Ham Radio . Magnum Experimentum
Antennas, experiments, engineering and other articles of interest to radio folks.
Articles referencing the June ARRL Field Day.
Here is a video of a Virginia amateur radio group passing field day bonus point messages off site using packet radio.
Using the ARRL field day test message to compare RTTY, PSK and MFSK digital modes.
Despite a weak battery and few contacts, our 1B-Battery effort verifies a 40m small-loop and packet-radio NTS messaging using quick deploy antennas.
Shown is a better configuration to fasten a choke to the Asymmetrical Hatted Vertical Dipole antenna.
Yet another 40m Cloud Burner design featuring a folded dipole driven element plus one reflector wire to facilitate 40m NVIS contacts without need of a tall mast. The design uses electric fence posts for support and needs no balun.
Even a 1B ARRL Field Day Station offers visitors a rare glimpse into Amateur Radio.
Learn from our six successful years rolling out a computer network for the ARRL Field Day. Tips, techniques, dos and don’ts are among the highlights.
This year our club ran 3A for the ARRL Field Day.
Radios included an Icom IC-756 Pro, TenTec Omni VII, Icom IC-746 (for the GOTA) and a Icom 7000 for VHF plus HF spare. All these radios performed quite well despite the high temperatures.
The 100 Watt Elecraft K2 stood above the others not necessarily on performance, but the elegant way the radio’s owner configured his K2, 100 Watt Amplifier and 100 Watt Matcher.
The Field Day Broadband G3TXQ Hex Beam works Hawaii from Virginia during Field Day.
Well Field Day 2010 all started to come together pretty well. I put all the drinks and heavy items in the front to ensure good positive tongue weight. Pre-positioned the radio on that beautiful desk. Loaded up several antennas. Three masts plus stakes, etc. I even managed to figure out how to get my hex beam in there with a minimum of dis-assembly. It is quite a mess. I am sooo glad I selected that slinky wire that does not kink.
Here is a picture.
ADIF mode attribute lacks ARRL Field Day exchange values making ADIF and Field Day incompatible by definition.
Our Field Day in Virginia was pretty decent this year. We had plenty of visitors responding to our newspaper notice. Several folks took a turn at the Get On The Air (GOTA) station.
However, we always forget some obvious items every year.
The lessons learned from sunshine related issues are obvious. We forgot ways to shade them again this year because we got so busy with other preparation details.
Here are a few lessons learned from our Field Day written in the form of system requirements.
Here is a network tip to make your wireless 802.11 Field Day network more robust.
If you are like many ARRL Field Day operations you have a Get On The Air (GOTA) station for guests.
We have done this every year I have been involved with my club’s Field Day and have had mostly good results. We usually have one Boy Scout troop stop by and make a few QSOs each. Also some technicians in our club like to operate the station during the late hours to get a chance to do SSB HF (yes we always have a control operator with valid privileges). Also it seems every year a new ham really enjoys the simplicity of the GOTA station without the concern over band sharing the other stations deal with.
Every year our GOTA is set up pretty much the same…
Last year I posted observations about what the youth seem to enjoy most about our Field Day 2008…
Avoid the ARRL Field Day Deer-Fever
Bonus points are important for the annual ARRL Field Day event in June.
If you are thinking of participating in your local club’s Field Day festivities or are heading to the campground with your family for a Bravo station, bonus points are available.
One of my favorites is the Alternate Power Field Day bonus.
To quote the ARRL Field Day rules for 2009…
Use 802.11 in your Field Day network for flexible multi-mode success.
During Field Day 2008 we carefully observed what operating modes the young teens did and did not enjoy while they operated. Without a doubt the digital modes, especially PSK31, got their attention.
The older of the two, KJ4FAJ, in the picture above said this when he made his first PSK31 contact just after midnight during Field Day…
An old Johnson Kilowatt Matchbox worked perfectly with a 135 foot ladder fed antenna at Field Day 2008.
Field Day 2008 was great for us. Our wide area wireless network worked pretty well and every station could monitor progress of the whole group.
This year we extensively used the “operator initials” field in the N3FJP Field Day Network 2.8 logging software package. Operators used their call-sign as their ‘initials’ while honored guests used their actual initials.
The site-wide log offered many great analysis possibilities. One particularly interesting metric we tracked this year was QSO rates. We generated graphs of QSO totals vs. Time Between QSOs. Here is an example of the entire log…
The manual for the Honda EU2000 clearly states this, but you need to be sure you adjust that little circular knob on the Fuel Cap to the operating position or the generator will certainly quit after a few minutes operation.
