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Field Day 2014
#1
This year we will be running 2A again. There will be three areas set up with radios. One tent will house the HF-CW crew. Another will house the HF-SSB crew. and the GOTA station will be set up in the pavilion for public and demos.

If anyone has any questions . reply here.

Get in touch with Bill, W1KKF for an operating time slot for CW. We are still looking for someone to head up the SSB tent operation. Reply here.

- WA1TRY
Rich - WA1TRY 
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#2
Hey Rich,

I believe it was also decided to setup a VHF/UHF station which would not be included in our official transmitter count.

I am planning to be there for setup on Friday and campout over the weekend. I'm happy to help coordinate the SSB tent, but would prefer to have a more experienced elmer around considering its my first field day. Also, I'll have to leave early Sunday morning for church services, but can be there for most of the event.

73,
Joe Hamm
KC1BAQ

(04-10-2014, 11:23 PM)WA1TRY Wrote: This year we will be running 2A again. There will be three areas set up with radios. One tent will house the HF-CW crew. Another will house the HF-SSB crew. and the GOTA station will be set up in the pavilion for public and demos.

If anyone has any questions . reply here.

Get in touch with Bill, W1KKF for an operating time slot for CW. We are still looking for someone to head up the SSB tent operation. Reply here.

- WA1TRY
Reply
#3
Hi Joe,

Sounds like a plan. The only problem with the VHF operation is that it's a lot of work for a small return. To be successful we need at least 2 meter and 6 meter SSB. We have a couple small beams we can put up. But the club doesn't own any 2 meter ssb transceivers. The biggest QSO count could be 6 meters if the band opens.

Let's put the call out to see if anyone has one of those small all band 100 watt transceivers that can run HF VHF and UHF. Like an FT- 857 .. small and powerful .. easy to use and it'll do everything.

One thing we did in past years was to set up the biggest tent and let that house both the VHF station and the HF SSB. Put each station at opposite ends of the tent and let the ops use headphones. We can then share the same electricity, lights etc. and ops could switch back and forth between the stations.

We have antennas .. etc. but need one more rig that will work on 6 and 2.

How about it guys? Anyone have a rig to loan for FD VHF ??

- Rich
Rich - WA1TRY 
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#4
John Yusza, K1LYP, said that he was very interested in operating the VHF/UHF station and indicated that he had some equipment he could bring. I think he would be a good person to speak with concerning a transceiver.

73,
Joe

(04-11-2014, 12:02 AM)KC1BAQ Wrote: Hey Rich,

I believe it was also decided to setup a VHF/UHF station which would not be included in our official transmitter count.

I am planning to be there for setup on Friday and campout over the weekend. I'm happy to help coordinate the SSB tent, but would prefer to have a more experienced elmer around considering its my first field day. Also, I'll have to leave early Sunday morning for church services, but can be there for most of the event.

73,
Joe Hamm
KC1BAQ

(04-10-2014, 11:23 PM)WA1TRY Wrote: This year we will be running 2A again. There will be three areas set up with radios. One tent will house the HF-CW crew. Another will house the HF-SSB crew. and the GOTA station will be set up in the pavilion for public and demos.

If anyone has any questions . reply here.

Get in touch with Bill, W1KKF for an operating time slot for CW. We are still looking for someone to head up the SSB tent operation. Reply here.

- WA1TRY
Reply
#5
From past experience; yes the VHF/UHF can work in the same tent as SSB, of course headphones are almost required. The IC-706MkII and FT-857 work great for this kind of op.

You only need to worry about 2 and 6 meters, I think we only got about 5 Qs total on 440 in a dozen years, mostly SSB on 144.200-144.275 and 50.125 - 50.300 -- people usually stay close to the national calling frequencies.

Activity usually runs 14:00 to about 20:30 on Saturday and about 07:30 to 14:00 on Sunday. Sunday there are a lot of casual class D & class E users, be ready to know the difference as they may not be sure. Saturday will be most of your available FD VHF/UHF stations with a mix of seek & pounce and calling CQ FD on a frequency - alternate it. There is a bit of CW, not much, you may find some early Sunday say 06:00 to 07:30. Of course, if the bands open all hell will break loose. Don't be shocked with a report of W6ZZZ 2A LAX - yes I've seen it
GL Dan W1DMM

The VHF 2 meter station can be used to send the FD message to the GOTA station for the 100 point bonus (Yup that is legal, we checked it out a few years ago).
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#6
If 6m opens you can have a ball. I have a portable setup that we can use for holding up antennas. The club has a 4 element 6 meter beam and a 4 element 2 beam. We can stack them and with three sand bags and my mini-tripod thingy we should be able to get them up about 20 or more feet. That would work fine. Maybe we can even dust off the old rotater and use that. All we need would be one of those small 100 watt rigs that Dan suggested.

What does John, K1LYP, have for rigs?

- Rich

(04-20-2014, 09:57 PM)W1DMM Wrote: From past experience; yes the VHF/UHF can work in the same tent as SSB, of course headphones are almost required. The IC-706MkII and FT-857 work great for this kind of op.

You only need to worry about 2 and 6 meters, I think we only got about 5 Qs total on 440 in a dozen years, mostly SSB on 144.200-144.275 and 50.125 - 50.300 -- people usually stay close to the national calling frequencies.

Activity usually runs 14:00 to about 20:30 on Saturday and about 07:30 to 14:00 on Sunday. Sunday there are a lot of casual class D & class E users, be ready to know the difference as they may not be sure. Saturday will be most of your available FD VHF/UHF stations with a mix of seek & pounce and calling CQ FD on a frequency - alternate it. There is a bit of CW, not much, you may find some early Sunday say 06:00 to 07:30. Of course, if the bands open all hell will break loose. Don't be shocked with a report of W6ZZZ 2A LAX - yes I've seen it
GL Dan W1DMM

The VHF 2 meter station can be used to send the FD message to the GOTA station for the 100 point bonus (Yup that is legal, we checked it out a few years ago).
Rich - WA1TRY 
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#7
Anyone in The Club ever run 2M/440 Horizontal with an amp?
K1RCT - Rob
W1NRG Station Activities Manager
Home Email

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#8
(06-05-2014, 08:11 PM)KC1ACN Wrote: Anyone in The Club ever run 2M/440 Horizontal with an amp?

Directional antennas generally don't work well for VHF on Field day. In the past we put up some "serious" 6m and 2m yagis.

We used to have a 30 foot tower mounted to the back of the town truck. Then we had a wide spaced 6m yagi 28 foot boom. Yes it was gigantic. On top of that was another wide spaced 2m beam. I think I have some pictures around here somewhere and will post them later. We had them setup with a rotor and even when we had the station manned 24/7 the contacts were minimal. The problem was that the beam had a LOT of gain, but was very narrow. If we were a few degrees off the station we had trouble. At times the band was wide open and we didn't know it because the beam was pointed the wrong way.

A few years later I decided to put up an experimental horizontally polarized omni-directional 6m antenna. This antenna had a perfect radiation pattern in all directions, and had a little over 6 db gain. It was a weird looking thing. But in theory it should have three times the gain of a halo.

We put it up about 20 feet and when the band opened "no matter what direction the skip was coming" .. we had Q5 QSOs .. Even though the station was not even fully manned, we broke a record for 6m contacts for our club that year.

After packing stuff up at the end of FD, I somehow managed to dump a bunch of stuff in the truck on top of the antenna and bent and broke it pretty badly. It was a bear to tune up but once it was tuned it was fantastic.

Lesson learned ... even a good omni-directional horizontal 6m antenna will work better than a super YAGI for FD.

Look into Squalo's or stacked Halo's for both 6 and 2m. You'll work a LOT more stations.

73, Rich WA1TRY
Rich - WA1TRY 
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#9
Thanks Rich. Will do.

I plan on being there for FD this year to assist, help out, make contacts and learn.
Not necessarily in that order hi hi.
K1RCT - Rob
W1NRG Station Activities Manager
Home Email

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#10
We had our business meeting tonight and of course the biggest topic was Field Day. Club Pres. Jim, N1ZN led the discussion and various things were brought up. I will be working with Jim and the rest of the club to sort of over-see what is going on .. and try to help answer questions and mostly do some organizing.

So far we have three stations (tents) Each has a guy in charge of his station as follows:

HF CW: Bill W1KKF
HF SSB Jim N1ZN
VHF SSB: John K1YLP and Joe KC1BAQ

If you want to volunteer to help out with any specific station or want to sign up for operating times contact those "tent bosses" or leave a reply to this message.

Also I'm happy to announce that our chef extraordinaire N1GNV will once again handle the food concession.

Here is the list of vols we have to date: If your call isn't listed, reply to this message and tell us where you want to help. I will update this list here from your reply. Tent bosses keep an eye on this post for new updates.

We always need help Thursday night before FD (to load the trucks) Then Friday after 2PM to help set up. Then Saturday morning to get everything working. And of course after 2PM Sunday to help tear down.

Here's the current running list: (let me know if I've missed anyone)
-------------------- Helpers / Ops ----------------------------------

K1LYP (VHF tent boss)
KC1BAQ (VHF tent help, pre-field day setup etc.
N1ZN (SSB tent boss, and over-all boss of everything <grin>)
W1KKF (CW tent boss and HF antennas)
KB1HCC (over-all pre-FD set up, transport of equipment etc.)
WA1TRY (Over-seeing and putting out fires)
KC1ACN (setup and operating and general help)
N1API (Help TRY with equipment and computers and pre-FD stuff)
N1GNV (food)
W1CTN (All day Saturday set up, operate SBB & VHF as needed)

Station operators set up to date
CW:
K1VDF
WY1U
W1KKF
WA1TRY
K1TG
K1SEZ
W1NHS

SSB
N1ZN

VHF
K1LYP
KC1BAQ

------------------------------------------------------------------

Important Times:

Thursday 26th. 7:30 PM Club activity meeting: Load the trucks (time permitting a short slide show of Field Days past.
Friday 27th 2:00 PM .. meet at Field site .. Setup antennas and tents
Saturday 28th 2:00 PM .. Field Day stations start operations
Sunday 29th 2:00 PM .. Field Day stations operating stops.
Sunday 29th 2:00 PM to 4 PM ... tear down, load trucks put away everything.

After Monday 30th .. get data tabulated .. and summary sheet ready to submit to ARRL. Inventory and check all club equipment. Get ready for Sweep Stakes ....

73, WA1TRY - Rich
Rich - WA1TRY 
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