Ham Radio With K0PIR

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Scroll to the bottom if you are only interested in the FD checklist! Is Field Day worth it? This year, more than any other, it seems this question was popping up on ham radio forums across the internet. Other versions seem to be what is the relevance of FD in the day and age of POTA and SOTA. Discussions (disagreements) on what modes should and should not be allowed. Or even what the entire purpose of FD is (emergency communications exercise? ham radio publicity event?) I probably missed it in years past, but this was the first of my five years of both Winter and ARRL Field Days that I noticed people saying they just did not feel like doing it, or alternatively they felt they were unwelcome when they showed up at a public FD site.

I got my chops as the Field Day Coordinator for the first amateur radio club I ever belonged to. I was assigned the role less than a couple months after I received my license. Although I no longer participate in that particular club, I will forever be grateful for all I learned during that time. I took the position extremely seriously, and went from never having turned on a ham transceiver, to understanding quite deeply the variety of systems necessary for a portable multi-op radio contest. I still remember having to inquire as to whether a “tri-bander” was a name brand for an antenna, or a type of antenna. In this case, the term was referring to a 10-15-20M multi-band beam antenna. I would like to think I had been a particularly good radio event coordinator, and went on to organize quite a few group radio events particularly through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Simultaneously, I developed a tremendous love for portable radio, and in particular the Summits-On-The-Air (SOTA) program. I am proud of the fact that I can set up an antenna in nearly any condition. AA1F’s POTA Lion Award effort demonstrated this quite nicely. And, I can do it usually fast and efficiently, especially with a 20M EFHW wire antenna.

So, back to the question. Is Field Day worth it? Given that SOTA and POTA, and other versions of portable radio operations, make a Field Day-like experience possible at almost any time, is Field Day still important and relevant to the amateur radio hobby? Yes. Yes it is. Field Day is worth it. It is important. And it remains relevant.

Our FD station is shown below. It does look like a messy jumble of wires and cables, but there is a reasonable amount of organization in that jumble. My station is in front with the Yaesu FT-991A. AA1F’s station (with an FT-891) is directly across from mine, in the back. And facing toward the window is the FT8 station (FT-857D). In compliance with FD rules, this transceiver is set-up to run FT8, but is not simultaneously capable of transmitting at the same time as another station, keeping us a two bravo classification. Why am I so confident of that? If you take a look carefully at the window, you will see two coax cables feeding through…we only set up two HF antennas! We need to physically move the antennas from one station to another in order to operate. In fact, we do think some sort of antenna switching system would be an improvement for next year. This was also the first year we used a communications headsets (Heil Sound Pro 7) with foot pedals. What a tremendous pleasure!!

Our basic information from the day is in the table below. We decided to keep our antenna system to a minimum given the impending threat of thunderstorms all weekend. This meant that we would set up one 80M off-center fed dipole at about 20-25 feet off the ground and mostly horizontal with its long axis in the east-to-west direction. And then we would set up another 80M OCFD in the north-to-south direction. The choice of the 80M OCF would be so that AA1F and I would each have access to an antenna capable of getting on all bands at the same time, with reasonable resonance, although we were using external tuners on all radios. The perpendicular placement of the antennas was to optimize our directionality of propagation, as well as to hopefully limit interference from one antenna to another. It was also because of the convenience of using our property’s natural tree lines as antenna supports.

Station ID & FD exchange	KX1Q 2B ENY
Operators	KM1NDY & AA1F
Transceivers	FT-991A, FT-891, FT-857D, FT-4X
Antennas	80M-OCFD (x 2), 2M Magmount
# of QSOs	362
# of hours operated	14:46
# of ARRL sections worked	68
Bands worked	2M, 10M, 15M, 20M, 40M, 80M
Modes worked	FT8, FT4, CW, USB, LSB, FM
States not worked	AK, HI, NE, MS, NM

Weather considerations made us leave out putting up any mast structures. Not only did it rain in sheets, there were numerous thunderstorms, and even a tornado watch. Using the trees for support at least made us feel as though we would be less likely to attract lightning bolts, at least compared to a nearly 40 foot metal military mast propped up in an open field. We ran 100 foot lengths of LMR-240 coaxial cable from each of the antenna baluns back toward our operating station. Unfortunately, we needed to add another 100 feet of coax (this time of RG8X) to one antenna and 50 feet of RG8X to the other. On the desire list for next year’s field day is a couple of more runs of LMR-240 so we are not mixing and matching coax.

Below is the rain coming down in sheets, with a blue pop-up tent protecting our generator. The generator, a relatively new one that we purchased to power our newest trailer (on the right), stayed on through the entire weekend and was turned off one time only for refueling. This is a 5000W Predator Super Quiet Inverter Generator from Harbor Freight. We have the 2000W version of this generator that we have used for years. I highly recommend this brand. Remember, our entire farm operation is off-grid, so we generate all power. That includes solar panels on the top of each trailer. We propped the genny on cinderblocks to avoid water pooling underneath it.

This year we were fortunate to have acquired most of what we needed for Field Day already. We did make a couple of new purchases from Ham Radio Outlet in NH in the week prior. This included one of the 100′ LMR-240 cables and the Radiowavz 80M OCFD antenna. And Marc and I did splurge for the Heil Sounds Pro 7 communication headsets with foot pedals that I already mentioned. And I am really glad we did! It made operating SSB a joy! I also purchased a gigabit ethernet switch, and networked all 3 of our computers with it. I described that all in this post, including a how-to on networking computers with N1MM+ logging software.

And since we are talking solar panels, we did manage to sneak in a battery charge between downpours during the event to get our 100 points alternative power bonus points. That solar set-up is a SunKingdom 60W folding panel (which unfortunately does not seem to be available anymore), a Renogy Voyager 20A charge controller capable of working with LiFePo batteries, and a 15Ah 12V Bioenno battery. This set up can produce 2.5A of current in full sun.

The SunKingdom solar panel uses a SAE connector. I use an SAE-to-bare wire jumper to attach the solar panel and its native power cord with an SAE connector to the charge controller. From the output of the charge controller, I then use a bare wire-to-SAE jumper, that I then add a Thunderbolt (Harbor Freight) SAE-to-barrel connector adapter to attach to the Bioenno battery. The exact Thunderbolt product is pictured below; this is NOT any sort of affiliate link and I do not make a single penny off of this website. I have included this (and the picture is linked to the right Harbor Freight product), because it is a way to locally source a barrel connector that fits the very popular ham radio Bioenno battery. The other jumpers, especially the SAE extension cable, are nice as well and can be modified to suit your solar connection purposes.

We used standard 30A power supplies running off of the generator to power our SSB/CW stations. The FT8 station however ran entirely off of battery power, including one of which was charged with solar power in the moments of sunlight that we had.

Below we start getting into the nitty gritty of our FD contacts. I made contacts on 5 bands with SSB and CW. AA1F on the other hand made SSB contacts on 20, 40, and 80, and he also made FT8 contacts on those as well as 15M. The FT8 contacts are the ones marked “KX1Q” in the graph below.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the general performance of our Field Day set-up. We made 362 QSOs and reached the entire continental United States.

This included 68 separate ARRL sections and 45 states. AA1F made 24% more contacts than I did, with 206 QSOs compared with my 156 contacts.

It is interesting too to see how AA1F and I “specialized”. Below is a breakdown of our various modes. I did manage exactly 1 FM contact on 146.52MHz with a local ham via a 2m/70cm magmount on my van. In general AA1F took the low HF bands, and I took the higher HF bands, although we both shared 40M quite a bit. Also, I operated CW, whereas AA1F chose FT4/FT8 as his digital mode. In fact, this is the first time AA1F really used these modes beyond looking over my shoulder while I tap away on WSJT-X, and he made over a 100 contacts! Fortunately, our digital modes radio, i.e., the now discontinued Yaesu FT-857D, still works, as it was burning up by the end of FD with the workload of a full duty cycle. In order to get the 857 to play with WSJT-X, we had to run it through the Tigertronics Signalink as an audio interface. Unlike the Yaesu FT-818ND, I unfortunately could not get the Digirig to work with the 857, and scrapped it for the Signalink.

Mode	AA1F/KX1Q	KM1NDY	TOTAL
FM		1	1
FT4	62		62
FT8	39		39
USB	25	39	64
LSB	80	3	83
CW		113	113
TOTAL	206	156	362

Below is a map of our QSOs by band. The most interesting to me part of this is the very distinct propagations regions each band creates. 15M reaches the west coast and Texas. 20M is predominantly midwest. 40M is northeast and mid-Atlantic, and 80M is similar with a slightly smaller diameter. This map and the mode map below it were made by uploading the Cabrillo file to this website.

The locations of our QSOs by mode is shown below. The red pins, denoted oddly as “Standard” by the software, are CW, and they correlate to the fact that I made a lot of the CW contacts on 15M and 20M. Likewise, the yellow data pins show that most of AA1F’s FT* contacts were made on either 40M or 80M.

And let’s just talk a little bit about my CW contacts. I am not a particularly good CW operator, although I try. I needed to use a decoder. The one that I think is the best is the android app Morse Expert. It uses the same technology as CW Skimmer. All I do is rest my cell phone near the speaker of the transceiver and let the app decode the CW simply via ambient audio. It works extremely well, particularly in the type of event where nearly everyone at least to me seems to be sending CW via a machine. Now for sending CW (which I am reasonably okay at — my deficit is definitely at hearing it), I used the voice memory channels of my 991A using the “text-to-CW” mode. I programmed in “KX1Q” in channel 1 and “2B ENY” in channel 2, and made channel 1 and 2 into the soft buttons at the bottom of the Yaesu display. I also programmed in “TU” and “AGN” in channels 3 and 4, just in case I needed them. Although, usually I would just send these with the paddle if I did. With this set-up, and some reasonable knowledge of CW, I found making morse code contacts was like shooting fish in a barrel. This was the first time I used this type of semi-automated operation, and it was delightful! I expect I will get to be more efficient at it by next year. Or who knows? Maybe, I’ll get better at code by then too!

And we did also try for an FM satellite contact with a nighttime pass of SO-50. Given that it was in the middle of a thunderstorm and we were standing underneath the awning of our trailer to avoid getting soaking wet (not to mention pointing a handheld yagi at lightning bolts, hey, we wanted that contact!), it is not particularly surprising we did not make the QSO. We did hear SO-50 though, so we considered it a kind of win. We used two Yaesu FT-4X HTs to try to make the contact. The shame though was that it was otherwise a perfect 80 degree pass over our open field…

The farm is open to the public, so we did set up an information table. Oddly (surprise surprise! Look at that rain!) we did not get any visitors, but we did claim our bonus points.

…And the grill was DEFINITELY not just for show! Here is AA1F showing off his delicious meat. Yup, cooking in the downpour like the seasoned farmer that he is!

Georgie, our Field Day guard dog, watched over everything with her one eye. Including the coax. Okay, really this is just a gratuitous picture of this gorgeous mutt.

And finally, here it is! Our entire ARRL Field Day 2024 checklist (of radio gear only, you need to make your own toiletries list!) Feel free to download and adapt it as you would like!

So, successes? We made over 100 more contacts this year than last year which we consider a win. We were on the air nearly at the start of Field Day (okay, 11 minutes late, but still that is great for us!) This was because we set up nearly everything Friday night (including our antennas in a thunderstorm and by headlamp thanks to bad traffic out of Boston). The early set up meant we were less fatigued by start time. We operated 6 bands and 6 modes. We had little to no interference between our stations, made possible by using band pass filters on both operating transceivers at all times. We were never at a lack of station possibilities for contacts, and more often than not if we could hear a station, we could work a station. The use of multi-banded 80M antennas seemed like a good choice overall. Our antenna locations made working the entire United States possible, with only 5 states not contacted. I learned a way to semi-automate CW contacts and AA1F made a bunch of WSJT-X contacts for the first time. All of our computer equipment was networked and worked. In all, we considered the entire operation a success…

But of course there are always things we can do better. Quite frankly, I would like to get more contacts. I suppose we will try for at least 500 next year. Would it be beneficial to get the antennas up higher than 20-25 feet? Should we use only LMR 240 instead of mixing and matching it with RG8X coax? Should we put up a single banded resonant 40M antenna? Or maybe focus on more resonant antennas in general? We only operated for about 14 of the 24 hours in total. We did get tired fairly early in the event ( I think I turned in before 2am on Saturday; AA1F made it a bit more) and we slept a bit later than we wanted to. How can the two of us manage more on-air time given the exhaustion inherent to being a two-person FD operation? And one that needs a significant amount of travel time to reach our FD location?

And of course, the things out of our control. The bad traffic on Friday that turned a 3 hour trip into a 5 hour trip, and left us setting up in the dark and rain. The weather…thunderstorms (and tornado watches!) all weekend. And when it wasn’t raining, it was 90 degrees with air so humid you could ring it out. We also suffered from being distracted a decent amount by Georgie, who as a shepherd teenager still requires a lot of minding.

All that said, I am really happy with 2024’s ARRL Field Day. Despite what I see online, the airwaves were hopping and it was clear A LOT of hams were enjoying the event! It made me giggle a bit to think of the number of electromagnetic signals flying around the general public’s head, of which they had no clue. Don’t get me wrong, I know it is the same for cell phones, etc, but usually a giant international event would have some sort of footprint. Runners blocking streets as they raced along. Or traffic on the way to a particularly popular concert. But hams can take over the world in the quietest and least intrusive of ways, unless you know how to listen for it.

My radio friends in Beantown seemed to all have nice club Field Days as well based on the reports I have been seeing and getting. I am happy for them! I realize though, at this point in my trajectory through this hobby that I am not particularly interested in partaking in Field Day as a club event. Maybe this will change? Through the years I have done quite a bit to promote Amateur Radio. Heck, this website, although it is really for my own entertainment, does see quite a bit of traffic at least based on my standards and I would like to think it has a positive effect. And I am really glad for the club Field Days I have both organized and been a part of.

I am getting more protective though of my time. And particularly the time I get to spend on what has become one of the most important aspects of my life. Over these last five plus years, radio has burrowed its way into becoming a core component of my existence. I mean it with that intensity. When I started this journey, communication, as in the ability for one party to convey information to another, seemed to be the backdrop of this radio journey for me. In essence, it was a social experience. The ability to communicate was inherently social, and I took to radio in that manner: join a club, help provide radio experiences for others, provide a public service — a social service — in doing so. But as the wonder of the science of radio, the art of radio, and most importantly–radio for the sake of radio–seeps in, the social aspects have been fading away in some aspects. Don’t get me wrong! I love all of the real friends I have made in this hobby, and hanging out with them is not what I am talking about. Enjoying the company of other hams (which I do!) is also not what I am talking about. More so, an event like Field Day, the Super Bowl of our hobby, is something I want to do as a largely asocial experience these days, instead relishing in the marvels of RF and my own ability to tap into it. Maybe it simply comes down to the fact that I do not want to share. There are many ways in which I can share radio, and many ways that I do, but for the time being, I do not think Field Day is not going to be one of them.

And why Field Day? No other radio contest (non-contest?) has a wider range of amateur radio operator skills and stations available to pluck contacts out of. Overall, the event is not extremely competitive nor is it made out of the finest radio stations. It means you can make a lot of contacts with other stations that are also cobbled together…just like yours! It means that you can significantly improve from one year to the next, learn your equipment better, perfect your station set-up, and harden your skills. You are largely not competing with amplified multi- mult- contest stations blasting 1500 watts with giant directional antennas. In Field Day, you actually stand a chance. If used appropriately, ARRL Field Day can be a great way to become increasingly more proficient in the hobby, year over year. And it is an experience I want to grasp with both arms and not let go of for anyone.

Is Field Day still relevant? You better believe it is!

KM1NDY

Since setting up the new HAM station here in the UK the one band I’ve not yet got back onto is 160m, one of my most favourite bands in the HF spectrum and one that I was addicted to when I live in France (F5VKM).

Having such a small garden here in the UK there is no way I can get any type of guyed vertical for 160m erected and so I needed to come up with some sort of compromise antenna for the band.

Only being interested in the FT4/8 and CW sections of the 160m band I calculated that I could get an inverted-L antenna up that would be reasonably close to resonant. It would require some additional inductance to get the electrical length required and some impedance matching to provide a 50 Ohm impedance to the transceiver.

Measuring the garden I found I could get a 28m horizontal section in place and a 10m vertical section using one of my 10m spiderpoles. This would give me a total of 38m of wire that would get me fairly close to the quarter wave length.

For impedance matching I decided to make a Pi-Network ATU. I’ve made these in the past and found them to be excellent at matching a very wide range of impedances to 50 Ohm.

Since I still had the components of the Pi-Network ATU that I built when I lived in France I decided to reuse them as it saved a lot of work. The inductor was made from some copper tubing I had left over after doing all the plumbing in the house in France and so it got repurposed and formed into a very large inductor. The 2 x capacitors I also built many years ago and fortunately I’d kept locked away as they are very expensive to purchase today and a lot of work to make.

Getting the Inverted-L antenna up was easy enough and I soon had it connected to the Pi-Network ATU. I ran a few radials out around the garden to give it something to tune against and wound a 1:1 choke balun at the end of the coax run to stop any common mode currents that may have appeared on the coax braid.

Connecting my JNCRadio VNA I found that the Inverted-L was naturally resonant at 2.53Mhz, not too far off the 1.84Mhz that I needed. Adding a little extra inductance and capacitance via the ATU I soon had the antenna resonant where I wanted it at the bottom of the 160m band.

With the SWR being <1.5:1 across the CW and FT8 section of the band I was ready to get on 160m for the first time in a long.

Since it’s still summer in the UK I wasn’t expecting to find the band in very good shape but, was pleasantly surprised. Switching the radio on before full sunset I was hearing stations all around Europe with ease. In no time at all I was working stations and getting good reports using just 22w of FT8. FT8 is such a good mode for testing new antennas.

As the sky got darker the distance achieved got greater and over time I was able to work into Russia with the longest distance recorded being 2445 Miles, R9LE in Tyumen Asiatic Russia.

In no time at all I’d worked 32 stations taking my total 160m QSOs from 16 to 48. I can’t wait for the long, dark winter nights to see how well this antenna really performs.

The map above shows the locations of the stations worked on the first evening using the 160m Inverted-L antenna. As the year moves on and we slowly progress into winter it will be fun to start chasing the DX again on the 160m band..

UPDATE 6th October 2023.
Been using the antenna for some time now with over 100 contacts on 160m. Best 160m DX so far is RV0AR in Sosnovoborsk Asiatic Russia, 3453 Miles using just 22w. Pretty impressive for such a low antenna on Top Band.

More soon …