Category: Events

Saturday in the Park – February 28

Posted on By Michael M
Events

Do you have portable gear? Bring it! It’s a Run What You Brung, Saturday in the Park! Don’t have any portable gear? No problem… we share! Come on out, have some fun, and maybe get some ideas if you’re thinking of building your own go box, or share your ideas with others who may be considering building theirs.

This is where we get together for laughs and fun, while we play radio. Come join us!

Set-up starts at 10:00 a.m. and usually wraps up by 2:00. Some folks like to get there a little earlier.

Directions can be found here – Saturday in The Park & Directions – WPBARG Forums

As always, everyone is invited… members, non-members, participants and observers, come one, come all!

Stay up to date with what we’re doing, local community events, and amateur radio related news and events in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Winter Field Day 2026 – January 24-25

Posted on By Michael M
Activities, Events

South Florida is the best location for Winter Field Day!

Winter Field Day is quickly approaching. Our Winter Field Day last year was a huge success and this is going to be an outstanding event!  In addition to a gazebo, we have tents, tables, chairs, generators, lighting, all the necessary radio equipment, and an amazing location. Additionally, we will have personnel supplies, including a motorhome for operators to rest and nap! We have secured Phipps Park from the city of West Palm Beach. The location is outstanding and beautiful!

Never been to a Field Day or not familiar with it? Don’t worry! This is a great time to get started and we will help you with that. Don’t have your license yet? No problem! In addition to our operators’ radios, which we share, we have a station set up for first timers. With supervision – which we provide – you will be able to work the radio. One of our operators will be right next to you, assisting you with making contacts with others hundreds and even thousands of miles away. 

We work with today’s youth, so if you have an interest in STEM, you don’t want to miss this event. If you’re a minor, you will need to have a parent or guardian with you. 

As with everything we do, it’s SFL… Safety, Fun, Learn. 

We will be open to the public beginning Saturday at noon, and we will wrap things up Sunday around 2:00 p.m.

Phipps Park – 4715 S Dixie Hwy, West Palm Beach, FL 33405

If you’re a member of WPBARG, click here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1110

Note: As announced back in November, due to construction, our monthly meeting for January has moved to Thursday, January 29th, 7:00 pm in the STEM Center at the Cox Science Center. This change is for January 2026 only.

WPBARG Winter Field Day 2025 – WOW!

Posted on By Michael M
Events

As far as I can tell, this was our first full Winter Field Day, and it was a huge success! We had a pilot run last year at John Prince Park that was a lot of fun.

So many people came together and worked hard to ensure the success of this event. We operated from Saturday morning through the night, for a bit over 24 hours straight. That does not include all the hours people spent setting up and taking down the equipment, to say nothing of the work spent in the months before during planning stage.

The event attracted dozens of people, including hams outside our organization and people who are looking at getting involved in amateur radio operations. 

In the future we will be having an award ceremony, recognizing those people who contributed to this fun and successful event. Due to the overwhelming success of Richie’s 2024 Year in Review music video presentation at our last meeting, maybe we can talk him into doing the same for this year’s WFD. 

Until then, if you’re registered on the website, here’s a sneak peek at some early photos – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=725 If you’re not registered, join us! It’s free, and we will never share or sell your information.

In this photo you can see a portion of our antenna farm on top of the hill. Below that is our operations tent.  Behind the operations tent is our food service tent, and below to the right of the operations tent is our power tent (partially obstructed by a tree in the photo), where we ran 4 Honda inverter generators. [zoom in for a better view]

Here is a night shot of our operations, with the power tent to the right in the foreground. There are a lot more on our Forum.

Hometown Heroes Event – Saturday June 15, 2024

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements, Events

We will be joining the Cox Science Center in this year’s Hometown Heroes event, Saturday, June 15, 2024. Join us between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. as we show appreciation for our local Service Members, First Responders, and Gold Star Families. It’s family friendly with a lot of fun, including displays, vendors, and food. 

If you’d like to help WPBARG with our meet-and-greet, we have a couple of openings. Contact us here – https://wpbarg.com/contact-us/

Want to get physical? Join the Tug of War with the Troops event!

85th Anniversary – April 27, 2024

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements, Events

The public is welcome. Come out and celebrate with us!

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If you haven’t heard by now, on April 27th, we will be hosting the West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group 85th Anniversary Party at the Cox Science Center and Aquarium in West Palm Beach. The event will be from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. We have several honored guests from Palm Beach County, including the Sheriff’s Office, and the National Weather Service. There will be door prizes, raffles, and other giveaways. We will be hosting lunch and there will also be food trucks available, but the food trucks you will have to pay for. Commander Smith will be operating the grill.

As this date coincides with the Florida QSO Party, we will be doing portable work on site as well. We have some space indoors available on a first come first serve for a club or individual who would like to set up a table, and we might have a spot or two for someone who wants to do some portable work with their own equipment. There is no charge (donations are welcome), so if you’re interested, act fast.

We will be holding this at the STEM Center, which is across from the Science Center. This is a very large indoor and outdoor space, including an open area and large covered pavilion. We have quite a bit of square footage indoors and outdoors.

If you’re interested in an indoor table, or would like to join us with your own equipment for the QSO party, reach out to Jo, N2QFT, or respond here.

As with everything we do, this is open to the public, and everyone is welcome! If you know someone who’s thinking about getting their ticket and they’d like to get on HF, this would be a great opportunity to bring them along. Hope to see you there!

WPBARG 85th Anniversary Event

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements, Events

The West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group will be hosting our 85th Anniversary on April 27, 2024 at the STEM Center, Cox Science Center.

HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS and STAYING SAFE DURING A HURRICANE

COME AND SEE AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS IN ACTION

JOIN US OPERATING REMOTE STATIONS

VISIT WITH A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE

SIGN UP FOR EXCITING DOOR PRIZES

TAKE A CHANCE ON A 50/50 RAFFLE

…AND MORE

Stay tuned for more information.

WPBARG 2023 Holiday Party

Posted on By Michael M
Announcements, Events

December 13th at 1830 hrs

Due to the success of last year’s holiday party, we are having this year’s party at the same location.

For more information: WPBARG Forums

Note: There is no meeting in December. Our next meeting will be January 24, 2024, with a special guest, and you don’t want to miss that one!
We will not be doing an official Saturday in the Park for December. Of course, anyone who wants to get together certainly can.

WPBARG Family Picnic – 10/28/23

Posted on By Michael M
Activities, Events

This is some of the members who joined us. If you missed this one, don’t worry. If you’re interested in joining our family, or just participating in a fun time, we will be doing Saturday in the Park each month (except December) during the cooler weather. 

Everyone had a great time! Dominic brought his girls and Marcos and Cecilia were there with their new baby boy… this could be our next generation of operators!

There was soooo much food. Thanks to everyone who brought extra goodies, Richard who spent all day manning the grill, Michael who lugged all of that equipment back and forth, all those who generously contributed to our donation bucket, and everyone who joined us to make it a fantastic day out in the park! 

We had some tables set up to sell equipment, and Chris was pricing that stuff to move! Due to that success, we’re going to be doing that again next month at our Saturday in the Park, which will be November 18th. If you have equipment you’d like to sell or trade, bring it!

Keep in mind that next month, due to Thanksgiving, our meeting and Saturday in the Park is moved back a week. Our meeting will be November 15th and Saturday in the Park will be November 18th. See you there! 

For discussion and more pictures, click here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=363

Swains Island W8S DXpedition

Posted on By Michael M
Events, News

It takes several years to plan an expedition like this, and this one was originally scheduled in 2020, but postponed because of COVID.

The site states operations will be from October 4, 2023 until October 17, 2023, with 10 operators. The island is privately owned by the Jennings family who is assisting with the logistics. 

Of the 340 DXCC locations, Swains Island ranks 27 as the most wanted. The last time this island was activated was in 2002, 21 years ago. 

If you’re looking for this DXCC, start getting ready!

For more information – https://swains2020.lldxt.eu/

Additional discussion may be found here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=323

Dov Gavish (4Z4DX) visits us from Israel

Posted on By Michael M
Events, Meetings

On April 27th, Dov Gavish (4Z4DX) was our guest speaker, visiting from Israel. Spanning seven decades in amateur radio and over 700,000 QSOs, Dov provided us with a very interesting history of his experiences in ham radio to a full auditorium. If you’re a DXer, check your logs, you may have worked him!

Dov was joined by Julio (AD4Z) and Ez Prado (H13AA). We are grateful for the time and travel our guest speakers invested to visit us.

You can listen to a podcast here, where Dov was interviewed a few years ago – https://qsotoday.libsyn.com/size/5/?search=166