SARA This Week May 28 – June 3
Here is your SARA update for this week!
SARA’s Summer in the Parks Outdoor Eyeball QSO Party Thursday
The Eyeball QSO Party moves outdoors for SARA’s Summer in the Parks / Radios in the Park season. We 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:
June 1: Browns Creek State Trail: Trailside at Browns Creek Park, 8312 Neal Ave N, Stillwater
June 8: Valley View Park, 5421 N Osgood Ave, Oak Park Heights
Field Day Site Survey and planning
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., up the road from the Dairy Queen), 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.
SARA POTA Challenge ‘23
Working POTA has truly been a challenge lately with heightened solar activity at this point in Cycle 25. CME and solar storms are presently making band conditions difficult for us in the more northern latitudes. But the weather this weekend is gorgeous for getting out in the parks and doing POTA.
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 is 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/mentor. A list of parks with a primary activator will be published before the Activity Day. The day will wrap up with dinner and conversation at the Acapulco restaurant in Oak Park Heights about 6:00 PM.
Saturday August 12 will be the first ever SARA-sponsored POTA Meetup Day at Wild River State Park (K-2529) near Almelund, MN. POTA enthusiasts from east central MN and west central Wisconsin are invited to come out and meet fellow POTA participants. We have reserved the Picnic Shelter at the Park. A picnic lunch is planned. Hot dogs and brats will be available, please consider bringing something to share (chips and desserts). A collection will be taken to defray the costs of food, supplies, and site.
Our advance person has checked the location and provided pictures. Plenty of space and numerous “antenna supports” in the immediate area, plus a very nice pavilion. The park is large with plenty of additional spots to set up and operate, including 2-fer possibilities along the St. Croix River. There will be an opportunity for everyone to work each other within the park using HTs on 2 meters and 70 cm. Bring your HT! 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 ham radio event.
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 28
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 3.813 LSB +/- QRM
Alternates: 21.316 MHz +/- QRM (USB) 50.166 MHz +/- QRM (USB) - SARA Monday Morning 75-meter Ragchew May 29
08:15 Central (13:15 UTC)
Frequency: 3.856 LSB +/- QRM - SARA Two Meter Tuesday (TMT) Round Robin Ragchew May 30
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 June 1
~5:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Browns Creek State Trail (K-9386) from Trailside at Browns Creek Park
8312 Neal Ave N, Stillwater