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Field Day 2017 Photos
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SVECS Quarterly Breakfast – July 22nd
This coming Saturday (22) is the SVECS’s Quarterly Breakfast at the Santa Clara Senior Center at 9 a.m.
Besides the best $5 breakfast in town and a raffle prize of a $125 gift certificate from Ham Radio Outlet, the presentation will be on radio direction finding (RDF) with displays and demonstrations.
Check their web page and scroll down to the quarterly breakfast for all of the details.
MUD 2017 October 26-29
Microwave Update 2017 will be held on October 26-29, 2017 in sunny Santa Clara, California. The MUD conference is dedicated to microwave equipment design, construction, and operation. It is focused on, but not limited to, amateur radio on the microwave bands. The 50 MHz and Up Group of Northern California is pleased to host this year’s event.
For more information, please check out the MUD 2017 webpage at www.microwaveupdate.org .
Please forward this announcement to any other mail lists and clubs that you may belong to.
WVARA Annual BBQ
When: 11am – 2pm, Saturday, Aug 19
Where: Sunnyvale’s Baylands Park, Pickleweed Place
(When you get to Baylands Park, turn right after going through the main gate.)
There won’t be an evening WVARA meeting in July or August. Instead, we are having our annual WVARA BBQ. Our location (see map below, the reservation is under “WVARA”) includes multiple tables, grill, an AC outlet, and a covered awning for shade. There is an entry fee per car at Baylands Park, so you may prefer to carpool. We’ll have hot charcoal and condiments — please bring your own meat to grill.
Our BBQ coincides with the SSB portion of the North American QSO Party (NAQP) which means this is an ideal opportunity for a really fun portable radio operation. (NAQP Contest rules are at: http://www.ncjweb.com/NAQP-Rules.pdf).
– Jim, K6EI
Great job, team!
It’s interesting comparing WVARA’s band results from 2014 through 2017. The sunspots may have clearly taken their toll, but we’ve made impressive improvements over the years on 40 and 80 meters — and 2 meters also.
|
QSO Totals |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
|
80 |
120 |
206 |
262 |
307 |
|
40 |
545 |
529 |
636 |
700 |
|
20 |
755 |
862 |
790 |
629 |
|
15 |
610 |
597 |
175 |
198 |
|
10 |
2 |
24 |
3 |
2 |
|
6 |
27 |
29 |
33 |
26 |
|
2 |
23 |
37 |
65 |
66 |
Oh Great WVARA FD Team,
While in the middle of FD, I know there was much talk about “dead bands” and such, but it seems that was all talk. I will be submitting our score shortly, and the ARRL may have some QSO matching to do, but according to N1MM+ and a pile of XLS time, our final score was 19,250. This would be a second place score in the 2016 event, and time will tell if we achieved our goal of a 13A record. In any case, here are the highlights:
80m SSB / CW / Digi: 120 / 174 / 13 QSOs
40m SSB / CW / Dig: 173 / 444 / 83
20m SSB / CW / Dig: 119 / 420 / 90
15m SSB / CW / Dig: 70 / 126 / 2
10m SSB / CW / Dig: 2 / 0 / 0
VHF SSB+FM / CW / Digi: 134 / 4 / 0
…for a total QSO count of 1971 (after several dups were removed). I then tallied up 1 pt per SSB/FM contact and 2 pts/QSO for CW and Digi to get a base QSO score of 16,650 (which includes the GOTA QSOs). Adding in 2600 bonus points (emergency power, public location, satellite, etc) got us up to our 19,250 grand total score. I will crunch up some charts showing QSO rates and qtys by hour, but this is what they will all add up to.
I must thank each and every one of you for the dedication and effort you each put forth through this event. It never ceases to amaze me how much A Game each of you brings. Tower trailers, networks, radios, tents, antennas galore, intense operating skills, and all the glue in between. Quite a lot happens to make this one day event successful. Little things like falling masts, dead batteries, and no sleep just don’t slow any of you down.
Thank you,
B-
Major kudos for Field Day
Major kudos to Bobby Barnett and Bill Fehring for organizing and running WVARA’s Field Day event on Mora Hill this weekend. You guys did a really great job!
Likewise, many thanks to Kevin Smith for running/coaching the great GOTA station, and to Svend Jensen for getting all the big towers / antennas successfully installed. And a special thanks to Greg DesBrisay for stepping into my shoes to test/deploy/maintain the three stations in CW station.
Y’all done did good! Jim Peterson
Ham Radio Outlet Grand Re-Opening Event – Oakland
It is with great pleasure and excitement we announce the official Grand Re-Opening final date for our newly upgraded Oakland Store at 2210 Livingston St. in Oakland, California.
On June 17, 2017 we will have a representative from Yaesu on hand. We will also have ABR Industries, Alinco, Bioenno Power, Comet-NCG and Uniden on hand.
We will have hourly prize drawings and refreshments on hand for each of the dates above.
Come join us at our newly renovated store and meet our some of our manufacturer’s representatives, check out our massive in-stock inventory and have a chance at an hourly prize and or a grand prize toward the end of the day. Entry is FREE!
If you happen to stop by around lunch time, lunch will be on us as we will have sandwiches and water on hand from Subway.
This is going to be a special event and we are proud to bring it to the Bay Area. Don’t miss out stop by and see what we have done to HRO – Oakland.
Pre-Field Day Antenna Party #2. 4-band Yagi!
Photo by Greg DesBrisay. 2017 Field day is June 24 – 25.
January 2017 VHF Contest Results
From the July 2017 QST – -Your West Valley ARA Participants:
| # | Call | Score | QSOs | Mult | Class | Section | Grids | Club | Ops |
| 1 | N9DK/R | 2,552 | 83 | 22 | RL | SCV | 4 | West Valley ARA | N9DK KA4VBF |
| 2 | W6ESL/R | 1,088 | 48 | 17 | RL | SCV | 2 | West Valley ARA | |
| 3 | W6IA | 264 | 21 | 8 | FM | SCV | 1 | West Valley ARA | |
| 4 | AE6JV/R | 65 | 9 | 5 | RL | SCV | 2 | West Valley ARA | |
| Totals | 3,969 | 161 | 52 |
Note that N9DK/R was first in the Pacific Division for Limited Rover,
and That N9DK/R and W6ESL/R were numbers 2 and 3 in the West Coast Region for Limited Rover
Tom W6ESL