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Hamfest Lodging & Camping

Hotels

Name / LinkApprox. PriceDistance
Hotel Melby Downtown$0.4 mi
Super 8 by Wyndham Melbourne$ 0.4 mi
Residence Inn by Marriott Melbourne$ 0.7 mi
Hilton Melbourne, FL$ 1.0 mi
Suburban Extended Stay Hotel Airport$ 1.0 mi
Extended Stay America Melbourne Airport$ 2.6 mi
Courtyard by Marriott Melbourne West$ 2.7 mi
DoubleTree Suites Melbourne Beach Oceanfront$ 3.0 mi

Camping / RV

Name / LinkDistance
Wickham Park Campground7.9 mi
Outdoor Resorts Melbourne Beach7.5 mi
Melbourne Beach Mobile Park6.9 mi

PCARS and the Melbourne Hamfest committee provide this information as a convenience and public service. A small sampling of nearby accommodations is provided. Prices are taken from details posted on various Internet travel sites. We apologize for any inadvertent errors or omissions.

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Hamfest Forum Schedule

2023 Melbourne Hamfest

Friday October 13

No forums on Friday at this time.

Saturday October 14

TimeForum TitleMain Presenter
09:00 AMTBDTBD
10:00 AMTBDTBD
11:00 AMTBDTBD
12:00 PMTBD
 		TBD
01:00 PMTBD
TBD
02:00 PMTBDTBD
Big thanks to Gary Bishop NQ0V for coordinating the forums!

All forums will be held in the forum room at the northeast corner of the main auditorium hall. An admission ticket is required to attend forums.

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PCARS Field Day — 2023 June 24th & 25

For the last several years, PCARS has operated ARRL Field Day as an Emergency Operations Center (EOC). In doing so, we utilize the facilities, radios, antennas, & other equipment in our shack, which serves as an emergency communications center in support of the city of Melbourne Fire Department.

Last year in 2022, PCARS was in the process of working on our new trailer. It has just been delivered & it needed some bit of work, to get it complete as a club station again. So, the PCARS BOD elected to hold a traditional Field Day, using temporary equipment, set up out in the field at the Melbourne Fire Department Training Center. It was the 1st time in several years that PCARS actually operated Field Day in the field. The event was well received by club members & other amateurs that came out to operate.

Once again, PCARS will be operating from the “field”, this time from the Melbourne Fire Training Center Smokehouse, a building used by the FD for fire training & can be quickly set up & utilized for emergency communications.

For more background on ARRL Field Day, read our page under Activities.



The public is invited to come out to Field Day and observe or learn about ham radio operation, and how we function to support communication during an emergency. Various stations will be set up for different modes of communication. There will also be displays, and even a chance to operate a radio and make contacts with others, under the supervision of an experienced, licensed operator.

PCARS BOD Member Vince Weal K4JC, will be the 2023 PCARS Field Day Chairman.

Below is last years Field Day posting! Stay tuned here & check for updates on this year’s Field Day activities.

The signs are going up!!!!

Field Day is tomorrow! Starting at 2PM & running thru Sunday afternoon at 2PM, W4MLB will be on the air, running as a 4A (Alpha) station this year.  There will be 4 stations on the air, on 40, 20, 15, & 10/80 Meters. There will be a GOTA station, operating as K5LD. Chuck AD4ES & company, have worked hard to get a world class satellite station set up. And Ed W4ERZ, will be manning an FT8 demo thru the weekend on 6 Meters. 

All pre- setup has been staged, starting this afternoon & staying in the guidelines for setup. There are a few things needed before we go on the air tomorrow, the crank up tower needs to be moved & repositioned, the 40 & 80 Meter diploes need to be put up & a FT3 installed for the GOTA station. 

Our Field Day Safety Officer Clyde KD8AN, has checked out the generators & they are ready to go. As mentioned earlier, Clyde is in charge of the generators. He will be monitoring the systems throughout the weekend. Please report any issues to him, do not attempt to fix things yourself. 

Our Hospitality Chair Karen KO4SQF, will have supplies of water & cooling drinks throughout the weekend.  Please stay hydrated!!! The heat will be upon us & let’s be safe. If this was an actually emergency, we would have the same issues.  Also be sure to wear a hat & sunscreen as well. If you are susceptible to the heat, it is advised to come out later in the day or evening.

For those coming to assist with the final setup, we will have hot dog grilling for lunch. In the evening at 6, we will have our traditional Sarno Pizzas delivered. We encourage bringing your families out, to come see what Field Day is about!

For Field Day operations, we have secured permission from the Training Center,  to use the storage shed in the field. The shed will be outfitted with the 40,20,15 & 10 Meter stations. Filtering will be in place. A portable A/C unit, courtesy of a Silent Key, will be installed to cool the shed. The satellite station, GOTA station, FT8 Demo & the Membership/Public Information Center, will be located in the new club trailer.

On the air operating will use  

N1MM for logging, but no rig or CAT control. Since each radio will be dedicated, this will make logging easy. Also, each station can either work CW or SSB.

There is no formal schedule at the moment. We are encouraging members & non-members alike, to come out & if a station is available, jump on! Work as long or as short as you want. We are promoting a good club fun event/activity & giving everyone that wants to operate the chance to get on the air.

Speaking of which, ANY CLASS OF OPERATOR may operate Field Day. There will enough of us on hand as control operators, so don’t let that stop you from getting on the air.

Final staging & setup will begin at 11AM. If you are able & would like to assist, please come out. We discourage anyone that wants to just come hang out & not help. We have enough to do to keep busy!!

For those not aware of our location, PCARS Field Day will be at:

1980 Hughes Road

Melbourne FL 32935

The location is directly across from Krispy Kreme on Wickham. Turn onto Electronics Dr. & it will take you to Hughes Rd.

Hope to see you during the weekend!!

THANKS & 73!

ARS K5LD 

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ARRL Kids Day — June 19 2021

Twice each year, the ARRL encourages local amateur radio clubs, and individual operators, to host Kids Day events. The ARRL has designated Kids Day to be the first Saturday in January, and the third Saturday in June each year. It is a chance for the younger generations to check out amateur radio, get on the air, and communicate with other kids.

Check out the ARRL website for more information on Kids Day activities.

Contacts can be made around the county using the VHF/UHF bands, or across the country or even the world using the HF bands. When hams are making contacts during organized event, they often have what is called an “exchange”. The exchange for Kids Day contacts is very simple, the kids will exchange their name, age, general location, and favorite color. There will be experienced operators present to coach and help the kids on the radio.

Besides making voice contacts with other kids or hams, the kids can learn about radio equipment, and even the science behind it all. It could spark an interest, and fits right into the STEM curriculum that kids really need.

Kids Day at the PCARS station will start at 2:00 PM (14:00 to hams). Many kids will also be operating from personal amateur station locations across the country. The contacts will continue until 8:00 PM, the PCARS station will close by 5:00 PM unless we have visitors.

The PCARS station will be located at the city of Melbourne Fire Department Training Center, located at 1900 Hughes Rd, Melbourne, Florida .

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Mini SET Exercise — Go Kits!

go kit operation in Wickham Park

On the Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend, May 29, 2021, members of PCARS got together to further the club’s emergency preparedness. The crew assembled at the club shack location at the city of Melbourne Fire Training Center. The purpose of the exercise was to get some more members familiar with the set up and operation of the go kits, and to test the radios’ operation in the field.

Demonstrating the equipment

Prior to this exercise, members had been encouraged to Adopt a Go Kit. This involved checking out a go kit and taking it home for a checkup and overhaul. Members charged the battery for the radio. They also updated the software and charged the batteries for the notebook PC.

The exercise started off with a short demonstration of the go kits for those who were not yet familiar with the components and operation. PCARS has six identical go kits. The major components of each kit:

  • Icom IC-2300H 2 meter only transceiver
  • 12V 35AH SLA battery
  • 110VAC to 12VDC power supply / battery charger
  • 2 x 50′ RG-58 coax with PL-259 connectors
  • Windows 10 notebook PC with two batteries
  • 2 meter J-pole antenna made from 450Ω ladder line
  • Assorted flashlight, tools, connectors, etc.
PCARS go kit with notebook PC

Once everyone was familiar with the equipment, the crew split up into teams. One team went north to Wickham Park. Three groups spread out and set up stations on the grounds of the Fire Training Center. The last group headed south to a private residence near the southern Melbourne city limits and set up in the backyard. This put five of the six kits into the field for testing. The other kit had been tested separately earlier.

NameCall
Don WinnAF4Z
Donald PurnhagenK4ILG
Walter Aucoin JrK5LD
Rob RailerK8RAR
Jim LaukKC9UD
Skip BushKD0CXT
David KnickerbockerKN4ZGM
Bill SchultzKO4NID
Bob CreswickNB4C
Phil TsoW7TSO
Deb MarklyWD8JPX
Alicia PeruginiN/A
Participating Members Present

With the help of the W4MLB station in the club shack, a directed net was established using the PCARS 146.610MHz repeater located at Holmes Regional Medical Center. After testing communications with all stations through that repeater, the group transitioned to the PCARS 146.850MHz repeater located near Turkey Creek in Palm Bay. Once all stations established a connection there, the group finally tested station to station traffic using the PCARS default emergency simplex frequency of 146.580 MHz. One kit had to have the battery replaced, but all communications were successful.

The antenna hung on a balcony

The exercise exposed several areas where things need to be improved. The emergency committee will get together and improve the programing and settings of the radios. A few additional components will also be added to each kit. One more ladder line J-pole antenna needs to be constructed. If there is enough interest, we could have a club project where members could make their own.

The antenna design is very practical. It can be built at a very low cost, and has several qualities which make it a good choice for an emergency, field deployable, antenna. They can be rolled up and stored very easily, and hung just about anyplace. During our exercise, the antennas were hung from low tree branches, and the eave of an outbuilding. Plans can be found in many publications, and of course on the internet.

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Hello world!

Hello world! is a phrase associated with computer programming. It is also appropriate for the website modernization project being undertaken by the PCARS Website Committee.

On Saturday, November 21, 2020, the website committee had a working meeting to plan for a revitalization of the PCARS website. It is realized that there is a wealth of information on the PCARS website. However, it has not kept up with the advances available in modern website design and coding. It was also difficult to edit existing information, and even harder to post new content.

It was decided at the website committee meeting to start development of a new website, to run in parallel with the old website, until such time as it can be switched over. It was agreed upon to use the WordPress content management system (CMS) as the framework on which to build the new site. WordPress is a free and open source software platform for building and maintaining modern, database driven websites.

If you are reading this post, then you have found your way to our preliminary test site, located at: https://pcars.org/wp/

Take a look around. But remember that this is a work in progress. Many things may be incomplete, missing, or not working just right. This is all part of the process. The website committee is looking for members of the club who want to actively participate in this modernization project. We are especially in need of someone with computer graphics knowledge and skills. If you want to help, or just have comments or suggestions, please send them to the committee:

The Website Committee consists of:

  • Daniel Gravereaux – N1ZZ
  • Don Winn – AF4Z
  • Walter Aucoin Jr. – WB5ZGA
  • Donald Purnhagen – K4ILG
  • Dee Kaminski – N4DEE