Ok Club Members I would like to say well done by all members who helped and attended FD2019. We were 5th place for the South Florida Section and Category with a score of 3,864 points. We also came in 7th Place for Category 3A and Power Multiplier of 2 in the South East Division. The South East Division covers Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. So I would like to take this time and say Great Job and Well done to all as we can only get better at Field Day 2020.
73’s
Ricky Eaton KD4HGR
Trustee GCARA
The GCARA meeting year is coming to an end among all the holidays to come. We give thanks for all of our members and volunteers and all those people, too numerous to mention, that instill the best spirit into GCARA. We have our tireless workers, our organizers, our facilitators and many talented people. Thank you one and all.
The November 2 Vista View Picnic was a successful outing for many of us in different clubs. The total attendance was 25 and there were 15 present at any time during the day. We had member of Davie Cooper City, Knights of the Round Table, GCARA, Palmetto Club, and the SE FL. Traffic NET. It was wonderful getting to meet new people and greet our older friends. We had a Fox Hunt and the Fox was discovered by Hank from the Palmetto Club with the best teachers of all, Roy Neiman and Joe McGee. Direction finding is a skill that comes in handy for an amateur radio operator.
Special thanks to the man with the most “spirit”, Kenny Hollenbeck, who is so faithful in bringing in a lot of equipment for our picnics, grills, gas, antennas, ham helpers equipment to give away free. He is always full of interesting stories about ham radio and is the smiling “ham for all seasons” in many of our S. Fl. Clubs. Thank you Kenny for all that you do for everyone! You are a blessing.
The GCARA Board met to discuss Winter Field Day and we have two more volunteers for the Food Committee, Jerry Deitch W4LST and Steve Martin W4NQR. They graciously offered to “lighten the load” for Field Day Food Purchasing and bringing to the various Parks. This is a tremendous relief to myself and Ricki Witte who has to date done most of the shopping, storing and lugging to the picnics. I have a favorite saying, “Many hands make light work.” It is especially true for feeding the crew as large as this! Thank you Jerry and Steve!
In the weeks to come, I wish you all good health, pleasant thoughts and the warmth of family and friends as you celebrate the Holidays. May there be a peace come over our Nation as well as the rest of the World and Goodwill to every single person. Live, give and do your best. Amen…….
Attendees:
Melanie, Jeff Stahl, Ricki Witte, Ricky Eaton, Roy and Joe McGee
Guest: Carol Sjursen
Mike Wolfe was excused due to work.
Call to Order: 3 PM
President Melanie Fernandez, KJ4VCT
Repeater Report:
Ricky Eaton, KD4HGR, TRUSTEE, Mentioned that the Christmas lights are going up, so we’ll have some noise on the Repeater.
Announcements: Carol Sjursen suggested that everyone should pick their spot for the Boat Parade being held on December 14.
Winter Field Day: January 25th This will be simpler this time. No Beam antenna, only easily erected ones. Maybe smaller generators.
We will work the station until 8 PM. We have to vacate the site by 10 PM. Joe and Jeff will head the disassembly of the equipment.
Melanie needs someone to take over handling the food for the various activities. She will bring the credit card and pay. Jerry W4LST and Steve W4NQR agreed to do the heavy lifting. Melanie will also bring it up at the meeting to see if others will volunteer.
Ricki still has no current information regarding the Tax number.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:26PM.
Respectfully submitted by Secretary Roy Neiman KJ4EGN
Call to Order: 7:30 PM
President Melanie Fernandez, KJ4VCT, called the meeting to order and lead the members in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Roll Call:
Roll call of the entire membership present was given. Thirty-five(35) people were in attendance.
Minutes of the Previous Meeting on September 24, 2019 were approved as they appeared on the website.
Treasurer’s Report:
Ricki Witte, KJ4FSJ, gave the Treasure’s Report
Membership Report:
Joe McGee reported that there is a paid membership of 79 people so far this year. About half are ARRL members. He introduced new member David Warren. It’s time to start collecting dues for 2020.
Testing Report:
Three people took the test 1 Tech and 1 upgrade to General resulted.
Repeater Report:
Ricky Eaton, KD4HGR, TRUSTEE, gave us the updated report for the repeater projects being worked on. The Boca site will be serviced in the upcoming months. The new 146.61 antenna is expected to be in and installed by next month.
Webmaster Report:
John Cole, N1QFH is on vacation, need members to submit blogs.
Call for Old Business: Mike Wolf, K2HXC gave out the club shirts.
Annnouncements: Carol Sjursen suggested that everyone should pick their spot for the Boat Parade being held on December 14. She also mentioned the mandatory meeting on December 11th.
The Skywarn class is November 2nd. Please RSVP.
Jeff Stahl said the Cy Harris “Free Flea” will be November 16th. He also invited everyone to the Boca Radiator Grill. Next Saturday.
The Vista View Picnic is Saturday November 2nd $10.00 food donation.
50/50 Raffle:
The raffle was won by Mike Spivak. He donated it back to the club.
SPEAKER: Ricky Eaton gave an interesting presentation on FT8. He demonstrated in real time how easy it is to make contacts with weak signals. He has many awards for contacts all over the world.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:08PM.
Respectfully submitted by Secretary Roy Neiman KJ4EGN
CALL TO ORDER:
The regular meeting of the Gold
Coast Amateur Radio Association, Inc., was called to order on Tuesday,
September 2019, at 7:37 pm in the Auditorium of Imperial Point Medical Center
by President Melanie Fernandez, KJ4VCT. A quorum was present. Following the Pledge of Allegiance, the 35
persons in attendance introduced themselves by first name, call sign, and city.
MINUTES: The Minutes of the July 29th meeting were approved as posted on the website.
REPORTS:
Treasurer
Ricki Witte, KJ4FSJ, gave the treasurer’s report
Membership
Joe McGee, NX4T, reported a total current membership of 79, of whom 63 have renewed for 2019. There are 16 life members and 52 are members of the ARRL.
Joe also gave a preview of our plans for Winter Field Day.
Volunteer Examiners
Jeff Stahl, K4BH, reported five persons had taken licensing tests all five passed.
Repeater Trustee
Ricky Eaton, KD4HGR stated that the 146.610 Repeater is working well. He and Eric decided to wait until after Hurricane season to install the new Antenna. The strange noise on the Repeater has fortunately gone away.
Webmaster Report
John Cole invited members to send articles for the “Blog.” Prepare them in Word, Ariel,14 pt.
Carol Sjursen thanked everyone that manned the shelters for Dorian. Erik presented those persons with symbolic Turtles as a thank you.
The Boat Parade is December 14th this year.
The 50/50 raffle was won by Al Nevares, N4ACN, who donated it back to the club.
October 12th will be our last Quarterly dinner at Wings Plus. Please plan to attend.
Kenny KE4NC asked for volunteers to conduct the SEFTN.
November 2nd is the date for our combined picnic at Vista View Park. $10.00 food donation is suggested.
PROGRAM: Mike Samokiszyn KF4ZYN gave a very informative presentation on the details of DMR radio setup and programming. He emphasized the ease of setting up and using the new system.
ADJOURNMENT:
The meeting adjourned at 9:07 pm.
Respectfully submitted by Roy Neiman, KJ4EGN, Secretary.
Happy Fall Hams! With the recent changes in the weather, I can tell that Fall is upon us. It officially begins the day before our monthly meeting and it will be a welcome change to our rainy summer. Here’s hoping that the Hurricanes stay away.
We had a nice summer with a great Field Day exercise at Quiet Waters Park and a very well attended Quarterly Dinner in July at Wing’s Plus in Coral Springs. The Board has been very pleased with all of the interest and participation in both events.
We plan to close out our year with another strictly Social Dinner October 12, 2019 at Wing’s Plus again and I hope that everyone will join us to touch base with our many friends and fellow hams. As you may realize, the November 26th meeting will close our 2019 year for GCARA and will be the last opportunity to see your friends at a club sponsored meeting until we resume again for Winter Field Day, Jan. 25th 2020. Our first meeting of the year will be after that on Jan.28, 2020. The architects of the Winter Field Day for 2020 will be our “Fearsome Foursome” Joe McGee NX4t, Jeff Stahl K4BH, Ricky Eaton KD4HGR, and the fabulous CW master Dan Vasilca AI4WW.
We are so lucky to have such Field Day diehards among us. They LOVE FD and all it brings in the way of challenges, demands, and socialization with competition. They each try to out do the previous year with thought provoking innovations and lessons gleaned from previous attempts. Thank you gentlemen for your volunteerism and leadership.
It has been my absolute pleasure working with everyone in the club this year. We had an outstanding presence in many efforts in the ham community as we are encouraged our fellow community volunteers (CERT in particular) to learn more about amateur radio and will extend ourselves to many more in 2020. The idea of volunteering will be promoted again in 2020 so we can create a larger footprint in the world of communications during times of community disasters or bad weather conditions. As many Hams are aware, we are hams first for service and to help others keep lines of communication open as well as enjoy this ever evolving fascinating hobby. We are all here to help one another, teach one another and respect one another for the many different skillsets each person brings to the table. Together we are genius!!!
The GCARA Board met in August and discussed all of the plans for the rest of this year and the beginning of next. All but one member of the Board agreed to serve again in 2020 if the Club agrees. Ricki Witte, our super sweet, talented Treasurer must step down for personal reasons for 2020 but we have a newer contender waiting for the opportunity to continue Ricki’s efforts with the position. Our goal in 2020 as Board members will be to execute our future plans AND mentor those willing to offer leadership for our future CLUB. We hope to nourish, enrich, and sustain a cohesive group that will prevail beyond our present limitations. We would like to carry on our founder Chuck Ritchie’s (SK) group of hams beyond our own lifetimes. So many good, talented and intelligent hams have gone before us and it is only suiting that we carry on in their stead. We have large shoes to fill but we will give it our best efforts now and in 2020.
You will be hearing more updates on the repeater antenna and other things in the works by our Trustee Ricky Eaton, KD4HGR at our September meeting. As always he has dedicated a lot of his and Eric Rodriquez, KF4LZA ‘s time to improving our footprint in the county and updating our communication system so it will serve the future adequately. We hope to one day link our resources to others to provide a wider broadcast area at least for times of emergency.
I also want to extend a big thank you to two hams who stepped up in the Hurricane Dorian adventure to cover our service in cooperation with the EOC at John Knox Village, the home of our repeater. Thanks you Joe McGee NX4T and Jerry Felski WB4LGR for attending to the plans set for the in early Spring. We were well represented by these two gentlemen.
I am pleased to have made note that many of our industrious hams were involved with the EOC and shelter communications during Dorian as well. At the EOC, were Carol Surjsen KJ4AWB, Races Coordinator, Jeff Stahl K4BH, Ares Coordinator, Erik Olmer W4EJO, GCARA volunteer, Jeff Ronner W4AEQ, GCARA volunteer and (Bill Rafus from Are Races). In the shelters (special needs first) were Ricki and Mel Witte, Kenny Hollenbeck, Mike Wolf, and Jerry Deitch., Monitoring the airwaves for communication needs were Al Flapan, John Sharp, Don Search, Joe McGee, Jerry Felski, and eavesdropping was Melanie Fernandez, (yours truly for the first time!) It was a fascinating experience and I hope that we will get more volunteers for the future who are willing to jump in and serve the community. The experience served as a “practice for a call –out” and all went smoothly to my understanding.
Our next ham experience opportunity will be the Winter Fest Boat Parade and all people interested in helping that effort are to contact Carol Sjursen. More info on that at the meetings.
I wish everyone well in the ham community and hope that every day will be satisfying in many ways. May God bless each and every one of you in the coming days.
Melanie
09-12-19
Call to Order: 7:35 PM
President Melanie Fernandez, KJ4VCT, called the meeting to order and lead the members in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Roll Call:
Roll call of the entire membership present was given. Thirty Four (34) people were in attendance.
Minutes of the Previous Meeting on July 23, 2019 were approved as they appeared on the website.
Treasurer’s Report:
Ricki gave the Treasure’s Report
Membership Report:
Joe stated that we now have 86 members and 16 life members
Testing Report:
One tech tested and passed.
Repeater Report:
Ricky Eaton, KD4HGR, TRUSTEE said that he needs a method of transportation, for the new Antenna, as it is 26ft. long. Kenny has a trailer that should suffice. It will be installed soon as he and Eric have a crew to assist pulling it up outside the building. The Boca Repeater is fine. The 442.500 Repeater is working exceptionally well. Dirk has the active Fusion system on his building. Ricky also stated that we have no backup for the 146.610 Repeater at this time.
Webmaster Report:
John Cole, N1QFH is on vacation, so no report is expected until September.
Annnouncements:
Barry Porter is coming home and will have home therapy. Jeff Beals has improved and we were happy to see him at the meeting.
Carol Sjursen mentioned that the Class on August 3rd and 4th yielded 24 new hams. She also announced that the Boat Parade will be on December 14th.
Also, there is to be another class on September 9th in Naples, FL.
Jeff Stahl has sold the antenna that he donated. Ricky will sell the other equipment that we have, or it may be auctioned off at a monthly meeting.
We’re hoping to plan another picnic at Vista View on November 2nd. If interested, contact Melanie.
October 12th will be our last quarterly dinner for the year at Wings Plus.
Jim Schilling KG4JSG stopped by and asked for our vote for ARRL Vice Director.
Jeff Stahl is also running for that office. Ballots should arrive around October 3rd.
Ralph Tullo mentioned that the SAR Net’s future is looking better, after so many Hams sent their appeals to maintain it.
50/50 Raffle: Was won by Jeff Ronner W4AEQ. He donated it back to the club.
SPEAKER:
Jeff Stahl gave a presentation regarding how to deal with the stress of being a volunteer in emergency situations. Also, one should get professional help after the emergency, if needed.
After Jeff’s presentation, Mike Wolfe showed some Field Day Pictures.
The speaker was thanked and the meeting was adjourned at 9:09PM.
Respectfully submitted by Secretary Roy Neiman KJ4EGN
Sunshine Committee
- Ron LaFontaine W4RDL
Repeater Team
Trustee
- Ricky Eaton KD4HGR
Technical Advisor
- Eric Rodriguez KJ4LZA
Maintenance Crew
- Joe McGee NX4T
- Ralph Tullo N0LO
- Jerry Felski WB4LGR
- Erik Olmer W4EJO
- Joe Nunnemaker KD3VR
- Jeff Stahl K4BH
- Mickey Galper AA4AC
- Al Flapan AF4FA
- Paul Passman WB0BBC
FIELD DAY
Coordinators
- Joe McGee NX4T
- Jeff Stahl K4BH
- Dan Vasilca AI4WW
- Ricky Eaton KD4HGR
Assistants
- Kenny Hollenbeck KD4ZFW
- Mickey Galper AA4AC
- Mark Lukinovich KW1O
Food Committee
- Melanie Fernandez KJ4VCT
- Ricki Witte KJ4FSJ
- Sherry Tullo KB5VWW
- Ralph Tullo N0LO
- Carol Sjursen KJ4AWB
- Mike Wolf K2HXC
- Jerry Deitch W4LST
- Stephen Martin W4NQR
Volunteer Examiners
Chief Examiner
- Jeff Stahl K4BH
VE Assistants
- Rhonda Pitone KJ4FSH
- Jeff Ronner W4AEQ
- Joe McGee NX4T
- Erik Olmer W4EJO
- Ralph Tullo N0LO
- Sherry Tullo KB5VWW
- Roger Elliot N4RHE
- Ricky Eaton KD4HGR
- Norman Mandel WB4ZQG
- Gary Evans N4TOT
- Roger Johnson AC4RL
Web Site
Editors
- Carol Sjursen KJ4AWB
- Melanie Fernandez KJ4VCT
- Jeff Stahl K4BH
- Ricky Eaton KD4HGR
- Ricki Witte KJ4FSJ
- Erik Olmer W4EJO
Administrator
- John Cole N1QFH
CALL TO ORDER: 8:12 President, Melanie Fernandez J4VCT Opened the meeting Members Present Melanie Fernandez, Jeff Stahl, Ricki Witte, Rick Eaton, Joe McGee and Roy Neiman. Resource: Carol Sjursen. She said we gained lots of interest from Field Day. Carol needs to confirm the dates for the Winter and June Field Days at Quiet Waters Park.
SECRETARY NOTES: Melanie: We need to choose a moneymaking project. Raffle of Ham equipment and Radio, accessories are possibilities. Joe McGee has some donated equipment that we can sell. He will give a list to Melanie. We’ll need to have a nominating committee. All the current officers have agreed to stay on, with the exception of Ricki Witte. We hope to have a Fall Picnic with a Fox Hunt. Plans to be made later. Requests have been made to use the W4BUG by some individuals that are contesting. It was decided that the Board should be involved in the approval process. Rick: The new antenna is here. Rick and Eric will need some way to transport as it’s 26 ft. long. They plan to have 2 people on the ground and he and Eric on top of the building, using a rope to pull it up outside of the building. They are reasonably sure that they can’t take it up inside the building. The noise problem is caused by something in the John Knox building. The Boca Repeater site has had some personnel changes. Rick needs to establish who has access to our repeater. Joe McGee: Agreed to spearhead the Winter Field Day again, along with Jeff Stahl and Dan on January 25th of 2020. We’ll run a simpler version this time, using FPL power and no beam antenna, since it’s a one day affair.
MEETING ADJOURNED: The meeting was adjourned at 9:24 AM EST by President, Melanie Fernandez, KJ4VCT. Respectfully submitted by Roy Neiman KJ4EGN, Secretary.
