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January 2014
As this is the first newsletter of 2014, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish each of you and your families a very Happy and Healthy New Year! I’d also like to take this opportunity to personally thank and recognize our outgoing club president, Tom Gorman KE2ES, for his hard work and dedication to our club and to his passionate promotion of our ham radio hobby interests throughout all of Southern New Jersey these past two years. It goes without saying that your service is very much appreciated by all GCARC members!
A special thank you also goes out to Art Strong and Gary Mirkin, two other selfless volunteers who have just completed their terms as Directors. As elected at our December meeting, John Zaruba Jr K2ZA and Dan Tremolini N2TXG have stepped up to take their places. New to the trustee ranks is Brian Jones KD2BXD, who fills Steve Blasko’s W2TDS expired position (thank you, Steve). New to the officer position of corresponding secretary is Bart Conrad KC2WVP. Adding continuity to the club officer ranks is Cory Sickles WA3UVV (a former club president) who moves from the corresponding secretary role to the position of club vice president and programs chair for this year. Al Arrison KB2AYU (also a former club president) returns in his role as our club’s treasurer. Sheldon Parker K2MEN returns in his role as our club’s recording secretary. Thank you all for stepping up to help in guiding our club forward in your newly elected positions.
For 2014, there’s more good news. Arrangements have been made so that our club will continue to be able to meet regularly at the Pfeiffer Community Center in Williamstown at 7:30pm on the first Wednesday of each month. However, just a reminder that due to the first Wednesday in January being New Year’s holiday, for this month only, our January club meeting has been pushed back one day to Thursday, January 2 instead.
Reflecting back on 2013, it really was a good year for our club. From public service to social events, word is getting out about our active fun general interest radio club. For 2014, in addition to bringing back great events like a holiday party, we look forward to the possibilities that a new clubhouse has to offer.
And speaking of our clubhouse, as Tom mentioned in last month’s Crosstalk, the transition for completion of our clubhouse project from Bill W4WCS (former N2VIL) to the dynamic duo of Ray W2RM and Bill NJ2S has now occurred. Thank you, Mr. Szkromiuk, for all of your work this past year. Thank you Ray and Bill for stepping up to take his place. Thank you also to the many club members who have continued to volunteer, support, and make donations to the project as well. This “Git-R-Done” attitude of “can-do” is both fun and contagious! Because of your involvement, we are making excellent progress towards the next major milestone on the list, which is completing the work necessary to get to the point of having final inspections, and then being issued a certificate of occupancy! Contact Ray direct via email to get on his “how can I help out next ” distribution list.
On the topic of club finances, if you can, a friendly reminder that club dues renewals are being accepted now by our club treasurer via check sent to GCARC at our P.O. Box 370, Pitman NJ 08071, and in person at our next club meeting. It’s still only $20 (a bargain)!
If you want to make an additional cash donation specifically towards a club project or activity, such as our clubhouse project, you can do so via separate check to GCARC that our club treasurer will handle specifically designated for that separate purpose.
Though there are expected to be some challenges, with your help, together we can look forward to the continued growth and evolution of our club and its service to our communities through this year and into the years ahead. As a general interest club, there’s a wide range of interests represented with the opportunity to meet new people, and to learn about and try something new as we continue to grow in our ham radio hobby together. If you like what you see, invite a friend!
I look forward to 2014, and seeing you at our club meetings and events this year.
Respectfully,
Jim Wright, N2GXJ
February 2014
Wonder what the groundhog will have to say about the rest of our winter? Who better to ask than the Punxsutawney Area Amateur Radio Club*(http://www.punxyclub.com), when they activate K3HWJ again this year as a Groundhog Day special event station! Look for them around 7.225 Mhz, and if you do chase them, be sure to record your contact number to include when requesting your official QSL certificate. It’s crazy hams like these guys that run special event stations like this that keep me laughing.
And speaking of crazy hams, giving new meaning to the phrase, “when all else fails, ham radio gets through”, we had 20 hearty souls make it out to the January club meeting despite the weather. It ended up being an abbreviated evening, as we cut it short after the business portion. Thank you to Cory, who was prepared to give a presentation on “Ancient Modulation”, but graciously postponed it until later in the year so we could head home early before the snow really accumulated.
Yes, warm weather events like our Field Day may seem a ways off, but there is already a buzz in the air. And much of that buzz is coming from work going on by your fellow club volunteers behind the scenes! For example, have you seen the amazing progress being out at our clubhouse site? In case you hadn’t heard, we passed the electrical inspection, insulation and paneling has gone up on the interior walls, and now it’s full speed ahead on completing what is needed to get that certificate of occupancy! Soon, those who want to volunteer with clubhouse operations can step in, to set up operating positions and coax connections. Is it too soon to be thinking about an all-member “grand opening” open house event out at the club site later this spring? You can make this happen!
This has been a busy month for other committees as well. For example, our club’s budget committee was appointed and worked hard to develop a balanced budget, which was presented and approved by the board of directors at their January meeting for presentation at our February club meeting. Our programs chair has been busy contacting and arranging for guest speakers for our upcoming club meetings, including a special guest you may read about later in our Crosstalk newsletter. Our Hamfest committee has initiated the process of scoping out venue, price, and date options. Our repeater committee has ordered the replacement cable needed to get our 70cm repeater back on the air. Our volunteer examiners conducted another successful license testing session. Our database chairman has been busy keeping the roster up to date with new members and change of email and member contact information. Our Club Publications chairman assembles the Crosstalk newsletter while keeping our club’s web page up to date with current events. Our club treasurer has been checking our P.O. box 370, Pitman NJ 08071 for your 2014 dues payments ahead of the March deadline (still only $20, a bargain!), and there is much more - all of which you can expect to hear about at the next club meeting.
As we enter 2014, an amazing 55 years since the founding of our club back in 1959, we have quite a bit to celebrate, and lots of things going on. Join us! Visitors welcome. We look forward to seeing you at our next club meeting, 7:30pm at the Pfeiffer on Wednesday February 5, 2014!
Respectfully,
Jim Wright, N2GXJ
* The Punxsutawney Area Amateur Radio Club Groundhog Special Event Station also uses the W3WAN Repeater System which in our area is 441.700MHz+ (74.4PL).
March 2014
Happy Birthday GCARC! Congratulations to you, our members, for making this the active club it is today! From monthly club meetings and guest speaker programs, to emergency preparedness and public service, to support, to ham radio license testing, and much more, it’s fun to socialize and hang out at club events like field day, fox hunts, earth-moon-earth radio attempts and contesting out at the clubhouse, summer picnic, and winter holiday party with fellow radio heads as an active member of a much larger international ham radio operator fraternity. If you’re reading this, and are not already a member, why not consider joining us?
Speaking of birthdays, did you hear? The ARRL turns 100 this year, and our club is going to be part of that celebration! Throughout the year, W1AW, the ARRL’s HQ operator’s club, is operating portable in each state and most US territories. Our club has been offered an unique opportunity to represent New Jersey by operating a W1AW/2 station in August of this year. At the February club meeting, we discussed this, and enthusiastically voted yes to participate from our new clubhouse! Since then, I have been in contact with our state’s W1AW coordinator, and we’re good to go! Can you imagine being on the receiving end of one of those W1AW pile-ups? Look for more details on how you can participate later this year.
As for club meetings, “Pedestrian Mobile” was the theme of our February club meeting. World-recognized /PM specialist and author Ed Breneiser (WA3WSJ) shared his exploits and expertise with us as guest speaker. Very cool. Clever tricks he had for that water-bottle battery, and for using a piece of a metal tape measure to keep the backpack antenna from snapping on trees. This month, the sky’s not even the limit. You’ll know what I’m talking about when I see you at this month’s meeting.
Been on the radio recently? I’ve heard some Technician class licensees talking about some lucky propagation conditions in both the digital and sideband portions of 10 meters. Were you one of them? While you were there, did you see any special event stations from Russia during the Sochi Winter Olympics on your PSK waterfall? How about any Antarctic week special event stations? I’ve still had no luck getting any Antarctica station in my log. How about you? It boggles the mind how there are sane people who are willingly preparing to stay down there as they head into winter. Did you not get enough of it up here?
Whatever your interest, there seems to be a little something in this hobby for everyone. Glad to have you as part of our Gloucester County Amateur Radio Club. If you like what you see, consider inviting a friend to one of our events or club meetings.
Respectfully, Jim Wright, N2GXJ
April 2014
Finally! Spring is sprung! It was great to have a chance to see some familiar faces again and socialize a bit at the March club meeting after all the bad weather we’ve had for the past few months.
If you missed it, our guest speaker for that evening was our own John Zaruba, K2ZA, who put on a very informative presentation about amateur radio satellites and accessing them. Just goes to show you how diverse the interests in our shared hobby really can be! The next day, I admit it, I went to the AMSAT web site, and then listened at the appointed time for the beacon of a passing satellite. Sure enough, just as John had taught us, there were the Morse code dits and dahs drifting down from higher to lower tones on my 2 meter radio until they disappeared about a minute later, due to Doppler shift, just as he had advised us. A copy of the slides from his “Rocket Science that you can do!” presentation are now posted on our web site under the “Club Programs and Events” then “Past Programs/ Events” tab on the left side of the home page. Anybody else give it a try yet?
March also brought us the highly anticipated “Spring has Sprung” radio direction finding foxhunt club event. What fun! We ended up with a near record breaking six chase cars in the hunt for the tackle-box size transmitter, including several first time hunters. Congratulations to veteran hunter Jeff Garth, KC2WCS on his first win! Jeff was first to find it hidden under a pile of dried leaves in a park off of route 47 just down the road from the Clayton EOC. Some pictures have now been posted under the “GCARC Fox Hunts” tab on the left side of our web site. Who wants to give it a try next time?
For April, more fun stuff is on the way. Check out the special guest speaker that our Programs chair has lined up for the April 2nd meeting. This should be a real treat. Also for April is the possibility of working with a local Boy Scout troop to demonstrate ham radio to their members and parents. Then later in the month, GCARC has been invited to be guest operators on board the Battleship New Jersey! More details, and sign-ups to secure your spot for this event, will be available at the April 2nd club meeting.
If that wasn’t enough, the repeater committee has big plans and news to announce that will affect us this month. Stay tuned! On the Emergency and Public Service front, there may be opportunities to provide radio support to local charity walks. In other news, planning discussions have started for our Field Day in June, and decisions are being made to secure the date and location for our annual Hamfest in September. And then we can talk about this year’s summer picnic!
I want to say thank you to all members who did “re-up” your dues by the March 31 deadline. For the very few of you stragglers who did not, be sure to get them paid in person at the April 2nd meeting. Unfortunately, our constitution requires us to promptly drop you from the club’s membership roll if not paid by then. Nudge, nudge. If you are reading this, please don’t let that happen to you.
Lastly, and with sadness in our heart, we regret to announce the passing of long time club member Stu Cleveland, N2WUP. He will be missed.
Hope to see you at the April meeting,
Respectfully, Jim Wright, N2GXJ
May 2014
While it’s Prom and graduation season for some, for others it’s a month that features a charity walk on Mother’s Day, taking a trip to the Dayton Hamvention, and participation in a Memorial day event in one of our local communities. Welcome to this year’s fifth edition of our club’s Crosstalk newsletter, in this, the fifty-fifth year of our club! Can you believe it? It’s May already!
As you might have noticed, our club was busy in April with a number of events and activities. We started the month with an excellent presentation from John Dilks (K2TQN) who has authored the “Vintage Radio” column for the ARRL’s QST magazine for a number of years. His combined visual/audio presentation on “Radio Pioneers” provided a unique insight into some of the stories behind those who developed and promoted the technology and use of radio that we benefit from today. Thank you, and well done John!
We continued the month with major progress being made each week on the new clubhouse. Thank you to everyone who is involved! If you missed it, you can see new pictures of the flooring going in and other activities, now posted on our web site, w2mmd.org. As of this writing, though there are a number of ‘mostly cosmetic’ things left to do, we are close to applying for our certificate of occupancy. Getting that “CO” will be a major milestone for this project indeed!
On April 18, we had the opportunity to present amateur radio to the Boy Scouts of Troop 9. You can read more about the presentation in this issue of Crosstalk. We look forward to Troop 9 camping out and joining us in some “Get On The Air” action just under two months from now, at Field Day this year!
April also put GCARC at the forefront of the progressive regional amateur radio spotlight when we installed one of the new DR-1 144/430 MHz dual band conventional FM and C4FM digital repeaters from Yaesu for evaluation. If you were at the April meeting, you might have seen this modern marvel that isn’t even available for sale to the public yet. It is now in operation. More details are available on our web site, w2mmd.org. Keep those signal reports coming to the Repeater technical committee, but be sure to date and timestamp them, as adjustments are sometimes being made daily. They’re just getting started! Look for updates concerning planned antenna and infrastructure updates in the weeks ahead.
Wonder what May has in store? Invite a friend and come on out to the next club meeting on May 7 to find out! We’ll be welcoming new members, recapping our visit to the Battleship New Jersey, and more. Hope to see you there!
Respectfully,
Jim Wright, N2GXJ
June 2014
What a great month, GCARC! Let’s start with the clubhouse project. By now you might have heard that we received our certificate of occupancy. Great news! Final touch ups are underway in preparation for an open house and Grand Opening ceremony when she goes on public display for the first time during Field Day weekend later this month. It is due to the efforts of our relentlessly persevering Clubhouse Replacement Project Chairman Ray Martin (W2RM), his generous and hard-working assistant Bill Price (NJ2S), and you, the members of our club, for your unwavering sustained contributions and support to this project from the start, that we can now announce the completion of the replacement phase of this project, and the Grand Opening for our new Clubhouse! Everyone is invited to come on out for an open house on June 28, to take a tour, and celebrate with us in a Grand Opening ceremony, tentatively scheduled at the clubhouse for 7pm that evening.
For many, the highlight of June is nothing less than one of the most fun events that radio clubs all over North America participate in each year; Field Day! And your club is participating in a big way this year, with what looks to be at least 10 simultaneous stations on-air, plus the Boy Scouts of Troop 9 camping out and getting on-air with us this year. With portable generators operating in the field under less than ideal conditions, it’s part emergency preparedness, part public relations, part educational, part contest, and a big part social event for you to share with your friends and fellow club members. If you’ve never been out to field day, this is the year. If you have before, then if not operating, I expect to see you stop by at least to say ‘hi’ for a little while this year! You can read more about it in this issue of Crosstalk, and on our web site w2mmd.org. Field Day Co-Chairmen Mark (W2OCY) and Kyle (W2KBT) Townsend will be at our June 4 club meeting to answer your questions. Directions to our Field Day site are available from our web site, w2mmd.org. Guests and visitors welcome!
On the topic of emergency preparedness and public service, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Ed Champion (N2RO), and to all the ARES/RACES members who provided communications support to the WalkMS event at Washington Lake Park on May 4th, and who will be providing support to the local Tour de Pitman bike race on June 7. If you have not volunteered yet, and can help, many radio volunteers are still needed for the huge MS-150 weekend city-to-shore ride
(Sept 27-28). Club members are encouraged to get involved with ARES/RACES to make a
difference through emergency preparedness in our communities. The ARES/RACES group meets on our 2M repeater at 8pm each Sunday night.
Of course, there is so much more going on. At our June meeting, we’ll hear from club members who participated in the Williamstown Memorial Day parade, and ask those who traveled to Dayton about this year’s Hamvention. We’ll hear from our VEC Liaison about recent license testing, and get an update from our repeater technical committee on recent work performed on our repeater systems. Of course we’ll get the latest updates on the upcoming Field Day (June 28-29), but we’re also likely to get an update on some of the other fun on-air events coming up, like the June 7-8 Museum Ships weekend sponsored by the Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station (recently visited by some of your club members), and the ARRL VHF contest (June 14-16). Hope to see you there!
Respectfully,
Jim Wright, N2GXJ
July 2014
By the time this goes to print, we’ll have just finished Field Day 2014, the most popular on-the-air operating event in Amateur Radio. How did it go? Come on out to the July 2 club meeting for a full recap, and for a preview of our August W1AW/2 operations planned out at our new clubhouse!
There’s plenty to look forward to in July. For example, the ARRL’s National Centennial Convention takes place in Connecticut (July 17-19). There are also on-air events, like the ever-popular IARU HF World Championship (July 12-13), and before that, the “Original 13 colonies” on-the air special event held from July 1 through to the end of the July 4 weekend (July 1-6). Stations working one state, or as many as all 13, will be eligible for a very cool certificate based on the theme “Revolution War Era Colonial Currency”. In addition to HF stations operating in CT, DE, GA, MA, MD, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, SC, and VA, it looks like bonus station WM3PEN operating from Philadelphia, PA will be on D-STAR each evening. Anyone up to the challenge of trying for a “Clean Sweep”? Check out www.13colonies.info for more details. What fun!
June was a busy, but great month to be part of this radio community. We started the month out at our June club meeting during the business portion by recapping progress at the clubhouse site, participation in the recent WalkMS and Memorial Day parade events, and getting updates on our repeater system, and progress towards our September 14th Hamfest fund raising event, amongst other things. We then followed that up with a great evening of socializing during “Free Pizza Night”. It case you missed it, yes, all 4 repeaters (The 1284.4, 442.1, 224.66 Mhz FM and DR-1 147.180 Mhz Digital/conventional FM repeaters) are operational (thank you Al and Cory)!
Among the June highlights was the communications support provided by the ARES/RACES team to the three-race, multi-lap, open-road Tour de Pitman bike race held here in our local community. Congratulations Ed N2RO on a very successful event! Some pictures have been posted to our www.w2mmd.org web site. There was also a successful VE test session held at the Franklin Township public library (thank you Gary N2QEE, and welcome new hams!). And, of course, there was Field Day (thank you to chairmen Mark W2OCY and Kyle W2KBT, Wayne WA2LET on food, and to you, the members of this club, for making this such a memorable event)!
W2MMD to Operate As W1AW/2 from our New Clubhouse, August 8 and 9, 2014
As part of the ARRL’s Centennial Celebration, W1AW is operating portable on the air in each state and most territories throughout this year. W1AW/2 operations return to New Jersey the first full week in August. If you find yourself having “Field Day withdrawal symptoms” about a month from now, this could be the antidote! Our club will be operating out of our new clubhouse as one of
the W1AW/2 stations during this event! I've presently reserved 6 hours on Friday night, August 8, and another 4 hours on Saturday afternoon, August 9. Additional time slots may
be available. Contact me direct if you want to get in on the action.
Wonder what’s next? Invite a friend and come on out to the next club meeting on July 2 to find out! Hope to see you there!
Respectfully,
Jim Wright, N2GXJ
August 2014
The clubhouse is open for business! In conjunction with our Field Day, we held a grand opening ceremony to officially mark the transition from our ‘clubhouse replacement project’ to ‘clubhouse operations’. Already, the extra space has been put to good use. During field day, the air conditioning was on giving a great place for our members to congregate. The “Wayne’s World” cooking crew were busy in the clubhouse kitchen, keeping the operators stoked and the refrigerator stocked for the 24 hours of operation. Prior to the grand opening ceremony, we held a hidden transmitter training activity there with the Boy Scouts of Troop 9 and interested club members, followed by a “Bunny hunt” RDF activity out on the 4-H grounds. Our Board of Directors has been having their monthly meetings there, and on August 8/9, we’ll be operating out of our new clubhouse as one of the W1AW/2 stations as part of ARRL’s Centennial Celebration. It’s hard to believe it was just one year ago in July that the old trailer got hauled off from the clubhouse site. Of course, there’s still some work left to do, but that can resume after we finish an audit of the club books so that we know exactly where we stand before allocating additional funds. Once again, thank you to everyone over these past years that has gotten us to where we are now. Applause, handshakes, and pats on the back to all involved! Well done GCARC!
And speaking of funds, our annual Hamfest is our one big fund raising event of the year. Our 36th Annual Hamfest is Sunday, September 14, 2014 at the 4-H fairgrounds featuring tailgaters and sellers of new, used, and antique radio, computer, and electronic equipment. Mark the date! There will be ARRL VEC License testing at 9am. “Win a Ham at the Hamfest” and door prize drawings starting at 10am. DXCC-VUCC-WAS card checking at 11:30am. Spread the word. Invite a friend. What more can we say. It’s “Hamtastic!” This is a great place to meet other hams from the tri-state region. Come on out and have a good time!
Respectfully,
Jim Wright, N2GXJ
September 2014
Our 36th Annual Hamfest is Sunday, September 14, 2014 at the 4-H Fairgrounds in Mullica Hill, NJ. Spread the word! It’s a great event, some might even say a tradition now, for hams from all over the tri-state area to get together with us at this event, to catch up with old friends, and maybe meet a few new ones too.
If you’re already a ham, and are reading this, maybe there’s a few items you no longer need that you think a new ham might like when getting started that you’d like to part with for a few bucks? You know those new to the hobby would be thankful! Maybe you’d like to pick up a few bargains on things that you need at the same time? You never know. Come and stay as long as you like! The Boy Scouts from Troop 9 will be offering coffee and fairly priced food items again this year. This is the same Boy Scout troop that camped out with us and participated in our Field Day this year. Please support them while they support our event. More details, and a flyer, are available on our web site www.w2mmd.org.
And speaking of fun events, we were proud to have GCARC represented in the ARRL’s Centennial Celebration when we operated W1AW/2 New Jersey from our new clubhouse! You can read more about that later in this edition of your Crosstalk newsletter.
Special thanks to our guest speaker Ray Golley, N3RG, for the outstanding program on building your own VHF/UHF antennas at our August club meeting, and for VP Cory, who filled in for me. I’m looking forward to the program at our September meeting where club member Dan, N2TXG, will be introducing us to these miracle little Software Defined Radio receivers made from inexpensive European TV tuner USB sticks. Hum, I wonder if someone creative out there might find this an interesting combo for our next Fox Hunt activity?
Enjoy your Labor Day weekend. I look forward to seeing you at the Wednesday, September 3 club meeting!
Respectfully,
Jim Wright, N2GXJ
October 2014
What a great day - what a great Hamfest! Our 36th annual Hamfest was held out at the 4-H fairgrounds on Sunday, Sept 14, and the attendance and thanks given to us for hosting this Hamfest from attendees from all over the tri-state area, and beyond, was outstanding! To everyone who attended, and to everyone involved in making this such a great event this year, thank you! Thank you! Thank You!
Special thanks also to all club members who volunteered to provide radio support to the MS City to Shore 2014. This is a major communications support undertaking, and would not be possible without the volunteer support from members like you.
As we look forward to October, there are a number of radio events on the calendar to look forward to. As you may have read about in the September issue of QST, a nationwide ARRL-sponsored Simulated Emergency Test (SET), designed to test your preparedness, is being held on the weekend of October 4. There is also the local Pitman Cropwalk on October 19 that will need communications support. If you are interested in participating in events like these, and in being trained so that you can properly help out during a time of crisis or emergency, you are highly encouraged to join the ranks of your fellow club members who also volunteer their time to serve in NJ ARES/RACES. Think you might have the “right stuff” to serve your county, state, and country in this capacity? This group meets on our club repeater in a directed net each Sunday at 20:00 Hrs local time. Visitors are welcome to listen in. Please make it a point to contact club member Ed N2RO, or Tony KD2AFY direct if you want to get involved, or to learn more.
Also starting at noon on Saturday the 4th is the on-air NJ QSO party. It’s being organized a little differently this year, with defined start/stop times each day, and different multipliers, including a QRP multiplier. Ken N2CQ rocked the NJ scoreboard last year. Who’s up for a little NJ QSO party this year? Check out www.k2td-bcrc.org/njqp for more details.
And don’t forget our GCARC family-friendly Fall Foxhunt (Oct 18), and then the ARRL’s School Club Roundup later in the month. Read on in this edition of your Crosstalk newsletter, and on our web site w2mmd.org, for other radio events happening in October, as well as some good tips for this fall on “Down Jersey DXing”!
Special thanks to our own Dan Tremolini N2TXG, a first time presenter, who introduced us to USB-stick software defined radio receivers at the September meeting. Great job Dan! Other members are encouraged to get involved this way too. What would you like to see on the agenda for next year?
For our next meeting on October 1, our innovative programs chair is setting up for multiple simultaneous Q&A sessions and breakout presentations going on at the same time; you’ll not want to miss it! Consider bringing a friend. Visitors welcome! Hope to see you there!
Respectfully,
Jim Wright, N2GXJ
November 2014
Happy Halloween everyone! Experiencing any “spooky” DX conditions lately? As this edition of Crosstalk goes to press, that great pumpkin in the sky, our sun, has been sporting a sunspot number of over 120 for a few days now, and is showing off a huge sunspot (AR2192) that has so far produced seven M-class solar flares of increasing intensity. But that’s not the only thing going on in the sky. For those who follow rocket launches visible from our South Jersey location, a commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to be launched at 6:45pm (EDT) on October 27 from the NASA’s Wallops Island flight facility. Wallops is only about 110 miles South-South-West as the crow flies from here, making launches easy to see if the skies are clear. If it goes off as planned, it could be a great early evening show!
Looking back at October, it was a month full of radio activities. On air activities included the NJ QSO party and the ever popular CQ WW SSB weekend. Were you a NJ party animal or get a chance to get on the air during either of these events? At the October club meeting, GCARC was recognized for the level of communications support given to the MS 150 bike event this year. It was most appreciated. The credit all goes to you, the members of GCARC, for making events like this happen! Thank you!
October was also the month for our club’s Fall Foxhunt. It turned out to be a wonderful, fun, warm and sunny fall day! Thanks to everyone who participated, and especially to Jeff and the “fox” crew for their deviously clever hiding spot for the transmitter – which turned out to be on a forest trail by a lake, and 10 feet up in the trees!
Earlier in the month, the VE team was busy with another well attended licensing exam session, and the ARES/RACES team had their hands full with the Simulated Emergency Test.
If that wasn’t enough, the ARES/RACES group was back helping in our communities again later in the month, providing communications support to the Pitman Crop Walk. Thank you to all club members who dedicate a portion of their time and talents to improving the quality of life in our communities in these ways.
Enough about October; it’s now on to November! Once again there’s lots going on and plenty to look forward to! For example, have you heard? We’re going to have a GCARC holiday party again this year! Look for news about this, and more, on this website and in the November 2014 edition of Crosstalk, you club’s newsletter.
Respectfully,
Jim Wright, N2GXJ
December 2014
Ah, December – where the days get short, and the DX gets long!
For those that like to keep score, the weeks ahead offer opportunities for
- Going Retro – CQ WW DX/CW (Nov 29)
- Going Long Wave - ARRL 160 Meter contest (Dec 5)
- Going The Distance – ARRL Earth-Moon-Earth contest (Dec 6)
- Going Crazy – ARRL 10 meter contest (Dec 13)
As we hit the homestretch for this year, we see that HR 4969 is gaining support in congress, which, if passed, will offer long deserved reasonable accommodation protections for amateurs living in deed-restricted communities. If you haven’t already, it’s not too late to lobby your congressperson in support of this one!
December also brings to a close the year-long ARRL Centennial celebration, and the chase for all those W1AW portable operations stations. Some might say “thank goodness”, but I know I’ll miss coming home from work on Tuesdays each week, eager to try and find a new one.
Speaking of celebrations, thank you all who have RSVP’d now for our Holiday party celebration on December 11th! Special thanks to Phyllis, W2PDB for coordinating the event this year. As a club, we have much to be thankful for as we look back on this most remarkable year, and the new one ahead. It should be a good time!
The next general membership meeting of our club is scheduled for Wednesday, December 3. In the business portion of our club meeting, we will hold our annual elections from the slate of candidates finalized at our November club meeting. Following the business portion of the meeting, we’ll have a little time for socializing, and then will have a guest speaker for the evening. This month’s guest speaker will give us an introduction to the National Weather Service’s Skywarn program, and how we, as amateur radio operators, can participate. I look forward to seeing you at the December club meeting!
Respectfully,
Jim Wright, N2GXJ