Greetings! It’s the last full weekend of June, and you know what that means!
FIELD DAY!
Field Day is this Saturday and Sunday (June 27th and 28th). This is our club’s 73nd consecutive event.
Our location this year is the same as last year and the Winter Field Day in January: Morgan County North Park in the Priceville area. The address is 58 North Park Drive, Decatur, AL. The usual and easiest way to get there from Decatur is to take Highway 67 towards Priceville. Turn left at the flashing yellow light onto East Upper River Road. Go across the I-65 overpass until you reach the next traffic light at Bethel Road. Turn left and drive until you see the fire station on the left and the pavilion with antennas and radios on the right.
If you miss that turn, it’s still not too hard to find. The best and clearest way to get there is to continue on Highway 67 until you reach the traffic signal at Bethel Road. Look for the Traditions Bank building on the left corner and the Food Land grocery store in a small shopping center (which includes fireworks and a coffee shop!). Turn north on Bethel Road at the light between the bank and the shopping plaza and go to the 2nd traffic light, which is East Upper River Road. Continue through the light and keep an eye out on your right. You should see a lot of radio activity of some variety throughout the day and night on Saturday until early Sunday afternoon. Remember also, Google Maps can be your best friend. And you can use the 147.00 repeater to ask us for directions. Just please get there!
We always need help, and we always like company. Setup starts around 9:00 on Saturday morning, and the contest begins at 1:00, continuing for 24 hours. Teardown and packing starts at 1:00 on Sunday afternoon and is done as rapidly as we can do it. There will be someone there for the duration if all goes according to plan.
We usually need people to operate radios and to help with the logging of the contacts. We also need someone who is good at CW or one of the digital modes to copy the ARRL Field Day message on Saturday (details on their website), and we need folks to come by and just talk. We’re “hams”. That’s what we do. Bring a guest and show them what ham radio is all about. Tell others you know who may be interested and get them to drop in. There will be a “Get On The Air” (GOTA) station available for anyone to try who wants to see what it’s like. This event is as much about public outreach and education as it is about scores, so come help out in any way that you can!
And if you can help sit with the equipment (and use it, if possible) overnight, we can always use help in the dark morning hours. Some have already volunteered, but “the more the merrier!”
If you have suggestions or want to volunteer for something, please let any of the officers know by email or phone.
Thanks! See you Saturday morning at Field Day!
