Come one, come all, to see what Ham Helpers has received in donated radio equipment. The Free Flea will take place at 2725 NE 14 Ave. Wilton Manors, 33334 from 8 am to 2 pm on Saturday, April 13, 2024.
It is open to all hams, family and friends. Free tailgating.
There will be an ICOM IC-7610 for auction with a starting bid of $750.00. The winning bid will be announced Saturday at 2 pm. Contact information : kennyh4600@gmail.com (ke4nc).
You must come and see what Kenny has scooped up in his trips around Florida. We will see you there!
Submitted by Melanie Fernandez KJ4VCT
Many of you do not know what goes on in planning a Field Day so I thought I would review some of the processes of this past Winter Field Day.
When someone volunteers to head up the committee, in this case Joe McGee NX4T, they map out what they would like to see happen. Joe wanted to see as many different hams as well as club members attend the Field Day and have a good experience. He first thought of how to bring that about and came up with an idea to reach out by Post Cards to hams all over the Broward County area. Normally we had only used the emails we have in our database in the past. The Board agreed to support the project and Joe went to work designing the post cards with the help of Tom Savoca K9TJS, our PIO and webmaster over the December break period. After the design was complete it was sent off to the printer and when they were received by Joe, he went busily to work hand addressing the Post cards using the info from the FCC database for all the general and extra license holders in Broward County. He addressed some 400 cards and since he had not included call signs on them and the general thought was that it would be a better way to bring attention to the cards, a great friend to the club and most gregarious member, Aurora Figueiredo WD4AGF, then took the cards and added all of the call signs to them and sorted them by zip code for easy mailing. I then took all to the post office and put them in the mail.
Of course, although the hopes were that people would RSVP for food prep purposes, we did not get any and thought perhaps the Post cards may not yield any results. On WFD, we found that we got a 3% response in attendees and the visiting hams were delighted to be invited and meet our worker bees for the club. Some had issues with their antennas and other things in their shack but they were introduced to Jeff Stahl K4BH, Ricky Eaton KD4HGR, Tom McClain N3HPR, and Joe McGee NX4T to discuss the issues and get better ideas and the promise of future help with the problems.
It was wonderful to have satisfied people in our midst and we felt the Post Card effort was not in vain.
Joe McGee NX4T also felt that it was of the utmost importance for all visiting hams get a chance on the air during a Field Day so Joe again enlisted the able aid of Tom Savoca K9TJS to write a program where people could register for a time slot on the air of their choosing in half hour increments. This would, one, insure everyone got a chance to get on the air when convenient for them and two, the radio would be busy all day and night long. Thanks to these two gentlemen, who worked all through the Christmas holidays on the program project, its objective was met. Someone was on the radio at all times supporting the club by operating. We had over 15 different operators as opposed to the usual 3 or 5 we normally had on the radio. Some were first time operators and were given a chance to get their feet wet on the air. The GCARA Board were all happy with the result of the efforts of Joe and Tom and the support staff at the WFD. It was a first and it won’t be the last!
Now, if this intrigues you, we would like to invite your participation in the summer ARRL FIELD DAY. With the new ideas Joe spawned for inviting and operating, we managed to gather 54 visitors, all of whom were treated to a good time. The opportunities to shine are endless and Joe has more fun up his sleeve for the summer, as a consultant, to the contest. I admire his enthusiasm and genuine desire to mentor hams. He works with many newbies or shut ins who need help with equipment or whatever. He is one of the most socially active hams among us and I am so pleased he serves as a director in the club. I am also pleased with the hard work and creative designs of Tom Savoca KJ9TJS who saw these 2 involved projects through all of the time constraints and effort it took with such positive feedback and energy. Gentlemen, GCARA thanks you.
……….and that’s the rest of the story!
Submitted by Melanie Fernandez KJ4VCT
Saturday morning ” ham” breakfast.
From 7 to 9 AM interested Hams meet since 1994 at JJs Cafe for breakfast.
Everyone is welcome to join.
JJs Cafe
6051 NW 31st Ave,
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309
http://jjcafefood.com/
Click BELOW to download and print the PDF version NOTE: Meeting minutes are posted online as a draft for review until approved at the following meeting. Corrections can be sent to the Secretary, currently rickiwitte4@gmail.com.
The Gold Coast Amateur Radio Association will sponsor its ARRL Field Day event on June 28-29, 2025 at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach.
Note from Joe NX4T:
Planning has begun for Summer Field Day / Ham Helpers Free Flea Market to be held at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach on June 28/29.
We have decided to have a joint event (again) with Ham helpers, due to a number of expressions of interest and our desire to draw as many participants (and possible future club members) as possible. Kenny H. asks that we use this opportunity to bring any equipment we have to offer to supplement his inventory
We are scheduled and all set to meet again at the Bald Eagle Pavilion, with setup beginning at 8 AM.
Click here to view the ARRL Rules
If you are in a position to help in any of the areas specified in the rules, or in other areas such as food, equipment/personnel transportation, outreach (invitations, publicity), etc, please call or text me at 965-782-3543. Do keep in mind that one or two cannot do it all. Pitch in and help us !).
Regards, 73,
Joe, NX4T
GCARA Field Day Co-Chairman
Click BELOW to download and print the PDF version NOTE: Meeting minutes are posted online as a draft for review until approved at the following meeting. Corrections can be sent to the Secretary, currently rickiwitte4@gmail.com.
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FOR MARCH 2025
CQ, CQ, CQ CALLING ALL HAMS…………..
Luck of the Irish to you in the month of March!!
May the wind be at your back and the sun on your path as you travel through your lives.
I hope that this note finds everyone doing well and what they want to do. The GCARA club is healthy and growing at a continual pace. Our testing program will be stepped up and we will offer testees twelve months free membership in our club so they can get a taste of what we offer them. There are so many wonderful clubs around, each offering a different HAM flavor.
Our club offers interpersonal relationships with mentors, and we serve to point to areas of interest that may be savored by the hobbyist. We engage in education, service opportunities to the community and we practice in the ARRL Field Day in June and WFD in January. We love to maintain the original practices of our predecessors. There is little more rewarding in life than to pave the way for someone’s edification, education and proficiency in a chosen hobby or field. We strive to keep our eyes looking forward while remembering how we got here. Welcome everyone to our vastly unique community of hams.
This month we had our March 29, 2025 Spring Picnic at Vista View park in Davie. We featured RICKI’S Chili and Dogs with our show and tell this picnic to rave reviews.
There were 22 attendees and a lot of gabbing between everyone as they examined Kenny’s Russian radios and other equipment, he is so often able to bring. Ben Echavarria N7BBE brought his go kit to the delight of a youngster in attendance. It was so neat to see the child twirl the knobs through the frequencies and being fascinated by hearing conversation at some spots. We think we may have a ham in training soon.
Our March meeting was absolutely fascinating and we will have speaker Patrick Bolan, owner of Geochron back early next year to show the further development of his Ham Package for the Geochron clock. He has the manual version, and a digital one now and will be enhancing the programs you can run on the clock. There are so many options one can choose from, whether the weather or maritime shipping or aircraft fights or satellites positions etc. There are interactive features which make this item worth obtaining.
We auctioned off a Geochron device worth $450.00 to our attendees and Marty Falk’s wife, Edna, bought it for her husband. Now, they can be tuned in to many different programs on their HD Smart TV. Patrick is offering the kit at a show special of $75.00 off the kit for members of GCARA. The talk was well worth it.
Click BELOW to download and print the PDF version NOTE: Meeting minutes are posted online as a draft for review until approved at the following meeting. Corrections can be sent to the Secretary, currently rickiwitte4@gmail.com.
A slightly used Geochron device is being auctioned off on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at our General Meeting.
It will be described by Geochron owner Patrick Bolan, our speaker, which should make it interesting.
Bids by Zoom or in person.
BIDS START AT $200.00
PLEASE JOIN US. MEETING STARTS AT 7:30 PM.
GCARA MEETING @IMPERIAL POINT HOSPITAL
6401 N FEDERAL HWY.
FT LAUDERDALE FL 33308
If in person, come into Main Entrance by 7 PM. After 7 PM, must enter through the Emergency entrance with security check in.
Zoom Meeting Link: https://us02web.zoom.us
Meeting ID: 823 3968 9781
Passcode: 565513
GCARA SPRING PICNIC
at VISTA VIEW PARK
10 AM TO 4 PM
4001 SW 142 Ave
Davie, FL 33330
Join us for a HAM Spring FLING
FOX HUNT, TO GO KITS
And your friends
CHILI and Hot Dogs
SUGGESTED DONATION FOR FOOD $10.00
PLEASE RSVP!
By Special Invitation from BRARA
BART JAHNKE W9JJ
ARRL LEAD PERSON FOR Logbook of The World (LoTW)
TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2025
6:30 PM (SPEAKER AT 7PM)
Henry Seidner WA2ROA has invited GCARA to attend in person or on ZOOM, their monthly meetings.
Here is a link for a new user guide for LoTW https://www.g4ifb.com/LoTW_New_User_Guide.pdf
BRARA meets at:
WEST BOCA BRANCH LIBRARY
18685 STATE RD 7
BOCA RATON, FL 33498
ZOOM INFO: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86552555294?pwd=Q0FWTFhXT3NMbXhkSzVaRzJNYUlrdz09#success
Meeting ID: 865 5255 5294
Passcode: 123456
Bart Jahnke, W9JJ, started Amateur Radio in his late teens in 1978, becoming a Novice as KA9DLH in January 1979. Taking all the remaining license exam levels at the FCC Field Office in St Paul Minnesota, he upgraded to Tech, Tech Plus, General, Advanced (with call sign change to KB9NM), and to Extra by late 1980. Perusing the Callbooks for unassigned 1×2 calls (didn’t everyone back then?), he later became W9JJ in FCC Vanity Gate 2 in November 1996. W9JJ was the secondary call of local club friend, Bob Baird, W9NN.
Bart grew up on a Dairy Farm in Wausau WI, from a high perch on the hills outside of town. Finding that VHF Weak Signal operating was an exciting challenge and finding that the farm hilltop location afforded extraordinary line of sight, tropo, meteor scatter, aurora and EME opportunities on the horizon, Bart was hooked on VHF/UHF and above DXing. Bart worked many states on VHF on 6, 2, 220 and 432 MHz back then – with 43 states worked on 2 meters in just a couple years from the farm.
My HF’ing was reserved for Field Day, Sweepstakes. But HF and VHF operations continued as guest op visits to the Wisconsin W0AIH/9 & W0AA Farm, as well as the K9IMM and AD9W VHF Multiop Teams.
In 1985, after graduating from Tech School with an ASEE, Bart saw an ad in QST for the position of Repeater Directory Editor which paved a road to his future at ARRL. During his early days at ARRL Bart traveled with the W1XX VHF Hill-topping Team (including operating from the roof at 4U1UN) and he has participated in several VHF/UHF Hilltop Contests with W2SZ/1 FN32 Mt Greylock Team (www.mgef.org), as well as operations from W1AW.
Since these earlier years, building a home station at 3 different locations over time never got me to the station configuration I desired. BUT with the advent of more automations, even remote operations are available to me today. Consider remote operations for your own station challenges (from HF to low microwaves).
Bart has been with ARRL in several different roles. Primarily:
- 1985-1989 Repeater Directory Editor and Contest/Regulatory Assistant
- 1989-2005 ARRL VEC Manager
- 2016-2019 Contest Program Manager
- 2019-present, Radiosport and Regulatory Information Manager (interim Field Services Manager), then more recently Radiosport and Regulatory Information Manager. My present role also includes extensive lead LoTW support.
Bart has been a presenter at several VHF Conferences, Hamfests and Conventions discussing Contesting, Regulatory Information (Volunteer Monitoring) and Radiosport, and enjoys working the Hamfest Booths to assist ARRL Members (and prospective members) in their enjoyment of Amateur Radio.
Bart W9JJ, and his wife Sabrina (KC1JMW), live near Willimantic, CT
Click BELOW to download and print the PDF version NOTE: Meeting minutes are posted online as a draft for review until approved at the following meeting. Corrections can be sent to the Secretary, currently rickiwitte4@gmail.com.