2021 W0TBC Memorial Award
Split Rock Lighthouse 2012
New Radio Gear For Some SARA Members!
Fitzgerald Crew 2011
SARA Work Party 2
SARA Does Skywarn
May 14th Fox Hunt! What Fun!
Ice Station WØJH 2014
SARA Work Party 3
2023 Simonet Memorial Award

SARA This Week: July 3 – July 9

Good morning and Happy Independence Day!

Here’s SARA’s happenings this week.

SARA’s Summer in the Parks

This Thursday we will be at Autumn Hills Park, 5697 Norwich Pkwy, Oak Park Heights, MN 55082 from ~6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

The weekly Eyeball QSO Party is outdoors for the summer months. We will continue to visit different Stillwater-area parks throughout the summer. There will be POTA activations, hands-on radio, POTA portable operating tips and tricks, Mobile Station Show-n-tell, and more possibilities plus a picnic or two. Valley View Park in Oak Park Heights will be a regular location, with the shelter reserved for July 14, Aug 4, Aug 25 and Sept 15. Other weeks could see us at Lowell Park in downtown Stillwater, along the St Croix National Wild & Scenic River, along Brown’s Creek State Trail or the Gateway State Trail for “Late Shift” POTA activations. Watch the SARA This Week bulletin for details each week.

ARRL Field Day 2022

SARA’s 2A MN ARRL Field Day June 25 & 26 at Autumn Hills Park yielded 123 PHONE and 100 CW contacts plus a great TV news report on KSTP-TV. If you haven’t watched the report yet, here’s the https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/amateur-radio-operators-test-skills-during-annual-24-hour-test/. This media hit was listed in the ARRL Letter for July 1, 2022.

A full scoring recap will be provided by Bob WØGAF after the Independence Day holiday.

We had a good number of recently licensed or upgraded operators participate and SARA’s operation over the weekend adapted to being more about getting new folks on the air and coaching them on the intricacies of the HF bands. Many of the new folks stopped at the CW tent and expressed interest in learning Morse Code. Watch for a Tech Topic Thursday on learning and practicing Morse Code plus live learning/practice sessions coming this Fall.

Club Aggregate Scoring for ARRL Field Day is now a permanent feature. If you worked Field Day on your own – from home or out in the field – be sure to list “Stillwater Amateur Radio Association – MN” as the club for aggregate scoring credit to SARA.

SARA POTA Challenge ’22

The Challenge is at the halfway point! The number of participants continues to grow! Watch for June stats are on the radioham.org website and the counts are growing. Activators: be sure to post planned activations on the POTA Scheduled Activations. Activators can also drop a note to the SARA groups.io page to give members advance notice. If you are not on the groups.io, sign up now at https://groups.io/g/StillwaterMNAmateurRadioAssoc.

Be sure to check POTA spots regularly for activations.

Self-uploading of your POTA logs is here! And it is super simple and very quick. Log in to the pota.app/#/ webpage, select the “My Logs Upload” in the pop-up when hovering over your callsign, drag & drop your adif file – properly named – and  click on the required boxes and up it goes. Doesn’t get any simpler than that.

The goal of this club activity is to encourage SARA members to get on the air; as a park activator, as a park hunter, or both.

The Summer “Support Your Parks” weekend is the 3rd weekend, this year July 16 and 17. Activators and hunters alike will qualify for additional recognition (“wallpaper”) through POTA this weekend. I plan to do some activating and hunting that weekend, how about you?

Watch for the next SARA POTA Activity Day coming August 10th.

This week’s SARA activities

SARA’s on-air and virtual activities are a great way to stay connected with others. These activities provide healthy social contact while maintaining personal distancing.

  • NO “Sunday Fusion” Digital Voice Hangout July 3
    19:00 Central (00:00 UTC)  
    SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
    or connect via WIRES-X to the W0JH-Room 63969
    System Fusion digital voice hangout to expand use and familiarity with the digital voice capabilities available on the WØJH repeater.
  • SARA Top Band Ragchew
    Nightly
    20:00 Central (01:00 UTC)
    Due to poor, local propagation, the SARA Top Band Crew will QSY (move) to 75m. Look for us AROUND 3.820 to 3.826 MHz (depending on QRM). This change is temporary until the 160m and 75m band conditions change.
    Frequency:  1.966 LSB +/- QRM AROUND 3.820 to 3.826 MHz (depending on QRM).
    Alternates: 21.316 MHz +/- QRM (USB) 50.166 MHz +/- QRM (USB)
  • SARA Monday Morning 75-meter Ragchew July 4
    08:15 Central (14:00 UTC)
    Frequency:  3.856 LSB +/- QRM
  • SARA Two Meter Tuesday (TMT) Round Robin Ragchew July 5
    Time: 7:00 – ~8:00 pm Central (or until we finish!)
    SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
    The Tuesday evening on-air round robin ragchew
    An HF Afterglow follows with the Top Band Ragchew on 160 meters
  • SARA Summer in the Parks Outdoor Eyeball QSO Party Thursday July 7
    Time 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
    Autumn Hills Park 5697 Norwich Pkwy, Oak Park Heights, MN 55082
  • SARA 2nd Saturday Breakfast July 9
    Time 7:30 AM
    Perkins Restaurant 2050 West Frontage Road, Stillwater, MN 55082