Amateur Radio Demonstration St Augustine Lighthouse – Thursday, June 11, 2026
As mentioned in previous communications, SAARS has been invited to demonstrate amateur radio to the summer campers at the St Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum on Thursday, June 11, 2026.
One of the camp’s themes this summer is “Communicators of the Coast,” including discussions on how communication technology has advanced and changed over time. The kids will learn about Morse Code, radios, and navigation.
We envision a relatively simple setup for this event as the period of operation will be brief, occurring during the 10 am to 1 pm window. As such, we will not erect the long wire antenna affixed to the lighthouse as we do for the ILLW event. I envision using Buddipoles, simple vertical, or simple dipole antennas to facilitate quick installation and dismantling of the stations.
We’ll probably operate on one or two bands in the 40 meter to 10 meter range, depending upon conditions. We’ll have one station set up for voice and another for CW. We want students to hear what a real Morse Code contact sounds like, and would like to get campers on the air making voice contacts. We’ll also demonstrate hand held DMR and analog FM VHF/UHF radios to illustrate some other modes of operation and to listen in on some local maritime traffic on the VHF marine channels.
Here’s the anticipated timeline (local time):
0745 to 0800 – start arriving at the Lighthouse. Wear your SAARS t-shirt or badge to gain entrance to the facility.
0800 to 1000 – set up and test antennas and transceivers (all in attendance)
1000 to 1015 – give a short presentation on ham radio to the campers (N2PE)
1015 to 1300 – operations and demonstrations during this window (exact times to be clarified) (all in attendance and those on home and mobile stations)
1300 to 1330 – dismantle stations and depart lighthouse (all in attendance)
For those of you unable to join us at the lighthouse but able to operate from home or a mobile, please be available during the operating window so we can contact you. This should give us the ability to make some ground wave contacts on HF if the atmospheric conditions are poor.
We’ll also operate on the DMR repeater using the St Augustine talkgroup (3166422) and also try some of the wide area talkgroups.
ACTION REQUIRED BY TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2026 (if participating)
Please reply to Bob’s email if you plan to participate in this demonstration.
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If you will attend in person, please indicate the times you will be present. Also, if you wish to bring a rig and/or simple antenna, please let me know what you will be bringing. While we will have a couple of the club’s rigs with us, this is also a good opportunity to exercise your personal equipment, too.
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If you will be able to operate from home or a mobile during this time, please indicate the bands on which you can operate. We’ll establish specific frequencies as we get closer to the event.
