Last modified on 7-15-19

Santa Clara County ARES/RACES website: http://www.scc-ares-races.org

SVECS Weekly Net on Tuesday Nights at 2000 hours on AA6BT (146.115+, PL100.0)

Click here for Net Control Script (on a webpage) (script updated 5-2-18)
SVECS Net Control Script in PDF format (click here)

Dates for city responsibility of SVECS Net Control Updated 3-28-19

SVECS CheckIns XLS spreadsheet to track totals when doing SVECS net. Updated 6-13-18 (originally created by John Nourse AI6EH).

SVECS Tuesday Night Packet Check-in (before 2000 hrs!)

Go to County ARES/RACES page here, https://www.scc-ares-races.org/data/packet/weekly-packet-practice.html

SVECS Membership Application, (click here for PDF form)

Santa Clara County local HF net

HF net at 20:30 hours local time on 80 meters, 3.878MHz LSB
Click here for more details.

SVECS Board of Directors

Chairman		Lou Steirer, WA6QYS		(408) 241-7999		wa6qys@aol.com
Treasurer		Don Steinbach, AE6PM		(408) 867-3912		ae6pm@arrl.net
Secretary		Bob Underwood, AA6BT		(408) 255-1997		aa6bt@arrl.net
Board of Directors
		Ben Vickers, WB6FRM				wb6frm@pacbell.net
		Glen Lokke, Jr., K6GNG				glokke@pacbell.net
		Gregg Lane, KF6FNA				kf6fna@comcast.net
		Rusty Rustermier, KI6ZSK				rustermier@gmail.com
SVECS Address:		SVECS Santa Clara Valley 14600 Bougainvillea Ct Saratoga, CA 95070

Tutorials and References: (Click here for more)

Baofeng handheld radio reference

Earthquake Reporting Procedures (pdf)

Modified Mercalli, or Mike Mike, scale used by SCC RACES in wallet size (pdf)

FEMA ICS/NIMS online courses
Recommended Basic Emergency Management Course Completion
Emergency Responder Manual (pdf)


Amateur Radio Related Links
What is ARES?      What is RACES?
 
Previous Speakers at Quarterly Breakfast Meetings

Santa Clara County ARES/RACES website: http://www.scc-ares-races.org

City Emergency Coordinators
County Staff DEC, ADECs
Frequency Information
Data Networking
Direct-Dial Emergency Numbers

SPECS, Southern Peninsula Emergency Communication System (North County):
http://www.specsnet.org

Previous Speakers at Quarterly Breakfast Meetings

SVECS Events

SVECS Quarterly Breakfasts are on the fourth Saturday of January, April, July, and October.
That would be Jan 26, Apr 27, July 27, and Oct 26 in 2019.

SVECS Quarterly Breakfast Meeting:
Radio For The Rest Of Us
Saturday, July 27, 2019
9 am to 12 noon

Santa Clara Senior Center
1303 Fremont St. (corner of Monroe and Fremont)
Santa Clara, CA
GPS coordinates: 37.350269, -121.949827
Thomas Guide page 833 quadrant E4
click here for map

Alan Thompson, W6WN, will present “Radio For The Rest Of Us,” a sequel presentation to his “The Camp Fire: Phones, Fires and Failures.”

The last few years have seen a dramatic rise in the frequency and intensity of storms, fires, power shutdowns, and other natural and man-made disasters - events which often disrupt vital communications services. Recent examples include 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombing, the Carr and Camp Fires, and Hurricanes Sandy, Katrina, Maria and Irma, which wiped out cell and Internet communications. With the ever-increasing impacts of climate change and political tensions, these disasters may only become more frequent and more intense - putting us all at greater risk. Thompson’s presentation also offers suggestions on how “the rest of us” might help ourselves, our friends, our families and community to stay safer in the face of cell-phone and Internet service failures.

Outline:

• Profiles of recent disasters, and recurring points of failure that impair emergency communications, alerts, and evacuations, placing people’s lives at risk
• Coverage and comparisons of various alternative communications tools and backups to cell phones
• An outline of “Radio For The Rest of Us” programs to support citizen-to-citizen emergency communications in our own, local communities
• The opportunity for Ham Radio Operators and Clubs to lead the way in implementing and sustaining these programs, and thereby helping to ensure the future of our hobby

About our guest speaker Alan Thompson:

Alan Thompson, W6WN, grew up and still lives and works in Placerville California. He’s the Owner and Chief Field Engineer for El Dorado Networks, providing satellite Internet systems installations and maintenance services for businesses and governmental organizations including Facebook, Intelsat, Bank of America / Merrill Lynch, the Department of Defense, and the Federal Aviation Administration. On one of his most recent projects, he was part of a Disaster Recovery Team that installed several satellite Internet backup systems to help restore cell-phone service ten days after the 2018 Camp Fire rubbed out electronic communications in Paradise and Magalia.

The door prize and breakfast prices needed to be adjusted to conform to our budget. The door prize will be $100 and the breakfast cost will be $6. I hope this will not inconvenience anyone. We need to know how many attendees to plan for, so please RSVP on your city nets or to wa6qys aol.com or 408-241-7999. People giving city counts can also give number of breakfast counts) on the SVECS net (AA6BT, 146.115+ 100PL) Tuesdays 2000 hours.

Door prizes: $100 gift certificate.

Donations for the raffle table are graciously accepted. Please bring your gently used surplus items.


Image shows Glen Jr. K6GNG, Chief Cook, of SVECS.   

J-Pole Antennas by SVECS

These famed American Legion Post 380 J-pole antennas are regarded as highly effective antennas for ARES/RACES base stations, fixed and field use. VSWR is virtually 1.000 and very cost effective for a donation of $30.

Antennas are sold at DeAnza electronics flea market (next to coffee/donut tent) and also at Quarterly Breakfast Meetings. Electronics Flea Market site at http://www.electronicsfleamarket.com

Photos of J-pole antennas for sale. Antennas are available for 2-meter VHF, 220 MHz, and 440MHz.

Santa Clara Valley NTS

SCV section National Traffic System voice nets meet Tuesday at 2100 hrs Pacific time on the Loma Pioneer Repeater Club 146.640 minus offset, 162.2 PL, LPRC website at http://www.lprc.net

Santa Clara Valley NTS group site is to educate and train amateur radio operators to use the National Traffic System, a method to pass text messages over ham radio, vital to emergency radio service. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nts_scv/

Michael Wright, K6MFW SVECS Webpage Editor (650) 604-6262 mfwright@batnet.com

Webhosting by

Silicon Valley Public Access Link http://www.svpal.org

Notes:
Many thanks to Hee So, N6XVK, for setting up the domain and initial webhosting for svecs.net.
N6NAC returned as UHF linked repeater (8-18-2008)
K6SNY became new UHF linked repeater, previously was N6NAC (May 2008)
SVECS AA6BT Repeater old callsign was WB6ADZ (was changed early in 2003).
N6NAC (440 repeater) old callsign was WB6FIY (was changed in mid 2003).