WA6BGS
P.O. Box 50
El Cajon, California 92022
Founded 1960 ~ Incorporated 1976
PURPOSE
WELCOME TO THE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB OF EL CAJON
The Amateur Radio Club of El Cajon, Inc. (ARCEC) exists to encourage the furtherance of amateur radio and allied interests; to foster public service by the amateur radio community; the development of acquaintances; to increase our technical skills and knowledge of electronics as well as good operating practices for the increased enjoyment of amateur radio as a hobby.
What you put into Ham Radio is what you get out of it. Volunteer as much as you can. It is a lot of fun to see all the smiles.
ARCEC is an Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) special services club and club members are encouraged to be members of the ARRL as well as the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). Many of our members also participate in the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) and VIP Red Flag Patrol (CAL Fire).
MEETING TIMES
Our monthly meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month, at the First Lutheran Church in El Cajon
867 S. Lincoln Ave
El Cajon, CA 92020
See the calendar below for details.
STARTING IN FEBRUARY 2023, we will begin our meeting at 6:30 pm. Doors open at 6:00, meeting starts at 6:30 and we're usually done before 8:00. Bring your interests and ideas each month, and help us keep things interesting. Thank you for participating and helping this radio club thrive. -Jon KK6VLO
Repeater Update August 2023
The 2m repeater has problems. Some of us can't reach it from our usual locations, and for those who live close enough, it's super scratchy. Chuck believes the 2m unit has a burned out or failing amplifier, which is consistent with the limited range and difficulty users are experiencing.
The 70cm repeater is working fine. Use this instead! We're working on a plan to prioritize the 2m repeater repair soon. Hopefully before 2024.
UPCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS
JANUARY 2023 -- Happy New Year!
February 2023 -- MEETING BEGINS AT 6:30 p.m. Swap Meet Night - Free or Affordable! Bring radio things to swap or cheaply sell to our meeting and we'll provide a table where you can display them. You must take all un-gifted or un-sold items home with you. One HAM's junk is another HAM's new treasure.
Mark Wohlschlegel, WC3W will be presenting an overview of the CQ DX Marathon program on February 9, 2023. Mark has been an active operator for over 50 years and thoroughly enjoys working DX. He has recently taken over the helm of the program from longtime administrator John Sweeney, K9EL. The DX Marathon Program over the past two years is the fastest growing DX program in the world and in his presentation, he will explain how any licensed ham radio operator that works DX should participate in this program. The DXMarathon is a year long program starting on January 1st and ending on December 31st of each year. Countries and zones are worked with no confirmation required. Clubs can participate as well by combining their scores. Come join for this interesting presentation.
March 2023 -- MEETING BEGINS AT 6:30 p.m.
General club updates.
https://hackaday.com/2023/02/23/supercon-2022-tap-your-rich-uncle-to-fund-your-amateur-radio-dreams
If you watch the presentation and then go to https://www.ardc.net/apply/grants/ you can see what this foundation has funded over the past few years. Listen closely to what John Hays describes for suitable projects. I'd like to hear what you have in mind for things our club might do that would qualify for this kind of support and publicity. If the El Cajon club can't find something to start, I'd recommend other clubs in our county take a look and see what they could do. We should do things to advance the art, science, and enjoyment of Amateur Radio, and if this foundation is willing to fund such a project, lets get onboard!
April 2023 -- MEETING BEGINS AT 6:30 p.m.
Bring your ideas for what our club can be doing that supports the efforts described at www.ardc.net I have one suggestion I learned at the Southern California Linux Expo that is inexpensive and offers an opportunity for many to get involved.
What: EARS Ham-radio-related auction
Cost: Sellers $2 for first tag, $1 each additional tag, buyers are free (everyone bring a chair, sellers bring a table or tarp to put your items on)
When: Saturday May 13th, 2023. Open at 9AM, auction begins at 10:00AM (outside parking lot)
Where: 230 E 4th Ave, Escondido, CA 92025 (near 4th & Kalmia), Parking lot of Dirk Reschly CPA
More Info: http://www.earsclub.org
Payment: Cash, Check, Paypal/Credit.
Lots of great donations this year. Here are some of the donations plus many more items will be brought.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtsGnCVZHplvlDl9cd1_jrezYLbp?e=RL6x6K
Auction rules at https://www.earsclub.org/ears-events/ears-auction
Click here for more information
May 2023 -- MEETING BEGINS AT 6:30 p.m.
Joe KE6PHB and Joe N6SZO will be at our May 2023 meeting to talk about this upcoming event. Get your young technical friends to join us at the meeting or just come to the event on May 20.
INTERNATIONAL STYLE ON-FOOT T-HUNT
Saturday May 20th 2023
Balboa Park, Morley Field by Archery Field
Sponsored by the San Diego T-Hunt Group &
CQ Magazine World Wide Fox Hunting Weekend
Click here for more information
June 2023 -- MEETING BEGINS AT 6:30 p.m.
PLANNING MEETING IN PREPARATION FOR FIELD DAY 2023
Our Field Day is June 24-25, at in the parking lot ofPadre Water District, located
9300 Fanita Pkwy, Santee, CA 92071
https://field-day.arrl.org/
June 24-25 - FIELD DAY 2023
Padre Water District
July 2023 - Meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
Stay tuned for an updated SCARF pre-meeting location. Manana's is closed.
Charles Doerr -- a freshly minted Ham - KO6ANB
August 2023 - Meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
Somebody needs to suggest a practical pre-meeting place where we can get some snacks.
DMR programming workshop. with help from Rich NJ6F
I know at least one of you has a DMR radio still sitting in a drawer, unprogrammed or incomplete and you haven't spent any time figuring it out. I'm right there with you, but I took mine out of the drawer. With some help from experienced operators who have mastered the DMR process, we would like to dedicate a Thursday evening to the process of properly programming a DMR HT.
Participants will need to have a fully functional laptop and data cable, a DMR radio, DMR ID, and a fairly current release of radio firmware. We will provide power and a table to get setup, but we can't spend any time debugging windows or faulty wiring. In the workshop we will all step through the building blocks of a DMR code plug. Hopefully this will give you all the skills necessary to take your DMR configuration to the next level, and teach others how to navigate the configuration complexities of a code plug. BRING A USB STICK if you want a copy of some very useful code plugs.
Create channels for local analog and digital repeaters.
Populate local and regional talkgroups.
Create a DMR simplex configuration.
Get on the air and make a contact within those talk groups.
Make a contact with digital and analog simplex.
Show users where they can get meaningful repeater and talkgroup information.
Email us if you have interest in learning or coaching during this workshop. president@wa6bgs.us or treasurer@wa6bgs.us
Reply with the DMR radio brand (Anytone, TYT, BTech, etc) and model number you have, and let us know your skill level.
1 - Total Newbie ----- 10 - Master of Time and Space
Update August 11, 2023
Update August 11, 2023: For those who did not make it to our August DMR workshop, here is an artist rendition (from my daughter Lindsay) depicting the events of our evening. Rich gave a lot of information on DMR, and most of us were able to program and make a contact on a local DMR repeater. We used almost the entire meeting covering DMR topics, fundamentals, tips tricks, and probably needed two more hours to continue. I don't think we're all masters of DMR yet, so we might incorporate another workshop in a future meeting. You can see everybody is having a great time, except Steve K6RSH and Jerry W6KIN, who were struggling with a problematic USB cable. If you are still interested in learning more about DMR, don't worry. I'm working with Rich to compile his notes into a recipe that is easy to digest, with the same examples we used on Thursday. Rich has a lot more pages and images about his code plug and how he organizes channels and zones to get the most from the radio, and there are dozens of quality examples and tutorials online from other clubs, DMR enthusiasts, and even professionals. Don't feel overwhelmed -- we're working through this together. I learn best by doing, so we should do this again.
Lindsay is really good at digital art, but I said STICK FIGURE. This was fun.
September, 2023 - Meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
Regular meeting location and time. We will have a general club business update, and continue with DMR and soldering projects. If you have a soldering project or radio DMR config you need help decoding, bring your stuff and get connected with our wealth of experience.
October, 2023
Business meeting, status of the repeaters and future plans for the next two months.
We will be taking a closer look at AREDN in the months ahead.
We have a great location to install an AREDN node, and the equipment is inexpensive. Any ham can participate at their home or can use an established node with distance. This is something we want to investigate and possibly install as a club.
The club repeaters are due for some maintenance. Since being deployed in 2015, they have been very reliable until now. The 2m repeater final amplifier is not working very well and will be coming out for service. The plan is to reprogram the other Yaesu repeater to function on 2m, and the 70cm will be offline during this time.
Be sure to visit Hamtastic on Saturday, October 28. Fiesta Island, starting at 7:00a. Bring a hat and sunscreen.
November, 2023
Bring scrap aluminum and copper for recycling. We'll take this into the recycle place and get the best price. Proceeds from the recycle metals will go into the club general fund. If you bring soda cans, please crush them and bag them so they don't drip all over the place. UPDATE: we got $255.48 and cleaned up a bunch of stuff we had laying around.
We are going to build something!
After seeing a kit TNC demonstrated at Hamtastic, I thought this would be a great project for our club and anyone else who is looking for a new thing to try using inexpensive radios, a laptop you probably already have, and a little bit of soldering skills. Everybody in attendance at our November meeting also thought it was a great idea. Click here for more Project TNC information.
December, 2023
Ham Dinner Potluck - sign up now. Send an email to president@wa6bgs.us and tell me how many are coming and what category of food item you are bringing. Mix it up a bit. The club will provide ham and drinks, and we will have plates and utensils and some to-go boxes for those who need to bring something home. Potluck dinner starts a litte bit after 6:30pm!
2024
January, 2024
Assuming all parts are in stock (right now they are) the TNC project will probably have a workshop night where we help you solder and get started with the TNC and how to use Winlink Express.
February, 2024
Get your AREDN hardware acquired and read the documentation on how to flash firmware, and lets do something useful and fun with AREDN. There are three of us who already have some inexpensive WiFi gear ready to be upgraded. The more nodes in the mesh, the more resilient the mesh. A bunch of this technology started here in San Diego, so lets keep it going. It doesn't have to be a permanent install.