PCARS (K8BF)

Don’t miss out on our upcoming PCARS meeting, which is just around the corner! Be sure to mark your calendars for Monday, June 10, and join us at American Legion Post 496 on Mogadore Rd in Kent. The meeting will commence promptly at 7:00 PM.

During this month’s gathering Tony Romito, WA8AR, the PCARS Field Day Chairman, will be delivering a progress report on the preparations for our upcoming field day event. Assisting him in this endeavor will be the Captains of the CW, VHF, 20, 40, and FLEX stations.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have!

Portage County Amateur Radio Service is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: PCARS Monthly Meeting
Time: June 10, 2024 06:45 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/97799867749?pwd=VFovbkFxSXhzMnF1Qm9kUDhDaksydz09

Meeting ID: 977 9986 7749
Passcode: 575209

Minutes of May 2024 Monthly Meeting:
Click here to see last month’s meeting minutes or use the following link copied to your browser:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/193c-bwlqvamtXROgdFGdhTzT-Ny0rZN0/view?usp=sharing

Mike – KP4VZ
PCARS President

Field Day 2024 – Snacks and Drinks

PCARS will be supplying plenty of cold water on Field Day, along with coolers and ice. For the days leading up to Field Day, temperatures are forecast to be in the high 80’s; creeping to the low 90’s so please stay hydrated and be careful to get enough electrolytes (salt) . Regardless of the daytime temperatures, the nights can get very cool, so operators need to come prepared. Rain is always a possibility! The Club will also have Coffee and a coffee maker in the picnic shelter. There will also be a microwave setup for heating food as needed.

The Club, as usual, will not be supplying Soft Drinks; please bring your own and if possible, some extra for sharing with others. There will be plenty of extra coolers and Ice supplied by PCARS.

Also please donate chips, pretzels or other snacks for sharing. Those operators work up an appetite burning up the airwaves; making all those Q’s!!!

Tony WA8AR,
Field Day Chairman

Volunteers STILL Needed for Setup/Tear Down

As we have done in recent years I will need at least 7 MORE volunteers to assist the Field Day team with Setup and Tear down of antennas and station equipment. If you have done this before, great, but you do not need any experience to volunteer. The Captain for each station will direct all work for their station. If you are a new Ham this is a great opportunity to get hands-on experience putting up a variety of antennas. Setup has normally been completed in about 2 to 3 hours (more or less). Teardown after Field Day has been done in less than 2 hours. If you cannot volunteer for both, no problem, just let me know which task(s) you are volunteering for (Tony WA8AR tromito99@gmail.com) . The Club will supply coffee and water plus pizza for lunch(s).

Here are the Field Day setup/teardown schedules:

Prior to Field Day, a detailed Safety Plan will be distributed to all volunteers. Each Volunteer must read and be familiar with the safety plan. Each Volunteer must sign, date and return a copy of the plan to the Safety Officer. Distribution of the safety plan will be accomplished at least three weeks prior to FD.

SETUP Saturday June 22

8:30am Arrive on site (meet at the picnic shelter of the Freedom Township Park) PLEASE BE PROMPT

8:40am Assignment of work tasks

8:45am Begin Work

12:30pm Antennas up and ready for testing; power cables strung and energized [Pizza Lunch]

2.00pm Field Day Stations On-The-Air

TEARDOWN Sunday June 23

2:00pm Stations Off-The-Air Work begins immediately [Pizza Lunch served before 2:00]

3:30pm All antennas down and stowed for transport. Field Day over and done.

The only equipment the volunteers need to bring are gloves and safety glasses (REQUIRED). Steel toe shoes are always a good idea. Rain gear is essential (just in case). If shoes/boots are not waterproof an extra pair of dry shoes and socks are a good idea. The club will supply a dozen basic hardhats, but I encourage you to bring your own hardhat if you own one. Hardhats must be worn whenever you are working in an area where there is any equipment (antenna components) or any hardware above your head. Remember that even a medium size bolt falling from 25 or 30 feet can cause serious injuries (or worse).

To volunteer for the PCARS Field Day Setup/Teardown crew just send an email to me at tromito99@gmail.com , Specify if you are volunteering for Setup, Teardown or Both as soon as you can. I will confirm by email.

Come out and help make 2024 another successful PCARS Field Day! Email me with any questions.

Tony WA8AR,
PCARS Field Day Chairman

As of 6/4:

ARRL Systems Service Disruption – Updated 6/4/2024

On or around May 12, 2024, ARRL was the victim of a sophisticated network attack by a malicious international cyber group. ARRL immediately involved the FBI and engaged with third party experts to investigate.

This serious incident was extensive and categorized by the FBI as “unique,” compromising network devices, servers, cloud-based systems, and PCs.

ARRL management quickly established an incident response team. This has led to an extensive effort to contain and remediate the networks, restore servers, and staff are beginning the testing of applications and interfaces to ensure proper operation.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as our staff continue to work through this with an outstanding team of experts to restore full functionality to our systems and services.

We will continue to update members as advised and to the extent we are able.

This story will be updated with new developments.

As of 5/29:

VE INFORMATION – Processing Applications to the FCC.

We have resumed the processing of Amateur Radio License applications with the FCC. This includes applications for new and upgrade licenses, individual applications, and club license applications. Exam sessions will be submitted to the FCC in chronological order, from earliest test dates to the latest. Please allow additional time for our processing as the exam session backlog is cleared.

PCARS Members who use LoTW:

I just received this from Fred Freer, K8IG. He thought that our membership should have this update.
Chuck…

As a result of the IT breach at ARRL, LOTW and processing of license applications and other functions have been delayed.
Recently I questioned Cassandra about progress for the restoration of the LOTW. Here is her response:

“We currently do not have a timeline, they are working on getting all systems back up and running as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding and patience while they work to resolve this.”

Sincerely,

Casi Rossiter

Member Services Representative
ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®
225 Main Street, Newington, CT 06111-1400 USA
Telephone: (860) 594-0375 FAX: (860) 594-0303
crossiter@arrl.org
www.arrl.org