CQ CQ! It’s time for another meeting. This Wednesday evening, in addition to the regular agenda of interesting items, we’ll have a brief discussion over our outings schedule, as well as the pros and cons of:

• CQP
• Oceania on the coast
• ARDF
• ARRL VHF
• 7QP
• and whatever else comes to mind

In an attempt to continue bringing ideas out from within the club, our “guest speaker” Bobby Barnett (K0XI) will talk about Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF), who does it, why, and how contests are organized. The evening will end with an assembly project where everyone will get to make an ARDF yagi for 2m (http://theleggios.net/wb2hol/projects/rdf/tape_bm.htm). There will be enough parts for about 10 antennas, so work in teams. It should take about 30 minutes, and the only homework I’ll give is to solder the feedpoint and hairpin on at your leisure. See you there!

Elections for West Valley Amateur Radio Association officers and directors are coming up at the November meeting. We are soliciting nominations for:

President
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer
Board members (3 to be elected)

Please let any officer of board member know if you are interested in running for a position, or have a nomination for someone else. Please make sure that anyone you nominate is willing to serve.

Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico one transmission at a time: http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/27/us/puerto-rico-maria-ham-radio-operators-trnd/index.html

Don’t forget about our meeting this month. The Field Day high has worn off, and it’s time to get back to our rigs. This month, we have two speakers. We’ll also meet at Dish-n-Dash at 6pm on 1st and Trimble.

George Williams will talk to us about the NCDXC Elmer project (http://www.ncdxc.org/pages/elmer.html), what it is, and how it could help (or be helped) by each of you. With the new faces that have joined in recently, we should be reminded to take the time to give back to the hobby some of what we have gotten out of it.

Victor Bubbett will talk to us about how Coe State Park uses amateur radio for some of their activities. You may recall Steve Stearns’ talk on VHF propagation and the use of Radio Mobile for link planning. The example he was using was his planning for a Coe State Park event. Victor is a uniformed volunteer for the park, and pretty much drives all the amateur radio events, including the Backpackers Weekend, Hunting Hollow Run Run, and others. He enlists the aid of people like Steve to make these events successful, organizes them, and makes sure the event has good communications in areas that don’t normally have it.

August 8, 2017

Dear ARRL Member:

Based on feedback I’ve received, it seems to me that some members still don’t fully understand certain features of the Amateur Radio Parity Act (ARPA) and what it is meant to do. To make things clearer, we have developed an FAQ in the format of questions and answers. Please take a few minutes and read the FAQ to learn more about the ARPA.

Here is the direct link:
http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/The%20Amateur%20Radio%20Parity%20Act%20FAQ.pdf

Here is another link with additional information:
http://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-parity-act

Thanks to those of you who have written your Senators in support of the ARPA. If you have not done so, please do so by clicking on the link below. It only takes a minute.

https://arrl.rallycongress.net/ctas/urge-us-senate-to-support-amateur-radio-parity-act

Thanks. Let’s keep the effort moving!

73, Rick – K5UR
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Rick Roderick, K5UR
President
ARRL – The national association for Amateur Radio®