St. Augustine Amateur Radio Society

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society is planning its first operating event of 2025, Winter Field Day.

Setup time

If you arrive at the park in the 8:30 am to 9 am timeframe you should have plenty of time to set up.

Operations time

Formal Winter Field Day operations start at 11 am on Saturday, but we’ll start “warm-up” operations as soon as we get stations on the air.

We expect the bulk of our operation to be on Saturday until about 5 pm.

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 in the harsh outdoor winter environment of North Florida.

We’ll likely operate in the 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter bands, and hope to have at least one FT8 station on the air.

As of this date we expect to have at least four rigs and antenna systems, and we encourage everyone to bring a rig or antenna they would like to experiment with.

Logging

Please bring your laptop computers loaded with the club version of the N3FJP software for logging. That will enable easy consolidation and submission of logs at the end of the event.

If you would like to get the N3FJP software loaded on your computer, please indicate such on the Winter Field Day 2025 planning survey (you will receive a link for this under separate cover).

If you don’t have a laptop to bring, no worries – we will still have paper logs available.

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.

Fleas and ticks

Insect repellent is recommended (just in case).

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet  Tuesday January  7th at 6:30 PM via Google Meet. Please see Bob’s email for meeting information.

Please join us for our January 2025 monthly meeting (online). Following our regular business meeting we will be joined by Andy Milluzzi, KK4LWR, Vice Director of the ARRL Southeastern Division, for an update on the happenings at the ARRL and in the amateur radio world.

Christmas Party Time

It’s been another GREAT Year for SAARS. Let’s finish it off with a bang! Come join us one and all for our annual Christmas Party

Tuesday – December 3rd – Brisky’s BBQ Resturant

6 pm (Arrive between 5:30 and 6:00 pm)

State Road 16 @ Hwy. US-1

3009 North Ponce de Leon Blvd.
St Augustine, FL 32084 (map)

 Buffet style — Beef Brisket, Pulled Pork and Turkey along with sides, tea, and a desert. Some alcoholic beverages available at your own expense.  $20 for members and guests.  Beverages extra.   We will be needing commitments on attendance so that we can give the restaurant a number.  Please reply to Bob’s email for head count.

RSVP by November 30, 2024

Saturday,  November 30th 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.

On Saturday, November 16, 2024 SAARS will be operating N4AUG at the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in downtown St Augustine. Here are the details.

We will be operating from the top deck of the fort, in the area of the northwest bastion. The plan is to operate on HF using the club’s IC-718 and a Buddipole antenna (thanks to Jim, KQ4SXE). 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 will aslo bring a DMR radio.

Saturday,  October 26th 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.

We will be helping to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the St. Augustine Lighthouse on Monday October 14th.

We will be setting up 2 HF radios as well as a DMR radio. Hopefully we will be able to introduce students to Amateur Radio.

Main setup Sunday 4pm – 6pm
Operating setup Monday  – 8am – 10am
Operations Monday 10am – 4pm
Teardown Monday – 4pm.

Hope to see you there.

The St Augustine Amateur Radio Society will meet  Tuesday October 1st at 6:30 PM. The meeting location will be the St. Augustine Airport Conference Center, 4730 Casa Cola Way, St. Augustine. (map).

After the business meeting we will conduct a couple of workshops — club logging program and radio programming.

Club Logging Program Workshop

We have a club license for the N3FJP logging program, enabling our members to log contacts when operating as N4AUG. In order to better utilize the club’s investment in this program, and to make event log submissions less labor intensive, we would like to set this program up on member computers and test it using a local wireless network to be set up in the conference room.

We’ll also demonstrate this program to those who have not seen it yet.

We also have access to the internet in the conference room, so if you need help downloading the program you will be able to during the workshop.

Please bring your laptops in order to get set up!

Radio Programming Workshop

We’ve had several members ask for assistance setting up both analog and DMR radios. Please bring your radios, programming cables, laptops, and software if you need assistance. Your fellow club members are here to help