• First Transatlantic Contact on 70 Centimeters Reported
• Hamvention QSO Party Set for Saturday, May 16
• Annual Armed Forces Day Crossband Test Postponed
• New TQSL Version 2.5.2 Provides Better LoTW Rover Support, Other Improvements
• Ned Stearns, AA7A, Appointed as ARRL Southwestern Division Vice Director

Brought to us by “Hamnation” on twit.tv Wednesday April 8th, we were introduced to a fully remote Ham license exam recently given in Pahrump Nevada with a VE team in Pleasant Grove Utah.

Watch the video at: Hamnation #448 April 8th 2020

The link to the online VE testing site: Examtools.org Created by the authors of HamStudy.org.

I thought this would be of great interest to those that have had questions recently concerning this subject.

The question of “Remote Testing” is definitely on many folks minds and comes up in many discussions in our Amateur radio world. I decided to do some background research on this subject and found this document (rule amendments) from June 5th 2014 that directly addresses the issue. Find the item on page 7 titled “Remote Testing”

FCC-14-74A1

I am sure there will be more information coming on this subject. I understand the W5YI group is working to facilitate remote testing and should have information on their website soon.

Vilma Arlotti has been in contact with the manager at Casa Jimenez Restaurant. They of course cannot allow “dining in” but are open for “Take-Out” orders. Being our meeting location, we would like to support them by using this Take-Out option. Vilma has sent a email to the membership, I have posted the body of that letter and have included the attached menu;

Hi all, 
I hope your week is going well. As mentioned earlier in the week I spoke to Jose from Casa Jimenez to check in with him to see how things are going. He said “they are only allowing us to do orders by phone to do take out”.  I told him I’d help him out by sending an email to our club members to see if you are OK to place an order either Friday or Saturday to help them out. He was super happy and said thank you so much.
They have always been very nice with us in allowing us to come in and order what we’d like and accommodate us in the back room for our monthly GOTAhams meetings. All the other restaurants require us to order a full meal while others even charge a fee to use the room.  Not at Casa Jimenez. So now we pay it forward.
Please find the Menu attached.  You can place your phone orders available for pick-up at 909-625-7632. Happy eating everyone.
Best,
Vilma Arlotti, Director of Hospitality GOTAhams

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Thank You Vilma for bringing this to our attention and supporting the people that have supported GOTAhams

During this very Unique time in our world history, Our officers and members have been working diligently to help the Amateur Radio community stay connected, communicating and informed, Our Editor Vic Corella KM6RWB is no exception compiling and editing our Newsletter. Please go to our newsletter web-page and check out his latest installment

GOTAhams Newsletter Page

Amid this Covid-19 Emergency and being asked to “stay socially disconnected” and Shelter in place, avoid people etc. the GOTAhams need to make every attempt to stay connected, informed, vigilant and as always Social. Recently we have instituted some new tools and expanded schedules facilitating our “Social Connection” plans.

1. Nightly radio nets at 8:00 PM on 446.400 PL 103.5 WA6FZH repeater except for Tuesdays, We keep the original schedule of 7:00 PM and add our Virtual General Meeting using our Zoom Video Conferencing App
2. Video Chat/meeting using the Zoom video conferencing App. Several of us have been practicing with this app nightly and have affectionately coined it “The GOTAhams Lounge” On Tuesday evenings we will be holding our regular membership meetings in lieu of our restaurant meetings. There are pages on this that will help you install the Zoom app. If you don’t have or want the camera you can easily turn it off. it is not a requirement, You will still see the others and they will hear you. Why So many meetings? We have found that this interaction mitigates our feelings of loneliness/isolation and we’ve helped each other with finding supplies etc.
3. We maintain a public text “chatroom” here on the website that helps us stay connected and has allowed new people to contact us and we have been able to guide them to help with their new radio equipment and invited them to our Zoom video chat.
4. Plans include using our Zoom app to host a technician licensing class for some of our future hams virtually while maintaining that “Social Distance”

I am looking forward to seeing most of you at our Tuesday “Virtual General Meeting” 7:00 PM on the repeater and on the Zoom App ’73 Ken KC6WOK

Seeing and hearing lots of “information” that appears to be rumors, innuendo, fake news etc. I did some research to find real and useful information and these are the things I found. This is the correct and usable links to “official” sources.

As we get our daily dose of “What you should do now” or Who’s got it now? etc. Now we are being forced to avoid crowds and each other, which is the opposite of why this club was founded, We promote the social aspects, getting together, learning from each other sharing our experiences in the hobby and our daily lives.

When I was already stuck at home convalescing from surgery, I came up with some ideas of how to keep us connected as a club and as radio hobbyists.

First, hold a nightly “Net” on our regular weekly Net meeting repeater to stay “socially” connected, check on the welfare of each other and maintain the “Social distancing that we are being asked to do. Now, each evening at 8:00 PM on 446.400 PLof 103.5 WA6FZH repeater we have been meeting, sharing where to get specific food or supplies, which stores are open special hours for Seniors etc. this has become a popular nightly event, Open to All not just club members. We have met some other local hams that have stumble across an active repeater with a friendly open round-table conversation.

Second, We need a way for our club to have a “General Meeting” while adhering to the latest state rules of 10 or less and of course do it without an actual place to meet! Our Secretary Kathi KD6CAF suggested using the “Zoom” video conferencing App and I found that it affords us a “plug-in” for our GOTAhams website. We started out doing one test after our regular Tuesday night radio Net. The test was very successful and we began a nightly “test” of that platform to give ourselves time to learn how we might use it for our “Virtual” General Meetings.

many of you have seen the posts, joined us on the Net and met us in what has become our nightly “Virtual Lounge”. We will be adding more information, Video links etc. to help get people familiar with these new tools. Plans are to try and have a weekly General Meeting (Virtually) in an attempt to maintain our social connection and keep our plans for future Club events moving forward while we weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

’73 Stay well, stay safe and we’ll see you on the air and on Zoom, Ken KC6WOK