ARRL Field Day 2024 Report

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on July 9, 2024

CARS and UPARC have used the Clearwater Fire Training Center for both summer (ARRL) and winter field day for quite a few years now. This year was no different. Members and guests from both clubs set out on Saturday June 22, 2024 bright and early to setup temporary antennas and operating positions at the wonderful Clearwater Fire Training Center off of Belcher Road in Clearwater. A total of 50 people stopped by to setup, operate, enjoy lunch, socialize, and tear-down the site all commencing at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning.

As the clubs have operated from this site several times and know the ins and outs of the site, this year we “mixed it up” a bit by using only … Read the rest

ARRL Field Day 2024

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on May 31, 2024

Last Day to signup to guarantee food is Monday June 17th, 2024 at 11:59 PM EDT.

Sign-up link: https://forms.gle/6K12y76MakHGtDHL7

ARRL Field Day is a combined event to test our ability to setup radio communication under less than ideal conditions–think temporary antennas, generators and radio gear. Our event this year is a combined event with two clubs—the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS) and the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club (UPARC). The date is Saturday, June 22ndstarting at 2:00 PM until Sunday, June 23rd at 2:00 PM. Setup generally begins in earnest at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning. The location for all of this is the Clearwater Fire Department Fire Training Center at 1716 N. Belcher Road in Clearwater. Click here… Read the rest

UPARC in the Park Event – April 2024

By Fred Botero on April 30, 2024

On Saturday, April 20th members of UPARC met at Honeymoon Island to host our annual POTA (Parks on the Air) event. We had about 15 members and guests turn out and made over 80 contacts on SSB and FT-8. The team braved very heavy mosquito swarming early on to get setup and was on the air around 8:45 AM.The wind picked up a bit and blew away most of the bugs by 10:00. That and some very compassionate sharing of bug spray by those well prepared individuals helped us get to the task at hand.

This year, thanks to Tom NY4I, we were able to turn in logs which gave credits to both the club callsign W4AFC and each individual … Read the rest

UPARC Members Visit Crooked River State Park in Georgia

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on March 25, 2024

Over the weekend of March 20th – March 23rd, 2024, Ryan AF4O, Jeff NE4C and Tom NY4I traveled to Crooked River State Park in Georgia for a RISK Tournament (yes, RISK the board game). The tournament is in the park in rented cottages. Besides the tournament, there is plenty of time for other activities so Ryan brought his Icom 7300 and the Elecraft amplifier along with wire antennas to activate the park for POTA with 500 watts of power. Jeff NE4C and Tom NY4I were also able to operate the station setup in the kitchen table of a cabin. The pile-ups were really big as the power and park attracted lots of stations wanting to work the park. All three … Read the rest

Winter Field Day 2024 Announcement

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on January 5, 2024

Do you like operating in the field but hate dripping in sweat while setting up antennas? Does the idea of enduring another Field Day constantly fighting off every mosquito in Tampa Bay make you wish they held Field Day in January? Well, you’re in luck! Winter Field Day is an event very similar to the June ARRL Field Day except—you guessed it—it’s held in Winter. Specifically January 27 & 28, 2024. This is a joint operation with the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS). The event will be held at the Clearwater Fire Training Facility on Belcher Road south of Sunset Point Road in Clearwater. Prior efforts were a great success.

Winter Field Day is a 24 hour operating exercise where … Read the rest

Backyard DXpeditions

By Jack Kinney on November 22, 2023

Recently Ryan, AF4O created a new channel in our slack group called #backyard-dxpeditions

The channel is dedicated to finding places in our own backyard to play radio, whether it’s POTA, IOTA or a community park around the corner. Check it out and get involved. Who knows what we may find outside the shack!… Read the rest

Get on the Air (GOTA) Awards Presented

By Jack Kinney on July 20, 2023

Get on the Air (GOTA) Awards presented for outstanding Field Day Support

In this month’s meeting, Club President, Fred Botero, chose to recognize many individuals who provided outstanding support for the recent ARRL Field Day held on June 24-25. These hard working folks were all presented with the official ARRL Field Day GOTA pins in recognition of their hard work to ensure all of us were able to get on the air at Field Day. The pins are quite handsome, showing the ARRL logo with a large GOTA title on a gold and black background. They are something to be proud of and suitable for wearing on radio themed clothing, hats or at our events.

Three groups were recognized with … Read the rest

2023 ARRL Field Day is a Wrap

By Fred Botero on July 12, 2023

ARRL Field Day 2023 is in the books. This year we put up a lot of antennas and set up a lot of radios in some very hot and tough conditions to post a greater score than we achieved last year! In addition, we had some great food and learned a lot about being flexible in setting up our antennas when fire trucks were parked in our regular OCF dipole antenna spot.

We operated on SSB, FT8, CW and Satellite achieving unofficial 3326 points. This is 570 points more than we achieved last year.

Our satellite contact came quick this year on the first RS-44 pass of Field Day. Tom NY4I made the contact on SSB with assistance from Ryan

… Read the rest

Field Day 2023 – June 24th and 25th

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on May 31, 2023

Registration for meals is now closed.

But you are still welcome to come out–just plan on bringing your own meals.

ARRL Field Day is a combined event to test our ability to setup radio communication under less than ideal conditions–think temporary antennas, generators and radio gear. Our event this year is a combined event with two clubs—the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS) and the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club (UPARC). The date is June 24thstarting at 2:00 PM until Sunday June 25th at 2:00 PM. Setup generally begins in earnest at 9:00 AM on Saturday morning. The location for all of this is the Clearwater Fire Department Fire Training Center at 1716 N. Belcher Road in Clearwater. Click … Read the rest

Honeymoon Island Activation April 2023

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on May 2, 2023

On Saturday, April 29, 2023, UPARC members set out to Honeymoon Island State Park to operate in the field for a Parks on the Air (POTA) activation. Being a Florida State Park, Honeymoon Island is POTA park K-1880. Normally, this means we setup antennas and radios and sit back and work the pileups. But this day, the HF propagation gods took their time showing up. Initially, contacts were hard to come by on SSB. FT8 started off OK but 20m SSB was quite tough. But with perseverance, Team Luria (Charlotte KO4WNK and Joshua KO4VVX) made the majority of the SSB contacts with Olev KO4WUB and Rob WB4IFT making the FT8 contacts.

All total we worked 61 stations with 36 SSB … Read the rest

Posts published in “Operating”

Get on the Air (GOTA) Awards presented for outstanding Field Day Support