Winter Field Day 2020
Champions Ride for Charity - October 2019
On October 20, various members from WestVARS joined members from the Lake Monroe Amateur Radio Society to provide communications for the Champions Ride for Charity. Each year the Rotary club of Lake Mary sponsors a bike ride for charity consisting of 3 routes, one 13 miles, another 30 miles and the longest at 60 miles. This year, WestVARS assisted with communications at 4 of the 5 rest stops. Some 500 riders participated in the event. Pictures can be found here.
September 14 Practice for Field Day
We had a great practice event for winter field day on Sept. 14, 2019. We put up the 4BTV vertical and a G5RV and were pleasantly surprised that the noise floor was significantly better than ever observed at this location. It is believed that the two transformers closest to the screened area were recently replaced. Using the G5RV we made several contacts on 40 and 20 meters.
A big thanks to all who participated.
Field Day 2019
WestVARS held Field Day 2019 at the Elks Lodge. Almost 20 members participated. Several members stayed all night including Lew (KM4RLO), Jim (K4HXY), George (AE4TG), John, and Ken (AE2KP). We made about 150 contacts split pretty evenly across phone, cw and digital.
We had 5 guests come and spend time with us. In addition to those guests, Officer John Cochran from the Deland Police Department came by and received a tour of the operating stations and the antennas. Late on Saturday night, Al from the Deland Beacon stopped by to interview club members about Field Day.
Thanks to all who participated and the Elks Lodge for allowing us to use their facilities. There are some pictures here.
Library "How-To" Festival - May 4
WestVARS participated in the Deland, Library's "How-To" festival on Saturday, May 4. Our table was right under the large monitor in the multi-purpose room, so we had the video of WK1DS Winter Field day playing in a continuous loop. We had a 2-meter go kit on the air and about 15 kids talked to Tom (KK4TKT) on the radio.
WestVARS 2019 Tail Gate
The WestVARS Annual Tail Gate was held on April 6.
Thanks to Reed, WW3A, we have some pictures of the event here.
A very special thanks to Lowe's for donating space in their parking lot!
Winter Field Day - January 26-27, 2019
Our Winter Field Day was a great time and quite the learning experience! The turn out was fantastic with at least 15 people collaborating to set up antennas, lights, radios etc. We were able to set up the multi-band vertical and a full sized G5RV using a 48' portable mast and the help of some trees.
We found that the Elks club site has a significant amount of noise, and even though we tried multiple antenna/radio combinations we were severely limited in our number of contacts. We'll spend some time recounting the stories and lessons learned at the February 26 meeting so that we can make summer field day that much better. A hearty thanks to all who came out and helped!
A special thanks to George KC3KNE/AE for capturing some great photos of the event. Click here to see the photos.
October 2018 Operating Event
WestVARS will gather at Ken Peck's house for the October 2018 Field Operating Event and get on the air, enjoy great food, and have a lot of fun!
Bring your own radio(s) if you wish, and we will also have a couple of HF stations set-up for everyone to use. Operators are welcome to use their own callsigns or the WV4ARS club callsign. Control operators will be available for those who have yet to upgrade to General or Extra Class!
We may also have a Fox Hunt, so if you have a VHF/UHF handheld radio and a directional antenna, bring it along!
The club will provide waters and ice. Ken has a couple of grills. Bring whatever you wish to cook and eat! Bring enough for your party and a couple more people.
Time - 10:00–18:00(ish)
Address - 895 Stardust Way, Deland, FL 32720
We will be monitoring the WestVARS 147.315 (+600, no tone) repeater in case anyone needs directions!