Category Archives: Meeting Promo

Looking Forward, Meeting Promo

March 2026 Program

HamFest 2026 Approaches!

The focus of our March meeting will be the upcoming HamFest 2026, to be held March 28th at the Historic Loomis Train Station in Loomis, California.  Event chair Frank KG9M will cover the high level event logistics, and introduce the team of folks leading the various functions that make the event happen.  They will review what’s going on in their area, talk about why their particular area is the most exciting way to participate, and list ways you can contribute.  A brief Q&A will be held after the presentations to answer any questions you may have.

Celebrating it’s 10 year anniversary, the Loomis HamFest is the region’s first of the year, and an event of this magnitude takes the talents and simple participation of many to pull it off.  Check out the link on the website’s Events page to register for where you can help.  https://www.w6ek.org/support?contact=hamfest

Besides the day-of participation in the event, we’re also looking for folks to help off-load the large inventory of donated equipment on Friday at 5pm.  It’s a great way to help, and you get a first look (and a great deal) at the goodies!  Sign up as above.

Greg KO6TH and Jim WA8MPA

Looking Forward, Meeting Promo

February 2026 Meeting

For the February 2026 meeting, Jef N5JEF will be talking about a couple of emerging, frontier technologies that will have wide applicability to our future, and a playground, sandbox, or experimental lab for hands-on exploration. These include Spread Spectrum (particularly LoRa) as an effective RF physical layer, and Mesh Network routing, which is an evolving framework for communication that is off-grid, decentralized, resilient, and low-power.

Why are these interesting?

Spread Spectrum modulation makes communication in our increasingly noisy RF environment more reliable, and Mesh Routing extends that communication capability far beyond the direct point-to-point radio horizon. Between the two we can expect longer communication range, with increased reliability.

In his day job, Jef is a senior analyst with the County of Placer Radio Services Group, focused on mission critical public safety and environmental utilities radio systems. The group develops and supports systems including the P25 trunking system for regional law enforcement and public service agencies. Before that, he was a technical and field service manager for over twenty years in scientific instruments for laboratory, industrial, and semiconductor metrology. He is also into emergency management, search and rescue, and personal preparedness, and is, he says, “a total science and technology nerd.”

Looking Forward, Meeting Promo

January 2026 Meeting

For January 2026, we will have Scott Read KM6RFB presenting on “Voice Radio Procedures”.  At the core of it, its purpose is to provide a standardized way of passing speech and data traffic as securely as possible consistent with accuracy, speed and the needs of command and control.  But to get the points across, Scott will be enlisting the help of others to demonstrate the stuff that goes right, and wrong, when we communicate.  How many of these malpractices do you recognize?

From Greg KO6TH and Jim WA8MPA, we hope you had a great Holiday season, and best wishes for 2026.  Just remember to spell the year right… 73!

Meeting Promo

November 2025 Meeting

Our next club meeting will take place on November 14 at 7:30 PM at the Confluence Church Gym in Auburn, California and on Zoom at zoom.w6ek.org. Jim (W6JCZ) is giving a talk on the newly updated FreeDV application, including its new RADE “Radio Autoencoder” mode. This new digital voice mode is very promising as it continues to function even with low signal strengths that would make traditional single-sideband voice unintelligible. Come join us and find out how to set up your station for FreeDV, how it works so well, and what you can do to contribute to its development.

Meeting Promo

September 2025 Meeting

Our next club meeting will take place on September 12 at 7:30 PM at the Confluence Church Gym in Auburn, California and on Zoom at zoom.w6ek.org. Together with his son Jayden (W6EFM), John (KO6COW) is one of the most active SOTA operators in our club. Meanwhile, Jimmy (N6FMD) always gets plenty of contacts in his log when he activates POTA parks in the area. Come join us as they discuss what goes into a successful activation, how to prepare for an outing, and what to look out for when operating in the field. We’ll also hear about their experiences working radio in the field, along with plenty of pictures that show great examples of outdoor setups. Along the way we’ll take questions and comments from others, whether they’re seasoned outdoor operators or newly-licensed hams interested in radio beyond the shack!

Meeting Promo

August 2025 Meeting

Our next club meeting will take place on August 8 at 7:30 PM at the Confluence Church Gym in Auburn, California and on Zoom at zoom.w6ek.org. Bob (KD6QVD) will show us several of his tactical radio setups, focusing on goal-oriented approaches to engineering and design. Many of us aspire to put together go-boxes and easy to deploy communications systems, but along the way things often end up more complex than they need to be. Come join us as Bob explains what goes into his builds and how easy they are to operate, both as an individual and a team. If you’ve ever been interested in top-spec portable operations, this is one presentation you won’t want to miss out on!

Meeting Promo

July 2025 Meeting

Our next club meeting will take place on July 11 at 7:30 PM at the Confluence Church Gym in Auburn, California and on Zoom at zoom.w6ek.org. Jeff (AK6OK) will show the club how to make use of lab-grade test instrumentation to help with antenna design, complete with live demonstrations and hands-on experimentation. Scott (KM6RFB) has made some major upgrades to the Placer County ARES website, and he’ll present to us all the new features and information that can be found there.

Meeting Promo

June 2025 Meeting

Our next club meeting will take place on June 13 at 7:30 PM at the Confluence Church Gym in Auburn, California and on Zoom at zoom.w6ek.org. The SFARC Field Day team will discuss the club’s plans for ARRL Field Day, which takes place on June 28 and 29. Please consider helping out during the event, especially if you already have plans to attend!