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President's LetterJonathan Pearce, WB2MNFSeptember 2026 |
August is generally a slow month for Club activities - the vacation season combined with summer heat tends to stifle activities. That was certainly not the case this year as August instead offered up a multitude of events and activities for Club members to enjoy.
Rich Subers W2RHS SK
First, though, is a sad note. As most members know our long-time member and friend Rich Subers W2RHS passed away earlier this month after a long fight with cancer. Rich was a constant presence at Club events and contributed significantly to the activities of the Club. About a dozen Club members attended his memorial service. He will be missed by all of us.
CrossTalk Wins National Award
On a happier note, and as you have no doubt already heard, ARRL has awarded CrossTalk First Place in the Large Club category of the 2026 ARRL Year of the Club Newsletter Contest - a national award, out of a field of more than 80 entries. The judges praised our well-written narratives, positive tone, and the variety of content, and felt that CrossTalk made good on our motto, “Learning Stuff. Building Stuff. Doing Stuff - TOGETHER!” The lion's share of the credit belongs to Jeff Garth WB2ZBN, who month after month pulls together the content, the writing, and the polish that make CrossTalk something we all look forward to. I accepted the award on the Club's behalf at the Huntsville Hamfest in Huntsville, Alabama on August 22nd, which this year also served as the 2026 ARRL National Convention.
Jeff, on behalf of the entire membership - thank you, and congratulations. This one is yours.
Revolutionary War POTA Event A Success!
Thanks to the outstanding efforts of Stan Slachetka WA2JRZ about a dozen members took the trip down to one of the southernmost points in New Jersey to operate their POTA stations at the historic Hancock House. This provided an unexpected opportunity for some newer POTA operators to learn from the “pros” about antenna selection and setup, operating practices, power provision and many other aspects of POTA and ham radio operation. The next event is the Fort Mott activity in September which we expect will draw many more members as participants and spectators.
Meteor Scatter Event Brings Out 9 Members for 13 Early Morning Contacts
Despite the ungodly hour of 4 AM nine Club members met at the Clubhouse to attempt to bounce radio waves off of meteors flying through the sky, an activity with as much excitement as watching professional cycling or pickleball. Nonetheless, through the efforts of Sheldon Parker K2MEN who figured out how to get the Flex 6400 to talk to WSJT (there are a LOT of virtual audio devices on a Flex…) and Al Arrison KB2AYU’s relentless operating efforts we were able to work 13 genuine meteor scatter contacts between 4 and 6 AM, as is described in more detail Meteor Scatter Operating page. Thanks to all who were interested enough to get up early to experience this unique part of our hobby.
Inspira Health System Opportunities
On the emergency communications front, John Zaruba K2ZA and I met with representatives of Inspira Health, who would like to establish ham radio communications among their six hospitals. John's experience at Cooper, and his work developing local resources such as our repeaters and APRS digipeaters, was critical to the success of that meeting. Our next step is to design and implement an RF coverage analysis to determine whether these hospitals can communicate using 2 meter simplex with the radios and frequencies available to them, and to identify the alternatives if the simplex option turns out not to be practical.
Philly Meshtastic Leadership Meeting
We also hosted a visit from the Philly Mesh group at the Clubhouse. Four of them made the trip down, three of whom are hams, and at least one has since joined the Club. All were impressed with our Clubhouse facilities. We walked through the HAM1 and HAM2 Meshtastic stations on our tower, and they showed us several innovative designs of their own - including a node with two separate LoRa transmitters that can be managed remotely over the internet, and another built around a floating nautical buoy with its own solar cells and batteries.
The visit was largely a meet and greet, but we had some significant discussions about our respective goals and about coordinating our efforts. In particular we discussed GCARC standing up a MeshCore network, which is of real interest to a number of our members. MeshCore is not an area of interest to the Philadelphia group, but they have no issue with us pursuing it. It was a productive afternoon and I expect we will be working with them again.
GCARC Public Service Communications Organizational Meeting
Finally, a meeting on public service communications was held earlier this month, attended by several stakeholders participating in various aspects of emergency communications. The mission was to assess our current activities and find opportunities to develop a more effective and responsive organization. This topic needs more discussion before anything definitive occurs, but hopefully by the end of the year we will have a structure in place, with committed individuals, to move it forward. This initiative will provide opportunities for all interested Club members to take part in an important function of our hobby.
There is no shortage of things going on, and no shortage of room for more members to take part. If any of the above is of interest to you, please let me know.
73 de Jon WB2MNF
Rich Subers W2RHS SK
First, though, is a sad note. As most members know our long-time member and friend Rich Subers W2RHS passed away earlier this month after a long fight with cancer. Rich was a constant presence at Club events and contributed significantly to the activities of the Club. About a dozen Club members attended his memorial service. He will be missed by all of us.
CrossTalk Wins National Award
On a happier note, and as you have no doubt already heard, ARRL has awarded CrossTalk First Place in the Large Club category of the 2026 ARRL Year of the Club Newsletter Contest - a national award, out of a field of more than 80 entries. The judges praised our well-written narratives, positive tone, and the variety of content, and felt that CrossTalk made good on our motto, “Learning Stuff. Building Stuff. Doing Stuff - TOGETHER!” The lion's share of the credit belongs to Jeff Garth WB2ZBN, who month after month pulls together the content, the writing, and the polish that make CrossTalk something we all look forward to. I accepted the award on the Club's behalf at the Huntsville Hamfest in Huntsville, Alabama on August 22nd, which this year also served as the 2026 ARRL National Convention.
Jeff, on behalf of the entire membership - thank you, and congratulations. This one is yours.
Revolutionary War POTA Event A Success!
Thanks to the outstanding efforts of Stan Slachetka WA2JRZ about a dozen members took the trip down to one of the southernmost points in New Jersey to operate their POTA stations at the historic Hancock House. This provided an unexpected opportunity for some newer POTA operators to learn from the “pros” about antenna selection and setup, operating practices, power provision and many other aspects of POTA and ham radio operation. The next event is the Fort Mott activity in September which we expect will draw many more members as participants and spectators.
Meteor Scatter Event Brings Out 9 Members for 13 Early Morning Contacts
Despite the ungodly hour of 4 AM nine Club members met at the Clubhouse to attempt to bounce radio waves off of meteors flying through the sky, an activity with as much excitement as watching professional cycling or pickleball. Nonetheless, through the efforts of Sheldon Parker K2MEN who figured out how to get the Flex 6400 to talk to WSJT (there are a LOT of virtual audio devices on a Flex…) and Al Arrison KB2AYU’s relentless operating efforts we were able to work 13 genuine meteor scatter contacts between 4 and 6 AM, as is described in more detail Meteor Scatter Operating page. Thanks to all who were interested enough to get up early to experience this unique part of our hobby.
Inspira Health System Opportunities
On the emergency communications front, John Zaruba K2ZA and I met with representatives of Inspira Health, who would like to establish ham radio communications among their six hospitals. John's experience at Cooper, and his work developing local resources such as our repeaters and APRS digipeaters, was critical to the success of that meeting. Our next step is to design and implement an RF coverage analysis to determine whether these hospitals can communicate using 2 meter simplex with the radios and frequencies available to them, and to identify the alternatives if the simplex option turns out not to be practical.
Philly Meshtastic Leadership Meeting
We also hosted a visit from the Philly Mesh group at the Clubhouse. Four of them made the trip down, three of whom are hams, and at least one has since joined the Club. All were impressed with our Clubhouse facilities. We walked through the HAM1 and HAM2 Meshtastic stations on our tower, and they showed us several innovative designs of their own - including a node with two separate LoRa transmitters that can be managed remotely over the internet, and another built around a floating nautical buoy with its own solar cells and batteries.
The visit was largely a meet and greet, but we had some significant discussions about our respective goals and about coordinating our efforts. In particular we discussed GCARC standing up a MeshCore network, which is of real interest to a number of our members. MeshCore is not an area of interest to the Philadelphia group, but they have no issue with us pursuing it. It was a productive afternoon and I expect we will be working with them again.
GCARC Public Service Communications Organizational Meeting
Finally, a meeting on public service communications was held earlier this month, attended by several stakeholders participating in various aspects of emergency communications. The mission was to assess our current activities and find opportunities to develop a more effective and responsive organization. This topic needs more discussion before anything definitive occurs, but hopefully by the end of the year we will have a structure in place, with committed individuals, to move it forward. This initiative will provide opportunities for all interested Club members to take part in an important function of our hobby.
There is no shortage of things going on, and no shortage of room for more members to take part. If any of the above is of interest to you, please let me know.
73 de Jon WB2MNF
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Monday, September 7, 2026
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Friday, September 11, 2026
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Friday, September 18, 2026
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September 18, 1947
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Sunday, September 20, 2026
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Tuesday, September 22, 2026 @ 2005 Hours
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Sunday, September 27, 2026
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Full Corn Moon : September 26, 2026 @ 1250 Hours.
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Corn was ready to harvest at this time. In the 1760s, Captain Jonathan Carver came across this Native American term during his travels. Similarly, the Western Abenaki called this the Corn Maker Moon, and the Dakota, the Corn Harvest Moon. NOTE: Harvest Moon refers to the full Moon closest to the September equinox, which is the tradition that The Old Farmer’s Almanac follows. Moon When Rice is Laid Up to Dry (Dakota) refers to the time of harvesting and processing rice. Autumn Moon (Cree), Falling Leaves Moon |
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(Ojibwe), Leaves Turning Moon (Anishinaabe), Moon of Brown Leaves (Lakota), and Yellow Leaf Moon (Assiniboine) all speak to the leaf-changing season. Child Moon (Tlingit) occurs when young animals are weaned. Mating Moon and Rutting Moon are Cree terms that describe the time when certain animals, such as moose, are ready to mate.
Old Farmer’s Almanac - www.almanac.com