Stanford Amateur Radio Club

Monthly Club Meetings

[American Radio Relay League] [W6YX QSL Card] Meetings are usually held on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:30 PM in Room 202 of the Packard Electrical Engineering Building, except during the summer months when meetings may be held in the club shack at Site 530.

Prospective new members, faculty, and staff are welcome.

Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Time: To Be Announced
Place: W6YX Shack -- Site 530
Talk-in: N6BDE repeater, 440.200 MHz (+5 MHz offset, 123.0 Hz tone).



Monday Night Net

Latest News

ARRL Field Day 2009 - June 27-28, 2009
ARRL Field Day 2009 LogoPlease mark your calendars for the weekend of June 27-28, 2009. Members and visitors will come to Site 530 to participate in the annual ARRL Field Day. More information about this year's activities will be posted when available.
Stanford Amateur Radio Club Continues Tradition of Space Contacts
It all started with the first the first manned amateur radio operation conducted in space. In 1983, Astronaut Owen Garriott on board the Space Shuttle Columbia used "ham" radio gear to make Earth-Space radio contacts during mission STS-9. Stanford Amateur Radio Club, W6YX, used the big dish to track the Space Shuttle's orbit and participate in this momentous historical event. W6YX can be heard at the 27 second mark of Owen Garriott's personal tape recording from the mission, available here. The tradition continues to this day. The morning of April 7th, 2009, the Stanford Amateur Radio Club made contact with Stanford Alumnus and space flight participant Charles Simonyi aboard the International Space Station. Charles sent his best wishes to the club and praised the education Stanford provides its students. The audio from the contact is available here.

March 2009 Meeting
Prof. Leeson, W6NL, provided a preview of his talk about Stanford's W. W. Hansen, the subject of an invited paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society. Prof. Hansen, who earned his Ph.D. at Stanford in 1933, is recognized as the founder of microwave electronics. Among other things, he invented the cavity resonator and the RF cavity linear accelerator. In 1937, he was approached by his former roommate Russell Varian to collaborate on inventing the klystron, the famous "$100 invention" that made World War II microwave radar possible and also lifted Stanford into the front ranks of physics research. Prof. Leeson plans to publish, in time for the centenary this May of Hansen's birth, Hansen's "Notes on Microwaves" with permission of the Stanford Library Archives.
  • More information on the APS presentation is available at http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR09/Event/94505
  • Notes from past meetings.

  • November 2008 Meeting
    The second meeting of the school year was held on Tuesday evening, November 11
    ARRL Field Day 2008 - June 28-29, 2008
    ARRL Field Day 2006 LogoThe weekend of June 28-29, 2008, brought members and visitors to Site 530 to participate in the annual ARRL Field Day. This year, approximately forty participants joined the activities at Site 530 in Class 4F (4 transmitters on emergency power from an established emergency operations center site, plus a VHF/UHF station, plus an additional "Get on the Air" station for new or inactive operators to make HF band contacts). At the end of the 24 hours, we had logged over 4,800 contacts and qualified for nearly all available bonus points. This year's Field Day also featured an evening cookout on Saturday evening and a post-activity picnic on Sunday morning.
    Frank Bauregger W6QI - SK - May 21, 2008
    Frank Bauregger WQ6IFrank N. Bauregger, Ph.D., age 38 of Mountain View, California, died Wednesday, May 21, 2008. He was a 1991 graduate of Pennsylvania State University and earned graduate degrees from Stanford University. Frank was a veteran of the United States Navy and was employed as an electrical engineer at Agilent Technologies in Santa Clara. Frank's professional career included research projects and publications about airborne anti-jam GPS antenna designs. He was a member of the Stanford Amateur Radio Club where he gave presentations on VHF/UHF communications topics. His accomplishments include being the co-holder of the world distance record for 47 GHz terrestrial communications. Frank was also a fine guitar player and enjoyed the outdoors, hunting, fishing, and hiking. Most recently, his interests expanded to include automobile drag racing.
    APRS Debuts at W6YX
    W6YX has implemented an APRS internet gateway at the shack that listens for APRS packets on 149.390 MHz and forwards them to the internet. For more information, see the APRS Information Page.

    W6YX Celebrates 60th Anniversary of the First Amateur Radio Single Side Band QSO
    Prof. O.G. Mike VillardThe October 2007 edition of QST, the monthly publication of the American Radio Relay League, notes that September 21, 2007 was the sixtieth anniversary of the first amateur radio single side band transmission. The contact was made by W6YX and W0TQK in 1947. The mode was championed by Stanford University researcher and author Oswald Garrison "Mike" Villard Jr, W6QYT, but it was just one of his many accomplishments. During his career at Stanford (and later at Stanford Research Institute--SRI), Villard pioneered the concept and development of a program to design and build an over-the-horizon radar system to detect incoming military aircraft and high-altitude missiles. In addition, he demonstrated the feasibility of the "stealth aircraft" concept by using specially treated low-impedance surfaces. For those achievements he received the Department of Defense civilian Medal of Honor. Another accomplishment was the design of a simple, small high-frequency receiving antenna that aided in nulling out signals that jammed broadcasts of the Voice of America, the BBC and others. While a student at Stanford, Villlard served as president of the Amateur Radio Club, and from the 1950s through the early 1980s he was the trustee of W6YX. For a picture of him (then W1DMV) operating W6YX in the late 1930's as student president of the club, see the history section. An ARRL member for many years, Villard was also a past scientific advisor to the Northern California DX Foundation. Prof. Villard died on January 7, 2004 at age 87.

    Foothills Fire Spares W6YX
    On Monday afternoon, June 25, 2007, a brushfire consumed 178 acres in the foothills near W6YX. According to a Stanford News Service Report, human rather than electrical or mechanical activity was the likely cause of the blaze.
    New Member Recruitment Drive Underway
    The Stanford Amateur Radio Club invites prospective members to its monthly meetings. Information about the club is available on this web site and from the club President.
    Paul Flaherty N9FZX - SK - March 16, 2006
    Paul Flaherty N9FZX SKIt is with deep regret that we announce the sudden passing of Paul Flaherty N9FZX, a longtime member, and past president of W6YX. Paul received his doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford in 1994 for his work in computer architecture, digital radio communications, radio science and RF engineering and was considered one of the world's leading authorities on communications protocol design. After Stanford, Dr. Flaherty joined Digital Equipment Corporation's Network Systems Laboratory, where he invented and managed the Alta Vista search engine. Since then, he worked as a corporate strategist and management consultant, independently and for firms such as Zindigo and Accenture. Author of the forthcoming book, "A Better Mousetrap: Corporate Strategy for Emerging Technology", Paul has delivered international keynotes for COMDEX, Internet World, DECUS, and other trade shows in the US and throughout the world.
    W6YX Claims First Club 47 GHz EME Contact
    During an afternoon break in work party activities on June 11, 2005, Gary, AD6FP, using the W6YX club call and the 47 GHz station at Site 530, managed to make what we believe is the first 47 GHz moonbounce contact ever made by a club station. Gary is part of the team that completed the first 47 GHz contacts via the moon earlier this year.

    Technical Update
    Members of the Stanford Amateur Radio Club are actively at work to improve the facilities in many ways.

    Archive of Older News can be found here.


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