Due to expected inclement weather Saturday morning, the LARC Spring Picnic at Lake Parker Park has been postponed. It has tentatively been rescheduled for March 26, stay tuned for more details.

The LARC Spring Picnic will be this coming Saturday, March 12 at Lake Parker Park. There will be folks arriving early, so whenever you feel like coming out, come on out! There will be portable HF stations set up and operating from the site. If you have never operated a portable station on HF, now’s your time to see how it’s done.

The club will be furnishing the meat (hot dogs and BBQ pork) and is requesting everyone bring a dish to share or drinks. Lunch will start around 11:00-11:30.

Lake Parker Park is at 910 E Granada St, Lakeland, just east of Joker Marchant Stadium.

See you there!

And what does an airplane have to do with it? Well, this isn’t just any special event station.

The Lakeland Amateur Radio Club will be operating a Special Event Station during the Sun ‘N Fun Aerospace Expo, which runs April 5-10 at the Lakeland Linder International Airport.

If you wish to operate the station, which will be on the air from April 5-9, please contact Todd Rush via email at w7str@yahoo.com or text him at 307-250-3706. A parking and attendance pass for the event will be provided for that day that you sign up to operate, and food will be provided.

If you’ve ever spent any time as a shortwave listener (which is how many hams got interested in amateur radio), you’re familiar with the Voice of America. VOA is still on the air, however the shortwave service to America is long gone. It is possible, however to hear broadcasts targeted to other areas of the world.

VoA started on February 1, 1942 with the aim of “correcting” propaganda that was being broadcast by Nazi Germany. Over the years it morphed into telling news to the shortwave listeners of the world from an American perspective and is still a valuable source of information for people worldwide.

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of that first broadcast, three special event stations are taking to the air on February 19th & 20th (sorry for the late notice hihi). W3V, W8O and W4A are taking to the air from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. each day on the HF bands. Electronic QSL cards will automatically be provided to anyone whose information is correct in QRZ, and paper QSL cards will be available for the asking after the event.

For additional info, see the Special Event stations info page in the February issue of QST, or the individual station pages on QRZ. Good luck!

Come to the February LARC meeting tomorrow night, Monday February 14 at 7:00 p.m. You’ll love that we won’t be talking about Valentine’s Day, we’ll be discussing better things like the BikeMS Citrus Tour (March 5 & 6) and Field Day (which will be here before you know it).

But wait…there’s more! The Sun N’ Fun Aerospace Expo is coming up in April, and once again we will have a special event station in operation.

Come to the meeting to learn about all the upcoming events…you never know who’ll you run in to!

After taking a few detours over the past couple of years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ARRL Field Day rules are being updated on a permanent basis starting this summer. ARRL conducted a Field Day community survey with invitations propagated far and wide, and direct emails sent to more than 15,000 individuals and ARRL-affiliated clubs. After sorting through, reviewing, and discussing the survey results, the ARRL Programs and Services Committee recommended a number of rule changes for ARRL Field Day, which will take place this year over the June 25 – 26 weekend.

Starting this year, the maximum PEP output for a transmitter used by anyone submitting a Field Day log will be 100 W. The power multiplier of 2 will remain in place, and the high-power category will be removed from the rules. Until this year, the maximum low-power limit had been 150 W for most ARRL-sponsored operating events. The power multiplier will remain at 5 for QRP participants running a maximum of 5 W or less. As previously announced, 100 W is now the low-power category limit for all ARRL and IARU HF Contests, effective January 1, 2022.

A couple of changes instituted initially as accommodations for the COVID-19 pandemic will remain. Class D (Home) stations will continue to be able to earn points for contacts with other Class D stations. The club aggregate scoring change initiated in 2020 as a temporary measure will become part of the permanent rules. In the aggregate scoring plan, the scores of individual stations are combined under the score of a single club.

Another change, involving Rule 7.3.2 Media Publicity, has been modified. Rules to date have offered 100 bonus points for attempting to obtain publicity and demonstrating same. With the ease of posting via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and various other media websites, Field Day participants will now be required to obtain publicity, not just try to do so. Any combination of bona fide media hits would qualify for the bonus points. For example, posting the details of your upcoming or ongoing Field Day activity, or your Field Day results, on a club or news media site, on Facebook, or via Twitter and Instagram would meet the bonus criteria. Photos and videos are encouraged as part of media posts.

(courtesy ARRL)

That’s right friends…one week from now the 75th Annual Orlando Hamcation (and ARRL National Convention) will be happening!

There are lots of great things to see, a fabulous swap meet and some excellent forums going on. Go to https://www.hamcation.com/ for more information. See you there!