CQ Field Day

I guess it isn't a contest, but are there any thrill seekers out there planning on a fun filled Field Day weekend next month?

I guess the rules look pretty much like last year.

http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2007/fd.html

I might try just going PSK31 on battery and see what happens.

[N2NKW]

I guess it isn't a contest, but are there any thrill seekers out there planning on a fun filled Field Day weekend next month?

I guess the rules look pretty much like last year.

http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2007/fd.html

I might try just going PSK31 on battery and see what happens.

I am thinking about it. My local club had a field day op last year but I didn't know it was there. I emailed the club several different times and have received no reply yet. I can't raise any of the members on the local repeater so I got no idea if it's gonna happen this year. I don't know if I want to do a solo entry this year or not. If I do get with the club and find out if they are doing FDS this year, the club call will be WD5IYF. If I work solo, I will be using N2NKW.

Hope to work you

Brian

[kb9rqz]

I guess it isn't a contest, but are there any thrill seekers out there planning on a fun filled Field Day weekend next month?

I guess the rules look pretty much like last year.

http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2007/fd.html

I might try just going PSK31 on battery and see what happens.

well CARS W8CDZ is doing FD I will be there as will my wife kd8ctl during the day I will be on ^m andmay try 2m EME or at least 2m Metorscatter as well as thinking about trying machine based CW as a larks likely on 15m at night planing on 40m ssb

[N2RJ]

I'm doing FD with our club.

I'll be at the CW table.

I like to see the interest. I guess I will try and do something this year.

I got totally hooked on FD when I was 18. They put me on CW when I was 19 and WA0AUQ was sending and I was logging and a super duper. No computers back then. No KA or AA calls either. Everything was W, WA, WB, K, and a few N's, so duping was not that horribly hard on paper. Oh yeah, there were VE's as well.

For days after FD, I remember hearing code as I tried to go to sleep.

I don't know what you would call the antenna, but it was like an inverted vee fed with balanced wire, and the tuner was a Drake. It seemed to work pretty well.

A buddy of mine in Chicagoland belongs to the W9TY FD club, and for years they were towards the top of the 1A class in the country. K9CJ loves CW. Claims he can't understand SSB. But he racks up a score on CW for FD. This last year the club went 2A, and they fell drastically in the ranks.

I have met one of the guys who belongs to the club that wins 1A battery every year. Out in California, they drive to the top of a mountain, set up a Yagi, pull a car battery, operate 5W from a Ten Tec I think they said, and kick butt.

I just enjoy making contacts. Not much, and I am happy.

I wish you all luck.

[rot]

I have to admit, I'm a little bit melancholy about FD this year. My old friend N2NFG went SK last summer. He used to be the biggest PITA on the planning side of it. Oh man we used to get pissed and want to bag the whole deal, then about 3 days before he would completely change...pump everybody up. Of course then we all scrambled to get stuff together and head to the lake. He loved cw and that Field Day...he made it a disaster then fun as hell. Always made my kid laugh. Gonna miss that.
Anyway, I'll probably just peck slow on the key at the house, but who knows right up to FD it could change...
I know you're out there Bob!
Have fun people.
rot

[N3ATS]

I will be sitting om my back deck in the sun (hopefully), drinking and playing radio.

[kf0rt]

Looks like I'll be doing a family Field Day with NTØP and WTØN (my brother and his son). They've got 7 acres on the edge of town and want to try the all-nighter deal. We weren't organized enough to find a good mountain location, so their "back yard" will do. Organization? We're just now getting around to it.

Goal is to have enough fun to want to do it again next year. My nephew is a relatively new ham (he's 16) and my brother tagged along on a few Field Days back when me and my buds were into it for the score. In 1974, we took 2nd place nationally in 2A as the Colorado Contest Conspiracy.

Lookin' forward to it. Listen for WTØN (nephew's call).

Bratwurst or burgers? :P

Maybe catch some of you in the VHF test this weekend, too.

P.S. Sorry to hear about your friend, Terry. Did a lot of contesting and hamstuff with my old bud Ed, WØLJF, who passed on over a decade ago now. I still miss him.

[KU4MY]

The current plan is to do as Steve is and that's to bring the FT-100D downstairs and hook her up to a battery. I may however, do the Anderson RC thing as N4AW or potentially N4MSG. Reason? Kathy is a general that has NEVER been on HF = MEGA points multiplier for the GOTA station. ;)

[kf0rt]

Plans progressing here... Word has it my bro ordered a 10x20' tent. Jeebus. Looks like I'm mostly in charge, though.

Was going to build a headphone splitter for 2-op stuff and ran into this:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/373745-REG/Behringer_MICROAMP_HA400_HA_400_Headphone_Amplifie r.html

Hard to resist for $20, so I bought one and it appears to work like a charm on the TS-570. I'll cut the wall-wart off the power cable and solder on some PowerPoles.

The big batteries are on the charger now. Gonna find out if I'm too old to pull an all-nighter. :shock:

[al2n]

I have been dissapointed with the local club on FD. They get all worked up in getting the perfect station for phone and then sit the digital folks way off in the back 40 with a poor setup to rot. This has led to some folks to going off on their own and having a picnic of their own.

I have viewed FD as a great way to get some public exposure, but folks up here want it to be an emergency excersize only and try and set up in out of the way locations to avoid RFI and people. Seems to me that in an emergency you would not be able to set up in an out of the way spot. You will be in the middle of God knows what with all kinds of stuff going on around you.

I tried hard to get the location changed to a more public spot and get a BBQ going to give out free hot dogs and such, but was told pretty much to shut up since I was new to ham radio and was not a professional engineer.

I have been dissapointed with the local club on FD. They get all worked up in getting the perfect station for phone and then sit the digital folks way off in the back 40 with a poor setup to rot. This has led to some folks to going off on their own and having a picnic of their own.

I have viewed FD as a great way to get some public exposure, but folks up here want it to be an emergency excersize only and try and set up in out of the way locations to avoid RFI and people. Seems to me that in an emergency you would not be able to set up in an out of the way spot. You will be in the middle of God knows what with all kinds of stuff going on around you.

I tried hard to get the location changed to a more public spot and get a BBQ going to give out free hot dogs and such, but was told pretty much to shut up since I was new to ham radio and was not a professional engineer.

FD is no big deal for Alaska. No multipliers, so not necessarily any big pileups?

[rot]

Well..Brother John from Warwick,NY is visiting for the weekend. We are probably going to hang in the radiobarn and throw out a contact or two in between reminiscing, shots of scotch, and cigars.
Probably not what the ARRL envisions of the event, but I don't see him that often.
Hope all has a fun FD!
rot

[kf0rt]

Well..Brother John from Warwick,NY is visiting for the weekend. We are probably going to hang in the radiobarn and throw out a contact or two in between reminiscing, shots of scotch, and cigars.
Probably not what the ARRL envisions of the event, but I don't see him that often.
Hope all has a fun FD!
rot

We used to have "Booze & Boogie" Field Days. Great times; even had t-shirts printed up -- "19xx ARA Booze & Boogie Field Day". Different color shirt every year. Today, it would probably be frowned upon that we had them printed in kids sizes, too. Jus' clean fun...

Anyone seen my 50' tape measure?

[N2RJ]

Our main CW guy is "sick like a dog."

So guess who'll be flying the CW flag?

I'm nervous. Nervous as hell.

[N3ATS]

I will be doing the PSK and phone thing on 20m. Though I ain't doing that emergency power BS. I will be dragging my radios out on the back deck, and sitting in the sunshine drinking Rum and Cokes.

[rot]

Our main CW guy is "sick like a dog."

So guess who'll be flying the CW flag?

I'm nervous. Nervous as hell.

This will be your moment in history.
Don't let us down.
The fate of the universe is counting on you.
Nopressurehavefun,NC
rot

[kf0rt]

Maybe catch you on CW, Ryan. Nothing to be afeard of.

Listen for WTØN -- if you hear us on CW, it'll be me cuz I'll be the only CW op there. My bro (NTØP) and nephew (WTØN) aren't CW ops and it's just us three. I'm hoping to catch some late-evening 40/80 stuff, maybe an all-nighter. First "real" FD I've attempted in about 25 years. Maybe I can talk my cute 12-year old niece into some air time.

Have tent, running 1A battery (generator only if needed).

[KU4MY]

Looks like the plan to hit the deck under battery power armed with the laptop, paddles, PSK31, FT-100D, Guinness, Rum and single malt are a go. I have been busy at work and doing fun things like a stress test after being awake for 29 hours and at work for over 13 of them and such as that so it's time for some fun.

Rob, Steve and the crew, I will be keeping an ear out for you guys and Ryan....... what call sign will you guys be operating with, assuming of course, you don't mind pounding a bit o brass with one of them thar pesky ferners that now lives in 4 land and most likely goes to family reunions to find dates. ;)

CQ MISFITS, CQ MISFITS, CQ MISFITS de KU4MY calling CQ MISFITS ONLY PSE K

[N2RJ]

I'll be with the club (Ramapo Mountain ARC) at the Ramapo fire tower in Ringwood.

Look for me on 40 and 20CW, SSB and PSK. The callsign is WA2SNA.

[nx6d]

Maybe catch you on CW, Ryan. Nothing to be afeard of.

Listen for WTØN -- if you hear us on CW, it'll be me cuz I'll be the only CW op there. My bro (NTØP) and nephew (WTØN) aren't CW ops and it's just us three. I'm hoping to catch some late-evening 40/80 stuff, maybe an all-nighter. First "real" FD I've attempted in about 25 years. Maybe I can talk my cute 12-year old niece into some air time.

Have tent, running 1A battery (generator only if needed).

Maybe I'll catch you on the air, like I did last year, Rob.

Won't be running N0BRC this year. Didn't feel like driving to Santa Rosa. Their score WILL decline! :(

Might be running W7VW, if I can find their field day location in Klamath Falls, OR. Otherwise, it's NX6D, 1D, SF.

[N9FE]

CQ FIELD DAY CQ FIELD DAY, just think how many time you have said that through the years, i will be running to 75-80 meter station after dark, W9EAU is the club call, i'm going to try to park somewhere around 3900 to 3915, but you know after dark the low bands are going to be a zoo, everyone have a great weekend,,,,,,,,,,

[N3ATS]

I am parked on 20M PSK right now. If any of you need PA or just wanna hook up on the air, gimme a call

[kc7jty]

I've got zero land on 28.4 right now 10:53 AM PDT. Just contacted ?call in Nebraska.

[kf0rt]

Had a good time, but man, I'm beat... Effin' hot all weekend -- in fact, the thermometer in the car was reading 108 degrees on the way home this afternoon (on the highway -- it wasn't really that hot). Sure felt good to have the A/C on and come home to a "cool" shower.

Our own little band of misfits did 305 QSO's in 21 hours as 1A -- not smokin' 'em, but it should keep us off the bottom rung of the results. Almoat all S&P. 47 states worked. Missed AK, ME, and I forget the other one. Amazed at how many think Field Day has "multipliers" for sections.

Shoulda worked more CW. Every time I took over and switched to the paddles, our Q rate went way up.

So, how'd everybody do?

[N2RJ]

Our field day was a bit of a disappointment but was good anyway.

Two of our good ops were MIA. One is on an extended work assignment overseas and another was ill.

Added to that the laptops we had set aside for FD just didn't work.

My personal laptop worked and had logging software on it so I logged with that. The rest of the guys logged with pen and paper. Pen and paper! I was surprised we didn't run spark.

Our brand new tent is awesome. Thanks to Amazon customers vote and some suckers who didn't redeem their coupons, I picked up a $150 tent for $60. Suckas!! 8 person tent with two rooms.

Personally I made 273 contacts. I would have made more but I had to run around help people and act as a control op since out of all of us, only 1-2 of us on site were Extra/General class.

I estimate the club made around 400-500 contacts or so. I have to tally it up.

Added to that there was no plan to operate. People just operated here and there. I frequently had to run around asking "who the heck just fired up PSK on 20?"

So, for next year, we are:

- Helping the remaining technicians upgrade. No code, no excuses.
- Getting better antennas. Wire only goes so far. I want at least one 3 element beam for 20m and a 4 element for 10m.
- Making sure we have working computers and logging software
- Making an operating PLAN with shifts so we have coverage throughout the entire event
- Scheduling regular morse practice sessions and encouraging members to use morse runner to practice. CW gets extra points and is easier to run rapid fire vs psk31.
- Getting filters to filter out local qrm

But we had fun, which I guess is the most important thing.

[N2NKW]

Had a good time, but man, I'm beat... Effin' hot all weekend -- in fact, the thermometer in the car was reading 108 degrees on the way home this afternoon (on the highway -- it wasn't really that hot). Sure felt good to have the A/C on and come home to a "cool" shower.

Our own little band of misfits did 305 QSO's in 21 hours as 1A -- not smokin' 'em, but it should keep us off the bottom rung of the results. Almoat all S&P. 47 states worked. Missed AK, ME, and I forget the other one. Amazed at how many think Field Day has "multipliers" for sections.

Shoulda worked more CW. Every time I took over and switched to the paddles, our Q rate went way up.

So, how'd everybody do?

Still tabulating but at the point I wiped out at 330am local 40m was at 118 voice q's. We had a 20m op racked up 330 by 330 am. I don't know about the other bands. I am estimating (guessing?) the total was somewhere around 600-700 q's. Callsign was WD5IYF 3b OK. If you have this in your 40M log, then you may have worked me. I was hoping to get WAS or WAZ but I missed quite a few New England and North Western states.

This is the first time I have ever seriously taken an attempt at FD and I had fun. If I had more then 4 hours of sleep the day before, I may have made it the full 24 but I just couldn't keep awake.

Temps were in the mid upper 80's which is unusual for OK at this time of the year. We set up at the local park not far from downtown. There was a minor scheduling problem with the city as to reservations for the pavilion but the city tried to fix it by giving us a tent....lol. A few of us weren't happy. Around 11pm we noticed bad wx dropping down from the north but as far as I know it never reached us. We dedicated a radio to listening to local wx net.

All in all, I had a lot of fun. I want to get back into it for next year!

[ke5frf]

I started another thread on the FD subject.....http://zrq.informe.com/viewtopic.php?t=582
Just wondering how everyone "did"...scores etc.
As I said in my post, Our club, 3A had 2 CW stations running and we scored in the neighborhood of 900 CW QSOs and our Phone ops tallied over 200 with their one station. I didn't keep track but I think I worked between 400-500 stations myself as I was the only op there the duration. Actually, between 3 CW ops on 2 stations we did a lot of 2 man (pilot-copilot) type operating so its hard to say exactly how many stations I worked. If by working is meant manning the key I'm positive I worked the majority of our QSOs.

Our score will be a record for us in the vicinity of 3500+ points for 150 watt category considering miscopies and such. Not sure how many extras we get for bonus activiites.
Oh, btw...we used on tribander on a crank up tower at about 30 feet or so and three OCFs...the extra OCF dipole was for 80-40 at the CW station using the beam. The other two masts were also at about 30 feet and 2 of the OCF the antennas were not flat-top but VERY SLIGHTLY inverted. We did a great job of getting the ends elevated. The third OCF was tied down pretty low and was a 90 degree V.

I was really VERY impressed with the performance of OCFs for Field day.

Oh, the only bummer. Our ONLY US sections that we missed were VI (virgin islands) and SD (South Dakota)...Seems like I NEVER hear South Dakota on the air! We also missed 3 V call sections for a total of FIVE missed sections during the event. I think that's pretty good for being in one of the southernmost states!
I was the guy who worked the AK station (40 meters) and got pretty pumped about that.

[N2RJ]

Oh, the only bummer. Our ONLY US sections that we missed were VI (virgin islands) and SD (South Dakota)...Seems like I NEVER hear South Dakota on the air! We also missed 3 V call sections for a total of FIVE missed sections during the event. I think that's pretty good for being in one of the southernmost states!
I was the guy who worked the AK station (40 meters) and got pretty pumped about that.

I think we got one or two SD stations.

So did you work Hawaii too? Impressive!

[ke5frf]

Oh, the only bummer. Our ONLY US sections that we missed were VI (virgin islands) and SD (South Dakota)...Seems like I NEVER hear South Dakota on the air! We also missed 3 V call sections for a total of FIVE missed sections during the event. I think that's pretty good for being in one of the southernmost states!
I was the guy who worked the AK station (40 meters) and got pretty pumped about that.

I think we got one or two SD stations.

So did you work Hawaii too? Impressive!

K5KV and I were operating together (one on the key, other on the logger) when we worked Hawaii. I THINK I was on the key but can't remember. I was alone when I worked AK running 40 meters.

[N9FE]

I got 163 contacts on 75 and 80, very little to the west, one california, 20 to 30 over lightning till like midnight, not to bad for the terrible band conditions

[KU4MY]

I played a little PSK31 on 20m, worked a few Cali stations......
went to the Field Day set up our club had and it sucked.
Everyone was spinning VFOs, no one pounding brass
or keying microphones...... what a bunch of Zombies.
I am a few pals headed for Corbett McGee's and got
hammered.

I guess that means I had fun for Field Day. ;)

I played a little PSK31 on 20m, worked a few Cali stations......
went to the Field Day set up our club had and it sucked.
Everyone was spinning VFOs, no one pounding brass
or keying microphones...... what a bunch of Zombies.
I am a few pals headed for Corbett McGee's and got
hammered.

I guess that means I had fun for Field Day. ;)

Whut's with that? Knob spinners? I have been at numerous FD sites all over the country. Knob spinners the whole lot.

[kb9rqz]

Our main CW guy is "sick like a dog."

So guess who'll be flying the CW flag?

I'm nervous. Nervous as hell.

I can empathoize totla my wife and I showed to FD and normaly their are 203 folks ready to arm westle over 20 m phone all were no shows this year and sudenly my wife nd were on

Hey Ryan,

How did your CW FD work out?

I discovered that MultiPSK program and I think I will set it up for the kids to go play on 40M w/their tech tickets. They can crank that baby up to 52WPM and scream across the band. It seems the faster the code, the better the computer copy.