SARA This Week May 21 – May 27
Here is your SARA update for this week!
SARA’s Summer in the Parks Outdoor Eyeball QSO Party Thursdays
The Eyeball QSO Party moves outdoors for SARA’s Summer in the Parks season. We will gather at various area parks on Thursday evenings through early September.
Valley View Park is our “home” park for SARA’s Summer in the Parks as we have booked the shelter there for every third week. Additional evenings at this park are June 8 (Field Day Site Survey and Planning), June 29, July 20, August 10, and August 31.
The early schedule of additional park locations and dates will be:
May 25: Otto Berg Memorial Park, Norell Ave N & 90th St N, Stillwater
(NW Corner across from Stillwater Township Town Hall)
June 1: Browns Creek State Trail at the Trailside, 8312 Neal Ave N, Stillwater
June 8: Valley View Park, 5421 N Osgood Ave, Oak Park Heights
June 15: Pioneer Park, 515 2nd St N, Stillwater
June 22: Sunfish Lake Park, 3554 Kelvin Ave N, Lake Elmo
June 29: Valley View Park, 5421 N Osgood Ave, Oak Park Heights
July 6: Autumn Hills Park, 5697 Norwich Pkwy, Oak Park Heights
July 13: Birkmose Park, 329 Front St (park entrance is on Coulee Road east of Second Street S.), Hudson, WI
July 20: Valley View Park, 5421 N Osgood Ave, Oak Park Heights
July 27: Brekke Park, 5500 Omar Ave N. Oak Park Heights
In case of inclement weather, Collin KEØIYN has offered the “shed” and “The Diner” at his QTH on Osgood Ave south of Valley View Park as a covered location for those evenings.
Suggestions are welcome! If you know of a good park location in the area, drop me a note at kc0oio2002@gmail.com and I will add it to the list.
SARA POTA Challenge ‘23
The full leaderboards through April 30th will soon be available on the radioham.org website, and there has been a lot of movement on the boards for both hunters and activators alike!
SARA’s 2023 POTA Activity Days are scheduled for 2 Saturdays this summer, plus the annual Remembering the Edmund Fitzgerald weekend at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. Saturday June 10 will be the multi-op, multi-park, roving day. Gather for the SARA 2nd Saturday breakfast at Perkins, then spend the day activating area parks. Activators groups can rove from park to park, or a few “veteran” activators are planning to set up at a park for the day and other activators can visit and work from the park with that activator. A list of parks with a primary activator will be published before the Activity Day.
Saturday August 12 will be the first ever SARA POTA Meetup Day. We will gather at the Picnic Shelter at Wild River State Park in Almelund, for a day of multi-op activations. A picnic lunch is planned. Watch for more details to come.
If you are a SARA member AND have registered on the POTA website https://parksontheair.com/# (sign up is under the Help/Getting Started tab), you are included in the SARA Challenge 2023.
A thorough source of information for those that want to get started POTA hunting or activating is also found on the POTA website. The https://docs.pota.app/ page is a great resource of all info for POTA. Start with the Getting Started with POTA page and go from there.
ARRL Field Day 2023 June 24 & 25
ARRL Field Day is always held on the 4th full weekend in June. Field Day is ham radio’s open house. Every June, more than 40,000 hams throughout North America set up temporary transmitting stations in public places to demonstrate ham radio’s science, skill and service to our communities and our nation. It combines public service, emergency preparedness, community outreach, and technical skills all in a single event. Field Day has been an annual event since 1933 and remains the most popular event in ham radio.
The Stillwater Amateur Radio Association will be participating in Field Day on Saturday June 24 and Sunday June 25 at Valley View Park in Oak Park Heights. This is a new Field Day location for us, although the park is very familiar.
Preliminary plans have us setting up Saturday morning (time to be determined) and operating in Field Day from 1:00 PM (1800 UTC) until about sundown (around 0200 UTC). We will resume operating Sunday around 9:00 AM (1400 UTC) until 1:00 PM (1800 UTC), with teardown to follow.
Our Field Day chair, Bob WØGAF, is planning to have 2 stations operating as WØJH 2A MN. Bob is expecting expanded participation at the CW station following SARA’s CW study group in late 2022. Plans may also incorporate a GOTA (Get on the Air) station given the number of new licensees from the April 27 VE session.
The food and beverage plan is being developed. We have secured an “adult beverage” license for the weekend.
SARA’s Field Day is one of the leading events on our annual activity calendar. Come out and join the fun of ARRL’s oldest operating event as SARA joins the hundreds of clubs and thousands of hams getting on the air throughout the Americas that weekend.
The Thursday June 8 Summer in the Parks Eyeball QOS Party will be at Valley View Park and is our Field Day site Survey and planning night.
This week’s SARA activities
SARA’s on-air, in-person, and virtual activities are a great way to stay connected with others.
- “Sunday Fusion” Digital Voice Hangout May 21
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)
Frequency: 1.966 LSB +/- QRM or 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 May 22
08:15 Central (13:15 UTC)
Frequency: 3.856 LSB +/- QRM - SARA Two Meter Tuesday (TMT) Round Robin Ragchew May 23
7:00 – ~8:00 pm Central (or until we finish!)
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
1st Tuesday is Emergency Power Night – participants are encouraged to operate the stations on emergency power.
The Tuesday evening on-air round robin ragchew
Featuring the “Ask the Elmer” segment
The group leaders focus on encouraging any and everyone, especially those new to the airwaves, to join the session via the repeater. - SARA’s Summer in the Parks Thursday May 25
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Otto Berg Memorial Park
Norell Ave N & 90th St N, Stillwater Township