Welcome to the Frederick Amateur Radio Club!

We hope you can join us for an Amateur Radio Fox Hunt at Utica District Park on September 13, 2025 starting at 11:00AM (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 10200-B Old Frederick Road, Frederick, MD 21701.  More about Utica Park is here:  Utica District Park | Frederick County Parks and Recreation, MD. We will meet at the Archery Range between Shelter 1 and 2. Just look for the fox hunt signs or look for vehicles with extra 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 have to be licensed to participate in this event. All you need to participate is a receiver or 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 (144 to 148MHz). 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 park! If you are a “DF expert”
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 six miles of the park for you to find. The 146.730M 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 where you are, in case you are the first. Just let us know you found it.

Hope you can join us for the walk in the beautiful Frederick County Park!

For a .pdf, including maps, click here:  https://frederickarc.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/FARC-Foxhunt-w_map.pdf

QST QST The third Monday of August is just around the corner, so plan to join your radio friends at the Social Hall of the Independent Hose (fire) Company for the monthly Frederick Amateur Radio Club meeting on Monday August 13th. Even though we officially begin at 7pm, but many of us arrive just after 6pm in order to set up and socialize, plus answer any radio-centric questions that folks may have – join us early if you can. The street address is 310 Baughmans Lane in Frederick, and parking and entrance are in the rear of the building. We welcome ANYONE from the local community to join us – membership or amateur license is not required. If you’re curious about anything radio, feel free to stop in.

This month Mark KC3EOJ will discuss the nuts and bolts of radio interoperability during emergency events.

As always, participating in person is best, but sometimes that just isn’t possible. The next best is to join via Zoom using this link: FARC Zoom 2025 . When using Zoom, please put your name or call sign into your profile so that we can distinguish you from a bot. Also please keep yourself muted except as needed to participate. I hope to see you there!

Mike K3MMM

Please join us for the July meeting of the Frederick Amateur Radio Club on Monday July 21^st at 7pm. Spurred by a series of discussions during the Field Day lightning storms, we’d like to consider the following items:

• “Downsize” the quantity of items that the club owns, allowing us to eliminate the ~$80/mo (Bryant can provide the actual monthly rent amount) for storage unit.
• Re-home the tower trailer. While it serves a great purpose, for the past decade or more, we have only used it on Field Day, and it requires ~six people to safely deploy. The Field Day discussion centered around a more nimble approach.
• We would potentially replace the trailer with more modest push-up masts.
• Unrelated – Per our bylaws, we need to elect a new club secretary. Derek KC3YYP as volunteered for this role. If any others are interested in the job, feel free to speak up.

In addition to all of that, we’ll have a presentation by Derek KC3YYP regarding grounding and lighting protection.

So, please add to the conversation by joining us on Monday at the Social Hall of the Independent Hose Company, located at 310 Baughmans Lane in Frederick. Parking and entrance are in the rear. If you can’t join us in person, please join via Zoom using this link:  FARC Zoom 2025

When using Zoom, please have your name and/or call sign in the profile so we can distinguish you from a bot.

So, there will be a lot of discussion – please share your thoughts. Let me know if there are questions – use my call sign @arrl.net.

73!
Mike K3MMM

Planning for Field Day 2025 is under way.  Field Day is a great opportunity to visit with members and understand other perspectives on how to operate out in the field. And we’ll be there for over 24 hours, hopefully fitting most schedules. Here are specifics thus far, in no particular order:

• Event active hours are Saturday June 28th at 2pm local until Sunday June 29th at 2pm local
• We generally begin setting up on Saturday morning around 8am
• We’ll be operating at Remsberg Park at 7408 Holter Rd Middletown MD
• We plan to operate exclusively with solar/battery power, foregoing commercial and generator power.  
• FARC field day is both about making contacts AND testing/experimenting with new equipment.  It’s a great opportunity to bring what you have, and we’ll help you get it on the air.  OR just bring yourself and we’ll have the rest.
• We’ll use the club call sign K3ERM
• We plan to operate as 4A our complete exchange will be K3ERM, 4A, MDC. Here is the exchange secret decode: K3ERM is our club call sign. 4 = max of four radios, and A means that we’re operating as a club from a non-permanent location.  MDC is our Amateur Radio Relay League (aka ARRL) “section” – we’re in the Maryland/District of Columbia section, hence MDC.  On the radio, we’ll say “This is Kilo Three Echo Romeo Mike, we’re Four Alpha, Mike Delta Charlie.”.  The far end will reply with their half of the exchange, for example, the Antietam Club would likely be “W3CWC, 4A, MDC”.
• The 160, 80, 40, 30, 20, 15, 10 and up are all authorized bands.
• There is a whole host of provisions that earn extra points – we hope to snag as many as possible.
• You can find the ARRL rules for 2025 here:  arrl field day 2025
• Feel free to bring food/drink to share.
• We use a shared spreadsheet for planning – use this link for access: 2025 Field Day.  It may require that I provide approval, but will do so for just about anyone.

ANYONE from the local community is welcome to stop by.  We’re happy to discuss all types of radios and how they may fit into your world.

Send me questions at using my calls sign @arrl.net.

Mike K3MMM