Ten days on the air. Fourteen clubs in NY State. Six months of planning. It all adds up to two hundred years of the Erie Canal - the celebrated public-works project that sparked economic growth by providing a connection between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes in the early 1800s. It ultimately earned the nickname, the "Mother of Cities," because its connections fostered the development of towns, villages and cities.

Ham radio operators will light up the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor with an operating event that runs from the 16th through to the 25th of September. Many of them will be doing Parks on the Air activations, including a notable two-fer that also includes the Empire State Trail.

Organizers Matt K2EAG, Angela N3ARB and Mike N2MAK are encouraging clubs to create their own commemorative QSL cards for the event. The organizers aren't just looking to collect QSOs, though; they also want to gather stories from operators about their experiences during the event. They can be emailed directly to Matt at k 2 e a g at arrl dot net (k2eag@arrl.net) or posted on social media with the hashtag symbol and one of these three words: ErieCanal200, Erie Canalway or parksontheair.