SARA This Week June 13 – June 19

SARA holds daily on-air nets and ragchews. We hold a mix of in-person outdoor Eyeball QSO Parties and virtual meetings via WEBEX including the Tech Topic Thursday session, the monthly member meeting, monthly Board meeting, and event planning meetings.

The SARA 2nd Saturday Breakfast at Perkins is back! 5 members attended the return of the monthly breakfast gathering this past Saturday. A lot of the same friendly faces continue to provide great service at Perkins. They are happy to have us back and will be expecting us every month on the 2nd Saturday. Next breakfast date is July 10th at 7:30 AM.

Over the summer season, outdoor Eyeball QSO Parties will allow SARA to gather outdoors weekly. The weekly Thursday Eyeball QSO Party – Outdoors Sessions continues this week with Radios in the Park! The weekly outdoor Eyeball QSO Party will be held at a local Stillwater-area park beginning around 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM.

As we gradually resume our regular in-person meetings, our current on-air, virtual, and in-person gathering plans continue to be the best choice for the participation as well as health and safety of all our members.

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Thursday Eyeball QSO Party – Outdoor Sessions

The Eyeball QSO Party – Out Sessions continue Thursday evening beginning around 6:00 PM until about 8:00 PM. This week we’ll gather at Autumn Hills Park – our Field Day site – located at 5701 Norwich Parkway, just west of Boutwells Landing. Hope to see you there!

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Radios in the Park 2021

The next SARA’s Radios in the Park is Thursday July 1st. This will be the Tailgate Swap event.

RITP is held at Valley View Park, 5421 Osgood Ave N in Oak Park Heights starting around 5:30 PM and going until around 8:00 PM.  Reservations for the pavilion have been secured with the City of Oak Park Heights. We are required to follow all State and CDC health and safety guidelines. Please help us comply with these guidelines. Attending the event is your choice.

Radios in the Park has scheduled dates of July 1, July 22, Aug 12, Sept 2, and Sept 23 are booked at Valley View Park. The Tailgate Swap will be rescheduled for Thursday July 1st.

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Sunday Fusion

“Sunday Fusion” SARA’s digital voice hangout is every Sunday evening at 7:00 PM. “Sunday Fusion” makes use of the System Fusion C4FM digital voice capabilities of the repeater along with WIRES-X and YSF connectivity, It is an informal “hangout” for those who want to explore the System Fusion capabilities of their radios. “Sunday Fusion”  is a System Fusion C4FM digital voice-only hangout.

Join the group hanging out on System Fusion direct via the repeater or connect via WIRES-X to the W0JH-Room 63969. Tonight at 7:00 PM

Unfortunately, the YSF node is offline until further notice.

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Field Day 2021 – June 26 -27 

SARA has plans for a smaller scale Field Day operation this year. We will be at Autumn Hills Park, our Field Day home for the past several years. FD Chair Bob WØGAF reports that plans are firming up and continue to evolve. We’ll have a station at the park’s pavilion using one of the club’s radios. And we will provide a “Bring a your Radio” station, complete with antenna and tuner and power source. Just connect your radio and you are on the air! We will provide for regular cleaning of contact surfaces on the logging computer keyboard, mouse, and radios with alcohol wipes.

The schedule for the Field Day Weekend calls for set-up beginning at 10:00 AM June 26. We can go on the air at 1:00 PM CDT (18:00 UTC) and will operate until about sundown Saturday evening. We’ll return to the site Sunday morning and be back on the air by 9:00 AM. Final Teardown and pack up begins at 1:00 PM Sunday.

There is no food plan this year. Please bring your own food and beverage. Bottled water will be provided by SARA. Also, we do not have an alcoholic beverage permit this year, so no “adult beverages” are allowed in the park by city ordinance.

If you choose to not join us onsite, you can work from home stations again this year and submit your own logs and points to the ARRL referencing SARA-MN for the compiled club score. THe rule waiver allowing working other Class D and Class E stations as valid contacts remains in place FD2021. Maximum power for Class D & E stations is limited to 150W.

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SARA Special Event Stations Planned for 2021

SARA is planning two Special Event operations for later this year: the Tri-State Special Event from White Rock, SD and the 17th consecutive “Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald” Special Event from Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.

The Tri-State Special Event out in the ghost town of White Rock, SD is scheduled for August 27 – 29. The White Rock Special Event is as close as many of us will get to a “roughing it” DXpedition experience. The location has no electricity, no running water (unless it rains), and no toilets. That said, there are options for overnight accommodations: camping on-site (tent and RV) or a hotel room at the nearby Dakota Magic Casino. We set up one station in town and another part-time station about a mile north at the marker for the borders of North Dakota, SOuth Dakota, and Minnesota. More details coming soon!

The 17th annual “Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald” Special Event is scheduled for Oct 29 – 31. The Trail Center at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park has been reserved for the weekend. More to come as we get closer to the dates.

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This week’s SARA activities