The Frederick Amateur Radio Club will be hosting a Parks on the Air (POTA) club activation on Saturday July 29th, beginning at 0800. Please join us at one of these locations:
- Washington Monument State Park at 6620 Zittlestown Rd, Middletown MD 21769 (note: Park has a $2/vehicle admission fee for in-state and $4/vehicle for out of state). We will set up near the Washington Monument Trailhead parking lot – approximate What 3 Words location: ///crosses.bouncing.unlimited
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- Catoctin Mountain Park (Chestnut Picnic Area on Park Central Rd) at 15009 Park Central Rd, Sabillasville MD. The picnic area has a small loop circle drive, we expect to set up on the far side – opposite of the entrance from Park Central Rd. Our approximate What 3 Words location: ///rigorously.masterpiece.anyhow
Each site will have at least one HF radio to share – so you do NOT need to bring any equipment! However, feel free to bring your own equipment to try. There is generally no AC power available, so if you bring equipment, bring a battery. Catoctin will have spare battery power, just in case.
Since we’ll be activating as a club, no POTA registration is required to participate (but you could register at www.pota.app, in which case you would also get the POTA points). We will be using the N3ITA/K3KMA/N3UHD 440 linked repeaters to communicate between sites and for talk-in. ALL are welcome to join us at one of the parks – no amateur license is required.
If you can’t join us (although the 5th Saturday of the month could be breakfast in the park instead of Golden Corral), please consider “hunting” (aka “chasing”) us – go to www.pota.app and look for our K3ERM spots – tune in and try to work us. Note that you do NOT need to register with pota to hunt a park activator – nor do you need to send a log to anyone. The park activator takes care of all logging. Also note that that POTA does not allow duplicate spots, so we’ll use K3ERM/R01 through /R09 for Washington Monument stations and K3ERM/R10 through /R19 for Catoctin stations. The /RXX identifiers are for spotting only – any logs should only show the call sign. Also listen on the linked repeaters for possible simplex VHF/UHF operation. Questions? Contact Justin AB3E via email found on qrz.com. We look forward to seeing you there!
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