WCARES Field Day 2026 in pictures
Photographs courtesy of WCARES members David, W4DER, Joe, KQ1Q and David, KK4CQD.
WCARES Field Day 2026 is here
WCARES 2026 Field Day News
Dates: Saturday June 27 and Sunday June 28.
Location: 3000 BrightStone Pkwy, Franklin, TN 37064.
Location: 3000 BrightStone Pkwy, Franklin, TN 37064.
From the Field Day Team:
Field Day is upon us and throughout the weekend you are invited to participate, observe and learn more about ham radio, and particularly field operations. This is also a friendly reminder that Field Day participation counts toward the requirements for WCARES membership. Visitors are encouraged and welcome to attend!
Field Day Venue
BrightStone, 3000 BrightStone Parkway, Franklin
Activities will be beneath the (afternoon shaded) covered back porch spanning the rear of the building. Light snacks and water provided; should you be operating during meal hours we encourage you to bring your own food and drink.
Field Day Friday Setup (June 26)
Beginning at 4.pm., our team will gather on site to deploy antennas, set up stations and get equipment tested and organized. This is a great opportunity to observe and learn new skills about various types of antennas. Volunteers are welcome to assist. There is no need to sign up, just come to the site. This will be an outdoor activity so stay hydrated and dress accordingly.
Field Day Saturday (June 27)
Beginning at 1 p.m. the Field Day stations will operate on radios dedicated to SSB, CW, Digital and Satellite. Operations will cease at 11 p.m. That’s not all … also on Saturday:
Get On The Air (GOTA) Station
Newly licensed hams, anyone wishing to become one (or are curious about the hobby), technician class hams thinking of upgrading or longtime hams out of practice can all take their turn at the GOTA station. Work at your own pace and have fun while being mentored by experienced hams. Youths are especially encouraged and welcome to participate.
Kit Building Session
Our resident kit building guru, Randy Paulson, will host a session on how to make various DIY radio and related components. Participants already signed up will bring their unassembled kits to the session. If you have such a kit, bring it and join the fun. If not, this is another opportunity to learn more about a fun activity of the hobby.
Field Day Sunday (June 28)
Radio operations will begin at 5 a.m. and conclude at 1 p.m.
More information:
WCARES VHF Talk-In frequency: 146.505 (simplex). Contact us on that frequency if you are near BrightStone. Or contact us on the WCARES repeater system. Hub frequency is 145.210 (PL 173.8/ – Shift).
We will have 4 operating stations: SSB1, SSB2, CW and GOTA as well as the Kit Building session. Reach out to a station captain should you have last minute availability to fill one of the open time slots.
Still got questions? Email the team:
(You can find their e-mail addresses in the Thursday, June 25th WCARES Notes e-mail)
Kit building: Randy Paulson (N4OPI).
SSB station captain: Jeff Standifer (WB5WAJ).
CW station captain: Cliff Batson (N4CCB).
GOTA station captain: Doug Miller (W4DML).
Field Day coordinators:
Craig Lamb (N4BAX).
Trey Spain (KI4ZIN).
WCARES Field Day 2026
Dates: Saturday June 27 and Sunday June 28.
Location: 3000 BrightStone Pkwy, Franklin, TN 37064.
SIGN UP TO WORK A STATION:
(Contact the station captain below if you want to work a station – you will find their contact information in the May 26 WCARES Notes e-mail. You can also Contact us if you are not on the WCARES Notes e-mail list and would like to be added.)
KIT BUILD EXCERCISE During Field Day.
June 27th from 1-3pm
Due to popular demand and success of our last kit building exercise, we’ve decided to do it again! This time we will be holding the session as part of Field Day on June 27th from 1-3pm and beyond, if interested parties are still hanging around. You supply the kit, your tools, and a lawn chair to sit on, and we’ll supply the table, shade, electricity, and support and encouragement. We’ll have some extra tools just in case. You can find a list of kits here: Kit Sources
But don’t limit yourself to my list. There are plenty available through other sources.
You can bring any kit or project you wish, as long as it involves electrons and soldering. Order soon though, as we are only 5 weeks out and some of these come from Turkey.
Contact: Randy Paulson – his contact information is in the May 26 WCARES Notes e-mail.
Feb. 2026 Presentation (Zoom) – Porthcurno Telegraph Station & Museum
Ted Edwards (W3TB) visited the Porthcurno Telegraph Station & Museum and gave this presentation during the February 2026 WCARES monthly meeting.
Due to the EOC activation and ongoing issues from the recent ice storm, our meeting was held virtually via Zoom.
You can find more information about the PK Porthcurno Museum at this link: https://pkporthcurno.com/ .
January 2026 Presentation – How to Use an ICOM 7600 (WCARES Field Day tutorial)
This video was shown at the WCARES January monthly meeting. It was put together as a teaching tool for those working SSB using an Icom IC-7600 at WCARES Field Days.
January 2026 Presentation – Update on WCARES Discord
Would you like to easily learn about our WCARES DISCORD Channel? The Discord server has been nicely enhanced and organized for greater application to the WCARES group and beyond. At the January 18th WCARES Meeting, Ryan KN4VKW and Blake KN4VKY Pearson give us an update on DISCORD and all it can do for you.
WCARES Monthly Meet will be ZOOM-only for Feb. 14
Due to on-going storm recovery, the Public Safety Center EOC is still in partial activation (3). As such, the room will NOT be available for the WCARES Monthly meeting on Saturday Feb 14 so the meeting will be conducted over ZOOM. Details will be sent out this week in Discord and e-mail.
December 2025 Presentation – Adventures in RFI
If you operate on HF frequencies, you very likely have encountered Radio Frequency Interference from some electrical device in your house or outside your house. It can be broadband noise, raising the noise floor, making the copying of any signal very difficult. Or it can be specific frequency noise you can avoid by tuning away ten or twenty Hertz from the frequency-specific noise. WCARES member Paul Havlik (WD9IOK) has dealt with a particularly challenging and protracted RFI incident, and he takes us through all the twists and turns associated with its identification and mitigation.
Recorded at the WCARES monthly meeting in December of 2025.
November 2025 Presentation – OpenWebRX web-based SDR
Learn how to buy a low-cost SDR and set up a wonderful web-based receiver. OpenWebRX web-based SDR receiver is a slightly different technology with a similarly fun capability, and it’s even designed to decode multiple types of signals… including FT8. Jeff Henry KG4ZIE has put one on his desktop and is excited to tell us all about it.
Recorded at the WCARES monthly meeting in November of 2025.
WCARES Winter Field Day 2026 – CANCELED
From Trey KI4ZIN, Craig N4BAX, and Hoop K9QJS, regarding Winter Field Day
Due to the inclement weather and the potential for dangerous travel conditions, we are cancelling the WCARES in-person Winter Field Day. We will not be assembling at the Public Safety Center or at Brightstone.
We encourage all to be weather aware and to be safe.
We do encourage you to participate in Winter Field Day (WFD), from your home using your own callsign. Winter Field Day rules are here: https://winterfieldday.org/downloads/2026-rules-v3.pdf This is open to all classes of amateur radio operators, including Technician class.
If you make at least one contact during Winter Field Day, submit your properly formatted Cabrillo file to the WFD sponsors, and email your WFD submission or acknowledgement email to Trey@KI4ZIN.com , you will be entered in a WCARES drawing for a $ 25 gift certificate provided by an anonymous donor. The gift certificate will be awarded at the WCARES February 14th Monthly Meeting, and you must be present to win. Our goal is to have as many WCARES Members participate as possible.
In addiiton, if at least 25 members submit their WFD acknowledgement email submission to Trey@KI4ZIN.com , Hoop K9QJS will buy donuts for everyone that attends the February 14th Monthly Meeting. You must be present to consume your donut. Coffee will be available as well, skillfully brewed by Jeff KC1DWP.
The WFD rules (link above) shows an example Cabrillo file, which you could create using a simple text editor and cut and paste for your callsign and the callsign of the station or stations you contact. Also, many free logging programs have provisions for creating the Cabrillo file as part of their application. You are welcome to do as many contacts as you would like and to use all of the possible multipliers available to you, per the rules, in order to increase your score.
How do you participate if you are a Technician class ham, and maybe a brand new ham, and only have an HT radio? Monitor the WCARES 2 meter simplex frequency 146.505 MHz with your HT or mobile radio, and make contacts there.
What is the exchange? To the other ham you are making a contact with, provide your callsign, your “Category” and “Class”, and “TN” for Tennessee. “Category” for you likely is the number “1”. “Class” is likely “H” for “Home station”. And then record the same information from the ham you are contacting into your log. If you were to contact Hoop, for example, you might record “K9QJS 1H TN”.
Again, use your own personal callsign. Do NOT use N4FR as we usually do during all field day operations.
We look forward to Summer Field Day in June! Hope everyone can join us then!
All the best,
Trey KI4ZIN, Craig N4BAX, and Hoop K9QJS