

Bring any gear you’d like to operate. We’ll be QRP, but higher power is fine if you want: bring your own power and antenna. We’ll work out interference if needed.

If you’re hiking / biking / small vehicle-ing to the site, here’s what we’ll have there that you won’t need to bring (unless you have gear you want to try — always fun!).

We’ll have QRP-sufficient 12 volt power, and power distribution strips with PowerPoles. Bring your own PowerPole-equipped power cables.

We’ll have two or three push-up fiberglass masts. If you have antennas you want to try, bring them. If they need support beyond a push-up, you’ll need to bring that too.

If you need AC power (i.e. for a PC for digital), bring it.

Day of the event we’ll monitor 146.52 (2M call) and 446.00 (440 call).

Our next WVARA meeting will be held in-person on Wednesday, October 9, in Meeting Room 3 at the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, 2731 N. First Street at Plumeria Drive (southwest corner) in San Jose.  Social time begins around 6:45pm, with the meeting commencing at 7pm.  If you haven’t been to the Red Cross in a while, “talk-in” is usually available on the Association’s repeaters. Best choice would be 2m/220.  

This month’s meeting presentation is all about reducing RF noise in your shack by WVARA member Scott Nacey, KK6IK.   Scott will describe the ongoing saga of his battle with local HF RFI in Willow Glen which severely degrades all HF operation at his home.   He will present the process from the realization that he had a severe RFI issue, through the tools he brought and built in order to identify the many sources of interference both inside and outside of his house.   Once he acquired and  built the tools, the story continues with how he approached local companies mitigate neighborhood-wide problems as well as how he engaged the ARRL RFI Team and FCC to get the company that caused the most severe RFI to respond.   

In addition to Scott’s presentation, Tim Stehle (KN6FGH / WVARA President) will lead a group discussion on plans for WVARA’s upcoming POTA / beach party event scheduled for Nov 9.

BTW, several of us meet nearby for dinner prior to the meeting at 5:30pm at Disn-N-Dash (2551 N. 1st St. San Jose):  https://dishdash.com . Feel free to join us.

Three things to remember:
• Since the west side entrance to the Red Cross Building is always locked, we recommend entering the Red Cross Building through the main entrance situated on the north side of the building.
• The Red Cross locks the main entrance at 7pm sharp, so please come early in order to get access to the building.  
• Since Meeting Room 3 is about 100 feet from any entrance, any late comers who knock on an outside door won’t be heard from our meeting room.  So please try to arrive early! 

And don’t forget: PACIFICON is Oct 18-20.  https://www.pacificon.org/home   The technical forums will take a lunch break from 11:50 until 1pm on Saturday.  For those WVARA folks who are interested in getting together for lunch, let’s meet just outside the main entrance to the hotel lobby (i.e. the revolving doors) at 11:55.

Jim, K6EI
WVARA Vice President