All posts by David Merchant

Digital, Education and Training, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

2nd Field Day Prep Meeting Recap

I wanted to provide an update to all club members on our progress related to Field Day 2017.  We had our second field-day meeting yesterday at the Nashua Public Library.  I’m pleased to report that we have selected the Hollis Brookline High School for a 2nd year as our site.  Paperwork has been submitted to the school seeking formal approval.

Now that a site has been identified, formal station planning has begun.  Once again, we will be operating this year as a 7 Alpha, which means we will have 7-transmitters, plus a GOTA and a Satellite station.  We will setup the following stations:

  • 10/15/80m SSB
  • 20m SSB
  • 40m SSB
  • 10/15/80m CW
  • 20m CW
  • 40m CW
  • 6m VHF
  • A Digital Station
  • A “Get on the Air” GOTA Station
  • Satellite Station with computer-controlled Azimuth / Elevation rotor
  • A VHF/UHF “talk-in” station

As there are many new members in the group, I wanted to take a minute to explain the complexities of this type of setup.  Operating so many transmitters in close proximity is a recipe for disaster unless proper precautions are made.  We must do this right so all the stations will be able to operate without interference to one another.  If we don’t, it would be very easy to have de-sense or worse case physical front-end damage to a receiver where it would require repair.

To combat these issues, we are going to erect 3 towers this year, each separated by about 300-feet.  Each of them will have a tri-band HF beam antenna directed to the southwest and pointed perpendicular to the axis of the towers.  In addition, we will be using a device called a triplexer to separate the single antenna feed coming from the tribanders into individual 10m, 15m and 20m feeds to the radios.  Each of these feeds will be further protected with a band-specific Band Pass Filter (BPF).  This will allow 3 separate radios to transmit and receive simultaneously over a single antenna.

There will be several new concepts introduced this year, including the addition of a Wi-Fi Mesh LAN environment to connect all the sites computers together.  This LAN will provide shared internet access as well through a 4G cellular connection.

Field Day - WiFi Mesh Topology
WiFi Mesh Topology

We will be running the N1MM logger in network mode this year as well.  This will allow for real-time tracking of our combined score, with a “dashboard” being available in the public information tent.

Another new concept will be a remote radio setup.  Given the layout of the Hollis Brookline site, the third tower will be located remotely on a lower field.  Although it’s still within the 1,000’ transmitter perimeter allowed by ARRL, the third tower will be quite isolated.  We have decided to place two Flex Radio’s at the third tower for our GOTA and Digital operations.  The operators will connect to these radios over the Wi-Fi Mesh network, allowing them to be anywhere on-site.  The user interface for the GOTA station will be a Flex Maestro controller, which emulates a traditional “knob and button” radio.

Our primary objective is to make sure there is something for everyone.  We want to be inclusionary, and give anyone that’s interested an opportunity to participate.

We have established a regular bi-weekly planning meeting at the Nashua Public library.  Generally, the meetings are held on Sunday’s from 1 – 3 PM.  However, the next meeting will be on Saturday, April 8th from 12 – 2 PM due to lack of availability of facilities on Sunday.  We will resume the normal schedule on Sunday, April 23rd from 1-3PM.

I will be sharing additional details at club meetings and through N1FD.ORG as things progress.

Dave, K1DLM

Hashtags: #ARRLFD 

Activities, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Field-Day Kick-off Meeting

I am really excited to be leading the field day effort for the Nashua Area Radio Club this year.  Since this is my first time, I will be relying on the club members to help me make this a success.

It is rapidly approaching, and with this in mind, I’ve scheduled an initial “kick-off” meeting for Sunday, March 5th at the Nashua Library in the Hunt Room from 1-3 PM.  I’d love to see all team leads from last year, as well as anyone interested in participating this year to please attend.  My intention is to identify a planning team at this meeting to start working through all the details.

The first item on the agenda will be to identify potential locations for this year.  With this in hand, we will create a site survey crew to evaluate the options and decide which site best fits our needs.  Ideally, the site will be centrally located to Nashua, and allow for public access.  In order to accommodate the towers, we will need a field between 600-1000 feet long North to South, and at least 120 feet wide.   A 1000-foot site would allow us to erect 3-towers.  It would also be ideal if there are restroom facilities, and potentially access to a kitchen / cafeteria.  This is especially important if there is inclement weather.

We also need to decide what type of station we should run this year, and what type of antennas are needed.  Last year, we erected a V-beam array for 40-meters which was very effective.  We may want to consider adding a second one.  Other questions remain open, such as should we have more digital operations, a VHF station, or perhaps an enhanced satellite setup?

We also need to determine what class and entry strategy we want to use this year.  In 2016, we operated as a 7-Alpha, as this seemed to be a sweet spot.

It takes a village to pull this event together, but as the old adage goes “many hands make light work”.   I hope to see you all on the 5th.

Dave, K1DLM

Hashtags: #ARRLFD #N1FD

Activities, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Time to Prepare for Field Day 2017

On Christmas morning, it always amazes me how the kids can rip the packaging off all their gifts in mere minutes.  The smile on their faces and their pure joy and excitement makes it all worthwhile.  What took months of planning, shopping, hiding, wrapping is over before you know it.  As they say, you get much more out of giving than receiving.

As you might imagine, there is a parallel here to field day.   Sure, you could just show up at Field Day on Saturday morning, and everything would be setup and ready to go.  However, much of the value comes from all the strategy, planning, preparation and setup activities.  Despite the large investment the club has made in towers, antennas, generator, etc., It takes a small army of volunteers to get this right.

This is my first year as field day chairman.  Truth be told, I only attended my first Nashua Area RC field day last June, and was truly impressed.  I was reluctant to volunteer last year, as I just didn’t quite know what I would be getting into.  I suspect many of you are feeling the same way this year.  Whatever the excuse; I haven’t been a ham long enough, don’t know if I can devote the time, I don’t know anything about field day, etc.  Trust me, you can and will add value to this event.  Like Uncle Sam used we say, we need you!

Now that it’s the new year, we are going to start having a regular series of meetings to plan for Field Day 2017.   The first meeting will be centered around what we learned from field day last year.  I’m looking for some early ideas about new things we can do to make field day more interesting and relevant for each of you.  Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] anytime with your ideas.

Some of the preliminary feedback I have received is tactical in nature.  It includes the following:

Current Field Day electrical distribution setup
Current Field Day electrical distribution setup
  1. The Electrical distribution system needs help. The current system consists of a Honda ES-6500 Generator with 240v distribution lines to step-down transformers at the tents.  The main distribution panel needs to be completely rebuilt and reduced in size.  Additionally, the whole setup isn’t currently weatherproof.  The existing distribution “cables” are single-conductor THHN wires taped together which certainly isn’t optimal.  Ideally, we should start with a clean sheet of paper and rebuild this properly.  Perhaps a small transfer switch so we can run two generators (so one can be serviced while still operating), with twist-lock plugs on the distribution cables and transformers, and proper SJOOW cable.  This effort alone would exceed the club budget for field day, so we could use donations of time and materials.
  2. The club owns a significant amount of coax cable. However, much of it is quite old and the connectors have seen better days.  I will look to schedule a tech night to put on new connectors and weatherproof using head-shrink with adhesive-lined backing.  We also need to make-up some short patch cables to connect to the club’s bandpass filters.  We should also label all club cable with the club call.  Finally, we need to determine the best strategy to coil up and store the coax without kinks.
  3. The iron anchor stakes for the towers need to be modified to have a sharp point at one end. Someone with a grinder could do this in relatively short order.  We could also benefit from having a large hammer drill on-site with a ground rod bit to drive them in.
  4. We need to review the hardware and storage containers used to assemble the towers. There was a recommendation to use shoulder bolts that are smooth and unthreaded through the tower to prevent crushing. Also, many of the storage containers are cracked and need replacement.  Need to inventory and rebuild these kits.
  5. We have a trailer, affectionately referred to as BOB (the Big Orange Box) at the Nashua Wastewater Treatment Center. I understand this could use some reorganization.  We need mount some brackets to the wall to get things up off the floor.  Also, we should group each of the tower kits together.

So what should you expect from me?  I will be looking to divide the work up into a series of teams and assign leads for each.  The teams will include a site readiness team, electrical, tower and antenna construction, safety, transportation, food, and potentially others. Many hands make light work, and there’s something here for everyone.

The preparation begins now.  Who said it can’t be Christmas in June?  Let the excitement begin!

Dave, K1DLM

Hashtags: #ARRLFD #N1FD

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