Watts Up This Week

Watts Up This Week | New Meeting Location = This Friday

We have a BIG week ahead of us with some cool changes.
This Friday come one come all to the first annual SFARC Open House!

CLUB MEETING – THIS FRIDAY (02/13) @ 7:30P
Starting February 13th, our meeting location changes to Placer County Health and Human Service (HSS) Conference Center (Cordova Room 500) @ 11434 B Ave, Auburn, CA 95603. And with this change, we’re having an open house. The new location provides excellent acoustics to improve “readability” during meetings and an improved sound system and display setup. From Interstate 80, use the Bell Road exit and head north for quick and easy access. More information and a map can be found at https://www.w6ek.org/activities/meetings

BOARD MEETING – THIS THURSDAY (02/12) @ 6P
Want a voice in how SFARC is run? Or maybe get some early insight on whats coming? All members are welcome to join us on Zoom @ https://meeting.w6ek.org

- Front Page, Main Page 02

Amateur Radio Exams / VE Testing: March 2, 2026

Looking for a local location to take your amateur radio license or upgrade exam? Sierra Foothills VE Team provides in-person exam sessions on the 1st Monday evening of the month.

Scholarships are available for students currently enrolled in Elementary, Middle, High School, or Undergraduate College programs and are 21 years of age or younger as of the date of the exam. Upon passing an exam, the student will be eligible for an instant $14 refund for the cost of the exam and also awarded the $35 FCC licensing fee.

NEXT IN-PERSON DATE: March 2, 2026 @ 7 PM

Need more information before signing up? CLICK HERE

Fox Hunt Page (Upcoming Fox Hunt)

February 2026 Fox Hunt

The February SFARC Fox Hunt will be the last Saturday of the month, February 28, immediately following the Club breakfast at Mel’s diner.

Marty KO6GXX will be our Fox Tender for this month.  Marty is also the president of the Nevada County Amateur Radio Club.  Thank you, Marty, for helping out.

The Hunt pre-meeting will be at 9:00 AM in Mel’s parking lot.  The Fox Hunt will start at 9:15 AM and conclude at 11:30 AM. or sooner if all participants find the Fox earlier.

Further details will be post here as they become available.

I would like to thank the 15 HAMs who came out and participated in our January Fox Hunt.  Congratulations to our January winner Matt KO6IMP.

73

Greydon KC6SLE

Watts Up This Week

Watts Up This Week

Lots of fun coming up THIS weekend with the club breakfast and fox hunt on Saturday.

FOX HUNT, THIS SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2026
The Fox Hunt will start following the club breakfast at 9 AM for the pre-meeting in Mel’s parking lot and 9:30 AM for the start of the Hunt.  The Hunt will end at 11:30 AM and be followed by a debrief at Burgers and Cream in Auburn. Greydon (KC6SLE) will be the Fox Tender for January. The Fox will be hidden within the boundaries of the City of Auburn. Further details such as transmitter frequency, transmitter power, Fox Tender call in frequency, etc. will be provided at the Hunt pre-meeting. For this year we’ve introduced some extra fun! Greydon is proposing we start an annual “Fox Hunter of the Year” championship with points earned each month for the position each hunter finishes each monthly Fox Hunt.  We can award the eleven-month championship at the club’s end of year Holiday dinner.  To encourage more hunters to also be Fox Tenders, being the Fox tender on any time within the 11-month championship automatically awards the Tender one month’s max points. However, you can only get these points one time, not multiple time, regardless of how many times you are the Tender. If you have feedback or ideas, please reach out here -> https://www.w6ek.org/activities/foxhunt/support?contact=foxhunt 

CLUB MEETING / SFARC OPEN HOUSE / FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13TH
Come one, come all!!! We’ll be celebrating the launch of our new meeting venue on Friday, February 13th @ 7:30 PM. Last week, many folks from the leadership team did a dry run of the new venue, and the results were very positive. We look forward to welcoming you all to our new meeting home at the Placer HHS Conference Center @ 11434 B Avenue in Auburn.

For quick and easy access, and to avoid 49, use the Bell Road exit on I80 and head north.

Click here for a map

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.”

Watts Up This Week

Watts Up This Week (Correction)

Hey Members and Friends — a correction and an addition to the previous “Watts Up” email earlier this week. The club breakfast and fox hunt are NOT this weekend. 🙂 Despite my early promotion, the club breakfast and fox hunt are still scheduled for the last Saturday of the month, January 31st. More information about the Fox Hunt can be found @ https://www.w6ek.org/activities/foxhunt

HAMFEST PLANNING MEETING – THIS THURSDAY (JANUARY 22, 2026)
We had a great kick off planning meeting for Hamfest last week.
We have another one scheduled for THIS Thursday (01/22/2026) starting at 6PM in the club Zoom room @ https://meeting.w6ek.org/

73,
The Sierra Foothills Amateur Radio Club (W6EK)
(530) 492-0920

Website: www.w6ek.org
Group.io: groupsio.w6ek.org

Social: facebook.w6ek.org | twitter.w6ek.org | linkedIn.w6ek.org | instagram.w6ek.org | youtube.w6ek.org

Watts Up This Week

Watts Up This Week

It’s another great week despite some valley fog. Can you believe we’re almost into February. Don’t forget that we still have the club breakfast and FOX HUNT!!! The Fox Hunt will start following the club breakfast at 9 AM for the pre-meeting in Mel’s parking lot ending by 11:30 AM by a debrief at Burgers and Cream in Auburn. Greydon (KC6SLE) will be leading this month’s hunt within the city of Auburn. Further details such as transmitter frequency, transmitter power, Fox Tender call in frequency, etc. will be provided at the Hunt pre-meeting.

ARE YOU READY TO UPGRADE BUT NEED A PUSH?
Sign up for the SFARC Extra License Class starting NEXT week, January 27th. All classes are held online so you don’t even have to be local!! Subscribe today @ https://www.w6ek.org/activities/coursesandtraining/selector

REMINDER – FEBRUARY MEETING
Starting February 13th, our meeting location changes to Placer County Health and Human Service (HSS) Conference Center (Cordova Room 500) @ 1434 B Ave, Auburn, CA 95603. The new location provides excellent acoustics to improve “readability” during meetings and an improved sound system and display setup. From Interstate 80, use the Bell Road exit and head north for quick and easy access. More information and a map can be found at https://www.w6ek.org/activities/meetings


THE SFARC SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM IS NOW LIVE
We are excited to announce the relaunch of the SFARC Scholarship Program, offering financial assistance to high school seniors to support their pursuit of higher education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). First consideration of scholarship awards will be given to family or relatives of SFARC members. If you have a child (or grandchild) that could benefit, apply today @ https://www.w6ek.org/aboutsfarc/scholarships.

73,
The Sierra Foothills Amateur Radio Club (W6EK)
(530) 492-0920

Website: www.w6ek.org
Group.io: groupsio.w6ek.org

Social: facebook.w6ek.org | twitter.w6ek.org | linkedIn.w6ek.org | instagram.w6ek.org | youtube.w6ek.org

Watts Up This Week

Watts Up This Week

WE’VE GOT A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
You provided feedback and we listened!! Starting February 13th, our meeting location changes to Placer County Health and Human Services (HSS) Conference Center (Cordova Room 500) @ 1434 B Ave, Auburn, CA 95603. The new location provides excellent acoustics to improve “readability” during meetings with an improved sound system and display setup. From Interstate 80, use the Bell Road exit and head north for quick and easy access. More information and a map can be found at https://www.w6ek.org/activities/meetings

We are incredibly grateful to Confluence Church for everything they’ve provided to us over the years.

THE SFARC SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM IS NOW LIVE
We are excited to announce the relaunch of the SFARC Scholarship Program, offering financial assistance to high school seniors to support their pursuit of higher education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). First consideration of scholarship awards will be given to family or relatives of SFARC members. If you have a child (or grandchild) that could benefit, apply today @ https://www.w6ek.org/aboutsfarc/scholarships

SFARC TECH SUMMIT REMINDER — TONIGHT @ 6 PM
We are doing a training session on “all tech things SFARC”. Some of the topics being covered include:

* Website Updates (high-level)
* What email addresses do we have, and how are they monitored.
* Use of Email Lists
* How to submit reimbursements
* How to send an article to the Newsletter Editor
* How to send a QST to the club (limited to President, VP, and Newsletter)
* What happens if Smitty gets hit by a bus? 🙂

All are welcome to attend tonight @ 6 PM — https://meet.google. com/xpj-wxar-viq 

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