ARRL Field Day 2018 … moments away
How can it be that ARRL Field Day (June 23-24) is almost here! And this next meeting on June 18th will be our final opportunity to go through our check list and make sure everything is in place. We hope you’ll be able to participate this year with any or all of the event. Field Day is June 23th, 2 pm to 2 pm on the 24th at Top O’ Ledges in the Hinckley Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks. We’ll be setting up 10:00 am on Saturday and can use all the help we can get.
A printable map to our Field Day site:
Thanks to Tom Bedoc, K8DMM for drafting some press release documents to promote Field Day to the public.
It’s always good to hear new voices on the VHF/UHF 10 meter nets. These weekly on air events are a great way to stay in touch with fellow members and new people. If you’d like to participate in a very special way, we have openings for Net Control Operators. It a great opportunity to meet a fun group of people. A couple of slots are now available. Just let us know you’re interested. A convenient script is available, so you don’t have to ad lib unless you want to. You can always adlib.
In addition to the great camaraderie, participation in the nets can have other benefits. Recently, one of the net participants in the VHF/UHF net became the recipient of a vintage Hallicrafter’s SX-110 receiver that had been donated to the club.
A thought about the benefit of e-minders. Certainly you get early reminders of the upcoming meeting and the program topics. But there’s more! We also tell you about events of interest that you might not learn about otherwise. And if a meeting is cancelled, you’ll be advised early enough to avoid making an unnecessary trip only to find a locked door.
Bandconditions dot com is back
One of my favorite web sites is bandconditions dot com. This site gives a very accurate visual report on the current condition of your favorite HF band. Updated every 30 seconds, it’s all done thorough the magic of special algorithms “explained” on the site. A couple of weeks ago I was disappointed to go read on the site that they were in search of another server, since their Yahoo server could not handle their html2 data. The good news is they must have found a new server that meets their needs.
According to the owner, the world-wide site is extremely popular, and during a recent week saw 4 million users, with thousands of those being new users. It’s simple but beautiful. Check it out.
Hal Rogers, K8CMD President Communications Director