Category Archives: Field Day

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

Antennas, Digital, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Station Equipment

6m Field Day Station

We’ve been busy getting ready for Summer Field Day 2021 at the Nashua Area Radio Society. Our plans include putting up a Tower, a Computer-Controlled Satellite Station, and an upgraded 6m Field Day Station.

6m Field Day Station - LFA Yagi
6m LFA Yagi

Our 6m Field Day station will be a portable setup and features a new antenna – a 3-Element Loop Fed Array (LFA) Yagi from InnoVAntennas. There are some advantages to LFA Yagi’s for the 6m band and above. In particular, Yagis using an LFA design are less susceptible to noise and interference which is a big advantage for weak-signal work on the 6m Band.

6m Field Day Station - LFA Yagi on Mast
6m LFA Yagi on Mast

Our Yagi is lightweight which makes it ideal for portable applications like Field Day and Mount Topping. Aron, W1AKI, and Jamey, AC1DC helped me to assemble the antenna and put it up on a 25 ft fiberglass mast here at our QTH for testing. The antenna is fed with LMR-400uF coax and rigged with a rotator loop near the top of the mast so that the antenna can be pointed by rotating the mast at the base. The setup is easy to put up – it takes about an hour to do it.

6m Portable Station
6m Field Day Station

We also use the 6m LFA antenna project as an opportunity to assemble and test our 6m Station for Field Day. The station is an all-mode setup that can do SSB Phone, CW, and WSJT-X Digital (FT8/FT4, Q65, MSK144, etc.). The station will be generator powered at Field Day but it can also be run using a solar/battery setup when Mountain Topping.

The station features an IC-7300 Transceiver (100w), a Winkeyer and Paddles for CW, and a Windows laptop computer running the N1MM+ logger and WSJT-X. The station will also sport a second monitor for Field Day.

N1MM+ Logger on 6m
N1MM+ Logger on 6m

The N1MM+ Logger works great with the IC-7300 and WSJT-X digital. It supports the all-mode station configuration nicely and it is well integrated with WSJT-X making the logging of FT-8 and other Digital Mode contacts simple. N1MM+ also supports voice recording and keying of the IC-7300 which is a great aid during longer operating events like Field Day.

6m Field Day Station - PSKReporter Test of Portable 6m Station
PSKReporter Test of Portable 6m Station

So how does the upgraded setup play on 6m? Very well! The image above is a snapshot from PSKReporter during our testing session. As you can see, we were using FT8 to test the station and we were heard up and down the eastern U.S. states.

WSJT-X FT8 Decode using 6m Portable Station

Signals were strong in WSJT-X FT8 mode and it was easy to make contacts. We made about 50 contacts during our testing of the 6m Feild Day Station.

The LFA Yagi hears really well making for reliable decodes of signals in the -18 range and often weaker.

6m Meteor Scatter Pings

For fun, I decided to try some 6m Meteor Scatter contacts using the MSK144 mode. This is a challenge with a 100W station as Meteor Scatter general needs a bit of power to work well. As you can see from the image above, we had no problems decoding meteor pings from stations in the midwestern US. I even managed to complete a couple of contacts using Meteor Scatter on the 6m Band.

All in all, we are very pleased with the performance of our upgraded 6m Field Day Station. If we can get a similar Es opening to what we have been seeing here during the last two days, we should have a lot of fun on the Magic Band at Field Day!

Fred, AB1OC

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

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