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.

Dennis Willson, KA6LSW, has relinquished his position as Webmaster, due to health concerns, so our long-planned custom database-driven site redesign has been placed on hold. Instead, we are now using the WordPress “semantic personal publishing platform”. WordPress can be upgraded with plug-ins that increase its functionality without requiring us to design and code custom solutions.

The key, however, to keeping this new site up-to-date, will be the participation of volunteers to edit its content. Our first new Web editor is Joel Wilhite, KD6W, who will keep us all posted on what the upcoming PAARA meeting lectures will be.

Amateur Radio Provides Lifeline During Disaster

This blog posting from December 2007 reports how Oregon hams helped the Red Cross respond to the December power outages, and relayed actual emergency medical requests when the phone lines were down.

Local PAARA members Stan Towle, WA6ZGI, (with his steady squeeze
Marilyn) along with Al Montoya, WB6IMX and his bride Wendy, KF6CCZ
will be away for over a week during August with the Quarter Century Wireless
Association west coast ham cruise. See below for a list of the frequencies that
they will be using on this maritime ham fantasy boat cruise. You should make a point of working them on this cruise to qualify for a neat QSL card.

The group will be travelling on the m.s. Veendam from 21 to 28 August 2005, and will be operating on these frequencies:

On-Board Ship HF Voice SSB Operations (MHz):
10M 28.300 - 29.300 Near: 28.335
15M 21.200 - 21.450 Near: 21.392
20M 14.150 - 14.350 Near: 14.273
40M 7.150 - 7.300 Near: 7.265

On-Board Ship HF CW Operations (MHz):
15M 21.000 - 21.200 Near: 21.140
20M 14.000 - 14.150 Near: 14.120
40M 7.000 - 7.150 Near: 7.125
80M 3.500 - 3.750 Near: 3.710

ITINERARY
21 Aug Sun. Depart Seward
22 Aug Mon. Cruising College Fjord
23 Aug Tue. Cruising Glacier Bay National Park
24 Aug Wed. Sitka, AK 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
25 Aug Thu. Juneau, AK 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
26 Aug Fri. Ketchikan, AK 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
27 Aug Sat. Cruising The Inside Passage
28 Aug Sun. Arrive Vancouver

Many years ago, at the July 1968 club meeting, a question of changing the club callsing from W6OTX to something shorter was brought up, and that is when the club was reminded of the history of its callsign.

I’ll repeat it here, becuase it is an important memory of Wilbur Lauridson, the original holder.
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I’ve recently been going through the dusty, musky archives that have been retrieved from the non-weatherproof PAARA trailer. I have discovered when PAARA and the Menlo Park CD Radio Club were joined at the hip (March, 1970), and when the first PAARA picnic was (1979 in Huddart Park).

More details, and perhaps some pictures, will emerge as I continue this historical research.

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.

May 14th is not only the next Electronics Flea Market, but the one that PAARA operates as our primary fundraiser.

Your help is needed to help make this successful! We need people to help set up, sell food, and clean up at the end.

We also need you to help spread the word, to make sure the turnout of vendors and visitors is as large as possible.

More details will follow.

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.

The PAARA Field Day Planning committee will have its next meeting on Saturday, April 16, at the PAARA trailer in Menlo Park, starting at 10:00am.

Stay tuned for directions, or use N6NFI as the talk-in frequency that morning.