FARS Meeting Programs

FARS Meeting Programs - 2025 [2024] [2025] [2026]

FARS meetings take place on the 4th Friday of each month, except for no meeting in February (Banquet), and meetings on a different Friday in June (Field Day), November (Thanksgiving), and December (Christmas). See the calendar for specific dates.

Meeting Schedule

7:00PM - General socializing. Meet and Greet.
7:30PM - Introductions, Announcements.
7:45PM - The evening's program.
8:45PM - FARS business. Announcements. Raffle.

After the program, and FARS business, we hold a raffle for a few prizes.

FARS Mini Flea Market:
We now offer a mini flea market at our monthly meetings where members may offer items for sale. Here is how to participate:

The market table is set up shortly after the meeting room doors are opened.
Sellers should place their items neatly on the market table.
Sellers may include a small sign of prices, or place price labels on your items. Include your name and call sign.
Sellers should watch their items and wait for buyers.
Buyers can make offers for items and negotiate with the seller.
When a deal is made, transact your business, collect your item/money directly with the other party.

Visitors are welcome to attend our regular meetings. (directions)
Covington School, 205 Covington Road, Los Altos, CA.

Friday January 24, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[K6OIK]

Raffle Winners:
Terry, WB6PVU (1st)
Steve, K6OIK (2nd)
John, K6JDS (3rd)
Adrian, K3ADM (bonus)

The Best Shape for a Wire Antenna

Steve Stearns, K6OIK

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene in the Covington multipurpose room.
This meeting is also available on-line via Zoom.

Given at Pacificon 2024, this talk is an expanded version of Steve’s talk at FARS in December 2021. A ham wants to make a wire antenna for 20-meter DX. It needs to have a lot of gain. More gain is better.

He is blessed with an infinite spool of antenna wire but cursed with rusty, old wire cutters. He can make but two cuts. He cuts off two pieces of wire to drive one against the other. How much gain can his antenna have?

In answering this simple question, Steve leads us beyond dipoles into a world of 2D paths in 3D space. You will throw away your wire cutters after Steve shows how Texas longhorns and cowboy hats can beat beams.

Steve's presentation is available on-line.

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.

Raffle

Other:

We will be raffling off prizes at this meeting:

Choice of one of:
- DSO03D12 100 MHz dual trace scope with probes - features a built in DVM and signal generator
- Radioddity QB25 Mobile Tx/Rx: 136-174, 210-230, and 350-520 MHz (includes non-amateur frequencies), 0.25 uV Rx sensitivity, 10/25 watts out, CTSS and DCS coding, 200 memories, good looking color display, direct entry via microphone key pad, programming software and cable; Radio comes pre-programmed for many Bay Area amateur repeaters courtesy of Ed Fong WB6IQN; If you have been looking to get on 220 MHz, this radio is for you
- Nano VNA H4 10 kHz to 5.4 GHz, HF, VHF, UHF, 4-inch touch screen, time domain reflectometer (TDR) function, includes cables and calibration kit. Measures S parameters, standing wave ratio, phase delay, Smith charts. Use to tune antennas, duplexers, filters, and more
- uSDX+ QRP HF Transceiver Covers 160-6 meters – SSB, CW, digital QRP transceiver. 5 watts CW – 10 watt SSB. Built in CW decoder, full DSP noise reduction. Complete with 3000 MaH LiOn battery, AC adapter/charger, Speaker/microphone
Choice of one of:
- MFJ-16010 QRP Antenna Tuner
- SureCom SS11 Field Strength Meter - 100Khz-3GHz
- ATS-20 All Mode Receiver AM/FM/SSB/CW 100KHz-30 MHz - FM Stereo Receiver
Choice of one of:
- Flashlight 800 lumens Mil spec - 800 lumen aircraft aluminum LED flashlight with 18650 3000mAh battery and AAA battery adapter
- Digital Multimeter sold by Harbour Freight
- Palomar CMNF-500-50 Common Mode Noise Filter - 1-60MHz - common mode choke
- Baofeng Progamming Kit - USB adapter cable with S/W and drivers
- Pittsburgh Digital Caliper 6 inch Digital Electronic Caliper, large 4-digit LCD display, accurage to 1/1000 inch

DSO03D12 100 MHz dual trace scope with probes - features a built in DVM and signal generator

Radioddity QB25 Mobile Quad band (144/220/440 MHz) 10-25W mini mobile transceiver

Nano VNA H4 Vector Network Analyzer. 10 KHz to 5.4GHz, 4in touch screen

uSDX+ QRP HF Xcvr 160-6 meters – SSB (10W), CW (5W), digital QRP transceiver

MFJ-16010 QRP Antenna Tuner

SureCom SS11 Field Strength Meter - 100Khz-3GHz

ATS-20 All Mode Receiver AM/FM/SSB/CW 100KHz-30 MHz - FM Stereo Receiver

Flashlight Mil spec - 800 lumen aircraft aluminum LED flashlight, rechargable 18650 3000mAh battery

Digital Multimeter sold by Harbour Freight

Palomar CMNF-500-50 Common Mode Noise Filter - 1-60MHz - common mode choke

Baofeng Progamming Kit - USB adapter cable with S/W and drivers

Pittsburgh Digital Caliper 6 inch Digital Electronic Caliper, large 4-digit LCD display

* Indicates prizes awarded.

Friday February 21, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[KG4UHM]

FARS Winter Banquet

The History of Wireless Power Transfer

Robert Moffatt, KG4UHM

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene as an in person only meeting (NO Zoom Access) at the Blue Pheasant in Cupertino. Reservations are required to attend.

Friday March 28, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[WB6IQN]

Broadband (4 GHz) Precision Amplifiers

Ed Fong, WB6IQN

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene in the Covington library.
This meeting is also available on-line via Zoom.

We are all familiar with the NanoVNA and the Tiny SA. There are also numerous digital scopes now that are very affordable. An example is the DSO03D12 - a dual trace color portable oscilloscope with probes that easily measures in real time up to 150 MHz. This instrument also has built in DVM and signal generator – all for less than $150. These instruments would have cost in the thousands of dollars 10 years ago. Only the most serious hams own expensive HP or Tektronix equipment, so why are they now all so affordable?

The simple answer is an innovative operational amplifier (“op amp”) design. For the last 50 years, op amp design followed a tried-and-true formula that did not change. Dave Fullagar designed the uA 741 in 1968. It had unity gain bandwidth of 1.5 MHz. True, small incremental improvements happened over the years, such as current mode feedback. However, these were evolutionary, not revolutionary. Steady improvement in semiconductor processing gave incremental gains in frequency response (10’s of MHz at most).

However, in the early 2000’s a new amplifier topology was invented that allowed controlled high precision feedback gains in the 4-6 GHz range. This configuration is only now finding its way into amplifier text books. Ed explains this new circuit configuration and how it works.

Bio

Ed Fong, WB6IQN, teaches RF Wireless Communications and I/O Design Fundamentals for UC Santa Cruz in Silicon Valley. He taught RF Wireless at UC Berkeley from 1998 to 2011.

Ed is the owner of Ed’s Antennas https://edsantennas.weebly.com. More than 12,000 of his DBJ-1, DBJ-2, and TBJ-1 antennas have been sold to hams, commercial users, and agencies. These popular antennas have been featured in QST (March 2017, February 2003 and March 2007), CQ (Summer 2012), ARRL Antenna Compendium Vol 8, and ARRL VHF/UHF Antenna Classics.

Ed’s past presentations to FARS were on single-sideband modulation (January 2023), ground-independent vertical antennas (August 2019), and DMR radio (April 2018).

Raffle

Other:

We will be raffling off prizes at this meeting:

Choice of one of:
- Lenovo i5 Laptop - Windows 10; 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, USB 3.0, 12.5-inch screen, 15 hours battery life, less than 3 pounds, 0.8 inches thick. PC benchmark 4,717 - very respectable. CNET rates this laptop a 4.3/5. Perfect to carry around
- DSO03D12 100 MHz dual trace scope with probes - features a built in DVM and signal generator
- Radioddity QB25 Mobile Tx/Rx: 136-174, 210-230, and 350-520 MHz (includes non-amateur frequencies), 0.25 uV Rx sensitivity, 10/25 watts out, CTSS and DCS coding, 200 memories, good looking color display, direct entry via microphone key pad, programming software and cable; Radio comes pre-programmed for many Bay Area amateur repeaters courtesy of Ed Fong WB6IQN; If you have been looking to get on 220 MHz, this radio is for you
- Nano VNA H4 10 kHz to 5.4 GHz, HF, VHF, UHF, 4-inch touch screen, time domain reflectometer (TDR) function, includes cables and calibration kit. Measures S parameters, standing wave ratio, phase delay, Smith charts. Use to tune antennas, duplexers, filters, and more
Choice of one of:
- uSDX+ QRP HF Transceiver Covers 160-6 meters – SSB, CW, digital QRP transceiver. 5 watts CW – 10 watt SSB. Built in CW decoder, full DSP noise reduction. Complete with 3000 MaH LiOn battery, AC adapter/charger, Speaker/microphone
- MFJ-16010 QRP Antenna Tuner
- BaoFeng UV-5R x2 Dual Band VHF/UHF HT, 136-174MHz VHF (5W TX), 420-520MHz (4W TX), FM Broadcast, 128 channel memory, 1.8-Ah Li-Ion battery, drop-in smart charger
- ATS-20 All Mode Receiver AM/FM/SSB/CW 100KHz-30 MHz - FM Stereo Receiver
Choice of one of:
- COB lantern (Chip On Board) twice as bright as conventional LED lights
- Baofeng Progamming Kit - USB adapter cable with S/W and drivers
- Extension cord - AWG 14/3, 25-ft, 3 outlets, 15 amps, 1875 watts, orange, exterior grade.

Lenovo i5 Laptop - Windows 10; 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, USB 3.0, 12.5-inch screen, under 3 pounds

DSO03D12 100 MHz dual trace scope with probes - features a built in DVM and signal generator

Radioddity QB25 Mobile Quad band (144/220/440 MHz) 10-25W mini mobile transceiver

Nano VNA H4 Vector Network Analyzer. 10 KHz to 5.4GHz, 4in touch screen

uSDX+ QRP HF Xcvr 160-6 meters – SSB (10W), CW (5W), digital QRP transceiver

MFJ-16010 QRP Antenna Tuner

BaoFeng UV-5R x2 Dual Band VHF/UHF HT

ATS-20 All Mode Receiver AM/FM/SSB/CW 100KHz-30 MHz - FM Stereo Receiver

COB lantern (Chip On Board) twice as bright as conventional LED lights

Baofeng Progamming Kit - USB adapter cable with S/W and drivers

Extension cord - AWG 14/3, 25-ft, 3 outlets, 15 amps, 1875 watts, orange, exterior grade.

* Indicates prizes awarded.

Friday April 25, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[K6YA]

To be Announced

TBA, K6YA

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene in the Covington multipurpose room.
This meeting is also available on-line via Zoom.

To be Announced.

Bio

K6YA is the Club radio call sign for the Foothills Amateur Radio Society. The current trustee for K6YA is KA6MZE. This picture is of the Field Day 2007 set up crew.

Raffle

Other:

We will be raffling off prizes at this meeting:

* Indicates prizes awarded.

Friday May 23, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[K6YA]

To be Announced

TBA, K6YA

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene in the Covington multipurpose room.
This meeting is also available on-line via Zoom.

To be Announced.

Bio

K6YA is the Club radio call sign for the Foothills Amateur Radio Society. The current trustee for K6YA is KA6MZE. This picture is of the Field Day 2007 set up crew.

Raffle

Other:

We will be raffling off prizes at this meeting:

* Indicates prizes awarded.

Friday June 20, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[K6YA]

To be Announced

TBA, K6YA

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene in the Covington multipurpose room.
This meeting is also available on-line via Zoom.

This meeting is one week earlier than usual. It has been scheduled for the 3rd Friday instead of the usual 4th Friday of the month due to Field Day. Be sure to put the correct date on the calendar.

To be Announced.

Bio

K6YA is the Club radio call sign for the Foothills Amateur Radio Society. The current trustee for K6YA is KA6MZE. This picture is of the Field Day 2007 set up crew.

Raffle

Other:

We will be raffling off prizes at this meeting:

* Indicates prizes awarded.

Friday July 25, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[K6YA]

To be Announced

TBA, K6YA

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene in the Covington multipurpose room.
This meeting is also available on-line via Zoom.

To be Announced.

Bio

K6YA is the Club radio call sign for the Foothills Amateur Radio Society. The current trustee for K6YA is KA6MZE. This picture is of the Field Day 2007 set up crew.

Raffle

Other:

We will be raffling off prizes at this meeting:

* Indicates prizes awarded.

Friday August 22, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[K6YA]

To be Announced

TBA, K6YA

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene in the Covington multipurpose room.
This meeting is also available on-line via Zoom.

To be Announced.

Bio

K6YA is the Club radio call sign for the Foothills Amateur Radio Society. The current trustee for K6YA is KA6MZE. This picture is of the Field Day 2007 set up crew.

Raffle

Other:

We will be raffling off prizes at this meeting:

* Indicates prizes awarded.

Friday September 26, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[K6YA]

FARS Annual Amateur Radio Home Brew Contest

K6YA

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene in the Covington multipurpose room.
This meeting is also available on-line via Zoom.

All presenters for this meeting must be in-person. No Zoom presentations accepted.

This meeting is about our members and guests. Our Annual Amateur Radio Homebrew Contest is a opportunity to show off a project that you have worked on in the past year. Each participant has a few minutes to show and explain his project to our audience. No Zoom presentations accepted. Presenters each have a chance to win one of our four prizes:

Bio

K6YA is the Club radio call sign for the Foothills Amateur Radio Society. The current trustee for K6YA is KA6MZE. This picture is of the Field Day 2007 set up crew.

Raffle

Other:

We will be raffling off prizes at this meeting:

* Indicates prizes awarded.

Friday October 24, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[K6YA]

To be Announced

TBA, K6YA

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene in the Covington multipurpose room.
This meeting is also available on-line via Zoom.

To be Announced.

Bio

K6YA is the Club radio call sign for the Foothills Amateur Radio Society. The current trustee for K6YA is KA6MZE. This picture is of the Field Day 2007 set up crew.

Raffle

Other:

We will be raffling off prizes at this meeting:

* Indicates prizes awarded.

Friday November 21, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[K6YA]

To be Announced

TBA, K6YA

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene in the Covington multipurpose room.
This meeting is also available on-line via Zoom.

This meeting is one week earlier than usual. It has been scheduled for the 3rd Friday instead of the usual 4th Friday of the month due to Thanksgiving. Be sure to put the correct date on the calendar.

To be Announced.

Bio

K6YA is the Club radio call sign for the Foothills Amateur Radio Society. The current trustee for K6YA is KA6MZE. This picture is of the Field Day 2007 set up crew.

Raffle

Other:

We will be raffling off prizes at this meeting:

* Indicates prizes awarded.

Friday December 19, 2025 - Membership Meeting

[K6YA]

To be Announced

TBA, K6YA

This month’s meeting is scheduled to convene in the Covington multipurpose room.
This meeting is also available on-line via Zoom.

To be Announced.

Bio

K6YA is the Club radio call sign for the Foothills Amateur Radio Society. The current trustee for K6YA is KA6MZE. This picture is of the Field Day 2007 set up crew.

Raffle

Other:

We will be raffling off prizes at this meeting:

* Indicates prizes awarded.

Previous Programs - 2025 [2024] [2025] [2026]

[2024] [2025] [2026]