Donald Purnhagen K4ILG, PCARS Club Secretary for the past few years, passed away suddenly on the evening of April 6th. He leaves behind his wife Analyn, & his 3 daughters, plus children from previous marriages & several grandchildren. Donald was 65 years old. A Funeral Service was held on April 14th, with several members of PCARS in attendance. PCARS Club President K5LD spoke at the service, by the request of Donald’s family, on behalf of PCARS & the Amateur Radio community in general.

I had met Donald in 2017, at SKYWARN Recognition Weekend, during the late shift. Donald had just gotten his General & was still learning about HF. He operated during the overnight shift, had a great time & was hooked! Donald joined PCARS shortly afterwards & began getting involved in club activities. He volunteered frequently, as time allowed, as he spent quite a bit of time with his 3 daughters. But that didn’t stop Donald, & many a time, he would bring 1 or all 3 of his daughters with him to activities & events. You could say the girls grew up with Amateur Radio, around their Dad. They would come out for Kids Day, Field Day on the GOTA Station, & sometimes come with him during an overnight contest shift at W4MLB. Donald loved contesting & he was our overnight operator much of the time.

Being a Laurel VE, I encouraged Donald to go out for his Extra ticket. He was not completely confident at the time, but he went for it anyway. He passed his Extra & we celebrated after the VE session with a nice Charlie & Jake’s lunch. He was thrilled to pass his exam & he went on to become a Laurel VE himself. He later went on to become a part of several VE test sessions.

Donald went on to become PCARS’ Secretary, as well as its Webmaster. With Donald’s new improved Website, he replaced a 30 plus year old site with an updated modern one, full of content & easy to use. He made updates easy to do & did some great work for the Melbourne Hamfest, coming up with a new easy to understand flyer & reusable forms.

He was also heavily involved in Emergency Communications, becoming PCARS’ EC & later on, EC of the South Brevard area. He did the various training courses for the county. Donald also worked with PCARS’ Go Kits & organized & ran a few local PCARS SETs, to test out the Go-Kits.

Moreover, Donald truly loved being a part of PCARS & on the PCARS’ Board of Directors as an officer. Donald was a friend to everyone he met. & will surely be missed, by always wanting to be involved & lending assistance when needed. This Website is Donald’s legacy.

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.

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