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!
by Vince (VE6LK) Field Day 2024 started out with the best of plans to be spent with the best of friends and ended up totally different – and, unexpectedly, I had a hoot! With my carefully made plan behind me, my new last-minute plan was to run solo for Field Day in the backcountry of … Continue reading Experimenting during Field Day 2024→
The SolderSmoke crew thought it had a tough time this Field Day: Pete N6QW had hoped to do something, but was stymied by hot California weather. Dean KK4DAS had even worse weather. Bill HI7/N2CQR was at a remote QTH with an HW-8 and a wire antenna -- he managed just ONE contact (W7RN in Nevada on 15 CW). But none of us had as much trouble as our friend Farhan had. In his account of Field Day in Hyderabad, we see an intrepid ham standing up against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that Field Day often throws at true radio amateurs. Here is Farhan's Field Day story:
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You asked for it, so here it goes...
I got the chance last evening to head out to our farmland. My daughter Ramsha had her friend were over. By the time we all got into the SUV, it was already 5:30 pm. I had loaded in the Spiderbeam fiberglass pole, the sbitx with LiPo battery and an EFHW ATU strapped on, into the back into my backpack, the toolbox with a few hand tools.
On the way to the farm, rain begin to come down. Rayyan (son, VU3ECQ) started said as much, I turned up the volume on Bruno Mars...
By the time we got to the farm, the rain was over(Ha!). We immediately begin to set up the antenna. I chose an inverted V config for the antenna and to use a tree as the support. The spiderbeam, as any who has been taken in by it knows, is a telescoping 33 feet high mast made of fiberglass. A curious villager decided to help us too. The girls had already taken off to pick the Mulberries.
So, Rayyan, the curious fellow, and I tried to telescope out the mast. The curious fellow, having never read the manual, picked up the mast from the wrong end and all the pieces fall out the other end. (Censored @#$%...). Within 15 minutes, we had all the pieces put back in the order of their thicknesses. I scotchtaped the center of the 66 feet wire to tip of the mast and we all hauled it up vertical. For those who don't forget maths, you can figure that two section of 66 feet wire will be exactly 33 feet high and when you tie this to the high end of a 33 feet high pole -- they just hang down vertically in a straight line. I was trying hard to remember the math teacher's name when the telescoping mast decided to untelescope into a 5 feet, collapsed height. My son commented that it has worked as advertised. Now, I wanted to remember my son's Moral Lessons teacher's name...
Next, we scotch taped the center of the 66 feet wire to approximately 2/3rd height. The curious guy and I walked it up back and took it to the tree. Rather we tried to. The branches kept getting in the way. Finally, managed to get within 4 feet of the trunk and I declared that we could just tie it up with the packing nylon rope bundle we were carrying. We did and it held up.
By now, the two ends of wire had gotten all twisted around each other. We all had an excellent arm workout trying unwind them. The techniques -- never mentioned in any antenna handbook -- is to hold both ends of the twisted pair in one hand each, spread out your arms and make overhead sweeping motion to flick one wire over the other. This method only adds more twists into the wire. I discovered that wires could be twisted around each other both ways. There is no untwisting them. I discovered this amazing feature!
After watching us for 10 minutes, Humera, my XYL, asked us to forgive the world and bring down the mast and untangle the wires on the ground. By now, a stray cow had also sauntered in on her way back home. I think our language attracted her. She was bellowing for her calf to come and watch.
Next, we, efficiently undid the wire twists. Rayyan and the curious fellow held the two ends away from each other and I raised the mast. Or rather I tried to. At 45 degree tilt, the mast sections add up huge amount of weight. I was tottering around with it when it thankfully leaned onto the tree branches. At this time, I declared it done. We tied the mast at 6 feet height by the rope to the tree trunk. One end went to the a branch of a bush and the other we walked to the point where it was taunt and touched the ground.
I brought out the radio, much to the curious fellow's surprised, who was looking forward to me doing more entertaining things with the mast rather than a radio. We switched it on, I quickly peaked the ATU to maximum noise and keyed up. The sbitx shut off. Our battery was discharged.
An intrepid ham is never dissuaded by the flings and arrows of time which, when taken at a tide, leads to Field Day. I decided to move the operations to the farm cottage where we had power. But there was no supporting tree nearby. I decided to use the SUV as support.
We packed the SUV at an approximately correct distance from the vernadah of the cottage. We carried the mast over to the SUV and strapped it at two points: on the foot rest and on the overhead luggage rock. At this point the Spiderbeam fiberglass collaspible mast took a commercial break and demonstrated rapid collapse, into the much vaunted 5 feet size. Rayyan was rolling in the grass with mirth. This divided my anger between two opposing directions: toward my progeny and toward my antenna mast. I didn't move.
I thought like an engineer. The curious fellow and I carried the mast to an illuminated part of the farm, laid it down, and scotch taped each section to the next as the spiderbeam folks had warned us to do. It is strange how memory works better when your blood pressure is up.
The mast went up again, this time strapped to the SUV's rack, door column, and the footrest. I setup the radio on a table outside the cottage, running the extension cord from inside. The SUV and the antenna were too far for the EFHW to reach the radio.
We asked Humera (XYL) and the girls who were watching us while having their mulberries to DO SOMETHING and not just SIT THERE. So, Humera got inside the SUV and started to roll it towards the cottage. A loud crunching sound announced the sad departure of the sunflower plants we had tied the other end of EFHW from mother Earth. The EFHW had unrooted its support as the SUV pulled it away. These minor inconviences never deter a determine man, remember Gandhiji!
Finally everything was in place, and we fixed up the rig but the microphone wouldn't key up. So what? I can just operate from the in-built mic and the thoughfully provided on-screen keyboard for CW, right? Well I could but I needed to key CW contiuously to set the SWR. So I opened up the mic. The curious fellow who had carried the radio to the new operating position was new to radio etiquette. He had just picked up the radio and walked, dragging the mic through the slush and weeds. The mic connector had come out.
I took the matters into my hands, by now, Rayyan was trying to show empathy for the old man by making loud noise like Aww! Shucks! and other unmentionables. I cut the cable with teeth, unbraided a small section and wired it up on the connector so I could short it to key the rig. Why can't the imbecile radio designers think of providing a tune button on the screen??
Finally, everything was in place. I tuned up and AIR net was on. This is the national evening SSB net on 7150. I tried breaking in with SSB a few times but didn't get through. Finally, I changed to CW and called. The net control asked "the CW station to QSY, this is the AIR net....". Finally some other SSB station who could copy my CW translated my CW to the net control and we had a three way contact.
At this point the girls declared we had to head home now that I had had my contact.
I was about to let out my public school vocabulary when I heard them say that they were hungry and there was lamb curry at home. The idea of getting back home and drying out, and eating the hot lamb curry and mangoes was too much for me. We folded up. But the mast refused to collapse. The curious fellow who had taken charge of the mast engineering had finally gotten hang of it. With superhuman strength, he had pulled the section of the mast out so tightly that no power on earth could potentially loosen them. I decided to trick the mast into thinking that we wanted it to stay up, so we put it back up vertically and slammed it into the ground. It dutifully woke up and demonstrated the much vaunted ability to fit back into a 5 feet tube.
I looked into the darkness to find the EFHW winder but I couldn't locate it. The curious fellow had left, scared by the racket the radio was making. The cow and the calf had gone home. We too headed back home.
In the picture, you can see Rayyan standing while I am checking into AIR net. In the background is the SUV with spiderbeam fiber mast that is easy to carry in a 5 feet size.
73, de Farhan VU2ESE with a little help from my friends and family.
Someone mentioned on Facebook that these worked great for them.
Personal neck fans - I have to tell you, anything that would have helped beat the heat would have been nice. The temps were in the 90s with the Temperature Humidity Index over 100F. I am going to purchase one of thee for myself sometime before next Field Day. (Of course, once I do so, that will GUARANTEE that next year, Field Day will be chillier than normal! Just like buying a snowblower insures a snow-less Winter!)
And one of these might have been nice - an electric bug zapper.
We were overrun by beetles during the overnight. I thought they were Japanese beetles as that's what they looked like to me, but I was told they were not. But whatever type of beetle they were, they were pesky little varmints. And they were getting into everything! A few flew into my hair, a couple more down my shirt. Ugh. If you were drinking anything from an open cup, you always had to take a look before taking a sip. Yuck.
Maybe spraying the area with one of those commercial yard foggers before we set up might help, too. The heavy rain we experienced kept the mosquitoes at bay, but the beetles were something else, again. I had forgotten about those little devils from previous Field Days. They made a nuisance of themselves at Putnam Park, too.
Both of the area clubs either canceled or sharply curtailed their Field Day activities when faced with harsh thunderstorms which dropped nearly five inches of rain, causing flooding and spawning at least six tornados in Wisconsin. As the stream between my house and my workshop hamshack flooded the roads to the hamshack, I decided it […]
Before I begin, some sights from SPARC Field Day 2024, I provided some sounds on the previous post:
Dave KD2FSI setting up the 6 Meter antenna and VHF/UHF Antennas.
We were visited by Councilman Derryck White. That's Bill W2AOF, the Councilman, Tim AB2ZK behind him and Marv K2VHW to the right.
Marty WB2BEW hard at work making SSB contacts.
Dave KD2FSI making FT8 contacts and Dave was also our GOTA Coach.
KD2FSI and K2VHW burning the Midnight oil.
A panoramic shot of Spring Lake Park and our Field Day site courtesy of Mario KD2HPF
The anniversary banner proudly displayed. Photo by KD2HPF
Harry KC2PGX playing with lemons - more about that below. Photo by KD2HPF.
And there was cake!
So where does one begin? We'll start by a brief weather report. It was hot, hot, HOT! The heat and humidity and thunderstorms made this Field Day an extra effort this year, but it turned out to be worth it. Set up and tear down were not complicated by rain, but working in the hot sun takes its toll, especially when you're not a spring chicken anymore!
Despite the weather, this was perhaps our best Field day effort ever. We had a lot of visitors, and the educational activity with the kids was a success - at least IMHO. We had five kids show up and we explained what batteries were and how they worked. Then the kids were each given a lemon, some copper and zinc coated nails and a cheapie Harbor Freight VOM. The got to see their lemons actually produced voltage from anywhere from 0.8 V to a little over a Volt. And we all found out together, courtesy of Harry KC2PGX, that it takes six lemons connected in series to light up a 2 Volt LED.
After the educational activity, there was pizza and cake. That, of course was more satisfying and welcome than the educational activity, but the kids and their parents or grandparents left happy, I think.
We also had a few non-member Hams show up to guest operate and the kids who came for the educational activity attempted to make contacts on the GOTA station, thanks to the watchful eye and coaching of Dave KD2FSI.
Because of the educational activity and the thunderstorms, there might be fewer QSOs in the log this year. We had to shut down and disconnect antennas three times during the event. The thunderstorms were pretty intense with some pretty close lightning strikes. Marb K2VHW was keeping an eye on that via https://map.blitzortung.org/ In all we may have lost a good two or three hours of operating time.
But the time we were able to spend on the bands was time well spent. There was a ton of activity and we were making contacts right up until around 1:00 PM on Sunday when it seemed that activity was significantly slowing down and we decided to pack it in.
From the top of my foggy head, I believe we made 230 CW contacts, 97 FT8 contacts and about 75 or so SSB contacts - all at 5 Watts, all done on battery powered transceivers. The two MFJ end feds once again did an outstanding job for us. Great results with a minimum of hassle in time and effort to spend setting them up and stowing them away. And Ol'' Sol behaved this weekend! No solar flares or Coronal Mass Ejections to ruin the weekend with HF blackouts.
The core group of SPARC members did an outstanding job of pulling Field Day 2024 off. I'm proud and honored to be a member of that core group. And publicly, I would like to state that it was another honor and pleasure to be partnered up with Marv K2VHW as the primary CW ops. Marv is by far the best CW op that I know. I'm nowhere close to being in his league and I appreciate being teamed up with him.
Before I close - a disclaimer. Please excuse any typos or other goofs I may have made in this post. My brain is still in a fog from the spending the majority of the weekend without sleep. I don't think I've messed up too badly.
Both of the area clubs either canceled or sharply curtailed their Field Day activities when faced with harsh thunderstorms which dropped nearly five inches of rain, causing flooding and spawning at least six tornados in Wisconsin. As the stream between my house and my workshop hamshack flooded the roads to the hamshack, I decided it… Continue reading Washed Out Field Day
I’m currently out in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area for a week of house and puppy sitting for my daughter. My companion for the week is a five-year-old German Shepherd named Belle, who was adopted by my daughter and her family nine months ago. She’s a sweet dog, but she sometimes has some separation anxiety. So, I’m making sure my ham radio activities are short and close to home.
The first two days of my puppy sitting duty coincided with this year’s Field Day, so I did a little “backyard-portable” operating as category 1B. In my nearly 50 years of ham radio, this was my first-ever Field Day using my own callsign.
My plan was simply to set up an antenna in the backyard and make a few contacts each day. The weatherman was calling for dangerously hot temperatures over the weekend, but there’s a section of the yard that has some shade for most of the day.
Yours truly operating backyard-portable (Photo by my (far) better half)
My (far) better half came out for the weekend. While I was surveying the backyard trying to determine what antenna to use, she suggested strapping “that fishing pole antenna” (aka Jackite pole) to my grandson’s basketball pole. Great idea! So, I strapped my 31-foot Jackite pole to the pole and used a 29-foot wire and my weather-resistant 9:1 UnUn. I ran 18-feet of RG-8x over to the two chairs that served as my makeshift operating position. My rig was an Elecraft KX3 (5 watts, CW) powered by a 6 Ah LiFePO4 battery.
My Jackite pole strapped to my grandson’s basketball pole. (Photo by my (far) better half)
I started off logging contacts in HAMRS on my cell phone. That lasted for about two contacts before I switched to paper logging. I wanted to keep things simple and forgo using my laptop, so paper logging was just easier for me than using my cell phone.
My minimalist setup. I opted to keep things simple this year.
With temperatures in the high 90s (F), I only stayed out there for two brief sessions on Saturday. When a strong thunderstorm blew through, I called it a day.
My Field Day Security Officer
After breakfast Sunday morning, I went back out to make a few more contacts before the weather heated up again. When I called it quits, I had 62 CW contacts in the log, including one DX station (France).
My three hour effort didn’t break any records, but it was fun. I just wish the weather had been cooler, and I could have done without the thunderstorm.
Field Day 2024 will be starting in 3 hours. In previous posts I had mentioned that I was either going to be operating as a 1B station or a 1D stations depending on the weather. “Mother Nature” helped me make the choiceand its not nice (or smart) to argue with Mother.
The choice is “1D” and if you read the following from The Weather Network you will see why.
Kingston, ON
Special Weather Statement
Issued at Sat 8:59 AM Jun. 22
Issued by: Environment and Climate Change Canada
Description: Significant rainfall possible this afternoon into Sunday.
Hazard: Rainfall amounts of 30 to 50 mm. Locally higher amounts possible.
Timing: This afternoon into Sunday.
Discussion: The potential exists for multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon into Sunday. Local amounts exceeding 50 mm are possible. A rainfall warning may be required for some areas.
For information concerning flooding, please consult your local Conservation Authority or Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry office. Visit Ontario.ca/floods for the latest details.
Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads.
Watch for possible washouts near rivers, creeks and culverts.
###
So there you have it….
Setting up in a Park to operate 1B in a Monsoon is one way to ruin my almost new FT891 seeing that as a general rule they don’t like water.
And to be honest it would not be fun for me either.
I still will be participating and hope to give out the rare exchange of 1D ONE to as many stations I can contact during the event. At home I have the chance to operate VHF, 6m, and the HF Bands that the Field Day rules allow.
Field Day 2024 will be starting in 3 hours. In previous posts I had mentioned that I was either going to be operating as a 1B station or a 1D stations depending on the weather. “Mother Nature” helped me make the choiceand its not nice (or smart) to argue with Mother.
The choice is “1D” and if you read the following from The Weather Network you will see why.
Kingston, ON
Special Weather Statement
Issued at Sat 8:59 AM Jun. 22
Issued by: Environment and Climate Change Canada
Description: Significant rainfall possible this afternoon into Sunday.
Hazard: Rainfall amounts of 30 to 50 mm. Locally higher amounts possible.
Timing: This afternoon into Sunday.
Discussion: The potential exists for multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon into Sunday. Local amounts exceeding 50 mm are possible. A rainfall warning may be required for some areas.
For information concerning flooding, please consult your local Conservation Authority or Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry office. Visit Ontario.ca/floods for the latest details.
Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads.
Watch for possible washouts near rivers, creeks and culverts.
###
So there you have it….
Setting up in a Park to operate 1B in a Monsoon is one way to ruin my almost new FT891 seeing that as a general rule they don’t like water.
And to be honest it would not be fun for me either.
I still will be participating and hope to give out the rare exchange of 1D ONE to as many stations I can contact during the event. At home I have the chance to operate VHF, 6m, and the HF Bands that the Field Day rules allow.
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