June 26, 2025 • 13 mins
We speak with Albert Moreschi, President of the Jupiter-Tequesta Repeater Group about this weekend's 24-hour event along the beach in Jupiter and inside the Jupiter Civic Center. Want to be a Ham? Be sure to check this interview out!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel, Malcolm Forward w j O O dot com.
And we have got Albert Moureshi, the president of the
Jupiter Tequesta repeater group, on the line with us. Right now.
We're gonna talk about field Day once again. And for
those who've been listening for several years, well you probably
(00:22):
know already a little bit about this. Either way, we'll
do the brush up for you. Thank you, al for
joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh, good morning, Joel, glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
All right. Amateur radio operators some of us call them hams.
Does that offend you at all when they say ham.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
No, not at all, because it makes me see it was, uh,
grab the microphone and I'm sitting here talking it over
the airwaves. I think it's basically probably one of the
one of the nicknames that mate radio operators got because
they would they would ham it up on the on
the air.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Right there you go. Now this is already coming up
again this weekend. Tell me and this is a right
there by the Carlon Park Civic Center, I believe, Jupiter Beach.
I'm gonna let you tell us what happens on field Day,
give us all the details there, and then I want
to talk about some more things, okay, Joel.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah. Field Day is something that look forward to Ham
radio operators forward to every year. Each year, all the
amateur radio organizations throughout the United States get together and
they try and make as many contacts as they can
with each other during twenty four hour period. So we'll
be at Carland Park Civic Centers starting to set everything
(01:40):
up at daybreak and hopefully we'll have all the antennas
and outdoor equipment done before the sun gets up there
too hot. Then we set everything up inside, have lunch,
and then two o'clock the actual contesting begins, and once
again that's where we try contacts as we can in
the twenty four using our amateur radio equipment, and we're
(02:03):
backed up by emergency power. We'll have a generator out there,
also batteries, maybe solar. One year we had bin power
out there. But it's sponsored by the American Radio Relay
League and it does happen once a year. The last
fourth full weekend in June, we'll be right there on
the beach. We'll have all the set up if anybody
(02:25):
would like to come out and look at what we're
doing and how we're doing and how we put it
all together, or if you even wanted to come out
and get on the air, you're more than welcome to
stop on buy We'll be there all weekend.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Isn't there like a little competition going on because this
is happening around the country.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Correct, that's correct, jol, And it is like competition. Some
of the groups they like to compete against one another
to see who has the most contacts, So it does
get competitive, and then the aborl they post the results
in their magazine later on. So it's a lot of fun.
(03:02):
We have a great time to do.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And you have those gotta stations set up that stands
for get on the air where you let the public
kind of you know, take part. Is that is that
on the beach or is that that's inside the civic center.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
It's inside the civic center. That's where we have all
the set up, and we'll have radios are and hammer
radio operators who can help get other people who may
want to make a contact on the air. And you
don't have to have a license to get on the
go to radio, which is get on the air radio.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Now you know this this sounds fun and all, and
I'm sure it is. You've been doing this how many years.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
We've been doing this for at least thirty years our
club has Our club is forty going on forty three
years old this year, so as at least thirty, probably
a little bit more than that.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So, as I said, it is a fun hobby for
folks that want to take it up, and I'm sure
that can reach out to you guys and they can
learn how they can get started if it's something they
want to do. But there's also also an important part
to this. I know that in the past you've worked
with some local Palm Beach County, you know, first responders,
Emergency Management Department, UH and you guys also practice with
(04:19):
a mock hurricane every year, and you did this what
at the end of May, I believe May thirty. First
tell me about that. What was the what was the
name of set hurricane? It was a hurricane Delta.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Hurricane Hurricane Delta, and that's that's the name that we
gave this hurricane scenario. And it's a practice exercise. And
each year we practice at the Tomby's County Emergency Operations Center.
They have a they have a radio inside the facility
and that's where we get about three operators in there
and on three separate radios. We divide Tomby's County up
(04:57):
into three different groups, the North, Central, and South, and
so each person inside the radio room is from the EOC.
We also have what they call net control operators out
on the field and they're also separated by North, Central
and South areas of Palm Beach County. So this year
we had our exercise and we had a good a
(05:18):
good turnout. A lot of different types of scenarios folks
are sending in messages like you know, paralyzed down, trees,
down houses, houses damage and like that. We even had
the Red Cross participate in the event this year. But
that exercise lasts for about an hour. But like I said,
(05:39):
once again, it's divided up into three different sections. So
we had about eighty seven participants altogether. It was an excellent,
excellent exercise as far as emergency communications go, in case
we need to use that as a backup to if
something happened to the infrastructure. This is like the last
means of communications in the in in our world.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
You know, it's it's a good planning, especially the way
you tracked Hurricane Delta. I'm looking at the track now
because you know, we've for so many years just dealt
with hurricanes in the Gulf mostly right, we've been the
golf has had it pretty hard. But you you know,
you never know when one's going to come off the
Atlantic side. And you you had this hurricane, this mock
(06:25):
hurricane coming through on a Friday night at eleven. Well
it was right off shore, so it would have been
middle of the night, like they all seemed to be
for some reason, uh how middle of the night hurricanes.
But coming on shore, it looks like right around the
Jupiter area, just inside of of Palm Beach, from from
Martin County on the north end of the county on
(06:46):
the on the east coast side and moving through the state.
You remember what was the category you don't have that
on this particular track. What what what was the category
of delta when it when it struck, You're.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Got a category four hurricane which was pretty intense, pretty strong.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And so tell me what is what is the goal
of doing all this planning? In a nutshell? What you know,
doing these mock drills, and I know you do them every.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Year well as everybody knows, you know, practice perfect. Although
we're just angersession. We do our we do the best
we can with helping out different governmental agencies. We do
have our radio equipment, our repeaters set up to out
most of Palm Beach County. It covers not only Palm
Beach County, but also Martin, Saint Lucy County, Broad Counties,
(07:39):
as well as another there's a state network. I'm not
sure if anybody's familiar with this, but it's called SARNET
and this this is where all we got about thirty
five thirty eight repeaters that are linked up throughout the
whole state of Florida. So like if you wanted to
talk to somebody up in the Panhandle from down in Miami,
you just keep up there eight you and all of
(08:00):
these repeaters they all write at the same time, they're
they're all on at the same time. And it's great
because there's someone in that Panhandle gets hit by a
severe hurricane, they're able to get on the Starnet and
ask for help from like either the Red Cross or
any other governmental agency where they need cotts, food, blankets,
shelter for people.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
All Right, you did in a recent or maybe it
was a few years back, you did give some end
up giving assistance to Palm Beach County during a storm.
What what was that?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I think that was? Uh, it was Francis. Hurricane Francis
were the first one that came through and it took
out a lot of the infrastructure. We had a lot
of cell phones go down. The towers were at Roger
Dean Stadium at the time they went down. So uh.
There there are some Ham radio operators and a lot
of the governmental agencies fire departments, police and et cetera.
(09:00):
But especially at the fire departments, we were able to
say all night long and let them know how the
winds were. And then we went out and did some
recon following morning because it did come through at night
once again, and we did some recon and then gave
the reports over to the Palm Bee Scanty Fire Department
so they could disperse those to the different agencies that
(09:23):
needed to come in and clean up the area or
get FPO involved so they can put the power lines
back up.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
All right, So once again, just getting back to field
day again. This is coming up this weekend officially starting
I know you'll be there earlier, setting up two pm Saturday,
the twenty eighth until two pm Sunday, the twenty ninth,
and it's a twenty four hour period of hamming it
up or you know, I guess for a lack of
(09:52):
a better way to say it, but no getting on
the radio and folks can come out and they can
take part, and oftentimes you have some snack as well
on hand too. So anything else you want the folks
to know, and they can go there a civic center
right there on the beach in Jupiter. Anything else I'm missing, well,
you know.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
If anybody wants to come out, you know, and get
on the radio, now's a great time to do that
because we'll be open to the public and we are
at a public facility right there on the beach. Bring
your family out there, enjoy the beach, bring your friends,
come on out and see the the lighter side of
amateur radio besides what we do during emergencies and disasters.
(10:30):
And if you'd like more information about AMI radio or
our club, you can just go ahead and get on
the website at www dot j t RG dot org.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Let me ask you al just real quick before you know,
because I mentioned earlier, somebody might want to you know,
maybe they'll go out there and they'll and they'll you know,
go to the gotta gotta station. The get on the
air station and they'll enjoy it so much that you know, hey,
I want to take up this as a as a
hobby or you know, something to do and maybe even
help out the community while doing it. If somebody was
(11:02):
to start from scratch, rough estimate on the down on
the low side, what might this cost to buy the
equipment and everything.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Well, first of all they have to buy the First
of all, they have to buy the which is from
the Abril and sign up for a class. The manual
is about thirty five dollars. It has a lot of
good information in there about amateur radio, also questions and
answers in the back of the book that they'll find
on the exam. Then they can go ahead take the class.
(11:33):
I do four classes a year. I've already done two
of them, and I've got two more coming up. One's
going to be in the end of September and the
other one is going to be in November. But the
one in September is going to be the introduction in
the amateur radio the technician class. The one of November
is going to be a general class. There's three classes
or amateur radio licenses one's technician, one is general, the
other one is extra. So once they get the book,
(11:55):
which is about thirty five dollars, they attend the class.
The class is free to take, the exam is teamed up.
They'll send an email to you for an additional thirty
five dollars so they can send you your license. But
the radios, they're as cheap as twenty twenty nine dollars.
Thirty dollars for a radio which is like a little
(12:17):
handheld and the sky is the limit. You can go
hog wild in this hobby and spend it.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But yeah, it sounds that sounds pretty reasonable all told.
Sounds like, you know, for under yeah, maybe one fifty
two hundred bucks, you know, with all the all the
classes and manuals and equipment and everything, looks like you
could definitely under a couple of hundred can get into
this hobbyh.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, for sure, you know. But once again, you know,
if you want to go fancy, you can get some
elaborate radio gear. But they have, they have some inexpensive radios.
Just about anybody can afford one of these things. And
then if you drop it, no big loss, you go
and buy another one for about another thirty dollars.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
How many? How many have you gone through in your
in your time? All lost count appreciate it. President of
the Jupiter to questera repeater group, Al Moureshi, thank you
for joining me Field Day again this weekend Saturday to Sunday.
All the info is going up on our website as well.
Thanks again, Al, thank.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
You, Joel. Appreciate it. And let's have some fun out
there
Hey, Joel, Malcolm Forward w j O O dot com.
And we have got Albert Moureshi, the president of the
Jupiter Tequesta repeater group, on the line with us. Right now.
We're gonna talk about field Day once again. And for
those who've been listening for several years, well you probably
(00:22):
know already a little bit about this. Either way, we'll
do the brush up for you. Thank you, al for
joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh, good morning, Joel, glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
All right. Amateur radio operators some of us call them hams.
Does that offend you at all when they say ham.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
No, not at all, because it makes me see it was, uh,
grab the microphone and I'm sitting here talking it over
the airwaves. I think it's basically probably one of the
one of the nicknames that mate radio operators got because
they would they would ham it up on the on
the air.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Right there you go. Now this is already coming up
again this weekend. Tell me and this is a right
there by the Carlon Park Civic Center, I believe, Jupiter Beach.
I'm gonna let you tell us what happens on field Day,
give us all the details there, and then I want
to talk about some more things, okay, Joel.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah. Field Day is something that look forward to Ham
radio operators forward to every year. Each year, all the
amateur radio organizations throughout the United States get together and
they try and make as many contacts as they can
with each other during twenty four hour period. So we'll
be at Carland Park Civic Centers starting to set everything
(01:40):
up at daybreak and hopefully we'll have all the antennas
and outdoor equipment done before the sun gets up there
too hot. Then we set everything up inside, have lunch,
and then two o'clock the actual contesting begins, and once
again that's where we try contacts as we can in
the twenty four using our amateur radio equipment, and we're
(02:03):
backed up by emergency power. We'll have a generator out there,
also batteries, maybe solar. One year we had bin power
out there. But it's sponsored by the American Radio Relay
League and it does happen once a year. The last
fourth full weekend in June, we'll be right there on
the beach. We'll have all the set up if anybody
(02:25):
would like to come out and look at what we're
doing and how we're doing and how we put it
all together, or if you even wanted to come out
and get on the air, you're more than welcome to
stop on buy We'll be there all weekend.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Isn't there like a little competition going on because this
is happening around the country.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Correct, that's correct, jol, And it is like competition. Some
of the groups they like to compete against one another
to see who has the most contacts, So it does
get competitive, and then the aborl they post the results
in their magazine later on. So it's a lot of fun.
(03:02):
We have a great time to do.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
And you have those gotta stations set up that stands
for get on the air where you let the public
kind of you know, take part. Is that is that
on the beach or is that that's inside the civic center.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
It's inside the civic center. That's where we have all
the set up, and we'll have radios are and hammer
radio operators who can help get other people who may
want to make a contact on the air. And you
don't have to have a license to get on the
go to radio, which is get on the air radio.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Now you know this this sounds fun and all, and
I'm sure it is. You've been doing this how many years.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
We've been doing this for at least thirty years our
club has Our club is forty going on forty three
years old this year, so as at least thirty, probably
a little bit more than that.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
So, as I said, it is a fun hobby for
folks that want to take it up, and I'm sure
that can reach out to you guys and they can
learn how they can get started if it's something they
want to do. But there's also also an important part
to this. I know that in the past you've worked
with some local Palm Beach County, you know, first responders,
Emergency Management Department, UH and you guys also practice with
(04:19):
a mock hurricane every year, and you did this what
at the end of May, I believe May thirty. First
tell me about that. What was the what was the
name of set hurricane? It was a hurricane Delta.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Hurricane Hurricane Delta, and that's that's the name that we
gave this hurricane scenario. And it's a practice exercise. And
each year we practice at the Tomby's County Emergency Operations Center.
They have a they have a radio inside the facility
and that's where we get about three operators in there
and on three separate radios. We divide Tomby's County up
(04:57):
into three different groups, the North, Central, and South, and
so each person inside the radio room is from the EOC.
We also have what they call net control operators out
on the field and they're also separated by North, Central
and South areas of Palm Beach County. So this year
we had our exercise and we had a good a
(05:18):
good turnout. A lot of different types of scenarios folks
are sending in messages like you know, paralyzed down, trees,
down houses, houses damage and like that. We even had
the Red Cross participate in the event this year. But
that exercise lasts for about an hour. But like I said,
(05:39):
once again, it's divided up into three different sections. So
we had about eighty seven participants altogether. It was an excellent,
excellent exercise as far as emergency communications go, in case
we need to use that as a backup to if
something happened to the infrastructure. This is like the last
means of communications in the in in our world.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
You know, it's it's a good planning, especially the way
you tracked Hurricane Delta. I'm looking at the track now
because you know, we've for so many years just dealt
with hurricanes in the Gulf mostly right, we've been the
golf has had it pretty hard. But you you know,
you never know when one's going to come off the
Atlantic side. And you you had this hurricane, this mock
(06:25):
hurricane coming through on a Friday night at eleven. Well
it was right off shore, so it would have been
middle of the night, like they all seemed to be
for some reason, uh how middle of the night hurricanes.
But coming on shore, it looks like right around the
Jupiter area, just inside of of Palm Beach, from from
Martin County on the north end of the county on
(06:46):
the on the east coast side and moving through the state.
You remember what was the category you don't have that
on this particular track. What what what was the category
of delta when it when it struck, You're.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Got a category four hurricane which was pretty intense, pretty strong.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And so tell me what is what is the goal
of doing all this planning? In a nutshell? What you know,
doing these mock drills, and I know you do them every.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Year well as everybody knows, you know, practice perfect. Although
we're just angersession. We do our we do the best
we can with helping out different governmental agencies. We do
have our radio equipment, our repeaters set up to out
most of Palm Beach County. It covers not only Palm
Beach County, but also Martin, Saint Lucy County, Broad Counties,
(07:39):
as well as another there's a state network. I'm not
sure if anybody's familiar with this, but it's called SARNET
and this this is where all we got about thirty
five thirty eight repeaters that are linked up throughout the
whole state of Florida. So like if you wanted to
talk to somebody up in the Panhandle from down in Miami,
you just keep up there eight you and all of
(08:00):
these repeaters they all write at the same time, they're
they're all on at the same time. And it's great
because there's someone in that Panhandle gets hit by a
severe hurricane, they're able to get on the Starnet and
ask for help from like either the Red Cross or
any other governmental agency where they need cotts, food, blankets,
shelter for people.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
All Right, you did in a recent or maybe it
was a few years back, you did give some end
up giving assistance to Palm Beach County during a storm.
What what was that?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I think that was? Uh, it was Francis. Hurricane Francis
were the first one that came through and it took
out a lot of the infrastructure. We had a lot
of cell phones go down. The towers were at Roger
Dean Stadium at the time they went down. So uh.
There there are some Ham radio operators and a lot
of the governmental agencies fire departments, police and et cetera.
(09:00):
But especially at the fire departments, we were able to
say all night long and let them know how the
winds were. And then we went out and did some
recon following morning because it did come through at night
once again, and we did some recon and then gave
the reports over to the Palm Bee Scanty Fire Department
so they could disperse those to the different agencies that
(09:23):
needed to come in and clean up the area or
get FPO involved so they can put the power lines
back up.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
All right, So once again, just getting back to field
day again. This is coming up this weekend officially starting
I know you'll be there earlier, setting up two pm Saturday,
the twenty eighth until two pm Sunday, the twenty ninth,
and it's a twenty four hour period of hamming it
up or you know, I guess for a lack of
(09:52):
a better way to say it, but no getting on
the radio and folks can come out and they can
take part, and oftentimes you have some snack as well
on hand too. So anything else you want the folks
to know, and they can go there a civic center
right there on the beach in Jupiter. Anything else I'm missing, well,
you know.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
If anybody wants to come out, you know, and get
on the radio, now's a great time to do that
because we'll be open to the public and we are
at a public facility right there on the beach. Bring
your family out there, enjoy the beach, bring your friends,
come on out and see the the lighter side of
amateur radio besides what we do during emergencies and disasters.
(10:30):
And if you'd like more information about AMI radio or
our club, you can just go ahead and get on
the website at www dot j t RG dot org.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Let me ask you al just real quick before you know,
because I mentioned earlier, somebody might want to you know,
maybe they'll go out there and they'll and they'll you know,
go to the gotta gotta station. The get on the
air station and they'll enjoy it so much that you know, hey,
I want to take up this as a as a
hobby or you know, something to do and maybe even
help out the community while doing it. If somebody was
(11:02):
to start from scratch, rough estimate on the down on
the low side, what might this cost to buy the
equipment and everything.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Well, first of all they have to buy the First
of all, they have to buy the which is from
the Abril and sign up for a class. The manual
is about thirty five dollars. It has a lot of
good information in there about amateur radio, also questions and
answers in the back of the book that they'll find
on the exam. Then they can go ahead take the class.
(11:33):
I do four classes a year. I've already done two
of them, and I've got two more coming up. One's
going to be in the end of September and the
other one is going to be in November. But the
one in September is going to be the introduction in
the amateur radio the technician class. The one of November
is going to be a general class. There's three classes
or amateur radio licenses one's technician, one is general, the
other one is extra. So once they get the book,
(11:55):
which is about thirty five dollars, they attend the class.
The class is free to take, the exam is teamed up.
They'll send an email to you for an additional thirty
five dollars so they can send you your license. But
the radios, they're as cheap as twenty twenty nine dollars.
Thirty dollars for a radio which is like a little
(12:17):
handheld and the sky is the limit. You can go
hog wild in this hobby and spend it.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But yeah, it sounds that sounds pretty reasonable all told.
Sounds like, you know, for under yeah, maybe one fifty
two hundred bucks, you know, with all the all the
classes and manuals and equipment and everything, looks like you
could definitely under a couple of hundred can get into
this hobbyh.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, for sure, you know. But once again, you know,
if you want to go fancy, you can get some
elaborate radio gear. But they have, they have some inexpensive radios.
Just about anybody can afford one of these things. And
then if you drop it, no big loss, you go
and buy another one for about another thirty dollars.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
How many? How many have you gone through in your
in your time? All lost count appreciate it. President of
the Jupiter to questera repeater group, Al Moureshi, thank you
for joining me Field Day again this weekend Saturday to Sunday.
All the info is going up on our website as well.
Thanks again, Al, thank.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
You, Joel. Appreciate it. And let's have some fun out
there
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