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ARRL San Francisco Section (SF)Section Manager
Bill Hillendahl, KH6GJV PO Box 4151 Santa Rosa, CA 95402-4151 707-544-4944 kh6gjv@arrl.org |
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News last updated: Thu, February 18, 2010 at 1:16 AM ET
San Francisco Section News - February 2010
2010, can you believe it? Let’s go to the calendar:
First up, on the weekend of April 30th through May 2nd is EmCommWest in Reno. This is the premier conference on emergency communications on the west coast put on by the talented team in Reno. This year the conference will be at the Grand Sierra Resort which will offer more room for the event and for the swap meet. The website is still being built, but check in at www.emcommwest.org periodically to get information and to make your reservation.
On the same weekend (darn!) on Saturday, May 1st, the Valley of the Moon ARC will hold its annual hamfest and swap in Sonoma. If you are in town, be sure to head over to Sonoma to check out the festivities that include a heck of a breakfast and a T-hunt. For more details, please visit their website at www.vomarc.org
On June 4th through 6th, in Seaside, OR, is the famous SeaPac Ham Convention. This is one terrific convention complete with indoor swap on two floors! There are plenty of vendors to visit and several great raffles. They put on some really informative seminars, too. It is a quick flight to Portland, and then a scenic drive to coastal town of Seaside, or, a really nice drive from our part of the state. For more information, go to www.seapac.org
Can you say, “Pacificon?” Yes, it is back in San Ramon this year on October 15th through the 17th. Again sponsored by the Mt. Diablo ARC and returning this year to the San Ramon Marriott, Pacificon is the ARRL Pacific Division Convention with seminars galore and plenty of goodies at the vendor tables. The MDARC folks promise an exceptional convention. For more information and reservations, visit their website at www.pacificon.org
Now some happenings!
On the weekend of October 17 and 18, Scout Leader John Chavez KG6PEP put together another Jamboree on the Air for the local scout troops. This was his second year of organizing the event. With Pacificon not conflicting with JOTA this year, John was able to get a lot of local Hams to help out, even me! There were a number of different venues of learning activities for the scouts, including a CW station ably operated by John Breckenridge WB6FRZ, ATV by Brian Torr N6IIY, HF by Fred Polkinghorn KQ6OB and Pat Coyle KG6JSL, and IRLP by Darryl Paule KI6MSP and Sutter Laird KI6ZON, among the Hams I remember (sorry, there were so many). John had also created several project tables for additional learning as well as a class for the radio merit badge. Over 100 scouts were run through the JOTA encampment learning about all aspects of communication by radio. It was a great weekend! Way to go, John! I’m proud to say that John and his family were students in my 10-week Ham classes a few years back. (If you read the email AND the website, you will notice that this is a repeat from the website edition. That is because there is a space limit on the email edition, but not on the web edition. This was such a great event I thought it deserved repeating!) See photos on the website.
On December 19th in Santa Rosa, ASM/DEC Rich Freitas KF6SZA, EC Fred Polkinghorn KQ6OB and I put on a local classroom ARECC Level 1 course for a room capacity crowd at the American Red Cross HQ in Larkfield. The first local classroom course was put on the prior year in Lake County by EC Monte Winters K6FE who assisted Rich with the development of the December course. Both courses were a success with participants passing the required exam administered by certified examiners. Rich and company are planning more classes in the near future as the ARECC Level 1 course is one of the prerequisites for ARES membership. For more information, contact Rich at KF6SZA@gmail.com, or, me.
The word “PAVE PAWS” is enough to cause UHF repeater owners/operators to cringe. In early January, a small group of ARRL field officials and two representatives from the Northern Amateur Relay Council of CA (NARCC) were invited to meet with Air Force officials at the radar site at Beale Air Force Base. Joining the group were ARRL HQ staff Dan Henderson N1ND and Ed Hare W1RFI, and Dean Straw N6BV, editor of the antenna book. After submitting to a background investigation by the Air Force, we were asked to be at the base entrance by 8:00 AM the day of the visit. The Beale PAVE PAWS radar is now known as the Upgraded Early Warning Radar (UEWR) as it has had significant improvements to the system to enhance its capability.
We were escorted into the facility and had a briefing by LtCol Corey Keppler, the Beale UEWR commander (7th Space Warning Squadron), LtCol Barbara Burnett the public liaison from the Cape Cod radar site, Dave Pooley, USAF Space Command Frequency Spectrum Manager from Colorado, as well as other senior technical Air Force and civilian personnel manning the radar site. Once the briefing on the UEWR mission was over, we were given a tour of the facility which covers a million square feet of buildings on a five acre site that is a base within a base. The main UEWR building which holds the two radar panels is a ten story building. While in the control room, we were able to observe interference to the radar in real time.
The following day, LtCols Keppler and Burnett, as well as Dan Henderson and Ed Hare made a presentation to the NARCC Board at their meeting in Sacramento.
The Air Force’s goal is to better inform the Amateur Radio community as to the UEWR mission and its importance to defense of our country and to monitor objects in space that may threaten our space assets, such as the shuttle, International Space Station and satellites.
When I went to the meeting, I was aware that the Marin ARS had recently received a db reduction letter for one of their UHF repeaters. I was able to arrange a presentation by a USAF representative for the February Marin ARS meeting. The club allowed me to invite a limited number of UHF system owners/operators to the meeting with the Air Force officer. Capt. Chris Leininger, Flight Commander for Operations Support for the Beale UEWR (7th SWS) made the presentation on February 5th at the Marin ARS’ clubhouse to a packed room. Capt Leininger’s presentation to the group was well received. Those in the audience were impressed with the wide and complex mission of the UEWR system.
The Air Force will be making UEWR presentations at EmComm in Reno in May and at Pacificon in October. There may be other earlier meetings in the greater bay area. If you are interested, contact me and I’ll let you know if another meeting is scheduled and if there is room to attend.
One of the items bothering most UHF system owner/operators is not knowing if they are going to get a db letter. I asked Ed Hare, ARRL’s laboratory manager, if he would do preemptive analysis of a UHF system to see if the might be “on the list” in the future. Ed sent me a list of system specifications that he is willing to run through the models that he and his lab associates have developed to determine if a system might cause a problem with the UEWR. While not perfect, it could help a system to “fly under the radar.” (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) I have given the spec list to a number of people already. If you want it, email me and I’ll send it to you.
That’s it for now. More later!
73, Bill
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