Welcome to the Frederick Amateur Radio Club!
We plan to activate two parks as a group on Saturday April 6th, beginning at 9am as a part of Parks on the Air (aka POTA, found at: www.parksontheair.com). We will activate the Chestnut Picnic Area at Catoctin Mountain Park located here and Monocacy National Battlefield at the Welcome Center located here.
Two very important notes regarding access to Chestnut Picnic Area at Catoctin Mountain Park. It sounds complex, but it’s really not, and Chestnut Picnic area is custom-made for group POTA activations:
- The Chestnut Picnic Area is very close to Camp David – if the president is in residence, access is only from the west on Park Central Rd. Your GPS will get you there, but generally from MD Rt 77, turn north (left if traveling from the west, or right if arriving from the east) on Foxville Deerfield Rd, then right on Monahan Rd and right again on Park Central Rd.
- MD Rt 77 (aka Foxville Road) is currently closed between the eastern edge of the park and Park Central Road. If traveling north on US 15 from Frederick, the best route is to turn left on Catoctin Hollow Rd, follow that to the end, then turn right onto MD 77 and then left onto Park Central Road (unless president is in residence at Camp David, at which point you’d turn left onto MD Rt 77 and follow instructions above)
Mike K3MMM will spearhead Catoctin and Justin AB3E will spearhead Monocacy. Feel free to bring a portable radio setup or part of a setup or simply show up and use one of our radios. Since others can act as control operator, no need for any particular license. Each contact you make will count towards the club K3ERM score as well as your own, if you create a free POTA account in advance.
Please check back here for updates. While the long-range weather guess looks good, if it’s torrential rain we may scrub. We look forward to seeing you there! If there are questions, my email is valid on qrz.com.
73!
Mike K3MMM