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 25 & 26, 2025. This is a joint operation with both the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS) and the St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club (SPARC). The event will be held at the Clearwater Fire Training Facility on Belcher Road south of Sunset Point Road in Clearwater. Prior efforts … Read the rest
Posts published in “Operating”
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
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 22nd starting 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
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
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
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
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
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
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 24th starting 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