Hey! It’s already June… how did that happen? We’ve been getting ready for Field Day, but I certainly didn’t mean to keep it a secret!

Mark KB5YZY and Tony KT0AA are leading the charge once again as co-chairs of the event. And they’re getting lots of help.

We will be setting up in Bridgeton MO once again, but this time at Bridgeway Park (link to Google Maps), which is a new one for us. The park has a very large, open, mostly flat field surrounded by many tall trees. An antenna enthusiast’s dream, right? Our May meeting was held at our Field Day site which gave us a chance to start making antenna plans. (We also enjoyed a grilled picnic dinner thanks to Bob K0FHG!)

Our June meeting just took place, and we managed to do a dry run of several antennas situated end-to-end. We’re hoping to minimize inter-station interference as much as possible. Fingers crossed on that front! We also got a taste of the kind of weather we might expect: sunny and clear with a pleasant breeze… transitioning to dark clouds and a torrential downpour! We got practice tearing down and finished just in time.

We will have stations on CW, SSB, and digital. We’ll certainly be active on HF and likely will have some VHF/UHF activity too. It seems like we have the largest number of members intending to show up and operate. Should be a great time! We will be using the 1×1 call sign N0A for the event. And we will be operating 100% QRP, which means all stations will be transmitting at an output power of five watts or less. Yes, that’s less power than that of an old-fashioned night light. And our radios will all be operating from battery power including power gathered by solar panels. Sure Field Day is fun… but it’s also a way to demonstrate the emergency preparedness aspect of our hobby to the public.

We always welcome visitors — licensed hams or not — so please feel free to pay us a visit. You can use the ARRL Field Day Locator to find our site, or any other Field Day site for that matter. Be prepared to have all your ham radio questions answered. As well as some questions you may not have even thought of yet 😉 For questions you have now, please contact us at info@slqs.net.