June 25, 2026 • 13 mins
Jupiter-Tequesta Repeater Group President Al Moreschi shares details about the annual Field Day being held at the Jupiter Civic Center at Carlin Park From 2 p.m. on Saturday June 26 - through 2 p.m. on Sunday June 27.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel Malkin for WJO dot com and it is
that time of year again. Something coming up this weekend
called field Day. We've been talking about it for quite
a few years here on w J and O, and
it is having to do with hams. That is, ham
operators are amateur radio operators, and we have one of
(00:21):
my favorite, probably my favorite ham go out on a limb,
al Mareshi with the president of the Jupiter to Questa
repeater group. Thank you for coming on with me.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hello Joel, great to hear you out there.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
First. Before we get going on talk about talk about
field Day, I just want to mention I thought this
was pretty cool. The Town of Jupiter proclaimed this very
week that we are in June twenty first to twenty
eighth Amateur Radio Week. And yeah, it is proclaimed by
the Town of Jupiter's mayor and town council. And I
(00:57):
thought that was a pretty cool move. How'd you feel
about that?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It felt fantastic about that. You know, it's wonderful to
have support from our local municipality, especially the Town of
Jupiter and the mayor and all the other folks there
in support of amateur radio and what we do for
the communities and emergency services in case of a disaster
or hurricane something you know that may come along where
they'll need our help. So this was this was a
(01:24):
big moose for amateur radio and it's the whole week
of well this week right now up through Sunday, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Now you referenced hurricanes, and we had a hurricane. Now, folks,
don't if you're not aware of that, consider yourself lucky.
Just kidding. It was actually a hurricane drill. You had
Hurricane Gale moving moving through as your kind of practice
for the amateur operators and of course folks at the
(01:51):
EOC to play along and tell me, tell me how
that went and give me the main benefit of that.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All right, Joel, Yeah, the hurricane exercise went really well.
We were stationed inside the Palm Beach County EOC and
we divided the county up into three areas, so we
had three other net control operators taking information from different
ham radio operators out in the field. We got a
(02:21):
lot of different scenarios from this Hurricane Gale with Wednesday
was a Category four hurricane and simulated that a lot
of roofs torn off of some homes, damaged trees down
and power lines and all that. It went. It went
really well. We had about eighty five participants in this
year's hurricane.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Exercise and the big benefit from that.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
The big benefit is to help promote well, it's it's
for the ham radio operators to get from one second
one second, you're gonna have to cut me. The benefits
for ham radio operator to get out and really vital
information to the people who need to have this information
(03:06):
so that the emergency services can respond back to those communities.
We've got a lot of communities where they have sart
groups and they have Ham radios and they were able
to participate as well. But the big benefit is to
practice our skills as amateur radio operators and relaying information
when needed to.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And you had county officials working with you, some of
them on this as well.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Right, So, yes, Palm Beach County has been a big
supporter of our hurricane exercise whenever we have it. And
there's even a room at the Palm Beach County Emergency
Operations Center that has the ham radio equipment in there.
We utilize the equipment. We've got new radios in there
this year and it was great to see how they
worked and operated and they worked fantastic.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
So in the event, let's say, you know, we are
in the middle of the hurricane season here, in the
event that we did have a storm that you know,
the EOC went, I forget how they call it, but
they they become operational. Would you or somebody else from
your group be there, Oh, yes.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, there's the radio equipment is in there. And if
we do get a hurricane or disaster, we do have
volunteers that will come in and help man the radios
and keep in contact with the outside world see what's
going on and get that information and then relay it
to the governmental agency that need to respond back to
those areas.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And you always do these hurricane drills. We were talking
about Gale which, by the way, great job on the
name because the gale force wins. I don't know if
you took that into consideration or not, but you always
do those right at the start of hurricane season. Of course,
we're in it now, and then Field Day come soon
after that. And Field Day is this weekend Saturday to Sunday.
(04:48):
I know, it's a twenty four hour period there on
Jupiter Beach. You're in the Carlon Park the Civic Center.
I guess it's the Jupiter Civic Center, but it's at
Carlon Park, So tell me about that. For folks to
are new to the area or just you know, hadn't
been involved before.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Field Day has an exercise is sponsored by the eight
WRIL if it actually it's a contest, and what we
do is we hook up our radios to the antenna
as we get everything all ready and set to go,
and at two o'clock on Saturday is when the contesting starts.
And that's where the purpose of the exercise to make
it as many contacts as possible in a twenty four
(05:27):
hour period using emergency equipment such as generators, batteries, solar power,
wind power, and you know, we tabulate all the scores
when we're finished and send it off to the league
and they send it out to the records department and
see who got the most contacts in different areas. So
it's a lot of fun and it's open to the public.
(05:49):
So anybody who wants to come out and look at
what we do as far as setting up the radios
and antennas, or if they just want to get on
their err get on a radio they're welcome to do. So.
We have a radio station there, it's called the GODA Station.
Get on the air station. We'll also have demonstration of
satellite communications. So yeah, Ham Radio is still alive and
(06:09):
doing well, and we welcome folks to come out and
take a look at it and see how it's see
how we do it in real life.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Are you gonna have food out there too? Can people
grab a snack or is that just for the Hams.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
We won't be cooking ham. Well, we will have some
hamburgers and have dogs. On Saturday and Saturday evening we'll
have a cookout. Cheney Brothers brings out their cooker and
we throw some food in there as well as Palmbach
County Fire Chiefs Association. They bring out there emergency equipment there,
(06:45):
trailer generator tower which is where we set up our
antenna on and we have a great time, a lot
of sponsors and it's just it's a wonderful, wonderful event.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
So no ham for the Hams, but maybe some hamburger.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, yeah, we have hamburgers and it doesn't have any
ham in there though, but it does have the word
ham and burger.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah. So this is two o'clock on Saturday to two
o'clock on Sunday two pm to two pm, twenty four
hour period, and you guys will be out there a
little bit earlier setting up, and folks can come out
and they'll they'll see you setting up. They'll see the
antennas on the beach, you said, right, and then most
of the machines the radios are going to be in
(07:30):
the actual upstairs in the civic center.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That's correct. Well, the antennas will not be on the beach,
but they will be around the facility itself. You know,
we gotta be careful to sea turtles out there.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Oh, good point.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, we'll have all of the antennas put up early
in the morning before the sun gets up and gets
to be too hot, and then we'll start looking everything
else up on the inside. Here it's a little cooler
in the shade.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
And this field day. This is not something that's just
here locally in Palm Beach County. This has going on
with thousands of people around the country, right.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Oh, absolutely, yeah, there's thousands of peoples involved. There's thousands
of people involved in this because there is an AWRL
sponsored event. So we'll have people set up all over
the United States. We'll be trying to make contact with
all the other folks that are out there and on
the air during field day.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
And I just want to ask you this question because
we've seen technology grow so fast in such a short time,
and you know, Ham's or amateur radio operators have played
such a pertinent role. And you've mentioned in conversations past
about past storms that we've had, past hurricanes here in
the Palm Beaches where you guys, you know, have really
(08:44):
done such a great job with the technology growing. Do
you find that the services of folks like you would
be still be as necessary.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh? Absolutely, yeah, we have. We have a lot of
different communities where there's Ham radio operators involved in those communities.
Some of them, you know, they don't like the antenna
stuck out, you know, the hoas, but they'll managed to
find a place to put it, like up in their
attic or somewhere you know, around the outside or eve.
But a lot of Ham radio operators still out there.
The technology is still growing. It has grown into digital
(09:18):
communications now, Uh, there's still Morse code out there. We
still got quite a few more code operators and we'll
have some at field They event. Also in case you
want to see how morse code is is transmitted and received.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You're not catching a train?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Are you all close to the the the right line?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I'm just kidding, I'm just playing with you. This is
you know what they call live well, live to tape.
We don't really use tape anymore, but as you know,
radio but that's fine. Uh when when I know you've
mentioned before about you know, hams being so important ham
radio operat here's when you know, sometimes they're the they're
(10:03):
the last line of communication, right.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, kind of think of it this way here, Joel,
you know, or people listening out there, you guys, hit
buy a hurricane, all right, You've got a Ham radio,
you got a generator, and you have an antenna, you know,
and a perfect example would be an antenna, something like
a dipole antenna where you could string it up between
maybe a couple of coconut trees or whatever tall trees
(10:28):
are left after a hurricane, and then book your radio
up to your generator batteries and if you need help,
you just get on there and start, you know, shouting
for help, and someone else will hear you and they'll
get the information from you. They'll pass it along to
other people. But there's a good example when all the
other communications goes down on how Ham radio gets through
(10:51):
with the with.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
The antenna on the two trees. I don't know you've
given me Gilligan's Island thoughts, but yeah, again I get
what you're saying, all right, and real quick, just a
final question. We've talked about this before. We know, inflation
and whatnot. How much might somebody spend if they wanted
to take this up, you know, Ham Radio operating and
what do they need to do?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Well, first of all, I do have four classes a year.
They're all held at the Palm Beach County Emergency Operations Center.
And if they want to find out about the classes,
they can go to the A r r L website
that's www dot a r r L dot dot org
and they'll see, you know, look cup classes on there
and they can find those. But if once you get
(11:36):
your license, then you can get your radio, or you
can get a radio first and then you know, leave
the carrot in front of the horse whatever, and then
you can go ahead and get your your your license.
But these radios are only about maybe twenty nine thirty
nine dollars or handheld radio and that's all you will
need to get started. Of course, the sky is the limit.
You know. You spend as much as you want in
ham radio gear and if you have space and if
(11:58):
you have room for towers and antennae, that's you know,
the price goes up.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
How many radios do you have at the house? Sal
driving you wife crazy?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I lost count, Joel, I do have? Ida have quite
a few?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
All right?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Summer?
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Well, all right once again two pm to two pm Saturday,
two pm this weekend to Sunday, two pm. And this
is going on Jupiter Civic Center there right by Carlon
Park by Jupiter Beach, and it is called Field Day
from the American Radio Relay Group. I think is what
(12:43):
aar r L stands for. Uh and you can correct
me if I'm wrong. There out, but Jupiter to quest
A group, your local local folks that are putting this
on for us here. I appreciate it and always appreciate
what you do to help us in the event of
a disaster.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Thank you, Joel, and yes a a, I'm sorry a
r RL. American Radio Relay League go to their website.
You'll find out all about amateur radio, how you can
get into the hobby. And I want to thank you
Joel and everybody at WJ and O for all your
help and support that you've given the Hammer Radio operators
over the years. Thank you very much, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
We'll talk soon.
Hey, Joel Malkin for WJO dot com and it is
that time of year again. Something coming up this weekend
called field Day. We've been talking about it for quite
a few years here on w J and O, and
it is having to do with hams. That is, ham
operators are amateur radio operators, and we have one of
(00:21):
my favorite, probably my favorite ham go out on a limb,
al Mareshi with the president of the Jupiter to Questa
repeater group. Thank you for coming on with me.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hello Joel, great to hear you out there.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
First. Before we get going on talk about talk about
field Day, I just want to mention I thought this
was pretty cool. The Town of Jupiter proclaimed this very
week that we are in June twenty first to twenty
eighth Amateur Radio Week. And yeah, it is proclaimed by
the Town of Jupiter's mayor and town council. And I
(00:57):
thought that was a pretty cool move. How'd you feel
about that?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It felt fantastic about that. You know, it's wonderful to
have support from our local municipality, especially the Town of
Jupiter and the mayor and all the other folks there
in support of amateur radio and what we do for
the communities and emergency services in case of a disaster
or hurricane something you know that may come along where
they'll need our help. So this was this was a
(01:24):
big moose for amateur radio and it's the whole week
of well this week right now up through Sunday, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Now you referenced hurricanes, and we had a hurricane. Now, folks,
don't if you're not aware of that, consider yourself lucky.
Just kidding. It was actually a hurricane drill. You had
Hurricane Gale moving moving through as your kind of practice
for the amateur operators and of course folks at the
(01:51):
EOC to play along and tell me, tell me how
that went and give me the main benefit of that.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All right, Joel, Yeah, the hurricane exercise went really well.
We were stationed inside the Palm Beach County EOC and
we divided the county up into three areas, so we
had three other net control operators taking information from different
ham radio operators out in the field. We got a
(02:21):
lot of different scenarios from this Hurricane Gale with Wednesday
was a Category four hurricane and simulated that a lot
of roofs torn off of some homes, damaged trees down
and power lines and all that. It went. It went
really well. We had about eighty five participants in this
year's hurricane.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Exercise and the big benefit from that.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
The big benefit is to help promote well, it's it's
for the ham radio operators to get from one second
one second, you're gonna have to cut me. The benefits
for ham radio operator to get out and really vital
information to the people who need to have this information
(03:06):
so that the emergency services can respond back to those communities.
We've got a lot of communities where they have sart
groups and they have Ham radios and they were able
to participate as well. But the big benefit is to
practice our skills as amateur radio operators and relaying information
when needed to.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And you had county officials working with you, some of
them on this as well.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Right, So, yes, Palm Beach County has been a big
supporter of our hurricane exercise whenever we have it. And
there's even a room at the Palm Beach County Emergency
Operations Center that has the ham radio equipment in there.
We utilize the equipment. We've got new radios in there
this year and it was great to see how they
worked and operated and they worked fantastic.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
So in the event, let's say, you know, we are
in the middle of the hurricane season here, in the
event that we did have a storm that you know,
the EOC went, I forget how they call it, but
they they become operational. Would you or somebody else from
your group be there, Oh, yes.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, there's the radio equipment is in there. And if
we do get a hurricane or disaster, we do have
volunteers that will come in and help man the radios
and keep in contact with the outside world see what's
going on and get that information and then relay it
to the governmental agency that need to respond back to
those areas.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And you always do these hurricane drills. We were talking
about Gale which, by the way, great job on the
name because the gale force wins. I don't know if
you took that into consideration or not, but you always
do those right at the start of hurricane season. Of course,
we're in it now, and then Field Day come soon
after that. And Field Day is this weekend Saturday to Sunday.
(04:48):
I know, it's a twenty four hour period there on
Jupiter Beach. You're in the Carlon Park the Civic Center.
I guess it's the Jupiter Civic Center, but it's at
Carlon Park, So tell me about that. For folks to
are new to the area or just you know, hadn't
been involved before.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Field Day has an exercise is sponsored by the eight
WRIL if it actually it's a contest, and what we
do is we hook up our radios to the antenna
as we get everything all ready and set to go,
and at two o'clock on Saturday is when the contesting starts.
And that's where the purpose of the exercise to make
it as many contacts as possible in a twenty four
(05:27):
hour period using emergency equipment such as generators, batteries, solar power,
wind power, and you know, we tabulate all the scores
when we're finished and send it off to the league
and they send it out to the records department and
see who got the most contacts in different areas. So
it's a lot of fun and it's open to the public.
(05:49):
So anybody who wants to come out and look at
what we do as far as setting up the radios
and antennas, or if they just want to get on
their err get on a radio they're welcome to do. So.
We have a radio station there, it's called the GODA Station.
Get on the air station. We'll also have demonstration of
satellite communications. So yeah, Ham Radio is still alive and
(06:09):
doing well, and we welcome folks to come out and
take a look at it and see how it's see
how we do it in real life.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
Are you gonna have food out there too? Can people
grab a snack or is that just for the Hams.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
We won't be cooking ham. Well, we will have some
hamburgers and have dogs. On Saturday and Saturday evening we'll
have a cookout. Cheney Brothers brings out their cooker and
we throw some food in there as well as Palmbach
County Fire Chiefs Association. They bring out there emergency equipment there,
(06:45):
trailer generator tower which is where we set up our
antenna on and we have a great time, a lot
of sponsors and it's just it's a wonderful, wonderful event.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
So no ham for the Hams, but maybe some hamburger.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, yeah, we have hamburgers and it doesn't have any
ham in there though, but it does have the word
ham and burger.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah. So this is two o'clock on Saturday to two
o'clock on Sunday two pm to two pm, twenty four
hour period, and you guys will be out there a
little bit earlier setting up, and folks can come out
and they'll they'll see you setting up. They'll see the
antennas on the beach, you said, right, and then most
of the machines the radios are going to be in
(07:30):
the actual upstairs in the civic center.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That's correct. Well, the antennas will not be on the beach,
but they will be around the facility itself. You know,
we gotta be careful to sea turtles out there.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Oh, good point.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, we'll have all of the antennas put up early
in the morning before the sun gets up and gets
to be too hot, and then we'll start looking everything
else up on the inside. Here it's a little cooler
in the shade.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
And this field day. This is not something that's just
here locally in Palm Beach County. This has going on
with thousands of people around the country, right.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Oh, absolutely, yeah, there's thousands of peoples involved. There's thousands
of people involved in this because there is an AWRL
sponsored event. So we'll have people set up all over
the United States. We'll be trying to make contact with
all the other folks that are out there and on
the air during field day.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
And I just want to ask you this question because
we've seen technology grow so fast in such a short time,
and you know, Ham's or amateur radio operators have played
such a pertinent role. And you've mentioned in conversations past
about past storms that we've had, past hurricanes here in
the Palm Beaches where you guys, you know, have really
(08:44):
done such a great job with the technology growing. Do
you find that the services of folks like you would
be still be as necessary.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Oh? Absolutely, yeah, we have. We have a lot of
different communities where there's Ham radio operators involved in those communities.
Some of them, you know, they don't like the antenna
stuck out, you know, the hoas, but they'll managed to
find a place to put it, like up in their
attic or somewhere you know, around the outside or eve.
But a lot of Ham radio operators still out there.
The technology is still growing. It has grown into digital
(09:18):
communications now, Uh, there's still Morse code out there. We
still got quite a few more code operators and we'll
have some at field They event. Also in case you
want to see how morse code is is transmitted and received.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
You're not catching a train?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Are you all close to the the the right line?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I'm just kidding, I'm just playing with you. This is
you know what they call live well, live to tape.
We don't really use tape anymore, but as you know,
radio but that's fine. Uh when when I know you've
mentioned before about you know, hams being so important ham
radio operat here's when you know, sometimes they're the they're
(10:03):
the last line of communication, right.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, kind of think of it this way here, Joel,
you know, or people listening out there, you guys, hit
buy a hurricane, all right, You've got a Ham radio,
you got a generator, and you have an antenna, you know,
and a perfect example would be an antenna, something like
a dipole antenna where you could string it up between
maybe a couple of coconut trees or whatever tall trees
(10:28):
are left after a hurricane, and then book your radio
up to your generator batteries and if you need help,
you just get on there and start, you know, shouting
for help, and someone else will hear you and they'll
get the information from you. They'll pass it along to
other people. But there's a good example when all the
other communications goes down on how Ham radio gets through
(10:51):
with the with.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
The antenna on the two trees. I don't know you've
given me Gilligan's Island thoughts, but yeah, again I get
what you're saying, all right, and real quick, just a
final question. We've talked about this before. We know, inflation
and whatnot. How much might somebody spend if they wanted
to take this up, you know, Ham Radio operating and
what do they need to do?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Well, first of all, I do have four classes a year.
They're all held at the Palm Beach County Emergency Operations Center.
And if they want to find out about the classes,
they can go to the A r r L website
that's www dot a r r L dot dot org
and they'll see, you know, look cup classes on there
and they can find those. But if once you get
(11:36):
your license, then you can get your radio, or you
can get a radio first and then you know, leave
the carrot in front of the horse whatever, and then
you can go ahead and get your your your license.
But these radios are only about maybe twenty nine thirty
nine dollars or handheld radio and that's all you will
need to get started. Of course, the sky is the limit.
You know. You spend as much as you want in
ham radio gear and if you have space and if
(11:58):
you have room for towers and antennae, that's you know,
the price goes up.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
How many radios do you have at the house? Sal
driving you wife crazy?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I lost count, Joel, I do have? Ida have quite
a few?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
All right?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Summer?
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Well, all right once again two pm to two pm Saturday,
two pm this weekend to Sunday, two pm. And this
is going on Jupiter Civic Center there right by Carlon
Park by Jupiter Beach, and it is called Field Day
from the American Radio Relay Group. I think is what
(12:43):
aar r L stands for. Uh and you can correct
me if I'm wrong. There out, but Jupiter to quest
A group, your local local folks that are putting this
on for us here. I appreciate it and always appreciate
what you do to help us in the event of
a disaster.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Thank you, Joel, and yes a a, I'm sorry a
r RL. American Radio Relay League go to their website.
You'll find out all about amateur radio, how you can
get into the hobby. And I want to thank you
Joel and everybody at WJ and O for all your
help and support that you've given the Hammer Radio operators
over the years. Thank you very much, thank you.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
We'll talk soon.
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