Field Day

From the Barnstable ARC web site:

Public welcome! The best time is 3-5pm Saturday or 10-noon Sunday. The event will run for 24hrs. 

During this time you will have the opportunity to get on the air and make contacts with other Field Day stations throughout the country and Canada. All visitors must sign in.

ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. On the fourth weekend of June each year more than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations.

Field Day offers many things to many people, it is a contest, club cookout, emergency drill, social gathering and more. What ever aspect of Field Day you find the most appealing to you, you will definitely have a good time. The “official” goal of Field Day is to contact as many stations as you can in the twenty four hour operating window. This is also BARC’s largest yearly event and we like to have a good time. Saturday evening we all enjoy sitting down to a large pot luck dinner.

Not a contester? Not a problem! BARC operates field day to have a good time. If you have never operated during a contest or another Field Day come on down and we will guide you through all aspects and have you operating in no time. In fact we have a dedicated station for anyone new to Field Day or Amateur Radio. It is the Get On The Air station (GOTA) At this station you will have a dedicated coach to walk you through everything.

All operating is done from the large pavilion area in the center of the camp. We run as a 3A class (The three is the number of transmitters and “A” designates emergency power) this has kept us operating for the full 24hrs last year. Band pass filters are used to eliminate interference from radio to radio. Due to using the filters each radio is more or less assigned to one band at a time. If you want to switch bands you just change operating stations. The radio equipment used during Field day is all personal property of our members. (please respect it)

[Map, Full story]

Members of the Falmouth Amateur Radio Association, Inc. (FARA) will be participating in the national Amateur Radio Field Day exercise, June 22-23, at the Barnstable County Fairgrounds south parking area at Route 151 and Currier Road in East Falmouth. Visitors are welcome at the site starting at noon on June 22.

 Since 1933, ham radio operators across the united states have established temporary ham radio stations in public locations during Field Day to showcase the science and skill of Amateur Radio. This event is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend. For over 100 years, Amateur Radio — sometimes called ham radio — has allowed people from all walks of life to experiment with electronics and communications techniques, as well as provide a free public service to their communities during a disaster, all without needing a cell phone or the Internet. Field Day demonstrates ham radio’s ability to work reliably under any conditions from almost any location and create an independent communications network. With the rapid advancement in technology this day and age, cell phones, computers, and internet, it’s important for people to understand what ham radio is and how it has also advanced with the rapid change in technology as well. 

Ham radio functions completely independent of the Internet or cell phone infrastructure, and can interface with tablets or smartphones. Most ham radio stations can be setup up quickly by simply throwing a wire over a tree for an antenna and using batteries for power. That is one of the greatest things about ham radio, and it’s also beneficial in times of disasters and other emergencies when other communication infrastructures are down.  Anyone may become a licensed Amateur Radio operator. There are over 822,768 licensed hams in the United States, as young as five and as old as 100. For more information about FARA’s Field Day, contact Matthew Trott, KB1MLP, (matthew.trott@ymail.com) or visit the club website at http://www.falara.org.

Andy Wallace, KA1GTT, writes:

[The Billerica Amateur Radio Society] will be on the air as W1HH for Field Day 2019 (June 22 and 23) in Billerica! Operation will be class 2F – two 100W HF CW/SSB stations, at an emergency operations center. We will have emergency power available. Bands used will be mostly 80/40/20 with others as they become open and active. A VHF all-mode station and FT8 digital station may be active as well. Talk-in frequency will be 146.52 simplex (Billerica EMA monitoring) or you can try hailing us on the Billerica W1DC repeater (147.12, 103.5Hz).

Our FD Chair is Ken Caruso, WO1N. Please direct questions to him at his QRZ email address. Ken is managing operating teams and schedules so if you would like to get on the air with W1HH do get in touch with Ken. We will be using teams of two for operating and logging using N1MM software. If you are not an expert, don’t be nervous – our experienced ops are happy to coach you in logging and calling/answering CQs and will get you up to speed. Our site will have areas to socialize, and the building has ample ways to shelter from the weather and bugs, too.

This is a joint effort between BARS and the Billerica Emergency Management team. The site is owned by the Town of Billerica and Kevin Fallon, KB1KTR, was instrumental in making this collaboration possible. The site is located at the Billerica EMA Barracks, 67 Alexander Road, Billerica MA 01821. Our setup will be at the first of the large row of buildings.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/67+Alexander+Rd,+Billerica,+MA+01821/@42.5541393,-71.217767,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e3a06a68d1661b:0x4f031d2d9e1f9b36!8m2!3d42.5541393!4d-71.2155783

Please see the details of the site at the ARRL FD Locator site at:

https://ema.arrl.org/field_day/SiteDetail.php?site=BillEMABk

Please note that visitors must abide by the Emergency Management Agency team rules, one of which is that no smoking or alcohol are allowed onsite. Do come by and see us!

I am very happy to see this effort come together and am excited to see how we do!

Thanks to all involved, ahead of time.

Eliot Mayer, W1MJ, writes on the wara64 mailing list:

On Saturday, June 22, 2018, WARA will combine a club picnic and a 4-hour operation in the ARRL Field Day.

Time:  12:00  – 6:00 PM
Location:  Sunset Shelter, Prospect Hill Park, Waltham (near the repeater site)

The club provides hamburgers, hot dogs, buns, condiments, plates, napkins, etc.    Attendees are encouraged  to  their own (non-alcoholic) drinks and a side or snacks  to share.

The FD operation is very laid back, and everyone is welcome to operate.

[From QRZ, the AARC Newsletter, June, 2019]

This year Field Day will take place from Saturday, June 22nd, to Sunday, June 23rd, in the Training Room of the Central Fire Station located at 215 Maple St, Marlboro, MA.

The event will run from Saturday at 12pm until Sunday at 12pm. Setup will begin on Saturday at 9am. Anyone is invited to participate. You do not need to be a member of the club or a licensed amateur radio operator.