SARA This Week March 3 – March 9
SARA Monthly Meeting March 8: AREDN®
The monthly meeting of the Stillwater Amateur Radio Association will be Saturday March 9. The meeting will be held in Auditorium B at Boutwells Landing. Please use the north entrance at 13575 58th Avenue North. We are asked not to enter the facility before 9:00 AM. Boutwells Landing may require face masks in the facility depending on COVID status within the facility. Please be prepared and bring your mask.
The meeting will be livestreamed via the SARA Zoom Meeting Room.
The program this month is on AREDN, the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network. The AREDN® acronym stands for “Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network” and it provides a way for Amateur Radio operators to create high-speed ad hoc Data Networks for use in Emergency and service-oriented communications. https://arednmesh.org/
Our presenter, AREDN® ambassador Orv Beach, W6BI, will be joining us via Zoom to share what, how and why of the AREDN® mesh network. Orv W6BI lives in Simi Valley, California. He’s a retired Linux system administrator, an ARRL Santa Barbara Section Technical Specialist and an AREDN® Ambassador.
He was first licensed as WN6WEY in 1967. He’s been into digital ham radio all his life, starting with CW. He worked his way up through RTTY, PACTOR, packet radio and PSK31, and started messing around with ham radio networking in 2014. He helped deploy the initial network network nodes and backbone buildout in Ventura County and western Los Angeles County. He currently administers several dozen of them.
He’s also active in coordinating the build-out and maintenance of the wider Southern California ham radio network, which now spans from Paso Robles in central California south to the Mexican border and east to Las Vegas, comprising over 450 nodes, both hilltop and ground-level, including hospitals, police departments and EOCs.
As an AREDN® Ambassador he’s given over 60 presentations about ham radio networking using AREDN® software over the last five years and Elmered many hams worldwide on ham radio networking. He’s active in AREDN® groups in Facebook, Slack, Telegram, and Discord, and monitors the forums on the AREDN® website.
Technician License Class continues through April 18
SARA’s Technician License Prep Class began Thursday February 29 with 21 students attending the first session! This is the largest class of interested students that many of us can recall! Classes convene weekly at 6:00 PM, at the Stillwater Public Library, 224 3rd Street, Stillwater.
The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual 5th Edition as the study guide for the class. The book is available for order online from the ARRL, Ham Radio Outlet, DXEngineering, Gigaparts, and Amazon (print & Kindle eBook versions).
A license exam session by SARA’s Volunteer Examiner team will be held on April 25th.
To register for the class, email Bob WØGAF at bobajensen at me dot com.
Amateur Extra Class License Study Group starting Feb 29
SARA is facilitating an Amateur Extra Class License study group which also started Fed 29. The study group will continue meeting Thursday evenings at the Stillwater Public Library through April 18. The current Amateur Extra Class license exam question pool expires at 11:59 PM June 30, 2024, so now is the perfect time to pursue that goal. SARA’s Extra Class license study group is a peer-led study program. Using the ARRL Extra Class License Manual, participants work through the manual together, with a member of the group taking the lead each chapter/week. Mentors from SARA join the sessions to add some real-life experience and technical knowledge to the session.
If you are interested in joining fellow hams pursuing the top-level license, please email Bob WØGAF at bobajensen at me dot com.
MN POTA Day 2024
MN POTA Day is Saturday June 8, 2024, from 10:00 AM (15:00 UTC) to 6:00 PM CDT (22:00 UTC). More info at mnpota.com!
This week’s SARA activities
- “Sunday Fusion” Digital Voice Hangout Mar 3
19:00 Central (01:00 UTC)
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
or connect via WIRES-X to the W0JH-Room 63969
System Fusion digital voice hangout to expand use and familiarity with the digital voice capabilities available on the WØJH repeater. - SARA Top Band Ragchew
Nightly
20:00 Central (02:00 UTC)
160M on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays: 1.966 LSB +/- QRM
80M on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays: 3.813 LSB +/- QRM
Alternates: 21.316 MHz +/- QRM (USB) 50.166 MHz +/- QRM (USB) - SARA Monday Morning 75-meter Ragchew Mar 4
08:15 Central (14:15 UTC)
Frequency: 3.856 LSB +/- QRM - SARA Two Meter Tuesday (TMT) Round Robin Ragchew Mar 5
7:00 – ~8:00 pm Central (or until we finish!)
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
1st Tuesday is Emergency Power Night – participants are encouraged to operate the stations on emergency power.
The Tuesday evening on-air round robin ragchew
Featuring the “Ask the Elmer” segment
The group leaders focus on encouraging any and everyone, especially those new to the airwaves, to join the session via the repeater. - SARA Eyeball QSO Party Thursday Mar 7
6:00 PM – 7:50 PM Central
Conference Room
Stillwater Public Library, 224 3rd Street, Stillwater - SARA Technician License Class Thursday Mar 7
6:00 PM – 7:50 PM Central
Margaret Rivers Room A+B
Stillwater Public Library, 224 3rd Street, Stillwater - SARA Extra Class Study Group Thursday Mar 7
6:00 PM – 7:50 PM Central
3rd floor Lounge Commons
Stillwater Public Library, 224 3rd Street, Stillwater - SARA 2nd Saturday Breakfast Mar 9
7:30 AM
Perkins Restaurant
2050 Frontage Road
Stillwater, MN 55082 - SARA Monthly Meeting Saturday Mar 9
9:15 AM
Boutwells Landing Auditorium B
13575 58th Avenue North
Oak Park Heights MN 55082
Zoom livestream >> CLICK HERE <<
Program: AREDN® with Orv W6BI