Category: News

2020 Ohio ARES SET

See the note below from Stan Broadway Hey gang!  This year’s SET will be October 3 and 4, and it’s going to be a big one!!   As you know, we have been working on Matt’s curriculum of traffic management to take ARES in Ohio up to the next level- by making us much more proficient in sending messages….the one main thing we’re tasked with doing! Matt’s plans this year will make this a LOCAL exercise for your county, and counties around you.  Yes, there’s a broader umbrella program involved, that actually involves FEMA, Washington DC, but the focus is on YOUR county, and the effort has been to put together a realistic exercise that you might easily face in real life. So let’s get warmed up!  Take a look at this video:  https://youtu.be/gPYvqfGARm4   and see if that helps get you excited. We are creating a “message handling” curriculum for ALL ARES members, we think you’ll like it! So far, viewer testing has been really positive! So take a look and get ready for the SET October 3 and 4th!  It’s getting closer. -Stan

FCC Proposes to Reinstate Amateur Radio Service Fees

Amateur radio licensees would pay a $50 fee for each amateur radio license application if the FCC adopts rules it proposed this week. Included in the FCC’s fee proposal are applications for new licenses, renewal and upgrades to existing licenses, and vanity call sign requests.

Clinton County Hamfest 2020

Unfortunately due to recent developments and mandates related to COVID-19, we have decided to cancel the hamfest for this year. Look for us next year!

2020 ARRL Field Day

Wow! What a fun and different Field Day for 2020. Myself and K8DSC operated out of my garage in Blanchester to at least get some fresh air and stay out of the rain. The bands were alive and people all over the world were operating from their homes instead of at their usual FD hangout. It provided a different atmosphere on the radio, there were a lot of 1D and 1E stations doing exactly what K8DSC and I were doing. Everyone on the air sounded genuinely happy to be there! How could you not enjoy yourself? With CCARA not doing its usual joint Field Day due to COVID-19, we setup a Live Contest Results page to help us stay connected from our QTHs. What I found myself doing was engaging in was a little spirited competition with the others by refreshing that page as I racked up more QSOs. What place was I in (even though there were no places to be had)? It was neat, it was fun. I look forward to getting together as a group for next year’s Field Day, but will certainly remember this one fondly and know that we can still meet the objective of Field Day, and that is resourcefulness and creativity. 73,-Andrew W9AMA

Something Big Is Coming

Something big is coming August 15, 2020! Stay tuned to this page for more details.

Temporary Rule Waivers for ARRL Field Day 2020

With one month to go before 2020 ARRL Field Day, June 27-28, the ARRL Programs and Services Committee (PSC) has adopted two temporary rule waivers for the event: 1) For Field Day 2020 only, Class D stations may work all other Field Day stations, including other Class D stations, for points.      Field Day rule 4.6 defines Class D stations as “Home stations,” including stations operating from permanent or licensed station locations using commercial power. Class D stations ordinarily may only count contacts made with Class A, B, C, E, and F Field Day stations, but the temporary rule waiver for 2020 allows Class D stations to count contacts with other Class D stations for QSO credit.      2) In addition, for 2020 only, an aggregate club score will be published, which will be the sum of all individual entries indicating a specific club (similar to the aggregate score totals used in ARRL affiliated club competitions).      Ordinarily, club names are only published in the results for Class A and Class F entries, but the temporary rule waiver for 2020 allows participants from any Class to optionally include a single club name with their submitted results following Field Day.      For example, if Podunk Hollow Radio Club members Becky, W1BXY, and Hiram, W1AW, both participate in 2020 Field Day — Hiram from his Class D home station, and Becky from her Class C mobile station — both can include the radio club’s name when reporting their individual results. The published results listing will include individual scores for Hiram and Becky, plus a combined score for all entries identified as Podunk Hollow Radio Club. The temporary rule waivers were adopted by the PSC on May 27, 2020.

A Message From Club President Dave G. K8DEG

Just to keep everyone up to date. We are planning on having a Tech class. The class will be either online using Webex or ZOOM, or after all of this is over and we feel we can do it safely, in person. If you or anyone you know would be interested in an online training class, please reply to this or send us a message. We are also looking into doing some videos and posting them to our own YouTube channel. There are a few subjects we want to cover, but if you have suggestions please again let us know. We are having a Thursday night Net at 7:30 pm on our 147.120 repeater. Informal Net just to keep the radio busy 🙂. Andrew is working on a rewrite of the CCARA webpage and it looks great! That all I have right now, more to come. 73 K8DEG Dave

Leap into Digital

We had a great day on leap day at the shack playing around with digital.

Winter Field Day Results

Winter Field Day this year was an overwhelming success. We would like to say a special thank you to Caesar Creek Flea Market for being such great hosts for this year’s event.  Additionally we would also like to thank all those CCARA members who came out to help get the “shack” fixed up and setup to operate.  It was very much a team effort.  Thanks to all those who showed up to participate or just say hi! We operated 3 stations for the event connected to 3 antennas including a G5RV and a MFJ2012 OCFD.  Icom 7300s were used throughout the entire event and an Icom 7200 was used for day 1. Country Total USA 102 Canada 7 Alaska 2 Northern Ireland 1 Slovenia 1 Band CW Phone Dig 160 0 1 0 80 0 39 0 40 0 55 0 20 0 18 0 Total 0 113 0