SARC Committees
THE AIRWAVES CALENDAR
Well the holidays are past and we are starting a new year. Hopefully you received something beyond the lump of coal in your stocking. A number of new radios are showing up by the vendors. Each year they seem to have more functions buried under the menus. You really need a cheat sheet to operate the radio these days. The upcoming Installation Dinner at Texas Cattle Company will have more items to be received. AES provided to us the VX-150 2 meter hand held that will be the top drawing prize. SARC also purchased some ARRL publications for the drawings. There are 3 AES gift certificates in the drawing pile. So make the dinner at Texas Cattle Company on North China Lake Blvd 6 pm on 12 January to be eligible for the drawing. There will be one ticket per family or membership who has purchased dinner at the restaurant. Other drawing tickets can be purchased for $5 each to increase your chances of winning a prize. We will have the usual brown bag trade where in you bring a brown paper bag with useful ham radio related items that you no longer need, and you get to take home someone else's brown bag of good stuff. In the past there has been some interesting things in the bags. Of course you can just bring a bag and not have to pick up one to go home with if you want. Each year there are wonderful discussions going on with those sitting around the tables. This year we will be in the main room upstairs with a little more room. So come on along. This year also starts a number of communications opportunities with the winter/spring horse rides. This is a chance to try out the new rig or mobile antenna from some interesting places around the horse loop. Check the list of events coming up else where in the Airwaves. Welcome to the New Year. 73's Bill WA6QYR Board of Officers Meeting Minutes The December 8, 2004 board meeting was called to order at 1906 hrs. Those present: Pres. Bill Burns (WA6QYR), 1st Vice Pres. Paula Herr (N6VGW), Treas. Pam Evans (KC6UUS), Secy. Tom Ingram (WB6EPD) and Airwaves Editor Mike Herr (WA6ARA).Bill will make reservations for the Installation Dinner at the Texas Cattle Company in January. A discussion was held on door prizes for the Installation Dinner. The board agreed that $200 should be spent for prizes. This will be brought up for discussion and vote at the general meeting. Each member having dinner will get one ticket and can buy more. We received paper work for the Bakersfield to Las Vegas Run. Will have nominations from the floor followed by elections at the general meeting. Bill will schedule the Heritage meeting room for next year. Programs are in work for next year. The meeting was adjourned at 1920 hrs. Submitted by: Tom Ingram, WB6EPD Minutes of the General Meeting The December 2004 meeting was called to order by the President, Bill Burns (WA6QYR) at 1933 hrs at the Heritage Inn. The Sign-in sheet was started around Announcements:
Submitted by: Tom Ingram, WB6EPD Visitors From BARC At the December meeting we had three visitors from the Bishop Amateur Radio Club (BARC). Ted Shelander, KB4PXX, Rich Rynne, KF6YLW and Randy Tyndall, N6BXP stopped by to say hello and to invite us to their meeting in Bishop. Anyone recall when we use to have a combined meeting, SARC and BARC in the Park? TREASURER'S REPORT Treasurer's Report As of December 20, 2004: Draft Account $ 236.83 Share Account $ 5,503.63 BALANCE: $ 5,740.46Submitted by Pam Evans, KC6UUS And Speaking of the Treasurer's report Time for the audit of the SARC books. We need a couple of volunteers to assist in the audit committee. It is easy, takes about 2 hours and Pam will probably supply the cookies. If you can help out please contact Pam Evans, KC6UUS.
Annual SARC Installation Dinner
The Annual SARC Installation Dinner will be at Texas Cattle Company on North China Lake Blvd 6 pm on 12 January. We will be in the main room on the upper level. There will be one free ticket per family or membership who has purchased dinner at the restaurant. Other drawing tickets can be purchased for $5 each to increase your chances of winning a prize. Prizes include a VX-150 5w 2 meter HT, some ARRL publications and AES gift certificates. Time To Renew Your SARC Membership This is the start of a new year and all SARC memberships are now due. Please fill out the membership application and send it in, or better yet, bring it to the club meeting. Indian Wells Valley Emergency Net Report Check ins December 06 - 14 December 13 - 15 December 20 - 20Thanks to Lloyd, WA6KZV, for taking December. Mike Herr WA6ARA OTHTC High Desert Ultra Marathon In short, this year was a bust with only 2 hams participating. Please put this on your calendar for next year as occurring on the first Sunday of December. Amateur Radio Satellite AMSAT-India has announced they will be launching their long awaited VU-Sat during February or March. While this will be a low orbiting bird, it will have linear transponders suitable for SSB, CW or PSK31. Look for more news later Weather Radio NOAA has installed a might fine weather radio south of Ridgecrest. Transmission is on 162.425 MHz. The station continously reports the weather and forecasts for the Indian Wells Valley as well as north to Bishop, south to Lancaster as well as reports for the mountains and Bakersfield. The signal is very strong, with a handheld picking it up full quieting. The station is suppose to also have the 1050HZ emergency alert tone but at the present time it appears to be ON all the time. BPL in the News Bad News for California ************** From: The ARRL Letter Vol. 23, No. 49 December 17, 2004 ***************ARRL AIMS TO DAMPEN CALIFORNIA UTILITY COMMISSIONER'S ENTHUSIASM FOR BPL Citing its accumulated experience in dealing with Broadband over Power Line (BPL) issues, the ARRL has suggested that California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) member Susan P. Kennedy temper her "excessively optimistic" view of the technology. Speaking recently about BPL with Marc Strassman of California Politics Today, Kennedy contended that it's "criminal that California does not have a major BPL pilot project or commercial project under way." Kennedy said she intends to see the CPUC do everything possible to change that. ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, wrote Kennedy December 10 to raise the caution flag and offer the League's BPL expertise. "It has yet to be demonstrated that BPL systems can be deployed without polluting the radio spectrum," Sumner said. "Until this issue is resolved, we respectfully suggest that public statements that paint an excessively optimistic picture of BPL are inadvisable." Even the CPUC acknowledged the BPL interference issue in its reply comments in the FCC's BPL proceeding, ET Docket 04- 37, Sumner noted. Citing BPL's status as "a nascent service" and the "significant disagreement" over the level of interference, the CPUC suggested the FCC "ensure that adequate testing is performed and industry standards are developed before any deployment takes place." Sumner told Kennedy that BPL's interference potential is "not surprising" since it uses unshielded power lines. "The fact that they radiate radio frequency energy is simply a matter of physics," he pointed out. California is home to some 100,000 Amateur Radio licensees--about 14 percent of the nation's total. This fall, a BPL field trial in Menlo Park, California, where FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell had extolled the technology's virtues earlier this year, was aborted before getting very far off the ground. The demonstration of BPL technology was co-sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and AT&T, which decided to direct its business energies elsewhere. PG&E said that without a telecommunication partner in the venture, it didn't make sense to continue the trial. California Politics Today article noted the apparent lack of interest on the part of California utilities in getting involved in BPL. Sumner said there are "a number of good reasons why BPL is not moving forward very fast," including the interference "caused by virtually all BPL systems to nearby radio receivers." Nonetheless, Kennedy told Strassman that she'd be surprised if California could not get "something substantial" under way in the BPL area by the middle of next year. She suggested she'd like to pave the way for BPL at the state level in much the same way that the FCC has done at the federal level. On October 14, the FCC adopted a Report and Order (R&O) spelling out Part 15 rules specifically aimed at enabling the rollout of BPL technology. At the same time, the new rules impose certain regulatory requirements aimed at mitigating interference. Sumner said radio amateurs were not alone in their concern. He pointed to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's BPL study, which concluded that interference to low to moderate radio signals was likely from BPL systems 75 meters from land mobile stations and 460 meters from fixed stations. The FCC cited the NTIA's findings in its decision to prohibit BPL systems from using Aeronautical Radio Service frequencies, he said. "The ARRL is continuing its efforts to persuade the FCC that in order to conform to international agreements and the Communications Act, other radio services must be afforded the same protection," Sumner told Kennedy. "We at the ARRL would be pleased to work with you and your staff to answer any questions you may have," he concluded, directing Kennedy's attention to the BPL information available on the League's Web site. The California Politics Today interview is available on the Web. Looking for News, Ads or Comments! I'm always looking for local news for and about the IWV amateur radio community. Also, if you have something for sale or are looking for something else, drop me a line and I'll put it in the Airwaves. Ok, let's say you have some news for the Airwaves. How do you get it in. Well, the best way is if you can send it to me electronically, ie email. The text can be in Word or Works, but the most universal is as text body of the email, no HTML, PLEASE! However, if you don't have email, I can take paper copy. You can send it to me at 613 Rebel Road, Ridgecrest.
NOTE: Email, while fast and easy, it is not 100% reliable.
If I get Airwaves input via Email, I will send a note back
as a receipt. If you don't get a receipt back, then likely I
didn't get it.
SARC Membership / Newsletter The SARC membership year is near the end. Please renew your membership with the enclosed form. Remember that the SARC newsletter is now available via email, in TWO formats, Adobe Acrobat PDF and in plain text. The PDF version is complete, and in color, but you will need Acrobat Reader to view it. Most have it and it is available free to both PC and Mac users. The plain text version can be read by just about anything! ...but you lose the graphics.
If you want the newsletter via Email make sure you check
the proper box on the membership form, add your email
address and the version you want. If you have already
renewed and want to convert to email, or have changed
your email address, drop the secretary, Tom Ingram,
WB6EPD, (375-7950) a note, as he is keeping the email address lists.
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