All posts by wvara

Meeting, Meeting Speaker, News

June 10 Virtual Meeting

Due to the coronavirus, this month’s WVARA meeting will not be held at the Red Cross Building. Instead, we will hold a virtual meeting via Zoom at 7pm on Wednesday, June 10.  At this month’s meeting, Jim Deloach (WU0I) will give a virtual presentation on his Field Day operation from a remote location in the wilds of Southeast Alaska.  

Time: Jun 10, 2020 19:00 Pacific Time (US and Canada)

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Meeting ID: 832 5230 1029
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I have placed my Alaska DXpedition presentation on my website here:

http://www.deloach.net/AlaskaDXpedition.pdf

Tales of an Alaskan Field Day:   Have you ever wanted to participate in a DXpedition but did not want to wander too far or spend a lot of money?  Then you should try Alaska!  Alaska makes a great vacation destination, it is rare enough and exotic enough (with its own DXCC listing) to be a fun DX spot, and adding an Amateur Radio component to your vacation is easier than you think!  In his presentation, Jim explains how he and his lovely XYL mounted a Field Day DXpedition to Alaska in 2017, and nearly won the state! 

Jim DeLoach, WU0I, is a Silicon Valley wireless and location technology systems engineer specialized in data analytics, field testing, product definition, and tools development.  For fun, Jim loves to build high-performance temporary contest stations, but prefers to get out of the way and let the real operators take over as soon as the station is up and running!  Jim and XYL Maggie (KK6DZS) are WVARA members, live in Sunnyvale, and love to travel.  Jim can be reached at jim@deloach.net.

Activity, Meeting, News

May 13 Virtual Meeting

This month’s WVARA meeting will be held via Zoom at 7pm on Wednesday, May 13.  George Zafiropoulos (KJ6VU) will give a virtual presentation on PackTennas — lightweight, compact, portable HF antenna systems ideal for a simple, solo Field Day.  George will tell us the story of these antennas, explain their design, and give tips on how to get the most from them.

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 862 9232 4465
Password: 505589

Meeting, Meeting Speaker

April 8, Virtual Meeting

Due to the coronavirus, the April WVARA meeting will NOT be held at the Red Cross Building. Instead, we will hold a virtual meeting via Zoom at 7pm on Wednesday, April 8. 


At this month’s meeting Edison Fong, WB6IQN, will bring us up to speed on DMR (Digital Mobile Radio).  This mode is getting really popular.  The radios cost about $100-$150 depending on the quality you want.  All of them  also have conventional FM.  DMR is a full digital format that is interfaced via the internet where one can 24/7 talk all over the world.  The dream of working DX sitting on your couch is here.  Since it is an open system originally set up  by Motorola there are over 15 manufacturers of DMR radios – both hand held and mobiles.  Learn how to get register as a DMR user, where to purchase a radio, how to program the radio and talk to the world without depending on propagation conditions.

Ed is a design consultant and has worked at Loral Space System, Microsoft and National Semiconductor. He has 25 years of experience in analog design for communications, data conversion and RF systems. Fong has 12 issued patents and has published more than 40 papers. He is a senior member of the IEEE. He also is on the faculty of UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley, where he teaches RF Wireless Communications and I/O Design Fundamentals. 
Looking forward to seeing you at Wednesday’s VIRTUAL meeting!Jim, K6EIWVARA Vice President

Join Zoom Meeting on Apr 8, 2020 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting ID: 660 067 844

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Meeting, News

March 2020 Meeting will be Virtual

Due to the CoronaVirus, the March 2020 WVARA meeting will NOT be held at the Red Cross Building. Instead, we will hold a virtual meeting via Zoom. Below are the specifics: 
Time: Mar 11, 2020 19:00 Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/112102081

Meeting ID: 112 102 081

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Meeting ID: 112 102 081Guide to Zoom:https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-Joining-a-Meeting

Activity, Field Day, Meeting

Annual FD Brainstorm Lunch

Our annual Field Day Brainstorm Lunch will be 12:30pm this Sunday, Feb 23.  We’ll meet at Burger King (W. Trimble Road just north of Hwy 101 in Santa Clara).  Bring your thoughts on what you liked last year, what could be improved, and any ideas that you’d like us to consider for 2020.

Activity

Calling All WVARA Members!



March 14th, 2020, is WVARA’s turn to host the Silicon Valley Electronics Flea Market!  This will be the first Electronics Flea Market of the year, so attendance should be really good. We need volunteers for a number of key jobs.

Please view the online sign-up sheet and sign up for jobs here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0444AEAC292-electronics1
–Load the van on Friday–Mark vendor stalls, help set up barriers, check vendor tickets (with ASVARO coordinators) early Saturday morning–Set up the snack tent Saturday morning–Sell Donuts and Coffee Saturday morning–Tear down the snack tent Saturday afternoon–Help participants clean up after themselves Saturday afternoon–Remove chalk marks in the parking lot, and make sure the parking lot is in better shape than we found it–Haul cardboard to a recycling center–Unload the vans and trucks on Saturday afternoon
Best of all, if you have items to sell, please bring them with you, we will set up WVARA sellers tables, free to WVARA members.

Questions? Please send a note to Greg, N6GD, at g.desbrisay@ieee.

73

Greg, N6GD
_._,_._,_

Activity, News

Silicon Valley Electronics Flea Market

Calling All WVARA Members!

March 14th, 2020, is WVARA’s turn to host the Silicon Valley Electronics Flea Market!  This will be the first Electronics Flea Market of the year, so attendance should be really good. We need volunteers for a number of key jobs.

Please view the online sign-up sheet and sign up for jobs here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0444AEAC292-electronics1
–Load the van on Friday–Mark vendor stalls, help set up barriers, check vendor tickets (with ASVARO coordinators)–Set up the snack tent Saturday morning–Sell Donuts and Coffee Saturday morning–Tear down the snack tent Saturday afternoon–Help participants clean up after themselves Saturday afternoon–Remove chalk marks in the parking lot, and make sure the parking lot is in better shape than we found it–Haul cardboard to a recycling center–Unload the vans and trucks on Saturday afternoon
Best of all, if you have items to sell, please bring them with you, we will set up WVARA sellers tables, free to WVARA members.

Questions? Please send a note to Greg, N6GD, at g.desbrisay@ieee.

73

Greg, N6GD
_._,_._,_

Activity, Meeting, Meeting Speaker, News

Troubleshooting Electronic Circuits at WVARA’s Feb 12 meeting

The next WVARA meeting will be 7pm on Wednesday, February 12.  This will be at our usual meeting place: the Red Cross Building on 2731 N. First Street (Meeting Room #5) in San Jose.  Entry is via the side door on the west side of the building — look for the red WVARA sign.   Visitors are welcome, and of course there will be chocolate chip cookies.  If you haven’t been to the Red Cross, “talk-in” is usually available on the Association’s repeaters. Best choice would be 2m/220.  

At this month’s meeting Ron Quan, KI6AZB, will give a presentation based on his latest book, “Troubleshooting Electronic Circuits: A Guide to Learning Analog Electronics”.  Ron’s presentation will cover selected topics from the book, including electronic components, LEDs, and ham radio circuits such as oscillators, Software Defined Radio mixers and audio amplifiers.  Ron will discuss how to debug circuit problems and fix via re-design.

Ron Quan, KI6AZB

Ron built his first crystal radio in the mid 1960s. Since then he has repaired radios, Hi Fi stereos, TVs, oscilloscopes, signal generators, lab power supplies, and broadcast equipment.  Before passing his Extra Class License, he was a broadcast engineer in the 1970s for radio stations KALX FM and KNEW AM. He received his engineering degree that led to working at Ampex, Sony, and finally Macrovision where he was a Principal Engineer.  Ron has written three electronics books and has taught at the university level on analog RF communications systems, signals, and circuits.

 Looking forward to seeing you at next Wednesday’s meeting!  BTW, several of us meet for dinner near the Red Cross around 5:45pm prior to the meeting at Disn-N-Dash (2551 N. 1st St. San Jose):  https://dishdash.com/  Feel free to drop by and join us for dinner!    WVARA members also dine at Panera Bread at Coleman Avenue at Autumn Parkway, at the San Jose Market Center at 6 p.m. 

Jim, K6EI
WVARA Vice President

News

Lesson learned for future Field Day

A highlight of Winter Field Day weekend was when Elecraft co-founder Wayne Burdick (N6KR) and his son Griffin dropped by our Winter Field Day site at Henry Coe State Park.  

Wayne noticed we were using a pair of KX3s, and he provided some info on a little-known Elecraft feature for improved co-station isolation in multi-multi environments like Field Day:  Using the transceiver’s menu to set “RX ISO” to “on” will suppress any radiation from the local oscillator that might otherwise leak to the antenna. This helps minimize oscillator birdies that could interfer with reception at the site’s other stations.   

Definitely worth remembering this feature at Field Day in June!

Activity, Field Day

Winter Field Day team at Henry Coe State Park

Many, many warm thanks to Steve Sergeant, KC6ZKT, and his lovely wife Jean for the excellent job they did organizing and feeding our Winter Field Day team at Henry Coe State Park this past weekend.  

Saturday night’s chili was especially fantastic, the weather was near perfect except for a little overnight rain, and we all had a really great time.  I also learned a whole bunch about debugging quirky antenna/radio/laptop issues that never occur when I’m sitting at my home station.    

I’m already looking forward to WFD-2021.- Jim, K6EI

Here are a few photos from WFD. Wayne N6BTU