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Speakers At Our
General Meetings
Embedded Files
Coming Up:
April 17, 2026
The State of Contra Costa County ARES
by Jim Marchetti KD7G
Jim is the new ARES (When All Else Fails ®) District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) for Contra Costa County in the ARRL East Bay section arrleb.org in the Pacific Division. pacific.arrl.org The talk will cover what ARES is (and is not), the current state of ARES in Contra Costa County, how Jim ended up as the new DEC, and his plans for ARES in Contra Costa County.
Jim has been married to Lisa for the past 39 years with two children and one grandchild. He has resided in Antioch, CA since 2002, and has been an Amateur Radio Operator since 2010 (MDARC class). To the best of his knowledge, he is the first ham in his family, so far. Jim served in the US Navy for 8 years as an Avionics Technician and was an in-flight Weapons Systems Technician on the Mighty Lockheed P-3C Orion.
Additionally, Jim is the registration chair and marketing chair for PACIFICON 2026 and is the President of the Delta ARC darc.club that meets in person and on Zoom on the last Thursday of the month at the Antioch Veterans Hall.
May 15, 2026
TBA
by TBA
Synopsis
Bio
Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: MDARC General Membership Meeting
Held on the third Friday of each month, except December
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82142030487?pwd=hbcbJW7JpxUy0hbCRkgVazdDFbgy6h.1
View meeting insights with Zoom AI Companion
https://us06web.zoom.us/launch/edl?muid=8fc1e2b8-4b7f-4318-977e-a863e0ce4164
Meeting ID: 821 4203 0487
Passcode: 797097
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,82142030487#,,,,*797097# US
+17193594580,,82142030487#,,,,*797097# US
Join instructions
Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kerubLRz59
Past Meetings:
March 20, 2026:
ARRL
by John Litz, NZ6Q
John is our newly reelected Pacific Division Director for a three year term. Congratulations and thanks for serving. The talk will focus on the just completed ARRL Board Meeting in Newington, CT held with the other Board members, staff and fourteen Directors including committees with ample Q&A.
John's candidate statement was sent to mdarc@groups.io in August and his QRZ page outlines his numerous activities and operating awards.
Annie N6ACL and John love to activate Parks on the Air. He believes its the "DXpedition for the rest of us." Setting up and making 50 - 500 contacts at a park is a huge rush! They also co-manage the ARRL 6th District Incoming QSL Bureau which is a great geography lesson for their son and another opportunity to impact the international goodwill of Amateur Radio.
He is a high school soccer referee, trainer and mentor for youth soccer. He also recently discovered how much he loves to umpire baseball and softball. He serves on the boards of our local and district little leagues and high school soccer officiating group.
February 20, 2026:
Halibut Electronics
by Mark Smith N6MTS
Halibut offers audio interconnection products for radios like the Contest Console, offers the HHI and champions the Open Headset Interconnect Standard (OHIS.org). The Contest Console enables headsets to share radio audio, share PTT and intercom. This enables a wonderful experience for casual contesting, Field Day (fourth full weekend in June), guest operating and mentoring (elmering).
Mark Smith, N6MTS, has been an active ham since he was first licensed as KD6JTS in 1992. While IT was his career for 30 years, audio electronics, microcontrollers, and software have always been his passion and hobby. In 2021, after 7 years as a Senior Engineer in Information Security, Mark decided that it would be less stressful to start an electronics business during a global semiconductor shortage, and Halibut Electronics electronics.halibut.com was born. He's also a somewhat regular host on the HamRadioWorkbench.com bi-weekly podcast.
January 16 Fri, 2026:
Bandpass Filters
by Mark Cloud, W6SXA
The talk will cover the basics of what a Bandpass Filter is, Bandpass Filter specifications, Bandpass Filter response curves, Testing Bandpass Filters and why you may or may not need a BPF.
Bio
I am currently 77 years old and became a ham in 2016 after retiring from a long career in the field of Electronics Engineering working for companies such as Western Union Microwave Operations, Hewlett-Packard Co, Transistor Devices Inc, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. I also taught Electronics at American River College in Sacramento, San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, and Las Positas College in Livermore to name a few. I upgraded to Extra Class within the first couple of months after first being licensed and immediately began serving as a VE for the Laurel VEC as well as the ARRL VEC. Ham Radio has allowed me to remain active in the field of Electronics Communications which began for me in the early 70’s when I obtained my First Class Radiotelephone Commercial License.
I have served as the Vice President for a couple of years, then as President of the Stockton Delta Amateur Radio Club (w6sf.org) for two years and now as Vice President again. Serving as the “Talk-In” guy the last two years and several years as a VE at Pacificon has been a very rewarding experience. I look forward to continuing to serve there wherever needed.
Mark is our newly elected Vice President. Congratulations and thanks for volunteering.
December 21 Fri, 2025:
No Regular Meeting, aHoliday Potluck. held December 7, 2025.
November 21 Fri, 2025:
ZRDC 2025, a Zero Retries view of Pacificon 2025, M17 - an Open-Source Digital Voice mode, the LinHT, and SuperPeaters
by Steve Stroh, N8GNJ and Tina Stroh, KD7WSF
Steve and Tina will talk about the recently concluded Zero Retries Digital Conference 2025. Steve will talk about the Zero Retries newsletter, the “Zero Retries Interesting” things he saw at Pacificon 2025, why the (obscure) M17 Digital Voice Mode is important to support in Amateur Radio, the LinHT (Linux Handheld Transceiver) that is a handheld (user defined) Sofware Defined Radio, and Steve’s SuperPeater concept which he wrote a paper about in conjunction with ZRDC 2025.
Bio
Steve Stroh N8GNJ is Editor of the weekly Zero Retries newsletter, and a contributor to multiple amateur radio projects advancing new technologies in the areas of digital modes and packet radio.
Tina Stroh KD7WSF has been involved in amateur radio for several years. Tina is the Conference Manager of the Zero Retries Digital Conference 2025
October 10 Fri, 2025: (one week early due to pacificon.org/events/mdarc-open-meeting)
by Michelle Thompson W5NYV
The OpenResearch.Institute (ORI) is a California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit advancing open-source digital radio communications through collaborative international research and development. Founded in 2019 to provide a modern, effective, and ethical space for amateur radio digital communications work, ORI has evolved into a comprehensive platform supporting many open-source digital radio projects across all applications.
This presentation covers ORI's organizational structure, key projects include the award-winning Ribbit protocol, an award-winning MSK modem, RFBitBanger QRP kit, Haifuraiya satellite communications system, and the innovative Opulent Voice digital voice protocol.
September 19 Fri, 2025:
NanoVNA
by Rob Rowlands, NZ6J
The NanoVNA is a virtual network analyzer like a more advanced antenna analyzer.
Rob is from New Zealand, a ham since 1963 and a retired electrical engineer. Apart from climbing and skiing his interests include offbeat applications of Amazon electronics products and providing communications for public service events.
Rob presented in March 2024 on HT Transmitter Harmonic Testing (below) and
July 2021 on The Miraculous NanoVNA.
July 18 Fri, 2025:
FreeDV.org
by Mooneer Salem K6AQ
https://youtu.be/KRzCgMwlB5A Mooner at Pacificon 2022, video by HamRadio.com
https://freedv.org/mooneers-freedv-update-april-2025/
https://github.com/drowe67/radae
Mooner is a software engineer associated with the FreeDV application project. In addition to contributing to the application and technology itself, Mooner is working on a technology called ‘RADAE’ that uses machine learning (dare I call it AI) that analyzes a person’s voice and interactively tweaks the digital encoding algorithm to implement the lowest bandwidth/highest quality signal for HF transmission.
June 28 Sat & 29 Sun, 2025:
Field Day
Olympic High School, Concord
June 20 Fri, 2025:
Long Distance Contacts, DX
by Lucas Ford W6AER
https://www.youtube.com/@MaximumRF
Book https://a.co/d/a1ucy8C Ham Radio DX: A Complete Guide: How to Go from Karaoke to a DXCC Rockstar
May 16, 2025:
Quartzfest.org Photos
by Peter Griffith WA6VAQ
What it is like to be at Quartzfest? The ARRL Specialty Convention is a week-long, ham radio, camping, learning and living event. It is held each January near Quartzsite, Arizona on BLM land. No other hamfest in the world brings together so much innovation in mobile antenna systems, mobile ham shacks, recreational vehicles, portable and mobile EMCOMM systems, off-the-grid living, alternative energy, off-roading and radio education. Quartzfest began in 1997, 28 years ago. If you like camping I hope to encourage you to attend. This year at Quartzfest it was cold and windy, so there were not as many tall antennas as in past years.
Bio:
I have been a HAM for 48 years.
I have taught classes on how to become a HAM.
Past-president of the EMARC/FARS fars.k6ya.org club in Los Altos, CA
Currently trustee of the W6ASH repeater in Mountain View.
Currently president of SPECSRA specsnet.org, the group that maintains the repeater.
I also enjoy RVing and have been going to Quartzsfest in Quartzsite, AZ for 20 years.
April 18, 2025:
QRP Project TouCans: From a Rockmite up a Tree, to a Vertical Antenna With a Wi-Fi Key
by Hamilton Carter KD0FNR and Hamie Carter KO6BTY
Hamie, (KO6BTY), and I, (KD0FNR), are looking forward to talking about what inspired Project TouCans to grow out of the Flying Rockmite and how all those decisions led to a wifi controlled rig that: * gets us interviewed by airport security and the secret service more than I would have expected * hangs 25 feet up in a dipole from time to time and makes dx QSOs every few months or so
After the why, we'd like to talk about the how: a Rockmite, a Tuna Topper, a tuna and a pineapple can
washi tape, electrical tape, and a liberal splash of ChatGPT
Finally, we'd like to demonstrate a few of the whats: the TouCans/Halikey keyer, (currently employing a W1REX Tuna Sala Sender... in a tuna salad can, of course). The realtime dah-dit regularity histogram, (currently trial named the fist-o-gram), that led to my first ever RBN straight key spot and the TouCans smartphone cootie key for when you need to take as little hardware as possible, but still want to operate with a straight/mechanical key.
Bios:
Hamie and Hamilton Carter have enjoyed radio adventures together since they co-re-discovered (for them anyway) Tesla''s Wardenclyffe lab one evening in 2011. Soon after that, KD0FNR helped organize the W3T special event station to raise awareness of the (already existing) effort to save the lab which at that point was disguised as an abandoned AGFA photo processing plant.
And then they took a break until just after the pandemic.
Starting from the Flying Rockmite that KD0FNR had brought back to life during the pandemic, they slowly but surely cobbled together Project TouCans! Built with tape, tin cans, (thanks W1REX!), and ideas misinterpreted while listing to episodes of Ham Radio Work Bench the Flying Rockmite got an Ethernet port, a five Watt amplifier—the official birth of Project TouCans—a WiFi keyer, Bluetooth audio output, a straight key, two more straight keys, a vertical antenna, and a web control panel in that order.
In 2023, Hamie passed her technician exam to become KO6BTY, and then passed her general exam a year later in 2024. In addition to playing with radios, Hamie is a student at CCSF and draws the Toucs ham radio web comic, (soon to be released.)
Hamilton was licensed the first time in the '90s, accidentally let that call sign expire, and then relicensed in 2008 to become KD0FNR. He's worked in the digital IC world since the FDIV bug in '94, but his MSEE degree work focused on analog and RF.
ref: https://qrper.com/2023/12/field-radio-kit-gallery-kd0fnrs-rockmite-20-and-tuna-topper/
March 21, 2025:
San Francisco Radio Club History
by Bruce Wolf, N6BMW
One of the oldest radio clubs in the United States, the San Francisco Radio Club was started by high school sophomores in 1909, formally organized in 1916 and incorporated in 1919.
Bruce Wolf, N6BMW
President of the SFRC.
Feb 21, 2025:
Winlink New Developments
by John Trinterud, K9ONR
ARRL East Bay Section Technical Specialist
Winlink new developments.
John Trinterud (JT) K9ONR
Background of 55+ years in communications, telephony, computer operations, UNIX software support, organic farming and organic inspections (!). My wife Colene is the Red Cross External Affairs rep for Pleasant Hill. Finally retired in 2020 after graduating several times. First licensed in 2012 as KJ6PAP, now General Class, graduated from CERT after 10 years. He previously presented in May 2021.
Jan 17, 2025:
ARRL Affairs
by Mike Patterson, N6JGA
ARRL East Bay Section Manager
ARRL affairs.
Mike Patterson, N6JGA
Mike is the ARRL East Bay Section Manager. He received his first ham license in 1994 and is now an Extra Class operator. His amateur radio background is strong in mentoring, emergency communications, public service, and club leadership. He's an ARRL Life Member, a Volunteer Examiner and on the Board of the Northern Amateur Relay Council of California (NARCC). Mike is also on the Board of the Pacificon, active in the local CERT communications group (including trustee of the group's repeater); a past president of the Mount Diablo Amateur Radio Club (MDARC), and a member of several clubs within and outside the Section. His previous presentations were Jan 2022, May 2021 and May 2019.
Speakers at our
Club Meetings
NOTE: Our general membership meetings are currently be held in a hybrid manner; both in person and on Zoom. A link for the Zoom session will be sent out to all those belonging to our Club's MDARC@Groups.io forum a few days before the meeting. If you're not a member of that forum, see the Groups.io section of our Communicating With You page.
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