Steve Kushman
President of the California Historical Radio Society

Steve Kushman has been involved in broadcast radio and television in the bay area for many years.

We are teaming up with PAARA again this year to make this a bigger event. This event replaces the regular FARS membership meeting for January.

We have $1,400 in prizes for the banquet raffle. The main prize is an Elecraft KX3. Other prizes to be announced. The banquet is by reservation only, so click the banquet link for all the details and sign-up information.

Bio:

Steve Kushman is a San Francisco native with a fascination for radio. He was educated at City College of San Francisco in broadcasting where he served as News Director, Program Director and Station Manager for KALW-FM. For the last 37 years Steve has been employed by ABC / KGO-TV, Ch. 7, and currently serves as senior evening news video editor specializing in day-of-air self contained packages, future feature packages and long form 1/2 and 1 hr special programs.

He has received The Silver Plaque Award from the Chicago International Film Festival and five Emmy Awards for his work.

Steve wrote the body of the proposal that secured the use of the KRE building for CHRS. He has been President of CHRS for 12 years and has been Project Manager for the KRE Restoration Project from its inception in January 2004.

Steve also serves on the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Broadcast Legends.

Novel and Strange Ideas in Antennas and Impedance Matching

Steve Stearns, K6OIK

Steve, K6OIK, presents an update of his popular presentation given at ARRL Pacificon Antenna Seminar in 2005 and 2006. A variety of antennas that qualify as “strange” even by amateur standards will be described. Novel impedance matching methods are shown for added strangeness. Finally, a truly strange solution to the wave equation is shown that forces a re-interpretation of Einstein for reconciliation. This promises to be a strangely entertaining presentation.

Bio:

HF phone: Golden Bear Amateur Radio Net, 3,975 kHz LSB at 1900 Pacific time daily.

E-Mail: k6oik AT arrl.net

Articles: /docs/k6oik

Steve Stearns, K6OIK, started in ham radio while in high school at the height of the Heathkit era. He holds an FCC Amateur Extra and a commercial General Radio Operator license with Radar endorsement. He previously held Novice, Technician, and 1st Class Radiotelephone licenses.

He studied electrical engineering at California State University Fullerton, the University of Southern California, and Stanford, specializing in electromagnetic theory, communication, engineering and signal processing.

Steve worked at Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory in San Jose, California. He retired as a Northrop Grumman Technical Fellow.

Steve is serving as vice-president of the Foothills Amateur Radio Society, and served previously as assistant director of ARRL Pacific Division. He has over 100 professional publications and presentations and ten patents. Steve has received numerous awards for professional and community volunteer activities.

Introduction to Microwave Amateur Radio: DXing on the One-Inch Band (10 GHz)

Mike Lavelle, K6ML

Mike Lavelle, K6ML, speaks about propagation, local activity, building your own rig, contesting, mountain topping and roving on our microwave bands. He will also bring in a 10 GHz “rover” rig for show and tell. This will be an excellent opportunity to learn about microwave communications and equipment.

Bio:

Mike Lavelle, K6ML, is currently VP of a local microwave ham club, which meets on the first Thursday of the month in Santa Clara. The club is starting a series of workshops to help newcomers and veteran microwave operators to build 10 and 24 GHz radios. If you are interested, you can find more info on the Home, Meeting and Membership pages of this website http://www.50mhzandup.org.

My First DXpedition: 3D2C Conway Reef 2012

George Williams, N6NKT

When George Williams N6NKT decided he would go on his first DXpedition, he chose the 3D2C DXpedition to Conway Reef, September 24 to October 5, 2012. George will talk about his adventure with “newbie” twists, his walk-aways, and how he could have better prepared for his first DXpedition. This will be an excellent opportunity to learn about how to plan for your own first DXpedition. It is a different and fun aspect of Amateur Radio.

Bio:

George William, N6NKT, was first licensed 1987. After a few years on UHF/VHF, he took his first "micro" Xpedition to Horton Creek Park in Inyo County as part of the California QSO Party. There the HF bug bit him hard.

George now has over 181 countries confirmed via LoTW and QSL cards, and he has three DXCC awards — CW, Phone, and Mixed. He is also active in SOTA: Summits on the Air.

Strange Electromagnetic Phenomena

Steve Stearns, K6OIK

Steve, K6OIK, presents Part 2 of “Novel and Strange Ideas in Antennas and Impedance Matching.” Steve presented Part 1 in February.

In Part 2 he describes vortex waves. These waves have strange properties which some communication engineers hope to exploit for multiple access communication. Steve describes the electromagnetic properties of vortex waves, including properties that are unknown, counter-intuitive, or just plain strange!

Bio:

HF phone: Golden Bear Amateur Radio Net, 3,975 kHz LSB at 1900 Pacific time daily.

E-Mail: k6oik AT arrl.net

Articles: /docs/k6oik

Steve Stearns, K6OIK, started in ham radio while in high school at the height of the Heathkit era. He holds an FCC Amateur Extra and a commercial General Radio Operator license with Radar endorsement. He previously held Novice, Technician, and 1st Class Radiotelephone licenses.

He studied electrical engineering at California State University Fullerton, the University of Southern California, and Stanford, specializing in electromagnetic theory, communication, engineering and signal processing.

Steve worked at Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory in San Jose, California. He retired as a Northrop Grumman Technical Fellow.

Steve is serving as vice-president of the Foothills Amateur Radio Society, and served previously as assistant director of ARRL Pacific Division. He has over 100 professional publications and presentations and ten patents. Steve has received numerous awards for professional and community volunteer activities.

This meeting has been moved to Loyola Elementary School at 770 Berry Avenue, Los Altos.

Amateur Radio in Nature

Dave Flack, W6DLF

Dave talks about about camping and Amateur Radio. The special considerations and his personal experiences with camping with radio.

Bio:

Dave Flack became a silent key on May 8, 2017.

Satellite Tracking

Don Anastasia, AA6W

Don Anastasia AA6W gives an introduction to Amateur Radio satellite communication with an emphasis on the International Space Station. He demonstrates a PC-based Amateur Radio satellite tracking program. This promises to be an exciting and educational presentation.

Bio:

Don Anastasia, AA6W, was first licensed as Novice WD6EPV in 1977. After advancing to Extra, Don earned his Satellite DXCC award from ARRL in 1989. He confirmed 125 countries via 2-way satellite. Don has been a member of AMSAT since 1998 and has operated through Amsat AO-40, AO-13, AO-10 and many others.

Don has organized numerous ARISS (Amateur Radio Onboard International Space Station) school contacts, to allow school children to successfully communicate with onboard astronauts and ask them science questions from school via 2-way Amateur Radio.

Don is a substitute school teacher in Saratoga and Menlo Park, where he teaches language arts, social sciences (history), and other subjects to K-8 children. Don holds an AA degree in liberal arts from West Valley College and a B.A in social sciences - history from Santa Clara University. You can meet him at Ham Radio Outlet in Sunnyvale, where he works part time.

Island and Lighthouse on the Air

Joanna, K6YL & Rick, N6DQ

In mid August, Rick and Joanna went to East Brother Light Station for a romantic weekend get-away and to celebrate birthdays, and of course, they brought radio gear with them! East Brother Light Station is located in San Francisco Bay. It counts both as a lighthouse and an island in the US islands program.

Joanna and Rick will give an overview of several related awards programs. Islands on the Air (IOTA), Lighthouse, and US Islands (USi). They will talk about their adventure, their equipment setup and contacts. This promises to be a fun and entertaining presentation.

Bio:

Hi there, I'm Joanna and I'm lucky to hold callsign K6YL. My husband is Rick N6DQ and we both love HF. This year, 2016, we have been enjoying National Parks on the Air, and our park activations can be found under club callsign WK6KW. 73.

---

Rick received a degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.

Rick became a silent key.

Ham Radio Homebrew Contest

This is your time to shine. Bring your amateur radio project to this meeting to show and describe to our audience. Everyone has a few minutes to explain and describe her/his project. Then the audience votes on the best ones to award prizes. The following prizes are awarded:

$40	First Prize
$30	Second Prize
$20	Third Prize
$10	Fourth Prize

Silent Icons of the Silicon Valley: Architecture that Gave the Silicon Valley its Identity

Charles DiLisio

The architecture, buildings and campus sites where developments that changed the world and resulted in the birth of Silicon Valley are disappearing - along with the associated history. The Silicon Valley history is just over 75 years and yet many of the “silent icons” are torn-down or repurposed.

Charles DiLisio is documenting these sites through photographs to show the original (before) against the site today. These sites identify the Silicon Valley and serve as a touchstone to the key developments that have revolutionized the world. Mr. DiLisio plans a gallery show of the photographs and a book discussing the influence or development that helped to create the Silicon Valley.

So far, he has amassed over 1,500 images on this project. “I want to capture the moments that gave the Silicon Valley its identity and inspiration. I want the viewer to experience a sense of awareness, about an identity that is quickly fading from memory. Our shared architectural history is being lost, and the Silicon Valley identity is being destroyed in the name of “development.” This project is important not only to catalog the “silent icons” of the past but also as a reminder of the innovation these sites witnessed.”

This membership meeting is our nomination meeting where we are nominating directors for the FARS board of directors. Members are encouraged to attend so they can nominations for the board of directors.

New Holiday Goodies for the Ham Shack

Staff of HRO

This membership meeting is our election of directors meeting where we elect new directors and re-elect ongoing directors for the FARS board of directors. Members are encouraged to attend so they can participate in this important function.

Antenna Q and Bandwidth

Steve Stearns, K6OIK

Steve talks about tradeoffs between antenna Q and bandwidth. He covers some of the theories about the limits of Q from network theory.

Bio:

HF phone: Golden Bear Amateur Radio Net, 3,975 kHz LSB at 1900 Pacific time daily.

E-Mail: k6oik AT arrl.net

Articles: /docs/k6oik

Steve Stearns, K6OIK, started in ham radio while in high school at the height of the Heathkit era. He holds an FCC Amateur Extra and a commercial General Radio Operator license with Radar endorsement. He previously held Novice, Technician, and 1st Class Radiotelephone licenses.

He studied electrical engineering at California State University Fullerton, the University of Southern California, and Stanford, specializing in electromagnetic theory, communication, engineering and signal processing.

Steve worked at Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory in San Jose, California. He retired as a Northrop Grumman Technical Fellow.

Steve is serving as vice-president of the Foothills Amateur Radio Society, and served previously as assistant director of ARRL Pacific Division. He has over 100 professional publications and presentations and ten patents. Steve has received numerous awards for professional and community volunteer activities.