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CLUBS & GROUPS | FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | AUGUST 2014 27 We meet the third Tuesday of each month at 6:30 pm in the Craft Room at the Lodge; thus, our August meeting will be Aug. 19. Visitors are always welcome. We invite all photographers, regardless of skill level, to join us for our regular meetings and field trips. Members are always eager to help and teach. We discuss photography, photo software, hardware, and related subjects of interest. On a voluntary basis, members offer their photographs for critique which is a great learning experience for all. Our alternative photo project is ongoing (i.e. we bring a picture of a specific genre we all agree on). For the July meeting, the assignment was to bring a panoramic picture. Many beautiful photographs were submitted. When you attend our meetings, we'll teach you how to take great panoramic photographs. In fact, our chairperson, George Johnson, plans on starting a series of programs on the basics of digital photography. First up will be "How a digital camera works." Following will be HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography, Panoramas, Point and Shoot camera operation, Post Processing, Composition, and many other topics. Stay tuned for dates and times. Hope to see you soon. For further information, please contact Lyle Cameron at (951) 849-6987. ~ Lyle Cameron Camera Club The Bayside Park next to the Chula Vista RV Resort taken by Del Congdon. The photograph was an evening shot taken around 8:30 pm in late May this year. Amateur Radio Club Radio clubs in the Pass Area competed in a field day exercise over the last weekend of June. This event, sponsored by the ARRL (American Radio Relay League), is held every year. The radio club organizing the event is SPARC: San Gorgonio Pass Amateur Radio Club. Organized in Banning, a number of amateur radio operators from Four Seasons are members, and participated in the field day event held in Dysart Park in Banning. The Field Day event is held so that the many amateur radio clubs in the US can utilize their radios and equipment off the grid, in an emergency situation. Basically this is a drill and we attempt to make a short radio contact with as many other clubs as possible. A club designated code is exchanged. This code tells the number of radios in use, and the club section area. Since the radio bands are crowded, it is a good exercise for the kind of conditions we could expect in an emergency. It is estimated that upwards of 36,000 amateur radio operators in the US participate. While 'points' are accumulated by just U.S. amateurs, there is participation by many amateur radio operators throughout the world. Last year the Orange County, Calif. club accumulated the greatest number of points. We utilized both Morse Code and SSB (Single Side Band). SSB is a form of audio that is most efficient for communication and utilizes much less of the radio spectrum. For the most part we use storage batteries and charge them via solar energy and generators. During field day, we invite various individuals in the local community to observe the radio activity. This year the mayors of both Beaumont and Banning visited. It was through one of these visits last year that facilitated the interest in the city of Beaumont to construct a EOC – Emergency Operations Center, utilizing the ham radio ops in Banning and Beaumont to propose the radios and run monthly tests. It is through events such as field day and the support of the Four Seasons at Beaumont Emergency Preparedness Committee and HOA Board, we feel confident that at least a basic level of communications can be provided to the community Our website is W6FSB.com, our meetings are on the last Friday of the month at 10 am in the Lodge Ballroom. Our radio nets are every Wednesday at 5:45 pm. ~ Dick Van Bree, W6RVB

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