Ginger Eldridge, KC5MTI contacted us to promote an operating event, the third annual Harvey Houses on the Air. The event will take place from 8:00am to 4:00pm PDT on Saturday, September 14. Hams will operate from the sites of historic hotels and “eating houses” founded by entrepreneur Fred Harvey beginning in the late nineteenth century. Locally, Union Station in downtown Los Angeles once had a Harvey House. Just under a year ago, the Harvey House space was reopened as the Imperial Western Beer Company and Streamliner Bar.
Ginger writes, “We hope you set up your mobile unit and practice your field day skills and have some fun. … Let us know you’re participating so we can try to chat with you on the air.”
Note that this event takes place during the ARRL VHF Contest.
On Sunday, August 11, SPARC members Rick Besocke, KI6ZKM and Jeff Liter, W2JCL hiked San Gabriel peak and performed a SOTA (Summits on the Air) activation. Together they logged seventeen QSOs on 146.52 MHz and 446.00 MHz. Jeff also conducted a mesh chat with Oliver, K6OLI over the AREDN mesh.
Rick KI6ZKM operates a “tape measure” beam on FM. A mesh go-kit operated by Jeff W2JCL is in the foreground.Rick makes a contact on his beam. Antennas of Mt. Wilson are visible in the background.
If you’d like to know more about SOTA, check out this talk by Scott, WA9STI from our November 2018 meeting. Then use the following links to join in on the fun.
The inspiration for the page came from a discussion started by Bob Vanderwall WB6YJJ during our weekly on-air nets in 2017. Net participants discussed the state of their own preparedness, shared advice and recommended various tools. In the aftermath of the July earthquakes near Ridgecrest, there was renewed interest in emergency prep and new urgency to share our ongoing club discussion.
If you have suggestions on how to improve the page or corrections to any of the contact information listed there, don’t hesitate to contact us. Thank you!
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer while we still have some left. Below are excerpts from the PRC bulletin with this year’s Field Day results. As you know, we ran the Get On The Air (GOTA) station, and we did a good job grabbing contacts. Nonetheless, it was decided not to include our results with W6KA. Instead, our results were submitted separately as a 1A class station. The reason for not including the GOTA station was a concern that our procedure did not fully comply with ARRL rules. So, to be on the safe side, our results were not included with W6KA. I have to admit the ARRL rules are somewhat ambiguous with regards to operators and coaches.
GOTA score for 2019
I don’t see this as a negative. We all had a good time, and our efforts were productive. If anything, this will be the first time SPARC has participated independently in Field Day. We’ll have to wait for QST to report our overall ranking later this year.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. We can discuss this at our next meeting on August 3. 73, Stan KR6CV President SPARC
In the Pasadena Radio Club (W6KA) bulletin, Paul Gordon N6LL writes:
W6KA Field Day 2019 score
Our groups made 2150 QSOs. That’s 250 more than last year even though we had one less transmitter on the air.
Our Platinum QSO-Master Award goes to David Hodge N6AN with about 500 QSOs; the Gold to Stan Sander N6MP with 400 Qs; Silver to Mark Seigel W6MES with 300 Qs. The Bronze is shared by David Ockun N2JNR and Eric Farrow W9EO who each made nearly 200 QSOs.
At the GOTA station, over 60% of the people who sat down in front of our radios chose to operate. Most of them made fewer than ten contacts each, but likely the first HF QSOs of their lives. Contemplate the impact! For this Stan Tahara KR6CV and the SPARC GOTA crew win our Grammy award, The Elmer.
A score of non-contest operators Got On The Air. There was often standing room only at the GOTA station, W6SPR, as folk were lined up to make a QSO. Operators who had scheduled time in advance were yielding their time slots to kids who were hot to qualify for the Radio merit badge. Stalwart Michele KC6FSP kept the station running through the wee hours, becoming one of three GOTA operators to make twenty or more contacts. The other two high scorers aren’t even hams… yet. They all kept the GOTA coaches busy serving as control operators. Those coaches, led by Stan KR6CV of SPARC, mentored operations for the full 24 hours.
When the dust settled, 175 contacts were in the GOTA log and 20 participant operators had had a fine introduction to HF, having worked 24 states under the watchful eye of a mentor coach. N6LL declared it was the finest GOTA scrimmage he had ever seen. But then a yellow flag was found on the playing field. Illegal motion in the backfield, they said. We can’t count their score, they said. Woe unto us who have not read the rules. Rules? Rules. Thirteen pages of Rules! And another 15 pages of explanatory Q&A. Upon re-read- ing the rules… again… on the morning after, so to speak, Eagle Eyes discovered that GOTA Coaches are not allowed to do the logging for GOTA participants. Woe is us. It seemed innocuous at the time. And so we do not have a GOTA score. Instead, W6SPR will have its own entry in the listings.
We remain proud of our fine GOTA crew and of the camaraderie and public outreach they provided. You just wait ‘till next year. We can hardly wait !
Jim Mar AA6QI, Field Day chairperson, writes:
Thanks to our SPARC team members, our GOTA station remained on the air operating on HF for the full 24 hours, making 175 contacts. Unfortunately, none of those contacts count towards our score because our GOTA station didn’t strictly adhere to the exacting (and very complex!) GOTA station operating requirements in the ARRL FD Rules. This is clearly my fault as Field Day Chair for not fully understanding these rules myself so that I could ensure that the GOTA team also fully understood what those rules were. Specifically, each GOTA Operator must transmit, receive, log and ad- just the equipment themselves, no one else can do any of that for them. Coaches can only advise the GOTA operators and are not allowed to do any part of what the GOTA Operator must do. Additionally, the GOTA station records must clearly show which contacts go with which GOTA operators and who the Coach was for all times that the GOTA station was in use. While a log was kept, it did not contain enough information to match all of the contacts logged into the computer log with the operators who made them. Thus, we were left with the tough decision of disallowing all of the GOTA contacts. Still, with all of the youth and new operators who made con- tacts on the GOTA station, this was a really OUTSTANDING public outreach activity by the SPARC team that will earn us dividends in the future. We’ll do better with our rule compliance next year!
Thanks to everyone who helped make this year’s Field Day such a fun and productive event!
ARES LAX Northeast, our local branch of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, will hold a new session of “Ham Basics 101.”
Saturday, July 27 9:00 am – 12:00 pm, followed by informal mentoring Huntington Memorial Hospital conference room adjacent to the cafeteria
Ham Basics 101 is a two-hour workshop for amateur radio beginners and those getting back into the hobby or seeking to improve their skills. Topics covered include:
• basic operations and radio options
• how to use simplex and repeater frequencies
• how to program your radios manually and using software
Members of SPARC were proud to march in South Pasadena’s 2019 Festival of Balloons Parade with friends and neighbors involved in CERT and Neighborhood Watch. Mike KM6KAQ wore a fully-functioning mobile rig in a backpack, complete with a portable antenna mast. Tran K6NHI, who works for the Southern California Earthquake Center, had a busy morning thanks to the magnitude 6.4 Ridgecrest earthquake which occurred shortly before the parade. We thank the festival committee and our police and fire departments for organizing another fun day out for the whole community.
Preparing to march in the Festival of Balloons on July 4, 2019
Mike KM6KAQ and Tran K6NHI
The two SPARCs collide! Our friends in the South Pasadena Arts Council pose with their banner next to ours.
It is with deep sadness that we acknowledge the passing of our friend and club member, Tim Cox, WA0PTC. He passed away due to cardiac and respiratory issues at Huntington Memorial Hospital on May 20.
Tim ’s career in the medical field began at the School of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. For the past twelve years he worked with Dr. Tony Ngoc T. Nguyen as an echocardiographer performing cardiac stress tests and echocardiograms. He also worked part-time as a Consulting Physiologist at Harbor-UCLA. Tim is remembered not only for his knowledge, experience and clinical and technical expertise, but his extraordinary ability to help patients feel comfortable and at ease.
Tim was accomplished in many fields including music, math, physics, astronomy, and amateur radio. He enjoyed fishing and being with his little dog Gypsy. In 2015, Tim was instrumental in helping Bob Vanderwall, WB6YJJ revive the South Pasadena Amateur Radio Club, which had been dormant for some time. Many current SPARC members recall that Tim was the first person to greet them at a meeting and make them feel welcome. He was eager to share his vast knowledge of radio with new hams and encouraged others to learn and use Morse code. At club meetings, he urged everyone to “just get on the air and operate!” He will be greatly missed.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made in memory of Tim to any of the following:
• Huntington Memorial Hospital / Critical Care Giving In the “Designation” field, chose “Other” then enter “Critical Care.” Write “Tim Cox” in the “Tribute Information” section below.
The monthly meeting scheduled for July 3rd will not be held. Instead, we will meet on July 4th to participate in the South Pasadena Festival of Balloons Parade. See the attached flyer, which features SPARC members in last year’s parade.
We will meet on El Centro St. in front of the library. Be sure to wear your SPARC t-shirts, and look for the rest of us in the parade marshaling area. A pre-parade welcome ceremony begins at 10:30 am, so plan on being there by 10:15 am. The parade itself starts at 11:00 am, and the route ends at Garfield Park (less than one mile).
Hope to see you there. 73, Stan KR6CV President, SPARC
We had a great Field Day last weekend! A big THANK YOU to all the SPARC members who showed to help set up the Field Day site and staff the GOTA station.
We made close to 180 total contacts on HF and were able to introduce many unlicensed, youth, and new hams to HF radio and Field Day. Thanks to our “partners in crime,” Pasadena Radio Club, JPL Radio Club, and Caltech Radio Club. SPARC is grateful for the great organizational leadership, help and the opportunity to participate. We made new radio friends and learned a lot about the art of ham radio. We look forward to doing the same next year. If you didn’t have the opportunity to participate this year we look forward to seeing you in 2020!
Robert K6YZF was our photographer, and he made a GREAT video slide presentation to document our activities.
He said he still has a lot more to share and I am positive we will see more in the August club meeting.
