PCARS (K8BF)

It has been a Great Ride serving the amateur radio community, thank you all. From the early beginnings of taking on an ARRL position in the mid-1960s as an AEC, through several terms as EC, then SEC, Section Manager, Vice Director and then as Director, little did I suspect this whole collection of events.

I know as I walk out the door today that many projects continue on the path to improvement, not all are complete and some are specifically designed to continue to grow in scale.

Now, I ask that you give my successor Scott N8SY the same level of support that you gave me over these many years. Our goal must be to continue to grow ARRL and Amateur Radio. The two are inseparably intertwined and the very future of the World’s Greatest Hobby needs your involvement today more than ever.

This year, the Year of the Volunteer, has been a good way to close out, Volunteers on the Air has loaded my log with contacts, most of my antennas stayed up, I did not cook any equipment and I have heard a lot of kind words from this ham community.

And now I send you my Best Wishes for the coming New Year and all that follow.

Thanks, you are the best!

73,

Dale Williams WA8EFK
Outgoing Director
Great Lakes Division ARRL
dale.wms1@frontier.com

The first Digital Special Interest Group meeting for 2024 will take place on Tuesday January 2nd at 7:00 PM at the PCARS club site. It will also take place on Zoom at the link below.

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

Topic: Digital Mode / HF WAS & DX Nets SIG
Time: Jan 2, 2024 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/96814463409?pwd=bW51VFl2TllsZlNkajJ3NTRhaXVTUT09

Meeting ID: 968 1446 3409
Passcode: 594134

This month we will have a presentation on the Winlink 2000 system, and do some hands-on connects using WL2K. If you are registered with WL2K, bring your password and we’ll get you up and running.

One of the purposes of the Digital Special Interest Group is to help with questions or problems you may be having with digital communications by radio. Please feel free to ask and we’ll help in any way we can! I hope to see you there.

73, Rick K8CAV

Greetings PCARS Members, ARRL Officials, Amateur Radio Clubs and all interested people.

The January 2024 issue of THE RADIOGRAM is on the web and ready for you to enjoy. Ring in the new year with PCARS!

January 2024 Radiogram

In this action packed issue: New Club Officers share their thoughts – Tech Tips on Dipole Antennas – Total Solar Eclipse – POTA Parkspedition – And much, much more!

Please feel free to share this newsletter with anyone who has an interest in ham radio or the Portage County Amateur Radio Service in Ohio (PCARS).

Thanks & 73!

J.C. – KC8JC
PCARS Newsletter Editor – First Issue

Just a reminder: NO Net night at the ClubSite for December! I’m pretty sure some of you guys (us guys) better get our shopping done!

Merry Christmas to you all!

73,
Tom wb8lcd

This is the latest from Bernie McClenny, W3UR and his Daily DX. I thought you PCARS members who are into the Digital modes would be interested.

DX with the digital mode, Olivia, is increasing as more operators around the world are trying it for the first time, and finding it useful for DX on HF, especially when the DX is via trans-polar propagation. The Olivia Digital DXers Club (we’re on Club Log!) is holding the first annual Winter Olivia Digital Mode on HF QSO Party, starting at 00:00 UTC, 24 December 2023, and ending at 23:59 UTC, 31 December, 2023.

Full details are on our website:
https://OliviaDigitalMode.org https://oliviadigitalmode.org/

Olivia, a Multi-Frequency Shift Keying (MFSK) radioteletype digital mode, is an amateur radioteletype protocol designed to work in difficult (low signal-to-noise ratio plus multipath) propagation conditions on shortwave radio (i.e., high-frequency, or HF) bands. The typical Olivia signal is decoded when the amplitude of the noise is over ten times that of the digital signal!

If you are an amateur radio operator, and you have not yet heard about or used the Olivia digital mode, please watch the talk presented to the Raleigh Amateur Radio Society, recently. It is an introduction to the mode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kds4RCQQ8a0

—
73 – Chuck W8PT