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Next SARA Club Meeting on THURSDAY February 6th, 2025 at 7:00 PM

A combined SARA and CERT in-person training session at the Joan Pisani Senior Center about PG&E’s utility plans during an emergency.”

Kevin Conant, PG&E’s Senior Public Safety Officer for the Santa Clara Valley, will present a two-hour training presentation on what CERT/SARA volunteers need to know about PG&E utilities during and following either a major magnitude earthquake or significant life-threatening wildland-urban interface fire. Kevin has a tailored presentation especially for CERTs and will address these critical topics.

The training session will be held on Thursday evening, 06 February 2025, and run from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The training will be conducted in the main multi-purpose room of the Saratoga Senior Center (SASCC), 19655 Allendale Ave located on the right-hand (east) side of the larger Joan Pisani Community Center and directly across Allendale Avenue from the USPS Saratoga branch post office. This is the same room as was used to conduct the three sessions of CERT training on the new radio communications protocol and revised communications forms.

**** This will be an in-person meeting.  We MIGHT also have a Zoom link, but it would be better to attend in person.  ****

NOTE: New Zoom Link for Monthly SARA meetings — see details below.

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Zoom Meeting Information
Sign up via our email announcement list to receive SARA net and meeting updates.
https://forms.gle/enjrUbxkh96QuAjr8

If you have forgotten the link, use the following: Zoom ID 993 1750 0744 and use the SARA Call Sign

Recent and recurring events:

We had numerous meetings involving Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) documents. We have been designing a new simpler CERT Radio Report form to minimize the amount of writing required per each radio report transmission. Good progress has been made. We resumed CERT monthly radio check-ins in November using the new simplified message form. A second training session was held in December thus the next CERT radio check-in is planned to be on February 3rd at 5PM, 2025. Stay tuned!

Thursday eveningRagchew” question & answer session on our same two repeaters weekly at 9:00 PM. Fun and informative. Typically, a “round robin chat.” Come on…don’t be afraid to hit your PTT button to speak up and ask….or perhaps simply listen and learn.

The Ham Swap Meet has ENDED for this year as of Sunday September 8th 2024 at West Valley College, Lot 3, 14000 Fruitvale Avenue, Saratoga, CA 95070. It will hopefully resume again in Spring 2025. Always a lot of great ham equipment at low prices.

Future events:

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ARES/RACES County Drill on Saturday February 22nd at 9AM. SARA will participate but it may not be accounted for Credential credit. Great practice session though. More details to come soon. https://www.scc-ares-races.org/activities/events.php

The Saratoga Amateur Radio Association will be conducting our quarterly drill on Saturday, February 22, 2025 from 09:45 until 12:00. This is an opportunity for each of us to participate and hone our skills as emergency communicators. We have developed a scenario in collaboration with the county ARES/RACES organization. You can simply monitor, check-in/out, or participate in a few simple communications tasks. This will take place from the comfort of your own home and no commitment beyond getting on the air and participating to whatever degree you are comfortable with.

Our SARA training sessions

There are several other potential upcoming activities.  These include: more Fox hunts, antenna build/testing, safety training, others? Please join us in helping plan SARA’s sessions!

More SARA sessions at Kevin Moran Park such as RF Safety characterization.
Looking to help volunteer as a Ham radio operator? Help make a difference during a emergency by becoming a trained and credentialed County ARES member. Classes are available through the Santa Clara County ARES/RACES website.

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Note: Our 2-meter repeater S-meter signal strength report is now UP once again, responding with a maximum of “S9 plus 30.” To utilize it, key up the 2- meter site, continue holding your PTT, and hit the “8” key for a second, then release the PTT. You should then receive a signal strength report response. The maximum strength report will be S9 plus 30. Try different power levels. Be curious. Voila! FYI: Our 70cm repeater does NOT have this capability.

Nets

  • Sundays – 2M Net at 9:00 pm on both K6SA repeaters. Stick around for Morris’s after net lectures. VERY informative.
  • Tuesdays – SVECS 2M Net at 8:00 pm on AA6BT at 146.115 MHz + 100 Hz or on linked N6NAC 70cm at 444.625 MHz + 110.9 Hz
  • Thursdays – Rag Chew/Question and Answer session at 9:00 pm on both K6SA repeaters

SARA Frequencies

Channel NameResource NameR/SFrequencyOffsetPL
CommandK6SARepeater146.655– (minus)114.8
CommandK6SARepeater443.150+ (plus)100
Tactical AltSimplex146.505
Tactical Alt 2Simplex146.595

General Information

  • Our brochure contains an overview of our club’s history, member interests, net, meetings, activities, and how you might become a member. If you would like to become a member, please complete our membership form and mail it to: Saratoga Amateur Radio Association, P.O. Box 2034, Saratoga, CA 95070.

Meetings

  • Monthly in-person meeting venue: The Saratoga Firehouse may be available, located on 14380 Saratoga Avenue at the corner of Saratoga-Sunnyvale and Los Gatos-Saratoga Roads, in Saratoga. Map If not, another venue must be found. However, the still impending threats of new Covid19 outbreaks have many folks worried. We do NOT currently have all of the equipment available in order to offer simultaneous in-person and Zoom meetings. In the meantime, we will continue our meetings only via Zoom. Stay tuned!
  • Meetings are normally on the first Wednesday of each month at 7:30 PM. As of late 2023, they may be In-Person (depending on member requests) as well as available via Zoom. However, with Covid19 still lingering amongst us we will default to Zoom only.
  • Prior to the in-person meetings, we often have dinner at Jake’s; a Saratoga Restaurant located at 12175 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road (and Prospect Road). Map. We usually meet around 6:00 PM. Someone will be monitoring the K6SA repeaters while we are at dinner so check-in and say “Hi” if you are on your way.
  • We strongly suggest you bring your 2M HT in case you have difficulty finding the meeting. If you have difficulty finding the meeting, please contact someone on the club repeater.

Documents

Access to Saved Documents Procedure: NOTE: New methodology: Go to the RESOURCES Tab on the Home Page and click on it. Then drop down to PRESENTATIONS and click on it. Scroll down to see the long list of saved documents and presentations from years gone by. You can read and download any of them. There is a wealth of ham radio knowledge covered. Enjoy!

*** Annual Club Dues: ***

With inflation compounded with equipment replacement costs, Zoom, GoDaddy, and governmental fees rising substantially, we have found it necessary to collect annual dues once again. This will be twenty ($20) dollars for an individual or thirty ($30) dollars for a family membership. NOTE: If you paid in November or December of the prior year, you will be credited for the next year. Please help keep our club strong. As of August 14th 2024, 34 members have paid. Thanks!

Current Member Payment

For current members, there is no need to reregister. All one must do is make a dues payment. You have two payment options:

Option#1; pay by submitting a check written out to SARA and mail it to our Saratoga mailbox; SARA, P.O. Box 2034, Saratoga, CA 95070. Be sure to write your callsign(s) on the check!

Option#2; Make a direct payment using our PayPal account at https://PayPal.me/saratogaamateurradio. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the PayPal form where you can enter your name and callsign(s).

New Member Payment and Registration

For new members, please scroll down to the “Read All About Us” section below and use the link to the Membership form. Please print, fill it out, then mail it in. Sorry, but online registration is not available at this time. Payment can be done by either by mailing a check written out to SARA, P.O. Box 2034, Saratoga, CA 95070 or via our PayPal link: https://PayPal.me/saratogaamateurradio. Your new membership will keep you as active on our email distribution list. Help keep our club strong. Thanks.

Our Charter

  • Facilitate scientific education and knowledge of radio engineering and communication skills by providing training, reference materials for self-education and operating practice.
  • Provide voluntary noncommercial communication, particularly providing emergency communication as a public service and without any remuneration.
  • Promote amateur radio by facilitating the exchange of information, improve individual operating efficiency and strengthen the welfare of amateur radio in the community.
  • Our current officers are Jack Griswold KM6ZWR; President, Steve Steps AJ6HM; Vice President, and Allison Cassidy N6ALI; Treasurer and our board members Peter Melhus AA6PM, Morris Jones AD6ZH, Don Steinbach AE6PM, Jeff Walker N6ADE, and Walter Spector W6WS.
  • Our brochure contains an overview of our club’s history, member interests, net, meetings, activities, and how you might become a member. If you would like to become a member, please complete our membership form and mail it to: Saratoga Amateur Radio Association, P.O. Box 2034, Saratoga, CA 95070.