Join us for our GOTAhams monthly Simplex Net

Wednesday, October 22th, at 6:15PM – 146.580MHz

The Simplex net will be on 146.580MHz starting at 6:15pm. A great way to explore the reach of your 2 meter equipment without benefit of repeater, both receiving and transmitting. Bring a pad of paper and record signal reports for all you hear. We will collect and collate these.  Use this scale for your reports:

1=Nothing at all heard, not even noise or hiss suggesting a specific signal is present.

2=It was apparent that a signal was present but communication is impossible even with reasonable re-tries.

3=Communication possible with noise and possibly some re-tries to cover drop outs.

4=Good communication though with some noise or other artifacts, but generally solid copy.

5=Solid copy, little or no noise, full or nearly full quieting.

Be patient during silences as there will probably be participants you cannot hear and net control is likely communicating with those stations during silences.

VE testing at Brackett field, Saturday, October 25th, at 1:00 PM

GOTAhams is delighted to be sponsoring Frank Westphal’s team of ARRL-VEC examiners operating monthly in-person testing. Tests will be held on the LAST Saturday of each month (EXCEPT DECEMBER) at 1PM in the Pilots Lounge of the Brackett Field airport in La Verne (map below). Walk-ins are allowed, but you are strongly encouraged to contact Frank at 909-257-7205 in advance. Please leave a message with your contact information and indicate which license level(s) you are pursuing. Please bring $15.00 for the A.R.R.L. VEC exam fee. ($5 if under 18). Payment must be cash or check – no credit cards or electronic payment methods. Also, please review the ‘preparation’ link below to ensure that you have completed the other required preparations for a successful test. You MUST bring an FCC FRN number to the test event – contact us if you need help with creating this on the FCC website. Successful candidates will be contacted by the FCC for payment of any additional fees due before issuance of the license. There is no test at the end of December due to the holiday season.
GOTAhams is grateful to Frank and his team for their commitment to continue this long-standing
volunteer effort, having conducted hundreds of prior exam sessions.

Contact: Mr. Frank C. Westphal at 909-257-7205 or K6FW@ARRL.NET
Time: Last Saturday Every Month, 1PM
Preparation: Please review this page: http://www.arrl.org/what-to-bring-to-an-exam-session
Exam Fee (collected at test): $15.00 ($5.00 if under 18).
Information on FCC License Fees (NOT collected at test): https://www.arrl.org/fcc-application-fee
Map and Directions:
The pilot’s lounge is located in the terminal building also housing Norms Hanger Coffee Shop. Enter the front entrance and turn to the left just after the gift shop. The meeting room where the exams are held are one door down on the left.

Brackett field la Verne Click for directions

Marconi Net.

The WG6OTA repeater will be linked to the GB3IW repeater on the Isle of Wight. Saturday, November 1st, at 12 noon.

The Marconi Net is a cooperation between GOTAhams and the Isle of Wight Radio Society, UK. We will celebrate the fellowship between UK and US hams with the MARCONI NET. The WG6OTA repeater on Sunset Ridge, North of Claremont, in Southern California, will be linked to the GB3IW repeater, near Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, in the UK. The KS7MC repeater (Spirit Mountain Amateur Radio Club) in Fort Mohave Arizona may also be linked during these nets. These are open repeaters, and we welcome guests. As usual, we encourage all participants to completely ignore (do not acknowledge in any way) any intentional interference during this or any other net.

The net will always start at 19:00 UTC (which is 12 noon in California and Arizona and 8pm in Cowes, UK during the summer). The net start time is specified in UTC time to avoid any confusion as U.S. Daylight Savings Time and British Summer Time change on different weekends. (In the Winter it will be; 11am in California, 12pm in Arizona, and 7pm in Cowes, UK)

No special radio programming is required, just access the WG6OTA repeater as usual and it will be linked to GB3IW.

Keep transmissions to less than 2 minutes and allow time for a FULL carrier drop (by the repeater) between transmissions. We do ask that participants pay special attention to avoid time outs.

For information about the clubs, please check out their respective web sites at:
https://gotahams.com
https://iowrs.org

For information about the net, contact: Bill Appleton, KF4MCG at kf4mcg@hotmail.com
See the maps below for information on the locations of WG6OTA and GB3IW.

Approximately 5,425 miles between repeaters.

POTA Activation

We will be doing a POTA activation Saturday, November 1st, at Pío Pico State Park. Everyone is welcome to come. Setup your own a station, help with other stations, or just come to watch. The park is at: 6003-6097 Pioneer Blvd, Whittier, CA 90606. It opens at 9am.  I do not know if there is any charge to get into the park. 

To participate from home (Hunters) all you have to do is check the POTA website here: https://pota.app/#/  and look for WG6OTA or look for Pio Pico State Historical Park: US-3534. Listen to the frequency the Club POTA group is using.  Then make a contact. That is it. Signing up for your own account or logging your contacts at the POTA website is not required but optional if you want to keep track of your POTA contacts..   

You can find more information about POTA here: parksontheair.com

For more information contact Marco, KN6SJQ@gmail.com