Schabarum Regional Park will be the site of the next southern California
on-foot transmitter hunting session on Saturday, April 19, 2014. If you
are a beginner, there will be entry-level two-meter fox transmitters set
by Joe Moell K0OV. For more experienced radio-orienteers, there will be
a 5-fox two-meter international-rules course of moderate difficulty, set
by Marvin Johnston KE6HTS. One or more optional 80-meter fox
transmitters may also be on the air.
If you have them, bring a handi-talkie, receiver, or scanner covering
the two-meter band for each person who will be going ARDFing. If you
have directional antennas, attenuators, or other on-foot RDF equipment,
be sure to bring that too. Make sure that all batteries are fresh. For
those with no radio gear, some extra ARDF receiver/antenna sets will be
available.
Note: be sure you can program frequencies into your radio!
If there is sufficient interest, Marvin Johnston KE6HTS will conduct a
clinic for building kits for measuring-tape yagis and for 90 dB
offset-type attenuators. An assembled/tested attenuator in a special
housing that goes inside the boom of the yagi is also available. If you
wish to build kits at this workshop, you must register in advance by
sending e-mail to marvin(a)west.net, so he will have the kits reserved in
your name waiting for you. It takes about an hour to put the kits
together with tools and soldering irons that will be provided. If
you're not an electronic technician, don't worry because there will be
experts to help you.
All transmitter hunting begins at 10 AM. The starting point for the
advanced course will be a different part of the park, so if you plan to
take on that course, please arrive at the gathering area before 10 AM so
we can transport that group to the starting point and do starts at
five-minute intervals. Beginners will start from the gathering area and
will not need to be transported. If there is an antenna/attenuator
clinic, it will start at 11 AM and there will still be time to hunt the
beginner transmitters after that. Courses will close at 3 PM.
For the advanced 2-meter course, orienteering flags and electronic
scoring will be used at each transmitter. If you have an "e-stick," be
sure to bring it. A few sticks will be available for loan. Be sure to
bring anything you'll need while going after those radio foxes, such as
munchies, bottled water and sunscreen. For map plotting, bring your own
compass, protractor and pencil. Trails are primitive in some areas of
the park, so wear sturdy shoes. All ages are welcome, but young
children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.
Schabarum Regional Park is on the south side of Colima Road, just east
of Azusa Avenue in Hacienda Heights. (Thomas Guide 678-G4) A map for
navigation is at www.homingin.com. There is a vehicular entry fee for
the park, so carpooling would be a good idea. Upon passing through the
entry gate, drive south (straight ahead, don't turn right) and continue
to the end of the road (about 0.7 mile). Park in the last parking lot
near the restrooms. Look for the orange and white orienteering flags
and signs. Call K0OV on 146.52 simplex if you have trouble finding the
gathering area within the park.
73,
Joe Moell K0OV
Hi all,
From the Lockheed-Martin ARC: W1AW/3 100 year QSO party.
> See the detailed bands and times sked at the end of this message.
Cheers & goodQSO,
Tony Armendariz, AD6ID
Begin forwarded message:
> ...
>
> Fellow LM Amateur Operators,
> As you probably know, to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the ARRL, W1AW will be operating from every state in the US at least twice during 2014. The League enlists the support of Contest Clubs and other groups in the various states to operate multi-band, multi-mode using the home facilities of the members.
>
> I’m proud to announce that our own Joe Trench, AA3B, VP, Delaware Valley Operations will be operating his station with the W1AW/3 callsign primarily on CW (his favorite mode) from April 2 to April 8. Chances are that if you make a CW contact with W1AW/3 during this period, you’ll be talking to Joe. Operators are encouraged to not provide their individual calls, so if you’d like Joe to be on the lookout for you, please send him an email.
>
> ...
> See the following from AA3B.
> _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> I’ll be part of a 12 (or so) person team activating Pennsylvania as W1AW/3 in the ARRL Centennial QSO Party (http://www.arrl.org/centennial-qso-party). We will be operating from 0000z on 4/2 to 2359z on 4/8 (dates and times in UTC). We will be active on 160M, 80M, 40M, 30M, 20M, 17M, 15M, 12M, 10M and VHF. Modes will include CW, SSB, RTTY and possibly PSK31. I will be focusing on CW and my preliminary operating plan is shown on the attached spreadsheet. It is likely that I will also do some RTTY, SSB and perhaps PSK31 and there will be real-time changes made to the schedule as conditions warrant.
>
> Our goal is 55K QSOs. Most of the guys are active contesters so we should hopefully be able to hit some big rates.
>
> I hope to catch you during the week!
> Joe Trench, AA3B
> ...
>
W1AW/3 STATION SCHEDULING
(AA3B & K3WW WILL USE THIS SHEET FOR PLANNING & Each op can update his own too)
UTC EDT AA3B
2-Apr-14
Wed 0:00 8:00 pm 40m CW
1:00 9:00 pm 40m CW
2:00 10:00 pm 40m CW
3:00 11:00 pm 40m CW
4:00 12:00 am 40m CW
5:00 1:00 am 40m CW
6:00 2:00 am SLEEP
7:00 3:00 am SLEEP
8:00 4:00 am SLEEP
9:00 5:00 am SLEEP
10:00 6:00 am 20m CW
11:00 7:00 am 20m CW
12:00 8:00 am 15m CW
13:00 9:00 am 15m CW
14:00 10:00 am 10m CW
15:00 11:00 am 10m CW
16:00 12:00 pm 15m CW
17:00 1:00 pm 15m CW
18:00 2:00 pm 20m CW
19:00 3:00 pm 20m CW
20:00 4:00 pm BREAK
21:00 5:00 pm BREAK
22:00 6:00 pm 40m CW
23:00 7:00 pm 40m CW
3-Apr-14
Thu 0:00 8:00 pm 40m CW
1:00 9:00 pm 40m CW
2:00 10:00 pm 40m CW
3:00 11:00 pm 80m CW
4:00 12:00 am 80m CW
5:00 1:00 am 160m CW
6:00 2:00 am 160m CW
7:00 3:00 am SLEEP
8:00 4:00 am SLEEP
9:00 5:00 am SLEEP
10:00 6:00 am SLEEP
11:00 7:00 am 20m CW
12:00 8:00 am 20m CW
13:00 9:00 am 15m CW
14:00 10:00 am 15m CW
15:00 11:00 am 10m CW
16:00 12:00 pm 10m CW
17:00 1:00 pm 15m CW
18:00 2:00 pm 15m CW
19:00 3:00 pm 20m CW
20:00 4:00 pm 20m CW
21:00 5:00 pm BREAK
22:00 6:00 pm BREAK
23:00 7:00 pm 40m CW
4-Apr-14
Fri 0:00 8:00 pm 40m CW
1:00 9:00 pm 40m CW
2:00 10:00 pm 40m CW
3:00 11:00 pm 80m CW
4:00 12:00 am 80m CW
5:00 1:00 am 160m CW
6:00 2:00 am SLEEP
7:00 3:00 am SLEEP
8:00 4:00 am SLEEP
9:00 5:00 am SLEEP
10:00 6:00 am SLEEP
11:00 7:00 am SLEEP
12:00 8:00 am 20m CW
13:00 9:00 am 15m CW
14:00 10:00 am 15m CW
15:00 11:00 am 10m CW
16:00 12:00 pm 10m CW
17:00 1:00 pm 15m CW
18:00 2:00 pm 15m CW
19:00 3:00 pm 20m CW
20:00 4:00 pm 20m CW
21:00 5:00 pm BREAK
22:00 6:00 pm BREAK
23:00 7:00 pm 40m CW
5-Apr-14
Sat 0:00 8:00 pm 40m CW
1:00 9:00 pm 40m CW
2:00 10:00 pm 40m CW
3:00 11:00 pm 80m CW
4:00 12:00 am 80m CW
5:00 1:00 am 160m CW
6:00 2:00 am SLEEP
7:00 3:00 am SLEEP
8:00 4:00 am SLEEP
9:00 5:00 am SLEEP
10:00 6:00 am SLEEP
11:00 7:00 am SLEEP
12:00 8:00 am 20m CW
13:00 9:00 am 15m CW
14:00 10:00 am 15m CW
15:00 11:00 am 10m CW
16:00 12:00 pm 10m CW
17:00 1:00 pm 15m CW
18:00 2:00 pm 15m CW
19:00 3:00 pm 20m CW
20:00 4:00 pm 20m CW
21:00 5:00 pm BREAK
22:00 6:00 pm BREAK
23:00 7:00 pm 40m CW
6-Apr-14
Sun 0:00 8:00 pm 40m CW
1:00 9:00 pm 40m CW
2:00 10:00 pm 40m CW
3:00 11:00 pm 80m CW
4:00 12:00 am 80m CW
5:00 1:00 am 160m CW
6:00 2:00 am SLEEP
7:00 3:00 am SLEEP
8:00 4:00 am SLEEP
9:00 5:00 am SLEEP
10:00 6:00 am SLEEP
11:00 7:00 am SLEEP
12:00 8:00 am 20m CW
13:00 9:00 am 15m CW
14:00 10:00 am 15m CW
15:00 11:00 am 10m CW
16:00 12:00 pm 10m CW
17:00 1:00 pm 15m CW
18:00 2:00 pm 15m CW
19:00 3:00 pm 20m CW
20:00 4:00 pm 20m CW
21:00 5:00 pm BREAK
22:00 6:00 pm BREAK
23:00 7:00 pm 40m CW
7-Apr-14
Mon 0:00 8:00 pm 40m CW
1:00 9:00 pm 40m CW
2:00 10:00 pm 40m CW
3:00 11:00 pm 80m CW
4:00 12:00 am 80m CW
5:00 1:00 am 160m CW
6:00 2:00 am SLEEP
7:00 3:00 am SLEEP
8:00 4:00 am SLEEP
9:00 5:00 am SLEEP
10:00 6:00 am SLEEP
11:00 7:00 am SLEEP
12:00 8:00 am 20m CW
13:00 9:00 am 15m CW
14:00 10:00 am 15m CW
15:00 11:00 am 10m CW
16:00 12:00 pm 10m CW
17:00 1:00 pm 15m CW
18:00 2:00 pm 15m CW
19:00 3:00 pm 20m CW
20:00 4:00 pm 20m CW
21:00 5:00 pm BREAK
22:00 6:00 pm BREAK
23:00 7:00 pm 40m CW
8-Apr-14
Tue 0:00 8:00 pm 40m CW
1:00 9:00 pm 40m CW
2:00 10:00 pm 40m CW
3:00 11:00 pm 80m CW
4:00 12:00 am 80m CW
5:00 1:00 am 160m CW
6:00 2:00 am SLEEP
7:00 3:00 am SLEEP
8:00 4:00 am SLEEP
9:00 5:00 am SLEEP
10:00 6:00 am SLEEP
11:00 7:00 am SLEEP
12:00 8:00 am 20m CW
13:00 9:00 am 15m CW
14:00 10:00 am 15m CW
15:00 11:00 am 10m CW
16:00 12:00 pm 10m CW
17:00 1:00 pm 15m CW
18:00 2:00 pm 15m CW
19:00 3:00 pm 20m CW
20:00 4:00 pm 20m CW
21:00 5:00 pm 20m CW
22:00 6:00 pm 20m CW
23:00 7:00 pm 20m CW
On 3/9/14 5:31 PM, Marvin Johnston wrote:
>
> Okay, I can hear it from my house near the LaCumbre shopping center. If
> anyone wants to join us for dinner 6:00PM at Cody's Restaurant, we can
> go out and find it afterwards.
>
> I've got a couple of antennas with offset attenuators I can loan out to
> anyone who doesn't have the equipment themselves.
At the SBARC meeting Friday night it was announced that the signal is
strong in the Cieneguitas area.
I visited the transmitter this afternoon and there are three callsigns
in the log. I'll leave it at its current location a while longer.
--
Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Engineering - jay(a)impulse.net
Impulse Internet Service - http://www.impulse.net/
Your local telephone and internet company - 805 884-6323 - WB6RDV
Community: Sheriffâs Search and Rescue Team Recruitment Meeting Tomorrow
Hi William Talanian,
The Santa Barbara County Sheriffâs Search and
Rescue Team (SBCSAR) continues to look for more
members to fill its upcoming search and rescue
training academy. The two following recruitment
meetings have been scheduled in North and South County.
Tomorrow-Wednesday, March 19, 2014 @ 6 pm 66 S.
San Antonio Road, Santa Barbara
Wednesday, March 26, 2014 @ 6 pm - Santa Ynez Airport Pilot Lounge
SBCSAR is a volunteer branch of the Santa Barbara
County Sheriff's Office and one of the most
active search and rescue teams in California.
This highly-trained group uses specialized
training and equipment to handle a variety of
emergencies, including high-angle rock rescues,
car-over-the-side accidents, downed aircraft,
swiftwater rescues and medical emergencies.
SBCSAR is a California Type I search and rescue
team and one of only nineteen teams in California
that is fully certified as a Mountain Rescue
Team. In order to qualify for MRA status, a team
must pass proficiency tests in Snow and Ice,
Rock, and Search Operations every three years.
MRA teams are viewed as the best in the country
and are often requested to support search and
rescue personnel of other counties.
Team members are men and women from all walks of
life and are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
SBCSAR's primary jurisdiction is the wilderness
and urban areas of Santa Barbara County. As such,
team members have the opportunity to visit parts
of the county very few ever experience to see the
unique beauty of our backcountry. In addition, as
part of the Mountain Rescue Association, the team
responds to emergencies in other counties, states
and national parks such as Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings National Parks.
As an active arm of the Sheriff's Office, the
Team is called to assist on evidence searches,
provides medical support for large community
events, and is the primary entity to coordinate
and carry out evacuations during major disasters such as wildland fires.
For more information go to www.sbcsar.org or you
can also send an e-mail to join(a)sbcsar.net
On 3/9/14 9:03 PM, Marvin Johnston wrote:
> Levi, I think you have the tape measure beam with the 4 MHz offset. So
> with a transmitter frequency of 146.565 MHz, you will need to set your
> receiver to either 142.565 MHz or 150.565 MHz. And just remember to keep
> increasing the attenuation as you hunt so the signal is always in the
> noise.
It's a fairly weak transmitter. Depending on where you are you might
want to first start with the beam connected directly to the receiver
tuned to 146.565. If you hear it try to get a bearing. Then travel to
a high spot in that direction, see if it's louder. If you can't hear it
at all, then travel to a high spot and have a listen.
When it gets to the point where it's full-quieting and/or pushing the
S-meter where you can't get a bearing, then use the attenuator as Marvin
described.
--
Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Engineering - jay(a)impulse.net
Impulse Internet Service - http://www.impulse.net/
Your local telephone and internet company - 805 884-6323 - WB6RDV
On 3/9/14 6:43 PM, Levi C. Maaia wrote:
> Jay,
>
> Can you send details for those of us for which this is new? I have DF
> gear from Marvin but I don’t know which frequency this transmitter is on.
Absolutely! It's on 146.565 MHz. It transmits for four seconds every
minute except every tenth transmission is 20 seconds long including my
callsign at the end.
If you have a GPS or NTP-synced clock or a WWV receiver, as of now it
comes on about 44 seconds after each minute, but this can and will drift
over time.
Here's the full story:
A collaborative transmitter hunt in Santa Barbara:
Amateur radio transmitter hunting is typically a competition. There’s a
scheduled start time, people gather on foot or in vehicles, the fox goes
on the air and the hounds are off!
This sharpens people’s skills in a competitive environment, but the
knowledge they gain is limited to their own experience. Techniques
learned are guarded as secret tricks of the trade to be used against the
competition on the next hunt.
Locating the source of a signal has applications other than fun
competition. Tracking down interference, hunting an ELT or EPIRB,
isolating a spur or noise source all require some knowledge of direction
finding. Working in parallel, these problems are solved faster than in
a competitive environment and everyone participating gets some knowledge.
With that principle in mind, I’ve begun to conduct an experiment. This
is based on the adventures of WB6JPI [1] and others[2].
Let the (non-competitive) games begin!
There’s a hidden transmitter somewhere in the Santa Barbara area. It’s
on the T-hunt frequency of 146.565 and transmits for four seconds about
once a minute. Every tenth transmission is 20 seconds in length and
includes CW identification. It runs 24/7 so feel free to listen,
observe, and hunt at any time.
Collaboration is encouraged. Negative reports such as “Can’t hear it
from my QTH” are useful as well as reports that you’ve heard it.
Discuss your ideas, signal strength, bearings, etc. on the various local
nets as appropriate, as well as on the SBARC mailing list. When you
decide to venture out to find it, take others with you as part of a
divide-and-conquer strategy.
With the transmitter is a logbook. Enter your name, date and time, and
callsign if any. Take a picture and send it to wb6rdv(a)sbarc.org. After
people have had a good opportunity to locate the transmitter we’ll move
it to a new location and let the fun start all over again.
[1] http://www.thunter.org/geothunt/
[2] http://home.comcast.net/~foxbw/site/?/page/FOXRADIO/
--
Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Engineering - jay(a)impulse.net
Impulse Internet Service - http://www.impulse.net/
Your local telephone and internet company - 805 884-6323 - WB6RDV
The collaborative hidden transmitter is back in the air from a new
location.
Now that we're on daylight time, there's more of a chance for folks to
look for it after work during the week.
--
--
Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Engineering - jay(a)impulse.net
Impulse Internet Service - http://www.impulse.net/
Your local telephone and internet company - 805 884-6323 - WB6RDV