Category Archives: Field Day

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

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

2020 Field Day Results

The ARRL has published the 2020 Field Day Results in the December 2020 Issue of QST.

Field Day 2020 Rule Changes

Due to the pandemic, the ARRL made two rule changes this year.  The first is that stations in category 1D could contact other 1D stations.  The second is that individual submissions could specify a club affiliation and scores would be aggregated by club.

Virtual Site Visit on Zoom
Virtual Site Visit on Zoom

NARS held several activities to help members operating in Field Day to earn bonus points toward their scores.  A virtual site visit via Zoom with Gary Gasdia (father of member Ryan, KC1KJS), who is a member of the Hudson School Board and Community Emergency Response Team Members Patrick, W1YTT, Joe, AC1BG and Dan, W1MUZ helped members with bonus points.  Sterling, AK1K, trained us all and hosted a messaging net to help us get the messaging bonus.   These bonus points helped to increase our score.

Field Day 2020 Scores

Thanks to all of our members who submitted their scores for the Nashua Area Radio Society, our efforts resulted in a total club score of 14,952.  From a quick scan of the line scores published by the ARRL and back of the envelope calculation, we placed in the top 3% of all clubs!

Jeff, AC1FX Operating at Field Day 2020
Jeff, AC1FX Operating at Field Day 2020

We had a total of 16 members contribute their scores toward our aggregate club score:

CallNameOperatorsClassPowerTotal
AB1QBAnita KemmererAB1QB, AB1OC, KC1IMK, AB1BY3ELow3930
AK1KSterling EanesAK1K1ELow1762
NE1RDScott AndersenNE1RD1B1BQRP1300
W1XMMBrian QuickW1XMM1ELow1278
N1CEOPeter DabosN1CEO1ELow1218
NF1HAndrew WuelfingNF1H1DLow958
AC1EVJon TurnerAC1EV1EHigh914
W1YCZMatt TrulandW1YCZ1EHigh838
K1BRMJim LajoieK1BRM1DLow506
NU1TJorgen DahlNU1T1DLow502
W1AKIAron InsingaW1AKI1DLow446
KC1IMKKeith SangilloKC1IML, KC1IMK1DLow390
KC1IMLMark SangilloKC1IML, KC1IMK1B2Low388
AC1FXJeff LalmondAC1FX1DLow214
W1TEDTed TrostW1TED1ELow194
KC1DXLAnthony RizzoloKC1DXL1DLow114

To learn more about our members Field Day 2020 operations, see the field day articles on our blog.

To review the ARRL Results Article, visit the ARRL Web site at https://contests.arrl.org/ContestResults/2020/Field-Day-2020-FinalQSTResults.pdf

To search the 2020 ARRL Field Day score database, visit http://www.arrl.org/results-database  and select 2020 ARRL Field Day from the drop down box.

Winter Field Day 2021

Winter Field Day is coming up on January 30-31.  Similar rule changes have been made due to the pandemic.  If you are interested in operating on Winter Field Day, review and reply to Craig, N1SFT’s post in the Field Day Forum.  Also, plan to join our January Membership Meeting, where Craig will talk about Winter Field Day.

Anita, AB1QB

Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Submitting your Score for Field Day

Field Day 2020 is now over and you have until Tuesday, July 28th to submit your log and bonus points.  Members can find details in our Field Day Forum on the bonus points that we achieved as a group. Here are some guidelines on how to submit your score.

Steps to Submit your Score

  1. Export a Cabrillo file from your logging software
  2. Capture the breakdown of your score by band and mode from your logging program.  For N1MM it is the score window.

    N1MM Score Window
    N1MM Score Window
  3. Collect the evidence required for your bonus points:
    • Natural Power Bonus – List of QSOs made on natural power
    • Formal messaging – Copies of each message you originated, relayed or received (up to 10)
    • Message to ARRL Section Manager (Copy of fully serviced message)
    • Field Day Bulletin – an accurate copy of the message
    • Publicity from the local media – a copy of a press release sent to the local media or a copy of the actual media publicity received.
  4. You can submit your score via the web form provided by ARRL.  The link to this is http://field-day.arrl.org/fdentry.php
  5. On the web form, fill in your information (Call, ARRL Section, Number of Participants, Entry Class, etc.)  For the Club or Group Name, you can enter Nashua Area Radio Society so that your points count toward our club score.
  6. Check off the bonus points that you earned and upload the documents that you collected in step 3.
  7. Use the score breakdown from your logger to fill in the Band/Mode QSO Breakdown.  Note that you may need to combine your QSOs from multiple digital modes on each band to fill in the Digital QSO columns.  For example, in the Score window illustrated above, on 40 meters, we had 128 FT4 QSOs and 9 FT8 QSOS, so I would enter 137 for the total 40m digital QSOs.

    ARRL Webform - QSO Breakdown
    ARRL Webform – QSO Breakdown
  8. Use the “Choose File” button to upload your Cabrillo file.
  9. Check over all of your entries on the web form.  Then fill in your Name, Call, and email at the bottom and submit your entry.
  10. Any questions about bonus points, scoring, or other Field Day rules?  Consult the ARRL Field Day page and review the rules.

Anita, AB1QB presented a segment on Submitting your Field Day score as part of the June Tech Night on Field Day from Home.  For more details on Field Day score submission, you can watch the video of that Tech Night and view the slides on our Tech Night page

Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter, Station Equipment

AC1FX Field Day 2020

AC1FX Field Day – The Shack

My shack is more of a secretary desk of a shack-in- the-box. But it’s not the shack so much as the radio right. This is what I used for Field Day at AC1FX this year.

AC1FX Field Day
My Humble Shack

I have an Icom 7300 running 100W and I connected it to my laptop to log my contacts.

The Antenna
7 band OCF Dipole up 35 ft.

The Antenna

They say the antenna is the most important part of any setup. I’d go as far as maybe half along with the radio. My antenna is a 7 band Off Center Fed (OCF dipole). It’s only up 35 feet so it’s only a half-wave above the ground on 20M. 

AC1FX Field Day - On the Air
AC1FX On the Air

Retrospect

I’m writing this after the fact so my hindsight is clearer. I had a great time this year.  Even though I think I made more contacts with the Club last year, being able to talk to other home class (1D) stations made up for it. I operated on in HF SSB mostly on 80 and 40 Saturday night and 10M on Sunday.  For me, 80 and 40 were open to Penn and New York, while Sunday 10M was more open to Ohio and Illinois. My original plan was to try to sit on a frequency and do a run. That seemed to work well for others but I found out they had higher power output and higher or more directional antennas. I sat on 28.460 around noon today and picked up 6 QSOs but they were relatively local. I then went on search and pounce and had so much fun seeing what was out there.  My most surprising contact was N3FJP of software fame. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was using N1MM+ for my logger. 

Improvements 

Just a few things I would like to do for next time : 

  • If I could get my dipole up to 66 ft it would at least be a ½ wave over the ground on 40M. 
  • Maybe put up my old Cushcraft R8 vertical and see how that goes. 
  • Practice CW more. It seems like they were having fun at the bottom of the bands but the fast pace of a contest and my lack of speed were incompatible.  
  • Do more digital. Although for me this year talking to people did seem fun. 

If you worked field day and are a NARS member don’t forget to add the full club name (Nashua Area Radio Society) in your entry.  See this link for details.

73,

Jeff, AC1FX 

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide