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 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!

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/

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

Hamtastic will be announced soon.

AREDN what and how?  

https://www.arednmesh.org/

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.