The North Florida Amateur Radio Club (NFARC) competed in a national contest on June 22-23 and improved their worldwide radio connections made over a 24-hour period from last year’s total.

According to an NFARC press release, 15 volunteers made 1,643 radio connections – up 29% over their 2023 totals – within 24 hours to all 50 U.S. states and 17 foreign countries, including Japan, Venezuela and Australia. The effort put NFARC in the upper 10% nationally in their competition segment.  

The annual “Field Day” competition, which took place at the Cuscowilla Nature and Retreat Center in Micanopy, featured the NFARC team using five shortwave transmitters, two portable radio towers and two generators – one diesel and one gasoline. NFARC’s 35-foot radio tower was used in the contest along with a 100-foot radio tower belonging to the State of Florida Region 3 Mutual Aid Radio Communications. The connections were all made without shore power or Internet.

Other countries NFARC connected with during the 24-hour nationwide competition, included Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Argentina, Russia, the Dominican Republic, Canada, Germany, France, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Italy, England, Oman and the Czech Republic.

The team’s 35-foot radio tower can be towed to disaster locations and help with emergency services. They even have their own private microwave high-speed data network and “Network Time Protocol” server which uses satellite signals.

Volunteers with the Alachua County Amateur Radio Emergency Service are officially volunteers to Emergency Management of Alachua County. More information can be found at www.nf4rc.club/.