MAY MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
THURSDAY, MAY 11TH 7:00 PM
STOCKTON SAILING CLUB
4980 BUCKLEY COVE
STOCKTON, CA  

QST QST QST… The May meeting of the Stockton-Delta Amateur Radio Club will

be held at the Stockton Sailing Club Auditorium, 4980 Buckley Cove Rd in Stockton. The Sailing Club is located at the west end of March Lane, west of Interstate

5 on the left-hand side of the road just before you enter Buckley Cove Park.

All members are strongly encouraged to attend. We will be reviewing Museum Ships Weekend on the USS Lucid June 2nd - 4th. We have some other events to review - Ham-U on the 29th of April and the Delta Century on May 6th. 

John NZ6Q will discuss Contest / Special Event Logging and Operating for our Training Program

So… grab your spouse, significant other or just that friend and we'll see you at the meeting! 

ALSO AVAILABLE ON ZOOM IF YOU CANNOT ATTEND IN PERSON

Zoom Meeting Information:

Topic: W6SF MONTHLY CLUB MEETING ON ZOOM

Time: May 11th, 2023 07:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8715741939?pwd=alRiTFhydFNtMlBQZXAwOUd2YTN1UT09

Meeting ID: 871 574 1939

Passcode: 147165

One tap mobile

+16699009128,,8715741939#,,,,*147165# US

This year’s World of STEAM Expo was held on the campus of Lincoln High School on March 25, 2023 from 10:00 am-2:00 pm.

The Stockton-Delta Amateur Radio Club was invited back to this event again this year. Kids still think radio is cool and the interest at our tables proved it once again!  

We were in the gym again this year with access to the back parking lot to facilitate setting up antennas and for access from the MDARC TV Truck. Club members fro0m Stockton, Lodi and MDARC and others came together to offer up some great demonstrations.  Dave WB6TOU's Hi Altitude Balloon launch was scubbed in the morning because of wind concerns, but students and parents signed up for a live launch when the weather is better and got to see the balloon parts and payload up close. 

Bob K6DGQ's Morse Code was a hit with almost 100 student learning how to tap out their name in morse code.  Colin K6CMM (and his yet to be licensed sister) also had a hit with Morse code, giving students the opportunity to spin the wheel, learn a random letter in Morse Code and win a prize - from "HAM" stickers to candy. 

Rick N6DT had a great demonstration of Echolink, DMR and showed students how they can communicate around the world connecting their smart phone into radio networks. It was also a big hit! 

MDARC's TV set-up was a big event as kids of all ages communicated via the Mt Diablo ATV repeater to hams around Northern California on Television.  

There were demonstrations of SDRs and simple 2Meter/440 radio as well as FT8 on HF with Bob N6TCE, Mark W6SXA and Joyce K6QBQ helping students and adults "GOTA" or "Get On The Air" and talk to local hams.  Thanks Ron KG7OR for being ready to talk when called throughout the event. 

Joni KN6WVX and John NZ6Q were our "unofficial" greeters and raffle masters. Thanks to a generous donation by the Lodi ARC we gave away 4 pairs of Family Radio Service (FRS) walkie-talkies along with a blue tooth speaker, smart watch, books and notepads.  

We also established some new friends who are looking toward future opportunities to partner with the club.  The first of which was is the principal of Lincoln High School who is looking to significantly elevate STEM, Robotics and other technology opportunity (Maybe even a radio club) on campus in 2023. Also, the education director at the San Joaquin County Schools program is looking to have their own STEMFest in 2024 and was very interested in SDARC being a part of that.  

A huge shout out to everyone who participated, helped set-up, helped take down, took pictures (Paul N6KZW) and were a part of this great event.  

If you would like to donate to help next years World of Steam, you can  through their Facebook page. 

BRONZE LEVEL:        $100 and up

SILVER LEVEL:           $250 and up

GOLD LEVEL:              $500 and up

PLATINUM LEVEL:      $1000 and up 

JAN 1 – DEC 31, 2023

2023 will be celebrated by ARRL as “The Year of the Volunteer.” More information will be available throughout the year as the details are confirmed. However, the first adventure has been announced as a project called “Volunteers On The Air (VOTA).” Here we get ‘points’ for each contact made with another ARRL volunteer. So, if two ARRL members contact each other, they will each receive a point for that QSO. No special codes, sequence numbers, or section information needs to be passed. Make contact with a fellow ARRL member, and you each receive a point. Each of you must upload the contact to the Logbook of The World (LoTW), and your points are calculated when the QSO is matched. This could be an FT8 contact, a CW contact, a simplex 2M FM contact, an RTTY contact, or an SSB rag-chew.

To add more interest to the year-long operating event and help demonstrate the ARRL volunteers’ value, each level of volunteer activity has been assigned a point level, shown in the table at http://vota.arrl.org For example, if you make a contact with John NZ6Q, the San Joaquin Valley Section Manager, you’ll get 175 points for that one contact. So, I’ll need to up my HF game to handle all the pile-ups coming my way in 2023. Maybe I need that 160M inverted L and another HF rig ! I’m hoping you will be able to get some certificates, or wallpaper, for your efforts.

More details on this are at http://vota.arrl.org and in the January 2023 issue of QST. So, get your gear running, make sure your LoTW connection is working, and see you on the air!!!

VOTA Program Rules

I’m sure these rules may be extended or revised, so please check http://vota.arrl.org for updates.

• This starts January 1, 2023, at 0000Z.
• This ends December 31, 2023, at 2359Z.
• You must be an ARRL member. You can join or renew at https://arrl.org/join/
• All QSOs must be uploaded to the ARRL QSO matching system, Logbook of The World (LoTW).
• No repeater contacts are allowed.
• Contacts can be made on any band (except 12 M, 17 M, and 30 M).
• Contacts can be made on any legal mode of operation.
• You receive ‘points’ based on the volunteer level of the ARRL member you contact. Points range from 1 point for an ARRL member to 300 points for Rick Roderick K5UR.
• The point levels are listed at http://vota.arrl.org (Your favorite Section Managers are worth 175 points.)
• Each QSO will get only one point value. For example, someone who is a member, a life member, and an Assistant Section Manager will be worth the value of the highest role, 35 points for the ASM role.

Logbook of The World (LoTW)

All the reporting for this VOTA effort will be handled automatically by the ARRL Logbook of The World (LoTD) QSO matching system. If you already log your QSOs from your favorite logging software and it uploads them to LoTW, you will automatically be enrolled in the project. Your QSOs will be verified normally, and the callsigns of the people you work will be searched to find the appropriate points (table shown at http://vota.arrl.org ) that you receive for each QSO.

But, if you aren’t set up to use LoTW, now is the time to set it up. The LoTW quick-start page is a great place to start, and the “What is LoTW Document” explains the whole process. You must authenticate yourself with the system by receiving a postcard mailed to your FCC-registered address. You’ll run a program called TSQL that is used by your logging program, N3FJP, N1MM, DX Lab Suite, or something else to authenticate and upload to LoTW. You can start the setup process now, and you’ll be ready in a few days. Hold your logs until you get LoTW set up, and you can upload them when you get it all sorted.

If you need help setting up your LoTW account, watch some YouTube videos, contact your Elmer, or local club. If that fails, email me at nz6q@arrl.org, and I’ll find someone to help you.

W1AW Remote Operations

As a part of the Year of the Volunteer celebration, the mystical callsign W1AW will be traveling to the corners of ARRL-land. ARRL members in each state/territory will be asked to operate their stations for two different weeks using the callsign W1AW/x where x is one of the local regions: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, KL, KH0, KH2, KH6, KH7, KH8, KP2, KP3, or KP4. For example, California’s first week starts Feb 15 2023, at 0000z and will run through January 31, 2023, at 2359z, using the callsign W1AW/6. Each state will coordinate the time/band/mode slots throughout the week and hams will be able to operate their

Each state W1AW coordinator will make a schedule to optimize the on-air time for those interested in running the callsign. Contact John NZ6Q if you would like to be W1AW/6 between February 15^th and the 21^st nz6q@arrl.net

This is a great opportunity to get on the air and have some fun, maybe earn a W1AW Worked-All-States Certificate, talk to the President of the ARRL (I did during the Centennial QSO Party in 2014), meet a bunch of new people and learn more about the hobby while you’re doing it.

CHECK OUT OUR OWN BOB KM6ONS AND KYLE K6KDD ON GOOD DAY SACRAMENTO

AUGUST 28, 2018