St. Augustine Amateur Radio Society

Just a reminder, this weekend is Florida State Parks on the Air. The Saint Augustine Amateur Radio Society will be activating Favor-Dykes state park for this event. We will definitely be operating on Saturday and the event officially goes from 10 am to 6 pm. There are no night time operations for the event. We have reserved the picnic pavilion for both Saturday and Sunday.

The weather should be very nice. It has been reported it is wise to use some bug spray as it is a pine woods with the typical pests. Bob N2PE is doing lunch for us. Please complete his survey.

Saturday, March 25th is the last Saturday of the month when we do a Breakfast Social.  This Saturday we will be at  “The Spot” which is located 4508 US 1 St. Augustine near the airport.  (MAP) The Spot opens at 7:30 which is also our normal time to gather for breakfast.

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet  Tuesday March 7th at 6:30 PM. The meeting location will be the St. Augustine Airport Conference Center, 4730 Casa Cola Way, St. Augustine. (map).

Program: Introduction to Software Defined Radios (SDR 101) by
Franco Venturi, K4VZ

From Mark Murray –

Our SAARS fraternity brother, Art, Radio W4AA, passed away peacefully early this morning, Tuesday, 28 February 2023. Now a Silent Key.

Art’s family members were with him these past few days and were able to say their final good-byes.

A family member mentioned that final arrangements will be made known in the “next few weeks.” There will be another posting on all this, to include a mailing address for cards, in the coming days.

May Arthur finally rest in Eternal Peace.

Saturday, February25 is the last Saturday of the month when we do a Breakfast Social.  This Saturday we will be at  “The Spot” which is located 4508 US 1 St. Augustine near the airport.  (MAP) The Spot opens at 7:30 which is also our normal time to gather for breakfast.

Hope to see you there and at Winter Field Day.

The Electrical Interference presentation by Frank Haas has been posted in Text Resources:

Media –> Text Resources – Electrical Interference, Frank Haas, KB4T (zip file)

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet  Tuesday February 7th at 6:30 PM. The meeting location will be the St. Augustine Airport Conference Center, 4730 Casa Cola Way, St. Augustine. (map).

Program: Electrical Interference by Frank Haas, KB4T

Saturday, January 28 is the last Saturday of the month when we do a Breakfast Social.  This Saturday we will be at  “The Spot” which is located 4508 US 1 St. Augustine near the airport.  (MAP) The Spot opens at 7:30 which is also our normal time to gather for breakfast.

Hope to see you there and at Winter Field Day.

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will participate in Winter Field Day 2023 with operations at Faver-Dykes State Park.

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

Winter Field Day operations start at 2 pm local time Saturday. Since January 28 is the last Saturday of the month we can still meet for the monthly breakfast (although we may move the location to a restaurant to a location closer to the park).If you arrive at the park in the 10 am to 11 am timeframe you should have plenty of time to set up.
Our operation time
We expect the bulk of our operation to be on Saturday afternoon, with some members staying on through the evening. We’ll need to break down the stations and antennas when we leave for the day (unless someone intends to operate through the night).

For those who intend to operate on Sunday setup will be at the first come/first served pavilion as early as possible.

Food and drink
There are no concession stands at the park, and not much else in the general vicinity. The club will provide lunch in the 12 noon-ish to 2 pm time frame (just prior to operations). We recommend that you bring your own drinks and bring food for later in the day. There will be no meal service on Sunday, so pack food and drinks accordingly if you intend to operate from the park that day.

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

We will also conduct a pre-event planning meeting during the evening of Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 7 pm. This will be an online meeting. A meeting announcement and link will be sent under separate cover.

We look forward to our first event of 2023 and hope to see you there. Even if you don’t intend to operate, stop by to see the setups and enjoy some lunch.