Field Day 2015

[W1CTN]

To all involved,
I was there Saturday night and observed the problems John outlined.

From what I saw in the log, and experienced while operating, phone operation was a waste of time with the level of interstation interference encountered.

AF interference is easily cured.


a. Quality boom headsets need to be used by all phone operators.
No exception. With quality headsets outside noise disappears.

b. Quality boom headsets, when used with a properly adjusted phone rig, will result in a signal with no background noise transmitted.

Desk mics and speakers have no place during an operating event or contest. They just contribute to the AF interference.

If someone wants to hear what's going on, have them plug in, using the headphone box John B. described, an additional "guest" set of headphones.

I still cannot wrap my head around the concept of a "logger".
That went out with paper dupe sheets. The "on deck" operator needs to log his or her contacts, it's easier.

RF interstation interference is also easily cured.

The combination of band pass filtering, stubs and proper antenna engineering will eliminate interstation interference.
It is imperative that all three segments of this equation be followed for this solution to work.

For EACH station
1. A quality bandpass filer, W3NQN type
2. George's stubs
3. A resonant antenna

This combo will make interstation interference a bad memory.

But, leave one item out or use a $3.00 antenna pressed into multiband service and you have just wasted your money and the operators time. Plus your rig's front end is fried.

I do disagree that there is cheap solution.

Quality filtering, with proper decoders and quality headsets are not a kings ransom but they are not cheap.

I've done all this before at multi-op/transmitter contest stations I'm affiliated with and it works, but it's just my .02 cents.

73 Dave
W1CTN
Radio Ansonia