Copperas Cove Repeater Association holds summer field day

Special to the Leader-Press 

The Copperas Cove Repeater Association participated in the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day 2022 on June 25 and 26, at times called the “summer field day.”

Field Days are a demonstration and exercise of operating amateur radio stations under field, portable, or emergency conditions.

The event lasted from 1 p.m. Saturday until 1 p.m. Sunday, with a total of 17 “ham” radio operators and three guests turning out.

The club set up antennas early Saturday morning and used generator and solar/battery power to operate the radio equipment at three stations. 

“During the field day operations, we attempted to contact as many other field day participants as possible from around the nation. Our operators used different modes of communications, voice (phone), Morse Code (CW), and digital computer assisted modes,” said Budd Johnson, a trustee with the CCRA. “For each contact, we will exchange specific information to make the required communication exchange as if we were passing emergency traffic. In the end, our logbook will be submitted, and we will be scored against other stations for a nationwide ranking.” Johnson said that unfortunately, because of the band conditions and the lower number of participating clubs because of the heat, the group only logged 67 contacts in 38 different ARRL reporting sections. 

“We usually have 3 or 4 times that many in the past Field Days,” he added. 

Throughout the year, the amateur radio operators work closely with the Emergency Management Offices of Coryell County, Copperas Cove, and Fort Hood.  

“This was one of many emergency communication exercises that we are involved in throughout the year. Many of our members also volunteer with the NWS SKYWARN program receiving and disseminating severe weather reports. Our club also has a Volunteer Examiner Team (VE) to administer the amateur radio FCC license exams,” Johnson said.

Because of the continuing presence of Covid-19, the club limited the attendance to club members at the residence of one of the club members, instead of having it at a public venue.

The Copperas Cove Repeater Association was organized about 35 years ago and currently has 65 members.  There are over 776,000 licensed amateur radio operators nationwide, over 58,500 in Texas, and 208 in Coryell County. 

The next scheduled Field Day Event will be Winter Field Day on January 28 – 29, 2023, and Johnson said the group hopes to have it in a public location.

More information can be found on the club’s web page, www.k5cra.org or on its Facebook page, Copperas Cove Repeater Association.