IARC Christmas Party/Dinner Tonight!

[Lara F.]

Just a reminder that we will be at the Fish Hatchery Building. 

Dinner will be served at 6:15pm.  Don't forget to bring your wrapped gift for the white elephant gift exchange.

See you soon!

73,

Lara

WA7LNF

[Bruce Helbert]

de KG7OI

On Dec 3, 2025, at 06:37, Lara F. <lara...@msn.com> wrote:



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[Bruce Helbert]

Hey guys.  Bit Nagy here but again to remind the meeting tonite will start at SIX!!!!

We have a lot to get thru and will have to leave by NINE. 

BRUCE

de KG7OI

On Dec 3, 2025, at 06:37, Lara F. <lara...@msn.com> wrote:



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[Bruce Helbert]

Greetings fellow IARC members and all.

OK, your newly "elected" IARC president here,  BRUCE  KG7OI.

Hope everyone has recovered from our December meeting, get together.  

We had a great time and hope everyone else did as well.

Some things need to be said: (In no particular order)

Special thanks to the TALUS hams who came thru with a meeting venue when the hatchery was pulled out from under us.  Saved the day (as well as a bunch of food)  

WELL DONE.  (That sure is a nice meeting room, more discussions to follow.)

KUDOS to Lara for here terms as President.  Hard act to follow.  I feel Lara literally held the club together thru the whole Covid-19 mess.  Amazing in all aspects.

Thanks to Don for his tenure as Treasurer.  Hard job at times, Don did a great job.

Joe continues as Secretary, minutes by minutes.

Rod will take over as Treasurer  

and

David amazingly volunteered to hold down the VP position.

and of course our amazing newsletter editor, John continues to provide amazing monthly content.

Amazing slate here.  It will be a great year ahead.

I got a message Friday from David talking about programs etc (VP duties)

This started out as a personal response, but after a bit it kind of turned into  general info type of message, so going out to David and the entire list as well.

Opinions, gripes, comments generally welcome....generally.  

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If you are already bored, feel free to skip remainder of message.

So this may well be a bit of a data dump....bear with me.

first, my somewhat "limited??, prehistoric??, phobic??) connectivity issues.   Had awful connections for years and years.   Dial up, then DSL.  DSL sucks.

Few years ago got TMobile internet.   Works pretty good, decent speed (20-50 gigs)  Makes me happy.  Old farts here so we get good price.  So connectivity here is not a normal excuse. 

I read 99% of my email is on my phone (iphone 15).  Thats ok, except....  The format from the IARC group pretty much...well lets just say it could be better IMO.  It defaults to a somewhat iffy tree format.  Most messages come in in order, but lots of others go into JUNK or just plane get lost.  Some go out of order, etc.  Most all replys show up including the ENTIRE previous thread.  Scroll though all this just to see a three world reply...<grrrr>  Plus EVERY message includes the whole header file.  A lot of looking for limited content.  Add in some random jumping around and it get fustrating.  Should be IMO 100% reliable, but not.  It is what we have, thankful to Barry for setting it up and maintaining it.  So will live with it.  Just don't expect replies to every comment.

So the email-phone issue is a PITA IMO....Big fingers, little buttons, etc.  OK deal with it.  But I tend to not reply to some stuff just because.  Read pretty much 100% of what comes in.

To reply to most stuff (this reply!) I need to fire up desktop computer.  It works.  Windoz 10 and cannot be updated.  Microsoft says I need to throw it away and get a new one.  Thing is this is my "NEW" computer.....<Grin>   So this thing takes about 30 minutes to boot.  It splashes the desktop but is pretty much unresposive till it sorts itself out.  I have probed and searched but cannot figure out where it goes.  Task Manager says CPU is only doing 10%.....lies!!!!  Machine is full of junk and weird apps, etc big time (guilty)  Once it calms down it still works OK.  Its just I have to kind of plan ahead  to use it.

So limited responses from here are not unheard of.  Reponses from text or even a real voice tel call are much more reliable.

425-417-2480

================================================================================================

IARC business and programs.

Running the club is not to hard.  Informal programs have been very well received.  The last few years I would guess we have had 40-50% formal.  30% or so informal and the rest I would call social.  

We run Christmas in Dec and July is traditional picnic.  The social events are fun, maybe we could do one more.  Field day comes in here too.

On programs.   

There are still some things we can do.  I built and talked about a power line monitor.  Neat thing.  Could build them for $20-25 each.  Well  WRONG!!!  So Rod finds them on Amazon for $10.  NEver mind.  (I ordered a couple, will bring them to next meeting)

 

Power Pole voltage monitor.  Cool widget.  Probably not on Amazon (Rod will probably check).  Plug in Voltage monitor or In-line Voltage/Current Monitor.  Handy and cheap.  Way less than $10 with cheap display.  Current monitor bit more.  This could be a fun club project.  I would suggest we could get enough part s to build say 20, do a club build and then sell them for cost or a bit more.

Arduino, other embedded processors.

Computer oriented programs......

Arduino works because of the IDE, free compiler, nice environment and amazing low prices.  NANOs are now well under $5 each.

Several ideas for presentation:

• Getting started.
• Basic coding (there is a lot to this one)
• LEDs, push buttons, analog inputs....basic I/O.  blinks and bopps  
• Applications (grid display (Barry), other ham apps.  Think there is a book on this out there)
• Displays, sensors, cool peripherals.  The 2 GHz direct signal generator is really fun to play with.
• I have a build here that is a Real-time-Clock, 4x20 line display and a Temp-Humidly-Baro sensor.  Runs off wall wart or power bank.  Fun upgrade would be an outside sensor with radio feedback.)
• Servo control is fun and easy
• Alternative CPUs.  ESP32, others.
  So yea a lot to see and hear here.

What about ham upgrade classes/ learning?  Tech, to General, to Extra ?????

While back we did a Net simulation.  Bring a radio and play around passing traffic, messages or whatever.  Encourage participation by telling anyone who does not bring a radio will be asssigned to NET CONTROL  <grin>

We could do a session on radio programming.  Pushbutton and using CHIRP or whatever.  Would probably require some planning but could be fun.

 

IMO every ham should have a Balfung or other cheap Chicom radio.  Under $25 for decent rig.  Could be a club project????

OK for now....end of rambles.  KG7OI OUT.

[Bob Otis]

Thanks, Bruce, for all the info.  Here are some comments on the business and programs section.

 

1. Would like to know a little bit about the power line monitor.  Maybe bring an example and describe in 5 minutes what it does and does not do (pros/cons).
2. Powerpole voltage monitor:  Two thumbs up!  I have quite a few of these but like to know the current about 50% of the time.  All of mine are Volts/Amps.  Pro: you get more information about your circuit.  Con: they are more complicated to make – easy to get wires crossed with consequences.  Might want to make an exercise with the option to choose one or the other.
3. Arduino and other embedded processors:  Definitely a thumbs up, but:
1. Mihai uses Pi almost exclusively, so they should be included
2. Arduino seems to be a very popular choice, so they should also be included. 
3. We have expertise in both, so we may want to consider a series of lectures 2026 to get the club up to where they can move out on their own.  Your list (see below) is a good starting point for series organization.  My feeling is that there is a lot of interest, but also a lot of information.  May be best to go slowly.
4. Vision might be to get people started in 2026 with follow-up every so often in 2027 and beyond.
4. On ham classes, my inclination is to encourage that they get their license, but as a club, we should focus more on elmering.
1. For those not yet licensed, something to get them pushing the PTT and starting a conversation.
2. For those with a technician license, a presentation on the benefits of the general and extra.  For example, general gives you more bandwidth (HF) while extra, together with experience, gives you the background to troubleshoot, diagnose and fix the unlimited problems that arise once you get going.
3. Elmers help you over the hump and we have a lot of experience in the club.
5. Net simulation:
1. The CERTs have a net on Wednesday evenings at 7:00.  Thus, within the club, we have net controls and the opportunity to participate.  If others are interested, a bit of advertising my be al we need.  I like the idea of a simulation at the meeting just to get people on their toes.  After that, all they need to do it tune in on Wednesday evening.
2. Part of this net also includes Winlink check-ins.  A quick rundown of what is needed to participate could be done as a follow-up to the club net simulation.  More opportunities for elmering.
6. Radio programming/CHIRP:
1. IMO this is a tough nut to crack. 
2. CHIRP has a lot of radios covered (just about all of mine), but many have bugs.  Popular radios (FT60, UV-5R and other Boafengs, some Yaesu mobiles, etc.) are well debugged, but less popular radios have issues. 
3. Programming cables can also be an issue and it can be hard to find the right one for your radio.
4. The CERTs have manual programming links for Baofeng and Yaesu HTs which are pretty good so that may be helpful.
5. The club has a frequency list (UHF/VHF) put together before the pandemic by Roger, a past president; (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15uNWKHJOV4j6dzd-ZEGFAxJYisjqGT3LkUTBpgRrWqI/edit?gid=1717774647#gid=1717774647), which can be downloaded and installed.
6. Overall, though, learning both CHIRP and manual programming is a muscle memory exercise and can best be done with an elmer and then, the privacy of your own home.
7. Antennas:  Don’t forget these!!! 
1. Another tough nut, but one that always has a lot of interest.
2. Could be another series and I would suggest starting simple and increasing complexity with additional sessions.

                                                               i.      First, possibly a simple dipole (make your own).

                                                             ii.      The next step could be an off-center dipole which gives the added benefit of more tuning multiple bands (another DIY).

                                                           iii.      Rod did the j-pole last year and was well received.  Maybe a review.

                                                           iv.      Maybe a next step to EFHW HF antennas and so on.

 

Bottom line, I think your comments are a great start and, again, thanks for putting them together.  All are doable, but some would be harder than others.  There is more than can be done in one year, but I’ll be happy to give Dave a hand in putting together a program for 2026.  If we see other feedback, we could probably have some options for the January meeting. 

 

Looking forward to it,

73, Bob KI7RMO

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[rickja...@comcast.net]

I totally agree on this part - What about ham upgrade classes/ learning?  Tech, to General, to Extra ?????

 

And I just read Bob O’s response and totally agree with his “Elmer” approach.

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