Tag: West Palm Beach Amateur Radio Group

Monthly Meeting – June 25

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

Marcos will be doing a presentation on logging for Field Day. We use N3FJP, so it will be focused, but not exclusive, on that. If you’re planning on operating at Field Day, this will be very useful. N3FJP is one of the two of the most popular Field Day logging applications. We will also be reviewing our Field Day event, which begins that weekend on the 28th. Even if you’re unable to attend our Field Day event, there will be a lot of useful information.

As always, we welcome everyone to our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not! If you’re a new ham or thinking about getting your license, come on out and meet us! We can help you in all aspects of getting your license and getting started in amateur radio.

Location:
STEM Center
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

For the remainder of the year we will be holding our meetings at the STEM Center. That building is on the North East corner of the general parking area. If you’re standing at the Cox Science Center looking out into the parking lot, it is straight ahead to your right. There are privacy walls and the construction is dynamic, so instructions cannot be specific, but the Cox Science Center has always made it easy.

Note: We will host Field Day at the American Legion post 47 in Lake Worth again this year. We had a great turnout last year, and we expect even more this year!

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/

Field Day 2025 – Here we Come!

Posted on By Michael M
Activities

As we’ve done for the previous two years, we will be conducting our Field Day operations at The American Legion Post 47, located at 2315 North Dixie Highway, Lake Worth, FL 33460. The event begins at 1800 UTC (2 p.m.) on June 28, and we will wrap it up around noon on Sunday, June 29.

Everyone is welcome! If you’d like to come by to observe, just to see what we’re doing and what Field Day is like, we welcome you! If you’d like to sit at one of our stations and operate, we welcome you! 

This is a great opportunity for people to observe and socialize, and even get on the air, licensed or not. While we will be operating off the main grid, The American Legion will have full power and air conditioning. Food and drinks will be available, with the pricing for that set by Post 47. No invitation is necessary, just come on over!

Field Day Chair, Jeff KM4UBL said, “The official purpose is emergency preparedness. The operational purpose is a chance to play radio, have fun, learn from other hams and of course safety, too! We’ll be on the air from 1:00pm Saturday until about noon on Sunday. If you haven’t been on the air very much, are new to the hobby or like a lot of us at first, you’re microphone shy, this is your chance. We’ll plop you in front of the radio and give you instruction and encouragement. You’ll love it!”

Jeff went on to say, “We’re also happy to have the seasoned operators join us as well. If you’re a night owl, we can take care of you, too. We can use your help overnight.”

We will do our best to monitor the 146.67 repeater for the talk-in. For more information on that repeater, please go here – The AREC Repeater Group, Inc.

For more information on our Field Day operations, or if you have any questions, please go here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=878

Everyone is invited… members, non-members, participants and observers, come one, come all!

As in the past, we are all very excited to be doing Field Day this year, and we hope to see YOU!

https://g.co/kgs/qQgQLF9

Saturday in The Park – May 31

Posted on By Michael M
Activities

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

Set-up starts at 10:00 a.m. Some folks like to get there a little earlier, while others like to get there a few hours early to do some fishing.

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

If you’re thinking about getting involved in amateur radio, this is a great opportunity to meet us and get some info. If you’re just curious on what this is all about, come on out!

This is the premiere monthly amateur radio event in Palm Beach County, and this will be our last one until the cooler weather in the fall. In June we will host Field Day at the American Legion post 47 in Lake Worth again this year. Look for more information on that to follow.

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/

Monthly Meeting – April 23

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

As always, we welcome everyone to our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not!

Location:
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

For the remainder of the year we will be holding our meetings at the STEM Center. That building is on the North East corner of the general parking area. If you’re standing at the Cox Science Center looking out into the parking lot, it is straight ahead to your right. Due to the construction, there’s a lot of privacy walls, but you will see an opening in the North East side of the main parking lot. Just follow that and it’ll take you right to the STEM Center.

Join us in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Note: Our Saturday in the Park is the Saturday after our monthly meeting. In April we hold one of our two picnics of the year,  and we combine that with our Saturday in the Park Event. More info on that is found here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=100

Monthly Meeting & Awards – March 26

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, March 26, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

At this month’s meeting we are holding our WFD Awards Ceremony for this year’s Winter Field Day. It was an amazing weekend with a great turnout, and now we will recognize all those who contributed to making this year’s Winter Field Day a huge success!

As always, we welcome everyone to our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not!

Location:
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

Join us in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Note: As our Saturday in the Park is the Saturday after our monthly meeting, we will be having another Saturday in the Park for the month of March, on March 29. More info on that is found here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=100

Saturday in The Park – March 1

Posted on By Michael M
Activities

Last month our Saturday in The Park was Winter Field Day. What an incredible event that was! We will be doing WFD Awards at our next meeting, so stay tuned here for more information on that.

This weekend we return to our monthly social event of friendship and radio. Without getting into the technicalities of the Gregorian calendar, this month we will be having two Saturday in the Park events. It’s a WPBARG BOGO! But you will still have to wait 4 weeks for the second one.

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. Some folks like to get there a little earlier. I know a couple of folks who will be getting there a few hours early to do some fishing.

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

If you’re thinking about getting involved in amateur radio, this is a great opportunity to meet us and get some info. If you’re just curious on what this is all about, come on out!

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

Note: For those who attended last night’s meeting… Wow! For those who missed it… Wow! More info is here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=752

Join us in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Monthly Meeting – February 26

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, February 26, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

At this month’s meeting we are going to do a show and tell. We’ve done that before and it has been very successful. This is where you have an opportunity to talk about a project that you are working on or have completed, and bring any items you like to add to the discussion. There are a lot of new hams in our club, so everything from elementary to advanced projects will be beneficial. New hams, let’s hear what you’re doing! And if you need help, this is a great time to get it. 

As always, we welcome everyone to our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not!

Location:
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

Join us in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

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.

Monthly Meeting – January 22

Posted on By Michael M
Meetings

Our monthly meeting, held on the fourth Wednesday of the month, is Wednesday, January 22, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

We will be finalizing our plans for the Winter Field Day, and discussing more ideas for the coming year.

Richie has put together another fantastic presentation. This one is all fun! It’s a music video of our year in review. 

As always, we welcome everyone to our meetings and activities, members and non-members, whether licensed or not!

Location:
Cox Science Center and Aquarium
4801 Dreher Trail North, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.coxsciencecenter.org

Join us in our Forums here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/

Winter Field Day 2025 – January 25-26

Posted on By Michael M
Activities

South Florida is the best location for Winter Field Day!

Winter Field Day is quickly approaching. This is going to be an outstanding event! 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 and we will set up our antennas on top of a hill, while our stations will be at the base. 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 operator radios, we have a station set up for first timers. With supervision – which we will 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. 

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

For more information and map of the location, click here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?p=2347

If you’re a member of WPBARG, click here – https://wpbarg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=707

Note: Our monthly meeting, and the first meeting of the year, will be January 22nd, 7:00 pm, at the Cox Science Center. In addition to discussing Winter Field Day, Richie has put together another fantastic presentation. This one is all fun! It’s a music video of our year in review.