June 17, 2022…
The St. Louis & Suburban Radio Club is holding an in-person Field Day at McDonnell Park – 2961 Adie Rd – St. Ann, MO on June 25th & 26th. It’s time to practice operations at a portable/temporary setup and see how well we can contact other groups in “emergency” conditions. Come make eyeball QSOs, and make over-the-air QSOs on the busiest day of our airwaves. Are you a Technician? Operate with a General or Extra class operator to transmit with their privileges.
Monthly Meeting / Dinner:
We will be holding our monthly meeting at 5:00 p.m. Saturday at the main shelter right inside the park followed by our potluck dinner. The club will be providing bottled water, hamburgers, and hot dogs/brats. We are asking members to bring a heat tolerant side dish (Last letter of call-sign is A-M) or dessert (Last letter of call-sign is N-Z).
Training:
This year’s training will be building an attenuator kit for fox hunting. The kit is a good add-on to a tape measure antenna to search for the foxes we will have hidden at the park. The attenuator reduces the input signal when you get closer to the transmitter to make it easier to determine its direction. There is no cost for this, but in order to get one, you will need to register at the SLSRC store: https://www.slsrc.org/product/education-build-kit/ . There are 10 of these, first come first served. They will be waiting for you at the field day site. It is highly recommended you bring a soldering iron, wire cutters and a 9 volt battery (required to operate the circuit). Bring connectors and some coax to connect to your radio and antenna – then test it by finding the foxes in the park! (Foxes will operate starting at 1:00 p.m. until their batteries die – estimated between 5-7 p.m. – or shut off shortly before dusk)
Home Stations:
As in the last 2 years, being able to operate from your home station is allowed. Please note the 100 watt limit for all stations. If you submit your own field day entry for your home station, please list your club as “St Louis & Suburban Radio Club” – spaces, capitals, and punctuation matter. Using anything else will not count as part of our club score. Entries must be submitted at https://field-day.arrl.org/fdentry.php by Tuesday July 26, 2022. Please read the full rules (link below) if you will be operating at home.
Setup/Teardown – Operating Hours:
Setup will begin at 9:00 a.m. at the park, and we would appreciate your help (no experience necessary) in setting up to ensure we are ready to operate at 1:00 p.m. We will operate until 1:00 p.m. Sunday, beginning teardown at 1:00 p.m. unless weather becomes a problem. The more people we have for teardown, the faster we can get it done, so we would appreciate your assistance.
Schedule:
Saturday 9:00 a.m. – Setup begins
Saturday 1:00 p.m. – Operations begin
Saturday 1:00 p.m. – Fox Hunt in operation until batteries die (estimated between 5-7 p.m.)
Saturday 2:00 p.m. – Education Activity – Fox Hunt Attenuators
Saturday 5:00 p.m. – Monthly Meeting
Saturday 5:05 p.m. – Dinner (estimated)
Saturday 9:00 p.m. – Park ‘closes’ but we won’t – use the exit lane to enter the park between sunset and sunrise.
Sunday 1:00 p.m. – Operations end
Sunday 1:00 p.m. – Teardown begins
Important Links:
Field Day Rules: https://contests.arrl.org/ContestRules/Field-Day-Rules.pdf
Field Day Log Submission: https://field-day.arrl.org/fdentry.php
Education Registration (free, limit of 10): https://www.slsrc.org/product/education-build-kit/
Email fieldday@slsrc.org if you have any questions.