Welcome to the web site of the Escondido Amateur Radio Society.
The Escondido Amateur Radio Society (EARS) is an IRS 501(c)(3) charitable, non-profit organization of educational benefit to amateur radio operators, and others interested in amateur radio within Escondido and surrounding areas.
Membership is affordable, come join the fun!
Please feel free to browse this website for information on EARS activities past & present, and other general information on amateur radio.
You are also welcome to join the discussion groups on Facebook, Yahoo! and Google - links are provided at the bottom of this page.
See below for meeting and membership details, or click on the following quick links...
If you are interested in becoming an Amateur Radio Operator, or wish to find out more about what you have to do, click the following link for more details.
For anyone wishing to take their amateur radio test, or upgrade their current licence - There is a Volunteer Exam session in Escondido on the last Saturday of each month. Click the following link for more details.
EARS events throughout the year can be found in the following calendar:
Next Meeting: Thursday, February 12th.
Our next meeting will be about the Broadband Ham Network (BBHN), by Gene Swiech, WB9COY
Through the use of common off the shelf WiFi equipment (Linksys/Ubiquiti) amateurs now have the ability to construct a full featured high speed network.
This seminar is intended to be more hands on rather than technical, and we will take a new Ubiquiti Rocket M2 out of the box and go through the factory flash update process that will make it a ham radio mesh node.
The node will then be configured with a call sign and be put on the air. Once configured we will use the node to make a Voice Over IP (VoIP) call and send email using Microsoft Outlook.
At the end of this seminar you will be armed with enough knowledge to commission a node of your own and be part of the growing mesh here in San Diego.
Gene Swiech, WB9COY, is a Senior Software Engineer at Qualcomm in San Diego, CA and holds an Extra Class Licence Amateur Radio license.
Opportunity Drawing:
At October's general meeting, we finally sold enough tickets for the opportunity drawing to take place.
The winning ticket belonged to Steve Palmer, WA6ALW - who is now the proud owner of a DB-750X Dual Band VHF/UHF 750 Channel Commercial Mobile Radio:
The next prize on offer will be the Alinco DJ-500 Handi-Talki - very kindly donated by Tom Lettington, N6TFL.
The Alinco DJ-500 Model Features:
- Output power selectable 5W/2.5W/1W
- 200 PC-programmable channels
- Li-Ion battery pack and stand-charger as standard accessories
- Alphanumeric name tags
- FM broadcast 76-108MHz receiver built-in
- Selectable Battery-save parameters
- Busy Channel Lockout
- CTCSS/DCS Encode/Decode, DTMF, 5-Tone
- VOX built-in
- Emergency, Alarm signal, Various scan modes, Key lock, Wide/Narrow operations and more at NO extra costs
Tickets will be on sale from January's regular meeting.
The rules for the drawing:
- Tickets will be available at EARS regular meetings, and at other EARS events such as Field Day and the EARS picnic etc.
- Only current EARS members are eligible to purchase tickets - but please feel free to join!
- Once the cost of the prize has been reached (+20%), the drawing will
take place.
Note: The owner of the drawn ticket does not have to be present to win. - The cost of the tickets are $1.00 each, 6 for $5.00, or 15 for $10.00.
Each ticket consists of two parts: One part to be retained by the purchaser, and the other to be returned to the drawing organizer.
The ticket purchaser must ensure that their name or call sign is CLEARLY marked on EACH of the ticket halves returned to the drawing organizer.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact the drawing organizer.
Membership details:
Membership runs from January 1st to December 31st. The fees are shown below.
Regular membership:
- Annual - $15.00
- Lifetime - $150.00
Family membership:
- Family annual - $4.00 for each additional family member.
- Family Lifetime - $38.00 for each additional family member.
You can join (or renew) online using Paypal or a credit card by clicking on the Join button in the Membership section on the left.
Alternatively, you can download the PDF membership form by clicking on the image of the brochure above.
It can also be found in the latest issue of 'ALL EARS', the EARS newsletter - available to download in the General section on the left.
Mail your completed application form along with your check to:
EARS,
PO Box 3243,
Escondido,
CA 92033
EARS Documentation:
If you would like more info on membership of EARS, or on Ham Radio in general - send us an email at: membership@earsclub.org
Repeater and EARS Net information:
EARS operates 3 voice radio repeaters in the Escondido area as well as a Voice-over-IP Echo Link node 2846:
- 146.88 MHz, minus offset, PL 107.2 (also connected to the Echo Link node).
- 224.14 MHz (AE6GM repeater), minus offset, PL 156.7
- 449.24 MHz, minus offset, PL 127.3
The repeaters are open to all licensed Amateurs for general use, and on Sunday evenings there is the EARS net at 8:00 p.m. local time on the 146.88 MHz repeater... Come along and say "Hello!"
Procedures for the use of the EARS repeater & Echolink can be found here.
A new EARS EchoLink User Manual will soon be available for download from the club website, so watch this space. In the mean time, please feel free to e-mail any questions to: echolink@earsclub.org.
EARS monthly meetings:
EARS monthly meetings are held on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m.
The meeting location is:
900 Canterbury Pl,
Suite 300 (third floor)
Escondido,
CA 92025
(just east of the Mercedes dealer at I-15 and 9th Avenue).
Talk-in is on 146.880 MHz, minus offset, PL 107.2.
The meetings are usually technical, educational or informative in nature. For a list of the proposed meeting dates and topics for this year, click on the following link:
Specific details of the next meeting can be found near the top of this web page.
Note: There are no meetings in August or December because of the EARS summer picnic and Christmas party.
Last Thoughts:
The Escondido Amateur Radio Society is affiliated to the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL).
Many EARS members are also members of Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) and other agencies such as RACES & ARES.
They regularly participate in drills, and are active in assisting with communications during times of disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina, and the wild-fires that we have in California.
So, if you're interested in knowing what's been happening in EARS in the past... please feel
free to look at any of the 'ALL EARS' news letters - available to download in the General section.
Also, if you have any comments, or submissions to ALL EARS, please mail them to: allears@earsclub.org
EARS also has a page on Facebook, as well as messaging & discussion groups on both Yahoo! & Google.
Click on the links below to join:
