2011 Field Day Radio In Da Hood

Field Day is fast approaching. Hundreds of stations will be on the air June 25th and 6th including a 3 club effort here in Montreal. West Island Amateur Radio Club, Montreal Amateur Radio Club and the Concordia University Amateur Radio Club are all working together. The operators will work SSB, CW and VHF with the added modes of satellite and digital. The large focus will be on the SSB and CW components.

George VE2NGH and his team have been working to get the project off the ground tuning antennas, getting the location for the event squared away and other details are all part of the process they have gone through to get ready for Field Day. The call to be used for the event is VE2CUA and the team will be operating at Pine Beach Park in Dorval a suburb of Montreal.

For those who are not familiar with this contest it's really not a contest. It's more a test of skills. The concept is to take the operator out of his/her natural space and put them in conditions that would not be considered normal. Hence going out to parks, in fields or generally in places where it is difficult to operate radio gear are the norm for this unique test. Also operating without the niceties of having a fridge, electricity and getting little or no sleep are all par for the course. The contest in short is a test to see how prepared for emergencies radio operators are. Yes certificates are handed out to the best in all classes but, really the idea is to see how well one can do in adverse conditions. Field Day is a test of skill and teamwork and wit that said for anyone ham operator or not who is interested in disaster preparedness this is a great way to learn new skills an hone those already learned.

The three clubs invite any ham radio operator or anyone interested in emergency communications to join them during the Field Day weekend, June 25th and 6th. For more info you can visit the following sites and or contact George VE2NGH for more details.

WIARC, West Island Amateur Radio Club
MARC Montreal Amateur radio Club
CUARC Concordia Amateur Radio Club

Pine Beach Park a PDF file of Dorval shows where the park is. STM route 202 Dawson is the closest bus line, this route runs every 30 minutes. The best intersection is Claude and Dawson though you can get off a stop after at an address marker of 1301 Dawson.

At the the time this article was posted no talk in repeater was noted, though most likely it will be VE2RWI at 146.910 - 600 for the input. This repeater does not require a tone.

For more on the contest visit the ARRL Field Day event page.

Have fun and see you on the bands during Field Day 2011 as we do radio in da hood.

Cliff VA2UTC