Category: club

Club posts and pages maintained by the Club Officers and Board Members.

RCARA 6 Meter Chat

Posted on by Juan Mejia

Join us Tuesdays for a 6 Meter Chat on 50.500 MHz FM.

The Tuesday 6 Meter Net begin at 7:00PM PST on 50.500 MHz FM.

Assisting in this chat is a remote receiver placed on Sierra Peak in Corona. The receiver was placed there to foster conversation primarily on the Six Meter AM Roundtable hosted by Will AA6DD, which happens every Sunday at 10:00 AM, on 50.400AM.

The receiver and its functionality are accessible to anyone who has the software and a little bit of time. AA6RF described the steps:

Here’s what you need to do to get on the 6 Meter Sierra Peak remote.

You need a Windows or Android computer. Log into remotehams.com, RemoteHams.com – Home It is free to create an account there if necessary.

Then download rcforbclient setup RemoteHams.com – Downloads. After that open up app and there are many remotes to log into. You want to log into W6RYO Sierra Peak.

It’s that easy.


Club Officers for the year 2024

Posted on by w6tj-admin

Riverside County Amateur Radio Association

Elected Officers for the Year 2024

Steven DeLong W7DTH

President

president.RCARA@gmail.com

John Salisbury W7RSO

Vice President

vicepresident.RCARA@gmail.com

Jim Wiley AG6EA

Treasurer

treasurer@w6tj.org

Shannon Johnson KO6AYV

Secretary

Secretary.RCARA@gmail.com

 

  

Ron Braley KE6RYX

Director of Communications

(951) 369-5149

 Adrian Bravo KO6DEZ

Director of Membership

Membership.RCARA@gmail.com

Appointed Positions for 2023

Pending

Sunshine Chair
Volunteer Needed

 PendingPhotographer Alan Serl KM6KPW

Juan Mejia AJ6PH

Webmaster

 

 

Returning to in person meetings

Posted on by w6tj-admin

July 12, 2021

Hi All,

This virus has been a real kick in the backside, hasn’t it!  I for one am very glad to be seeing lockdowns and quarantine restrictions moving into our rearview mirror.

We planned the 2021 Field Day with the possibility that the COVID restrictions might be extended which translated into a one day park event without our normal banners, advertising and public table.  Although we kept a lowered profile we still had a few visitors.  John (W7RSO) made his chili and while the “secret ingredient” still needed to steam off it was darn good!

For the first time in over a year, we have had an in person meeting.  We had to change our venue but the feedback I’ve received from the members in attendance was encouraging.  Our heartfelt thanks go out to the Riverside Seventh Day Baptist Church for the use of their Fellowship Hall.

We covered planning of the club’s upcoming 66th Anniversary and Carrie (N6LMA) gave us a great presentation on Net Etiquette.

Please join us for the August meeting to help celebrate 66 years of Ham Radio in Riverside County!  Watch your email for an RSVP from Juan (AJ6PH), we need to know how much pizza we need to order.  We will have a “show and tell” so bring out your projects and brag about your endeavours!

73

Alan / KM6KPW

Club Meetings

Posted on by w6tj-admin

Riverside County Amateur Radio Association
meetings are held on the 2nd Thursday of the month and alternate between in-person and Zoom.

Zoom meetings are held during the months of
January, March, May, July, September, and November.
Zoom meetings start promptly at 7:00PM but we will open the Zoom meeting at 6:30PM for a pre-meeting social.
Please be early so we can start on time.

Join the Zoom meeting by clicking here:

Meeting ID: 892 0677 9676
Passcode: 354033

 

In-Person club meetings are held at
Kountry Folks Homestyle Restaurant during the months of
February, April, June, August, October and December.
In-person meetings begin at 6:00PM.

Kountry Folks Homestyle Restaurant
3653 La Sierra Ave
Riverside, CA 92505

 

 

RCARA Club Swag

Posted on by w6tj-admin

RCARA Club Shirts:
Embroidered NOT Screen Printed
Polos with logo, name, and call sign
Prices (tax included): 
S-XL $30.66
XXL $32.85
XXXL $34.04

Black ball caps:
RCARA logo on the back (same as on shirt)
name and call sign on the front
$15-$20 each cap plus tax
To order, send info (name and call sign) to me at XMADAMXX@AOL.COM 
Send payment in the form of check to:
Marlene Odebralski KK6CTX
2988 Laramie Rd
Riverside, CA 92506

 

RCARA club items are also available from our Teespring store –
https://teespring.com/stores/rcara-gear

There are t-shirts, hoodies and stickers available with the black and yellow Riverside County Amateur Radio Association logo emblazoned on the back.

 

Additional items have been suggested such as keychain fobs and refrigerator magnets.  We are looking to source those as well.  

Club Officers for the year 2021

Posted on by w6tj-admin

Riverside County Amateur Radio Association

Elected Officers for the Year 2021

 

Alan Serl KM6KPW

President

km6kpw @ scrnet.com

Juan Meja AJ6PH

Vice-President

Jim Wiley AG6EA

Treasurer

jameswiley757 @ gmail.com

Open Position

Secretary
Volunteer Needed

 

Ron Braley KE6RYX

Director of Communications

(951) 369-5149

 

 Carrie Smith N6LMA

Director of Membership

jjschina @ hotmail.com

Appointed Positions for 2021

Pending

Sunshine Chair
Volunteer Needed

 Rick Schirmer KK6CTT

Photographer

rngr86 @ juno.com

 Alan Serl KM6KPW

Webmaster

km6kpw @ scrnet.com

 

Club Awards

Posted on by w6tj-admin

Our club, Riverside County Amateur Radio Association has existed for 65 years and there are several awards that our club has achieved.  Many of those awards have gone unclaimed and the efforts of our past members have gone unrecognized.

 

If there are any additional awards that should be posted for RCARA, please notify Alan Serl KM6KPW at km6kpw @ scrnet.com.

Riverside County Amateur Radio Association is a member of eQSL.cc and actively reports QSO’s from members using the club call sign.  Please forward contact logs made using the club callsign to the webmaster so the contacts can be claimed (ADIF export prefered)

Field Day 2020

Posted on by w6tj-admin

Riverside County Amateur Radio Association Field Day 2020

Here is the picture slideshow from Field Day 2020

  • RCARA Members and visitors pause for a pic along side a VW Bus
  • Moving the supplies and equipment from the parking lot
  • Juan KM6CFH packing in his portable rig
  • A new battery technology was introduced at FD this year.
  • For 2020, there was no line power in out location for even non-radio gear. Battery and solar powered the show this year!
  • Power management in a box with power pole connectors and a built in volt meter.
  • Rick KK6CTT - large battery box and solar panels included an inverter which provided line power for laptops and HT & Cellphone charging.
  • John W7RSO operating under an EZ-UP, socially distanced but racking up the QSO numbers
  • John W7RSO came wearing his FD 2020 hat.
  • APRS Map showing that Alan KM6KPW is at the park
  • An APRS controller with GPS and simple telemetry. This module uses a Baofeng UV-5R type of HT for it's transmitter and receiver.
  • An APRS controller with GPS and simple telemetry. This module uses a Baofeng UV-5R type of HT for it's transmitter and receiver.
  • Steven W7DTH brought out his shelter and portable rig
  • Steven W7DTH displays a clean power distribution module. LED indicators and fuses are a great features.
  • Field Day is great to see what others are using in their portable and mobile rigs
  • Just waiting for the 11:00 AM whistle to start making contacts
  • Our newest Extra class operator making contacts. Congrats to Juan AJ6PH !!
  • Juan finding the balance between sun for the solar panel and shade for the operator
  • Alan KM6KPW ran 10M FT8 on 15 watts QRP power.
  • Alan KM6KPW on the Xiegu working FT8 on 10 meters. The band was like a revolving door
  • John W7RSO brought out the hitch mounted extending mast antenna.
  • A close up of John W7RSO's trailer hitch mast mount
  • Alan KM6KPW brought out a 10 meter dipole that fits into the go bag.
  • Rails to save the face and rear connectors of his mobile transceiver. Lite and solid, nice!
  • All gathered around the picnic table
  • Both the US flag and our ARRL FD mascot on display in front of the pavillion


Updated Q&A from the ARRL about club totals – (PDF or Original Article)

Members operating from home, please remember to include “RIVERSIDE COUNTY AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION” (NOT “RCARA” or “W6TJ”) on your submission.  See the ARRL COVID-19 2020 Waver document for more information

 

 

We may have to be away from each other but that does not mean we have to be out of reach!

Stay Safe and keep making contacts!

Remote VE Testing Information

Posted on by w6tj-admin

During the 2020 COVID-19 isolation lockdown the Ham Radio community has seen the need to continue with VE testing.  New licensees testing for their Tech license as well as those upgrading their license ticket while they have time to study.

The Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group VEC has created a protocol for VE remote testing.  Below are two documents contributed by our members that are VE’s participating in the GLARG testing:

Remote VE Testing  Short Overview and the Long Version. 

Study hard and when you are ready to test, get on the GLARG’s calendar.

 

Thank you to Doug (KK6D) and Jim (AG6EA) for filling in the blanks!

First ‘Meeting on the Air’ success

Posted on by w6tj-admin

To the RCARA members,

Holy cow, we did it!  This thing really worked!

Thank you all who made this “Meeting on the Air” a success.  We had a good working check in round and an even better round of discussion about the 2020 Field Day.  The discussion for all the ideas worked out great with members contributing to all sides of Field Day in world where we all have to live in our own isolation bubble. 

I want to say a sincere “Thank You” to the members that pointed out the faults and flaws in some of the ideas brought up – “It’s easy to stay quiet and go with the flow but pointing out the bad idea and why it’s a bad idea is honestly just as important.  Sometimes more so.”

Thank you Rick KK6CTT for turning the “Parking Lot Picnic” into the “Mobile Simplex Breakfast“.  You turned a good intentioned idea into a working Ham Radio exercise that we can still keep as a social event within the club.  Please join us this Saturday (Apr 11, 2020) for breakfast in your driveway!

73!

Alan KM6KPW