Activities: Auction | Campout Party 2023 | Digital Systems | DX & Contests | Emergency Communications | Field Day | Holiday Banquet | Nets on MDARC Systems | Nets on Other Systems | Vehicles

Photos by: Pete KE6ZIW, David WA6UHA, Matthew N4DLA and Grant K6CBK

Field Day is one of the biggest events in North American amateur radio. It runs around the clock from start to finish on the fourth weekend of June every year. More than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups and friends to operate from remote locations.

Per the ARRL, the objective of Field Day is:

“To work as many stations as possible on any and all amateur bands (excluding the 60, 30, 17, and 12-meter bands) and to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions. Field Day is open to all amateurs in the areas covered by the ARRL/RAC Field Organizations and countries within IARU Region 2. DX stations residing in other regions may be contacted for credit, but are not eligible to submit entries.” 

Volunteers are needed!!

Our Field Day chair, Larry Loomer, KI6LNB, and his crew will start setting up at 2:30 on Friday afternoon before the event, so come on down and help out, stay to work some bands and generally have a good time. Bring your RV, trailer camper or sleep in your car and stay overnight.  Basic food and drink will be provided.  We will have portable toilet facilities available.  If needed, a shopping center with a Safeway store and other food vendors, is six blocks away.

Contact Larry at KI6LNB@arrl.net to let us know what help you can provide.  Thank you.

Multiple volunteers are needed to supervise the food availability at the Field Day site:  Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast, Saturday lunch, and the BBQ dinner, and Sunday breakfast.  We need to find a BBQ grill and a person to do the BBQ cooking. 

Remember: You don't need to have HF privileges, or even be a licensed ham, to make contacts at our Field Day site. We will have Band Captains on hand to act as control operators. So come on down, tell your friends and get involved in ham radio!

MDARC Bands:

• 2 Meters (144.100 MHz – 148.000 MHz)

• 10 Meters (28.000 MHz – 29.700 MHz)

• 15 Meters (21.000 MHz - 21.450 MHz)

• 20 Meters (14.000 MHz – 14.350 MHz)

• 40 Meters (7.000 MHz – 7.300 MHz)

• 80 Meters (3.500 MHz – 4.000 MHz)

Other Activities

There will be a Getting-on-the-Air class for HF privileges at 10:00 AM Saturday, given by Pete, KE6ZIW.

There will be a demonstration of two-way telephone service on the MESH System by John, KM6ZJT.

FT-8 and other digital methods will be demonstrated at the MDARC Communication Trailer by Mike, W6MEW.

HF contesting and Amateur Television will be demonstrated by Jim, K6SOE, from the MDARC Communications Van.

License testing will be available at 1:00 PM on Saturday.

Visitors will be able to write their names in Morse code and then tap the code using a code key.

Looping introductory video from ARRL.

A demonstration of solar charging of the communication trailer battery will be provided.

An auxiliary generator demonstration for powering the trailer will be provided.

A mobile (car mounted) solar power system will be demonstrated.

For Getting on the Air, a call can be made by anyone to a ham on a ham radio.

Jonas Desyatnik, the eighth grade, $200 first prize winner of the annual Contra Costa County Science & Engineering Fair demoed his winning two axis solar tracker project (ARRL Club news article) with his father Yuri KI6UDA.

Cal Poly ARC w6bhz.org visited our Field Day. ARRL featured CPARC for licensing their 2,000th examinee on May 23, 2023. They have been conducting exams since 2009.

In conclusion, we know we are members of a hobby that has a long and proud history of providing emergency communication in many different situations.  Field Day provides us with the opportunity to demonstrate to the public that we can operate effectively and safely, even during restrictive times, and without using utility power.