St. Augustine Amateur Radio Society

.

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will participate in the Florida State Parks on the Air event on Saturday, April 18, 2026.

Venue – Faver-Dykes State Park. 1000 Faver Dykes Rd, St. Augustine, FL 32086. The entrance is just north of the US1/I-95 interchange in the southern part of St Johns County. (MAP)

We have the main pavilion (closest to the water) reserved for Saturday (April 5, 2025).

Park admission is $5 per vehicle using the honor station at the entrance to the park. You can also purchase single-day use passes online ahead of time  at: Single use day pass

Club Event Information and Logistics
If you plan to attend this event please reply to Bob’s email with:

1. The radio equipment you will be bringing
2. Logging computers you will be bringing
3. Antennas you will be bringing
4. An indication as to whether or not you will be joining us for lunch prepared by our own executive chef, KO4VOY.

This will help with our planning.

Event Objective (from the event sponsors)

Objective. To encourage ham radio operators to visit Florida State Parks and experience  he fun of Parks-on-the-Air activations. This is a fun contest only – the rules are minimal, the scoring is simple, and the main reward is simply the fun of getting on the air in a Florida State Park. The entire process is largely based on the honor system (although we may cross-check logs for the top activators).

Venue

Faver-Dykes State Park. 1000 Faver Dykes Rd, St. Augustine, FL 32086. The entrance is just north of the US1/I-95 interchange in the southern part of St Johns County.

We have the main pavilion (closest to the water) reserved for Saturday (April 18, 2026).

Park admission is $5 per vehicle using the honor station at the entrance to the park. You can also purchase single-day use passes online ahead of time at: Single use day pass.

Park admission is no charge for current Florida State Parks Annual Pass holders.

Faver-Dykes SP affords us the ability to spread out and set up antennas with little risk of the larger crowds that other parks attract. See photos from past events at Faver-Dykes — 2022 Florida Parks on the Air, 2023 Winter Field Day at Faver-Dykes, 2024 Winter Field Day at Faver-Dykes and 2025 Florida State Parks on the Air.

Setup time

Plan to arrive shortly after park opening at 8 am in order to be on the air as soon as possible.

Operations time

The event operating window is from 8 am to 8 pm each day, subject to park opening and closing times.

We’ll need to break down the stations and antennas when we leave for the day. Camping is only permitted at the campsites, not at the pavilion.

Rigs, antennas, filters, etc.

Members typically bring a variety of rigs and antennas, and the club has a comprehensive set of filters to improve the multi-station/multi-band/multi-antenna experience. We encourage you to bring any equipment you wish to operate. We will take turns operating rigs and bands throughout the day.

Note that we need to keep antennas out of the trees and any other living things, so bring appropriate vertical antennas or tripods for wire antennas.

Logging

We plan to log our contacts using the N3FJP logging software. SAARS holds a club license for this software, which means that any member can download and install it on their own computer. Logging operation is limited to contacts made as N4AUG when using the club license.

If you need installation and license key instructions, please reply to this email and indicate such.

We will also have paper logs available but will ask that you make the entries for your contacts into one of the computers that will be on site prior to leaving the park.

Food and drink

There are no concession stands at the park. While the club will be serving lunch, we also recommend that you bring any extra food or drinks you may desire.

Fleas and ticks

The park is known for its share of insects, so we recommend you pack insect repellant.

To learn more about the Florida State Parks on the Air event:
The event website is: https://fspota.org/
A 14 minute YouTube video regarding the event is at: https://fspota.org/video-reel-for-fspota-event/
We look forward to another great operating event at Faver-Dykes State Park. Hope to see you there!

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet Tuesday, April, 2026, 6:30 pm. The meeting local will be at the Fraternal Order of Police, St. Johns County Lodge #113
5050 Inman Road, St. Augustine, FL 32084. (MAP).

The gate will be opened at approximately 6 pm.

Meeting Program: Contesting for Non-Contesters

Making sense of the fast-forward intense activity, and using it to your
own ends.

This is not ‘how to contest’, but about how to use the massive worldwide
activity to efficiently learn more about propagation, your station’s
capabilities, and improve communication effectiveness. Oh, and notch up
your country count!

Presenter: Steve Dove, W3EEE

In addition to our in-person meeting at the FOP Lodge, we will be simulcasting the meeting via a Google Meet web meeting to accommodate those unable to travel to the meeting site. Please see Bob’s email.

Please join us for our upcoming Elmer Night, Tuesday, March 17, 2026, 7 pm to 8 pm (or so).

Open forum, bring the topics you’d like to know more about

Please see Bob’s email.

Please mark your calendars, we hope to see you online.

Objectives for the event:

Activate US-0912 for the benefit of Parks on the Air hunters
Get club members, new hams, and visitors on the air.
Introduce visitors to the amateur radio and to SAARS
Promote St Augustine and the area to hams across the country and around the world

The plan is to operate on HF (likely 10 meters, 15 meters, and/or 20 meters) using a club rig and a Buddipole antenna. We will have one tent and one table for the operating position, a couple of chairs, as well as club pamphlets and a sign-in sheet for visitors. We suggest that you bring a chair if you plan to stay for a while.

Since this is a historic monument we need to be very careful not to disturb the structure or grounds in any way, nor can we attach anything to the structure itself.

Schedule

Load-in: approximately 7:30 am to 8 am
Setup: 8 am to 9 am
Operations: 9 am to 12 noon. We will rotate operators, with priority given to new hams and non-hams who wish to give it a try.
Load-out: 12 noon to 1 pm

Wear your club t-shirt or show your club badge to enter the fort at no charge.

Parking: Since we will be in downtown St Augustine you need to have a parking plan. Information on discounted parking for St Johns County residents is available at: https://www.citystaug.com/Faq.aspx?TID=47. General information on parking in St Augustine is available at: https://www.citystaug.com/498/Parking

We hope to see you this coming Saturday!

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet Tuesday, March 3, 2026, 6:30 pm. The meeting local will be at the Fraternal Order of Police, St. Johns County Lodge #113
5050 Inman Road, St. Augustine, FL 32084. (MAP).

The gate will be opened at approximately 6 pm.

Meeting Program: Low power communications and DXCC, also, an update of WSPR radio progress

Presenter: John Smith, K3GO

In addition to our in-person meeting at the FOP Lodge, we will be simulcasting the meeting via a Google Meet web meeting to accommodate those unable to travel to the meeting site. Please see Bob’s email.

Please join us for our upcoming Elmer Night, Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 7 pm to 8 pm (or so).

No specific theme general session.

Please see Bob’s email.

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet Tuesday, Feb 3, 2026, 6:30 pm. The meeting local will be at the Fraternal Order of Police, St. Johns County Lodge #113
5050 Inman Road, St. Augustine, FL 32084. (MAP).

The gate will be opened at approximately 6 pm.

Meeting Program:St Johns County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)

Speakers:
Andrew Reed, KM4BKB, Emergency Coordinator, ARES, St Johns County, FL
Gavin Butler, FPEM, Coordinator, St. Johns County Emergency Management

n addition to our in-person meeting at the FOP Lodge, we will be simulcasting the meeting via a Google Meet web meeting to accommodate those unable to travel to the meeting site. Please see Bob’s email.

Please join us for our upcoming Elmer Night.

Tuesday, January 20, 2026 – 7 pm to 8 pm (or so)

Theme: An overview and demo of logging programs, including preparation for Winter Field Day logging.

See Bob’s email for login instructions.

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society is planning its first operating event of 2026, Winter Field Day, at  Armstrong Park (map), 4950 Harvey Ave, Elkton, FL 32033

Saturday, January 24, 2026 – main operating day for SAARS. Set up starting at about 9 am. Formal Winter Field Day operations commence at 11 am. Tear down will be late afternoon.

Sunday, January 25, 2026 – informal operating day for those who wish to return to the park (or elsewhere) and set up a station. The formal event ends at 4:59 pm on Sunday. Since Sunday is an informal day for the club, the schedule will be determined by those who chose to attend that day.

Note: unless otherwise noted, all times shown are EST.

This park has a pavilion, restrooms, trees, and a field where we should be able to set up antennas. Also, the park is at a trailhead for the Palatka-St Augustine State Trail, so we may even be able to do a Parks on the Air (POTA) activation for US-3644.

Mostly it will be the HF bands so bring your own rigs,
antennas to share. We will operate the club radios and antennas so there will
be variety of equipment. Maybe someone can bring Satellite setup?

Food and Drink: There are no concession stands at the park, and not much else in the general vicinity. We recommend that you bring food and drinks for the day.

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet Tuesday, January 6, 2026, 6:30 pm. The meeting local will be at the Fraternal Order of Police, St. Johns County Lodge #113
5050 Inman Road, St. Augustine, FL 32084. (MAP).

The gate will be opened at approximately 6 pm.

Program: The VP2MMA DXpedition by Juan Lopez, AC6ZM

In addition to our in-person meeting at the FOP Lodge, we will be simulcasting the meeting via a Google Meet web meeting to accommodate those unable to travel to the meeting site. Please see Bob’s email.