SARA This Week May 9 – May 15

SARA gathers daily via on-the air nets and ragchews. We continue to hold virtual meetings and Eyeball QSO Parties via WEBEX including the Tech Topic Thursday session, the monthly  member meeting, monthly Board meeting, and event planning meetings.

Over the summer season, “Radios in the Park ” will allow SARA to gather outdoors tri-weekly for an outdoor Eyeball QSO party.  In addition to these sessions, I am pleased to announce the return of the Thursday Eyeball QSO Party – as an outdoors edition! Beginning as soon as May 27, an outdoor Eyeball QSO Party will be held at a local Stillwater-area park beginning at 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM. Details will be announced in the coming weeks.

Plans are afoot for the return of the SARA 2nd Saturday Breakfast at Perkins in Stillwater starting in June. Arrangements are pending with the restaurant to determine the group size and seating limits.

As we gradually resume our regular in-person meetings, our current on-air, virtual , and in-person gathering plans continue to be the best choice for the participation as well as health and safety of all our members. SARA leadership is staying in contact with the Stillwater Public Library and Boutwells Landing with hopes to be able to resume Thursday Eyeball QSO Parties at the Library and monthly meetings at Boutwells this fall.

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Technical Topic Thursday May 13th – “Kit Building Techniques for Success.”

Joe Eisenberg KØNEB, editor of the “Kit-Building” column for CQ Magazine, Ham Nation kit building host, and renowned kit-building expert joins us for an evening of “Kit Building Techniques for Success.” The session starts at 7:00 PM CDT (00:00 UTC), live in the SARA Webex meeting room.

The June 10th session is planned to be a live in-person session at the Radios in the Park gathering that evening, which we also intend to stream on Webex.

SARA members have exclusive access to the Technical Topic Thursday playlist on SARA’s YouTube Channel.

“Sunday Fusion” SARA’s digital voice hangout is every Sunday evening at 7:00 PM. “Sunday Fusion” makes use of the System Fusion C4FM digital voice capabilities of the repeater along with WIRES-X and YSF connectivity, It is an informal “hangout” for those who want to explore the System Fusion capabilities of their radios.

“Sunday Fusion”  is a System Fusion C4FM digital voice-only hangout. It is an informal “hangout” for those who want to explore the System Fusion capabilities of their radios.

Join Bob WØGAF and the rest of the group hanging out on System Fusion direct via the repeater or connect via WIRES-X to the W0JH-Room 63969 or the YSF reflector US SARA-QRX-FCMG 64144 (temporarily offline). Tonight at 7:00 PM

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May SARA Monthly Meeting

The video recording of May meeting of the Stillwater Amateur Radio Association will be made available on the SARA YouTube channel soon.  Many thanks to Randy KDØVKB for stepping up when our scheduled guest presenter Frank Howell K4FMH had to cancel due to a medical issue.

Randy prepared (on short notice) an interesting presentation on his reconstruction project on the Telimco Model 1806 Wireless Telegraphy Kit originally advertised in the December 1905 Scientific American.

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Radios in the Park 2021

Additional dates are May 20, June 10, July 1, July 22, Aug 12, Sept 2, and Sept 23.  The May 20th session will feature a “Tailgate Swap” so bring your “surplus” amateur radio gear and help it find a new home.

RITP is held at Valley View Park, 5421 Osgood Ave N in Oak Park Heights starting around 5:30 PM and going until around 8:00 PM.  Reservations for the pavilion have been secured with the City of Oak Park Heights. We are required to follow all State and CDC health and safety guidelines including face masks and social distancing. Please help us comply with these guidelines. Attending the event is your choice.

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SARA’s groups.io email reflector

The newest benefit for SARA members is the StillwaterMNAmateurRadioAssoc group on groups.io.  If you haven’t yet joined, why wait? Join now:

https://groups.io/g/StillwaterMNAmateurRadioAssoc.

This group is an email reflector for all things SARA and amateur radio. You can post questions, projects, activities and amateur radio experiences that you can share with SARA members are encouraged. This is an SARA members-only group and requests to join will be approved based upon your current membership status.

Topics are only limited in that they are to be amateur radio-related. Questions about antennas, steps to “tuning up” an antenna, how to use a piece of test gear, tracking RFI issues, programming a radio, figuring out a new radio, showing a new piece of gear, SARA events and activities, licensing questions, … the list is endless!

Sign up now and start sharing your questions and sharing your knowledge.

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Field Day 2021 – June 26 -27

SARA is planning for a small scale Field Day operation at this time. Members are also encouraged to work from home stations again this year and submit your own logs and points to the ARRL referencing SARA-MN for the compiled club score.

The preliminary plan is to have a scaled-back (for SARA) basic one station operation at Valley View Park. We’ll likely use the club’s IC-7300, covering the mic with baggie (or bring your own mic), plastic wrap (think Saran Wrap) on the logging computer keyboard and mouse, and plenty of alcohol wipes. More to come as we get closer to the Field Day Weekend.

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This week’s SARA activities