Air and Coast Defense Radio Field Day Sites

What is ARRL Radio Field Day? An nationwide Emergency Communications exercise disguised as a contest/cookout.

What was Coast Defense? The forts of the Coast Artillery Corps defended the harbors of the nation, with cannon and tethered controlled mines. The Coast Defense Study Group is the central exchange of their history.

What Coast Defense and Air Defense sites are hosting Field Day?

EMA - NE Div - USA - Other military sites

Eastern Mass Section sites

ARRL Section : Year(s) : Callsign : Fort/Base/Battery

Fourth Cliff, Gazebo and cottage vernacular Base End station. Gun-line extended from the new gazebo over new lower picnic table to the sea. n1vux

• EMA 2007 W1MX Fort Standish, Lovells Is, HD Boston

• EMA 2008 K1RFI PR29c, NIKE Providence (google)

  (reused as a baseball academy -- launch site is a data repository)

  Scratch 2008 -- Alas, the baseball fields are needed for baseball, so 2008 FD is not at this site, but downtown at Town Hall Annex.

• EMA 2008 K1M/N1LNX Fourth Cliff, Bty #208 (6") HD Boston / SAGE? Radar experimental.

  Still a USAF camping reservation. The camp's BBQ Gazebo (pictured to right) is at one gun-mount. Satelite Map of Gazebo. Behind the gazebo is a base-end station disguised as a coastal cottage, now in use as a coastal cottage.

  When we took our quick tour of Fourth Cliff during the StBabs conference in 2007, the campsite at the north gun-mount was in use by a USAF airman who had his ham radio gear with him in the camper; he got a nice spot for talking to Europe. This is no mere coincidence, the USAF campground site manager is a ham who DXed around the world on active duty -- very ham-friendly and family friendly-camping, if uniformed / veteran / reserve / DoD civilian.

• EMA 1985 WA1RNE / 1999 WARS - B-63-C

  WA1RNE / 1985 - "Field Day Is ... 10 years later with more of those club experiences under my belt (and a couple of license upgrades), a friend and I set up our own Field Day event at a local site about 255 feet above sea level. (considered fairly high terrain in Massachusetts.) To locals, the site was also known as "The Nike Site", one of many Nike-Ajax air defense missile sites deployed around the state in the 50's."

  Based on altitude, that's B-63-C ( 42.290169,-71.254968) 255ft Needham, MA -- Also used by WARS in 1999 with no overt Nike connection. The only close alternative would be B-73-C, "Drumlin Farm", Lincoln,(42.407128,-71.332379) 266ftASL. Chicktawbut B-55-C is the higher Nike, above 500'+ in Blue Hills; Danvers and Reading sites above 200' bucno where near quoted 255.

To add a radio Field Day site at a Coast Artillery or Missile Air Defense site, email n1vux

Other NE Division (W1-land) Sections

Master directory for non-EMA sites is ARRL Locator. To look up these there, copy and paste the callsign into input box there. (The Contests - Results - Soapbox section may have comments from prior ye

ARRL Section : Year(s) : Callsign : Fort/Base/Battery

W1BRS - Manchester CT - BEARS of Manchester Located at an old Nike missle site turned into a town park. Everyone had just finished lunch as I arrived. The GOTA station was nearby in the central tent. K1KI/M

• CT * W1BRS - NIKE HA-25C Garden Grove Rd @ Hercules Dr

  The BEARS of Manchester, Inc - W1BRS. FIELD DAY regularly at "the old Nike Site, off Keeney Street in the southwest quadrant of Manchester."

  Visited by our NE DIV Director K1KI in 2004 (Soapbox) HFD NIKE

• ME * W1KVI Ft.Williams / Portland AWA

  PAWA regularly holds Field Day at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth Set (aka Two Lights) for the weekend. (Follow signs in the park to the site). Usually they have a cookout at the site late on Saturday afternoon. Typically the county RACES trailer and the club tower are set up as well as other antennas. There is plenty of room for RVs and camping gear on site.

  Confirmed for 2009 again. And has two three pix ofmy 2006 visit in the gallery.

  Site is below Battery Blair (2x12") and next to 1917 (2x3") AA site. (map)





HECP-NB - Fort Burnside, RI. (From: Varoujan Karentz EPICV@aol.com via Ft.Tilden, thanks)

• RI * W1OP HD-NarragansettBay

  Battery 213 (1943 - 1948). two 6 inch guns + HECP/HDCP SCR-582, Ft.Burnside

  Providence Radio Association, Beavertail Light, RISP, Jamestown, RI, 41.454982,-71.396365

  The combined HECP-NB and BCP, Base End station building is worth looking at if it looks as nice as this still, as it seems to on Google Maps. (HECP-NB = Harbor Entrance Command Post, Narraganset Bay). Note with Radar and radio antennae, and Base End Stations and Command Posts observation windows, all disguised in RI "cottage" vernacular.

To add a radio Field Day site at a Coast Artillery or Missile Air Defense site, email n1vux

Rest of World (other Divisions)

Master directory for non-EMA sites is ARRL Locator. To look up these there, copy and paste the callsign into input box there. (The Contests - Results - Soapbox section may have comments from prior ye

ARRL Section : Year(s) : Callsign : Fort/Base/Battery

• ENY 2008-VHF K2BAR NY-03/04C

  Bergen Amateur Radio Association (BARA) - VHF Contest - NIKE Site Rockland County NY - June 13-15 2008

  Not Field Day but the weekend before (or 2 weeks), on VHF and up. Close enough !
  VHF/UHF Nike Contest Site on Nike Ln, Off of Tweed Road in Orangeburg, NY

  (Field Day is in Bergen NJ)

• EPA 1967-197x+1984-199x W3ABT Or N3KZ? PH-82R NIKE IFC Valley Forge (Upper)

  University of Pennsylvania Amateur Radio Club at U.S. Army Nike Missile Base (PH 82L and PH 82R), Valley Forge National Park, Air Defense of Philadelphia.

  Alumni club restarting on-campus club. Nike site sold by University in '90s.



W6GJO handling emergency at Ft.Mac after 1933 quake

• LAX * K6AA Fort MacArthur, HD Los Angeles.

  (Not from the Battery Museum Radio Room, but up the hill as a field operation · quite appropriate, that's how they did it while handling traffic for the city of Long Beach after the quake in 1933 USGS)

• LAX 2008 LA-04L W6UE
  LAX 2004 LA-04L W6VIO (JPL club)
  LAX 2002 LA-04L N6HB

  W6UE Mt.Gleason (up hill from Nike at summit)

  Nike Site Map1 Map2 Ft.Mac LA Nike pages

• LAX 2003 LA-96L/C

  San Vicente Mountain Park, former Nike Military Base high above Mulholland Drive just a few miles west of the San Diego Freeway. Trail Map LA Nike Map Ft.Mac LA Nike pages

• NNJ 2008 W2MAR Ft.Hancock CAC (NPS) / Nike NY-56C (Monmouth ARC)
  NNJ CAD K2A - Coastal Artillery Day Special Event - May 18 2008 k2gq (Roseland ARC)

Field Day (Monmouth ARC) Coordinates (40.461667, -74.001944) given as Sandy Hook, NJ @ Lighthouse are very close to the NY-56C NIKE Radar/Control and HECP Battery McCook (8x12" BLR Mortars) and in middle of old Fort Hancock Historic District (Admin /Officer/NCO residential area)
Contact: David Mutterer, KC2H 908 461 1075 kc2h(at)arrl(dot)net

Coastal Artillery Day - May 18 2008, 1600Z-2000Z, Sandy Hook, NJ. Roseland Amateur Radio Club, K2A. 14.270 7.270. QSL. Roseland Amateur Radio Club, 300 Eagle Rock Ave, Roseland, NJ 07068.

• Going Bunkers photo tour
• Nike Memoire
• NPS + re-enactor / interpreter Summer schedule
• history
• wikipedia

Ft.Hancock was partner with USA Signal Corps in development of Army's shore-based radar, with the following two stations.

• NNJ * K2USA Ft.Monmouth - former Signal Corps home (SC-Radar w/Ft.Hancock)

  Developed Radar for the CAC in WWII; Naturally worked with Ft.Hancock, as Sandy Hook is extension of Monmouth Beach.

  K2USA is MARS station at Ft.Monmouth.

• NNJ * N2MO Camp Evans (SC-Radar w/Ft.Hancock)

  Marconi's Belmar Stn; WW1 USN radio; adjunct to Ft.Monmouth USA SC for Radar research WW2.

  Ocean Monmouth ARC @ Infoage Science/History Learning Center, Marconi Road, Wall, NJ

• NYC-LI * NW2C Ft.Totten

  NorthEast Radio Club 40.7900 N, 73.7808 W Bayside, NY 11359, NY

  Fort Totten Park : NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, Maps and history from NYS Div Military and Naval Affairs: Military History

• SF * W6PW Presidio

  San Francisco ARC Robb Hill blg 1444 in the Presidio San Francisco, CA

  NPS wikipedia Harbor Defenses San Francisco (1891-1948) "In 1912, Fort Winfield Scott was formally established on the western portion of the Presidio to serve as a coast artillery post." Seacoast Defense Essay

• WNY 2000 WB2ELW NIKE BU-52
  WNY 2005 SKYWARN Recognition Day WB2ELW BU-52
  WNY 2007 JOTA WB2ELW BU-52 (jota)

  Southtowns Amateur Radio Society (STARS) WB2ELW Nike Base club station (1.75 miles east of Route 20 on Lakeview Road) (or or maybe recreation area is part of old Nike too?). But 2008 Field Day in Glen Meadows Park, crosstown, in Hamburg, NY.

• WWA * K7LED Forts Flagler & Worden, HD Puget Sound

  WWA 2009 SPECIAL W7R/n7pl Ft Worden, HD Puget Sound
  Aug 29-Aug 30, 1500Z-2300Z, Port Townsend, WA. Jefferson County & Port Ludlow Amateur Radio Clubs, W7R. Fort Worden Radio Station 100 Year Anniversary. 14.265 7.255 3.920 SSB CW PSK RTTY. QSL. W7R Special Event, PO Box 88, Chimacum, WA 98325. Operating from the original 1909 radio building at historic Fort Worden, WA. JCARC or N7PL (via arrl)

To add a radio Field Day site at a Coast Artillery or Missile Air Defense site, email n1vux

Other Military Sites

Obviously Military or ex-Military posts other than Harbor Defense / Air Defense found on Master directory ARRL Locator - surely there are many more since I was only looking at coastline. To look up these there, copy and paste the callsign into input box there. (The Contests - Results - Soapbox section may have comments from prior years by callsign too.)

• W1TU Lamoine State Park - Lamoine Coaling Station -- near but not at Lamoine Beach where EAWA FD is.
• N2J Millville (NJ) Municipal Airport - America's First Defense Airport
• WB2QBP - USCG
• W2RAK - Floyd Bennett Field
• KB2UYI Fort Herkimer Amateur Radio Association - "The association was founded in 1978 as the Fort Herkimer Amateur Radio Club [but] [t]he name was changed in 2001..." Fort Herkimer "Fort Herkimer was a fort located on the southern side of the Mohawk River, opposite West Canada Creek, in New York"
• W3ADO US Naval Academy
• WA4USN Aircraft Carrier Yorktown, Museum Ship, Patriot's Point
• W4ZBB Playground Amateur Radio Club of Fort Walton Beach, FL www.w4zbb.org/ - and just off a Naval Air Station.
• K6LY Naval Postgraduate School ARC
• ve3zi SAGE/PINETREE LINE C-9 Sudbury/Falconbridge map 1

To add a radio Field Day site at a Coast Artillery or Missile Air Defense site, email n1vux