Introduction and Executive Summary for N6R’s 2024 Field Day event

The Ventura County Amateur Radio Society (VCARS) has been privileged to hold its annual “Field Day” event on the grounds of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum since 2001. The Presidential Library provides an ideal location for this weekend event: partially because of its location, partially because of its resources, partially because of the status and prestige that the Presidential Library holds, and partially because of the way in which members of the public are drawn to both the facility and the Field Day event in a synergistic way. In all, Field Day is an event that allows local Amateur Radio Operators (“Hams”) an opportunity to sharpen their operating skills and promote their hobby, a hobby that is as old as radio communication itself. What better place to showcase communications skills, than at a nationally recognized facility dedicated to one of our country’s greatest communicators.

For those not already familiar with the event, “Field Day” is an annual “operating event” organized and promoted by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national organization promoting and supporting the Amateur Radio hobby. The event is always held during the fourth full-weekend in June; in 2024, this falls on June 22-23. The purpose of the event is to provide an opportunity for licensed Hams to challenge themselves by operating under non-ideal conditions, such as might be encountered during an emergency or disaster. As an intended part of the event, our participants must transport equipment and supplies, erect temporary shelters and antenna structures, utilize portable power sources, and operate radio stations for twenty-four consecutive hours (from 11 am on 6/22 through 11 am on 6/23). During that period we attempt to contact as many Amateur Radio stations as possible, exchanging certain prescribed information. In past years, Field Day events at this location have netted many thousands of two-way contacts, and for each of the past several years (with only a handful of stations) our contacts typically extended to all of the (50) United States and several other countries.

Past participants of this event at the Reagan Presidential Library have included members and guests from several local Amateur Radio clubs and organizations. This year, members from the Ventura County Amateur Radio Society (VCARS) will combine efforts with members from the Simi Settlers Amateur Radio Club (SSARC) to organize the event; and during the event’s operation, we will be joined by several other (non-affiliated, invited) Hams from the local area. Interested Hams, public officials, and members of the Press may contact either Vern Potter (W6NCT, Event Chairman, W6NCT@arrl.net), or Stu Sheldon (AG6AG, Event PIO, AG6AG@arrl.net) for additional information about the event.

A Message Regarding License Cost Increases

When I originally went to either “https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/” or “https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings”, and initially ONLY entered in  “20-270”, the best that I could find were a bunch of other peoples comments.  Doing this, I didn’t see an obvious way to add a comment of my own.

Then I came across an easy to follow document from another Ham, which walked me through the easy steps to get a basic description of the proposed change, and submit a comment to the FCC about their Licensing fee proposal.  If you want to submit your own comment (which I highly recommend that you do), it helps if you review some of the other comments (for ideas,…), and write up what you want to say first; then just follow the simple steps (paraphrased and embellished below).  Be aware that the FCC’s online form accepts a variety of formats for attachments (e.g., PDF, txt, ppt, pptx, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, rtf, dwg,…); I used PDF.

Referenced Document

STEPS:

  • Go to “https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings“.
  • In the first box, type “20-270“; it should display a couple options to choose from.
  • Select the “Amendment of the Schedule of Application Fees…“.
  • Then fill out the remainder of the required fields, including,…
    • Name
    • Email
    • Type of filing (i.e., select “COMMENT”)
    • Address of … (i.e., select “Filer”)
    • Address, City, State, Zip (i.e., enter your mailing address)
  • Drop in the file containing your Comments to the FCC regarding the proposed fee assessment.
  • I recommend that you check the box requesting an “Email Confirmation“.
  • Review what you typed (i.e., just in case,…)
    • If it looks OK, select to “Continue to review screen“.
  • If anything is invalid (or missing) in the basic things you filled in, it’ll complain, with an explanation at the top of the page.
    • If your basic entries were OK and complete, it’ll progress to a “Review page”.
  • Review it all again (just to be sure).  If there are any problems, go back and fix them.
    • Once everything looks good, select “Submit“.
  • It should return with a “Confirmation” screen, to acknowledge that your comment was submitted.
  • Now, you are basically done;
    • … but if you had requested an “Email Confirmation” (see above), then you should receive an Email acknowledgement as well.  Mine only took a few minutes.

Feel free to share this information with the other Hams. 

We should try to get as many people as we can to submit comments to the FCC. 
(NOTE:  you don’t have to be a licensed Ham to submit a comment!)

Be well.

Vern

Six Ways to Get the Most Out of Field Day Even If We Can’t Be Together

There are several special amateur radio initiatives planned in Ventura County during Field Day 2020, June 27-28th.  The COVID-19 crisis makes us unable to gather in large groups as we have in the past. We are attempting to recapture some of the camaraderie and fellowship among hams in other ways by making the following options available for those who choose to participate in them.  Nothing here is compulsory.  The idea is to have some fun.  Feel free to participate in whatever interests you.

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Staying ahead of the fires…

As an amateur radio operator, we often find ourselves exchanging and relaying information about fires and other emergencies and disasters. For those that stepped up and helped keep the folks without power informed of the movements and evacuation area changes for the Easy and Maria Fires, I salute you all!

Thanks to Rick Slater for providing this picture from Randy Latimer. This was a shot of Randy’s plane at Santa Paula Airport during the early hours of the Maria Fire.

June is amateur radio month!

(Tuesday June 4, 2019 – Ventura, CA) At their regular meeting of June 4, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors presented a proclamation designating June as “Amateur Radio Month” in recognition of the volunteerism provided by the county’s emergency communications volunteers.

Accepting the proclamation were John Kitchens, NS6X, ARRL Santa Barbara Section Manager, and Rob Hanson, W6RH, ARES District Emergency Coordinator and ACS Radio Officer for Ventura County.

They were joined by a cadre of communications volunteers and representatives of several Ventura County Amateur Radio Clubs, each of which invited the supervisors to inspect their annual Field Day operations on June 22 and 23. .

-submitted by Jeff Reinhardt AA6JR, ARRL Public Information Coordinator, Santa Barbara Section