2008
Field Day Information
Only Two Weeks
to go (status as of 06-12-08)
Note: It has come to
our attention that earlier this week some people may not
have been able to complete the Field Day questionnaire probably because
a provider's system was having difficulty. It is now working fine, so
unless you have already successfully done so, please answer the few
questions now. This helps with planning food etc. http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=e559fb26-cead-4476-8ccd-0e957a925359
A similar problem occurred with the Field Day Station Locater at: http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/fd/locator.php
which is also working fine at the present time.
Sorry for any confusion this has
caused. -- Webmaster
Welcome to the latest Field Day update. While Field Day weekend may
seem a long ways away, it is only two weeks from when you'll be reading
this!!! A lot of progress has been made, but we still have nobody to
coordinate the setup of the “fun” SSB station. We now even have an RV
to put it in! It will be running on 10, 15, 40m.
Each of the other stations have Station Captains. However, we have not
secured a volunteer to be Captain of the “fun” SSB station. Being
Captain does NOT mean that you have to do all of the work. Rather, it
means that you will be in charge of coordinating the assembly and
operation to get the station on the air. Please give serious
consideration to volunteering to be Captain of the “fun” SSB station.
At this point, a fair amount of the coordinating process has already
been done, we just need somebody to take charge and run with it!
As mentioned above, almost all of the organization and assignments have
been completed. Minor changes are made periodically, but the .pdf file
below is a good representation of the current staffing etc.
http://www.kernsanalysis.com/ham/SCCFieldDay_080516a.pdf
So, in summary, we will have one "serious" CW station and one easy
going one.
We will also have a "serious" SSB tent and probably one easy going one,
however as discussed above, we really need a volunteer station captain
to step forward for the easy going station. This position is VITAL if
we're going to be able to have a lot of people working HF SSB. People
who operated the Get On the Air station last year are not eligible to
operate it again this year, so we need a second HF SSB station for them
to operate. If you are a seasoned HF operator, please consider stepping
forward! We have a RV for the station, and antennas are being arranged,
so the effort on your part will be minimal.
Greg, N6CK, will be leading up our RTTY/PSK station. The current plan
is to put both the digital station and VHF/UHF station in COM2. That
will allow us to make almost full-time usage of the COM2 van.
Yes, for those counting, we will be FIVE ALPHA this year. Way to go
Santa Cruz County!
Brad, N6BHT (ex KD6ZJN) will be the VHF/UHF captain. As mentioned
above, that station will also be operating from COM2. We will be
focusing on 6m, 2m and 440 MHz this year. But Donald promises to get us
at least one 1.2 GHz contact. Antennas for the VHF/UHF station will
include stacked horizontal loops as well as yagis.
Reed, N1WC, will be setting up and coaching the GOTA (Get On The Air)
station, so all the technicians, the new generals/extras and anybody
who hasn't been active in the last couple of years can get in the
groove. We had loads of fun last year and hope for a new crop of GOTA
operators this year.
We worked with JV (K6HJU), Greg (K6GPH), Shawn (KA6RFZ) and Jamie
(WI6F)at the Santa Cruz Red Cross to get their comm trailer into moving
shape. This will allow us another "hard shelter" for radio operations.
Last year we mostly worked with dipoles and a single tri-bander beam.
This year we have two beams currently accounted for. We also have a
couple of volunteers to create some Moxon rectangles and a Beverage
antenna. Either one would significantly enhance our late night "ears."
We had a site survey on 6/1 so that the Station Captains new to the
effort could start planning their locations. We will have a captain's
meeting at Gigi's Saturday 6/14 and a "last minute" networking set-up
and site visit on 6/22. Contact me for additional information.
The actual event starts with 24 hours of set-up. 11:00 PDT on Friday
(6/27) is the starting gun. Actual contest operations are from 11:00
PDT Saturday (6/28) to 11:00 PDT Sunday (6/29).
We need help with set-up Friday afternoon (with a pizza dinner for
those who help) and teardown early Sunday afternoon. "Many hands make
light work." Dinner Saturday evening will be a BBQ with the Clubs
providing various meats and buns and a pot luck for everything else. My
XYL Nicki will be coordinating the pot luck. She is reachable at
nicki@baymoon.com.
For a map to the site, use the ARRL Field Day locater and type in
"K6WC" as the station call sign.
http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/fd/locator.php
Or email me and I can point you to the "official" map to the Ben Lomond
Training Center. At this point in the planning cycle, I have started
shifting from "big picture" to detail oriented planning. It is time to
start making sure that we have good radios and multiple antennas for
each of the stations. It is now time to start matching operating
positions with operators. It is now time to start working on the menus
and shopping lists!!!
Time, time, time... And it is running pretty quickly!
Please email me for any details or questions, dkerns@cruzio.com or
ae6rf@k6bj.org. I'm also on WR6AOK, W6JWS/440 or the W6RLW 1.2 GHz
repeaters during commute.
- Donald
More Field Day Notes
(status as of 5-22-08)
Field Day is sort of like the Tour 'de France bicycle race. There are a number of different games going on at the same time. The "total" win, that Lance Armstrong gets every year, is just one of the games, and the racing
community knows that that game is "his", there are others (team score, hill climbing, speed of each section) that are other people's.
The biggest Field Day game is straight score, but number of contacts, and the contact per transmitter numbers are also watched.
If an organization is trying to win on points, the strategy is clear: Go with as many QRP stations and as tall, gain antennas as you can.
PARA wins by bringing in "ringer" operators.
SLAC/Stanford wins by having BUNCHES and BUNCHES of people.
With a couple serious CW/SSB operators, and competent SSB operations, we should do disproportionately well, even having quite a bit of fun. (The existing plan games the rules and scoring pretty well, most groups don't do that analysis.)
Hope that helps explain the method to the madness.
- Donald
Field Day Status Report (Status as of 4-09-08)
Hello all. Even at this
early
date, we are busy organizing and getting
ready for Field Day. This is a quick status update to let people know
where we are in the planning/organizing process.
First off, we have
received
official approval to use our traditional
CAL FIRE Ben Lomond Training Center site. Second, Cap (KE6AFE) has also
said that the Santa Cruz County COM 2 van will be available to us.
These two resources form a nice "center of mass" for additional
planning.
And "oh boy" is there
additional planning! Tom Guyer (KG6AO) has
committed to being the Station Captain for the first SSB station. Tom
Ginzberg (K6TG) has committed to being a senior operator on a second
SSB station (his work commitments prevent him from being captain).
Excellent CW operators Rich S (KE1B), "Hap" (KQ6YV) and old time SCCARC
member Jeff K (N6GQ) have signed up for the CW stations. Greg R (N6CK)
is contemplating a digital station (RTTY and PSK31) but he is carefully
coordinating it with his work duties. Reed (N1WC) has committed to
coach the Get On The Air station. Dona (KI6DAR) will be heading up our
NTS activities. Jeanette (KI6AJJ) is handling publicity and safety.
Greg (K6GPH) will be handling our network coordination. Plus Carrol
(KG6YPH) and Brad (KD6ZJN) have also signed up to help operate.
So, a whole lot of your
fellow
hams have already signed up to help, and
we can easily use TWICE that number.
At the moment we are
looking
for two more RVs to serve as operating
positions. This year I'd like the effort we put into raising tents to
be put into raising antennas.
Finally, it is time to
consider our "antlers." There are a number
of cheap and easy wire antennas that perform better than dipoles.
Bi-squares, vee-beams, full-wave loops, balloon or kite supported
verticals, Moxon rectangles. It would be very neat if a couple people
would volunteer to make a couple of these antennas, to improve our
overall performance.
Until next month, 73 de
Donald
Field Day
Thoughts
(status as of 3-02-08)
While Field Day remains
several months off, it is time to start
planning and getting our act together for a fully successful and fun
event.
There are several key
areas
for Field Day success:
+ A clear concept to the
Field
Day
+ Adequate planning and
coordination
+ Active participation
from
everybody involved
+ Good food and
"logistical
support."
+ Skilled band captains
and
Elmers
+ Lots of eager operators
I hope to cover these
topics
through a series of Short Skip articles,
email, meetings, phone conversations, on-the-air QSOs, etc In short,
whatever it takes to make good communication and planning happen.
FIELD DAY: WHAT IS IT?
Field day is many things
to
many people:
To some it is a contest,
twenty-four hours of butt-in-chair, hard core
CW and phone operation. It is a good day to see if you can crank out
800 QSOs or work all states in a twenty four hour period. With
adrenaline running and competitive juices flowing, Field Day can get
very serious, very quickly.
To some Field Day is an
excuse
for a barbecue. They get their ham
friends together for a meet and greet in the park, enjoy the nice June
weather, good fellowship, and oh-by-the-way, they throw up an antenna
and make a couple of contacts.
To others Field Day is an
emergency exercise. It becomes a chance test
out their emergency communications
equipment and skills under actual field conditions. They find out if
their planning and logistics are sufficient to defeat Murphy on his
home turf.
Santa Cruz county is
lucky in
the fact that it has an established Field
Day "tradition." For the experienced operators, Field Day is an "old
habit." They know pretty much what they want to do, and what it is
going to take.
However, we are also VERY
blessed with a large crop of new operators,
people who have only been active for a couple of years and are in the
steep learning curve of ham radio. As a group, we owe it to these newer
operators to Elmer them in good fun, and safe operating practices.
Field Day is an excellent opportunity to do so.
This year we will follow
last
year's highly successful recipe of
two-thirds contest and one third excuse for a barbecue. The contest
part keeps the interest of the experienced operators and allows less
experienced operators the opportunity to operate on top notch
equipment and observe "experts in action." The barbecue part keeps the
experience fun, social and insures that we don't take things too
seriously.
WHAT IS THE CURRENT PLAN?
Currently the plan is to
operate four-A at the CALFIRE Ben Lomond
Training center.
"What is four-A and why
do we
want to do that?"
Four-A is the Field Day
designator for a club station, with four main
HF transmitters on the air at the same time. At this point in the solar
cycle, only one or two bands are open at a time. 15 and 20m or 20m and
40m during the day. 40m and 80m are open during the
evening. Operating with four transmitters allows us a Morse Code (CW)
and a Single Side Band (SSB) station on each open band. We hope to run
digital modes from the Get On The Air (GOTA) station.
GOALS:
Four HF (six total)
stations
Having four main
stations,
plus a VHF/UHF station, plus a GOTA station,
plus really good food requires SEVEN people people to step up to the
various challenges. We can come up with tents, radios, generators, but
we can't easily come up with experienced operators. If you have several
Field Days operating experience, or do contests, or serious DX, PLEASE
consider being a station captain!
Computer logging
Last year we
conservatively
lost a hundred QSOs due to paper logging.
Not to mention that we looked like LIDs due to duping. We will be computer logging using the
excellent (and free) N1MM logging program. If you need any help
downloading, installing or configuring N1MM, PLEASE feel free to
contact me directly.
http://n1mm.com/
STRETCH GOALS:
Network logging
Last year we attempted
network
logging. It was a "bridge too far." We
had more than enough issues getting five stations on the air on time to
add computer networking to the mix. Also, last year our Field Day plan
was sufficiently static as to not require station-to-station log
communication.This year, our operation may be a bit more dynamic,
tracking the open bands. If different stations will be working the same
band at different times, their logs MUST communicate to prevent dupes.
With luck, early preparation and additional elbow grease, we can make
it work this year.
Better antennas
Last year we had a single
tri-bander, a single vertical and a bunch of
low dipoles. This year we will push ourselves a bit harder. Perhaps a
Moxon rectangle for 40m? Perhaps a v-beam from those nice high
redwoods? We can do significantly better with a bit of foresight.
As the weather warms up
and
the days get longer, be thinking Field Day.
All roles are open: band
captains, cooks, first time operators for the
GOTA station, die-hard Technician classes for the VHF/UHF station,
long-time brass pounders for CW operations, computer network people,
tree climbers, welders, lizard wranglers, mascots, road-dust waterers
and kibitzers. All are needed for a successful Field Day!
Always available via
email: ae6rf@arrl.net
or Donald Kerns, AE6RF.
Also on WA6OAK or
W6JWS-440
during commutes or at home 831 338-1214.
Very 73 de Donald
AE6RF