President's Letter

Jonathan Pearce, WB2MNF

June 2023

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It’s June - and June means only one thing to serious hams : It’s time for FIELD DAY! For the GCARC, Field Day is a weekend of communication, creativity, and camaraderie - for friendly competition with other clubs without the semi-militaristic approach that other groups utilize to “win”. It’s a chance to all GCARC members regardless of license class, age, or experience to get together and enjoy a weekend of ham radio, camping (for some), and showing that hams can, in fact, communicate using improvised stations operating with emergency power.

Who should come to Field Day? EVERYONE! There’s always a need for station operators if for no other reason than to give the primary operators a break. If you’re a little nervous about your operating skill, don’t worry - there are plenty of experienced operators to show you the way. Not sure if your license class covers operating some stations? Don’t worry - the control op’s license class prevails. Got a Technician license or haven’t been active for a while? Sign up for the Get On The Air (GOTA) station that we’re hoping to set up if enough ops are available. Want to let your kids talk on ham radio? Sure - they can grab a mic and make a few Field Day contacts. Want to try satellite operating? Come on over - we’ll be posting the upcoming satellite passes - including the International Space Station - and who knows what might happen???

If you’re new to the Club, Field Day is a great way to meet other members in an actual operating environment. Some unlikely teams have formed in previous years and have been very successful. Got some free time on Saturday morning? Come out and help get the stations set up - we can always use the help.

This year’s Field Day chair is Tony Starr K3TS, a veteran Field Day and HF operator and GCARC past president. Reach out to Tony (tstarr1450@gmail.com) if you haven’t done so already and let him know that you’d like to be involved. Or feel free to just drop by the Clubhouse site to see what’s going on. We hope to have a large turnout for this year’s event.

Field Day weekend is June 24-25, 2023. Setup starts Saturday morning with the contest starting at 2 PM and ending at 2 PM on Sunday.

Other June Activities

The June 7, 2023 General Membership Meeting will include the much-anticipated PIZZA NIGHT, so you may want to skip dinner before that meeting. There's no instructional program planned which will allow more time for pizza eating and local rag chewing.

The June 10, 2023 Tech Saturday Forum will follow up on previous Yaesu System Fusion and DMR presentations and will cover the construction and use of “hotspots”, which are small computers with RF boards that function as gateways between 70 cm radios and other hotspots connected through the Internet. Tech Saturdays also provide opportunities to use the Clubhouse stations, and also inspire many ad hoc discussions among participants.

May Events

Not to be overshadowed by the upcoming Field Day activities, the month of May was extremely productive. Chris Prioli AD2CS presented an interesting Tech Saturday Forum session on programming radios using CHIRP, a software program that can handle a variety of different types of radios. That session was followed by training in radio direction finding as preparation for the fox hunt that occurred the following day.

Meanwhile back at the Clubhouse, Frank Romeo N3PUU and others cleaned up the newly-remounted electrical box and prepared it to handle some upcoming projects. Having received the 4-H's approval for the installation of our new VHF towers, Stan Slachetka WA2JRZ, Ron Block NR2B, and I commenced work on the zoning and building applications, aided by Frank N3PUU’s efforts at obtaining engineers drawings for the towers. Inspired by Len Rust W2LJR’s presentation on DMR, Chris AD2CS and I constructed digital hotspots for the Clubhouse that will aid Yaesu System Fusion and DMR users in accessing other stations throughout the associated network.

This month we welcome the following new members :
Joe Gallagher, KC2VAQ, who has a General Class license and lives in Woodbine, NJ
Jacques Latoison, KC3VYU, who has a Technician Class license and lives in Chester, PA
Phyllis Martin, W2PDB, Returning Member and General Class from Elmer, NJ.

73 de Jon WB2MNF
President, GCARC

Happy Father's Day - June 18, 2023

Summer Solstice - June 21, 2023 @ 1058 Hours

Happy Birthday US Coast Guard Auxiliary - June 23, 1939

Full Strawberry Moon : June 3, 2023 @ 1143 Hours. Used by the Algonquin, Ojibwe, Dakota, and Lakota peoples, among others, this name came about because ripe strawberries were ready to be gathered at this time. Similarly, Berries Ripen Moon is a Haida term. Blooming Moon (Anishinaabe) is indicative of the flowering season. The time for tending crops is indicated by Green Corn Moon (Cherokee) and Hoer Moon (Western Abenaki). Eighteenth-century Captain Jonathan Carver wrote that Native Americans whom he had visited used the term Hot Moon. The Tlingit used the term Birth Moon, referring to the time when certain animals are born in their region. Egg Laying Moon and Hatching Moon are Cree terms for this period.