Activity, Meeting Speaker, Virtual Meeting

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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Meeting ID: 832 5230 1029 (Dial-in audio password: 028366)

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
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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 ID: 660 067 844

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
_._,_._,_

W6PIY