|
President's LetterJonathan Pearce, WB2MNFJune 2026 |
May was a packed month - a dozen members gathered at the Clubhouse for the WSPR station build sessions on the 2nd and 9th, and a contingent of us made the annual pilgrimage to Dayton. Both are worth talking about.
Hamvention 2026
If you've never been to the Dayton Hamvention, it's a little hard to describe. Imagine 37,924 ham radio operators descending on a fairgrounds in Xenia, OH filling seven buildings with exhibitors selling everything from tower hardware down to individual connectors, with four more buildings running back-to-back seminars all day. Throw in special-interest group dinners in the evenings, and you've got a three-day immersion in everything ham radio.
I flew in, which means I wasn't hauling home a truckload of equipment like some people I know. But my real agenda wasn't shopping - it was intelligence gathering. Dayton is one of those rare places where you can sit in a room with genuine national-level experts on almost any topic in the hobby, then corner them in the hallway afterward for a real conversation. I had three areas on my list : public service communications, satellite telemetry, and a check-in with the TAPR contact who organized our WSPR board project.
Several other GCARC members made the trip as well. Angela and Craig (KE2DRJ and KE2GNU) were there, with Angela focused on youth projects and ISS communications while Craig dug into public service best practices. John O'Connell K2QA, Terry Rossi N2LQH rounded out the GCARC NJ contingent, and it was great to see Tony Starr K3TS who had driven up from his new QTH in PA. Cory Sickles WA3UVV was manning the Yaesu booth.
Public Service Communications
The public service communications session was one of the highlights of the whole conference, at least for me. Michael Stitley KE2CIE is a professional emergency manager who runs a county emergency response team; Jamie Arnold W2GPR is a volunteer ham embedded with that group. Together they made a compelling case for how hams need to think about their role in public service situations - and it's probably not how most of us think about it.
The key insight : we shouldn't be showing up as radio operators. We should be showing up as communications experts who can do things nobody else can do when standard systems fail, get overloaded, or simply don't have the right capabilities. The ability to spin up an ad hoc voice or digital network on short notice, with no infrastructure, is genuinely rare and genuinely valuable - but it only gets recognized if the right people are making the case to public officials before an emergency happens. Jamie was pointed about this : someone needs to be having those conversations now, not during a crisis, and we need to be able to demonstrate credibility to get onto the team. There’s a lot more to having an effective public service team than a few minutes on a weekly net.
We also heard from other groups about creative ways to build that relationship with emergency management. The Sussex County, OH EmComm group, for instance, is certified to conduct post-disaster damage assessments which gets them embedded in the emergency management structure and positions them to expand into communications roles the moment they're needed. Smart approach. All of these folks offered to continue the conversation, which will be a great ongoing resource.
STEM Camp : Space Communications
The other big item on my Dayton agenda was prep work for the Woodruff Middle School STEM Camp, coming to the Clubhouse this summer. This year's theme is Space Communications, and we’re designing it to hopefully be comprehensive and fun. Seven students will spend the camp working with SDR radios, measuring feedline loss, learning orbital mechanics with Gpredict, making actual voice contacts through satellites, and decoding real satellite telemetry. The whole program builds toward a longer-term goal that Angela is driving : a live QSO with an astronaut on the ISS targeted for next year.
Alan Johnston KU2Y, AMSAT's VP of Education and a friend of several of us, was at Dayton, and John K2QA and I both had extended conversations with him about using the AMSAT CubeSat Simulator in the camp. This device lets students transmit and receive the same telemetry format they'd see from an actual satellite in orbit - except that you can see what’s happening to the satellite that makes the telemetry change. Angela will be getting one of these devices at the ARRL Teachers' Space Communications seminar in July, and we'll put it to work at the end of the session. The goal with all of this is straightforward : give these middle school students a head start that shows up later, whether that's in an engineering program, a job interview, or just a lifelong passion for the hobby.
WSPR Build Sessions
About a dozen members turned out for the WSPR station build sessions on May 2nd and 9th - more details and photos are in a separate article in this issue of CrossTalk. Nice work to everyone who participated.
Field Day
But now it’s time for Field Day, GCARC's signature activity of the year, and it's coming up fast. If you're a new member - especially if you're a newly licensed ham - please come out for this. Show up Saturday morning for setup. You do not need to be an experienced operator to contribute; you just need to show up. If you're not ready to sit down at the 40-meter CW station (and honestly, most of us aren't), you can absolutely help K3TS put up his tower and beam. There is something for everyone to do, from antenna work to logistics to operating every mode we've got.
Here's what I'll promise you : if you arrive not knowing anyone, you won't leave that way. That's just how Field Day works.
I'll be running the satellite station. If that sounds interesting to you, find me and we'll chase that 100-point satellite bonus together. If not there are plenty of other opportunities. See you there.
73 de Jon WB2MNF
Hamvention 2026
If you've never been to the Dayton Hamvention, it's a little hard to describe. Imagine 37,924 ham radio operators descending on a fairgrounds in Xenia, OH filling seven buildings with exhibitors selling everything from tower hardware down to individual connectors, with four more buildings running back-to-back seminars all day. Throw in special-interest group dinners in the evenings, and you've got a three-day immersion in everything ham radio.
I flew in, which means I wasn't hauling home a truckload of equipment like some people I know. But my real agenda wasn't shopping - it was intelligence gathering. Dayton is one of those rare places where you can sit in a room with genuine national-level experts on almost any topic in the hobby, then corner them in the hallway afterward for a real conversation. I had three areas on my list : public service communications, satellite telemetry, and a check-in with the TAPR contact who organized our WSPR board project.
Several other GCARC members made the trip as well. Angela and Craig (KE2DRJ and KE2GNU) were there, with Angela focused on youth projects and ISS communications while Craig dug into public service best practices. John O'Connell K2QA, Terry Rossi N2LQH rounded out the GCARC NJ contingent, and it was great to see Tony Starr K3TS who had driven up from his new QTH in PA. Cory Sickles WA3UVV was manning the Yaesu booth.
Public Service Communications
The public service communications session was one of the highlights of the whole conference, at least for me. Michael Stitley KE2CIE is a professional emergency manager who runs a county emergency response team; Jamie Arnold W2GPR is a volunteer ham embedded with that group. Together they made a compelling case for how hams need to think about their role in public service situations - and it's probably not how most of us think about it.
The key insight : we shouldn't be showing up as radio operators. We should be showing up as communications experts who can do things nobody else can do when standard systems fail, get overloaded, or simply don't have the right capabilities. The ability to spin up an ad hoc voice or digital network on short notice, with no infrastructure, is genuinely rare and genuinely valuable - but it only gets recognized if the right people are making the case to public officials before an emergency happens. Jamie was pointed about this : someone needs to be having those conversations now, not during a crisis, and we need to be able to demonstrate credibility to get onto the team. There’s a lot more to having an effective public service team than a few minutes on a weekly net.
We also heard from other groups about creative ways to build that relationship with emergency management. The Sussex County, OH EmComm group, for instance, is certified to conduct post-disaster damage assessments which gets them embedded in the emergency management structure and positions them to expand into communications roles the moment they're needed. Smart approach. All of these folks offered to continue the conversation, which will be a great ongoing resource.
STEM Camp : Space Communications
The other big item on my Dayton agenda was prep work for the Woodruff Middle School STEM Camp, coming to the Clubhouse this summer. This year's theme is Space Communications, and we’re designing it to hopefully be comprehensive and fun. Seven students will spend the camp working with SDR radios, measuring feedline loss, learning orbital mechanics with Gpredict, making actual voice contacts through satellites, and decoding real satellite telemetry. The whole program builds toward a longer-term goal that Angela is driving : a live QSO with an astronaut on the ISS targeted for next year.
Alan Johnston KU2Y, AMSAT's VP of Education and a friend of several of us, was at Dayton, and John K2QA and I both had extended conversations with him about using the AMSAT CubeSat Simulator in the camp. This device lets students transmit and receive the same telemetry format they'd see from an actual satellite in orbit - except that you can see what’s happening to the satellite that makes the telemetry change. Angela will be getting one of these devices at the ARRL Teachers' Space Communications seminar in July, and we'll put it to work at the end of the session. The goal with all of this is straightforward : give these middle school students a head start that shows up later, whether that's in an engineering program, a job interview, or just a lifelong passion for the hobby.
WSPR Build Sessions
About a dozen members turned out for the WSPR station build sessions on May 2nd and 9th - more details and photos are in a separate article in this issue of CrossTalk. Nice work to everyone who participated.
Field Day
But now it’s time for Field Day, GCARC's signature activity of the year, and it's coming up fast. If you're a new member - especially if you're a newly licensed ham - please come out for this. Show up Saturday morning for setup. You do not need to be an experienced operator to contribute; you just need to show up. If you're not ready to sit down at the 40-meter CW station (and honestly, most of us aren't), you can absolutely help K3TS put up his tower and beam. There is something for everyone to do, from antenna work to logistics to operating every mode we've got.
Here's what I'll promise you : if you arrive not knowing anyone, you won't leave that way. That's just how Field Day works.
I'll be running the satellite station. If that sounds interesting to you, find me and we'll chase that 100-point satellite bonus together. If not there are plenty of other opportunities. See you there.
73 de Jon WB2MNF
|
|
Sunday, June 21, 2026
|
Sunday, June 21, 2026 @ 0425 Hours
|
Happy Birthday - June 23, 1939
|
Full Strawberry Moon Monday, June 29, 2026 @ 1958 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). |
|
Old Farmer’s Almanac - www.almanac.com