Category Archives: News

News

October 14 – Virtual Meeting

WVARA’s monthly meeting will be at 7pm on Wednesday, October 14, via Zoom.  (Zoom instructions can be found at the end of this email.)
At this month’s meeting, Dave Brown (WR6Z) will give a virtual presentation on How to Get On 900 MHz. 

Looking forward to seeing you at our virtual meeting.
Jim, K6EIWVARA Vice President

Screen Shot 2020-10-07 at 3.18.14 PM.png

Meeting Topic:  The 902-928MHz amateur band poses some interesting obstacles to get on the air and operate as there are no amateur specific radios commonly available.  This makes the band ideal for the ham radio DIY experimenter to get on the air and is not expensive to do so.  This presentation will cover the origins of the 900MHz ham band, how to obtain and modify equipment to get on the air and where to operate.

A Bay Area native, Dave Brown was first licensed in 1977 as WD6EBC and later upgraded to the extra class, changing call signs to WR6Z.  Being active in the hobby since he was first licensed, he enjoys building projects, working on radio equipment as well as operating portable on HF, VHF and UHF.  A graduate from Cal Poly, SLO he has worked in the field of electrical engineering for over 30 years specializing in RF, mixed signal and power management systems.  He is an active WVARA member and is currently working in R&D application engineering focused on semiconductor products for mobile platforms at Kinetic Technologies, Inc.

Zoom Meeting Specifics: Topic: WVARA MonthlyTime: Oct 14, 2020 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)   

 Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82509826854?pwd=cURvemF0VEwzTHNlZzMvdk1HTDZVQT09

Meeting ID: 825 0982 6854Passcode: 226249One tap mobile+16699006833,,82509826854#,,,,,,0#,,226249# US (San Jose)+12532158782,,82509826854#,,,,,,0#,,226249# US (Tacoma)

Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system. Monthly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZYod-CgrD0iH9BslXI74UAM2QFMhePvTO3Q/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGqqzsjEtaTuByDRpwQGYigXfzzpiFHgvp_jxPdKncHVyLbZNNkH7p6IM7k
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
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Meeting ID: 825 0982 6854Passcode: 226249 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdSzPLLbNq

Activity, News

Annual bBQ Cancelled

I have been notified by Sunnyvale’s management that all city park reservations for the month of August have been cancelled due to Covid-19.  As a result, we will not be holding our annual BBQ in Sunnyvale’s Bayland Park on August 15. 

Jim Peterson

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)

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.

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
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86292324465?pwd=Q3RxWGdaZnJ0S3hyM2hzcXJ6ZVN5Zz09
Meeting ID: 862 9232 4465
Password: 505589

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

One tap mobile
+16699006833,,112102081# US (San Jose)
+19294362866,,112102081# US (New York)

Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 929 436 2866 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 112 102 081Guide to Zoom:https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193-Joining-a-Meeting

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!