Field Day, 1997 June 27^th, 28^th, 29^th

The planning has begun

To successfully pull off a large field day exercise requires alot of upfront planning. Planning for Field Day 1997 started with the first planning meeting in July 1996 in conjunction with the Field Day 1996 Wrap-Up meeting.

Planning now begins in ernest. There are six additional planning meetings scheduled to take us up to the week before field day weekend. The dates of all the meetings are:

As in prior years, the meetings will be held upstairs at the Chandler Branch of the Nashua Public Library. This is the branch located on Main street Nashua, across from Memorial hospital (AKA Southern New Hampshire Regional Medical Center). Meeting time is NARC Standard, or 7:00 PM Local Time. If you're a key player in the club's effort, or you want to be a key player, or even if you're just curious about what goes on at these planning meetings come on down.

Any questions contact Fletch Seagroves, N1MEO - Field Day Incident Commander (603-654-5838)

See ya there.

09 July 1996

1996 Field Day Wrap-up / 1997 Field Day

Put spots out on the cluster, especially 10 CW. Work chat mode on the cluster for packet station.
Make sure EVERYONE knows exactly which weekend is Field Day.
Food delivery to operators worked.
The 20m stacked beams worked well. But no need for the switchbox nor rotor. Helium was fine!
Cumulative expected (goal) Q chart by hour as an incentive to beat last year's score. Have one person create for all bands.
Spell out N1NH with cars and take a picture from the air.
Overnight food was not known about by enough people, and wasn't eaten. It needs to be hot food. Some food was lost due to mishandling. We need runners to the stations to talk about food and coffee and to take orders from operators/loggers.
Have a central sign in place for overnight food.
Should have a "night stuckee" for: keeping the generator going and feeding the operators.
Consider power for the contest and separate power for support functions like kitchen, lights, etc.
Average power consumption was 82% of capacity. Isolation transformers are 5KVA.
Have the publicity committee take over signs, as well as notifying the papers, etc.
Use club activities committee to handle guest booth, sign in, other non-contest activities like helping Chez Brooks with dinner.
Start recruiting with "Want Ads" in the newsletter. Also recruit at the meetings.
The club 40 is tuned for CW. It needs to be shortened back up a little bit. The club 40 is to be used on CW.
There are some club antennas without lift points. Also the chain links used previously are a bit too small. They are difficult to put the ropes on and off easily at altitude.
Assigning climbers ahead of time worked well. Also running split teams, 1 for tower assembly, 1 for antenna installation worked well.
Need to train how to safely remove top heavy structures (e.g. 6m beam/rotor combo).
6m antenna needs to be mounted very close to the rotor since the rotor is so light duty.
Operators need experience with the unfamiliar radios, especially VHF/UHF multimode. Consider getting rigs and manuals to station masters a day or two ahead of time.
Need to run a contest/operators school - Oh Rex...
Be more intentional about moving people into logging positions in the expectation that they will operate another year. (Especially with operators like Rex.)
Some of the teenagers are really good. Use them.
There is serious interference between 20CW and 2m.
There is a real problem between 20M and 2m (10th harmonic)
Tower 1 SW (lower or upper?) has 2 large kinks. Consider replacing the guywire. It is 1/4".
Consider replacing the 3/16" clamps with 1/4 for the 1/4" cable. We had a problem with the cable clamps snapping.
Consider replacing the long spliced run on Tower 3.
Convert existing panel from 120V distribution to 220V. This gives us breaker protection on a per-run basis.
Need a second power person, especially at night.
Reconsider ancillary long run gas tank. 15 gallons would make it through the night.
6m Beam needs checking and possible rework for bent element.
Arrange better way of storing antennas out of the way.
Need stainless steel wingnuts for the 40M capacitance hats.
Need a stock of additional stainless U-bolts for mast to boom plate. Assorted sizes.
Check the 10M rotor. It has a kluged u-bolt.
Inputs for the operating book by January.
Prepare a customized ct.hlp file. Get content suggestions to Jim.
Tents housing Two (or more) stations need to be large.
Check government surplus for GP-medium tents in salvagable condition.
We need to plan on finding an alternate site for 1998.
Plan on new storage area.
Need to add instruction to antenna assembly instructions to include a BIG note to make sure the mast plate is perpendicular to the elements.
Also add a note that the coax/balun is connected to the driven element.
40M Phone Early morning hours had no operator. Need better scheduling and tracking
We should have an overall status board near the kitchen. Op schedule for stations than those like Bert and Ernie. Operator/logger sign in/out.
Have some mechanism for updating scores on the web more frequently. Kid-net?
Drinks for tear down crew, in coolers at the tower sites, just like for setup.

08 April 1997

The traditional question "Do we want to run battery this year?" was countered with the traditional response "Do we want to win or do we want to have fun?". The traditional choice of "Fun" was the selection and the decision to run 100 watts off generator power was made.

The next big item on the agenda was the callsign to use. The web page vote tally was N1NH: 11, N1FD: 5, and both: 1. The vote by the those present was unanimous for N1NH. Subject to Jim Belanger giving his permission again, the club will use N1NH. The Novice station will be using N1ONC again.

This will be the last year we will have field day at Buzz Muzzey, KA1OMJ's place. There is a need for another location to store all club field day equipment. If you have a suggestion, contact Fletch Seagroves, N1MEO, or Jim Heedles, WW1Y.

Attendees were: Dave, N1SUE, Tracy, N1WIR, David, N1XOT, Ray, KB1SO, Bob, KD1AW, Jim, WW1Y, Rich, W1HZN, Fletch, N1MEO, Jack, WB4MDC, And Mary Jane, WA4WIJ.

22 April 1997

Confirmation on the use of the field day site, and the callsign has been obtained.

Bill Burden, WB1BRE, former club president and past ARRL New England Division director declined the invitation to operate the satellite station this year. His "excuse", agreed by all to be extremely flimsy and greeted with boos and hisses, was that he would remain in Vermont and support field day operations with his wife and son. Details are sketchy, but it would appear that that they have field day in Vermont too. Complete with amateur clubs too...

Attendees were: Dave, N1SUE, Tracy, N1WIR, David, N1XOT, Ray, KB1SO, Bob, KD1AW, Jim, WW1Y, Rich, W1HZN, Fletch, N1MEO, Al, WA1TYB, and Jack, WB4MDC.

05 May 1997

The meeting was disrupted when Fletch, N1MEO was called away by library personnel who indicated that someone had telephoned the library looking for him. Fears of trouble were only partly allayed when it was discovered that the call was from Bill Burden, WB1BRE. Bill was apparantly on an espionage mission, looking for any information on how we plan our operation. Cries of "Eat our dust!" eventually degenerated into side discussions of how snide we could be as we helped out with our vast, awe inspiring knowledge base.

A discussion of separating the 2 meter station from the 220/440/1.2 Phone stations versus a larger tent was postponed until it could be determined if there was going to be an all YL VHF/UHF phone effort.

Based on financial records from last year, it was decided to raise the price of the Saturday meal and the combined discount price by $1.00 US. Based on a casual survey, Brooks announced that he was abandoning the idea of a pig roast, and would stick with the menu from last year.

Dave, N1FCC, announced that the club would participate in the AMSAT field day competition which runs concurrently with the ARRL Field Day. Times and durations of all satellite passes that the satellite station will be working will be made available to all station prior to 1800UTC on June 28th. These will be used to determine "quiet" times for stations that will interfere with the statellite station. The primary birds to be worked will be the Russian birds.

Check your basements, garages, trunks of your cars, and that ominous lump in the sofa. We're looking for anything you might have cleaned up during the 1996 field day tear down and didn't get around to storing with the rest of the stuff. This includes hard hats, filters boxes, coax, connectors, wire, antennas, etc. It's time to start rounding it all back up for next month.
Send email to Fletch, N1MEO, or Jim, WW1Y listing any club stuff you have.

Letters will be drafted and sent to local police, fire, medical, emergency services, and local schools inviting them to the field day site. The purpose is to demonstrate our capabilities to state and local governments and to help give them a better idea as to how to include amateur radio in their emergency planning. The educational connection will also include the technical and space related aspects of the hobby.

Gene, ex WA1UXA, was harrassed in absentia.

Attendees were: Dave, N1SUE, David, N1XOT, Ed, K2TE, Ray, KB1SO, Bob, KD1AW, Jim, WW1Y, Fletch, N1MEO, Al, WA1TYB, Brooks, KC1PD, David, N1FCC, and Jack, WB4MDC.

20 May 1997

Meal tickets are printed and ready for sale. The prices are:

Saturday Lunch	Hamburgers and hotdogs	$4.00
Saturday Dinner	Chicken	$7.00
Sunday Breakfast	TBD	$3.00
Sunday Lunch	Leftovers	$4.00
Discount for all meals		$17.00

Rex, K1HI, proposed bringing tower three up to 100 feet and running stacked 2 over 2 on 40 meters. We will still be running stacked 4 over 4 on 20 meter phone on tower three. Sufficient tower exists, but there is some question about guy wires. An inventory of club and member supplies of guy wire will be made the weekend of May 24^th.

We are short tents. We are very short of commitments from people on setup and more importantly tear down.
We need people to setup and tear down!!! If you can make a definite (or even tentative) commitment to help out, let Fletch Seagroves, N1MEO (603-654-5838) know as soon as possible.

Tower school is planned for Saturday morning, June 14^th, at Sterling's, AK1K, house.

If you want to try tower climbing to help build (or take down) one of our towers but haven’t done it before, or if you have take the course but would like some refresher training, here is a perfect opportunity to learn without the pressure of the field day schedule.

Tower school is led by Sterling Eanes, AK1K. School will be in session Saturday morning, June 14th at Sterling's house in Nashua. Please contact Sterling at 883-3686 for more information.

Attendees were: Ed, K2TE, Ray, KB1SO, Bob, KD1AW, Jim, WW1Y, Fletch, N1MEO, Al, WA1TYB, Frank, N1DGQ, Rex, K1HI, Charlie, WB2FSK, John, WS1E, Bill, KA1NDR, Rich, W1HZN, Tracy, N1WIR, and Jack, WB4MDC.

03 June 1997

Ok, so we don't have any notes. We do need a 75 meter station captain

17 June 1997

Meals were finalized. Sunday breakfast will be pancakes, sausage, french toast, and of course, NARC maple syrup made from trees on the Field Day site. Tapped by NARC members, boiled down by our own KD1AW.

A 10 GHz CW station will be available. 1.2 and 2.4 CW stations are ready. Charlie, WB2FSK agreed to fillin as acting 75 Phone station master to make sure we at least had something on the band. if the 300+ GHz Phone station happens, we will be

29 ALPHA!!!!

Jack, WB4MDC, announced he had problems. Everone agreed. End of discussion.

Still missing rotors. Sterling indicated he had the Novice rotor. Jack, WB4MDC will get it functional. Claims were made that Ken KE1GI, had the tailtwister for tower 1. Rich, W1HZN will go some much needed gennie service on the club generator. Only one 5KW screamer will be on site as backup to the club generator. It will be placed in service to supplement the kitchen load and allow us to run Coffee pots, crock pots, microwave, etc for the long dark night. Jim WW1Y, indicated his 6500W generator is 40 minutes away (round trip time).

More copies of the Club brochure need to be printed to have on hand. A pub package of NARC bulletins and pamphlet are need for N1UDB to introduce the club to someone who may have a 40 ft trailer to donate for equipment storage... Don, N1UBD put out a call for Fire extinguishers and first aid kits for Gennie and Kitchen areas. Rich, WB2OCR, has offerred, weather permitting, to overfly the site and take aerial photos. An attempt will be made to spell out N1NH using automobiles for the flyby. There is enough guy wire and tower to take tower 3 up to 100 feet. Rex will be lining up crew to handle the extra load. Tower 3 will have both stack 4 element 20M beams and stack 2 element 40M beams. Extra coan is needed by all station masters on tower 3 to cover the extra 30 feet of height.

Responses are starting to come in from the invite blitz. The mayor of Nashua will be by. Senator Bob Smith will not. An information booth/area will be set up by Don, KA1GOZ, to greet the public, answer questions, and to take messages for passing vua the National Traffic System.

Charlie, WB2FSK, will spot us on the Cluster. 147.555 MHz will be the simplex frequency Charlie will listen on. Station masters, when their station is running a frequency, need to call Charlie and give him the run freq.

Last Pre-field day meeting for 1997. Only a week to go.

We need tear down crew!!!!!

Attendees were: Ernie, NO1V, Ray, KB1SO, Bob, KD1AW, Jim, WW1Y, Fletch, N1MEO, Al, WA1TYB, Frank, N1DGQ, Rex, K1HI, Charlie, WB2FSK, John, WS1E, Bill, KA1NDR, Rich, W1HZN, Tracy, N1WIR, Jack, WB4MDC, Dave, N1SUE, Brooks, KC1PD, Don, KA1GOZ, and Sterling, AK1K.

Last Modified: 19 June 1997
Jim Heedles, WW1Y

Field Day, 1997 June 27th, 28th, 29th