The BORED Net is a “club-agnostic” 7-times-weekly net on the Bozo Repeater, 147.885 MHz, minus offset and PL of 127.3. 0900 M-Sat, with another net at 2100 Saturday. There is a weekly swap net and a monthly field event, plus an annual picnic. All of this is open to all hams and clubs in Ventura County. But how did this all happen?
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a lockdown in March, 2020. This was a strange and frightening event, but we hams had an advantage over everyone else-our radios.
Zak Cohen, N6PK, started conducting a net every three hours on the Bozo repeater, and for many people it was a lifeline; a bit of normalcy in a very bizarre situation. After several days, he was joined by Stu Sheldon AG6AG, Norm Campbell AB6ET, Keith Elliott W6KME, and Marshall Dormire AE2J. We held nets four times per day, often lasting over an hour. Hundreds of people were checking in, including many who hadn’t touched a radio in years. It was the same time that Zoom videoconferencing was really taking off, and local clubs started having frequent meetings on Zoom as well. Stu had his work cut out for him guiding the net and wrangling the schedule in those days.
This was the year that the ARRL declared that Field Day would be held virtually. While the clubs were using Zoom to make most of their plans, the nets continued to grow as well, all the way up to the end of June. This was when the BORED Net controllers held their first event outside the ent, the Terry Graves Memorial. Terry, K7FE/SK, was a much-loved and missed mentor to many hams int he county. The event was a 2m simplex contest that ensured everybody at any license level would have something to be active with on Field Day. As it turned out, propagation was so bad on HF that year than 2m was where much of the action was, and a lot of people had a chance to be very active on Field Day even without in-person events.
After Field Day, most of the controllers were ready for a break, so Keith took over management of the net with Zak the primary net controller. Ed Zimmermann came on board as the regular Saturday night host, which had become (and still is_ a special net each week. In time, we’ve added a few other regulars, including Stuart Fox K6MQA, Victor Yi W2AYZ and Armen Wood W6ADL. Many others have had a chance to be controller as well, and one major purpose of the net is to be there for people to practice. So far, the log has over 25,000 entries, and the net’s as popular as ever.
Keith had always enjoyed operating “car-portable”, and in 2021 started using the net to invite people to meet up. This turned into µField Day, (µ=”micro”) a monthly get-together with some operating, some stealing ideas from each other, some training, and a lot of hanging around. We try and team up for a joint event with each of the local clubs each year for a combined event, which has been a great chance to get people from different clubs together. There’s another page with more information.
Our other event is a picnic held every fall to remember silent keys, including a net calling those who were lost during that previous year. Ventura County’s ham community is both large and close-knit, and the loss of any one member is felt by all, even those who were not close to the individual. This is one way to pay respect to their contributions.