Riverside County Amateur Radio Association

Welcome to the Riverside County Amateur Radio Association Website.  Our club has been serving the Riverside area for 53 years, and we have close to 90 members.  We hold our monthly meetings on  the second Thursdays at 7:00 PM in the La Sierra University Church Conference Center directly behind the church located at the corner of Pierce and Sierra Vista. (Click here for a map and directions to the location).  Our meetings and club membership are open to everyone interested in Amateur Radio.

The club provides communications support during many Public Service Events throughout the year.  A weekly RACES net is held to foster emergency preparedness every Monday evening at 7:15 PM on the W6TJ club repeater (146.88 MHz, -600 KHz  offset with a PL of 146.2 Hz) and is preceded by a 7:00 PM early-bird HF check-in on 28.328 MHz.  This 2M Monday net provides bulletins of upcoming club activities and concludes with NEWSLINE, a weekly Amateur Radio News Program.  On Wednesday evenings at 8:30 PM club members hold an informal simplex net on 145.520 MHz.  Our club newsletter, The MONITOR is published monthly 10 days prior to each meeting.  It is available on this Website - and is mailed to those Members who don't have Internet access.

Mail correspondence should be addressed to the Riverside County Amateur Radio Association, c/o Emergency Services Division , P.O. Box 1412 , Riverside, CA 92502-1412.  QSL information for W6TJ is available at www.qrz.com.

Our club repeater is located on the roof of the Riverside County Administrative Services Building in downtown Riverside which assures us of emergency power.  The repeater is an open-access local-area repeater covering the city of Riverside and its surrounding communities.  Members have access to a telephone autopatch allowing them to make telephone calls within the local area with just an HT.

RCARA is an affiliated club of the ARRL, our national radio club and an organization serving Amateur Radio since 1914.  The ARRL publishes QST, a monthly magazine, filled with information of interest to Amateurs. The ARRL also has a wonderful Website which has over a quarter million hits each day - there is an abundance of current information at www.arrl.org.  The ARRL also represents the interests of its 156,000 Amateur Radio members to the Federal Communications Commission.  If you
are interested in joining the ARRL, and you should be, see our Director of Membership Ed Morgan, KF6BNQ , who will be happy to help you join.  He can be contacted at (951)689-1917 or via email at edjmorg@aol.com. 

Amateur Radio is a hobby for all ages, backgrounds and levels of expertise.  Some Hams are experienced in electronics and build some of their own equipment while others prefer to buy their rig and get right on the air.  Some buy brand-new equipment, others buy used gear and save money.  Some are content to own a relatively inexpensive hand-held radio talking with local friends on VHF repeaters while others prefer an HF Ham Shack filled with radios, amplifiers and a forest of antennas used to talk with stations on the other side of the world.  There are as many variations in Amateur Radio as there are colors in a rainbow.  It is a wonderful hobby, no matter the level of your license or the size of your station.

Above all else, Amateur Radio is a service.  Many Hams volunteer their services in providing communications for Public Service Events such as emergency service organizations such as SATERN or RACES; walk-a-thons; races; community events such as the Orange Blossom Festival and parades.   Hams generally pride themselves on their communication readiness for earthquakes, fires or floods.  When disasters occur, Hams are on the scene relaying radio traffic where it often impossible to pass by conventional means, i.e. telephone, cell phone, etc.  It is this involvement in emergency communications which does much in continuing to justify our on-going use of so many frequency bands.

Since deletion of the Morse Code requirement for all classes of Ham License, it is easier than ever for anyone to enter the hobby.  There are many books that teach the theory required to pass the test and there are websites with the complete Q&A Question Pool - what could be easier.  If you can pass the "check a box" test given by the DMV, you can pass the first ham exam. As a ham club, we are eager to help you get started in the hobby, so why not just come to one of our meetings and meet a great group of guys and gals.

 Chris

Chris Maness, KQ6UP

RCARA 2010 President

Email: chris@chrismaness.com

Phone: (909)223-9179