Huntsville Amateur Radio Club hosts annual field day

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — It’s that time of year when amateur radio enthusiasts across North Alabama will participate in the nationwide field day event.

This year the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club (HARC) will host the event from June 22 to 23 at Ditto Landing. When arriving at Ditto Landing, HARC will have signs posted leading you to the field day site.

This event is free for all ages and you don’t have to have a license in HAM radio to attend.

While the main field day will begin Saturday at 1 pm, the club will meet Friday morning to set up equipment.

For safety reasons, it takes 17 people to set up the antennas. While it may seem like the antenna comes in one piece, it has five parts that are put together before placing it straight up.

This year there will be four main stations, two operating phones, and two CW (morse code) stations. There will also be a satellite station, one VHF station to send emails, and the Get On The Air (GOTA) station.

The GOTA is where unlicensed people have the opportunity to get on air and contact others across the country. This station is notably most popular with kids!

It will be a hot weekend, so if you plan to attend it’s important to be hydrated and apply multiple layers of sunscreen.

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