ICOM D-Star - Digital Amateur Radio

Tim Barrett K6BIV, will provide a very informative talk to overview what the ICOM D Star system is. All repeaters are analog and mostly FM, but recently some are GMSK! Tim will discuss the various aspects and modes of D-Star operation and some of the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing this mode/system for amateur radio. He will also cover the current status of systems being coordinated in and around the Bay Area.

Tim is currently serving on the board of directors for NARCC, (www.narcc.org) and they are the coordinating body for all amateur radio repeaters in Northern California. Tim has been very active in D-Star since it first came out and was also responsible for launching and now a trustee of the K6MDD D-Star machine on Mt. Diablo 145.02 (C). We are planning to have a live demonstration using D-Star simplex, through a repeater and finally through a repeater-gateway-reflector system using digital voice (DV mode) on 2 meters.

Matt Ettus N2MJI - AMSAT Geostationary Project

On Friday, April 4^th, Matt will provide an overview of the current AMSAT project and describe some of the hurdles that will need to be overcome to get this huge effort off the ground. The payload will be discussed as well his proposal for the link design and how the ham community will benefit from this design.

Map & directions

The Palo Alto Amateur Radio Association meets on the 1^st Friday of the month at 7:00pm (19:00J) at the Menlo Park Recreation Center, located at 700 Alma Street, Menlo Park, CA.

This year&#8217’s Field Day will be awesome, with more HF stations, bigger antennas, and more demonstrations for visitors and the media.

We will be operating in the 4A category—four HF stations, one Get On The Air station, a VHF/UHF station, satellite, and perhaps even HSMM—something for everyone.

So come to get a preview, and find out how you can help make this the club&#8217’s best Field Day ever.

Gerry, N6NV will introduce you to our grand plan, our station captains will tell you about their equipment, and then we’ll show you how to operate our new networked logging system.

Neil Hays, W6FOG will share with us his fascinating ham radio operations on the high seas, operating maritime mobile from his 32-foot Westsail 42 Cutter, with 11 Icom radios and a good dozen antennas, ranging from inverted Vees to 1.2GHz and 2.4GHz antennas on a rotator at the top of the mast.
Neil has operated just about every ham band and mode while underway, including HF, (160m with a full-size antenna using a kite and a towed kayak!), packet, VHF, UHF, microwave, satellite, and APRS.

This summer, Neil will set sail for the Caribbean in this amazing floating ham shack, to begin a 30-island DXpedition that he has been planning since he was 15. Don’t miss this chance to learn about what surely will become a famous trip, and find out how you might be able to participate!

First licensed in 1959 at the tender age of 9, Neil served 2 years in Vietnam as an Army MARS officer, where he handled about 38,000 phone patch calls, and also provided MARSgrams over packet during the first Gulf War.

This is no April Fool’s. At 7:30pm on Friday, April 1st, our own Mark Cohen, KR1PTO will introduce us to the wonderful world of 2.4GHz.

Mark is a computer networking expert with more antennas on his VW than any police car you’ve ever seen, and he will introduce us to the world of 2.4GHz data communication–a band where hams are licensed to operate, but which has also become extremely popular for providing wireless Internet and networking under the so-called unlicensed spectrum rules.

Mark will introduce us to amateur radio High-Speed Multi-Media (HSMM)–the use of 2.4GHz and other bands capable of high data rates give us hams more sophisticated transmission capabilities and ensure we don’t lose our privlidges on these frequencies. He will also teach us how to adapt Wi-Fi networking products meant for unlicensed operation for use under the amateur radio Part 97 rules, and using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) for making phone calls over Wi-Fi in the HAM spectrum with experimental power and features.

Come for the lecture, the great raffle prizes, the free coffee and cookies, or just to mingle, but do come and enjoy.

The March 4^th PAARA meeting is your chance to show off your latest or most favorite home-built kit, project, or hack.

Even if you haven’t built anything yourself, come see what others have built. For those that want to see if their homebuilt or factory-built radios and antennas are functioning properly, we will have a suite of test equipment, including a full service monitor, and antenna analyzers set up with experts to go along with them.

This Friday, February 4,
at 7:30pm, World-famous DXer Bonnie Crystal will describe her most interesting operating adventures to remote locations all around and deep inside the Earth. Bonnie will talk about her use of the LowFER 160–190 kHz band, with its mile-long (1750m) wavelength, for establishing radio communications from the surface into deep underground caves, and her adventures spelunking and exploring lost jungle cities in Peru.
Bonnie is perhaps best known for founding the HF Pack group, which promotes the use HF radio communications while pedestrian or bicycle mobile, but has also co-founded three high-tech companies (International Medcom, Telegen, and Telisar), and in a previous century, co-authored The World of CB Radio

At the first PAARA meeting of 2005, Dean Straw, N6BV, ARRL’s Senior Assistant Technical Editor, will speak about “Strategies Using Propagation Predictions for DXing and Contesting”

Straw will show how to use propagation software, local terrain models and antenna modeling tools to plan for specific DX contacts and to guide contest band strategies.

One of the most interesting parts of the lecture will be his comparison of the predictions he compiled for the rare W6–VU4 path several months ago, with the actual conditions during December 2004.

Mitch Cipriano, AE6AI & Morris Jones, AD6ZH, from Hamstop will demonstrate new products, including the “Coolest” Programmable Power Meter available.

Over $1,800 in raffle prizes will be offered, including a Yaesu FT-847
HF+VHF+UHF All-Mode Transceiver, Programmable Power Meter, EZ-PSK USB soundcard interface, and much more—10 prizes in all.
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Grant Connell, WD6CNF, HF Pack Member and Amateur Radio software developer, will demonstrate his invaluable Amateur Radio software programs, including a nifty Morse Code decoder (see QST, Oct. 2004, Short Takes, pg. 61).
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