We plan to activate two parks as a group on Saturday April 6th, beginning at 9am as a part of Parks on the Air (aka POTA, found at: www.parksontheair.com).  We will activate the Chestnut Picnic Area at Catoctin Mountain Park located here and Monocacy National Battlefield at the Welcome Center located here.  

One very important note regarding access to Chestnut Picnic Area at Catoctin Mountain Park:

MD Rt 77 (aka Foxville Road) is currently closed between the eastern edge of the park and Park Central Road.  If traveling north on US 15 from Frederick and points south, the best route is to turn left on Catoctin Hollow Rd, follow that to the end, then turn right onto MD 77 and then left onto Park Central Road.  This adds about five minutes to the journey.  If coming from the west on MD 77, the construction is a non-issue.

Mike K3MMM will spearhead Catoctin and Justin AB3E will spearhead Monocacy.  Feel free to bring a portable radio setup or part of a setup or simply show up and use one of our radios.  Since others can act as control operator, no need for any particular license.  Each contact you make will count towards the club K3ERM score as well as your own, if you create a free POTA account in advance.

Please check back here for updates.  We look forward to seeing you there!  If there are questions, my email is valid on qrz.com.

73!
Mike K3MMM

We hope you can join us for an Amateur Radio Fox Hunt at the Old National Pike District Park on April 21, 2024 starting at 1:30PM (weather permitting). We will have both walking and driving foxes (hidden transmitters) in place for you to use your radio Direction Finding (DFing) skills to find. The park is located at 12406 Old National Pike Mt, Airy, MD 21771. (https://www.recreater.com/248/Old-National-Pike-Park) We will meet in the parking lot near Shelter 2 at the woodland trail (see map on recreator site or flyer). Just look for the fox hunt signs and vehicles with antennas!

An Amateur Radio Fox Hunt is a practice drill to find hidden or lost radio transmitters using RF Direction Finding techniques. This is a receive only drill, so you do NOT need to be licensed to participate in this event. All you need to participate is a receiver/scanner capable of listening to signals between 144MHz and 148MHz, and an antenna. There will be extra equipment at the site for you to use. All our foxes will be on the 2M band.

We’ll have multiple fox hunts set up and running at the same time.
1. For the walking hunt, we’ll have a few low power (10mw) foxes located around the park for you
to find while honing your DFing skills and enjoying a walk in the woods! If you are “DF honed”
you might hop in the car to find the fox located a few miles away. At the walking hunt there will be assistance for those new to fox hunting.

2. For the more skilled fox hunters, there will be a driving hunt using a 1W fox located within a few miles of the park for you to find. The 146.730 repeater will be used to coordinate this hunt. At the beginning we’ll announce the fox frequency and take check-ins on the repeater so we know who is hunting. When you find the fox don’t tell everyone else in case you are the first. Just let us know you found it.

Please share this flyer with your friends:  https://frederickarc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Foxhunt-4_21_24-2.pdf

Hope you can join us!  Questions to Tony KC3MBE

Please join us on Monday March 18th at 7pm for the FARC meeting, held at the Independent Hose Company social hall (310 Baughmans Lane, Frederick – parking and entrance in rear of building). Meetings are open to ALL interested parties from the greater community.  No need to be a member or be licensed or anything.  If you even THINK that you might possibly maybe be interested, please join us!  In addition to a quick FredFest recap, we’ll have a presentation by Jim Kane (W1DF) from nearby Gettysburg, who will discuss: Ascension Island: The “Rock” and Role.

As always, joining us in person is best.  But if that’s just not possible, join via zoom here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86031809702?pwd=bkFCM0pYL0g1RndpZVNjd01rN2FYQT09

We hope to see you there!

Thanks to all who came out for FFest ’24!  We’ll see you again next March.

FredFest 2024 is BACK!

Saturday, March 16th, 2024

8:00 am to 12 noon

Shake off those winter blues and join us for the first local Amateur Radio indoor tailgate hamfest of spring.   This year we have a HUGE silent key estate to offer, with quality gear. PLEASE tell your friends and clubmates

Event location: Independent Hose Company Social Hall
310 Baughmans Lane
Frederick, MD  21702

(free parking and entrance in the rear of the building – click here for directions)

• • • • • • General Admission is $5.00
          • Tables are $10 each, and includes admission for one person
          • Seller setup begins at 06:45 am, doors open to the public at 8:00 am
          • No table reservations, all first come, first served.
          • Raffle prizes every 30 minutes – must be present to win
          • Talk in on 146.64 + PL 156.7

FredFest flyer is here:  Fredfest 2023V2