W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Clem W0MEC Westminster. Clem and Corey talk about the rain we had today. Clem reports Corey is not strong, but readable. Clem has the hardware we need for the antenna work at Bob Evans’. Corey has a metal detector to find the 5/32” nut that dropped into the grass. Corey tells Clem we are scheduled for Sunday at 12:00pm noon, if the sun is shining and no rain. Corey YHX reads the check-in at s5.8. QRT 19:39 PST.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Clem W0MEC Westminster, Gene KJ6OML Garden Grove, Vijay KM6IZO Irvine, Jeff KK6TRC/Echolink, Roger W6SQQ Orange, and Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach. Clem copies Net Control at RST 57 (s6-s7), and reads Gene, Vijay, and Jeff well. Gene fell asleep for the 10M Net, and is sleepy now. It has been a rainy, sleepy day. Gene worked on a rainwater tank today, making sure the rain goes in. Vijay got a new radio, a 50W TYT TH-9800 Yaesu Clone. He is operating a 2A power supply, so is on low power. Clem reports Vijay is coming in well. Gene says Vijay is unusually clear. Jeff says Vijay is a nice improvement. Vijay’s radio has 6m/10m capability, but FM only. Corey says the 10m band has an FM portion at the top of the band. Vijay also says his new radio has a 4m capability mod. Vijay’s Double IPA Ale came out well. The Belgian Quad is brewing. It has lots of malt. Vijay is figuring out his new radio. It came with a USB cable, and has a software COM port. The USB cable is USB on both ends, so the COM port is internal. Corey says the driver should resolve that. It should have a settings menu to select the COM port. Jeff is making a homemade chicken pot pie. Roger tells us some Ham Radio history. Back in the late 30’s the Ham Bands were 160, 80, 40, 20, 10, 5, 2.5, and 1-1/4 meters. Later it all changed. Roger checked in once before, and Corey welcomes him back. Phil has been listening, but has antenna problems. He has a high SWR with the rain. Phil tells us 4m is a European band. Corey YHX reads the check-ins at s7, F.Q., s5, full-copy, F.Q., and s3, respectively. QRT 20:52 PST.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Gene KJ6OML Garden Grove, Clem W0MEC Westminster, Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, Jim AF6N Tustin, and Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach. Gene says signals are nice tonight, but Clem and Sam are low on volume. Gene relays for Clem and Sam. Clem is RST 58 to Gene, and Sam and Jim are low signals. Gene relays Phil’s check in to Net Control on the second round. Sam can hear Net Control well, but will stand by and monitor. Jim hears Net Control well, and Sam is in and out; the noise is heavy. Jim says Phil is booming-in, Corey is coming in fine, but the noise floor is high for the other three. Phil reads Net Control clearly, but Corey can’t hear him. Corey reads the check-ins at s7.8, no copy, no copy, s8.6, and s6.1 (no copy), respectively. QRT 19:40 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Clem W0MEC Westminster, Gene KJ6OML Garden Grove, Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach, Terrence AI6ZV Costa Mesa, Vijay KM6IZO Irvine, Bob WB6IXN Santa Ana, Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, Jeff KK6TRC/Echolink, Tom W6ETC/Echolink, and Mike W6MAO Rialto. Jeff is working on getting Echolink back up. Clem turns it over to Bob. Bob listened on 10M, but needs to review the controls and settings to transmit. The SWR on both bands is 1.2:1. The antenna repair did well, for receiving at least. On the second-round, Clem says Corey is s8-s9, and asks how Vijay copies. Vijay doesn’t come back. Gene receives all the OPs nice and clear, much better than on 10m. Phil is finally back on the air, with his dried-out antenna. He found water in his Tram 1481 when he disassembled it. It is a 2m/440 up 17ft and has water seals, now. Corey, Clem, Gene, Terrence, Vijay, Bob, Sam, and Jeff are 10-bars-out-of-10 to Phil. Mike in Rialto is s8. The other day at 7pm, on 40m, Phil contacted a station in Kuwait using an inverted-v antenna up only 25ft. Today he contacted Croatia, and South Africa is on now. Terrence says thanks to Corey for hosting the Net. He has been working on an HF receiving antenna over the weekend. It is a horizontal-L into a 9:1 balun, up 6ft. He normally has lots of noise at his QTH, and it nulls-it-out well, from s5-s8 down to s1-s3. Terrence is happy it worked. All OPs are full-bars tonight, says Terrence. Terrence will try 40m, tonight and tomorrow; he appreciates the tip from Phil. He will go over the new antenna design briefly at a meeting, Terrence says to Tom. Vijay receives Corey, Clem, Gene, Phil, Bob, and Jeff 8-bars-out-of-10. Terrence is 10-bars-out-of-10. Sam is also coming in clearly. Vijay has a refilled bottle for Terrence at the meeting this Friday. Terrence reads him the best ever, 30dB over s9 into Costa Mesa, but cannot make it to the meeting. Vijay is running 10W on a TYT-9800 from a battery. A 150W power supply is being shipped to him. Jeff reports Echolink is back up. Tom drops off the queue for a while. Bob tuned in to the 10M Net, tonight, and heard all OPs RST 59. His SWR is low on all the frequencies he uses. The wind doesn’t make his antenna creak any more. The San Sevaine Radio Seismometer is off-and-on the air in the mornings, Bob reports. Corey suggests a bad battery run off of solar panels which come on when the sun is shining. Sam says good evening to the Net. He has some antenna clean-up to do, but other than that, everything is okay. Jeff had a flight simulator on his computer, and Echolink has been turning off. He had to power-cycle it a couple times for the COM ports to work right. On another project, he is making a window suction-cup antenna mount for a “shadow drill” with the Huntington Beach Fire Department. Tom says good evening to the Net. The receiver antenna sounds interesting, and would be interesting to hear about at the meeting, says Tom. Jeff is coming through Echolink at s6, “way better than would be coming in on a Boeing Mac 8,” says Tom. Corey scratches his head, then turns it over to Mike. Mike hasn’t had this much rain in years. There were strong westerly winds yesterday. It may have affected the San Sevaine Radio Seismometer, says Mike. There was a mass-migration of “Painted-Lady Butterflies.” They are flying from Mexico to Oregon, and will fly back to Mexico in the Fall, Mike reports. On the second go-round, Mike receives the South African station on 7.156MHz at 8 bars. Mike talked with him before. He has a Buckmaster inverted-v dipole up about 40ft. Corey gives his usual “good night” to Bob. Bob and Mike say good night. Corey reads the check-ins at s7, F.Q, s7 to s8, s7, s7, F.Q., s6, s6, s6, and s5, respectively. QRT 21:07 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey copies no one, but on the 2M Net checks in Clem W0MEC Westminster, Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, and Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach. Corey reads none. QRT 19:32 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Clem W0MEC Westminster, Sam W6JTT Garden Grove, Jeff KK6TRC Huntington Beach, Steve N1BKB Orange, Vijay KM6IZO Irvine, Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach, Terrence AI6ZV Costa Mesa, Bob WB6IXN Santa Ana, and Tom W6ETC/Echolink. Clem was on 10M, and both he and Sam could hear Net Control, but Corey could not hear them. Sam reports likewise. Sam has some antenna repairs to do at the QTH. Jeff says good evening to Corey and the Net. Jeff is trying to get a vanity call sign, W6ZE, for his Echolink node. He needs a copy of the Club license to do so. Corey refers Jeff to Bob AF6C, and Jeff has already sent him an email. Jeff is happy with the FCC/Echolink requirements. Steve missed the 10M Net for dinner, but is happy to be a part of the 2M Net. Vijay is having problems with his 10m rig, so needs it checked. Corey confuses the OPs with his circuitous path to Echolinkhood. Vijay also wonders if Clem found the Kenwood 4-pin microphone he was looking for. Clem found the connector for the cable at JK Electronics, but hasn’t tested it yet. The Full Moon is a “Worm Moon” tonight, says Vijay. Phil was at 100W on 10m tonight, but Corey couldn’t hear him, either. He is running 50W now. Phil modified his Ameritron ALS-600 Amplifier this week. The TX/RX relay was chattering, so he did a $25 dual-relay mod from AD5X, says Phil. About 2 or 3 days ago, he made a 20m contact with a DXpedition in Togo, Africa 5V7EI. They are on March 14-26th. Terrence says good evening. He couldn’t make the 10M Net; he was driving from Nevada for work. On Sunday, Terrence did a Summits-On-The-Air activation on “Peak 4202,” at 4000ft elevation six miles west of Mount Wilson, just off Angeles Crest Hwy in the San Gabriel Mountains. He made a lot of 20m contacts, including one with Florida on 10W SSB. His rig was a lightweight Elecraft KX-2. On the second go-round, Terrence thanks Corey for hosting the Net, and a very good evening to all. Bob hears all previous check-ins 100% copy, and Tom on Echolink at 6 bars. The antenna is F.B., but he needs to refresh on the radio codes and controls for 10m TX. Nancy Buëller found a useful guide to the Yaesu FT-897, says Bob. Bob is re-learning CW for the Sunday OCW Nets, and is at 12-15WPM. Tom checks in mobile going down the 5 fwy via Echolink at the end of the Net. He is listening via a synced speaker hands-free device. Corey says his usual good-night to Bob. Bob says good night. Corey reads the check-ins at s7, s6, s6, F.Q., s7, s7, s7, F.Q., and s5 to s6, respectively. QRT 21:08 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey Orange checks in Jim AF6N Tustin, Gene KJ6OML Garden Grove, Clem W0MEC Westminster, Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach, Vijay KM6IZO Irvine, and Bob WB6IXN Santa Ana. Corey starts the Net a little late, at 19:35 PDT. Jim says good evening to all. He is working on taxes for the family, and jokes about lottery money. Gene relays Clem and Phil to Corey. Gene gets faint for a few seconds, then comes back strong. Gene says 73 after the first round. Clem is running 50W. Phil takes his turn, and gives it back to Net Control, Jim relays. Vijay checks in and has nothing to report, Jim also relays. Bob checks in faint to Corey, so Jim relays again. Corey YHX reads the check-ins at 8dB over s9, s7.9, no copy, no copy, no copy, and s7.8, respectively. QRT 19:46 PDT.
W6ZE/KE6YHX Corey checks in Clem W0MEC Westminster, Gene KJ6OML Garden Grove, Bob WB6IXN Santa Ana, David KG6GIA Peralta Hills Orange, Vijay KM6IZO/Echolink Irvine, Tom W6ETC/Echolink Tustin, and Phil K6PAD Huntington Beach. Clem reports good signals here on 2M for all OPs. He mentions the Hughes Aircraft Net that was before this one. Clem checked into it before. Maybe we will get some of the OPs from that Net here on OCARC, says Bob. The 10M Net was nearly impossible for Clem and Phil. Gene says 10M was difficult, and Corey’s “echo-chamber” gave him a headache. Corey is s9 to Gene. Bob receives on 10M with his FT-897 F.B., but is transmitting with too low a power. Corey was strong at the start of 10M, then was weak. Bob was pleased with the reception on 10m. Bob has his uninverted-v oriented NW and SE. Nancy Buëller found the “Nifty-Ninny” manual a while back for Bob’s HF rig, and he is reading that. It is very compact information, but the print is small, says Bob. Bob’s QST magazines are up-for-grabs. David is new to the Net, but visits the OCARC often. He is not a member, but has a couple friends who are members. David’s QTH is in NE Orange, on the border. He reports RST 59 to Corey. His ham shack was out of operation since the October fires, for housing some evacuees. They went to Berkeley, and David got his Ham station back in operation about a week ago. He contacted some San Bernardino emergency services since. David tried 10m, but it will take more time. The dials and controls are difficult the same as Bob. He has a backpack QRP rig assembled for the fires, and a couple generators. David is also working on solar power. It is good to hear all the OPs, and welcome aboard, Dave, says Vijay. Bob WB6IXN was strong on 10M reports Vijay. Bob is interested to know. Tom doesn’t come back. Phil reports 10-out-of-10 for all the OPs. He got his driver’s license renewed at the DMV the other day. It took 40 minutes, with an appointment. Phil reports good signals from all. The meeting will be on the fourth Friday, due to Passover, says Phil. Corey gives his usual good-night to Bob, and Bob says likewise. Corey YHX reads the check-ins at s7, F.Q., F.Q., F.Q., s7, full-copy, and s7, respectively. QRT 21:05 PDT.
