W6SFM – Samuel F. Morse Amateur Radio Club

SFM ARC On-Air Net Meetings

Please join us for our club’s 8:00 PM Tuesday Night on-air Net Meetings held at 3.545 MHz
Or you can listen and watch the CW to text translation HERE using our Live Feed!

Bogus Story Contest

Congratulations to our newest 2021 Bogus Story contest winner Jon AD5RX! John’s news bulletin released by the ARRL is sure to entertain. Please be sure to visit his story by going to the Bogus Story Contest winners page to read it. Or, you can watch the April 1st Club In-Person Meeting on video in our videos section.
A big thank you to Steve K7SF, Mike N6MQL, and Chris Ai6U for also providing their very funny stories to the group too. We hope that you can provide a good challenge to this years winner at our next Bogus Story Contest in 2022! We hope to see you there.

W6SFM CW Beginners Course (May 12th – July 14th, 2021 IS ON!)

The SFM ARC is proud to announce our next W6SFM CW Beginners Course. In an effort to preserve Morse Code on-the-air, and enhance the skills of the Amateur Radio Operator, the SFM ARC offers an instructional course in the art of sending and receiving Morse Code. We also offer this course to the general public, and those who would like the benefits of improved cognitive memory skills. You do not need to be a licensed Amateur Radio Operator to take this course.

The W6SFM CW course consists of 10 classes held once per week, Wednesday evenings from 7 – 9 PM. In this class students will learn the International Morse Code, the art of sending on a straight key, radio Pro-Signs, and the proper etiquette of an on-air CW QSO, plus MUCH MUCH more. Both Theory and Practical use of HF radio and Morse Code are discussed in this class. Students are provided with a professionally built Morse Key and Oscillator to be used both in-class and at home. This Key and Oscillator are worth more than the price of the course by itself and are for the students to keep at the completion of the course! In addition to the in-person class instruction, an Online practice video and weekly email are also provided.

New and returning students can purchase a seat in our upcoming course by simply clicking on the “Merchandise” link at the top of the Homepage and selecting the “W6SFM CW Beginners Course” icon. Purchases can be made using PayPal, Credit and Debit cards.
Returning Students who sign up at our discount rate must bring their equipment with them from their previous class. All Students are encouraged to bring any Straight keys that they currently own in an effort to practice good sending methods on them. Please note that Our CW Beginners classes tend to fill up quickly and seating is limited. We recommend enrolling as soon as possible to be guarantied a seat in the class. We hope to see anyone who is interested in learning the Morse Code, or brushing up their skills at our next class! Please use the contact us link at the top of this page to ask any questions you may have.

W6SFM Bug Roundup Event

Please be sure to join us for the W6SFM’s twice yearly Bug Roundup event. This on-air event is held each May and November on the third weekend of the month. Please be sure to click HERE to visit our “CQ BR” webpage. Participants can register their station for the event, and to also receive a reminder email twice per year just before the event begins. Find more information, including times, frequencies and Bug Roundup Event rules by using the “Club Activities” link at the top of this website. We hope to hear you on the air!

N6MQL Presents the RigExpert Antenna Analyzer
This month Mike, N6MQL presented the new features of the RigExpert Antenna analyzers to members of both N6NA (River City ARC) and our own group at W6SFM. Below is the entire presentation.

Next Month’s In-Person Meeting

PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD VIA ZOOM MEETING. THIS IS A VIRTUAL MEETING THAT ANYONE CAN ATTEND USING THEIR DEVICE FROM THE COMFORT OF THEIR HOUSE. THIS IS A 2 WAY MEETING WHERE OTHER MEMBERS CAN SEE AN HEAR YOU ON CAMERA (IF YOU SO CHOOSE).

TO ATTEND THIS MEETING YOU WILL NEED TO DOWNLOAD THE ZOOM PROGRAM OR APP (ZOOM WORKS WITH ALL PLATFORMS, PC, MAC, IOS IPAD/IPHONE, ANDROID ETC) DOWNLOAD THE FREE ZOOM PROGRAM BY CLICKING HERE ALTHOUGH NOT REQUIRED, IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOU OPEN A FREE ACCOUNT. WE ALSO RECOMMEND THAT YOU RUN THE PROGRAM AS OPPOSED TO USING THE IN-BROWSER VERSION, ALTHOUGH BOTH WILL WORK FINE. YOU MAY ALSO DOWNLOAD THE ZOOM PROGRAM/APP/ADD-ON BY GOING TO THE FOLLOWING WEB URL: https://zoom.us/download#client_4meeting

IF YOU NEED ASSISTANCE WITH THIS PLEASE USE THE CONTACT US LINK ABOVE FOR HELP. AN INVITATION WILL BE SENT TO EVERY ACTIVE MEMBER OF THE CLUB. ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT THE MEETING INFORMATION, LOCATION AND OR LOGIN/PASSWORD WILL ALSO BE POSTED IN THE CALENDAR DOWN BELOW UNDER THE Thursday meeting DATE.

Our next SFM ARC in-person meeting will be held at its normal time (7:00 PM) and location May 6th followed by our June. 3rd meeting. Meetings are held in the Howard Crowley room upstairs (Unless otherwise noted above) at the Carmichael Presbyterian Church. Directions, including a Google Map, are always available at the bottom of this website.

At our May 2021 meeting, we will be discussing ARRL news and other events. We will also discuss the upcoming W6SFM Bug Roundup event coming up in the following weeks. Bring your interesting information on reports and stories you may have found throughout the month.

As always we will have Show and Tell where members and visitors are asked to bring in interesting items that they purchased or found to display to the club members and our visitors. Be sure to bring a guest with you. Or, if you’re not a member of the W6SFM, and your reading this, feel free to join us for our next meeting.

Solar Report by Tamitha Skov (A real report everyone can understand)