Tagged: Field day
- This topic has 53 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 8 months ago by Charles Penry.
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June 5, 2022 at 10:57 pm #2379Erica MuellerKeymaster
Field Day Plan and a couple of questions?
I plan on being at field day for most of Saturday. I don’t think I will be available Sunday. I am bringing the IC-7300 (unless I change my mind to the Yaesu). I haven’t fully decided on an antenna yet. I’m going to play around with some configurations over the coming weeks. Which means, when we get to field day….I’ll wing it and see what happens. It will be some sort of wire (random, EFHW, Dipole). I do plan on having one that works on that day, but no promises. I’ll just be set up on a table. I would like to be somewhere on the South side by the trees, but I’m easy. If someone else wants that spot, I’ll move to an available space.
Are we going to have the N3FJP logging setup again this year?
Are we going to have access to band pass filters?
Do we want to have a meeting or net dedicated to field day a week before the event? Daytime or evening?
Are we W4W again?
Mark W5PTX
June 6, 2022 at 5:04 pm #2381Erica MuellerKeymasterWho do I talk to for a gressy area? I would like to set up on the grass. I was told I could set up over to the right where I tried to set up 2 years ago.
June 6, 2022 at 7:24 pm #2382Erica MuellerKeymasterWho do I talk to for a grassy
area? I would like to set up on the grass. I was told I could set up over to the right where I tried to set up 2 years ago.
June 6, 2022 at 8:05 pm #2385Charles PenryParticipantMark,
Great that you are coming out and bringing a station!
“I would like to be somewhere on the South side by the trees…”. If you mean over on the side the street that comes in from South Collegiate there are power lines between the pavillion and the trees, see the picture. You might want to go by and take a look.
“Are we going to have the N3FJP logging setup again this year?” I am planning on bringing a few laptops, a wifi router and the software on a thumb drive. The software can be put on a windows computer if you want to use your own.
“Are we going to have access to band pass filters?” I am planning on bringing the bandpass filters and the tennis ball flags.
“Are we W4W again?” I don’t know, I haven’t been told.
June 6, 2022 at 8:19 pm #2386Charles PenryParticipantChris,
I think you should try to park in the location I marked in the picture here.
Are you going to park your vehicle and shut off the engine and just use it as your antenna while you operate from a table under the pavillion? I think that is what you had for a setup last year.
June 6, 2022 at 8:50 pm #2387Erica MuellerKeymasterCharles,
I finally, actually, read some of the rules. I am not eligible to operate a GOTA station. Providing my 991a actually shows up from repair I can bring one and set it up. Then, I could show anyone that meet the criteria how to run it (probably poorly, but we could make a few contacts).
I have come across another issue for me. I do not have a generator. Will we have enough out there to run a GOTA, and can I leech off of someone to run my 7300?
Also, stupid power lines. I’ll go back out and rethink the situation. I will need some guidance that day to see what we can come up with. Just something that will make contacts.
June 6, 2022 at 9:02 pm #2388Charles PenryParticipantMark,
There should be plenty of generator power, Phillip will be there with his RV and its big generator and I will bring my smaller one. You will need an AC to DC power supply.
Call me at 443-447-6676 if you want to talk antennas, quicker ideas than typing.
June 7, 2022 at 6:00 am #2391George HanekeMemberI would like to try to get up on FT8 using a cobweb antenna mounted about twenty feet over my trailer outside the pavilion. Just need to be close enough to hook into power. This will take a little patience on my part. Plan on bring an antenna for 6M and VHF/UHF. I should pose no threat of interference as the power is low and way down the band.
FYI – I AM AND HAVE BEEN AN EXTRA FOR ALMOST 25 YEARS. WHEN I AM ON SITE ALL OPERATORS MAY USE THE EXTRA BANDS BY JUST LETTING ME KNOW.
June 7, 2022 at 6:08 am #2392George HanekeMemberHere is something I did not know:
Q. We will be using a special 1 by 1 callsign for Field Day. Is there anything special we must do?
A. Yes, at least once per hour each station using the special call must also ID with the FCC-issued station call. (97.119(d)). For more information on 1×1 callsigns see http://www.1x1callsigns.org/
June 7, 2022 at 6:27 am #2393George HanekeMemberHere is something I did not know:
Q. We will be using a special 1 by 1 callsign for Field Day. Is there anything special we must do?
A. Yes, at least once per hour each station using the special call must also ID with the FCC-issued station call. (97.119(d)). For more information on 1×1 callsigns see http://www.1x1callsigns.org/
Mark, why can’t you be a GOTA station?
Charles, Please sketch me in with van just under cover and 18″ trailer just to the left of Chris and on the other side of the concrete walkway ( about where that white car is located).
June 7, 2022 at 7:18 am #2394Phillip BeallKeymasterCharles,
At the board of directors (BOD) meeting Saturday I learned that you have stepped up to help with Field Day activities that Jim cannot do reference his health issues. Thank you for that.
To the question of the W4W call sign – Yes, our 1×1 is W4W again this year.
I reached out to Ronnie Rumsey because I had not seen him for a couple of months. I learned that he recently had emergency open heart surgery and five bypasses. He plans to be at FD for part of the day Saturday, but he will not be there for the duration this year.
I believe our 7.5kw RV generator will supply adequate power for the radios that will be used at the event, but I may still trailer our 10kw generator just in case.
Mark Johnson (W5PTX) was planning to man a GOTA station for much of Saturday, but not for the entire event. Reference his remark that he can’t do a GOTA and George’s follow up I am not sure what we may be doing in that regard, but even if not a full-fledged GOTA Mark can still be the guy we ask to specifically interact with people that come up and ask what we are doing.
I have emailed Thomas Sorensen (AF5WO) to see if he plans to be there. No reply so far. He too is an Extra and he was there for a good bit of the time last year. Since he is an Extra and George is planning to be there and he is an Extra we have coverage for people who want to operate. Again, I have not seen him at the last several meetings so I will text and then call if I don’t get a reply and see if he will be there.
Jim Clark had the idea to have an table set up with a map that we could mark showing where participants had made contact and a single 100 watt light bulb in a fixture to illustrate how little power was being used to make those contacts. I think it is a great idea and hope Jim can still implement it.
I am going to see if we can get a simple RSVP again operational so that we can see about BBQ for early afternoon lunch on Saturday, then order pizza Saturday night with the order dictated by the number still on hand. Then on Sunday morning (with Aunt Mary’s closed) I am exploring options for breakfast sandwiches or something similar. Maybe Whataburger or maybe Sunriser will make breakfast burritos for us. More on that later.
I need to get a picture of our Love Civic Center Pavilion paperwork from George to make sure we have it on hand. This is a reminder more than anything.
We need to come up with a comprehensive list of media that we want to reach out to and perhaps coordinate a specific time for them to send a representative if they wish. Danial is the media coordinator so I don’t want to step on his toes, but I did want to at least mention it. I extended an invitation to KXII station management last year and we did not even get the courtesy of a reply. The Paris News sent a young lady out, but her timing was poor as we were just setting up. So I am thinking we advertise for media to come during a window of 1500-1700, which seems to me to be kind of the sweet spot. Lots of people still there and we are fully operational by then. Anybody have any thoughts for us there?
To everyone – Shall we invite local dignitaries? That is a points add on. If so, who? The mayor? Police chief? In an email exchange Jerry Keisler said “Randy Tuttle, Assistant Police Chief is the emergency manager for city of Paris. And in charge of the EOC. We need to invite him.” Who do we have do that notice? And do we want to maybe do the same time as the media invite?
ARRL has a “Field Day site locator page“. I have added us to that page. Because I did not have permission to use Danial’s or Charles’s cell phone numbers I listed myself, but I will happily edit the listing to change it to one of you guys. Please just let me know. I added a forwarder email address (field-day@wb5rdd.org) to our email account and it will forward to me, Danial and Charles. I will add anyone else to that forwarder list if names are supplied to me.
Finally, here is the link to the 2022 ARRL Field Day Guide so that nobody has to tear theirs out of QST.
If anyone else has anything to add please reply with whatever is on your mind.
Kathy and I are excited to see everyone there!
Phillip
- This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by Phillip Beall. Reason: Added W4W call sign answer
June 7, 2022 at 3:44 pm #2396Erica MuellerKeymasterThe GOTA station must be operated by someone that has been licensed since the last field day or a generally inactive ham or non-licensed person. The GOTA rules are in section 4 of the field day 2022 rules.
Also, it must use a different callsign. Can we use WB5RDD for this station? A list of operators must be kept for this station and sent in. I will bring a 991a and set it up for GOTA. Hopefully we can get some people excited about making some contacts. There is a bonus point structure for this station. I, or anyone else that wants to, can be the GOTA coach.
I’m also going to bring a station that I can operate freely. It will count toward the transmitter total. I am an extra, so we should be good on all bands.
Section 7.3 lists all of the bonus points. There are some that might be easy. Inviting an elected official is one, and inviting a rep from an agency is another. Just for fun, we should figure out how to get a radiogram to Steve KG5VK to bug him a little bit and collect bonus points.
June 7, 2022 at 10:27 pm #2399Charles PenryParticipantBelow is a pictorial of the current proposed layout, with George’s trailer added. Please let me know what you think, any suggestions/corrections.
I have been wanting a relatively small HF vertical base station antenna and I bought a used one today, a MFJ-1796 that works on 2 (yes!) through 40 meters less the WARC bands.
Mark,
If you want to use this antenna I can bring out 4 sections of some military camouflage masts I have along with some guy ropes and stakes and we can put it up some 15 feet in the air. You could also run the far end of your end fed wire to the pole from the pavilion for the GOTA station. We can talk about this on Thursday.
George,
With your Cobweb antenna I presume you are operating VHF and HF? With the bandpass filters we can hopefully stay out of each other’s receivers.
Thanks,
Charles WA5VHU
June 8, 2022 at 2:13 pm #2446Phillip BeallKeymasterAll,
For anyone interested in helping Danial Beard out with public relations, advertising by word of mouth, whatever, here (2022 ARRL FIELD DAY – JUNE 25-26 PUBLIC RELATIONS KIT) is a PDF you can download, read, print out, etc., and use in support of his efforts to increase our exposure.
Take care,
Phillip
June 8, 2022 at 7:55 pm #2909Danial BeardParticipantHmmm.
Feedback welcome.
What do you all think of this for a fast and dirty PSA?
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Nobody wants it, few people expect it, and even fewer are ready for it when disaster strikes. When the lights go out, lines go down, the internet gets pooched, and cellphone service is graveyard dead, what happens then? How do you communicate?
There are some people right here in your own community who not only expect it, but are planning for it. Among those, Amateur radio operators.
They build, they plan, they organize the right skills and gear, and once a year, they jerk the plug out of the wall, drag it all out in the open, and smoke test their ability to communicate under harsh field conditions.
They call it, Field Day” and it’s happening again this year at the Love Civic Center Pavilion on June 25th and 26th. The public is welcome and encouraged to come observe the antics, and if you would like, actually get on the air using an amateur radio station.
Information about getting your own “ham” radio license will be available on location.
So, come along and have a look and join the fun.
That’s June 25~26, at the Love Civic Center pavilion.
See you there!
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