This month’s in-person gathering will be at Belle Haven Park. We'll go over how to get set-up for portable operations, from setting up antennas, getting your station on the air, and with luck, how to work a pile-up as we activate 7 parks at once for Parks On The Air (POTA). Also, we'll be running a full 100 W station on battery power and the band conditions have been favorable recently. This should be a lot of fun.
If you've ever had interest in doing portable operations but weren't sure how to get started, come out and join us. There will be Extra Class licensees on hand, so if you're a Technician (or even unlicensed) and want to see what it is like to operate on the HF bands, this will be a fun way to dip your toe into the world of HF.
After the club breakfast we’ll try to find a picnic table to set up on the North side of the Belle Haven Park between the water and the bike path. You may want to bring a camp chair if you have one just in case tables are limited on what is looking to be a beautiful morning. We'll activate with our club call K4US, and if you have a call of your own we can add it to the operator log so you'll get credit for your part of the activation, too. Family, friends, and the ham-curious are welcome to join in the fun as well.
Even if you don't want to operate, come out and have fun with us on the banks of the Potomac River at Belle Haven Park. The park is located just South of Alexandria City on the George Washington Memorial Parkway with the entrance between Belle Haven Road and Belle View Boulevard. When you make the turn to the park, make your first left for the parking lots (not the Marina) and park wherever you can. We'll probably be down on the North end of the lots, but that will depend on what tables are still available when we arrive. There are restrooms, water fountains and bottle filling stations in the park and plenty of antenna supports ... you may call them trees, as well. We'll also try to have an HT or two on hand to monitor the club's repeater for anyone that needs talk-in.
If you're not able to join us but will be near a radio look for us on the spotting page at
https://pota.app/ -- we'll be using the call sign K4US and the page will have our current frequency so you can contact us while we're out in the park.
Also check out other Workshops in Alexandria, Music events in Alexandria, Trips & Adventurous Activities in Alexandria.
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