California temporarily suspends controversial portable generator sales ban In late 2021, hearing that California¡¯s Air Resources Board was pushing a rule that would shut down the sale of portable generators incensed RVers.?
At the time CARB wanted to shut off California sales of generators other than those that could meet ¡°ZEE¡± or Zero Emissions Equipment standards.?
Essentially, portable generators would be nothing more than a battery pack¡ªnot something that ran on fossil fuel.?
CARB relented, and said that by 2024, generators could still burn ¡°petro fuels¡± but would need to meet tight standards.?
But now California lifts generator sales ban¡ªthe wildfires have proven bigger than CARB. California lifts generator sales ban until July The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is now easing requirements for portable generators to help meet the surge in demand due to Southern California wildfires. Until June 30, 2025, generators that meet U.S. EPA standards can be sold in California, temporarily bypassing state emissions requirements. This move supports efforts to assist residents during the wildfires and ensure access to power for medical and other needs in case of outages. Portable generators are defined as those under 19 kilowatts. Consumers are advised to follow safety guidelines for fuel storage and operation. This will be a great time for Californians to snap up portable generators like the rest of the country buys without a second thought. But make no mistake, come 2028, if CARB¡¯s regulation on portable generators doesn¡¯t change, so-called portable generators will be nothing more than a battery pack with an inverter.
January, to me, came and went very quickly. During the month, our club members and friends enjoyed the following activities:
Jan 5th?Sunday 19:00 ¨C Monthly Board Meeting ¨C Attended by all seven board members.
Jan 10th Friday 19:00 ¨C Monthly club meeting ¨C Clement KM6OKZ discussed the logistics and showed photos of his antenna and tower project, which is now complete!
Jan 18th Saturday 8:30am ¨C VE session ¨C seven people took tests and six either obtained a new license and/or upgraded their current one. Dave scanned the documentation and sent it to the ARRL (VEC), which sped up the licensing process. Here¡¯s the link to the photos:?.
Jan 25th Saturday 9:00AM ¨C Church Clean-Up ¨C Our club had 14 (or more) volunteers who helped to trim the dozen or more trees in the parking lot so that the asphalt resurfacing machine could work under them. We were all prepared with our work clothes, our PPE, and some of us brought pole chain saws, regular saws, and other equipment to make the activity successful. Here is a link to the photos:?. We were able to give back to the Grace Lutheran Church for their generosity in allowing us to meet at their facility. Bert Rapp (one of the church leaders) sent our president a thank you text later stating: ¡°The servant heart of the men in your club is amazing.? Your help was outstanding today.¡± We also helped fill-out the potluck lunch by bringing chips, Boston baked beans, sodas, water, lemon bars, brownies, etc. Linda Shank brought dessert and helped set up the food preparation and assisted with the cleanup. This wasn¡¯t our ¡°normal¡± club picnic, but an appreciation lunch for those helping.?Our club¡¯s next official picnic will be March 22nd.
Jan 25th and 26th ¨C Winter Field Day ¨C We didn¡¯t do anything official through the club, however it was a great way for everyone to test their radios and antennas by making short QSO¡¯s with folks near and far.
TREE CLEAN-UP Some of the club participants in the tree-trimming activity at Grace Lutheran Church on January 25th.HAM EXAM From left to right, Dave AI6VX acted as the liaison, John W6JPG, Peter W6PJG, Robert KM6RSS (not shown due to taking the photo), Jim Inman KB6JI and Larry K6LWG were the Volunteer Examiners. Dana KG6WXE provided logistical assistance.
Of course, our club held all of the weekly nets (Monday Night 2m/70cm, Wednesday Night 40m and Sunday afternoon 10m) and were joined by club members, local Ventura County hams, and some ¡°long distant¡± hams from back East and the Mid-West on our 10m net. Remember that if you act as net control for our Monday Night Net in a given month, you will receive three raffle tickets (up to six if you are net control twice or more during the month).
February brings a number of activities to our club:
Monthly Board Meeting on Sunday, February 9th at 19:00 on Zoom
Monthly Club Meeting on February 14th (Valentine¡¯s Day) at Grace Lutheran Church. Paul Strauss, WD6EBY, is scheduled to present a talk on ¡°Ventura County Repeater Status¡±.
February 23 Ventura Marathon where several club members will provide emergency communications for this day-long event and Burt KA6BJA is the comms organizer.
See you all at the Friday the 14th?club meeting (Valentine¡¯s Day) at the Grace Lutheran Church 6190 Telephone Rd. Ventura CA 93003 where Paul Strauss, WD6EBY, will present ¡°Ventura County Repeater Status¡±. Please bring your ideas, energy and questions!
January was an exciting month in more ways than one.? There were many days of Santa Ana wind conditions, along with wildfires that caused unprecedented destruction.? In past years I was never very concerned with the high winds. This year was different.? The wind gusts at my house were insane.? Getting alerts via Watch Duty were concerning. I took two days off from work just in case we needed to evacuate.? We refreshed our bag of important documents and photos that were originally put together the night the Thomas Fire broke out. Cars were fueled up, the cat carrier was ready.? Thankfully we didn¡¯t have to evacuate.? Thankfully the barranca upwind from us didn¡¯t catch fire.
We fielded phone calls, texts and email messages from friends and families in other states and countries.? They had seen the fires out here and wanted to know if we were okay.? We assured them we were fine, though we worried about the next winds due to come in a few days, and the winds after that.
?
?
January was educational.? I learned I cannot trust Weather Underground for wind predictions.? The best I found is Windy.com, using the HRRR model (high resolution rapid refresh), and set to show wind gusts.? It provided me with the best information on what was to come in the next 1.5 days.? I was made aware of Watch Duty many months ago after asking Ben Kuo AI6YR where he moved after leaving Twitter, but I had not tried the app until after the Palisades fire.? Once loaded onto my phone, and configured to alert me to situations in Ventura County, I felt safer.? It was like a security blanket.? Alerts came in for the Auto fire, the CSUCI fire, and others.? VCEmergency.com had a link to the Ventura County Sheriff¡¯s Incident page, where I could see SCE circuits that were de-energized or soon to be.? The internet stayed up, I had a constant stream of information.?
?
?
What else did I learn?? Some of the repeater sites we use have limited, or maybe no back up power.? After a long Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS), the Bozo repeater went offline.? Same with the digital repeater on Rasnow Peak during another PSPS.? Reminder for me to make sure I have many repeaters programmed into my radio, and familiarity on which ones are located where.
Finally the recurring Santa Ana winds stopped, and we got rain!? Not a lot, only 0.64¡± at my house, but it felt and smelled good.? Looks like we¡¯re supposed to get more rain this Tuesday - I can¡¯t wait.
?
?
What happened in January that was exciting in a good way (besides rain)?? The club held a VE session on January 18th and this was the first VE session where I scanned all the paperwork and uploaded it to the ARRL VEC portal.? By doing so, the folks that took their test Saturday, received their upgrades and new licenses on Tuesday.? They might have even received it even earlier on Monday had it not been MLK day - a federal holiday.? The old strictly mail method we used before, it would take nearly 2 weeks before any upgrades showed up.? From now on we will always be scanning and uploading our VE sessions.? By the way, if you are looking to upgrade or get your license, our next session will be March 22nd.
?
?
January 25th was cleanup day at Grace Lutheran Church.? You already read my summary on Groups.io after the event, but I want to thank everyone again for coming out and helping.? We had at least 14 people show up and the Church both noticed, and were super appreciative.? It was a great show of support, and I had fun.? I hope you all did too.
So what¡¯s happening in February?? The 14th is our next club meeting.? Paul, WD6EBY will be giving a status on his repeater system.? I hope you can all make it!? Later in the month is the Ventura Marathon.? Look for more information on this from Burt KA6BJA over Groups.io and at our February meeting.? Finally we have our regular nets - 2M on Monday at 8pm, 40M on Wednesday at 7pm and 10M on Sunday at 4pm.? Frequencies listed on our website.
Thanks for reading, and I¡¯ll see you on the air or at our next meeting!
73 Dave AI6VX
SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites on Saturday, February 1st
Vandenberg SFB Guardians and Airmen are scheduled to support a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 4 East, Saturday, February 1st.
The launch window opens at 2:48 p.m. PT.
Following stage separation, Falcon 9 will land on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4), which will create a sonic boom local to Vandenberg Space Force Base.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about 10 minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch at and on X @SpaceX.
Description: 1900 Local Time? 40M net on 7.242 LSB.
If the frequency is busy, check 5 Khz below or above as we may have moved there, or check your email as I will try to email the Groups.io list with our new frequency
To help with coordination, please tune to 147.515 Mhz simplex! This will allow us to let each other know if we moved to another frequency, or if band conditions are poor and we want to try a different band.
I was present at Quartzfest and got a lot of information from Dick's presentation.
Rick, K6RAP is the Arizona ARRL section manager and also presented at Quartzfest. Arizona is unique; it has no divisions, it's all one section. I found his discussion very interesting and informative.
On Mon, Jan 27, 2025, 8:24 AM Huggins, Ryan - KI6BTY via <ki6bty=[email protected]> wrote:
All,
?
I received this from another mailing list and thought you might be interested in this.? Dick Norton, Southwestern Division Director N6AA, gave an update at this year's Quartzfest.? It can be found here and is just over an hour long:
Okay, i¡¯m going to volunteer something here. Your president is forgetful.? If you talk to my dad, he¡¯ll tell you my nickname is the absent minded professor. ?
Sorry Dick :( and there are likely others I¡¯ve missed.?
On Sunday, January 26, 2025, Richard Hinson <rchwdm@...> wrote:
Dave,
I was there until 12:45? but had to leave for a neighborhood pre-rain event. Missed the?group pic
Dick? kb0jou...obviously I took your picture before the tree branch fell.? Haha
Dick
On Sat, Jan 25, 2025 at 6:52?PM Dave Schmidt AI6VX via <dgschmidt=[email protected]> wrote:
BIG THANK YOU to all the folks that came out and helped at Grace Lutheran Church's cleanup day today.? Our turnout was fantastic (~14 people showed up), and the Church folks were super appreciative. Bert Rapp sent me a thank you text later stating:
"The servant heart of the men in your club is amazing.? Your help was outstanding today."?
?Thanks again to everyone for your help and thank you Linda for your delicious desserts and helping with setup and cleanup from lunch.? You all are AWESOME!
Group photo below is missing Tom W0UFC and Linda Shank
Winter Field Day is happening RIGHT NOW!? Rules can be found here.?
Time:
Starts 1600 UTC Saturday January 25th (8:00am) Ends 21:59 UTC Sunday January 26th (2:00pm)
Check rules?in the link above for what the exchange is.??
This is another great opportunity?for folks to get on the air and not worry about thinking of what to say.? Plus you get to see how far you can work.? Give it a try!
I operate mobile,? bringing the coax in from my mag mount into the car through an open window.
?
If it is dumping rain, that's going to be a problem.? Right now it doesn't look that bad, but just in case if you don't hear the 10M net start on time, please talk amongst yourselves as I am either finding shelter, or heading back to the house to try and operate from there.
?
Sorry in advance, but I'm happy about the rain!? 0.62" at the house so far (friends in Goleta got 1.6" so far, plus hail!).
?
Dave AI6VX
Re: Thanks to those that helped with cleanup day today at the Church! Also Winter Field Day is happening right now!
I forgot to include Chris Dimond KJ6QOP!? ?He was there working away with the rest of us and had to leave before we took the group photo. Sorry Chris :(
?
Dave AI6VX
Event: 10M Local Net 1600 PDT 28.395 USB - Sunday, January 26, 2025
#cal-reminder
BIG THANK YOU to all the folks that came out and helped at Grace Lutheran Church's cleanup day today.? Our turnout was fantastic (~14 people showed up), and the Church folks were super appreciative. Bert Rapp sent me a thank you text later stating:
"The servant heart of the men in your club is amazing.? Your help was outstanding today."?
?Thanks again to everyone for your help and thank you Linda for your delicious desserts and helping with setup and cleanup from lunch.? You all are AWESOME!
Group photo below is missing Tom W0UFC and Linda Shank
Winter Field Day is happening RIGHT NOW!? Rules can be found here.?
Time:
Starts 1600 UTC Saturday January 25th (8:00am) Ends 21:59 UTC Sunday January 26th (2:00pm)
Check rules?in the link above for what the exchange is.??
This is another great opportunity?for folks to get on the air and not worry about thinking of what to say.? Plus you get to see how far you can work.? Give it a try!
Dave AI6VX
Re: Event: Cleanup Day at Grace Lutheran Church, with Potluck afterwards - Saturday, January 25, 2025
#cal-reminder
As of right now, the cleanup event is still going to happen.? Measurable?rain is not supposed to fall until about 3pm.? We might have nuisance drizzle before that.
For those helping with the cleanup, the Church asked if we could bring drinks, chips and beans.? I plan on bringing sodas, water, and Boston baked beans, so that's covered.? Robert and Linda are bringing lemon bars and brownies.? That leaves chips and really anything else you can think of.? Again, this is not our picnic, but an appreciation lunch for those helping.? Our club's next official picnic will be March 22nd.
Please come join our other club members and Grace Lutheran Church fellowship and staff for a cleanup day.? There will be a potluck for all who help clean-up afterwards. Check with Dave AI6VX for ideas about what to bring.
?
Where? - Grace Lutheran Church 6190 Telephone Rd Ventura 93003
When? - January 25th from 9am until 4pm
Please wear work clothes as we will be doing tree and parking lot work (sweeping, trimming, raking). Please remember to bring your personal protective equipment (hardhat, safety glasses, steel-toed boots, gloves and hearing protection in case you work close to the chain saws).
Event: Cleanup Day at Grace Lutheran Church, with Potluck afterwards - Saturday, January 25, 2025
#cal-reminder
Please come join our other club members and Grace Lutheran Church fellowship and staff for a cleanup day.? There will be a potluck for all who help clean-up afterwards. Check with Dave AI6VX for ideas about what to bring.
?
Where? - Grace Lutheran Church 6190 Telephone Rd Ventura 93003
When? - January 25th from 9am until 4pm
Please wear work clothes as we will be doing tree and parking lot work (sweeping, trimming, raking). Please remember to bring your personal protective equipment (hardhat, safety glasses, steel-toed boots, gloves and hearing protection in case you work close to the chain saws).
Re: Saturday January 25th - Info on cleanup day at Grace Lutheran Church
Description: 1900 Local Time? 40M net on 7.242 LSB.
If the frequency is busy, check 5 Khz below or above as we may have moved there, or check your email as I will try to email the Groups.io list with our new frequency
To help with coordination, please tune to 147.515 Mhz simplex! This will allow us to let each other know if we moved to another frequency, or if band conditions are poor and we want to try a different band.
Robert Shank KM6RSS
