AMSAT

• 2026-07-20 — Notice of scheduled ISS ham radio traffic : an ARISS telebridge contact with the Payload Operations & Integration Center at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. ISS crew member Chris Williams, KJ5GEW, working as OR4ISS, with ON4ISS as the ground station. Downlink 145.800 MHz FM — the cross-band voice repeater offline for the event.
• 2026-06-28 — Summer Field Day 2026 (June 27–28) at Camp Silvercreek in Silverhill, Alabama — QRV for AMSAT and ARRL Field Day as N4MZ 2A AL EM60 . The weekend’s standout moment wasn’t mine: W5LFL (Margaret), a brand-new ham, made her first-ever satellite contact, logging the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club’s K4BFT through AO-7. Ahead of the event I put together a bandpass filter installation and best-practices guide for groups running multiple stations off shared antennas — the interference problem every multi-transmitter Field Day site runs into.
• 2026-06-28 — New ham’s first satellite contact at N4MZ Summer Field Day (2A AL EM60), Camp Silvercreek, Silverhill, AL: W5LFL (Margaret) made her first-ever satellite contact, logging Huntsville Amateur Radio Club’s K4BFT (296 mi away) via AO-7. A Field Day highlight, not my own first — dad N4WBF and brother were there too, CW practice happening alongside.
• 2026-06-20 — Satellite QSO via AO-73 , worked N2FYA_John through the AO-73 linear transponder while activating Blakeley State Park (US-11292) for POTA.
• 2026-06-19 — YOTA Camp 2026 ISS Contact • Local RX in EM60 + Full Pass Livestream . See Milestones — this one’s a real highlight, not just a routine update.
• 2026-06-19 — ISS ARISS pass, received live from South Alabama (EM60): receive-only reception of the YOTA Camp 2026 ARISS contact with astronaut Chris Williams, KJ5GEW, followed by a full-pass livestream. Not a two-way QSO — a successful RX catch of a rare scheduled school contact.
• 2026-01-23 — First load-out of mostly AMSAT satellite gear for Winter Field Day 2026 — multiple antennas and radios dedicated to portable satellite operating.
• 2025-07-05 — 8 down, 5 to go on the 13 Colonies Special Event, enjoying the holiday — with more AMSAT passes (JO-97) planned to chase the rest.
• 2025-07-04 — Planning to work more 13 Colonies Special Event stations via AMSAT (a JO-97 pass in the works), while the neighbors set off fireworks.
• 2025-07-02 — Worked the first two 13 Colonies stations via RS-44 AMSAT: K2E (Delaware) and K2L (South Carolina), during the 13 Colonies Special Event. Committed to chasing the rest after the early success.
• 2025-06-29 — Summer Field Day 2025 (June 28–29) with the N4MZ crew — 11 satellite QSOs on RS-44, AO-123 and JO-97 , plus sitting up at 1:00 am waiting on the International Space Station . My assignments for the weekend were satellites, the GOTA station, VHF contacts, and talk-in through the local repeater. Lightning had its say again: operations went on hold and everything came unplugged mid-afternoon. Prep worth repeating — a quick-connect added to a tripod to carry the G-5500 satellite rotator, the tripod itself a Goodwill find and the quick-connect made from two Marshalltown concrete float pole sections.
• 2025-01-26 — Winter Field Day 2025 (January 25–26), operating as N4MZ 2I AL — and it very nearly didn’t happen on schedule. South Alabama had taken a once-in-a-lifetime snowfall days earlier , with a county state of emergency and I-10 eastbound closed at exit 44 . The satellite array went up on snow anyway. Highlights: an SSB satellite contact through RS-44 thanks to N2FYA (John), K4LLL running one of the N4MZ stations , and a contact through AO-07 — a satellite over 50 years old . The modified Hastings fiberglass quick-connect poles built to carry the satellite antennas worked great .
• 2024-06-23 — Summer Field Day 2024 (June 22–23) at camp with the Baldwin County Amateur Radio Club — club call N4MZ, Get On The Air call WB4EMA . The satellite station ran from EM60, waiting out SO-50 and other passes through the weekend. Best hard lesson of the event: running a battery down to nothing for the first time ever and switching to the gasoline generator to recharge — Field Day earning its keep as an exercise in finding equipment limits. Prep included RS-44 QSOs from EM60 the week before and solving how to haul the satellite antenna using the bottom section of a hitch pole. The weekend’s highlight belonged to someone else: Joel (W2BJN) made his first-ever satellite QSO on RS-44 after most of the site had packed up.
• 2024-06-23 — The N4MZ crew stayed after most had packed up to cheer on Joel (W2BJN) making his first-ever satellite QSO via CW on RS-44 — a few hiccups along the way, but it came together. One of the most enjoyable moments of Field Day, even though it didn’t count for score. Not my own contact.
• 2024-03-25 — Referenced using the Arrow antenna and IC-9700 to make contact through FUNcube-1 (AO-73) during a prior Winter Field Day — local news was on site.
• 2024-01-28 — Winter Field Day 2024 (January 27–28) with the Baldwin County Amateur Radio Club (N4MZ) opened with a wet start in South Alabama — dodging lightning, plugging and unplugging as each wave came through. Once the weather let up I ran one of the club stations for a couple of hours , and a contact through FUNcube-1 (AO-73) went out on an Arrow antenna and IC-9700 — with FOX10 on site filming as it happened. Prep for the weekend included testing the portable station (two QSOs on 146.520) and guying a portable mast using Erik NonIdle’s method. Takeaways: quiet, long-running generators, connectors organized in a tackle box, and a Buddipole among the seven-plus antennas on site.
• 2023-09-08 — Beginnings of AMSAT for me, linear satellites : after figuring out RIT on the IC-9700, a contact through RS-44 at the end of a pass, with a SAT device — thanks to WM3O for the QSO. Earliest linear-satellite success found in the X archive search (2026-07); not explicitly logged as a “first” at the time, so treated as the earliest on record rather than a confirmed first.
• 2023-06-25 — Summer Field Day 2023 (June 24–25) was my first attempt at working satellites with the club — FM HT capability only at the time, and no idea how crowded the birds get on Field Day weekend. It took most of the night; the contact finally came in the early hours of the morning , thanks to WA0POD answering the call. Station prep in the days before: TEVEL-2 and TEVEL-6 worked full-duplex with a Kenwood TH-D72 HT, Arrow antenna and a ~30 W BTECH AMP-V25, a first-ever LilacSat-2 (CAS-3H) contact , and TEVEL-3’s FM transponder switched on for the weekend. Recounted from posts written after the fact — the contemporaneous Field Day posts are thin for this one.
• 2023-02-05 — Beginnings of AMSAT for me, FM satellites : a QSO through the ISS FM repeater, 2/5/2023 UTC 15:34-15:45, copying WA0D (EM12) and KL4PDI (EL99) — logged at the time as my first successful AMSAT QSO. Earliest FM-satellite success found in the X archive search (2026-07); not independently confirmed as the literal first, but nothing earlier turned up.