|
|
|
|
|
|
Desert RATS Newsletter
March 2026
|
|
|
Presidents Message
|
|
|
|
Hello and welcome to March! The "windy season" is here in the desert so make sure anything important is secure! Coming up is our monthly meeting on March 17 at 7pm via Zoom, and our speaker will be Scott Morse KC6SKM. More details elsewhere in this newsletter. Also in March is our annual picnic on Saturday March 21. This is a great event with catered food, wonderful door prizes, an epic raffle, and a good chance to get to know your fellow RATS! You won’t want to miss it.
|
ARES News. 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 at the Cathedral City Library. I think there will be something for everyone, both new and experienced. This is open to all ARES members and any ham who might be interested.
|
The following week, on Thursday April 30, 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. We will be doing an on-air information net as well as a few practice deployments to locations near our homes. Stay tuned!
|
Looking Ahead. The board, especially our secretary, Gavin K6GAV, has been working on an update to our club bylaws. This is basically housekeeping; there were many areas that were simply out of date. You will be getting a copy of the new bylaws and have plenty of time to review them before we ask for a vote of the membership to approve them. Also coming up, our April membership meeting will be an in-person meeting on Saturday, April 18 at 10am at the Denny’s in Thousand Palms. Our speaker will be Mark KO6FMN, who will take about CERT Programs and how many local HOA’s are preparing for disasters.
|
Volunteers needed! Members of or club often talk about special interest areas and there was quite a bit of interest in these in our membership survey from last year. So it’s time for a few interested people to help with special interest groups! It’s not a big job…just see who is interested and put together some activities. Right now I would love to find someone to take on a Meshtastic Special Interest Group as well as someone for a POTA/SOTA Special Interest Group. Training will be provided for these simple roles. Let me know if you can help!
|
Did you know that the club has many nets each month, one of which is our New Ham’s Net? Held on the fourth Monday of every month at 6:30pm on our main club repeater, its a great opportunity for new hams to get questions answered and chat a bit on the air without any worry of making mistakes (mic fright). Please join us, it’s fun!
|
Well RATS, that’s about all I have for now. Till next time, keep your batteries charged and I will see you on the radio.
|
|
|
|
|
|
March Meeting
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, March 17th at 10 a.m.
|
It will be a Zoom meeting. Zoom details will be sent out on the Monday prior to the meeting. If you are new to Zoom, please log on a few minutes early and check your settings
|
|
Emergency Communications
This presentation will explain what emergency communications are and how they differ from public service events and casual conversations.
|
We will cover different types of assignments and the types of Nets that might be used. We'll look at various ICS forms, their uses, and why keeping good records is important. We will also talk about message passing and tracking.
|
|
|
Scott has been licensed for over 20 years. His main interest has been in emergency communications. He spent more than 12 years volunteering with Santa Clara County OES for ARES/RACES/ACS. In Santa Clara County, ARES/RACES was considered one word. He served as the Chief Radio Officer and District Emergency Coordinator there. He was also the ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator for the Santa Clara Valley Section and later for the East Bay Section. Scott has worked in EOC for fires, earthquakes, floods, fiber optic cable cuts, and hurricanes in Florida.
He was the communications person for the County Search & Rescue Team. After moving to Contra Costa County, he joined the Sheriff's Communications Unit and helped with training programs. He also became a RADO (Radio Operator) for AUXCOM (Auxiliary Communications). About seven years ago, he moved to Palm Desert and joined Riverside County RACES, serving as the East County Operations Section Chief. Currently, he doesn't hold a leadership position with RACES. He is a member of ARES and the Director of the EOC for the Sun City Palm Desert Emergency Preparedness Committee.
|
|
|
|
Membership
We have two new members in February:
|
Please welcome them to the RATS.
|
Dues for 2026 are due. 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.
|
|
|
|
April Meeting
|
Our April Club meeting will be in-person on Saturday, April 18th at 10:00 A.M.
|
It will feature a presentation by Mark West, KO6FMN on CERT and HOA's
|
More information will be sent out as we get closer to the date.
|
|
|
|
RATS Annual Picnic Saturday March 21st
|
|
|
|
Hamburgers, bratwurst, chips, and a drink will be free to all paid-up members and their immediate families. Additional food can be purchased for non-members.
|
|
You do not need to be a member to attend – everyone is welcome. hamburgers, hot dogs and condiments will be provided. Annie will have the Membership table operating.
|
Facilities will be available for you to renew your membership if you haven't already signed up for 2026.
|
If you have any ham related equipment that will be of interest to our members (Go-Paks, Portable antennas, etc.) please feel free to bring them along.
|
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Saturday, March 21st.
|
Food will be provided by Leons BBQ Grill & Catering (formally Grills Gone Wild).
|
There will be picnic benches available, however if you need more comfortable seating, please bring a chair.
|
Note there is a charge of $6 per person for access to the park.
|
|
|
|
|
|
License Testing Scheduled
|
Testing for all classes of Amateur Radio Licensing
|
|
|
There will be an Amateur Radio in-Person testing event coming up providing an opportunity to get your technician license to get started in amateur radio or advance to either General or Extra Class licenses for even more privileges.
Before arriving, the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) suggest the following:
|
Saturday, March 21, 2026 9:00am
|
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
1400 North Avenida Caballeros
Palm Springs, CA 92262-4704
|
|
|
|
Rusty Ham Seeks Help From Elmers
Rusty Ham Seeks Elmers for Rigging Feedwires, Grounding, and Antennas
A rusty ham in an HOA in La Quinta requests—and expects to pay for—Elmer assistance to provision his shack with:
|
- An unobtrusive weather, insect, and rodent-proof port through a wall in his home office to the outside,
- Installing an exterior DXEngineering Utility Box (containing 4 Alpha Delta UHF Connector Coaxial Cable Surge Protectors) out-of-sight on the "back" of the chimney on the roof,
- Recommendation for a suitable HF antenna that will be installed horizontally out-of-sight on the roof,
- Installing two antennas, mostly out-of-sight on the roof:
- An Ed Fong DJB-1 (2m/70cm), vertical and attached to the chimney, and
- The HF antenna selected in #3, above,
- Advice on whether to install a copper ground rod, or not,
- Grounding the rig inside the shack (e.g., with a copper bar),
- Grounding the Utility Box and 4 Alpha Deltas (from the roof to the ground rod?),
- Specifying, configuring, and running four antenna feed wires (encased in an unobtrusive conduit that is painted in an HOA-approved color) from the shack to the Alpha Deltas in the roof-mounted Utility Box, then
- Running two antenna feed wires from the Alpha Deltas to the two installed antennas (DJB-1 and HF).
- Everything else this rusty ham has forgotten
Please contact Rick directly if you can help:
|
KI6VOS
Rick Hubbard
rick.hubbard.email@gmail.com
+1.415.624.5865
|
|
|
|
Desert RAT Visits The Big House
Not that big house – the other one.
|
Our own Frank Brabec KN6LRE was a guest of Rep. Paul Ruiz at the recent State Of The Union address. Frank is a local small business owner and health care management consultant. An article on his visit is available here.
|
|
|
|
|
February Meeting - Antenna Building
|
Out first in-person meeting in a while was a great success. Earl KJ6DQR hosted the meeting at his facility in Cathedral City and gave an excellent presentation on building a dual band HF antenna.
|
|
His presentation was followed by actually building the antenna. It was a very well attended event and it was great so see everyone back together. Here are a few pics of the event.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
RATS Shack Showcase
|
We asked you to send us pictures of your shack. This mighty impressive installation is from Dennis K6KRV:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More Upcoming events for 2026
June 5th - June 7th, 2026
|
|
|
|
A Note on Amateur Radio Testing Resources
|
Remote Testing for amateur licensing is available from the Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group (GLAARG)
|
|
|
|
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.
|
For more information on times for the online testing please see the GLAARG website here.
|
Note that GLAARG also offers in-person testing when COVID regulations permit.
|
Other Testing Resources
|
|
|
The ARRL is facilitating video supervised on-line examinations. This testing is made available by video from a number of Clubs.
|
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.
|
|
|
|
Lots Of Items For Sale
|
|
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.
|
Here are a couple of examples:
|
- 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.
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
ARRL Podcasts Schedule
|
|
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.
|
|
|
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.
|
The On the Air podcast and ARRL Audio News are available on blubrry, iTunes, and Apple Podcasts.
|
|
|
|
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
|
Mark Johnston - KD6SEC
Shane Meyer - KO6JGR
|
|
President Emeritus: Glenn Morrison – WB6RLC
|
|
Membership: Anne Larson - KJ6QWC
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|