Category Archives: Field Day

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

Activities, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Space

2016 – A Record Year for Nashua Area Radio Club On The Air Operations?

July 17, 2016 Fred Kemmerer 1 Comment

The first half of 2016 is behind us and I believe that we are well on our way to a record year as far as contacts made by our club. Among other things, I have had the fun of being the QSL manager for our club as well as for the New Hampshire stations (K2K) for the 13 Colonies Special Event.

Members of our club have made a total of 13,787 contacts so far this year using a combination of the N1FD call sign and K2K New Hampshire. All of these contacts represent a great effort on the part of our members. For me, the real story here is about the fun we’ve had together on the air and the great progress that many of our newest members have made in developing their operating skills along the way.

Learning About Contesting

ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB - A First Contest — ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB – A First Contest

Our first major on the air operation was the ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB Contest in April. This contest is for Amateurs who have been licensed for 3 years or less and it’s a great opportunity to try contesting and to learn HF operating skills.

We entered using our club call sign, N1FD in the multi-op category and took first place! More importantly, many of our recently licensed members got a chance to get on the air and begin developing their operating skills. The group made 280 QSOs and had a lot of fun. You can read more about this operation here on our Blog.

Mobile Contesting

We got a chance to try contesting from a mobile as part of the 2016 New England QSO Party (NEQP). Several of us got together for a weekend of activating counties and having fun as part of this contest. We operated as N1FD/M and the contest gave us a chance to develop and hone our SSB contesting skills further.

In addition to many county line activations in MA, NH, and VT, we also activated two National Parks. In spite of difficult band conditions, we made 631 QSOs and had a great time. You can read more about this operation here.

Field Day

Next came our 2016 Field Day operation. We tried several new things as part of Field Day this year. One of these was LEO Satellite operations. Several club members got together to build a great LEO Satellite Station and several of us made our first Satellite contacts while testing it prior to Field Day.

June and July represented a Tsunami of Amateur Radio operating for several of us. This period began with the best Field Day operation that I have ever been part of. We built quite a station and had a great time using it to operate during Field Day 2016.

2016 Field Day - Many Members Came Out — 2016 Field Day – Many Members Came Out

We had a great turn out for Field Day this year with a mix of newer folks who were experiencing their first Field Day and the seasoned veterans in our club who have done Field Day many times before. The camaraderie and the learning were fantastic!

2016 Field Day - We Continued Practicing and Building Our Operating Skills — 2016 Field Day – We Continued Practicing and Building Our Operating Skills

Many of our members operated during our 2016 Field Day operation and our diligence paid off. We increased both our score and the number of contacts (2,464) made by a significant amount over last year and had a great time doing it!

Our 2016 Field Day Highlights Video

The video above has some highlights from our 2016 Field Day operation. You can read more about it on our Field Day page and here on our Blog.

Thirteen Colonies Special Event

13 Colonies Special Event - K2K New Hampshire QSL — 13 Colonies Special Event – K2K New Hampshire QSL

Next came the 13 Colonies Special Event. I am the manager for the New Hampshire Colony which operates under the K2K call sign each year. The K2K operating team was made up entirely of Nashua Area Radio Club members this year. This event produces huge pileups and it really challenges one’s operating skills.

13 Colonies - A Chance To Operate in a Large Special Event — 13 Colonies – A Chance To Operate in a Large Special Event This

We operated using a combination of SSB Phone, Digital, and CW and the club members made a total of 9,719 contacts!

13 Colonies 2016 - K2K NH Top Club — 13 Colonies 2016 – N1FD Top Club Certificate

This was more than enough to make the Nashua Area Radio Club the Top Club in the event! We used the 2016 event to further develop our operating skills as well as provide opportunities for new Amateurs to have fun on the air and make contacts.

National Parks On The Air (NPOTA)

Activating Saint-Gaudens NHS NPOTA - Operating Portable on 20m — Activating Saint-Gaudens NHS – Operating Portable on 20m

Our most recent operation was the Activation of Saint-Gaudens NHS as part of the ARRL’s NPOTA program. Aron Insinga, W1AKI, and his XYL Merle, W1MSI have been working on this project for some time and it was great to see it come together to result in a very successful activation. You can learn more about Saint-Gaudens and out plans to activate it here on our Blog.

Activating Saint-Gaudens NHS as part of NPOTA

We activated Saint-Gaudens on Sunday, July 10th with two stations – a 20m portable station using an Inverted-V antenna and 100W and a mobile station on 40m running 500w.

Activating Saint-Gaudens NHS NPOTA - Operating Mobile on 40m — Activating Saint-Gaudens NHS – Operating Mobile on 40m

We again had a good mix of experienced operators and newer folks from our club. It was especially great to see how well some of the newer folks have come along in terms of their operating skills. The group made a total of 528 QSOs in a little over 4 hours and had a great time doing it! We are all looking forward to our second planned NPOTA activation later this summer on August 7th.

There have been some other, smaller operations too such as our trial run earlier this year at Saint-Gaudens NHS and as part of our training sessions which proceeded several of these operations.

Final Thoughts

Highlights From Nashua Area Radio Club’s 2016 Activities

I must say that I don’t think I have ever seen a group of Amateur Radio Club members do so much operating on the air within such a short period of time. Check out the video above for, In particular, I believe that some of our newer members are well on their way to becoming world-class operators if they keep going the way they are. Anita, AB1QB and I find it particularly rewarding to have the chance to be part of helping our club to grow and to build our skills. It has been truly a privilege to be part of the Nashua Area Radio Club team.

73,

Fred, AB1OC

Hashtags: #ARRLFD #N1FD

Field Day, General, Newsletter, On The Air

A Newbie’s First Field Day Reflections

July 11, 2016 Nashua Area Radio Society 1 Comment

I have been taking a bit of time before I posted on the website about Field Day 2016. I have been recently trying to consciously temper my inherent impulsiveness both in my thoughts and words and therefore found this to be a good opportunity to reflect on my thoughts for this event. Since it was my first Field Day, and I am a new HAM, I definitely want to get this right!

Admittedly, the build up and anticipation for the day had been steadily growing. My wife, co-workers, and family were getting sick of me talking about it. Jealous they were, I would say to myself. They just don’t get it. How could they not think it was cool that a bunch of folks would be erecting antenna towers and wire antennas — operating a myriad of SDRs — figure out how to meaningfully wire together all the hardware and electronics lying around to make some QSO a few hundreds (if not hopefully thousands of miles) away? If you asked me the Friday that we were setting up what Field Day would look like for me, I would have readily replied late nights with my IC-7300, pounding back hot coffee, and chatting up some folks in California. What I didn’t expect, however, was that Field Day became an opportunity to become further invested into a club in which I started to feel like I belonged more and more.

It was pretty obvious early on I wasn’t going to get a ton of operating time. And that was fine. There were so many folks on the air, working pileups, and not noticing the passage of time. Clearly time is a relative quantity — and I didn’t need Special Relativity to explain that one! What struck me, looking around, was that these were my people! Now, I have been to my fair share of physics conferences back in the day. Even after a day of intense workshops, folks would be sitting around in some exotic locale, drinking the local brew, and even in their free time they would talk physics. Ever since I left academia I had missed that. A lot. I became fortunate to re-encounter that again during Field Day. A lot of like-minded, technically competent, curious people, sat around the food tent and talked about something they really loved to do.

So I embraced it. So what if I got 30 minutes here, or 45 minutes there. I am going to have plenty of time to make QSO’s. What I decided was important that weekend, was to be within strike distance of the knowledge bombs being dropped by all the Elmers on the fields of Hollis Brookline High School. And in between the moments of intense radio and engineering carnage, I also found time to just shoot the breeze with folks too. We talked about families, other interests/hobbies (though we clearly do not devote as much time to them — the other hobbies that is), and plans for the rest of the summer.

Field Day 2016…my first Field Day, mind you, did not go as I planned.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t say that was totally fine! I am quite happy for how it turned out and I wouldn’t trade that experience for a different one. I hope to the people that I spoke to, that I helped put a smile on your face and made the weekend as enjoyable as you did for me. Many thanks NARC!

73,
Brian (AB1ZO)

CW and QRP, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

CW Ops Using Winkeyer and a Decoder

July 5, 2016 Hamilton 3 Comments

Ira (KC1EMJ) and I helped set up the IC-7300 80, 15, and 10m CW station. We were short a CW operator. Having my license for only 8 months with over 1000 SSB QSOs and zero CW contacts in the log I wasn’t a CW op but the station was available and the field day clock was running. My ability to copy is improving but very limited. On the run up to Field Day I had some experience with N1MM, Fred (AB1OC) added a WinKeyer and loaded his macros, and I had CW Skimmer already installed on the laptop. What more could I need?

It only took a few minutes to get the ICOM IC-7300 and CW Skimmer setup for reliable decoding. It was exciting when the decoder finally started displaying “CQ CQ FD DE CALL-SIGN” for each station I tuned in. I have included a simulated display showing a decoded message. I was in business! Or so I thought.

With Search and Pounce selected, the WinKeyer was setup so the laptop keyboard’s F1 key was QRL?, F2 the exchange (class and section), F3 TU for “thank you” and so on through F9. I assumed one would start with F1, and progress to F2, and then F3, what is QRL anyway? After decoding a “CQ FD call-sign” and entering the call into N1MM I hit F1, and then decoded a “don’t say you do not hear me”.

I moved up the band and tried it again with the same result. It was great I was making contacts, but not so great they was throwing bricks. A quick check with Mike (K1WVO) I found QRL is “Are you busy?”. As a Phone op I had never used QRL, we just ask “is the frequency is in use”. Soon I was responding with N1FD instead of QRL? The Caller returned his class and section.

With his call entered into N1MM it was easy to send his call sign with a tap of the F5 key, F2 for 7A and NH, and after his TU I would send a TU and QSY to the next station and repeat the process. It had transitioned from real exciting (meaning a bit stressful) to real fun fairly quickly. The lesson I learned is to take the time to understand the message stored behind each “F” key even when time is short and the contest or Field Day has started.

The experienced CW operators were using the same process that I was using with WinKeyer, N1MM, and the keyboard. The one difference is they were decoding CW with their ears, and not a decoder.

It wasn’t long before I ran out of new stations to work. I switched from searching for stations in “Search and Pounce” mode to “Run” meaning I stayed on one frequency and called CQ. The F1 key became CQ. It wasn’t long before I had a short run of 5-6 QSOs one right after another, but it quickly came to an end. There are few targets on 80m in the early evening and I worked them all. I was headed home just as the band was heating up at midnight… Next year I’ll take the midnight to daylight shift and plan to copy code with my ears…and not a decoder.

With a little practice, this form of operating is effective for contests and Field Day where the exchange is simple. The high rate you can add new stations to the log definitely makes it fun.

Hamilton (K1HMS)

Learning About Contesting

Mobile Contesting

Field Day

Thirteen Colonies Special Event

National Parks On The Air (NPOTA)

Final Thoughts

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide