Summary of HF activities OBRA (as W4PCN) at NPS sites.
Since 2016 OBRA has partnered with NPS on several special events and also at regularly scheduled NPS events. While there is only a small contingent of OBRA HF enthusiasts, we have a great time doing HF events, particularly as part of an NPS event. Many of us are also active in Parks on the Air (POTA) and do individual activations as well. Below is the summary of NPS/OBRA activations for 2022 that I sent to NPS. A BIG Thank you to those of you that joined in the events. We are looking forward to doing much more HF this year. I hope to see you at the OBRA activations.
2023 HF Activities scheduled as of 1/23/2023
Winter Field Day was held January 28-29 2023 in Salvo, NC. See a Summary of Winter Field Day 2023
2/26/2023 10:00 am – 8:00 pm This is an individual event and not a club activity.
6/24 – 25/2023 18:00 UTC – 20:59 UTC
ARRL Field Day
Location TBD
8/19/2023 Aviation Day More details will follow.
8/19-20/2023 International Lighthouse and Lightship (ILLW) weekend 00:01 UTC – 24:00 UTC 48 hours. Details TBD closer to the event.
12/17/2023 The Celebration of First Flight at Wright Brothers National Memorial.
Past Activities in 2022
6/25/2022 ARRL Field Day at Fort Raleigh: 61 contacts; 18 states; 2 countries We had several visitors stop by to see what we were doing – no takers on getting on the air.
8/19/2022 Aviation Day at the Wright Brothers National Memorial: 53 contacts; 22 states; 2 countries Lots of visitors curious about what we were doing, a couple of out of state hams got on the air.
8/21/2022 International Lighthouse and Lightship weekend at Bodie Island Lighthouse: 24 contacts; 10 states; 3 countries We had numerous technical difficulties but still managed to make some contacts. We met several of the visitors and NPS personnel.
12/10/2022 Special event station at Bodie Island Lighthouse: 60 contacts; 11 states; 3 countries We had originally applied for a special event station for the 150th anniversary of the lighting of the current lighthouse for 10/1/2022, unfortunately that event got re-scheduled due to Hurricane Ian and was moved originally to 12/10 – we changed the date of the special event to 12/10. When the event got moved to 11/12, we hoped to be able to participate in a limited way due to the OBX Marathon being the same weekend (OBRA provides communications support for the Marathon), with the weather forecast we unfortunately had to cancel for 11/12.
12/17/2022 119th celebration of First Flight at the WBNM: 235 contacts; 33 states; 5 countries We also had numerous visitors and had a couple of guest operators (one Dare County EMS), very good day in cool and breezy conditions. The area by the Pilots facilities is a great place for OBRA to set up. It seems we get a few more visitors dropping by at each event. We had several people actively looking for us with questions about amateur radio and emergency communications.