Boy I am sure glad that we got all of that nasty winter weather behind us. I am looking forward to summer when the high end bands will open up. There has been some action on 15M using FT8 but I want 10M and especially 6M to open. 6M is always fun. Any you new Techs can work the US on 6M.
Last months meeting was attended by a packed house. Philip gave a wonderful talk on some of the great hiking trails, in and around our beautiful valley. Can’t wait to get out and around and work some of the repeaters on the hilltops that I can’t otherwise reach. Maybe some simplex on 146.520 and see how far I can get out.
For the April meeting on the 17th, see further down the newsletter. Our May meeting will be our own Clint Bradford K6CLS doing his internationally famous “Working the Satellites with Your HT” talk. More next month on that.
Speaking of summer, Field Day is coming the last full weekend of June. Again we will be activating the Palm Springs City EOC. They have one full Ham station and we will be bringing 2 more full HF stations. We will need help with sit up, tear down, food and of course operators. In particular in those wee hours of the morning. As last year we will be operating 2 digital stations and one SSB. If you want to work CW, BYOK… Bring Your Own Key.
I guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print.
See you on the bands
73
Glenn WB6RLC
Its Road Rally Time!!!
It’s that time of year. Several of us RATS participate in several of these fun events every year. This one is a 2 day event, starting on May 4th. They always need Hams to help control traffic, announce start / stop and keep track of the cars along the course. It’s kind of like the Tour de Palm Springs except that the cars are going by at 50-70 MPH !!!
Celebrating its 10th consecutive year, the modern High Desert Trails Performance Rally is now a must do event in Southern California. Since 1973 the roads Southwest of Ridgecrest have been home to the event, and takes competitors through fast and flowing valleys and tight and twisty forest sections in the beautiful high desert on county roads. Competitors tackle hundreds of miles with over 4,000 feet of elevation changes.
More information here: http://highdeserttrails.com
Hotel reservations in Ridgecrest here: Call Pam Watson at (760) 446-1630 to make reservations for the “The Rally Rate.” Please be persistent when you call – they still have rooms reserved for the “Rally” group!
Sign up here. You will need to create an account : http://highdeserttrails.com/volunteers/
More info contact : Christine@HighDesertTrails.com
Or me (Glenn WB6RLC) at ticntoc@speakeasy.net I have a room to share. Just don’t snore! A high clearance vehicle is not required but sometimes helpful. The organizers will put you in an easy spot if you are in a regular car. Usually they request that you have a mobile radio that can easily be programmed on the fly. You will not know the freqs to be used until you get to the volunteers meeting and once on site, you may have to QSY because of interference.
This is a lot of fun and they could not do these events without us. Oh yeah, they usually feed you lunch and sometimes dinner, depending on the event etc. Let’s get a big group to support this event.
