[GCARC] 3:45 pm this Saturday GCARC clubhouse: Field Day bonus point activity - everyone & guests welcome!

[Jim Wright]

Ladies and Gentlemen of the GCARC!

You, and your family members and guests, are invited to our clubhouse at
3:45pm this Saturday, June 23 to participate in a field day 100 bonus
points educational activity. Yes, the air conditioning will be on!

What is the activity?
Jim, N2GXJ will show you some simple software programming tricks to turn an
Arduino into a fox hunt transmitter on 433 MHz!  And then we will hide one
outside, and see if can find it by homing in on its transmissions.  (If you
own a hand-held radio that can tune to 433 MHz, feel free to bring it to
help in the hunt).   If that's too easy for you, we'll also have our
regular hidden fox hunt transmitter available for some hide-and-seek fun.
Hope to see you there!

While there, don't forget to stop by our public relations information
table. It will be set up starting 2pm Saturday, as this is field day
weekend!  What a great opportunity to learn more about what what ham radio
is all about by seeing it in action.  Family members welcome!    What bands
will be open?  Maybe 6 meters? How far will our signals travel?  How many
contacts can we make in 24 hours?  All good questions!  Stop by just to
socialize, to say hello, ask questions, and check-out our on-air field day
stations that will be in operation.

p.s. Did you know there is a youth participation bonus?  A 20 point bonus
may be earned for the first five participants age 18 or younger at our
field day operation that complete at least one QSO. Stop by the digital 20
meter tent if you have have any youth in your party that might like to give
it a try. You don't have to be licensed.  By rule, non-licensed individuals
may participate in our field day under the direct supervision of a properly
licensed control operator. And we will have a control operator there.  It
should be fun!

And, of course, there's more.  At 10pm (@22:00 local time), the SO-50 FM
amateur radio satellite will be visible and will be passing nearly straight
overhead.  I can only imagine how crazy trying to make a contact through
that bird will be on field day weekend!  Having one successful QSO over any
amateur satellite is another 100 bonus points. If we've not made a contact
via inverting XW-2B (@17:35), XW-2C (@18:18), XW-2D (@18:44), or FO-29
(@21:25) by then, we might have to give this FM bird a try.  The downlink
is on 436.795 MHz if you want to listen in. The other FM bird, AO-85
(Fox-1A), should be passing overhead during daylight @19:38 (7:38pm), if
want a preview. The downlink for that bird is narrow band FM on 145.978
MHz.  Whatever happens, It should be fun!

Hope to see you there!
Jim


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