[GVARC] Radiofest;Wine and Cheese a Success

[Pat Barthelow]

Hi Folks,

Well, looks like the Radiofest was a great success and the first N6IJ wine 
and cheese schmooze following radiofest was also a great success...
Good time was had by all (a standing room only crowd) at 599 DX Drive till 
well into the evening hours...

We'll have to do this more often!

We even got Garry, NI6T and his yl to visit from Santa Cruz, along with Ft. 
Ord MARS veteran, Neil Hays, W6FOG,to come down from Oakland.  Neil, has a 
lot of history in the old building S3215, and even brought
a back a long lost friend's name back from distant memories.  Sgt Pizarro, 
whas the NCO in command of the MARS shack, to way back in the 70s when Neil 
served there also.

I think also, newly revitalized contester/dxer, Kelly Johnson was hooked 
with the site capabilities, and we will be seeing more of him, even 
confirmed by his Xyl.... Tony, also was there from GVARC...We had some good 
wine, (and some mystery wine....some old Cab from my Brother's vinyard...It 
was past it's prime...bottled in 92.....}and munchies, and even beer (nobody 
had any of this)  and Pepsi, for those teetotalers...Barry Bettman K6ST, was 
down, and mentioned that we had a lot of cool stuff here.  I think so...
Barry and others were intrigued at the 70+ year old QST magazines...
I found a QST that had a National Radio Company Ad featuring Don Walters' 
FB7 classic old radio.  Don did a tremendous job tracing the history of that 
radio at his talk at Radio fest...Don tells me too, that he has flung the RF 
a LONG ways from his new home station...he might be bit by the DX bug by 
now...

We missed our Southern HF contester contingent...Niko, S52NC or AC6DD and 
Stefia, his YL, did not make the trip, from San Louis Obispo, becuz there 
was no HF stuff this year at Radiofest...(we'll just have to have the Pileup 
contest at N6IJ from now on..And Ken, N6KB is still a bit far away, at his 
qth in KH6  land...

Art Snow, N6RKS, checked out the Service panel for telephone, and is working 
on getting a phone line for the station.  I will check to see if we can get 
DSL service too...I hope we are within the max range limit from the central 
office...Art also revealed to MARC, WB6DCE, some real war stories...Art 
spent quite a bit of time in Souteast Asia, in the 60s and 70s....Marc and 
Art also worked together in a previous life at Metricomm in Silicon 
Valley....

Next weekend, is the ARRL DX  Phone  contest, and we will be operating a QRO 
single tx, multi op station, with Dean, N6DE, and Pat, AA6EG so far on the 
slate for operators.  We welcome anyone else who wants to join us to operate 
this contest...

Dick Diddams W7QHE, and Lois, his YL, came over, and loaned a TV/VCR which 
we used to play Ham Radio Videos....Thanks a lot Dick and Lois

John Morrice, K6MI, brought his Radiofest flea market prize, a REAL BIG 
tool, an 800 watt soldering iron!  The copper tip must have been AT LEAST 6 
inches long, and weighed 4 pounds!  This would be a real conversation piece 
at any ham convention.  A real speech opener...Move over woof-houng  and 
reddysnitch.....

Sunday, Russ Coile K6FVH, and his  family came over, for a scheduled 
reconnaisance of the site, in preparation for native and non native plant 
studies required by the city.  Daughter Jennifer Coile is an expert at this 
and will be of great assistance to us to do the environmental surveys on the 
site.  We have a LOT of iceplant to be removed from the premesis, that's for 
sure.  It has been quite a while since I've done a walk through of the site, 
and it is obvious that we need a big cleanup party soon, to remove scattered 
trash, (animals regularly raid the trash cans for food and food wrappings, 
and dont put them back..hi hi...
We also need to move a lot of the Radio related stuff away from the front 
areas of the site, and probably down to the Discone area.  I would request 
some help on this one...Need some folks for a weekend work party...Contact 
me if you can come over....
We would like to invite our visitors to visit often, and even join the 
Monterey Bay Amateur Radio Association, MBARA, which has been created as a 
501C3 organization.  We need some experts in a number of areas, and 
particularly need a Marketing Director, or maybe a Grants Manager....

Eric, K6EP and I exchanged ideas about positions vacant in the silicon 
valley, all the way down here....

Our costs of existence are going up, now that we are being charged for the 
first time for water and sewer..about $30.00 per month, and our power bill 
is going up with the QRO contesting activity...Usually about $45 to 70 per 
month.  We've got to find ways to come up with about $300 per month, to meet 
basic expenses.  I believe once we have our 501c3 in hand, we will easily be 
able to qualify for operating revenue grants...
So if you visit and use the station..you might think about tossing some 
bucks into the Kitty jar when you leave....
We really need active, motivated people too...the TO DO list is really big!

Also, we played some old cassette tapes, of some of my 70, 80s favorites, 
Jackson Browne, Billy Idol, Don Henly, Stevie Nicks,Van Morrison...someone 
called it fossil rock...sigh...
Looking for a turntable, and a CD Player...anyone got some old versions of 
these?

So....come on down!

73....de Pat, AA6EG
meamonte@hotmail.com
(831) 905-6652






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