Now that we are past Covid restrictions. The club is now running field day in Wilderness Park in Redondo Beach.
Everyone is welcome to join us at Field Day. If you are a licensed Ham you can get some radio time making contacts, logging contacts, or just seeing how others do things. If you are a newly licensed Ham, we would really like to get you on the GOTA station. If you are not a Ham and are just a bit curious about this, please stop by.
If you can join us, we normally start setup around 10 AM on Friday. This would be a good time to see how the antennas are assembled and how the radios are connected with the coax, antennas, and power. If you cannot make it on Friday, the "contesting" starts at 11 AM on Saturday and runs for 24 hours. Camp out with us if you like. Or stop by for as long as you can.
Hope to see you there.
Location in Wilderness Park
1102 Camino Real Redondo Beach, CA
Pine campground
All are welcome to come help or observe how the radio stations are assembled. The club has a 55' crank up tower on a trailer that is placed at a high point near Pine Campground in the park. We place a tri band yagi antenna and a VHF/UHF vertical antenna at the top. In addition we use the tower to support sloper antennas for 40 and 80 meters.
The objective of field day is: To work as many stations as possible on the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and10 Meter HF bands, as well as all bands 50 MHz and above, and in doing so to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions. A premium is placed on developing skills to meet the challenges of emergency preparedness as well as to acquaint the general public with the capabilities of Amateur Radio
The club will be setting up several HF radio stations, a VHF/UHF station and a Get On The Air (GOTA) station. If you are a technician license holder or newly licensed or have not been operating much please come use our GOTA station. We will have a coach to guide your contacts. Also, if you are not licensed and just want to come see radio stations in operation, please stop by and we will give you a chance to make a few contacts. If you are licensed, please join us to help log or operate. More hams makes it more ejoyable for all!
Field day is always the 4th full weekend in June. This ARRL event show cases amateur radio for the community. We set up our radio stations in Hopkins Wilderness Park with the generous support from the City of Redondo Beach. Each year we make thousands of radio contacts (QSO's) during a 24 hour period using HF, VHF, and UHF frequencies. We have a Get On The Air (GOTA) station for the public and newly licensed Hams to try their hand at amateur radio.
Our goals are:
- To have fun - keep it light and enjoyable for all
- To make many, many radio contacts - more each year
- To test new equipment, antennas, and methods
- To engage with the public and explain how we are preparing for emergency communication operations
All equipment is set up on the Friday before field day: antennas, generators, solar panels, radios, tents, tables, logging computers, and a lot of cable. Typically we have five 3-element yagi antennas plus wire antennas for lower frequencies and an assortment of VHF/UHF antennas. All communication is done using emergency power - simulating activities during an actual emergency.
Field Day 2024
This year we captured a video of the W6TRW field day station held in Friendship Park in Palos Verdes. They very effectively ran a 5 Alpha station using just solar and batteries to power their equipment. By using just 5 Watts they increased their field day power multiplier to 5X. They used a combination of digital, CW, and phone modes.
Video of W6TRW Field Day