CQ, CQ, CQ……….. calling all hams.
Good afternoon GCARA. Thanks to all of the hams involved, GCARA and ARES/RACES was able to pull off a very successful SUMMER FIELD DAY 2025!!
Sixty-eight plus people were in attendance and thanks to the dynamite PIO team of Tom Savoca K9TJS and Carol Sjursen KJ4AWB, the message got out! They hit the ground running about one month ago, making flyers, posting a lot of social media for us, and sending out invitations to various county personnel on our mutual behalf. They obtained a Margate Proclamation for Field Day. It was also Carol Sjursen’s idea to use this event as a cooperative multi-club Field Day experience and it was brilliant. To illustrate the commeraderie of the clubs, Carol created a most beautiful information table with info and cards from all of the clubs in Broward that attended. Nice work Carol!
Since many hams belong to multiple clubs, almost every Broward Club as well as Boca Raton was represented.
Carol took charge, greeting all visitors and extolling the virtues of ham radio and volunteering. She told me she had several non-hams say they would be looking into joining the clubs and testing for new licenses and were excited about the volunteer opportunities that we are presented with as hams. This Field Day coo follows on the footsteps of a very nicely authored and well presented speech at the GCARA General Meeting on Tuesday June 24, 2025 at the Imperial Point Hospital Auditorium. Due to a technical issue, a recording was not made, however, Carol will do it again on tape for the benefits of the many people who are requesting a copy of it. Thank you Carol for all you do in many arenas!
Both Tom Savoca and Carol Sjursen are ARRL certified PIOs and they both worked very hard for this Field Day in particular and GCARA in general.
There are so many good souls to be thankful for this month! I wish to extend my and the club’s gratitude to Joe McGee NX4T who was the main architect in our Field Day again. He planned the technical issues, enticed and called many hams to volunteer, got us published in The Pelican, a local newspaper, as well as constructing a Field Day antenna at his own expense. He took the bull by the horns, unselfishly contributing a lot of time, effort and money to our Field Day but could not see it through in the last two weeks due to personal matters.
Thankfully we have the versatile talents of Jeff Stahl K4BH, who very graciously took over for Joe and finished the planning and executed a practically flawless Field Day. He was able to cover most of the bases of the exercise with his own equipment and with the help of some great volunteers. Not even the blow of Dan Vasilca’s illness, could deter his positive attitude. (For those who don’t know Dan, he is one the most amiable hams who has championed us every event with CW and many times contributes such a high score with CW that it pushes our phone scores over the top.) Get well soon Dan and thanks for volunteering like you always do.
When I say practically flawless, this is not a criticism at all. Jeff adroitly handed unforeseen obstacles, managed a large communication drill and only in hindsight did we recognize there were things we would like to improve on. Needless to say, one of the improvements was not on a positive spirit and a can do attitude. I was so in awe of the tremendous help occurring from all the the hams from different clubs. Each were helpful, cheerful and encouraging to others.
Special thanks to Jerry Deitch W4LST, who is not only President of the Parrot Club, but one of our own Life Time members. Once again, he stepped up to help me with shopping when we had to reassign the enlisted helper to another task. Thank you, David Pomerantz KO4DKN, President of the Palmetto Club, for being so flexible and so much fun to be around. These 2 gentlemen prove that a title does not preclude them from working hard for the benefit of others.
Digitally speaking, we are very grateful to have our Repeater Trustee Ricky Eaton KD4HGR handling the digital station. I vote him one the our best ambassadors as he also helps the Palmetto Club when Mike Sams KF4ZW, the Palmetto Club trustee needs it. He is unflappable in the face of problems, is generous with his knowledge, encouragement to others and his time. He has helped many members with their antenna or technical problems, DMR programming and an assortment of things ham related. I am always yelling across the floor at FD or meetings for Ricky when someone needs help with an HT or the best idea for the shack. GCARA is so fortunate to have a man like this is our midst and along with a tremendously technical person, Eric Rodriguez KF4LZA, they keep the repeater up and running and make our ham lives easy and worry free. Thank you gentlemen for being members and supporting us.
What would a Field Day be without our famous Ricki’s Chili? Ricki Witte KJ4FSJ , our chili chef, is the sweetest miracle to ever cross my path. Since I had invited her many years ago to serve on the Board as Secretary, she has acted as Secretary and as Treasurer (when it was done the hard way) and filled in many years when needed even though she is in demand elsewhere. She is the most generous, fair minded, talented and humble person I have ever met I believe. She wears many hats in life in many organizations, still has a full-time job and STILL MANAGES TO VOLUNTEER in a Special Needs shelter for hurricanes, as a worker for Winterfest Boat parade as well as other endeavors I am not remembering at this time. She is a superb follower and a very gracious leader in many of her organizations. Thank you RIcki, for all you do and have yet to do. You made us two huge crockpots of the best chili in town and we are all grateful to you for doing that despite a painful back injury you were having. Once this gal commits, she commits!! GCARA loves you.
We even had some weather excitement from a micro burst that tore through the Bald Eagle Pavilion close to 9 pm. It upset all of our plastic boxes, ripped the table cloths off the tables, blew down a screened tent that Kenny Hollenbeck had put up for overnighters, and upset all of the food serving area. I heard that it gave our hams present a run for their money chasing the blown about items.
Thank you to Kenny KE4NC and Sally KK4UFH Hollenbeck for providing the Free Flea Table, a tent, solar panels, and all of their service to us at breakdown time. They are both great volunteers and members. Whenever I thank Kenny, he tells me “That is the Lord shining through”. He is storing our FD coolers and boxes for us and is a cheerful person whose everyday disposition is so nice to encounter. He also volunteers in many areas in church as well as ham communication activities. GCARA has no shortage of nice people. When I asked Kenny if he had a successful Free Flea, he replied that he came with 9 boxes of equipment and only went back home with 4. Next event he will place himself more strategically to the front of the venue for a better vantage point. Thanks Kenny and Sally for all of your help.
I wish to thank our helpers and transporters who include Matthew and Tyler Snyder, Half Moon, Jeff Ronner, Mike Wolf, Bill Mercer, Dave Pomerantz, David Warner, Dan Thomas, David Thurman, Mike Meeks, Jim Schwantes, Ben Echavarria, Mark Blanchard and Fred Lindeman. There may have been others unknown to me and God bless you if I forgot to name you. Ben Echavarria N7BBE provided us with educational opportunities with his radios, gave a radio to one of our youngest hams (10 years old and brilliant), and acted as safety monitor for the Field Day. Both he and Mark Blanchard worked diligently with the younger boys that visited us and got them excited about ham radio. Although we wished we could have gotten them on the GOTA station, I am sure they will be back and that this day will be a positive memory for them.
We were visited by Samuel Greenfeld, Henry Seidner and his guest Jane, Hope Smith, Allan Karden, Jay Berman, David Gonzales, Chris Terrell, Stephanie Bergeron, Deborah Cronin, John Williams and his two little girls 7 and 9, (?) Melendez, Vince Adams, Leslie Rood, Andrew Venneman, Julio Herrera, Luis Rodrigues, Mark McGrath and Haylie, Mark Crum, Barry Gardner, Robert White and wife, Aurora Figuieredo, Al Lisner, Warren Oserofsky, Mark Filla, Mickey Baker, James Calcanes, Julio Lopez, Todd Greenstein, Mike Spahn, Lewis Horn, Barry Gardner, Lisa Yau, Brian Guptill, Tom Langford, Ron Keister, Andrew Riviears, Peggy Lindeman, Andrew and Darren Auster, Joe Biddle, Pam Merida, Wm. David Collins, Brad Weidden, Bebe Collins, Jay Silverman, Vincent Croce, Wayne Ferdinand, Sean Robert, Dan Thomas and others who may have forgotten to sign in. Thank you, one and all, for venturing out in the Florida heat to meet and speak with us. Many of you are hams but I conserved electrons by leaving off call signs. Apologies.
Thank you all for a wonderful weekend sharing the fun of the hobby and may you always keep it fun! Come back and see us in January 2026 for Winter Field Day. God bless everyone.
Melanie Fernandez KJ4VCT, President GCARA