Amateur Radio Field Day is June 24

Amateur Radio Field Day 2023 in Churchill County begins at 11 a.m. on June 24 and runs continuously for 24 hours.

The field day will set up at the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge’s Lead Lake Campsite.

ARCC meets monthly at 8 a.m. on the first Saturday of each month at St. John’s Lutheran Church.

Club meetings are mostly on the hobby and the fun aspects of amateur radio. Following each meeting at 9 a.m. ARCC conducts testing to license new hams.

ARCC members and guests meet weekly “on the air’ every Sunday at 7 p.m. on the TAC-8 repeater Lahontan Peak 441.875 (+), pl-103.5 (alternate 146.97 (-) pl-103.5) Churchill County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (CCARES) is part of ARCC.

ARES operates in Churchill County (CCARES) and supports emergency communications for the county, NAS Fallon, TCID and other organizations like the Red Cross. Amateur radio is recognized by FEMA as an integral part of our national emergency communications infrastructure.

The national sponsor is the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), which has 160,000 members and 700,000 total licensed “hams” in the U.S. Field Day is ham radio's open house.

Every June, more than 40,000 hams throughout North America set up temporary transmitting stations in public places to demonstrate ham radio's science, skill and service to our communities and our nation.

2023 plans

A “Get On The Air” station is where visitors, including children, can get on the radio and give it a try (with one of our licensed hams present)

Operate 3 HF (shortwave) stations making contacts throughout North America.

Road signs to help visitors find the Lead Lake Campsite.

Besides being fun, a ham license will give you the ability to communicate in emergencies. It takes about five hours of study and a modest exam fee to get licensed. New hams can start with hand held radios costing under $35 which work with mountain top repeaters for long range.

Why so far out of town? Radio interference from noisy electrical lines and equipment make it hard to hear weaker radio signals from hams across the U.S. By “getting out of town” our ability to hear and communicate is significantly improved.

For information, visit www.facebook.com/ChurchillCountyAmateurRadio/ or www.nv7cc.org. Or call Rick WF6O at 916-201-9543.