2024 MRCA Meet Field Exercise

 The field exercise is not only for MRCA Meet station operators deploying at remote sites in eastern PA.  It is also an opportunity for stations who are not attending the meet to contact our remote stations with signal reports.

The field exercise commences at 14:00 Local on Friday, Sept. 20.  For most sites this would require leaving the West End Fairgrounds 30 or more minutes prior. The schedule below suggests times and frequencies to organize our activity. Stations wishing to conduct additional or alternate communications please plan to avoid the scheduled time/frequency slots. To consider which remote site to operate from see below.

MRCA FIELD EXERCISE NET SCHEDULE

-TENTATIVE-

14:00 - 15:00 pm   5357 kHz USB  NCS at Beltzville Lake.  (5371.5 kHz alternate)

Participating stations can introduce themselves and describe their equipment,   their location and their afternoon operating plans.   Out of area stations are welcome to check in.

15:15 – 16:00 pm   3885 KHz AM/USB     (3875 kHz alternate)

16:15 - 16:45 pm   3570 CW  Slow Speed   (<10 WPM)

16:45 - 17:00 pm   51 MHz FM        (Old Squelch, no tone) 

         Use 51 mHz to monitor for announcements and coordinate between stations.

 Some of these locations are ideal for setting up large antennas and some will require carrying in your radio gear to take advantage of the scenery.   Most locations are spread out over seven miles with some within two miles of each other.  A few along the lake shore and across the lake are just thousands of feet apart for use with lower power gear and small antennas.  Team up with others and erect more than one antenna and do some antenna comparison, directivity, polarization and NVIS experiments.  The Beltzville sites are close enough so operators may choose to move and set up at several locations during the afternoon. 

 Not everyone who would like to participate has equipment with them and some may be new to our the MRCA Meet.  If you have room, or can use help, invite someone to go with you.

 From the longer range field sites, e.g. Big Pocono, Penns Peak, Jacobsburg, Blue Mountain Resort it should be interesting to see what equipment and antenna configurations at Beltzville can be heard at more remote stations. 

 The following brief information about locations is for your advance planning. You may want to try a new location this year, or if you are traveling to the MRCA Meet on Friday afternoon you may want to head directly to one of these sites before checking in at the fairgrounds to set up for a specific target activity time.

Clicking on a link below will take you to a Google aerial view, and in some cases a ground level view of the site.  Cut and paste the URL info into your browser.   Directions and additional info will be available at the Howell Bldg before deployment.  If you plan to travel directly to one of these sites Friday afternoon and need directions, or if you have other questions email kw1i@earthlink.net.