ABOUT THE W6TRW AMATEUR RADIO Association

The members of the W6TRW Amateur Radio Association represent a very active and diverse club and would like you to know about us.

We have activities from social events to operating events, from informal to near formal, and offer opportunities in public service, technical challenges, for licensees from Novice through Extra, and even non-licensed. The club regular monthly activities include the second Tuesday evening club meetings, usually at a pizza restaurant or the like, the monthly Swapmeet always on the Last Saturday, and the weekly Friday breakfast meetings at the S cafeteria, which are open to the public.

The second Tuesday club meetings start at 5:30pm and lately have been held at Round Table Pizza East of Hawthorne Blvd., between Artesia Blvd. and Redondo Beach Blvd.

During the summer, the club often holds the regular Tuesday meetings as noontime picnics in Pollywog Park as an opportunity for those who can’t make the evening meetings. The Friday AM breakfast meetings are another opportunity for members to get together. This is an informal group, with the early birds showing up about 6:30am, and others rotating through until after 8:00. Since the cafeteria offers a wide breakfast menu, it is a great way to start the Friday routine. Many local retiree members attend the breakfasts regularly.

There are two major events that take place each year, Field Day and the Annual Awards Banquet. 

The club has conducted Field Day at Poliwog Park in Manhattan Beach. Describing it as a campout exaggerates the conditions, but no one has complained about indoor toilets, running water, and our barbecue and pancake breakfast approach to meals. The club setup includes antennas and other equipment specially designed to make the Field Day a fun and effective event. Visiting hams are always impressed by the attention to detail and the completeness of the setup. The W6TRW ARA usually turns in a good score in our class, sometimes in the top ten nationwide, so you can see that the June Field Day contest is a serious and popular event for the club. We participate in other contests throughout the year also.

The club provides training sessions for those wanting to get their first FCC ham license. The classes are usually offered twice a year, Spring and Fall, and run about six weeks. The first level of licensing does not require knowing Morse code and has become a very popular way to enter into the hobby. The club also has tapes and other materials for upgrading to higher classes of license, which provide greater operating privileges.

One of the most important assets of the club is advertised by our prominent HF antenna system. There is a 50 foot tower (aka Tower-1) on the roof which supports the WARC band tribander yagi on top, a 40 meter dipole below that, and a KLM KT34XA tribander yagi on the stack bottom. The lowest antenna is about 80 feet above local terrain and these antennas have consistently demonstrated excellent HF performance. In one weekend DX contest, over 1200 contacts were made, in 119 countries. Many DX stations can be worked without the linear amplifier, even through pileups. Antennas for other bands are also prominently in view, testifying to the diversity of the shack capability. Just recently, a second 50 foot tower (aka Tower-2) adjacent to the first tower was outfitted with a Comet GP-15 vertical on top (6, 2, 440), an M2 2M5WL 17el 2m, an M2 6M7JHV 7el 6m, and finally the big M2 4M4LLDD 4el 40m array. The project took almost a decade to complete. You can read about it here. The shack is also a meeting place, usually at noon or after work, where members congregate. You can try out equipment you might not be able to buy on your own, or "try before you buy." The operating bands cover 1.8 MHz through 1.2 GHz, with just about every operating mode available.

The shack is available 24 hours a day with any employee badge or escort. It is available for members use, can be scheduled for contests or personal skeds, and offers a resource for experimenting and learning new communications skills. It includes the club library and a workbench for small construction projects.

Many club members also use their radio resources to support the Emergency Communications Team, to provide communications support for evacuation drills or genuine emergencies. The club communications van is outfitted mainly for this purpose, but is also used in Field Day or VHF/UHF contests. It is also used to provide communications for local community events such as marathon races, the Manhattan Beach Fair, and the Redondo Beach Pier yearly cleanup party.

The club provides three OPEN FM voice repeaters for amateur use. The 2 meter repeater (W6TRW) on building E2 operates at 145.320, PL 114.8hz (-600) and the 447.000 repeater (W6TRW/PV), located on building E2, PL 100.0 hz (-5MHz), and a newly installed 1283.000, PL 136.5hz (-12mhz) 1.2 ghz repeater are open repeaters for all amateurs to use. 

There is also packet service on 2m at W6TRW-3 with a Internet Gateway, 146.745 (-600) and 70cm.

The diversity of ham radio is well represented among our members. We have members focusing on antenna projects, on HF DXing, VHF/UHF activities, ATV, emergency communications, social activities, CW, RTTY, packet and other digital modes, computers, and satellite communications.

All members receive the monthly newsletter, the Crosstalk, preferably by email, by company mail or direct to their homes. Members are encouraged to contribute articles to the Crosstalk by sending them direct to the editor. The Crosstalk keeps us all informed on timely events, includes technical articles, and reports on the results of activities of the club.

The club encompasses many activities of interest to radio amateurs. And the agenda is flexible enough so that members can initiate new activities at any time. Many projects start with an idea at a club meeting or over breakfast, and soon are in full swing, adding even more diversity to our club.