Ham Radio Summer Field Day 2025: Waldo, FL
Photo by Seth Johnson
by Lorilyn Roberts, KO4LBS
This past ham radio summer field day tops them all. From the Northeast corner of Waldo, Florida, we had over 30 visitors, newly licensed hams, media interviews, and, as if that wasn’t enough, a CW contester came and shared the weekend with us.
I ( Lorilyn Roberts, KO4LBS) was treated to a spectacular demonstration of the art of CW. I’m a CW operator with a decent speed of around 25 wpm. Still, I had never seen CW like what veteran operator and multi-award-winning contester Cy Stanway, K2CYS, demonstrated.
Have you ever seen a dancer, a musician, a tennis player like Roger Federer, or even the US Navy Blue Angels put on a show? That’s what I witnessed. While CW is a skill, having the skill to win CW contests takes it to a whole new level. I had to see it to believe it.
I don’t know the final score, but artists inspire us to improve. Ham radio really is an art—a lost art dating back to before the Internet, iPhones, and AI.
When I was young, I didn’t know about ham radio. My heart is to share this disappearing art before we lose it. Too few people know its value—but I believe that’s changing.
Summer Field Day is a once-a-year event to raise awareness of ham radio and hold a friendly competition to see how many contacts a person, club, or group can make within a 24-hour period.
Barbara Matthews, KO4TWZ, a GARS member and the club’s public information officer, did some great advertising for us. We had Seth Johnson from Main Street Daily News stop by and visit, and we even got Mistie Webb from TV 20 on the air. We had a newly licensed ham radio operator, Linda Carley, KQ4ZQR, to make her first contact, and, unbeknownst to me, we already knew each other.
In many ways, ham radio has come full circle for me. I continue to reconnect with people I’ve known from the past who have decided to get their licenses because, as we know, the future is uncertain. More people are waking up to how delicate our infrastructure is, as we’ve experienced here in Florida during past hurricanes. With war drums sounding around the world, we might face something more devastating, like a cyber-attack or an EMP.
Ham radio is not just about communication, however fun and useful as that may be, especially during an emergency. Ham Radio creates connectedness beyond communication. A ham radio operator shares his world with another fellow air adventurer—and they never know who they might meet or where they might meet them. People in our club have made contacts worldwide, including the space station and the Vatican.
If you want to learn more about our local club, visit the Gainesville Amateur Radio Society by clicking here or visit the ARRL website by clicking here.