Field Day Information
Date and Time
This year, Field Day weekend falls on June 22th and 23rd, 2024.
W9REG will return to the shelter house at Fort Ouiatenon - 3129 South River Road in West Lafayette.
On Saturday, in addition to Field Day, there will be a Tailgate Swap Meet from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. Bring your stuff to sell or trade. Hamburgers and hot dogs will be provided - please bring a side dish or dessert to share.
Setup for Field Day will start at 6:00 pm on Friday (June 21) and continue Saturday morning at 10:00 am.
More Information
For more information on this TARA event, please contact the club using the information on our Contact page.
Directions
Last year's Field Day took place at the west shelter on the grounds of Fort Ouiatenon, 3129 S River Rd, West Lafayette, IN 47906.
What is Field Day?
ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. On the fourth weekend of June of each year, more than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations.
Field Day is a picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!
It is a time where many aspects of Amateur Radio come together to highlight our many roles. While some will treat it as a contest, other groups use the opportunity to practice their emergency response capabilities. It is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Amateur Radio to the organizations that Amateur Radio might serve in an emergency, as well as the general public. For many clubs, ARRL Field Day is one of the highlights of their annual calendar.
The contest part is simply to contact as many other stations as possible and to learn to operate our radio gear in abnormal situations and less than optimal conditions.
We use these same skills when we help with events such as marathons and bike-a-thons; fund-raisers such as walka-thons; celebrations such as parades; and exhibits at fairs, malls and museums — these are all large, preplanned, non-emergency activities.
But despite the development of very complex, modern communications systems — or maybe because they ARE so complex — ham radio has been called into action again and again to provide communications in crises when it really matters. Amateur Radio people (also called “hams”) are well known for our communications support in real disaster and post-disaster situations.
What Can I See or Do?
This year the Tippecanoe Amateur Radio Association is tentatively scheduled to be operating from the west shelter at Fort Ouiatenon. We will operate as a 1fF Station. What this means is that for 24 hours straight, we will run two radios on batteries "off the grid" style.
Anyone is welcome to stop by and see Amateur Radio in action.
If you are so inclined, we will also have a "Get On the Air" station. Anyone, licensed or not, can operate the radio themselves to see if Amateur Radio is something that interests you. There is no real age limit, children of any age that can speak English are welcome to try it out!
We look forward to seeing you at the Fort!
Radio Information
As always, the following frequencies will be used for W9REG operations:
W9REG Talk-In Frequency
145.370 (-)Offset, PL: 131.8Hz
Field Day Walk-Around
Simplex 146.550
ARRL Information
Field Day is an event organized and sponsored by the American Radio Relay League. For more information, be sure to visit them at arrl.org/field-day.