Category Archives: Field Day

Club and member activities related to the Nashua Area Radio Club’s Field Day operations.

Activities, Antennas, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Winter Field Day 2020 Is Coming

Winter Field Day 2020 is coming! The dates are January 24th – 26th, 2020. We had a lot of fun at Winter Field Day 2019 and we’re looking forward to the event again this year. The Nashua Area Radio Society will again be holding our operation at Keyes Memorial Park in Milford, NH. We are planning several new things this year. Here’s some more about our plans.

Our Planning Team

Operator Night Shift - The Most Interesting Hams In Amateur Radio...
WFD 2019 Operator Night Shift – The Most Interesting Hams In Amateur Radio…

A team has been working on our plans for Winter Field Day (WFD) 2020 for over a month now. The planning leads include:

  • Jerry Doty, K1OKD – WFD Overall Planning Leader
  • Craig Bailey, N1SFD – Antennas and Power Chairperson
  • Jon Turner, AC1EV – Station Chairperson
  • John Slater, KB1EEU – Shelter Chairperson
  • Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC – VHF+ Chairperson

Winter Field Day 2020 Plans?

2 pm and We Are On The Air! Winter Field Day 2020
WFD 2019, 2 pm and We Are On The Air!

With help from many other members, our Winter Field Day 2020 planning team is putting together a really cool operation. Some of the highlights include:

  • We will be operating on all of the HF bands from 160m through 6m.
  • Our antenna farm will include a 40 ft tower with a tri-bander and wire antennas for 80m and 40m
  • Our antenna farm will also include a second 40m wire antenna (a Delta Loop) that will enable us to have two transmitters on 40m at the same time.
  • We are planning an additional transceiver and we will be entering as a 5O (five Tx Outdoor) station this year
  • We are adding quite a few new bands on VHF and above. We’ll be on 6m, 2m, 1.25m (222 MHz), 70cm, 33cm (902 MHz), and 23cm (1.2 GHz). We will have yagi antennas for all of these bands.
  • John Slater is working on an improved shelter and heating system to keep us warm and dry
  • We will be equipping Rover stations for the VHF+ bands (2m, 1.25m, 70cm, 33cm, and 23cm). These stations will have Phone, CW, and Digital capabilities. We hope this will provide opportunities for enhanced VHF+ activity for all of the Winter Field Day stations in our area.
  • Our computer-controlled satellite ground station will be back

Upcoming Activities

Winter Field Day 2020
New for Winter Field Day 2020 – 1.25m Yagi

We have several activities leading up to Winter Field Day 2020. All NARS members are invited to join us for these activities. Planned activities include:

  • Saturday, November 23rd at 10 am – Yagi building party at AB1OC/AB1QB. We’ve secured several new Yagi’s to use for the VHF+ bands this year. We’ll be assembling the one for the 1.25m (220 MHz) band and testing in our shop. We’ll also recondition the driven element of a large 70cm yagi as well. This is a chance to see how a VHF+ weak signal antenna goes together.
  • Friday  November 29th at 9 am – VHF+ Mast Test at AB1OC/AB1QB. We are planning a second mast for our VHF+ antennas for Winter Field Day. During this session, we’ll be setting up the new mast with the antennas for 1.25m, 33cm, and 23cm to check it out and cut a new set of guy ropes.
  • Tuesday, December 10th at 7 pm – Winter Field Day 2020 Tech Night. We will be covering all aspects of antenna building, station setup, and operating for Winter Field Day 2020 at our December Tech Night.

We are also planning station tests for our HF and VHF+ stations in the near future.

Signups for setup and operating during Winter Field Day will be available at our December Membership Meeting.

We hope you’ll join us for our Winter Field Day activities and operation!

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Education and Training, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Youth Activities

Membership Renewals

Close to 40% of our members are up for renewal in the month of September.  We encourage those members to renew early,  beat the rush, and make sure your membership does not expire.  This article will show you how to tell when your membership is up for renewal. It will also show you how to renew your NARS membership online.

When is My Membership Due for Renewal?

Looking up my membership status
Looking up my membership status

You can visit the following page to see when your membership is up for renewal: https://www.n1fd.org/member-directory/.   Scroll to the 2nd table on the page, titled Membership Roster and Status, put your callsign in the search box and hit return.  As you can see above, I have looked up my membership status and I see that my membership is expiring in September 2019.

Membership Renewal Form
Membership Renewal Form

 

How to Renew Your Membership

To renew your membership, you can fill out the membership renewal form at the following page:  https://www.n1fd.org/renew-your-membership/.  At the end of the form, you will be asked to pay your membership fee using PayPal.

We have multiple membership renewal options to choose from if you qualify, with the following yearly fees.  Make sure you take advantage of a discounted rate if you qualify:

  • Regular Membership:  $31
  • Senior Membership (Age 65 or over): $26
  • Full-Time Student: $26
  • Family Membership: $46
Field Day 2019 Team

Your membership allows you to participate in all of our activities including:

HAB-3 Students and Teachers - Ready to Launch
HAB-3 Students and Teachers – Ready to Launch

Your membership in the Nashua Area Radio Society also supports our education and youth outreach work including:

  • Amateur Radio Licensing class delivery and scholarships for students, teachers, and young people
  • STEM Education for school students through Amateur Radio (ex. our High-Altitude Balloon program)
  • Activites to introduce young people and new Hams to Amateur Radio such as ARRL Kids Day, ARRL Rookie Roundup, and other youth outreach activities

If you are not yet a member, you can join the Nashua Area Radio Society online at https://www.n1fd.org/join-us/

 

Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Field Day 2019 Recap

Field Day 2019 was one to remember.  We built an 11A station with a new VHF Tower and 160 meters.   Setup and takedown went smoothly.  The operating positions were full for most of the event.  We increased our score by more than 3,000 points over last year!

Field Day Site
Field Day Site

Hudson Memorial School proved to be a great Field Day Site for the 2nd year.

Transportation and Setup

Tower and Antenna Setup
Tower and Antenna Setup

Setting up at Field Day was a challenge, with 4 towers, the 160-meter wire antenna, and RBOG and the Satellite station.  Thanks to a hardworking and organized team led by Craig, N1SFT, we had everything onsite by Thursday evening or Friday morning and the Tower and Antenna setup went very smoothly.  We even had some professional help, when Matt, KC1XX showed up!

VHF Tower
VHF Tower

Here is the newest addition to field day, the VHF Tower.  With the antennas on the tower and the use of FT8, we had a record number of 6-meter contacts.  And Fred was able to walk the VHF bands with a few clubs to get some QSOs on 2 meters and 70 cm as well.

Field Day 2019 Operation

Ryan, KC1KJS, operating at Field Day
Ryan, KC1KJS, operating at Field Day

At 2:00 pm local time, the operations began and continued for 24 hours. It was great to see some of our younger members operating at Field Day.

CW Operations
CW Operations

We also had world class contesters Matt, KC1XX and Bob, WA1Z in the CW Tent along with Dennis, K1LGQ.

Keith, KC1IMK at the Digital Station
Keith, KC1IMK at the Digital Station

We had a very cool high tech Digital setup with 3 stations running FT8 using networked Flex Radios and antennas on a 60 ft tower.  Thanks to Dave, K1DLM,  for providing this setup.

Abby, AB1BY Operating at Night
Abby, AB1BY Operating at Night

Operations continued all night.  Rumor has it that Abby, AB1BY and her dad Jamey, AC1DC operated SO3R in the Digital tent on FT8.

Great Food

Jerry, K1OKD at the Grill
Jerry, K1OKD at the Grill

We also had world class food at Field Day.  Thanks to Jerry, K1OKD, Food team lead and Andrea, KC1JDX and Peter, KC1FNF, we never went hungry.

Sterling, AK1K
Sterling, AK1K

Thanks to Sterling, AK1K, we got 200 bonus points for messaging and had fun in the process handling the messages.

Field Day Site after Field Day
Field Day Site after Field Day

We left the site just as it was when we arrived. Thanks to all who helped take everything down and bring it all back to BOB!

Field Day 2019 Results

Field Day Results
Field Day Results

Here are our 2019 Field Day Results – a big improvement over last year!  Thanks to everyone who helped out with Field Day – too many to mention in this article.  This was one of our best Field Days ever! You can see more detail on our score and the list of our Top Operators on our Field Day page.

Anita, AB1QB

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