Maybe, don’t know yet. Biggest issue is that somehow for an event that we plan for, arrive early and do all hat other sort of stuff it always appears that everyone is in a hurry to get off site on Saturday, use to have a “Show and Tell” on equipment displays but the last couple shows that has been iffy, people still set up some of the best displays of working equipment along with signs and documentation and in many ways this is as big a part of the show as the field ops. We have use of the facilities all the way until Sunday morning and I know that I would like to have more activity on Saturday afternoon.

This year I am planning on trying a cross country contact on seventeen and that requires afternoon operation so I will be there but don’t know who else will be.

All that being said maybe I will make it a point to try working M&S Net on Saturday, may just use the whip on the mutt and see how that goes? Did want to try to get there early enough to do Thursday but don’t know if that will happen or not.

Pictures and info about last year:

http://staff.salisbury.edu/~rafantini/MRCA22.htm

Ray F/KA3EKH

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of N2MS via groups.io
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2023 10:53 AM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: Re: [MMRCG] [MRCA] Gilbert meet September 22-23

Any M&S net on Saturday 1600UTC 5357 USB?

Mike N2MS

On 07/20/2023 9:57 AM EDT Ray Fantini <[email protected]> wrote:

The plan for ON AIR Ops:

Local coordination channels – 51.0 FM 146.52 FM

Thursday, September 21st.

1200 to 1300      5.357     USB Moose & Squirrel  Net.

Friday, September 22nd.

MRCA Beltsville Backpack and field exercise Schedule:

1400 to 1500     5.357     USB Net. Will have fixed station at Beltsville lake as NCS, remote stations are encouraged to also participate.

1500 to 1530     3.885     AM Net. Low power backpack or handheld,3875 if traffic on channel.

1530 to 1600     3.875     USB Net. Low power backpack or handheld, 7296 as an alternate?

1600 to 1630     3.570     CW Net. Slow Net! We need someone to step up as NCS for this.

1630 to 1700     51.0       FM Net. Wide band PRC-25/77 VRC-12 and the like. Open squelch please.

(TBD) Ops that take place at the Howell building and the MVPA show:

144.25   AM Handheld/Backpack or aircraft radios, URC-4, ARC-3 and other primitive AM radios.

   29.6 or 29.10  FM wide band primitive, SCR-300/BC-1000 and other WW2 sets including early vehicle sets.

Saturday, September 23rd.

0500 to 0800      3.885     AM MRCA Net.

Non-Sanctioned MMRCG events on Saturday:

0900 to 1000      7.087     RTTY Net 850Hz, 60 wpm.

1000 to 1100      7.296     USB MMRCG Net.

1300                      18.145   USB proposed cross country contact to MRCG West.

Commentary and thoughts:

If I can get on sight early enough on Thursday will operate M&S Net from that location. For Friday do we want to keep the same schedule add to or take away some of the pushes? Can be a bit hectic changing configuration between nets. The 5357 Net has become popular not just with the back pack stations on site but the last couple years we have had about half a dozen distant stations take part. It’s always fun to see how many portable stations can be copied at great distances.

Do we want to keep all the backpack 80 meter ops? Maybe move the USB net to something like 7296 and see how that goes? Or remove one of the nets to give more time to the CW net?

51.0 has seen a lot of activity during the event and do we want to just keep that as a coordination channel or still keep a 51.0 net?

NCS has capabilities for 144.25 AM but don’t know if we want to do anything with that from Beltsville, is there interest enough to schedule something back at the fair grounds on VHF AM or something with the first generation FM sets on ten meters?

Last year we had some certificates for any of the stations that took part in the Beltsville exercise, any interest in doing that again? Would people who participate from home want to receive one also?

Going to attach the pdf of the Beltsville layout just to get people thinking again but keep in mind that we have other stations that were at the fair grounds or distant locations so using one of the proposed sites is not mandatory.

Saturday morning I will be doing the MMRCG stuff including the RTTY net and the Saturday MMRCG net outside the Howell building and would wonder if there is anything else that the MMRCG would like to be doing at the event.

Lets see what others thought and ideas are out there?

Ray F/KA3EKH