Monday Evenings – 6pm – 7:45pm at the Traverse Area District Library on Woodmere Avenue. Classes begin on September 18 – October 30. The classes are free of charge but, Space is limited, so please reserve your seat by email to email@cherrylandarc.com
The next VE Testing Session is November 11 . You can be ready!
Inside this issue: · Changing of the Guard · Swap-n-Shop Review · Winter Field Day Reports · Important Repeater Update · News you can Use · Coming Highlights · So much more!
If you missed the event (in person or live-streamed, or on local cable channel 189) you can catch the replay of the stream (very good quality and audio) at this link:
contact begins at 33:05, so you can either fast forward or use this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OnrVCbWW9E&t=1975Making Contact with NA1ISS as it passes over North America and within range.Special guest and Astronaut who was on board the ISS Col. Greg Johnson gave a presentation prior to and a Q&A after the event which is very awesome to listen to. WZ8C with Col. Greg JohnsonSome of our AWESOME take-down crew! KD8KXJ, W8RAK, NU8A, WX1J, KE8MJA, N8OCXThe rest of our take-down crew and el-presidente! KC8RLU ( Joe took everything we could throw at him – 12 cinder blocks, 2 antennas, lots of steel framing and lots of hardline and coax. Of the entire take-down crew, I think he got the most waterlogged..)Q&A with Col. Johnson. His exact words: “I’ve been doing this a long time, and I will tell you, this is the NUMBER ONE BEST HAM RADIO INTERCHANGE I’ve EVER WITNESS. I kid you not. It’s the best one. No kidding!”Brook N8OCX, and Joe N8CN Brook designed and built the rack-mounted station and provided most of the equipment shown which was used for the contact.
We continue to receive notes of gratitude, thanks, and interest in the CARC and Ham Radio in general in response to this event which was widely covered in the media:
We are still collecting media files (pictures, video and audio) from many sources and will present these to a future Cherryland ARC meeting and have them available online.
The Cherryland ARC is proud and honored to have assisted to provide the youth of the area a unique opportunity to engage in a once-in-a-lifetime experience and be introduced to cutting-edge technology and the intersecting STEM, Robotics, Mechelectronics, Computer, Biology, and other science-related topics intertwined into this experience. We hope this helps to direct, propel, and inspire our area youth to embrace a high-tech career path and to be fluent with the tools, technology, science, and terminology as we look to them to forge our future.
We wish to thank Dale Williams, Director of the Great Lakes Division of the ARRL for attending, our ARISS mentors Gordon Scannell and Larry Koziel, and the entire ARISS team who incidentally watched our content live while at their yearly face-to-face conference in Canada. We wish to thank NASA, CASIS, and the team at Houston watching the interaction. We wish to thank Astronaut Col. Greg Johnson for his involvement with the program. We wish to thank ALL of the support from the Cherryland ARC, namely financial support from Ernest and Jennifer Abel, David Wilcox, and the New Approaches Center in Traverse City. We also wish to thank the Traverse Area District Library for.. EVERYTHING! They invited us to facilitate contact when a Telebridge style contact (not direct ham radio, a contact via phone line) was a possibility being considered. We are happy that we were given the opportunity to participate in this and make it a success. The TADL team is AMAZING without question, and we thank them for their coordination of literally everything, and unending hospitality, and interest in our group and members.
Finally but most of all, we wish to thank our spouses for tolerating our absence and stress through this process. We intend to repay this debt gradually over time with many kind returns.
Stay tuned for a CJ article and club presentation on this marvelous experience. We hope you were able to tune in!
There will be a program leading up to, during, and after the contact.
We suggest arriving to the Library no later than 8am in order to get a good seat, because they’ll go fast!
TADL will be streaming the event on their YouTube Channel and it will also be on local Charter/Spectrum channel 189. More information about media coverage will be relayed later.
Forecast is for Rain and possible Thunderstorms! Scott WX1J is checking the weather-seal and the feedline protector where the cables enter the building.A double thumbs-up from our design engineer!
All Hands on Deck for Field Day! The Cherryland Amateur Radio Club is planning another awesome Field Day for 2019!
It takes a lot of ham-power to make this a successful event!
This means we need you to come out and give us a hand setting up, taking down and operating at Field Day!
This year we are expecting to have: – Dedicated 20M Phone station – Dedicated 40M Phone station – VHF/Solar station – 2 (yes two!) CW stations, multiple bands each. – FT8 / Digital station – GOTA (Get On The Air) station for people new to the hobby to try operating and make contacts!
To make all of this happen, we’ve got some work to do!
Here’s the rough schedule:
Tuesday, June 18th In lieu of Project Night we will meet at Don Parker’s farm, 4786 E Hoxie Rd, Cedar MI. We will pick up the club’s trailer with generators, necessary antennas, kits, feedline, tower sections, and other necessities. We will deliver these to the Field Day site at 10477 E Fort Rd, Suttons Bay, MI 49682. (no set up is allowed until 2pm Friday. Staging only)
Friday, June 21st at 2:00 PM. Major antenna and tower erection activities. This is when we start the heavy lifting for setting up the Field Day site. We really need your assistance!
Saturday morning, June 22nd. Finish setting up Field Day, install radios and get all the equipment operational.
Saturday afternoon, June 22nd – 2pm. Field Day begins with all stations operating. Come on out and operate or help log contacts. Everyone gets a chance to get on the air! We have a special “Get On The Air” station and coach for all our new hams.
Sunday, June 23rd. Operations continue until 2:00 PM when Field Day officially ends. Then the task of taking down the antennas and packing up the equipment begins. All hands on deck for taking down equipment and cleaning up the site.