Author: Stan Tahara KR6CV

The Pasadena fire department is offering a class on “Map Your Neighborhood” at Caltech on October 23. MYN provides a step-by-step process to organize neighborhoods to be better prepared after a disaster. In the event of a disaster, your best bet for assistance will come from neighbors rather than first responders. This class will offer instruction on how to identify needs and skills that would be available when needed. 

Dear all,

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer while we still have some left. Below are excerpts from the PRC bulletin with this year’s Field Day results. As you know, we ran the Get On The Air (GOTA) station, and we did a good job grabbing contacts. Nonetheless, it was decided not to include our results with W6KA. Instead, our results were submitted separately as a 1A class station. The reason for not including the GOTA station was a concern that our procedure did not fully comply with ARRL rules. So, to be on the safe side, our results were not included with W6KA. I have to admit the ARRL rules are somewhat ambiguous with regards to operators and coaches. 

I don’t see this as a negative. We all had a good time, and our efforts were productive. If anything, this will be the first time SPARC has participated independently in Field Day. We’ll have to wait for QST to report our overall ranking later this year.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. We can discuss this at our next meeting on August 3. 
73,
Stan KR6CV
President SPARC

In the Pasadena Radio Club (W6KA) bulletin, Paul Gordon N6LL writes:

Our groups made 2150 QSOs. That’s 250 more than last year even though we had one less transmitter on the air.

Our Platinum QSO-Master Award goes to David Hodge N6AN with about 500 QSOs; the Gold to Stan Sander N6MP with 400 Qs; Silver to Mark Seigel W6MES with 300 Qs. The Bronze is shared by David Ockun N2JNR and Eric Farrow W9EO who each made nearly 200 QSOs.

At the GOTA station, over 60% of the people who sat down in front of our radios chose to operate. Most of them made fewer than ten contacts each, but likely the first HF QSOs of their lives. Contemplate the impact! For this Stan Tahara KR6CV and the SPARC GOTA crew win our Grammy award, The Elmer.

A score of non-contest operators Got On The Air. There was often standing room only at the GOTA station, W6SPR, as folk were lined up to make a QSO. Operators who had scheduled time in advance were yielding their time slots to kids who were hot to qualify for the Radio merit badge. Stalwart Michele KC6FSP kept the station running through the wee hours, becoming one of three GOTA operators to make twenty or more contacts. The other two high scorers aren’t even hams… yet. They all kept the GOTA coaches busy serving as control operators. Those coaches, led by Stan KR6CV of SPARC, mentored operations for the full 24 hours.

When the dust settled, 175 contacts were in the GOTA log and 20 participant operators had had a fine introduction to HF, having worked 24 states under the watchful eye of a mentor coach. N6LL declared it was the finest GOTA scrimmage he had ever seen. But then a yellow flag was found on the playing field. Illegal motion in the backfield, they said. We can’t count their score, they said. Woe unto us who have not read the rules. Rules? Rules. Thirteen pages of Rules! And another 15 pages of explanatory Q&A. Upon re-read- ing the rules… again… on the morning after, so to speak, Eagle Eyes discovered that GOTA Coaches are not allowed to do the logging for GOTA participants. Woe is us. It seemed innocuous at the time. And so we do not have a GOTA score. Instead, W6SPR will have its own entry in the listings.

We remain proud of our fine GOTA crew and of the camaraderie and public outreach they provided. You just wait ‘till next year. We can hardly wait !

Jim Mar AA6QI, Field Day chairperson, writes:

Thanks to our SPARC team members, our GOTA station remained on the air operating on HF for the full 24 hours, making 175 contacts. Unfortunately, none of those contacts count towards our score because our GOTA station didn’t strictly adhere to the exacting (and very complex!) GOTA station operating requirements in the ARRL FD Rules. This is clearly my fault as Field Day Chair for not fully understanding these rules myself so that I could ensure that the GOTA team also fully understood what those rules were. Specifically, each GOTA Operator must transmit, receive, log and ad- just the equipment themselves, no one else can do any of that for them. Coaches can only advise the GOTA operators and are not allowed to do any part of what the GOTA Operator must do. Additionally, the GOTA station records must clearly show which contacts go with which GOTA operators and who the Coach was for all times that the GOTA station was in use. While a log was kept, it did not contain enough information to match all of the contacts logged into the computer log with the operators who made them. Thus, we were left with the tough decision of disallowing all of the GOTA contacts. Still, with all of the youth and new operators who made con- tacts on the GOTA station, this was a really OUTSTANDING public outreach activity by the SPARC team that will earn us dividends in the future. We’ll do better with our rule compliance next year!

Thanks to everyone who helped make this year’s Field Day such a fun and productive event!