SARA This Week May 6 – May 11
SARA Monthly Meeting May 11
The monthly meeting of the Stillwater Amateur Radio Association is this Saturday May 11, 9:15 AM, Auditorium B, The Gables at Boutwells Landing 13575 58th Street North, Oak Park Heights, MN 55082
Our guest presenter will be Adrian Ciuperca KO8SCA, a CQ DX Hall of Famer, veteran of numerous DXpeditions including the 2022 3YØJ Bouvet Island team, and WRTC 2022 competitor! Adrian will join us via Zoom.
As usual, the meeting will be livestreamed via the SARA Zoom room. The livestream will be available around 9:15 AM CDT (14:15 UTC), once the equipment is set up in the meeting room.
Don’t forget the 2nd Saturday Breakfast at Perkins Restaurant, 2050 Frontage Road, Stillwater at 7:30 AM
New Ham Night May 16
The annual SARA New Ham Night is coming to Valley View Park Thursday evening May 16. 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
New Ham Night guides newly licensed amateur radio operators to some of the choices and activities found in our unique hobby. There is a New Ham Net conducted on the SARA repeater to help the new folks make that all important first contact. Mark your calendars now!
The program is planned and should prove to be informative. One of our previous presenters is unavailable for this year’s event, so I am need of a volunteer to assist Chris WØZCW with the “Get On the Air” (Part 3) segment of the session. Please contact me ASAP kc0oio2002 dot gmail dot com if you can help.
Radios in the Park returns May 16
SARA’s season of eyeball QSOs known as Radios in the Park kicks off for 2024 on May 16 with New Ham Night at Valley View Park and continues through Sept 12. We gather in local parks throughout the season. The following schedule is tentative and subject to change:
May 16 Valley View Park, 5421 N Osgood Ave, Oak Park Heights
May 23 Browns Creek State Trail 8312 Neal Ave N, Stillwater (POTA US-9386 and US-10721 Browns Creek AMA)
May 30 Otto Berg Memorial Park 90th Street North & Norell Ave N Stillwater
June 6 Valley View Park FD Site planning
June 13 TBA
June 20 St. Croix Scenic Overlook Hwy 95, Stillwater, (POTA US-0673)
June 27 Valley View Park
July 4 NO SESSION
July 11 Birkmose Park, 329 Front St, Hudson, WI 54016 (park entrance is on Coulee Rd)
July 18 Valley View Park Walkable Fox Hunt?
July 25 TBA
Aug 1 Autumn Hills Park, 5697 Norwich Parkway, Oak Park Heights
Aug 8 Valley View Park Antenna Shootout anyone? Buehler? Buehler?
Aug 15 TBA
Aug 22 TBA
Aug 29 Valley View Park Mobile/Portable Show-n-Tell
Sep 5 St. Croix Boom Site State Wayside, Hwy 95, Stillwater (POTA US-0673)
Sep 12 TBA
ARRL Field Day 2024
SARA will participate in the annual ARRL Field Day Saturday June 22 and Sunday June 23. Our Field Day site will be at Valley View Park, 5421 N Osgood Ave, Oak Park Heights, MN 55082. Permits have been secured and the game is afoot for a fun and successful Field Day. Co-chairs Ray KFØEKD and Tim KFØJEL have been leading the team with site pre-planning, food and beverage plan, on-site networking of computers, antenna testing, and other tasks. Station captains for the CW and Phone stations and a GOTA Station Lead and Coach are needed. We have an on-site Field Day Planning Session scheduled for Thursday June 6 when Radios in the Parks visit Valley View Park. Interested in lending a helping hand, contact Ray KFØEKD at speltzraymond at gmail dot com or Tim KFØJEL at timgrotheer at gmail dot com.
MN POTA Day 2024
Minnesota Parks on the Air Day is Saturday June 8, 2024, from 10:00 AM (15:00 UTC) to 6:00 PM CDT (22:00 UTC). Details can be found at mnpota.com. This is a free admission day to MN State Parks.
Activators can register their planned activation(s) and indicate if they are willing to mentor others interested in POTA activating, co-operate, demonstrate, or welcome visitors to their activation.
Activators: we recommend taking some time at the top of the hour to work “local” stations on 40 meters and 80/75 meters. You can grab the MN POTA park-to-parks as well as give the MN/ND/SD/IA/WI/Manitoba/Ontario hunters a chance to work you. Suggested frequencies for PHONE are around 7.260 MHz and 3.860 MHz.
MN POTA Day builds upon SARA’s POTA Activity Day the previous 2 years. The SARA POTA Activity Day will continue on the same day with a similar schedule as in previous years: 2nd Saturday Breakfast, day of operating in the parks, and dinner to follow at a local establishment in the evening. A suggestion has been made to provide for a 5-park Rover sprint. The idea would be to set up a station (with a leader) at 5 different parks. Folks would start at one, use the station to make their activation, move to the next park, use the station to make their activation, move to the next park, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. We can easily do this all within Washington County. We would need 5 skilled POTA activators to set up and share their station with the rovers. Securing five 1×1 calls would make it a little more efficient, but we could also use the club call W0JH/park# as an IDer on the POTA.APP page. Further discussion of this concept will be held during Thursday May 9 Eyeball QSO Party at the library. We will have Zoom livestream available for this session.
This week’s SARA activities
- “Sunday Fusion” Digital Voice Hangout May 5
19:00 Central (01:00 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 (02:00 UTC)
160M on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays: 1.966 LSB +/- QRM
80M on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays: 3.813 LSB +/- QRM
Alternates: 21.316 MHz +/- QRM (USB) 50.166 MHz +/- QRM (USB) - SARA Monday Morning 75-meter Ragchew May 6
08:15 Central (13:15 UTC)
Frequency: 3.856 LSB +/- QRM - SARA Two Meter Tuesday (TMT) Round Robin Ragchew May 7
7:00 – ~8:00 pm Central (or until we finish!)
SARA Repeater 147.060+ MHz (DCS/DTCS 026 Normal)
1stTuesday 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 Eyeball QSO Party Thursday May 9
6:00 PM – 7:50 PM Central
Conference Room
Stillwater Public Library, 224 3rd Street, Stillwater- SARA’s MN POTA Day 5-park Rove Sprint discussion 6:15 PM (23:45 UTC) in-person and livestream via Zoom
- 2nd Saturday Breakfast May 11
7:30 AM
Perkins Restaurant
2050 Frontage Road, Stillwater, MN 55082 - SARA Monthly Meeting Saturday May 11
9:15 AM (14:15 UTC)
Auditorium B
The Gables at Boutwells Landing
13575 58th Avenue, Oak Park Heights, MN 55082
>> CLICK HERE << to join the Zoom session.