May General Membership Meeting
 Thursday, May 1st was our last meeting and our distinguished visitor was none other than the world renowned newsman Walter Cronkite! Ok, so I couldn't book a live appearance, but the ARRL video, "The ARRL goes to Washington" was nonetheless very interesting. It gives new appreciation on just what League membership does for all amateurs. Follow that up with a brief refresher on the various methods of radio propagation, facilitated by a PowerPoint presentation courtesy of Mike DeChristopher K1KAA, and you have the meeting in a nut shell.
 Lots of lively discussion during the break made for an interesting meeting. Chris Yost, who is new to the area and very interested in getting his ticket made the meeting and had a great time!
We all learned of my upcoming extended DXpedition to the middle east. With that, the VP billet will open at the end of July, and according to the by-laws (Article II, Section 5) a special election must be held at the first meeting after the vacancy occurs. This works out to the August Membership Meeting. So get your hats ready, so you can toss them in the ring!
 On my DXpedition, I do intend to continue to maintain the web site, and am taking my IC-7000 with me. I am already in contact with IARS and should have a YI9 call before I get to my place of duty. Additionally I intend to set up a VBARC calling frequency, that I may listen for members at a given time. This way I can listen for you calling and make contact before anyone figures out I am on the air. Once that happens, I'll doubt I'll be able to hear you above the din!
 We even managed to get around to the business of selecting a 2008 Field Day T-Shirt design (well almost). The membership decided that they liked two designs so much that they wanted them combined! So as it stands, both Jim KN4IJ and Steve W4XQ will receive a free T-Shirt from John WB4AXY for their contributions to the design effort. Jim AG4XT gave both designs to Steve to come up with the final, combined design. The winning selections were for Jim's (KN4IJ) design with the Ham "Riding the Waves" and Steve's King Neptune. The ultimate design should feature King Neptune "Riding the Waves"... We will post the design here as soon as it becomes available.
 Joe, KI4RKB gave as a peek at his Ham handiwork (at least to a few of us after the meeting in the parking lot), a nifty little device he made for the tow package on his truck. I don't remember if he had a name for the thing, but it sure makes it easy to pull over and turn his truck into an antenna farm on the fly! You have to see it to believe it! Perhaps we can get him to take a couple of pictures of the thing so we can show it off here!
 I have added all of the pictures I snapped to the gallery, so please take the time to have a look. On that note, if any of you have pictures you would like to add, you can email them to me or use the image gallery's upload function. Also please take advantage of the submit news function, if you have something you would like to see posted here. Don't worry about formatting, just write it and upload or send some pictures and I will take care of the details!
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Technician/General Classes & Testing
Ok, now we are down to the wire! Please make an effort to get the word out this week for those that may be interested in the upcoming classes. Jim has put a lot of time and effort into making this a reality, so please reach out and touch as many as you can. Here is a 
Though we don't think about our brothers across the "big bridge tunnel" as much as we should, they are up there doing good things nonetheless! Lew W4BLO passed along a link to this 
I am sure that many of you know Gavin KD7GJB. He has attended many VBARC meetings, despite living in Suffolk and always being busy with his active duty Navy commitment and also his duties as VP of 
Jon K4KLB has indicated on the Discussion Group that Gavin and family are unharmed, but currently living in a shelter as they have been unable to return to their home. I will post further details as they become available.
About 21 hams participated in the Field Day planning meeting at Great Neck Park Saturday morning. John Roberts, FD Chairman conducted the meeting with VBARC and VADXCC Team Captains and others. 
Station locations were confirmed and everyone felt like any loose ends could be taken care of at the June meeting of VBARC, which will be devoted to Field Day. The attached photos pretty much capture the mood of the event. Steve W4XQ had his newly licensed daughters there showing off their new handhelds. Several people brought their dogs.
