Huntington Beach RACES

2009 Baker to Vegas Communication Team

Huntington Beach RACES Baker to Vegas Communication Team will provide mobile communications support to the Huntington Beach Police Department Running Team’s participation in the 25th Annual Baker to Vegas Relay Race.

HB RACES looks forward each year to providing the best communications resource for the Huntington Beach Running Team. We use this event as an opportunity to practice implementing a reliable communications net in a difficult environment and fostering our working relationships with the Huntington Beach Police Department. This year 15 RACES communicators will provide radio communication support to the running team.

HB RACES provides live tracking of the runner’s position via APRS ham radio equipment during the race. The position reports are available via any Internet connected PC at Huntington Beach Runner Position Report Huntington Beach has a 5pm (PDT) start time on Saturday, March 14th.

HB RACES communicators follow the Huntington Beach runner and are available at the upcoming stages to provide updated position reports and assistance to runners waiting for their leg to start. The stage communicator will have the unofficial leg times for the running team and any special instructions relayed from the team captain.

HB RACES Communicators are available at the Hunting Beach Running Team’s Staging Suite at the Hilton - Las Vegas. Runner status information and unofficial leg times are available. Call the room and ask for the RACES communicator. We can assist you in getting messages to the racecourse runners. Cell phone coverage is spotty along the course, but our ham radio resources provide 100% coverage of the racecourse allowing voice communication to all participants and the follow van.

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W6OCC/75 Special Event Station QSL Card

Huntington Beach RACES sends congratulations to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department who will observe the 75th Anniversary of Orange County Communications.  OCC is now named the Communications & Technology Division of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The celebration will occur on Monday, March 2, 2009, from 0900 to 1500 hours (formal presentations at 1300 hours), at 840 N. Eckhoff Street in Orange. OC RACES will operate a Special Event Station during the celebration hours, using the W6OCC/75 call sign, in the OCRACES emergency communications response vehicle. QSL cards will be sent, upon request, to radio amateurs who work our station on 14.320 MHz, 7.230 MHz, 3.960 MHz, and the 146.895 MHz repeater. More info is available at www.ocraces.org

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We’ll be doing some work on the new two meter repeater next Tuesday, February 17. It will be off the air for the better part of the day. The duplexer will be removed in the morning and taken to the shop for tuning. Barring unforeseen circumstances it will be reinstalled Tuesday afternoon.

The UHF repeaters and the Santiago two meter repeater should be available during the outage. Thanks for your understanding.
–
73,
Tim, WD6AWP

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The hbraces.org has been moved to the new provider. The URL http://www.hbraces.org will take you to our new WordPress site at http://hbraces.net within the next 48 hours. Typically changes propagate through the DNS system fairly quickly but it may take up to 48 hours. You may have to close your browser and/or clear your browser cache before you see the new site. 

Our email addresses email address @hbraces.org have been moved also and are subject to the same 48 hour DNS delay. 

The HB RACES mail list servers (officers, members, and pager) are no longer operational.

We’ll have more details at the general membership meeting on Monday, February 9. Be sure to attend to get the latest information.

73, WD6AWP

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SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA
600 AM PST THU JAN 22 2009

CAZ034>041-044>046-051>054-059-087-088-547-548-230000-
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY CENTRAL COAST-
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY CENTRAL COAST-SANTA YNEZ VALLEY-
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY INTERIOR VALLEYS-CUYAMA VALLEY-
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY SOUTH COAST-VENTURA COUNTY COAST-
LOS ANGELES COUNTY COAST INCLUDING DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES-
VENTURA COUNTY INTERIOR VALLEYS-VENTURA COUNTY COASTAL VALLEYS-
SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS RECREATIONAL AREA-
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-SANTA BARBARA COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
VENTURA COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MOUNTAINS EXCLUDING THE SANTA MONICA RANGE-
ANTELOPE VALLEY-CATALINA ISLAND-SANTA CLARITA VALLEY-
LOS ANGELES COUNTY SAN FERNANDO VALLEY-
LOS ANGELES COUNTY SAN GABRIEL VALLEY-
600 AM PST THU JAN 22 2009

...THE FIRST RAINS OF 2009 ARE EXPECTED ACROSS SOUTHWESTERN
CALIFORNIA TODAY AND TONIGHT...

AN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE SEVERAL HUNDRED MILES OFF
THE SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA COAST IS FORECAST TO MOVE SLOWLY EAST
THROUGH TODAY...TRACKING OVER EXTREME SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TONIGHT.
THIS SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO BRING SHOWERS WITH SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL
TO THE REGION THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT.

THERE WILL BE AN INCREASING CHANCE OF SHOWERS OVER MUCH OF
SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA EARLY THIS MORNING. WIDESPREAD SHOWERS WILL
PERSIST ACROSS THE REGION THROUGH THE DAY TODAY THEN GRADUALLY TAPER
TO SCATTERED SHOWERS TONIGHT. SOME SHOWERS MAY LINGER INTO FRIDAY
MORNING...ESPECIALLY ACROSS VENTURA AND LOS ANGELES COUNTIES.

ESTIMATES OF RAINFALL TOTALS FOR THE STORM ARE FOR ONE HALF TO
ONE AND A HALF INCHES IN COASTAL AND VALLEY AREAS...WITH THE HIGHEST
AMOUNTS EXPECTED SOUTH OF POINT CONCEPTION. FOOTHILL AND MOUNTAIN
AREAS ARE GENERALLY EXPECTED TO RECEIVE BETWEEN ONE AND TWO INCHES
OF RAIN. IT LOOKS AS THOUGH SOUTHERLY FLOW WILL PROVIDE SOME
OROGRAPHIC ENHANCEMENT OF THE RAINFALL...SO THE HIGHEST TOTALS ARE
EXPECTED ON SOUTH FACING SLOPES OF SANTA BARBARA...VENTURA AND LOS
ANGELES COUNTIES WHERE LOCAL AMOUNTS OVER THREE INCHES ARE POSSIBLE.

THERE IS A CHANCE THAT RAINFALL RATES WILL BE HIGH ENOUGH TO BRING A
THREAT OF LOCAL FLASH FLOODING AND DEBRIS FLOWS IN AND AROUND THE
RECENTLY BURNED AREAS.

DUE TO THE SUBTROPICAL NATURE OF THE SYSTEM...SNOW LEVELS ARE
EXPECTED TO BE RATHER HIGH...MAINLY ABOVE RESORT LEVELS FOR MUCH OF
THE STORM.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR YOUR FAVORITE MEDIA OUTLET FOR
THE LATEST UPDATES ON THE STORMY WEATHER EXPECTED TO AFFECT
SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA.

$$

SIRARD

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Our weekly HB RACES two meter net is held every Monday at 7:15 pm on the KH6FL repeater, 145.140 Mhz, -600 Khz, CTCSS 127.3 hz. Immediately following the two meter net we hold a net on our 440 repeater. The 440 net is on the WD6AWP repeater, 447.940 Mhz, -5.00 Mhz, CTCSS 100.0 hz. These weekly nets are a chance to practice good radio operating techniques, ensure your radio station is operational, gain experience in operating in a controlled net situation, and to help train future net control operators. Peter, N6RAS, is the Net Supervisor for the month of February 2009. Direct questions and concerns about our Fubruary weekly nets to Peter.

Our net is open to CERT members and visitors. Join the fun. Everyone is welcome to listen and check into our  HB RACES weekly nets.

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You may have heard all the racket on the repeater this weekend. If so you know we installed the new VXR-7000 at city hall. In the process of the install we discovered some problems that required attention. We fixed most of the problem but there is still some desense in the system as indicated by the long squelch tail. The desense was no doubt present with the other repeater but not detectable do to the lower output power. We’re planing to give the duplexer a through tune-up in the not too distant future. Even with the current desense, the new system seems to be performing as well or better than the other repeater. 

Thanks to AD6TN, W6BRP, K6LUE, WB6DNX, N6RAS, W6GOS, N6AWQ, and KE6JDL for your help with the install. 

Here’s a few pictures from the install.

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The City bought us a new repeater to replace our ailing two meter machine. Be sure to tell Brevyn thank you for all the things he’s done for us in 2008 including getting the new repeater, two new mobile radios and the new web site.

The repeater is a Vertex/Yaesu VXR-7000 50 watt VHF repeater/base. Here are a couple of pictures of the repeater on my work bench. That’s Peter Shores, AD6TN laptop. We tried four laptops, including one of Buck’s, W6BRP before we found one that would run the programming software. The aluminum mounting brackets were made by Fred, K6LUE.

If all goes well it should be on the air in a few days. 

Click on the above thumbnail to see a larger photo.

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The Challenge Cup / Baker to Vegas Relay 25th Anniversary Race will be held March 14 - 15, 2009. The Huntington Beach Police Department Running Team (team #42 this year) will again participate and has asked for HB RACES assistance for logistical communications duringthe race. Communications support for the running team has become an regular event for RACES and renews bothour friendships and our working relationships with the Huntington Beach Police Department. Our communication resources and skills in this remote and extremelychallenging environment both impress the officers and challenge us to learn and do better each year. http://www.bakervegas.com/

Radio Baker Vegas communications coordination is the site to visit to learn more about radio communications duringthe event. We must coordinate our radio support operations with Radio Baker Vegas to minimize interference between the hundreds of radio users that weekend. http://b2v.org/

We’ll have a Baker to Vegas Workshop (RACES Team only and anyone wanting to learn how we do it) on Monday, March 9th in the EOC at 7pm. We’ll talk about the communication’s drill and get everyone up-to-speed.

The HBPD final briefing (RACES and the PD Team) is on Tuesday, March 10 at 5pm in the PD Training Room A.

Live Tracking of the race will be available via internet at b2v.findu.org

Contact Margret, KE6OAR if you have any immediate questions.

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General Membership Meeting.  February 9, 2009  @ 7pm. in the EOC

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