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Desert RATS Newsletter
February 2026
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Presidents Message
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Hello and welcome to February!
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The "season" here in the desert is in full swing, with lots of activities competing for our time. Hopefully you have some left for the club! Coming up on Saturday, February 21, our membership meeting will be taking place at GH Pool Construction in Cathedral City, courtesy of Earl KJ6DQR who will be presenting an antenna building workshop. More details elsewhere in this newsletter.
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Also in February is the Yuma Hamfest, taking place on the 27th and 28th. If you are looking for passengers or for a ride, drop us a line at board@desertrats.us and we will see if we can hook you up.
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One way to get to know each other that has been asked about is having members share a photo of their "ham shack", large or small, for us to put in our monthly newsletter. If you like, send along a photo to board@desertrats.us and see if our editor likes it enough to publish! No guarantees on when we publish it but send a photo if you dare!
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Two events for ARES members and those interested are coming up in April, and I want to put those on your radar. The first is an "ARES Bootcamp" that we will be holding on Saturday, April 25 from 10am to 3pm, location TBD. This is open to all ARES members and any ham who might be interested. The following week, we will be joining with ARES groups from throughout Southern California to participate in the Beacon Exercise, which is a large-scale earthquake drill that is being held statewide. More information about the drill can be found at beaconexercise.org and I will have more to say about it as we get a little closer.
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Coming up in March we have Scott Morse KC6SKM presenting at our monthly meeting via ZOOM on March 17. Scott will be sharing his experiences and teach us all a bit about EmComm. Then, on Saturday March 21, we have our annual club picnic! This annual, catered event is free to members and will be held at Lake Cahuilla Regional Park in La Quinta. You do not want to miss this!
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Special thanks this month goes to Glenn WB6RLC for beginning his well-loved Amateur Extra License class; To Jim KN6QLC for doing all the legwork for our annual picnic; Rick N6PSP for helping me find and rent a club storage unit; and finally to Dale WA6MZW for dealing with a delicate situation up on Edom Hill and for getting the Winlink Server up and running again. Thanks everybody!
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Till next time, keep your batteries charged and I will see you on the radio.
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February Meeting
Our next meeting will be on Saturday February 21st at 10 a.m.
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It will be an in-person meeting. Details will be sent out on the Monday prior to the meeting.
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Antenna Talk and Building Project
This will be our first in-person meeting of the year, will be hosted by our own RATS member Earl, KJ6DQR in Cathedral City.
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The meeting will be in two parts: We will have a talk on antenna construction, followed by a project to build an actual HF antenna.
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Reservations for the building the antenna have now closed. However everyone is still welcome to attend the talk.
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- Bring a chair
- Bring Lunch if you have registered for the build part of the project
- Bring $35 for the balun if you have registered for the build part of the project
All other parts for the antenna construction project will be provided.
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Membership
Welcome to a new member in January
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Please welcome him to the RATS.
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Dues for 2026 are due and notices have been sent to those who haven't already paid. Besides PayPal or check, Zelle can now be used. It is also very helpful to fill out a membership form to confirm contact information. When using Zelle, please note your name and call in the notes.
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Membership rolls and access to the members area will be adjusted soon.
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March Meeting
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For our March club meeting, will be on Tuesday March 17th at 7:00 p.m.
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Scott KC6SKM will be giving a presentation on EmComm
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Who Are The “RATS of the Desert”?
Before we were "Desert RATS" our club was simply 'RATS of the Desert'.
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This and many other gems are in a scrapbook that was kept by our own Silent Key Susie Boskovich KD6TVO. We are seeking help with preserving the heritage of our club by digitizing the documents and making the history available to all.
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If you have experience with working with old documents and photos and would be interested in helping us with this project, please contact Rick N6PSP at vp@desertrats.us
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Save The Date - RATS Annual Picnic
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We will be holding our annual Club Picnic on March 22nd at the Lake Cahuilla Veterans Park (same location as last year). Save the date – more details will be forthcoming as we get closer.
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The 19th Annual Yuma Hamfest is the site of the ARRL's premier event for the Southwest in 2026, The Southwestern Division Convention. The Yuma Hamfest has two aspects. It is a hamfest for Amateur Radio enthusiasts, complete with commercial exhibits, seminars, license testing and tailgating. For members of the general public, it is a trade show for emergency and disaster preparedness, with informational presentations and displays of emergency supplies and equipment.
There are hourly drawings for door prizes both Friday and Saturday. The numbers will be posted just inside the Legacy Building. You must be onsite to win the door prizes and claim them by 5:00 p.m. Saturday. On Saturday evening, in what has established itself as an annual tradition, the Buzzard Barbecue will be held in the Theater Building. Additional door prizes are given away following the barbecue dinner. At the end of the evening, we hold what has become the highlight of the Yuma Hamfest, the Grand Prize drawings.
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Last, but not least, there is a full seminar program scheduled for both Friday and Saturday. We have a selection of seminars at three different times on Friday and six different times on Saturday, presented in separate buildings on the fairgrounds. Seminar presentations on radio and emergency preparedness topics are planned. A list of seminars and their times can be found on the seminar link for this site.
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More Upcoming events for 2026
June 5th - June 7th, 2026
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A Note on Amateur Radio Testing Resources
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Remote Testing for amateur licensing is available from the Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group (GLAARG)
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GLAARG is one of the 14 FCC-recognized Volunteer-Exam Coordinators conducting amateur radio exams. GLAARG is a VEC testing organization, not a radio club. Our exam fee is $10 for remote exams and $10 for in-person exams. Exam fees are waived for minors, students with a current ID, first responders, Active Military, Veterans, and GLAARG VEs upgrading to Extra.
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For more information on times for the online testing please see the GLAARG website here.
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Note that GLAARG also offers in-person testing when COVID regulations permit.
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Other Testing Resources
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The ARRL is facilitating video supervised on-line examinations. This testing is made available by video from a number of Clubs.
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For more information, the ARRL website for remote testing is available here.
Also, Marc – N9WIB has assembled a series of technician class license tutorials. There are 20 presentations covering all the topics related to getting your initial ham radio license and all are posted on YouTube. This content is free and open to all Amateur Radio Clubs to use as an educational tool. Links and further information are available on his website here.
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Lots Of Items For Sale
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We have many items for sale – including radios, antennas cables, connectors and accessories. Check with us before you decide to buy commercially – we could save you quite a lot of money.
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Here are a couple of examples:
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- Mike KM6RRS has an Icom IC-7300 for sale
- Bob WA6MBL has an Ameritron AL-811 Amplifier for sale
- Glenn WB6RLA has almost everything a Ham could need for sale. Glenn handles sales of equipment and parts donated to the Club. He is a great resource for all Ham needs.
A partial list of equipment is on our Equipment for sale web page here. If you are looking for anything specific, let us know here. We’ll get back to you with price and availability.
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Note: you must be a member and have an online account to access our For Sale page. If you are not a member, you can join up here. If you are a member and do not have an online account, you can get one here.
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ARRL Podcasts Schedule
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The On The AIR podcast is a monthly companion to On Air magazine, a magazine for beginner-to-intermediate ham radio operators, produced by the ARRL. The podcast and other interesting publications are available here.
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Listen to ARRL Audio News, available every Friday. ARRL Audio News is a summary of the week's top news stories in the world of amateur radio and ARRL, along with interviews and other features.
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The On the Air podcast and ARRL Audio News are available on blubrry, iTunes, and Apple Podcasts.
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Club President: Don Stouder, N1GAY
Club Vice-President: Rick Lee - N6PSP
Club Treasurer: Jim Haggerty - KN6QLC
Club Secretary: Gavin Schutz – K6GAV
Directors
Guy Chabot - KS6F
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Mark Johnston - KD6SEC
Shane Meyer - KO6JGR
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President Emeritus: Glenn Morrison – WB6RLC
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Membership: Anne Larson - KJ6QWC
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