Murfreesboro, TN - Summertime and the sunspots are propogating! It's the 91st Annual ARRL Field Day across the U.S. It's an excellent opportunity for individuals who are interested in learning more about becoming a ham radio operator to learn more about the fascinating hobby. 

The local hams will be set-up in the picnic pavillions 3 and 4 at Barfield Crescent Park (697 Veterans Parkway). They will be making contacts all over middle Tennessee, across the nation and around the world to distant exotic countries. 

Locally, members of the Stones River Amateur Radio Club will be set-up Saturday (6/22/2024) to offer demonstrations over a 24-hour period. It officially begins at 1:00PM Saturday afternoon (Murfreesboro Time) and continue around the clock until 4:00PM Sunday afternoon. 

ARRL is the group that lobbies for ham radio in government. It's the American Radio Relay League, and it's located in Newington, CT. The ARRL headquarters has a tremendous museum about amateur radio as well as a powerful club station (W1AW) that is available to licensed ARRL members to use when they are in the area. In fact, probably  W1AW will contact some of the local hams who are making contacts from Barfield Crescent Park this weekend. 

Mark Swicord (KDE4EYF) said, "This is a great chance for anyone interested in becoming a ham to drop by and see what's involved."

Stones River members are creatively packing large antennas, transmitters, receivers and other gear into all sizes of vehicles and taking it to the lawn at the Murfreesboro park.

The Stones River Amateur Radio Club is no stranger to local community service events in Rutherford County. For almost 40-years they have been in charge of communications at the Murfreesboro Christmas Parade. The group also offers help with communications at area bicycle races, runs and more. 

The theme for 2024 ARRL Field Day is "Be Radio Active." That encourages radio amateurs to take advantage of the peak of Solar Cycle 25, which we are nearing. Activity this year is likely to be extremely high thanks to favorable solar conditions. The upper HF bands, such as 15 and 10 meters, should benefit most from the Cycle's peak.

Some members from the local Stones River Amateur Radio group are also active with Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES). At a time when weather patterns around the world are changing dramatically, ham radio operators offer instant communications during emergencies.

When flooding, tornadoes, massive forest fires and other disasters that need communications, the ham radio operators are there. Communications are crucial during times of emergency, especially because cell phone service along with wired communications often have its infrastructure down. Ham radio is often the only type of communications available, and these volunteers offer short range, or state, nation and even worldwide transmissions.

There is no admission to visit ARRL's Field Day here in Murfreesboro.  It begins at 1:00PM Saturday (6/21/2024) and continues solid for 24-hours until 4:00PM Sunday. And yes, it's all in Barfield Crescent Park.