Welcome to the Home of the Desert RATS
Welcome to the home of the Desert Radio Amateur Transmitting Society. We are located in the Coachella Valley in Riverside County, California and serve Amateur Radio operators in and around the Coachella Valley, including the cities of Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Coachella and Indio.
Upcoming Meetings
Our next meeting will be Tuesday, November 19th at 7:00 P.M.
It will be a Zoom meeting and the Zoom details will be sent out to the newsletter list on Monday prior to the event. If you would like to sign up for our newsletter, click here.
“Taking the Mystery Out of Antennas – Dual Band Antennas”
Dr. Ed Fong, WB6IQN will be presenting.
Ed Fong is the inventor of the DBJ-1 and DBJ-2 antenna that was featured in the February 2003 and March 2007 QST. His most recent antenna was the TBJ-1 – a triband base antenna that was published in March 2017 QST.
The DBJ-1 is a highly effective dual band VHF/UHF base station antenna and the DBJ-2 is the portable roll up version. The DBJ-2 won the QST Plaque of the Month Award. Both of these antennas are featured in the ARRL VHF antenna Handbook and also in the ARRL Antenna Classic Handbook. There are over 40,000 of these antennas in use today. About half are used by hams and the other half by government and commercial agencies.
Ed will give a history on how these antennas were developed and the theory on how and why they work so well. There is no “black magic” to antennas. He will explain in a non-mathematical manner to convince you for overall performance and simplicity his approach is one of the most practical.
About Ed:
Ed Fong was first licensed in 1968 as WN6IQN. He later upgraded to Extra Class (when 20 WPM was required) with his present call of WB6IQN. He obtained the BSEE and MSEE degrees from the Univ. of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. from the Univ. of San Francisco.
A Life Senior Member of the IEEE, he has 12 patents and over 40 published papers and books in the area of communications and integrated circuit design. Presently, he is employed by the University of California, Santa Cruz (previously with Berkeley from 1997-2010) as an instructor teaching graduate classes in Antenna Design, RF design and high speed interface.
Upcoming Events
California Great Shakeout Drill – October 17th
Coachella Valley ARES will be taking part in the annual Great Shakeout which happens this year on October 17, 2024 at 10:17am. Millions of people around the state will participate in various ways, and in our case we will conduct the first local ARES drill in quite some time, I am told.
Our drill will be of the “tabletop” variety; no one will be leaving their QTH. Slightly after 10:17, I will activate ARES on all of our club repeaters with instructions on gathering for an information and resource net on the San J, 146.760 – 107.2 repeater. We will convene that net at 10:30am, and you can expect the drill to last less than one hour.
The objectives of this drill will be to activate a resource and information net, initiate the Incident Command System (ICS), catalog the resources of participating communicators, find out if APRS can be useful to us in tracking resources, and see if we can pass traffic out of the area. It will be fun and educational, and if we are lucky, we will all learn something.
I want to emphasize that you do not need to be a member of ARES to participate in the drill. The more the merrier. The only thing you need is an Amateur Radio license. Hit me at N1GAY@arrl.net if you have any questions. See you on the radio!
Members of the Desert RATS club try our best to live by this code at all times.
The Radio Amateur Is:
* CONSIDERATE…never knowingly operates in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others.
* LOYAL…offers loyalty, encouragement and support to other amateurs, local clubs, and the American Radio Relay League, through which Amateur Radio in the United States is represented nationally and internationally.
* PROGRESSIVE…with knowledge abreast of science, a well-built and efficient station and knowledge above reproach.
* FRIENDLY…slow and patient operating when requested; friendly
advise and counsel to the beginner; kindly assistance, cooperation and consideration for the interests of others. These are the hallmarks of the amateur spirit.
* BALANCED…radio is an avocation, never interfering with duties owed to family, job, school or community.
* PATRIOTIC…station and skill always ready for service to country
and community.
