Sons Revive HAM Radio Club

Great meeting Thursday night down at the American Legion with pizza, muffins (love those poppy seed ones), and cookies. The plan is to hold monthly meetings at the American Legion on the 1st Thursday of the month.

Next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 7 at 6:30 p.m. Please let others know about the meeting. We would love to have them attend. Shameless promotion is encouraged. Hank, N6HWW, kicked off the meeting with a general outline of the cadre's purpose to exchange amateur radio knowledge, curiosity, and enthusiasm amongst the cadre with the additional intent to promote amateur radio to the Pacific Palisades community.

Larry, K6LEK, shared the American Legion's commitment to host, support, and promote amateur radio in general and our cadre specifically. Last week a CERT training was held with ACS providing radio support where everybody got a sense of the chaos in a post event environment.

In the past, ACS provided radio training at the American Legion and stands ready to hold more classes for interested parties. Given the events of Paradise and Maui, there has been interest in preparing to help each other during our most vulnerable times.

Harlan Hogue is our chairman. Marie Tran is our administrator. Marie, Hank, and Larry will work over the next month putting together and presenting our charter for review and approval by the cadre at the Dec. 7 meeting.

There are many divergent interests to explore such as slot antennas, SDR, and other legacy and emerging technologies. Perhaps your idea will catch fire and attract others to our vital efforts.

Terry, K9TAD, shared his experience with Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness. He has cogitated on how to use Family Service Radio (FRS), General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), and Amateur radio (HAM) together. He observed after getting a radio, and in the case of GMRS and HAM a license, the critical element of success is learning proper radio protocol otherwise communication devolves into chaos.

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program and other organizations are key to organizing, training, and drilling the overall community on key radio skills. The Los Angeles Auxiliary Communication Service (ACS) has a long history of FRS radio training having held one recently at LAFD Station 5 by LAX. There was discussion on other organizations such as CERT, ACS, LAUSD, PPCC, and the multitude of HOAs throughout Pacific Palisades which are available to reach out and educate the community on the importance of learning how to use radios in a disaster aftermath.

It is clear the community is interested, and we stand ready to help with communications.

Tom, K6AJG, shared how Pali High had an amateur radio installation back in the day. He observed many lifelong amateur radio enthusiasts came out of the program. In talking with Allison Polhill, from Nick Melvoin's office, the high school is getting a new roof, A/C, and solar providing a perfect opportunity to mount antennas revitalizing amateur radio as part of Pali Hight's STEM program. She will help push our effort.

Talk about perfect timing. Greg, WB6MPH, shared his Parks on the Air (POTA) experience and how he purchased faraday cloth to act as a ground plane. This is called 'magic carpet'. Although he didn't make a contact due to time constraints, he did hear a station from Patagonia Chile from his back yard. Wow that is crazy. The evening ended with many gathered in the AL Radio Shack checking out the equipment, using the equipment, and sharing the joy of getting back together after the trauma of COVID. Things are looking up!

We are excited to get the cadre moving and are thankful for all the American Legion support.