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2015 FARS Field Day [-] [2015] [2016]


[Field Day Logo]
[160M Balloon Antenna]
[FARS Field Day 2009]
[FARS Field Day 2009]

The Foothills Amateur Radio Society participated in the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) 2015 Field Day event on Saturday June 27th and Sunday June 28th.

This event was open to the public and visitors were welcomed from 11 AM until 9 PM on Saturday, June 27th. Also on Sunday June 28th from 7 AM until 11 AM. Field Day was an opportunity to see Amateur Radio in action and even participate. Learn about ham radio by participating.

Members and guests hams were invited to sign up to operate. Those without an amateur radio license, were invited to operate our Get On The Air station, where our GOTA coaches guided you to make your own contacts on air. This was a great way to experience amateur radio without having a license.

You can visit the ARRL's Field Day site.

Here's an Article on the FARS 2007 Field Day from “100 Watts Magazine” a Thai HAM radio magazine. Thanks Nimit, K6XOX.

John L. Gaffey, WS1EA has written a helpful primer for organizing your own Field Day event.

FARS operated in the 3A category, with three HF radio stations on emergency power at a temporary location. We had a total of five operating radio stations:


Field Day Captains
[KA6MZE]
KA6MZE
Phil, KA6MZE was our Radio Officer and Captain for Field Day. He was in charge of the overall activity.
[AA6PZ]
AA6PZ
Paul, AA6PZ was the captain for our HF-SSB station. This station operated SSB Voice on 20/15/10 meters during the day and 40/20 meters at night.
[KI6FXY]
KI6FXY
Charlie, KI6FXY was the captain for the HF CW and digital station. This station operated HF CW and digital modes (PSK31/RTTY/etc) on 20/15/10 meters during the day and 40/20 meters at night.
[K6TXD]
K6TXD
Gerry, K6TXD was the captain for our VHF station. This station operated VHF/UHF voice on 6 meters, 2 meters, and 70cm.
[KA6MZE]
KA6MZE
Phil, KA6MZE was the captain for our Low band HF station. This station operated 160/80 Voice and CW mostly at night. We put up a 5/8 wave 160M antenna lifted by a weather balloon. The antenna was raised around sunset, when the winds had died down.
[W6VYC]
W6VYC
Dave, W6VYC was the captain for our GOTA (Get On The Air) station. This station operated 20/15/10 meter bands under the watchful eye of our GOTA station captains. The GOTA station was available for anyone who did not have an amateur radio license (or have been an inactive amateur radio operator) to get on the air. One of our coaches guided guests as they operated a radio station and made contacts all over north America and beyond.

Visitors

[GOTA PIN]

We welcomed visitors from the general public to visit our Amateur Radio Field Day between 11 AM until 9 PM on Saturday, June 27th. Also on Sunday June 28th from 7 AM until 11 AM.

You did not need a License or Previous Experience to Participate

You did not need a radio license to operate our Get On The Air (GOTA) station. This was a great opportunity to experience amateur radio by doing it. Our control operators guided our guests as made their own radio contacts. Those who had held an amateur radio license for less than a year were also eligible to operate the GOTA station.

Information for Participants

We used WriteLog logging software on all stations. The logging systems were networked together using a wireless LAN based on DD-WRT running on a set of WRT54G WiFi routers.

More information