Category Archives: Meeting Speaker

September 13 General Meeting

This month’s WVARA meeting will be held in-person at 7pm on Wednesday, Sept 13, 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.   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 will cover the California QSO Party.  This terrific event occurs each year during the first weekend in October when hams across the country (and the globe) try to contact all 58 California counties. 

Our primary speaker will be Dean Wood, N6DE, who will update us on plans for the California QSO Party.  Among other things, Dean will cover the various ways that WVARA members can have fun participating in this great contest.  

In addition to Dean’s presentation, we’ll also hear tips from four WVARA members who last year activated four rare counties during CQP: Bobby (K0XI), Mark (W6IA), Kevin (KK6VF), and Jim (K6EI).

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.  

• We will be in Meeting Room 3 — about 100 feet from any entrance.  As a result, late comers who knock on an outside door won’t be heard from our meeting room.  If you need help getting in the door, you can my cellphone:  408-636-6172.

If you can’t make it to the Red Cross Building on Sept 13, feel free to join us via Zoom.  Zoom instructions are at the end of this email.

By the way, several of us meet nearbyfor dinner prior to the meeting at 5:30pm at Dish-N-Dash (2551 N. 1st St. San Jose):  https://dishdash.com .   Feel free to drop by and join us for dinner.

When not contesting, Dean works as a hardware design engineer for networking companies in Silicon Valley. Dean’s involvement with WVARA spans two decades, with responsibilities including past WVARA President, Vice President, Secretary, Board Member, Field Day Coordinator, Flea Market helper, meeting presenter, and other things I’ve forgotten.

March 6 WVARA Meeting

Our next WVARA meeting will be held in-person at 7pm on Wednesday, March 8, 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.   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.   

Social time for this month’s meeting will begin around 6:45pm, with this month’s presentation beginning at 7pm.   This month’s presenter is Paul Wesling, KM6LH, who will be speaking about amateur radio’s dramatic impact on the beginnings of the Silicon Valley.  Why did Silicon Valley come into being?   The  story  goes  back  to  local  Hams  (amateur  radio  operators) trying to break RCA’s tube patents, “angel”  investors, the sinking of the Titanic, Fred Terman and  Stanford  University,  local  invention  of  high‐power  tubes,  WW  II  and  radar,  William  Shockley’s  mother  living in Palo Alto, and the SF Bay Area infrastructure  that  developed  –  these  factors  pretty  much  determined that the semiconductor and IC industries  would be located in California’s Santa Clara Valley, and  that the Valley would remain the world’s innovation center as new technologies emerged – computers, then  software, mobile, biotech, Big Data, VR/AR, autonomous vehicles and now blockchain – and it would become  the model for innovation worldwide.    This presentation gives an exciting and colorful history of device technology development and innovation that  began in Palo Alto, then spread across the Santa Clara Valley during and following World War II.  You’ll meet  some of the colorful characters – Cyril Elwell, Leonard Fuller, Lee de Forest, Bill Eitel W6UF, Charles Litton 6AO,  Fred Terman 6AE/W6DI, David  Packard 9DRV,  Bill Hewlett,  Russ  Varian and  others – extending  to Nolan  Bushnell W7DUK and Steve Wozniak WA6BND – who came to define the worldwide electronics industries  through their inventions and process development.    

Paul is an IEEE  Life  Fellow and Distinguished  Lecturer and has  observed the  Valley  for  decades as an  engineer, executive,  resident, and educator.  He received  degrees  in  electrical  engineering  and  materials  science  from  Stanford University, then worked locally at companies including Lenkurt Electric, Sperry‐ Univac, and Amdahl, joining Tandem Computers in Cupertino in 1985.  Paul retired from  HP in 2001, then served as “Mr. IEEE” for the San Francisco Bay Area for 10 years.  He is  a  Life  Fellow  of  the  IEEE.    He  received  the  IEEE’s  Centennial  Medal,  the  Board’s  Distinguished Service award, the Society Contribution Award, the IEEE’s Third Millennium  Medal,  and  the  EPS  Society’s  Presidential  Recognition  Award.    He  edits  the  IEEE/ASME/SEMI  Heterogeneous  Integration  Roadmap  for  prediction  of  technology  directions in electronics packaging.  

BTW, several of us meet for dinner prior to the meeting at 5:45pm nearby at Disn-N-Dash (2551 N. 1st St. San Jose):  https://dishdash.com    Feel free to join us for dinner.

Although we will be meeting in person, Paul’s presentation will also be streamed via Zoom.  Zoom instructions will be sent via WVARA reflector and can likewise be obtained by contacting K6EI — his email is available via QRZ.

Three things to remember:

  1. 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.
  2. The Red Cross locks the main entrance at 7pm sharp, so please come a few minutes early in order to get access to the building.  
  3. We will be in Meeting Room 3 — about 100 feet from any entrance.  As a result, late comers who knock on an outside door won’t be heard from our meeting room.  If you are late and need access, you can call my cellphone (408 636-6172) and someone will come let you in.  But please try to arrive before 7pm to avoid this hassle.

– Jim, K6EI

September 14, WVARA Meeting

This month’s WVARA meeting will be held in-person at 7pm on Wednesday, Sept 14, 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.   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 will cover the California QSO Party.  This terrific event occurs each year during the first weekend in October when hams across the country (and the globe) try to contact all 58 California counties. 

Our primary speaker will be Dean Wood, N6DE, who will update us on plans for the California QSO Party.  Among other things, Dean will cover the various ways that WVARA members can have fun participating in this great contest.  

In addition to Dean’s presentation, we’ll also hear a few lessons-learned from WVARA members who in recent years have activated three rare counties during CQP.  Bobby (K0XI) ran an expedition to Lassen County in 2020.   Mark (W6IA) co-ran a M/M expedition to Glenn County in 2021.  And Jim (K6EI) and Tom (W6ESL) helped activate W6BO’s M/M station in Sutter County in 2021. 

By the way . . . although we will be meeting in person, Dean will be giving his presentation via Zoom.  So if you can’t make it to the Red Cross Building on Sept 14, feel free to join us via Zoom.  Zoom instructions have been sent via WVARA reflector and can likewise be obtained by contacting K6EI — his email is available via QRZ.

Several of us meet nearbyfor dinner prior to the meeting at 5:45pm at Dish-N-Dash (2551 N. 1st St. San Jose):  https://dishdash.com  Some WVARA members likewise dine at Panera Bread a few miles further to the south at 503 Coleman Avenue at Autumn Parkway at the San Jose Market Center.  Feel free to drop by either location for dinner.

When not contesting, Dean works as a hardware design engineer for networking companies in Silicon Valley. Dean’s involvement with WVARA spans two decades, with responsibilities including past WVARA President, Vice President, Secretary, Board Member, Field Day Coordinator, Flea Market helper, meeting presenter, and other things I’ve forgotten.

June Membership Meeting

WVARA’s next virtual meeting will be via Zoom at 7pm on June 9.  Our speaker will be Clint Bradford, K6LCS.  Clint’s presentation covers how to work amateur satellites with your HT. You do not need 100W of transmit power nor expensive antenna arrays to work the FM amateur satellites!  Many hams already have the necessary equipment to “work the birds.” This presentation will walk you through ALL the steps needed to successfully work several ham satellites.  (Since this presentation is 90 minutes, we will shorten our meeting’s normal introductions to allow more time for the presentation.)

Speaker Bio:  Clint K6LCS has been a ham since 1994, and found his niche in the hobby: working amateur satellites with minimal equipment and telling ALL about it! He has served a liaison between NASA, the ARISS team, and schools coordinating amateur radio contacts between the International Space Station and students (and orchestrated a wlldly successfulARISS contact).  Professionally, Clint was sales manager for ADI / Premier Communications / Pryme, worked for a Motorola commercial two-way dealer a couple of years, and for Ham Radio Outlet a couple more. He resides in Jurupa Valley, California, with his wife, Karen, and their rescued lab, Freja.

May Membership Meeting

Our May 12 speaker will be Kristen McIntyre, K6WX, who will speak on the topic of “SWR — Who Cares?” And will debunk some of the misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding the widest used measurement in ham radio — the Standing Wave Ratio.  Topics covered will include what it is, how it is calculated, what SWR actually measures, and what we should care about – including what an impedance match is, the impact of SWR on real transmission line loss, how to match a transmitter to a load and how to measure feedpoint impedance.  I’m looking forward to learning a thing or two!

W6WX.png

Kristen has been interested in radio since she was about 5 years old.  She started in Amateur Radio in 1979 getting her ticket while at MIT.  Kristen has worked in many diverse areas from analog circuit design to image processing to starting and running an ISP.  She is currently working at Apple in Core Networking, and spent many years at Sun Microsystems Laboratories where she was researching robustness and emergent properties of large distributed computer systems.  She is a long time denizen of Silicon Valley and has worked at or consulted for many of the usual suspects.  Kristen is an active ham and loves to chase DX on HF with her Elecraft K2 which she built while visiting her mother in Florida.  She is ARRL Pacific Division Vice Director, president of the Palo Alto Amateur Radio Assoc., the Q&A columnist for Nuts and Volts magazine, and is active in many local clubs.  Kristen was recently inducted into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame.

April Membership Meeting

Our April 14 speaker will be Brian Tanner, AG6GX, who will talk about “The Art of Voice Communications: Techniques for Technician & HF-class licensees”.  Brian will cover voice operating practices, including how best to format and communicate information for accuracy and precision via phone nets.  While this presentation will be especially useful for newer hams, even old timers may learn something new.

Bio:  Brian started by getting his Tech license in 1995.  After several years of activity on the VHF and UHF bands, Brian upgraded and became radioactive on the HF bands in 2013.  He participates in the Cupertino ARES group (CARES) as well as the city ARES net Cupertino_Net.  Brian also enjoys tinkering with hardware and recently built a 100W HF solid state power amplifier. 

September Virtual Meeting

Meeting Topic:  WVARA and the California QSO Party (CQP) • WVARA’s history in CQP
• Five ways that WVARA members can have fun in CQP 2020
• Suggested WVARA game plan for CQP 2020 — which occurs the first weekend of October.  
Dean Wood (N6DE) works as a hardware design engineer for networking companies in Silicon Valley.  Dean’s involvement with WVARA spans two decades, with responsibilities including past WVARA President, Vice President, Secretary, Board Member, Field Day Coordinator, Flea Market helper, meeting presenter, and other things I’ve forgotten.  Dean’s involvement with CQP includes:

Participated in his first CQP in 1995 as a college student

Current member of CQP organizing team and CQP County Coordinator

Current holder of 15 CQP records: 12 county records and 3 overall CA records (Top CA S/O Expedition, Top CA S/O-Assisted Low Power, Top CA School)

Been on 14 county expeditions to 10 different counties

Long time active helper behind the scenes in CQP, including log checker, publicity coordinator and several other things

Time: Sept 9, 2020 19:00 PDT 

Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/83252301029?pwd=cG0vNDZGS1J2NzJ1ZXZ2VUY2S1l4Zz09

Meeting ID: 832 5230 1029
Password: w6piy       

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+16699006833,,83252301029#,,1#,028366# US (San Jose)
+13462487799,,83252301029#,,1#,028366# US (Houston)

Or you can dial by your location
        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
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Meeting ID: 832 5230 1029 (Dial-in audio password: 028366)

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)

Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/83252301029?pwd=cG0vNDZGS1J2NzJ1ZXZ2VUY2S1l4Zz09

Meeting ID: 832 5230 1029
Password: w6piy     

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.