Section News

Field Day - June 23 & 24

Western Pennsylvania Section News – FIELD DAY SPECIAL EDITION
June 18, 2018

Field Day is this weekend, June 23 and 24th!!! It only comes once a year so don’t miss out on all the ham radio fun. If you aren’t helping out your local group, there are plenty of other Field Day locations all over our WPA Section, already registered with the ARRL Field Day Locator which can be found by pointing your web browser to
http://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator
It’s easy to find one near you from the two dozen plus WPA locations!

No matter where you go, please plan on actually getting on the air and operating, particularly in the evening, overnight and especially Sunday time slots. Field Day is a 24 hour event, and when everybody shows up at starting time, only to leave an hour or two later, it isn’t very helpful to the people who put so much time, effort and money into setting up a great Field Day experience… for YOU to enjoy.

If it has been a while since you went out for Field Day, or if you’ve never attended one, don’t be shy, just drop on by. Regardless of your License class, or even if you don’t have a license (yet), there will be operators present who will guide you while you use their radios and make contacts with other Field Day stations, all over the country. When you operate as a guest, it doesn’t matter what your license class is, as long as there is a properly-licensed ham assisting you while you’re on the air.

Radio Operating is NOT a “one and done” thing — you can spend as much time as you want operating radios and experiencing the thrill of talking to stations near and far. After taking a break and maybe a snack, pick another radio and settle in to operate well into the night. I guarantee your help will be appreciated… AND that you will have a lot of FUN!

My travel itinerary begins with Mercer County at 10 am Saturday, then North Washington at 11:30, Chicora at 12:30, Armstrong County at 2 pm, Indiana at 3:30, Altoona at 5:30, State College at 7:30 and Reynoldsville at 9:30 pm. On Sunday, Potter County at 9:30 am, McKean County at 11, and Elk County at 12:30. Assistant Section Manager Dave Wellman WX3E will be making visits to the Erie County locations, Crawford, and Venango Counties on Saturday. Section Emergency Coordinator Bud Plants N3TIR will be visiting sites in Washington, Allegheny, Fayette, Butler and Beaver Counties on Saturday.

We are looking forward to seeing you when we visit your Field Day operation. This year we will present Commemorative Certificates to each group we visit, and a special “First Field Day” award to everyone present who is attending their very first Field Day!
Get ready, get going then stick around and HAVE FUN!

HAPPY FIELD DAY!

73 and Press On!
Joe W3BC