Category: Club Meeting Information

In an abundance of caution over being able to provide a safe meeting environment for our members, we have decided to cancel the March 19, 2020 CVARC meeting.  We hope to reschedule the program for later in the year.  The CVARC Board of Directors will consider the advice and direction of county, state and federal health experts on COVID-19 and make decisions about the rest of the club meetings going forward.  Please look for updated information on this website, on our newsgroup at groups.io and on the CVARC Facebook page. Please direct any questions or comments to info@cvarc.org.

The next regular club meeting is Thursday, February 20, 2020 (always the third Thursday) at the East County Sheriff’s Station’s Community Room, 2101 E. Olsen Rd, Thousand Oaks at 7:30 pm. Talk-in coordination is on the Bozo repeater, 147.885 (- 127.3)

Topic/Guest Speakers – Solar Cycle:  Ken Larsen – KJ6RZ discusses sunspots which have a profound effect on HF radio communications.  HF communications are excellent during solar maximum (lots of sunspots), but not so great during solar minimum when few if any sunspots are visible.  Why is this?  Why do the number of sunspots follow an 11-year cycle?  What are the predictions for the upcoming solar cycle?

Raffle Prizes: Viaboot Rasberry PI 3 Complete Kit – 16Gb, Samlex 250W AC Inverter, Heil Handie-Talkie Headset

Pre-Meeting Dinner: Join fellow club members for dinner at 5:00 p.m. at Junkyard Cafe, 2585 Cochran Street, Simi Valley.

Upcoming CVARC Programs

The next regular club meeting is Thursday, January 16, 2020 (always the third Thursday) at the East County Sheriff’s Station’s Community Room, 2101 E. Olsen Rd, Thousand Oaks at 7:30 pm. Talk-in coordination is on the Bozo repeater, 147.885 (- 127.3)

Topic/Guest Speakers – High Places Ham Radio – Summits on the Air (SOTA): Scott Hanley -WA9STI will talk about SOTA, which is HF and VHF operation from mountain and hill tops.  Since 2014 Scott has operated ham radio from 200 summits in 24 states and Ireland and has communicated with over 2200 hams from the summits.  He will talk about the radios, antennas, batteries, and hiking gear that he takes on his trips. The talk will also cover the use of APRS, a hiking plan, and the 146.52 MHz Wilderness Protocol. 

Raffle Prizes: TBA

Pre-Meeting Dinner: Join fellow club members for dinner at 5:00 p.m. at Stonefire Grill, 3635 E Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Westlake Village.

Upcoming CVARC Programs

The next regular club meeting is Thursday, November 21, 2019 (always the third Thursday) at the East County Sheriff’s Station’s Community Room, 2101 E. Olsen Rd, Thousand Oaks at 7:30 pm.

Talk-in coordination is on the Bozo repeater, 147.885 (- 127.3)

Topic/Guest Speakers – AREDN Mesh and Emergency Communications: Oliver Dully-K6OLI and Tran Huynh-K6NHI will discuss the AREDN Mesh Tunnel used for the Baker 2 Vegas Relay Race. 

Raffle Prizes: 28 ft. Heavy Duty Fiberglass Telescopic Pole, Triband Portable VHF/UHF Antenna, Helping Hand Soldering Tool

Pre-Meeting Dinner: Join fellow club members for dinner at 5:00 p.m. at Bandit’s 589 N. Moorpark Rd. Thousand Oaks.

Upcoming CVARC Programs

The next regular club meeting is Thursday, October 17, 2019 (always the third Thursday) at the East County Sheriff’s Station’s Community Room, 2101 E. Olsen Rd, Thousand Oaks at 7:30 pm.

Talk-in coordination is on the Bozo repeater, 147.885 (- 127.3)

Topic/Guest Speaker – Flex Radio: Warren Wegerer-K6WKW will discuss the Flex Company history.  He’ll talk about historic and current products including costs and comparisons as well as the “non-technical technical differences.” (How will he do that?) Learn about practical operation with a live demonstration. Remote operation will also be discussed.

Raffle Prizes: Bioenno Power 12V, 9AH Charger, CigBuddy 12V Lighter to Powerpole, DC Power Meter

Pre-Meeting Dinner: Join fellow club members for dinner at 5:00 at Dugout Sports Grill, 109 W. Cochran St., Simi Valley.

Upcoming CVARC Programs

Click here to see a video of the presentation.

Stu has a number of videos on ham radio-related topics at videos.ag6ag.org.

The next regular club meeting is Thursday, September 19, 2019 (always the third Thursday) at the East County Sheriff’s Station’s Community Room, 2101 E. Olsen Rd, Thousand Oaks at 7:30 pm.

Talk-in coordination is on the Bozo repeater, 147.885 (- 127.3)

Topic/Guest Speaker – “I’ve Just Upgraded to General, Now What?” Building on his “I Just Got My Amateur Radio License, Now What?” talk, Stuart Sheldon-AG6AG attempts to answer the questions that every new HF operator has. This presentation covers things like choosing the right antenna to proper monitoring of equipment while operating.

Raffle Prizes:Weller WLC1000 Soldering Station, Heil Handie-Talkie Headset, 150′ stranded 14 GA copper clad antenna wire

Pre-Meeting Dinner: Join fellow club members for a pre-meeting dinner at 5:00 at Brent’s Deli, 2799 Townsgate Rd. Westlake Village, CA 91361 .

Upcoming CVARC Programs

The next regular club meeting is Thursday, August 15, 2019 (always the third Thursday) at the East County Sheriff’s Station’s Community Room, 2101 E. Olsen Rd, Thousand Oaks at 7:30 pm.

Talk-in coordination is on the Bozo repeater, 147.885 (- 127.3)

Topic/Guest Speaker – Just ahead of CVARC’s Picnic and Mini T-Hunt on Saturday August 24^th at Conejo Community Park, Norm Goodkin-K6YXH will have a presentation directed at first time t-hunters.  Norm will demonstrate t-hunting and explain how the offset attenuator works with visuals showing the output of the attenuator as the amplitude is adjusted.  He’ll explain how to avoid desensing issues as you approach the target transmitter.

Raffle Prizes: Viaboot Rasberry PI 3 Complete Kit – 16Gb, Samlex 250W AC Inverter, Arduino Projects for Amateur Radio, Lido Mounts Cup Holder Mount

Pre-Meeting Dinner: Join fellow club members for a pre-meeting dinner at 5:00 at Don Cuco, 254 Los Angeles Avenue, Moorpark, CA  93021 .

Upcoming CVARC Programs

The next regular club meeting is Thursday, July 18, 2019 (always the third Thursday) at the East County Sheriff’s Station’s Community Room, 2101 E. Olsen Rd, Thousand Oaks at 7:30 pm.

Talk-in coordination is on the Bozo repeater, 147.885 (- 127.3)

Topic/Guest Speaker – Mesh Networks: Ham radio networking (also known as “mesh” networking) is one of the fastest growing activities in amateur radio.  Orv Beach-W6BI will discuss a bit of the history of ham networking, its current status, its future as well as how you can get on the network and most importantly, what the heck you can do with it.  (Hint – lots!)

Raffle Prizes: RF Connector Adapter Kit, RTL-SDR Dipole Kit, Heil Handie-Talkie Headset

Pre-Meeting Dinner: Join fellow club members for a pre-meeting dinner at 5:00 at Yolanda’s, 590 East LA Avenue, Simi Valley, CA 93065 .

Upcoming CVARC Programs