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ARRL Sacramento Valley Section
ARRL Sacramento Valley Section News
American Radio Relay League
The National Association for Amateur Radio since 1914
American Radio Relay League
The National Association for Amateur Radio
American Radio Relay League is a 501(c)3 non profit organization.
Sacramento Valley Section
Serving Alpine, Amador, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo & Yuba Counties in Northern California
Sacramento Valley Section is located in the ARRL Pacific Division.
Sacramento Valley Section Web Resources
Sacramento Valley Section Web Resources
ARRL National Page:
www.arrl.org/Groups/view/sacramento-valley
Organization, Clubs, Calendar, Nets
Sacramento Valley ARES:
www.sacvalleyares.org SV ARES Brochure
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ARRLSacramentoValley
Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARRL_SV
Thanks to Greg Kruckewitt KG6SJT for maintaining our Section ARES web page and for assisting with our Facebook page and Twitter feed.
Thanks to Les Cobb W6TEE for maintaining the Section Net list.
Submit Section News updates to n6sac(at)arrl.org
ARRL SV Section Nets
ARRL SV Section Nets
ARRL Sacramento Valley Section-Wide Nets
ARRL Sacramento Valley Section-Wide Nets
ARRL Sacramento Valley Section Nets are conducted only on months when announced, on the third Thursday of that month following the 7 pm Pacific Time Yuba-Sutter ARES net on the WD6AXM 146.085 MHz +0.6 MHz offset, CTCSS 127.3 Hz FM repeater, followed by the HF Section Net on 3880 kHz LSB +/- 3 kHz (or 5330.5 kHz USB as propagation permits).
All Sacramento Valley Section radio amateurs are welcome to check into our Section Nets. The nets carry announcements of interest to our section and test our section-wide station communication capabilities.
Don't have an HF radio or antenna?
Click a link and Listen on a web receiver.
Hourly Northern California NVIS Observations
Hourly Northern California NVIS Observations
This chart shows colors that represent the recommended HF frequencies for contacting stations for a particular hour.
Both stations should use the SAME frequency denoted by the color at the location of the target station.
The chart is in Universal Time (UTC).
More information at http://www.sws.bom.gov.au/HF_Systems/6/6
July 2025 Changes in the ARRL Sacramento Valley Section and Pacific Division
July 2025 Changes in the ARRL Sacramento Valley Section and Pacific Division
Jay Ballinger, N6SAC
ARRL relies on volunteers who serve on our Board of Directors and as managers of the various programs and Field Organizations. The Sacramento Valley Section, along with our Pacific Division, has seen some of our volunteers assume new roles and responsibilities.
John Litz - NZ6Q - has accepted the appointment as our Pacific Division Director. John was previously serving as Vice Director for the Division and agreed to step into the Director position that recently became vacant.
Carol Milazzo - KP4MD - has accepted the appointment of Vice Director of our Pacific Division assuming John's former position.
Our Directors, supported by the Vice Directors, serve on the governing board of ARRL and guide the direction and future of the League. Congratulations to both John and Carol on their new roles, and feel free to work with both of them on matters concerning the decisions of the Board.
I have accepted the position of Section Manager for the Sacramento Valley Section replacing Carol. I am stepping into big shoes previously filled by her, and I will rely on her advice as I settle into my new role. Carol will certainly be just as involved with local activities as she has always been.
You may have questions or need further answers after reading all of this, and we invite you to contact us. Me, John, Carol, and all of you, are ARRL. We all work together for the benefit of our League and our hobby.
John Litz - Director, ARRL Pacific Division - NZ6Q@arrl.org
Carol Milazzo - Vice Director, ARRL Pacific Division - KP4MD@arrl.org
Jay Ballinger - Section Manager, ARRL Sacramento Valley Section - N6SAC@arrl.org
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ARRL Sacramento Valley Section
Section Manager: James R Ballinger, N6SAC
n6sac@arrl.org
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Amateur Radio Special Event Station K6C at 2025 California State Fair!
Amateur Radio Special Event Station K6C at 2025 California State Fair!
The ARRL Sacramento Valley Section sponsored an Amateur Radio Exhibit and Special Event Station K6C at the July 11-27, 2025 California State Fair.
Thanks to all volunteer exhibitors, volunteer operators, and to all who participated in our successful promotion of Amateur Radio, the ARRL and our affiliated clubs to the general public.
Click to see our Special Event Webpage. Our Facebook Event Page.
K6C Special Edition QSL Card
K6C Special Edition QSL Card
To request our downloadable Special Edition QSL Card confirming your successful contacts with K6C, enter your correct QSO information on this webpage.
Coming 2025 ARRL Nets & Sanctioned Events
Coming 2025 ARRL Nets & Sanctioned Events
September 13 - 8-10 am - Reno Ham Swap, Verdi, NV
Septemer 13 - ARRL Pacific Division Town Hall Zoom Meeting
September 20 - Western Placer ARC Hamfest at McBean Park, Lincoln
October 4 - ARRL Amateur Radio Exhibit and Special Event Station at the Rocklin Maker Faire, Sierra College, Rocklin, CA
October 11 - Redding Hamfest, Redding, CA
October 10-12 - ARRL Pacificon Division Convention, San Ramon, CA
October 17-19 - Annual Worldwide Scouting Jamboree on the Air
Sacramento Valley ARES Responds to NorCal Floods
Sacramento Valley ARES Responds to NorCal Floods
Kudos to Sacramento County ARES EC Jay Ballinger, N6SAC, for this media hit and to SV ARES SEC Michael Joseph, KK6ZGB, and to all Sacramento Valley ARES volunteers for their support and response to the January 2023 Northern California floods.
Sacramento County ARES Sacramento Valley ARES
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2360 for Friday January 20th, 2023
Weekly NorCal WinLink Net Practices EmComm Messaging
Weekly NorCal WinLink Net Practices EmComm Messaging
NorCal Winlink Net Manager Michael Ellithorp, KF6OBI, conducts a weekly NorCal WinLink Net for EmComm messaging practice. Please contact Mike if you wish to participate.
Watch WinLink author and developer Oliver Dully, K6OLI's, session on Vara FM for messaging via WinLink, a network of amateur radio and authorized government stations that provide worldwide email via radio. The WinLink network extends global messaging capability to HF and VHF operators anywhere, even in the absence of internet access, and is ideally suited for routine and Emergency Communications (EmComm) message traffic.
Winlink Global Radio Email
Winlink Global Radio Email
2023 Forum at ARRL Pacificon:
"Dealing with Intentional Interference"
2023 Forum at ARRL Pacificon:
"Dealing with Intentional Interference"
Intentional interference is increasingly reported in our section and elsewhere around the nation. At the 2023 ARRL Pacificon Convention forum entitled "Dealing with Intentional Interference" ARRL and other amateur radio leadership discussed resources and strategies to assist radio amateurs, clubs, groups and repeater owners in controlling this problem.
Radio amateurs are organizing direction finding (DF) teams in various localities to collect evidence of these incidents for further action.
If you experience intentional interference, here below are several ways that you can immediately assist:
Dealing with a deliberate jammer is emotionally difficult. But if we’re to successfully get rid of them, everyone involved (and I do mean every single ham) must remain calm. We must also be patient, as it can take a while.
This may be the most important of all; do not attempt to engage with the jammer, or even acknowledge their presence. Although some of them may do what they do because they have a beef with the repeater owner, club, or another ham; most jammers do it for the same reason others engage in destructive behavior; to get attention. We must deny them that attention. So, control your anger and don’t tell them to stop, threaten them or even acknowledge that the interference is occurring.
If the level of interference allows it, continue with your QSO or net as if the interference was not there.
If conversation is not possible, you may be able to QSY to an alternate frequency. Otherwise, just sign off as if you’ve naturally finished and go radio silent until the jammer leaves. They may return when you do, so you’ll have to do this several times, until they get the message that they won’t get the satisfaction they’re looking for.Do not discuss the jammer on the air, even when jamming is not present. Understand that just one ham losing control and engaging with the jammer or acknowledging the interference, even in passing, is enough to undo the efforts of everyone else.
In cases of repeater interference, each repeater owner has the ability--or should have the ability--to constantly monitor the repeater and if all else fails shut it down in instances of abuse. Running a repeater is not much different than allowing access to your home base station by anyone who wants to use it.
Control operators can and should immediately disable the repeater when any illegal activity occurs, and keep it disabled until attempts at the illegal activity end. They can monitor the repeater’s input frequency for this.
You should report a repeater's failure to control intentional interference to the ARRL-FCC Volunteer Monitor (VM) program.
Collect and submit recordings of the interference marking the date, time and frequency as evidence.
The ARRL-FCC VM program has the resources to motivate owners to control their repeaters responsibly.
To report clear violations of FCC Part 97, particularly instances of unlicensed operation, repeated deliberate interference, and operation outside of a licensee’s authorized frequencies, send the report via email to Riley Hollingsworth (K4ZDH), ARRL Volunteer Monitor Administrator, at K4ZDH@arrl.net.
Important: include the following information in your report…
- Frequency (MHz) of incident:
- Time of incident (UTC):
- Date of incident:
- Call sign(s) of station(s) being reported:
- If a repeater, call sign of repeater involved:
- Description of alleged incident being reported:
- Your full name (person submitting report)
- Your call sign:
- Your email address:
- Your phone number:
All reports will be acknowledged, reviewed, and the person submitting the report will receive a response as quickly as possible.
50 W PEP Maximum Power Limit Area on 70 cm
50 W PEP Maximum Power Limit Area on 70 cm
A little recognized portion of FCC Part 97 regulations applies to 420-450 MHz operations in most counties in our Sacramento Valley section:
47 CFR §97.313 (f) No station may transmit with a transmitter power exceeding 50 W PEP on the UHF 70 cm band from an area specified in footnote US270 to §2.106 of part 2. The indicated affected areas are specified in http://www.arrl.org/us270, in the State of California within a 240-kilometer (150 mile) radius around locations at Beale Air Force Base, California (latitude 39°08' North, longitude 121°21' West).
More information on the additional impact on 70 cm repeater stations is at http://www.narcc.org/NARCC-ARRL-PAVE-PAWS-Update-2014a.pdf
The Amateur Radio Service shares the 70 cm band on a secondary basis with the US Government which has priority. The US Department of Defense routinely monitors and locates signal sources on these frequencies. Our voluntary cooperation is mandatory to avoid interference with the Pave PAWS (Phased Array Warning System) radar at Beale AFB and thus to assure our continued access to these frequencies.
Incidental Radio Frequency/Electromagnetic Interference (RFI & EMI)
Incidental Radio Frequency/Electromagnetic Interference (RFI & EMI)
posted February 3, 2018
ARRL and the FCC have a cooperative agreement in radio frequency interference matters. You may submit interference reports together with your supporting documentation to ARRL EMC Engineer Mike Gruber W1MG who then files the report with the FCC Gettysburg office.
You may also contact our Section Technical Coordinator Bob Wortman, WB6VYH for assistance. More information is posted under the "From the Section Manager" notes in the November 2016 Section News - Carol KP4MD
Bob Hess, W1RH, shares this helpful web page by NK7Z for identifying sources of incidental Radio Frequency Interference http://www.nk7z.net/rfi-snapshots
Keep Our Digital Transmissions Legal on 60 Meters
Keep Our Digital Transmissions Legal on 60 Meters
Posted January 29, 2017
Interest in HF propagation phenomena and antennas has attracted increasing numbers of radio amateurs to operate CW and weak signal digital modes on our lower HF frequencies including 60 meters. The five frequency channels that US amateur radio operators share on a secondary basis with US federal government users on 60 meters (5 MHz) pose unique requirements for CW and digital operators. As explained on http://www.arrl.org/60m-channel-allocation, each US radio amateur emission on our 60m channels must be precisely centered in the center frequency of each assigned channel, that is, 5332.0, 5348.0, 5358.5, 5373.0 or 5405.0 kHz. Thus, for example, each CW or digital signal on channel 3 (USB Dial frequency 5357.0 kHz) must be precisely in the 5358.5 kHz channel center.
This may appear unreasonable to radio amateurs because a 2.8 kHz channel can accommodate many digital and CW transmissions simultaneously, and requiring multiple stations to operate on the same exact frequency would result in mutual interference. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)* explains this requirement in https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/7021871884.pdf which states: "Allowing multiple emissions within the necessary bandwidth of the widest authorized modes (2.8 kHz) increases the possibility of harmful interference from secondary amateur stations to primary federal stations, and would make it more difficult for a federal station to identify an interfering amateur station. In addition, NTIA is concerned about the aggregate equivalent isotropically radiated power from multiple amateur stations transmitting within a single 2.8 kHz channel. Accordingly, NTIA requests that 47 C.F.R. Section 97.303(h) continue to require that amateur stations transmit only on the five center frequencies allocated to the amateur service." (See http://www.arrl.org/what-the-fcc-rules-say-97-303-h)
Observed Violations of US 60 Meter Frequency Regulations
Observed Violations of US 60 Meter Frequency Regulations
FT8/JT65
This screenshot photo shows digital signals received on 60 meter Channel 3 (5357 kHz USB dial frequency) from 0300-0309 UTC on January 29, 2017. In the photo, the 5357 kHz dial frequency is at 0 Hz on the left side of the waterfall and the 5358.5 kHz channel center is at the 1500 Hz mark. Decodes of several US radio amateurs are seen transmitting digital emissions simultaneously on various frequencies throughout the channel 3 frequency range 5357-5360 kHz. This is the familiar appearance of a digital waterfall display on all other amateur radio bands; however, it violates the NTIA requirement that each US radio amateur transmission be on the 1500 Hz center mark (the 5358.5 kHz channel center frequency).
WSPR
The link http://wsprnet.org/olddb?band=60&sort=callsign&reverse=on&unique=on lists WSPR mode emissions on the 60 meter band. One can scroll down that list and see how many A, K, N and W call signs have been transmitting WSPR mode on 5288 kHz or 5366 kHz, frequencies that are outside the authorized US 60 meter center channel frequencies.
US WSPR transmissions continue to be observed on the WSPR software default 60 meter frequencies of 5288 kHz and 5366 kHz, completely unauthorized frequencies for US radio amateurs.
Each licensee has the final responsibility for the lawful operation of his or her station. Unfortunately, the increasing automation in our radios has apparently accustomed some to falsely assume that the radio will correct for operator carelessness and ignorance of regulations. Our cooperation with NTIA requirements is essential for our continued access to the 60m channels and for possible future access to the new ITU worldwide 60 meter allocation at 5351.5 to 5366.5 kHz. (See http://www.arrl.org/news/view/arrl-asks-fcc-to-allocate-new-5-mhz-band-retain-channels-and-current-power-limit and http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-invites-comments-on-arrl-petition-to-allocate-new-5-mhz-band). Please be aware of these requirements if you intend to or currently operate CW or digital modes on our shared 60m allocations. The ARRL Volunteer Monitor Program is documenting this matter and wishes to raise its awareness in the wider amateur radio community.
-Carol Milazzo, KP4MD
*The NTIA is the federal authority that coordinates radio spectrum use for the US military and federal government while the FCC serves in this capacity for US civilian radio spectrum users.
E-mail compliments, suggestions and submissions for inclusion in our Section News to kp4md (at) arrl.org
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