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The San Francisco Radio Club has been invited to manage the Communications Team for the 2019 San Francisco Marathon, and we will appreciate your assistance this year. We need ~30 people to run this event. No previous experience is required. This is a great opportunity for new ham operators to participate and learn and support our club and the community. Click below for more information to the register.  What can I say, we asked for your help, you responded in record time and helped us exceed our goal. Now we are happy to say that "we have delivered"!!! From an idea to reality in 2 weeks and 3 days! This is unprecedented!  Our new DMR repeater, replacing our UHF C4FM one, is on the Air, connected to the BrandMeister Network! Repeater details: Model: Motorola SLR5700 Frequency: 444.225MHz +5KHz Offset Color Code: cc1 TS1: NorCal TS2: 311040 (This is the W6PW TalkGroup), 310604 (Carla Orinda UHF), 31075 (BayNET), Local Repeater TG9 W6PW BrandMeister Information: click here  We are in the process of writing a policy around its use. For instance we don't want it connected to talkgroups like TG310 or Worldwide causing the repeater to transmit 24/7, thus locking everyone else from using it. We want to ensure that everyone can enjoy this new machine, whether local or remote, but also be mindful to other repeaters in the Bay Area sharing the same frequency pair. Finally this repeater now becomes another tool for SFRC to run successful events and be used in case of emergency. Policy details to come.
Again, a huge thanks to all of you for making this a reality and remember, if you need help, advice on radios, advice with programming etc we are here to help. We are not experts, we are learning too, but we are happy to assist as much as we can. Antonis, AA6PP + Board Team This year, if we get the minimum of 10 orders, we will be purchasing SFRC branded Field Day T-shirts. The cost will be $20. We are ordering color "Garnet" with our logo on the front and club callsign at the back. We are taking orders from now and until Friday, June 7th to ensure we have enough time to place an order and get them delivered on time for FD2019.
 It is official! On Saturday, May 18th will be our second, annual "San Francisco Radio Club" SOTA activation. Antonis AA6PP will be leading this effort. We are planning to combine hiking and nature trailing with setting up radio stations (both VHF/UHF & HF) and making contacts! We will lead two groups of hikers (novice and advanced) to the top of Mt Tamalpais West Peak on that Saturday morning. If you don't want to hike, don't worry. There is parking on the top so you can still participate (little walking will be required though). If you can't make it then you can be a chaser and help us out! What is Summits on the Air (SOTA)? SOTA is an award scheme for radio amateurs that encourages portable operation in mountainous areas. SOTA has been carefully designed to make participation possible for all Radio Amateurs and Shortwave Listeners - this is not just for mountaineers!
 Please join us this Friday for our General Meeting. We are planning to do a show and tell session. We are brining lots of HTs, FM, Digital (C4FM, DSTAR, DMR), Antennas, SWR Analyzers and planning to talk about features, repeater operation, PL, DCS, APRS etc. If you are looking for a radio to buy this is your chance to play with a few during the session and get a feel. If you have an HT bring it over and talk to us about it.
Just a quick note to remind everyone that the 2019 ARRL International DX Contest is happening right now! Get your radios ready, listen and participate. DX Contests are not just fun but also a great opportunity to train your ear!
When an emergency happens and all hams jump on the air. Your ability to tune your ear and listen to important messages is critical. DX contests are generally very busy. It is a challenge to pick certain operators in a pile up. Thus a great opportunity to a) see how far your station setup can get you and b) to advance your listening skills by writing down callsigns, RST reports and locations, messages that operators from around the world exchange. The 20 and 40 meter bands are crazy active today. Your antenna setup (whatever that may be) won't stop you from hearing stations, don't hesitate. Tune in and have fun!
 Back in the news this month; We generally assume some things about the Earth will always be the same. In the paper, published in January 2018, the researchers presented evidence gathered from southern Africa that could help us get a better idea of what the heck is going on the South Atlantic Anomaly, which spans from Chile to Zimbabwe. The fact is that Earth’s magnetic field reverses polarity relatively often — on average, every couple million years. The good news is that In a paper published five months later, an international team of researchers provides evidence that the current disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field does not indicate that it’s about to reverse polarity, contrary to what some experts have recently suggested. What would happen if Earth's polarity reverses? Here is a great article by the National Geographic on the topic. This is a super fascinating topic. If such an event could happen in our lifetime what would you think the consequences on HF propagation would be? Would love to hear your thoughts on our mailing group
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