Tiny Elephant's Contest Corner The Latest Contest News - A NARC Bulletin Exclusive A monthly column by Ed Deichler, K2TE

Fun Day 1997

In any event, I've suddenly found myself with less than two months to go before the biggest club participation event of the year: FIELD DAY. Each Field Day seems to have its own unique character as new faces show up and old faces renew acquaintances. I think the key word for this year's event is transition. We have a new "Field Marshall", Fletch, N1MEO, to pull it all together. We have some shuffling of operators due to other commitments or the desire to try something different. It is also the last time NARC will be operating from the Hollis, NH site; the farm has been sold for the inevitable progress of real estate development. As goes the site so goes our equipment; all the stuff that makes us one of the largest Field Day operations in the country has to find a new home between Field Days.

Every year it is time to collect those "what ifs" and "how abouts" that we have casually tossed around since the last Field Day and start pulling together our station plans. This year I find myself the victim of one of those "casual remarks" dropped by Mike, NE1V. I've been helping Mike with the 80 meter CW station the past couple of years using a POD (plain old dipole) antenna and a super rig (ICOM 775DSP). Near the end of last year's contest, while commiserating on our near-miss for a new 80 CW record, Mike suggested that we needed a serious antenna to go with our serious rig. A few more sips of the lethal concoction of Hollis mud and bath water (AKA FD coffee), and voile! A 3-element, 80m inverted V beam is born!

The idea behind the beam is to give us a more potent signal across the country. Our location in the Northeast makes the beam an attractive idea since most of the country is to the Southwest. The state of Maine and the Maritime provinces are close enough that it should be easy to work them off the back of the beam. The idea of using inverted V elements is to make it easier to install and align the beam.

With that in mind, I spent the Winter months browsing through the ARRL Antenna Handbook for some design tips. I also modeled the antenna using the ELNEC antenna modeling program by W7EL. ELNEC allowed me to experiment with element spacing, element lengths, and the apex angles for the inverted V’s. I found that antenna patterns were more sensitive to the apex angle than to element spacing. The best pattern is achieved for a horizontal 3- element array (no surprise). The pattern broadens out as the elements droop toward an inverted V configuration. I constructed patterns for droop angles from the horizontal of 30, 45, and 60 degrees. While a 30-degree droop produced a better pattern than 45 degrees, achieving this angle at the Field Day site would require a lot of rope and time. Therefore, orienting the antenna for a 45-degree slope appears to be the best compromise.

Well it's time to get busy with cutting and soldering. While you're contemplating your Field Day plans, here is an overview of operating categories and modes to get you into the spirit of things.

ARRL Field Day, 28-29 June 1997

Categories are defined so that everyone can participate whether you operate from the comfort of your shack or use a flashlight in a tent to illuminate that home-brew QRP rig powered by the car battery missing from Dad's car. There are 5 categories lettered from A to E. Class A stations are by far the largest group, consisting of clubs and non- club groups of 3 or more operators. Class B operations apply to anyone operating as a one- or two-person station. Both of these categories have a special case of battery operation that allows a higher scoring advantage compared to the normal 150-watt limit. "Battery" is really a misnomer for a class that should be called QRP since the scoring advantage only applies to stations working battery and operating 5 watts or less. Thus, if two operators of a Class B station wanted to run 100 watts using a bank of batteries for power, they still count QSO scores the same as everyone else. I think the ARRL contest folks should show a little energy and rewrite the rules to clearly indicate this.

The next category is Class C for mobile stations which is self-explanatory. Class D operation is the normal everyday home station running off commercial power lines. If you're feeling ambitious, hooking up the emergency generator to the shack and running it dry from the Winter qualifies you as Class E operation. If you do operate Class D or E, by all means looks for N1NH during the weekend and GIVE US A CALL.

Operating modes for Field Day also reflect the diversity of the amateur community. Voice and CW are the basic modes, but anything where you talk is considered voice and anything you tap (key or keyboard) is considered code. Therefore, we can operate FM, satellite, packet, etc. on every amateur band available to us. Because Field Day is primarily an emergency exercise, we also try to make contacts passing Field Day message traffic handling and copying bulletins. The beauty of it is, if you have something unique that fits the definition of ham radio, give it a try for some points.

NARC Field Days also feature unofficial categories of F, G, and H. If you just can't bring yourself to do one of the traditional categories, then come out to "operate" as Fun, Gab, or Help!

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