June 26-28 ARRL Field Day 2026
Padre Water District offices at the entrance to Santee Lakes.
24 hours of radio!
ARRL VHF Contest - We are going out in pairs or groups (or solo) and will participate as individuals. If you have an inexpensive 2m/70cm radio, and a paper notepad, this is a perfect opportunity. We will be out for the entire Saturday, leveraging bus and train travel, ultimately meeting up at Santee Trolley Square at 7pm. For those who have never done a contest, or are uncertain what contests are all about, we're here to help - come with us and we'll make it easy, or just meet us in Santee at the end.
June 6, 2026 Museum Ships On The Air
The Battleship New Jersey Amateur Radio Station (NJ2BB) is the host of the annual Museum Ships Weekend. In all, over 100 museum military ships, submarines, minesweepers, tugboats, and museum ships will be participating between 0000Z June 6 and 2359Z June 7, 2026.
This year, the Amateur Radio Club of El Cajon will join the worldwide event by activating, for the first time, the World War II Base End Station museum located within Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma in San Diego. The Base End Station served as an observation and radio communications center that helped protect San Diego Harbor and formed part of the U.S. coastal defense system.
On Saturday, June 6, 2026 (also the anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, in 1944), David Kaplar (AK6QP) and Grant Madden (KO6IHG) will activate under the special 1x1 callsign W6N from the Point Loma Lighthouse parking lot beginning at approximately 9:30 a.m. local time.
Club and non-club members who wish to participate in this event (which is not a competition) can do so in one of two ways:
Stay at home and contact one of the participating stations (Chaser).
Bring your portable equipment to Cabrillo National Monument (Activator) and join David and Grant on the air. This is also a great opportunity to test your portable setup prior to Field Day.
Park Entrance Information
Cabrillo National Monument charges an entrance fee for visitors entering the park. Current fees are:
$20 per vehicle
$15 per motorcycle
$10 per person for pedestrians, bicyclists, or visitors arriving by public transportation
America the Beautiful and other qualifying National Park passes are accepted for entry.
Active duty military & dependents free
Participants are encouraged to check the official National Park Service website prior to the event for the most current fee information.
We hope you'll join us in commemorating both Museum Ships Weekend and the anniversary of D-Day while helping put the historic Point Loma Base End Station on the amateur radio map. For coordination and planning please go to our new Discord server or email david.km6zki@gmail.com
San Diego T-Hunt Group is having an event! If you have never tried this, here is an opportunity to learn. It's easy, and a great day in the park.
ON-FOOT (FOX)/TRANSMITTER HUNT & BBQ
Saturday May 16th, 2026, KEARNY MESA COMMUNITY PARK, San Diego, CA.
Sponsored by the San Diego T-Hunt Group
2026 On-Foot T-HUNT
https://eccalifornian.com/the-amateur-radio-club-of-el-cajon-keeps-the-communication-hobby-alive/
Event reports and presentations from the February meeting.
Winter Field Day - Patrick Gooden
Wheels on the Air - Grant Madden
Grant will be presenting this at the Yuma Hamfest, Saturday February 28, at 9:00 a.m.
Meshcore in addition to Meshtastic
Stephen KJ6BXN suggested an interesting idea this month. In the past year we've all looked at and many have invested in Meshtastic hardware. An off-grid messaging network operating in the ISM bands (915MHz), using LoRa spread spectrum low power transceivers. I asked Stephen to give me the sales pitch for why any of us should even TRY the Meshcore software. This is what he said.
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Meshcore is better than Meshtastic in my opinion for message routing and consistency. There are two distinct firmwares (companion and repeater) compared to Meshtastic where every node can repeat. I found my messages can go further and actually have conversations reliably. Meshcore is just a firmware and uses the same hardware as Meshtastic. Southern California is on the edge of the band maybe because it is more RF quiet. There is good Discord channel called the West Coast Mesh here https://discord.gg/RTs8gUDcrX
The website and webflasher for MeshCore is https://meshcore.co.uk/
The So Cal frequency and settings for Meshcore are:
Frequency: 927.875
Spreading Factor:7
Coding Rate:5-8 (user's choose) 5 is snappier but 8 has less code rate failures
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If you have an idle Mesh node and a couple hours to try, load up Meshcore and see what you think. You can always flash the device back to Meshtastic.
I have idle hardware for this task! Try it and lets compare notes next month.
Deric KO6EJV asked the club to take a look at LoRa APRS. We know about APRS, we know about LoRa, but I don't think we were closely following how these two technology stacks started working with each other. This runs within the 70cm ham bands, and look carefully when buying compatible hardware.
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We have a San Diego LoRa APRS Discord channel for coordination, shopping list and help here https://discord.gg/neHv6q67u7
There is a nationwide/worldwide Discord channel here https://discord.gg/6pn2nuVWWP
Link to Igate/Digipeater webflasher: https://richonguzman.github.io/lora-igate-web-flasher/installer.html
Link to Tracker webflasher: https://richonguzman.github.io/lora-tracker-web-flasher/installer.html
Short shopping list:
Heltec V3 433mhz
https://a.co/d/0cXhCupG
QRP Labs LoRa APRS boards:
https://shop.qrp-labs.com/lora
433mhz antennas
https://a.co/d/02quR9rx
Monoband UHF Whip
https://zbm2industries.com/products/qp-whip-antenna-thicc?variant=45110615998616
Maps for just LoRa APRS: https://lora-aprs.live/
LoRa APRS worldwide map: https://lora.ham-radio-op.net/
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January 24, 2026 - Winter Field Day
Winter in San Diego, where it might dip into the 60's and you need a jacket.
Patrick.G K6PFG is going to run a one day operation for Winter Field Day
Harry Griffen Park
9550 Milden Street
LaMesa, CA 91942
Winter Field Day is held the last full weekend in January. For 2026, it will be held on January 24th and 25th. The 30-hour operational period starts at 1600 UTC on Saturday (11 am EST), the 24th, and ends at 21:59 UTC on Sunday, the 25th (4:59 pm EST).
Patrick has written a detailed order of operation for the day, inviting members and guests and anyone who is interested to join us. This is not an endurance event like summer Field Day, and you must bring your own chair and snacks and drinks. There are plenty of food options nearby in LaMesa if you forget. Weather is predicted to be good, so dress accordingly. Setup will begin at the park at 9:00am, and will finish before the park closes at sunset.
THE INTENT OF OUR CLUB PARTICIPATING IN WINTER FIELD DAY 2026 IS PROVIDE HF TRAINING FOR MEMBERS WITH EMPHASIS ON MEMBERS WHO HAVE NO HF TRAINING OR LIMITED HF EXPERIENCE. HERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CLUB MEMBERS (AND PUBLIC IF YOU SO DESIRE) TO GET HF EXPERIENCE ON EXCHANGES DURING AN ORGANIZED EVENT, DO THE REQUIRED RECORDING IN A LOG AND HAVE FUN. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE MISTAKES WITHOUT PENALTIES. ALL RADIOS ARE THE PERSONAL PROPERTY OF OUR VOLUNTEER MEMBERS. IF YOU ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH ANY EQUIPMENT, ASK AND WE WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO OPERATE PROPERLY.
Anyone wishing to bring their own radio and suitable antenna is welcome to join, but during our operation at the park, we will designate three radios on 40m, 20m and 15m, reserving the 10m band for testing and operating homebrew equipment. This designation is to avoid conflicts between radios located close together. Bring your own power. All antennas need to fit within the confines of our operating area at the park without creating a hazard for others. The park is still open to the general public.
Here is Patrick's complete write up for our event.
ARCEC OPERATING GUIDELINES FOR WINTER FIELD DAY 2026
Anyone can call into our event using the WA6BGS 2m repeater, or on 146.520 simplex.
January 17, 2026 - VHF+ contest and we're going to travel around the county!
{insert what we did here}
2025/2024/2023 Club meeting topics have been moved to the archives page.
