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This month, Smitty (WB1G) talks about his journey into Extended Single Side Band (ESSB). From discussing the advantages of Pure Signal (Smart Signal / DPD), to the equipment needed to feed your radio with the proper audio levels and compression, Smitty draws from an extensive background in the broadcast industry and shares some entry level hardware to get you started in the mode. Explore the world of 6 Khz audio in HD on HF! For more information, visit https://www.n6mud.com or check out the ESSB Audio Outlaws (N6MUD) channel on YouTube.
Wide Signal Ahead! HD HF audio on SSB? This can't be legal. What is ESSB?
Mark W2MWK and Smitty WB1G give a quick overview of the club's results and feedback from this year's ARRL Field Day event. Field Day is a nation wide (and world participating) ham radio event, where clubs and individuals set up their amateur stations out in "the field" to simulate operations during a disaster of some sort. The stations gain points for every contact they make, with various incentives given for different bands, modes, and other event-related activities. More information can be found at the ARRL Field Day site: https://www.arrl.org/field-day The club's website, and Resource Center can be found at https://www.w6ek.org/
Sierra Foothills ARC Field Day 2026 wrap up
This month, Jim W6JCZ gives us a live walk-through of the OpenHamClock.com ham radio "Dashboard". This web application provides a live view into many of the activities and environmental conditions surrounding the operating of ham radios today. This includes the solar conditions which affect our HF (shortwave) propagation, current DXPeditions and spotting, and even active satellites through which one can contact distant stations. Jim's educational background included a degree in computer science, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence and machine learning. His involvement with radio started with CB at the age of 11, eventually progressing to a ham license in 2021. He now holds an Amateur Extra license, and enjoys working the HF Bands nearly every day. Professionally, Jim is the manager of a local Ham Radio Outlet store, referred to affectionately as "The candy store" by club members. The application can be accessed free of charge at https://openhamclock.com/ through any web browser. For those with the legacy ("hardware") product, the OpenHamClock back end server mentioned in the video can be accessed by starting the legacy app with the option "-b ohb.hamclock.app:80" added to the run string. Information on the use of the backend service can be found at https://ohb.works/ The mutual visibility option for satellite pass predictions is in beta development, but it appears this is for the legacy products. Integration of the function into the OpenHamClock project is not known at this time.
Open Ham Clock Walk-through
For the June 2026 general meeting, Mark W2MWK and Smitty WB1G give an energetic overview of the club's plans for the upcoming Field Day event, with a call for volunteers to help pull the event off. Field Day is a nation wide (and world participating) ham radio event, where clubs and individuals set up their amateur stations out in "the field" to simulate operations during a disaster of some sort. The stations gain points for every contact they make, with various incentives given for different bands, modes, and other event-related activities. More information can be found at the ARRL Field Day site: https://www.arrl.org/field-day The club's website, and Resource Center can be found at https://www.w6ek.org/
Sierra Foothills ARC 2026 Field Day Plans
This month, Greg KO6TH talks with the Sierra Foothills ARC about what's behind the care and feeding of today's Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries. Greg has been a ham since 1992, currently holding an Amateur Extra license. But his dabbling with electronics and computers dates back to his teenage years, when he was given (and promptly tore apart) any number of old TVs and radios for their parts, which were re-assembled into a variety of other bits of audio and radio equipment, sometimes successfully. Much more recently, he explored the nuances of Lithium Iron Phosphate battery management through building and using a pair of 300 amp-hour batteries from cells. These have been used to run his Ham Shack and for emergency power during outages and public service events. Resources: Off Grid Garage on BMS Settings: • How to set your MPPT Solar Charge Controll... Andy's Off Grid Garage website: https://off-grid-garage.com/my-settings/
The "Whys" of LiFePO4 battery charging
This month, Jim WA8MPA takes the Sierra Foothills ARC through an analysis of how effective common snap-on ferrite chokes are on the elimination of common-mode currents. These are RF currents that flow on the outside of coax cables, where they don't belong. Besides representing a waste of power, any time RF energy is present where it shouldn't be there is an opportunity for dangerous situations to arise, including RF burns. Ferrite beads are often used to absorb or block these currents. They are a composite of a form of powdered iron and binders, shaped into half circles (used in pairs) or rings, and are placed on cables as needed. But not all "ferrite" is created equal, so whether you're using high quality (with known chemistry) choke or an iron-based rock that's probably better used for jewelry makes a difference. Jim is a long-time member of the SFARC, a ham radio club based in the Foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, about 30 miles north east of Sacramento, California. He currently holds an Amateur Extra license, and enjoys working on all manner of radio equipment.
Effectiveness of Snap-On Ferrite Chokes on Common Mode Currents
This month, Frank KG9M and the team leads review the plans for this year's annual Hamfest. Billed as the region's first Hamfest of the year, the Loomis Hamfest features all manner of ham radio and related equipment for sale or swap. This year's event will be held on Saturday March 28th, at the Historic Loomis Train Station in Loomis, California.
Loomis Hamfest 2026 Overview
This month, Jef N5JEF gives the Sierra Foothills ARC a presentation that focuses on the combination of Spread Spectrum and Mesh Networking, a pair of emerging, frontier technologies that will be increasingly applicable to our communications future. Jef includes some practical examples of where these technologies can currently be used, and discusses how regional deployments are being used as an experimental lab for developing and improving their effectiveness. Jef is currently a senior analyst with the County of Placer Radio Services Group. Their mission is to develop and support mission-critical public safety and environmental utilities. Previously, he spent over twenty years as a technical and field service manager in scientific instrumentation for laboratory, industrial and semiconductor metrology. Jef has also been involved in emergency management, search and rescue, and personal preparedness.
Spread Spectrum and Mesh Networking explained!
For January 2026, we have Scott Read KM6RFB presenting on “Voice Radio Procedure”. 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? Scott's professional enjoyment comes from radio communications for both Public Safety and Amateur, as well as the technical side as a certified COML COMT, and AUXCOMM. He spent 27 yrs as a Professional Firefighter/EMT (Lt.) and Hazmat Specialist for several different agencies, and is a former Battalion Chief for Caterpillar Fire in Peoria, IL with Pinkerton Government Services, and a former Aerospace Firefighter and Fire Protection Specialist with Aerojet Rocketdyne. Currently Scott is a Health & Safety Specialist with the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team), and a certified FEMA All Hazard Safety Officer. He works part-time as an OSHA compliance trainer, with a focus on emergency response, general industry, confined space awareness and rescue, and hazmat, and part-time with NASCAR as part of the Fire Safety team on the West Coast of California. Scott is also a Senior Emergency Service Coordinator / Communication Coordinator for the State of California, where he developed our communication capabilities and updating our communication equipment for his agency. In his spare time, besides playing with the radios, Scott enjoys HO scale model railroading, 3D printing, and camping and fishing. He holds a BS degree in Environmental Health and Safety from CSUS Sacramento, and a General Class Amateur Radio license.
Radio Voice Procedure: How to communicate effectively under adverse conditions
This month, Jim W6JCZ gives the Sierra Foothills ARC an introduction to the FreeDV digital voice communications application, featuring the new RADE codec. This mode shows promise as the next evolutionary step in HF and VHF communications, being able to clearly transmit recognizable voice under band conditions that render the Single-Sideband mode nearly unusable. Jim's educational background included a degree in computer science, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence and machine learning. His involvement with radio started with CB at the age of 11, eventually progressing to a ham license in 2021. He now holds an Amateur Extra license, and enjoys working the HF Bands nearly every day. Professionally, Jim is the manager of a local Ham Radio Outlet store, referred to affectionately as "The candy store" by club members. FreeDV overall can be found on the Web at https://freedv.org/ The audio samples played during the talk were from https://freedv.org/waspaa-2025-rade-demo/
Introduction to FreeDV
For the second presentation for our September meeting, Jimmy N6FMD takes the Sierra Foothills club through the ins and outs of activating parks as part of the Parks on the Air program. As with Summits on the Air, hams get points for "activating" - making contacts with other hams - from among a long list of National, State, Provincial parks, and some historical trails or sites. Jimmy's passion is compact, rapid-deployment radio—field operations at their best. As he says, "Parks on the Air has been the ultimate testing ground… and, let’s be honest, it’s also a ton of fun." He made his first Parks on the Air activation on New Year’s Eve 2024, running a Yaesu 991A with a simple 10-meter dipole. From that moment, he was hooked. By March 2025, Jimmy began treating every outing as both an activation and an experiment. He logged each antenna’s performance under different conditions—configuration, radial orientation, placement, Q, resonance, SWR—building a personal database of what really works in the field. Sometimes he even used antenna switches during live operations to test signal strength and reception with willing contacts who stuck around to help. Over time, patterns emerged, confirmed by QSO propagation maps, showing exactly which setups performed best. As of mid-September 2025 he has completed 155 activations across 43 unique parks in six states, totaling 5,444 QSOs. He has hunted 937 unique parks, logged 1,152 Park-to-Park contacts, earned 33 awards (some twice over), and is just two states away from the coveted 50 Hunted States award. Links: The link to sign up and get information about the POTA program: https://parksontheair.com Once signed up, go to the POTA APP: https://pota.app/
Ham Radio: Parks on the Air
The first of a pair of September presentations, John KO6COW and Jayden W6EFM talk with the Sierra Foothills ARC about the Summits on the Air program, a Ham Radio challenge where licensed amateurs bring their radio equipment and antennas to "mountain" summits around the world. They earn points toward awards by "activating" the summit and making radio contacts with other amateurs who share the same enthusiasm for the sport. John KO6COW first received his Tech license in Dec 2023 and quickly upgraded to General in Jan 2024. He joined the Sierra Foothills ARC officially in Feb of 2024. John is a member of Sacramento County ARES, where he has participated in the Sacramento Century Bike Challenge, Clarksburg Country Run, and the CIM as an aid station radio operator. He is also a volunteer for Sacramento County Search and Rescue, where he is the lead Radio Comms operator. John received his Amateur Extra in January of 2025 and is an ARRL VE participating in North Hills ARC Monthly VE Sessions. Jayden W6EFM first received his Tech license in October of 2024 and completed his first Summits on the Air activation in November of 2024 with his father John KO6COW. With the love of SOTA's, Jayden upgraded to General and began designing and building his own antennas made from speaker wire. He and his father have completed 16 SOTA activations in less than one year...and will complete more. Jayden is also a member of Sacramento County Ares and has participated in the Sacramento Century Bike Challenge, Clarksburg Country Run, and the CIM as an aid station radio operator. He upgraded to Amateur Extra at Sierra Foothills ARC's field Day in June 2025. Jayden is one of three Ham Radio operators at his school and is working to recruit more fellow students into the hobby. He was in charge of a Foxhunt for his school at their annual campout at Sugar Pine Point Campground. Links: Official SOTA website: https://www.sota.org.uk/
Ham Radio: Summits on the Air
A year in the making, Scott KM6RFB gives the Sierra Foothills ARC a tour of the new Placer Count ARES website. ARES is the Amateur Radio Emergency Services, a program of ARRL®. It is comprised of organized, trained, and identified Amateur Radio operators who augment and support vital communications on behalf of the public through partner agencies and organizations during emergencies and disasters. Scott is the Placer County (California) ARES Coordinator. Live now, the website can be found at: https://sites.google.com/view/placercountyares/home Scott's professional enjoyment comes from radio communications for both Public Safety and Amateur, as well as the technical side as a certified COML COMT, and AUXCOMM. He spent 27 yrs as a Professional Firefighter/EMT (Lt.) and Hazmat Specialist for several different agencies, and is a former Battalion Chief for Caterpillar Fire in Peoria, IL with Pinkerton Government Services, and a former Aerospace Firefighter and Fire Protection Specialist with Aerojet Rocketdyne. Currently Scott is a Health & Safety Specialist with the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS), DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team), and a certified FEMA All Hazard Safety Officer. He works part-time as an OSHA compliance trainer, with a focus on emergency response, general industry, confined space awareness and rescue, and hazmat, and part-time with NASCAR as part of the Fire Safety team on the West Coast of California. Scott is also a Senior Emergency Service Coordinator / Communication Coordinator for the State of California, where he developed our communication capabilities and updating our communication equipment for his agency. In his spare time, besides playing with the radios, Scott enjoys HO scale model railroading, 3D printing, and camping and fishing. He holds a BS degree in Environmental Health and Safety from CSUS Sacramento, and a General Class Amateur Radio license.
Placer County ARES Website tour
This month (July, 2025) has five Wednesdays, which means it's time for a special Sierra Foothills ARC presentation! This time we invite Dr. Ed Fong back to talk about how he created a low cost 3-band antenna covering the 145 mhz (2 meter), 220 mhz (1.25 meter), and 440 (70 centimeter) Ham Radio bands with a single antenna. This patented antenna is quite ingenious, and is available for purchase from Dr. Fong. Dr. Fong is an instructor teaching graduate classes in RF and High Speed Interface design at the University of California, Santa Cruz Silicon Valley campus. He obtained BSEE and MSEE degrees from UC Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from the University of San Francisco. During his 40 year career he worked for Motorola, National Semiconductor, Phillips Semiconductor, and Advanced Micro Devices. He has been a Ham Radio operator since 1968, holding the Amateur Extra call sign WB6IQN. Dr Fong's website can be found here: https://edsantennas.weebly.com/
Dr. Ed Fong: How he created a low cost 3-band VHF / UHF antenna
Jeff KM6RGO gives the Sierra Foothills ARC a review of the club's 2025 ARRL Field Day event preliminary results. Field Day is a nation wide (and world participating) ham radio event, where clubs and individuals set up their amateur stations out in "the field" to simulate operations during a disaster of some sort. The stations gain points for every contact they make, with various incentives given for different bands, modes, and other event-related activities. More information can be found at the ARRL Field Day site: https://www.arrl.org/field-day
2025 Field Day Wrap up
This month, Jeff AK6OK gives the Sierra Foothills ARC a review of two high-end instruments he uses for testing radio antennas. One, the Keysight "Field Fox" is like the popular "NanoVNA" on steroids, and the other, a Rigol Spectrum Analyzer is your TinySA but with high-end capabilities. With them, Jeff demonstrates how small antennas such as those found on hand-held radios are tested, and what can affect the results. Jeff is the President and CEO of Compudigital Industries in Rocklin, California, a company that specializes in Web programming and the sales of excess materials and products. He is also the President and Chairman of the Board of Open Window Foundation, a non-profit foundation that supplies free Bibles to the military. An active ham radio operator since 1966, Jeff and his Dad Jim were members of the Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club and maintained the W6CX repeater long before it ended up on Mt. Diablo. For the past 20 years, Jeff has held an Extra Class license. He is a Lifetime Member of the Sierra Foothills ARC. Jeff is an inventor at heart. He has developed many products and software applications over the years, covering a wide range of industries and specialties. Among them, he developed the first talking elevator for Otis Elevator in San Francisco and the first Restaurant Seating Management System in 1992, which was installed in Disneyland Paris. Jeff also created a charging system used to safely charge Fighter Jet batteries. All of this came from the knowledge he developed from Ham Radio. These days, you will find Jeff on the HF bands using the a HF Remote station on the hill. -------------------- Keysight Field Fox: https://www.keysight.com/us/en/products/network-analyzers/fieldfox-handheld-rf-microwave-analyzers.html Rigol DSA832W Spectrum Analyzer: https://rigol.com.ua/en/products/spectrum-analyzer-rigol-dsa832e/
Antenna Testing: Equipment and Techniques
This month, Jeff KM6RGO reviews this year's plans for the Sierra Foothills Amateur Radio Club's Field Day event. This year the event will be held on June 27th through June 29th, 2025. Field Day is a nation wide (and world participating) ham radio event, where clubs and individuals set up their amateur stations out in "the field" to simulate operations during a disaster of some sort. The stations gain points for every contact they make, with various incentives given for different bands, modes, and other event-related activities. More information can be found at the ARRL Field Day site: https://www.arrl.org/field-day The club's website, and Resource Center can be found at https://www.w6ek.org/
2025 ARRL Field Day plans: Sierra Foothills ARC
Returning for the fifth year, Hot RF Nights is a forum for showing off mobile, portable, and emergency Ham Radio equipment to others and the general public. The event gives local Hams, emergency service agencies, and all interested a way to discuss and demonstrate their vehicles and portable equipment to others. And in the grand tradition of Amateur Radio, a good time was had by all. With feedback from last year's event about the hot weather, the Sierra Foothills ARC, sponsor of the event, decided to move the event to a "less hot" May date, and a more central venue, resulting in wonderful weather and an expansion of the exhibits and attendance.
Hot RF Nights 2025
This month, Smitty WB1G discusses the important topic of backing up your computer. In his talk, he outlines characteristics of various data backup devices and services, with some of the important considerations in choosing one over the other. Smitty was first licensed as an amateuer radio operator in 2004. In his professional life, he spent many years as an on-air afternoon drive radio DJ, then pivoted into online streaming audio as it came into view. As a systems engineer, Smitty built much of the initial streaming audio infrastructure for many iHeart radio stations on the west coast as well as K-LOVE and Air1 radio networks. In 2012, Smitty pivoted into online streaming video, hedging a bet that "someday" we'd all watch video online and he's been working in that space since. Part of this past life found Smitty in IT, managing corporate data backups (read: rotating tapes!). He's moved on from that, but the scars remain and are instructive.
Data Backup and Recovery: How to protect what's valuable
For a special "5th Wednesday" presentation, Craig KM6LYW gives the Sierra Foothills ARC an update to his popular DigiPi product. The DigiPi turns an ordinary Raspberry Pi, a ham radio, and some interface logic into an appliance that can communicate with (nearly) every ham radio digital mode currently in use. Craig introduced the DigiPi to the club about 3 years ago, in a presentation that can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CSRHWaqY1o Craig describes himself as an "OpenSource software guy with a Linux background trying hard to blend in the radio hobby." Links: The DigiPi Product website: https://digipi.org/ Craig's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KM6LYW
DigiPi 1.9 Update
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    Is Broadcast Radio Dead (Tile)

    Is Broadcast Radio Dead?

    It’s complicated, and it starts with relevance.
    by Smitty (WB1G)

    Having spent 15 years working in radio, in front of and behind the microphone, I am passionate about this topic. So the best place to start is whether radio is still relevant. The simple answer is yes, but limited to a demographic that is aging out. The primary radio advertising “buying demo” is adults 25–54. As Gen Xers get older and head into retirement, spending becomes more calculated. Broadcast radio remains dominant in vehicles, with AM/FM representing over 70% of ad-supported in-car listening among the upper end of the demographic. Radio remains a strong reach medium, but it is no longer the center of people’s audio lives. The key is the “upper end of the demographic”.

    What’s In A Name?
    Ask your kids or grandkids what their favorite radio station is and who their favorite DJ is. Among ages 13–24, over-the-air radio accounts for roughly 16% of total audio time. Only 10% of ages 13–17 and 5% of ages 18–24 identify AM/FM as their primary source for discovering music (from Radio World and Radio Ink).

    Plenty of under-25s “hear radio”, often in a parent’s car, workplace, or shared setting, but that doesn’t mean they intentionally selected the station, know its call letters or frequency, or could name it when asked. In advertisers’ eyes, that is not good.

    What about AM radio?
    According to Edison Research, AM radio is in a substantially weaker position with people under 25 than FM radio. Current national studies generally combine AM and FM, so there is no credible published percentage showing how many under-25s can name an AM station. AM isn’t dead as a distribution system, but among younger listeners it has a serious brand awareness and intentional-use problem that makes ad monetization challenging beyond radio’s broader challenge. Large antenna systems and towers require substantial land, ground radials, and specialized maintenance, which makes AM cost prohibitive in many markets. A National Alliance of State Broadcasters Associations survey of more than 1,000 AM stations found that over 70% of AM radio stations on the air today have an FM simulcast.

    Looking into the crystal ball, how much time do we have left? In the United States, FM radio likely has at least another 20 years as a meaningful broadcast service; however, that doesn’t indicate profitability. Among existing radio fans surveyed by Jacobs Media, broadcast delivery fell from 85% of station listening in 2013 to 54% in 2026. Digital delivery rose from 14% to 44%; among Gen Z, digital has already slightly passed broadcast. The greater near-term risk isn’t that the FM band is switched off. It’s that individual stations become economically unsustainable, further consolidate, reduce local programming or operate mainly as automated extensions of digital brands. To be frank, this has already been happening for the last 20 years.

    So where does that leave us?
    I’m sorry to say, when Gen Xers and early Millennials age out, broadcast radio will become more niche and background noise.

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