PURPOSE

WELCOME TO THE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB OF EL CAJON

The Amateur Radio Club of El Cajon, Inc. (ARCEC) exists to encourage the furtherance of amateur radio and allied interests; to foster public service by the amateur radio community; the development of acquaintances; to increase our technical skills and knowledge of electronics as well as good operating practices for the increased enjoyment of amateur radio as a hobby.

What you put into Ham Radio is what you get out of it. Volunteer as much as you can. It is a lot of fun to see all the smiles.

ARCEC is an Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) special services club and club members are encouraged to be members of the ARRL as well as the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). Many of our members also participate in the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) and VIP Red Flag Patrol (CAL Fire).

MEETING TIMES

Our monthly meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month, at the First Lutheran Church in El Cajon
867 S. Lincoln Ave
El Cajon, CA 92020

See the calendar below for details.
Doors open at 6:00, meeting starts at 6:30 and we're usually done before 8:00. Bring your interests and ideas each month, and help us keep things interesting. Thank you for participating and helping this radio club thrive. -Jon KK6VLO

Got an idea for a club build project? Send it here.

This is a handy google form, and if your idea doesn't fit in the text boxes, just email it. We still want to know.

Wavelog

Vance WD9C and David KM6ZKI have been working on getting a new contender for field day logging up and ready for testing. Wavelog is a self-hosted logging software that works without internet and runs on most computers, such as a Raspberry Pi or Zima board. The time for testing has begun. If you are interested in helping us stress test this software, go to wavelog.wa6bgs.us. Please email President@wa6bgs.us for the club login info.

UPCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS

2025

May 17, 2025

INTERNATIONAL STYLE ON-FOOT (FOX)/TRANSMITTER HUNT & BBQ
Saturday May 17th, 2025, Robb Field, Ocean Beach, San Diego, CA.

All the details HERE.

May 8, 2025

April 10, 2025

David KM6ZKI and Vance WD9C will be demonstrating a self-hosted radio logging program called Wavelog. A Wavelog server can be hosted on just about anything including a Raspberry Pi. Once set up, it can be accessed from a web browser from anywhere on the network. This program is a potential candidate for field day logging as the client is web-based and you do not need to download a program. Find out more about Wavelog here. Other meeting topics include field day planning and continuing work on the club charter.

March 13, 2025

I have TWO End Fed Half Wave antenna kits available. $59 each.

If you are still working on your projects and need help, bring what you have and we'll get you connected with the right people.

Rich NJ6F has volunteered to give an explanation/demonstration of a loop antenna he uses for HF communications. If you are short on space or want to run HF from a picnic table, he can show you how it's done. Our next solder project will likely be the Quansheng HT mod for HF. Details at the meeting, and we will post those details on the website after.

Once we get through the interesting stuff we're going to do some very boring but necessary stuff. Bear with us... Those who want to participate in person can sit with our leadership team for about 30 minutes and review our club charter. This is an effort to refine our documentation into something relevant for today, and get closer to 501c3 status. Not much will change about how we run things, but as I've explained previously, this helps us save costs and makes us eligible for ARDC grants. I'm more interested in saving monthly costs first. Your participation and input will be appreciated and we're trying to keep things simple. Write down what we do, and do what we write down. Our objective for working on the charter this week is to continue editing what David has started, and we have a valid example from the SD DX club on how they did it. We want your input. This doesn't need to be completed on Thursday, but lets push it forward together.

February 13, 2025

Bill Honaker N9LZ will give a live demonstration of AREDN from our meeting hall. If it all works as we think it should, he will connect via RF across the room to another AREDN node, tunnel to UCSD, then tunnel back to his house to talk about what he has deployed. This is the kind of groundwork we need in the county, momentum that encourages others to deploy their own mesh node and for other teams to setup nodes on high places, like rooftops and hilltops.

If you are still trying to decide, come with questions and we can explore the global AREDN mesh through the UCSD supernode. This is the system that bridges other regional nodes together.

After this, we have our own local amateur experts who will work with you on our previous projects. Feel free to bring your unfinished projects and questions and learn more about what we've been working on.

DMR - bring your radio and programming laptop, and lets compare notes.
TNC - need help with firmware, tuning, or testing?
AREDN - four members have deployed their own node - we can help you get started.
End Fed Half Wave Antenna - need some help finishing yours? We still have THREE kits available for purchase, $59 each.
MESHTASTIC - we're still learning how best to use this. Bring your meshtastic node and confirm the message went through right there in the room.

Remember, it's AMATEUR radio, not PROFESSIONAL radio. We'll do our best to help you learn more.

January 9, 2025

Swap Meet & Show and Tell

View photos from the meeting here.

Club Swap Meet: Bring things to give away for free or sell. You must keep track of your items and negotiate prices yourself. Do not leave anything in the meeting hall when done. Radios and parts, computers and parts, wires and connectors. Maybe your surplus items could be the next hams entire project!

Show and Tell: Bring your interesting items or projects and give a demonstration and explanation of what you have been doing. If you need a projector or power cords, let us know in advance. You don't have to sign up if you can explain everything in 10 minutes, but if you need more time to setup or demonstrate, please let us know so we can help and schedule the evening. There will be time after our meeting to discuss one on one with anyone who is interested.

If you have nothing to swap or tell but want to get connected with others, bring your questions and see if anyone else is working on the same thing. Use this time to connect and collaborate on projects. The more you know the less I have to work.

2024/2023

2024/2023 Club meeting topics have been moved to the archives page.

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