We started June with two Hamfests, both of them on the same day. June 8th found hams in Northern Virginia headed for Manassas. Hams down in the southern part of the state headed for Franklin for their “junk in the trunk” and pig picking at the Bronco Club. Hopefully you were able to attend one of them. But if not, don’t despair, you have two more chances in August. The Vinton Hamfest (just outside of Roanoke) will be held on Saturday August 2nd and the Berryville Hamfest (Winchester area) will be Sunday August 3rd. And looking even further ahead, the Virginia Beach Hamfest will be September 20th and 21st. Are you looking for a new rig or maybe just thinking about a new rig? Attend one of the hamfests and browse the radios on display to find the one you want. Maybe you have enough radios (my XYL understands that in my opinion you can never have enough radios!). Then attend the hamfest to meet many of your on the air friends. Whatever your reason for going to a hamfest, you are helping the hamfest stay alive by attending.
I would like to thank the ARES group in Norfolk for having Ken Murphy, KI4GEM, and I speak at their June meeting. Ken spoke about the tornado that touched down in the Driver area of Suffolk. Ken lives just outside of Suffolk and the tornado passed right over his truck as he was traveling down the road. After Ken’s presentation I spoke about the ARES activities in the Section as well as the new MOU with VDEM. At the time of the meeting the MOU was still in the hands of the lawyers. It is now approved and has been signed. More on the MOU next month.
Kudos to the Chesapeake Amateur Radio Service (CARS). In conjunction with the Chesapeake Center for Science and Technology (part of the Chesapeake Public School system), they provided volunteers and materials for a class on Amateur Radio. They had six students pass their technician licensing exam with two more students studying to take their exam. Congratulations to all.
Ready or not, Field Day arrived. I participated with the Portsmouth Amateur Radio Club (my home club). As usual we turned it into a fun and food event, with some radio thrown in for good measure. Most of my operating was on Sunday morning. I did receive quite a few Field Day messages. I tried to confirm by reply message to most that I had received their message. If you did not receive a confirmation, and would like to have one, please just let me know. We held a testing session at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and had two people pass their technician exam and one person upgrade to General. One of the new technicians had driven four and a half hours to take his test (we were the closest test session). I was so glad he passed after having driven that far! We have tested at Field Day for several years now and have had good turnouts for our sessions.
As I mentioned last month, please stay tuned to our ARES VA web site and our ARRL VA web site to keep abreast of the happenings in the Section. Dan Edwards, AG4YU, is our webmaster and he has been working hard to keep up with the articles and changes we have been sending to him. On the web pages you can find the STM report, the SEC report, and a copy of the signed MOU between Virginia Section ARES and VDEM. Has your group or club done something you think the rest of the section would like to know about? Send your article or information to Joe Safranek, K4JJS. Joe is our PIO and can be reached via email by clicking on his call sign.
If you are up late and would like to say hello, drop in on the Virginia Late Net. I can be found there many nights at 22:00 local (3947 khz).
73
Carl Clements, W4CAC
Virginia Section Manager