Photo: Scott Hinrichs
The past 30 days has been pretty gnarly. With saturated ground, flooded intersections, closed roads, mud slides, power outages, etc. – How did you prepare? Many folks in the Hollister area were forced to abandon their homes. Falling trees knocked out power all over the county and beyond. The SBCARA teams were busy with multiple activations and rescues. So. Where you ready?
Join GVARC on Saturday, June 25th, at Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy for the annual ARRL Field Day (not really a contest) Contest. We will be running 4A with a GOTA station this year. We have added 2 mobile towers to our operations. 1 50 ft trailer-ed tower, and a second trailer-ed tower that can go to 100′! We will be using N3FJP logging software, and operating on batteries. Stop by and say hi!
Set-up begins at around 8 AM
On The Air begins at 11 AM
Break Down will begin around 8-9 PM.
Newly updated frequency lists have been updated to the frequencies page. There are 2 lists currently posted. There is the full, 250 channel, CSV for use with RTS software. There is also a 120 channel list CSV that is compatible with CHIRP for programming a wide selection of radios that only support 128 channels. A full 250 channel version of the list compatible with CHIRP will be posted soon.
The official GVARC frequency list has been posted to the frequencies page. The list is a work in progress. There are a few errors here and there. As we clean things up the list will be updated.
It was a dark and stormy night… Well, ok, it was daytime, and it wasn’t that dark, but there were clouds, and it was raining somewhere.
We had just completed our monthly breakfast meeting and it was decided that was a good time to wrangle some help to raise the W6GGF antenna to address some coverage changes from when the antenna came down previously due to a mounting pole failure. The new mount is 10′ of 1-1/2″ galvanized pipe into 10′ of 1-1/4′ pipe. This new configuration raises the antenna about 8′ higher than where it was originally. So far the signal reports are favorable of the change. Thanks to everyone that helped with the change! Woody (K6WWS), Larry (W6LWC, Ray (KJ6VTP), and Bill (KK6MEN).
The calendar feeds have been updated and restored! Yeah!
Hi,
The calendar is temporarily offline. Google made a change to the calendar feeds which broke the widget that displays them here on our site. The developer should have a fix shortly. As soon as we get an update, the calendar feeds will work again. – KJ6VTP
Do you even have a Go-Kit?
The Go-Kit is one of those “ham things” that everyone in emcomm (Emergency Communications) talks about. But how many of us that participate in the weekly net actually have one ready to “go”? I have the beginnings of a “portable” station. Some of you have seen it at Field Day. But I do not have everything I need to deploy (Portable antennas, cables, etc). It is very much a work in progress.
How much is too much? If you Google “go kit” and click on the images, you will see a huge range of what folks consider a go-kit. Some are quite minimalist and others are of the “..and the kitchen sink” variety. You will have to decide what will work best for you. And when the time comes that you need your kit, you will find that in all likelihood, your kit either had things you didn’t need, or was missing things you did need.
The important thing is to simply have one. Take a few moments to gather some basic items and put them together so when the need arises you can “go”. The most likely scenario we will have is a seismic event. SBCARA.org has some good documents on go-kits. And Google has lots of information. What are the most likely items needed? Here are some items to get you thinking about your kit.