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).

REPEATER UPDATE

December 20, 2022 - The club repeaters are offline.  We don't know why.  We're scheduling time with the water district to get access and will figure it out soon.

December 28, 2022 - We're back online.  Chuck went on site and got them running, and we'll update what we think was wrong once we have a better explanation.  For now, all he did was flick the switch on the power supply.

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.

Field Day planning.

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 

Field day planning

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/

Meeting topics for the future:  No dates and times are set for this agenda.

DMR programming workshop.

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 completely programming a DMR HT.  Participants would need to have a fully functional laptop and data cable, and a 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 following 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.

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.

Dates and times TBD.  Email us if you have interest in learning or coaching during this workshop.  president@wa6bgs.us  or   treasurer@wa6bgs.us