Events & Updates

SP’23 First UCSD Technician Exam Session!!

We hosted our first technician exam session of the year in Geisel library! All of our testers passed and we were able to go through the application process with no problems. The volunteer examiners proctoring the exam included some of the KK6UC members who had gotten their general license.

Our goal is to make testing more accessible to students who are interested in getting their license. We aim to host on campus because that is the most accessible to students and requires not much transportation. In addition to that, this allows us to create flexible exam times to where if a student feels ready, we can test them upon request.

SP’23 Foxhunt + Yagi Antenna Build

On May 6th, we held our first foxhunt-adjacent event at the local makerspace on campus–EnVision. Big shout out to them for letting us borrow their workspace for our event. We are still in the process of getting a space for the club itself. We didn’t get to much foxhunting because the yagi antenna build took longer than expected since most of us haven’t built one before. We did, however, test it a bit from the nearby parking garage.

It was a cool learning experience to see from the NanoVNA antenna analyzer brought by one of our members how the Yagi Antenna was optimized for directional (as seen by the peaks in the photo–the antenna only had a sharp peak at 2 frequencies). We also started to build our transmitter from a relay, Arduino and Baofeng radio (referencing this video on foxhunt transmitters).

Thanks to all those who showed up! We hope to host more events like this in the future–perhaps with more hunting involved.

SP’23 Comet Antenna Install

A couple of days ago, on 4/15, we went up to the roof to install the Comet Antenna. We set up a pulley to transport all the tools up to the antenna outlook. In order to find the length of coax needed for the antenna, we used a handheld spectrum analyzer that Jack brought. It took about 3 hours to install the antenna. Thanks to everyone who volunteered to help!

SP’23 Meeting Times

Hello!

Apologies for the late notice but we will be having our first meeting of the spring quarter today, 4/13 at 6pm in HSS 2025.

We will continue to have weekly meetings on Thursdays at 6pm in HSS 2025 (room may change based on room availability).

These are the planned events for the upcoming spring quarter: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=c_f1e3f7f6b391a0acdcc20bd1cb299b8c2139001ba51f48efde3ed39131e86b71%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America%2FLos_Angeles

WI’23 Events

Upcoming Events:

  • (2/13) ARRL School Club Roundup
    • Information about the ARRL School Club Roundup can be found at https://www.arrl.org/school-club-roundup
  • (3/04) Event: Ham Radio Merit Badge Outreach (w IEEE)

Upcoming GBM Topics:

  • GBM #4: Antenna Building
  • GBM#5 Transmitters
  • GBM#6 Digital Radio Modes & remote access to the radio in the radio shack setup
  • GBM#7 “Foxhunt” Scavenger Hunt
  • GBM#8 SSTV & Image Encoding (w demo)

Note: all GBM meeting topics are subject to change.

We welcome anyone who is interested in radios and engineering! You do not have to have a radio license or any knowledge to join. The majority of our announcements are done through our discord server which can be joined here: https://discord.gg/U2Fxj86YXn

FA’22 GBM and Upcoming Events

Hello everyone with an update for the Amateur Radio Club at UCSD!

This fall quarter we will be holding joint general body meeting (GBM) with TritonCubed on Friday, October 7 10 AM to 2 PM on Library Walk at the Class of 1972 marker.  Plan on an in person meeting because we will be outside. Look for the BuddiPole antenna.  We will talk about our club, upcoming events, and give a brief demonstration of our ICOM 7300 radio. We can also discuss activities members may be interested in (licensing, contests, volunteering, etc.). Also, the meeting will be recorded for anyone unable to attend.

We also have created a Discord server! If you are not in the Discord server and would like to join, you can use the following link.
Additionally, October 14-16,  we will be helping out with Jamboree On the Air, led by Kevin KK6FRK. This is an in-person event at Camp Balboa – Scout Headquarters, and even if you are not licensed, you can learn by coming for part of the time. If you are interested, send us an email!
The week of October 18 to October 22 is ARRL’s School Club Roundup, which is a contesting event. We will likely use the ICOM 7300 radio remotely for this, which we will demonstrate during the GBM. Even for students without a license, we can facilitate third-party traffic, so feel free to let us know.