Clubs and Organizations In Silicon Valley
When trying to differentiate between the clubs and organizations in the Silicon Valley, I break them into four categories:
- Hobby clubs exist to build community among Ham Radio operators. They may have a wide range of interests embracing many aspects of Ham Radio, or they may be a specialized club dedicated to one particular aspect of Ham Radio.
- Service Organizations exist to provide training and practice for Ham Operators so they are prepared to respond in an Emergency.
- Infrastructure organizations are groups of hams dedicated to maintaining local resources to be used in an Emergency or in daily use. Dues from these clubs fund and support local repeaters and other critical equipment. Weekly “Nets” are conducted to verify the equipment is working, as well as allowing local hams to do regular checks of their own equipment to ensure they are ready.
- Testing groups are groups authorized to conduct tests for your Ham license. Some groups provide a study session with a 90% pass rate, some only administer the test and you must prepare yourself.
Some clubs may actually fall into several of these categories. You are not limited to participating in only a single club! Many (most?) hams are members of various clubs depending on their interests. For example, I am a member of FARS, but I also maintain a membership with SPECS to support the local repeater. I attend meetings of the other clubs, even ones I am not a member of. Hams are friendly folks! The more you get around the more friends you will make.
Club Lists
Hobby Clubs
ARRL
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the largest membership association of amateur radio enthusiasts in the United States. ARRL is a non-profit organization. The ARRL represents the interests of amateur radio operators before federal regulatory bodies, provides technical advice and assistance to amateur radio enthusiasts, supports a number of educational programs and sponsors emergency communications service throughout the country. The ARRL has approximately 161,000 members. In addition to members in the US, the organization claims over 7,000 members in other countries. The ARRL publishes many books and a monthly membership journal called QST.
New Hams will also recieve access to a montly magazine "On the Air" which answers many questions new hams have, and provides a valuable source of information.
50MHz and Up Group
The 50 MHz and Up Group is an educational and public service amateur radio organization centered in the San Francisco South Bay area. The group is interested in developing and utilizing communications on frequencies from 50MHz up through light-waves. The group is open to any related topics that might be of interest to members, such as: technology, design, construction, operation, public service, contesting and antennas.
50MHz and Up
Foothills Amateur Radio Society
FARS is an amateur radio organization for the southern San Francisco Peninsula area in California serving residents of Los Altos, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and other nearby communities. Our regular monthly meetings are held on the fourth Friday of the month at Covington School in Los Altos.
FARS - Foothills Amateur Radio Society
Los Altos Hills Amateur Radio Club
This ham club is meant to be the replacement for the ECC for amateur radio operators.
Our current goals for the club are:
Milbrae Amateur Radio Club
Our club members are committed to support communications in the City of Millbrae for events and emergency situations when normal means of contacts are not available.
To provide auxiliary communications as required by the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office when requested.
To promote learning communications techniques and technological advances in the art of amateur (ham) radio.
Provide a social setting for individuals interested in the radio hobby and a forum to exchange ideas.
Ham Radio Exams are available before each monthly club meeting.
Northern California DX Club
The NCDXC was formed in 1946 and has over 200 members from all over Northern California, with most of the members residing in the 9 Bay Area counties. The NCDXC holds monthly meetings, maintains a repeater high above Silicon Valley, and provides an active on-line CHAT reflector. NCDXC member’s interest in DX is varied. Some members enjoy chasing entities for DXCC, five band DXCC, IOTA, Grid Squares, five band worked all zones while others chase DX on 6 meters and EME.
If you are beginning the chase for DX entities, NCDXC members will be happy to provide help to reach your next DX goal.
Northern California DX Club
Northern California Contest Club
The Northern California Contest Club is a specialized amateur radio club devoted to the pursuit of operating and technical excellence in radio contesting. Our goals are:
- To promote the fun, satisfaction and competitive thrill of radio contesting
- To help our members develop their operating and technical skills to become better contesters
- To win the club competition of major amateur radio contests
As an ARRL affiliated Club, NCCC was founded in August 1970. We have over 300 active members located throughout Northern California and parts of Nevada. NCCC counts as its members many #1 world ranked contest winners. NCCCers are also into DXing, technical design and construction (especially antennas), and public service
Palo Alto Amateur Radio Association
PAARA, “The Friendliest Ham Club Around”, is a general interest club that has members enjoying almost all aspects of amateur radio. With over 200 active members, surely someone in the club has experience in whatever activity you may find interesting. PAARA holds monthly meetings on the 1st Friday of every month, except when holidays fall on that Friday. Our meetings are held at the Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto. Meetings are open to anyone, licensed or not, members or not. We do, however, invite you to join and learn with the rest of us.
Meetings include information on current ham radio news, upcoming on-air activities, and announcements of local events. Every meeting has a speaker whose topic is generally related to some aspect of amateur radio but maybe more of a general interest topic. A raffle is held at the conclusion of the meeting when lucky winners take away a variety of prizes, most related to our hobby. Every January is our Home Brew night where members bring various projects they’ve been working for show and tell. The December meeting features our “Dream to Reality” raffle where the grand prize is an HF radio!
RDF-SF Fox Hunting
RDF-SF is not actually a club, but a group of Hams who get together once a month to run a Radio Direction Finding event, also called a Fox hunt. You may join a team to ride along and learn, and later start to gather your own setup and start your own team.
rdf-sf.org
San Mateo (Amateur) Radio Club – SMRC
The San Mateo Radio Club has served the Amateur Radio community on the San Francisco peninsula since 1946. The club promotes the exchange of knowledge among members at monthly meetings, serves the local community with emergency communication, and helps newcomers get on the air. Meetings cover a wide range of radio related topics such as DX (long distance communication), digital radio, new technologies, equipment reviews, competitions (contests), emergency protocols, remote region expedition communications (DXpeditions), and much more. The club’s goal is to improve its member’s technical and operating capabilities and to foster fellowship.
Join us for the San Mateo Radio Club 2-meter Net every Tuesday and Thursday evening at 19:00 PT on the N6ZX repeater:
• Output: 145.370 MHz, Minus offset of 600 KHz
• Tone CTCSS (PL): 107.2 Hz
Our thanks to the Kings Mountain Amateur Radio Club for allowing us to use their repeater for our weekly NET.
Club site
San Mateo Radio Club - W6UQ (google.com)
Club MeetUp
San Mateo (Amateur) Radio Club - SMRC | Meetup
Santa Clara County Amateur Radio Association
SCCARA was formed as a general interest amateur radio club in 1921 and became a non-profit corporation in 1947.
SCCARA is an affiliate of the American Radio Relay League
Welcome to S.C.C.A.R.A. Home Page
South Bay Amateur Radio Association
South Bay Amateur Radio Association (SBARA), was formed in 1976 to cater to the amateur radio communities in the Fremont, Newark and Union City in the East Bay.
The club welcomes people of all ages interested in Amateur Radio and helps them become licensed operators to enjoy the hobby first hand. The club conducts regular monthly meetings, and invites a guest speaker to give a talk and discuss interesting projects. Every year SBARA participates in the ARRL Field Day, inviting everyone to join in the fun. Let us help you discover and enjoy the Radio Sport !
SBARA South Bay Amateur Radio Association, KU6S
South Bay Hams
!!WE ARE REACTIVING THIS CLUB STATION !! AS OF 1/31/2022
NET TUESDAY NIGHT -- 5 PM --444.800Mhz + Offset + PL 179.9Mhz
W6SBH - Callsign Lookup by QRZ Ham Radio
West Valley Amateur Radio Association
WVARA meetings are on the second Wednesday of each month except July, August, and December. Our meetings start at 7:00 pm.
Visitors and guests are welcome to attend the meetings, and pre-meeting gatherings!
We meet at the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, at 2731 North 1st Street in San Jose.
Pre-meeting Unoffical Gatherings: For Location and time, please contact Jim K6EI using the email address on his QRZ.com page.
WVARA Monthly Meetings - WVARA HOME
Service Organizations
Ham Radio operators who wish to serve their communities are a strong presence in Santa Clara County. Whether providing critical communications links in a disaster, or supporting local events, training and practice are critical.
Santa Clara County
In Santa Clara County, the Santa Clara County ARES/RACES group is the central hub for providing training, and running drills and exercises to keep our skills sharp and ready to use. All hams should register with the County site to avail themselves of the free training, and the excellent reference information on the site.
Santa Clara County ARES/RACES
City GroupsBeneath the County organization, individual cities have their own groups. |
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Los Gatos / Monte Sereno ARES/RACES (LGMS-ARES/RACES) |
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Infrastructure Organizations
Infrastructure clubs are clubs that exist to maintain critical infrastructure for use in disasters. They maintain and fund local repeaters, and run weekly “Nets” to both test the equipment and give operators a chance to manage and run the Nets so they are prepared in a disaster. The Nets usually consist of announcements of coming events and news, and a role call of the operators present. People checking into the net are able to verify that their equipment is ready to go if disaster strikes. Joining these organzations supports their missions, and is recommended for hams who want to see the resources we use are maintained.
ASVARO
The Association of Silicon Valley Amateur Radio Organizations is not technically a club, but rather a committee formed by representatives from a number of clubs in the area.
ASVARO organizes the monthly Electronics Flea Market “swap meet” at West Valley College in Saratoga, California. The markets are generally held on the second Sunday of each month March through September. Be sure to check the schedule for the exact dates and latest information. This event benefits a different club each month.
I am trying to recruit Ham Radio operators to set up stations at the Flea Market to demo their setups, and to provide information and outreach to new and potential hams. I hope this becomes a useful resource.
ASVARO - Association of Silicon Valley Amateur Radio Organizations
Bay-Net
Silicon Valley Emergency Communications System
A sister organization to SPECS, SVECS serves the communities of the South County.
SVECS Weekly Net on Tuesday Nights at 2000 hours on AA6BT (146.115+, PL100.0)
Silicon Valley Emergency Communications System (SVECS)
Southern Peninsula Emergency Communications System
SPECS serves the communities of Palo Alto, Stanford, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View and Sunnyvale by helping to recruit, train, and maintain a crew of amateur radio operators ready to provide emergency communication services in a time of need. SPECS also supports the W6ASH repeater.
SPECS conducts two nets on Monday nights. The "Main SPECS Net" begins at 20:00 (8:00 PM) using the W6ASH repeater at 145.270 using 100 Hz tone. The main net operator calls on local cities during the net who take check-ins from their city and report the total to the main net operator. The 220/440 net (also known as the UHF net) operates from 19:30 hours (7:30 PM) to just shortly before 20:00 hours (8:00 PM). The UHF Net Control operator may close the net early so he/she can change over to the main SPECS Net at 8:00 PM. The 220 and 440 repeaters are linked during the nets.
SPECS is the club sponsoring the MeetUp group, and the rest of my community outreach work. Including this document-- Stiv
Southern Peninsula Emergency Communication System (SPECS)
Testing Groups
BAEARS
About BAEARS
Study AND Exam
We are an Amateur Radio club in the San Francisco Bay Area that provides classes and testing for those interested in getting their Amateur Radio license or in upgrading their existing license.
We hold three to four sessions per year, depending on interest and classroom availability. Generally, the sessions range between 75 and 100 participants.
Our method was developed by John Portune, W6NBC, in 1995 to improve the percentage of people passing the exam. See John’s website at http://w6nbc.com/ for information on the design and results from this learning system. We have helped approximately ~4600 people obtain their radio licenses since we began these sessions.
This is NOT a class. It is a guided study six 45-minute pool reading periods, with breaks and lunch. This is the most efficient way to maximize attention span against study fatigue. In other words, we tell you how to study, keep you doing it in an organized way and then give the test as soon as you are finished. It is a proven "winning formula". Short term memory is the "secret" of the high success rate. All exam questions will be what you study during the session. This is the biggest reason why 90% are easily able to recognize the correct answers immediately after reading the question pool thoroughly, leading to a high pass ratio.
We have found that those very young (less than 14) and those with learning disabilities will not do as well with this method. Because this system allows the individual to study at their own pace, it requires the individual be self motivated. We’d be happy to discuss this further with you.
The study session begins at 8:00 AM. The exam on the material starts at 4:00 P.M. The exam is open to all students in the class, as well as anyone else wishing to take an exam without attending the study session. Thank you for visiting.
About BAEARS
HamStudy.org: Find an Exam Session
Milbrae Amateur Radio Club
Test only.
You will need to prepare for the test on your own. I used Five by Five software though you can use online test prep as well If you choose, you can do this for free by downloading the questions from the FCC, but you would need to understand the best way to study that.
Test is administered before the meeting each month.
Sunnyvale VEC
Test only.
You will need to prepare for the test on your own. I used Five by Five software though you can use online test prep as well If you choose, you can do this for free by downloading the questions from the FCC, but you would need to understand the best way to study that.
Find out about exam
Sunnyvale VEC W6VEC Amateu (amateur-radio.org)
Study Software
Download FCC Commercial and Ham (Amateur) Radio Exam Preparation - HamExam.com
Prepare for exam online
HAMSTUDY.COM - BASIC AND ADVANCED AMATEUR RADIO COURSES
Ham Radio Prep – Ham Radio Online License Class