Category Archives: Station Equipment

Articles about Radios, Amplifiers, Tuners and related Ham Station Equipment. Fixed, Portable and Mobile Station Equipment Articles are included.

Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter, Station Equipment

Final Field Day Station Test

Field Day Station Test - CW
CW Station Heaven

What goes into an 11A Field Day? Well, for starters, 13 stations! We got together at AB1OC/AB1QB’s QTH a couple of weekends ago to set up ALL of our Field Day stations at once and test them together. Here’s a rundown of the final Field Day Station Test setup:

  • Three CW Stations
  • Three SSB Stations
  • Three Digital Stations
  • A 160m All Mode Station
  • A VHF+ All Mode Station for 6m, 2m, and 70cm
  • A “Free” Satellite Station
  • A GOTA Station

Each station has a Laptop Computer with one or more monitors running the N1MM+ logger in a networked configuration. We also had the Scoreboard computer (Anita’s Surface Pro) running for the test.

Jon, AC1EV took the lead on getting the CW stations set up and working. This was true “CW Heaven”!

Field Day Station Test - SSB
SSB Station Testing Fun

Scott, NE1RD spent the day sorting out our three SSB stations. We even got Voice Keying to work!

Field Day Station Test - Digital
Digital Station Testing

Dave, K1DLM and Charlie, W1CBD spent the day getting our three Digital Stations to work with four FlexRadio SDRs. Anita, AB1QB took care of our WSJT-X, RTTY, and PSK configurations for the Digital Stations. Dave also got the GOTA SDR station working in his “spare time”.

Field Day Station Test - 160m All Mode Station
160m All Mode Station Test

I spent my day working on the 160m All Mode and the VHF+ Stations. These stations were a challenge because they needed to run SSB, CW, and WSJT-X together with N1MM+. We finally found a software combination that worked for all of this.

Portable Satellite Station
Computer Controlled Satellite Station

Fortunately for me, our Portable Computer Controlled Satellite Station was already set up and ready to go. This is a Mac-based station and we’ll be transferring our satellite contacts into the N1MM+ Windows world via an ADIF file transfer.

160m All Mode Station Main N1MM+ Monitor

It took all of us pretty much an entire day (and most of an evening) to get all of this working correctly. In the end, we made a bunch of test contacts and confirmed that all 13 computers kept the correct logs and scores. With this done, we are all set for Field Day 2019!

Fred, AB1OC

Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Satellite Station 4.0 Part 8 – GPSDO Frequency Locking

Frequency accuracy and stability become more challenging for transceivers that operate at 400 Mhz and above. Our 4.0 Satellite Stations operate at frequencies approaching 1.3 GHz and we want to be sure that their frequencies are accurate and stable. We decided to add GPSDO Freqeuncy Locking to the Icom IC-9700 in our Portable Satellite Station…

Source: Satellite Station 4.0 Part 8 – GPSDO Frequency Locking

We recently added a GPS Disciplined Oscillator (GPSDO) to the IC-9700 in our Portable Satellite Station 4.1. The addition was easy to accomplish and it locks our Icom IC-9700 Transceiver’s frequencies to the very accurate and stable clock from GPS satellites. You can read more about out GPSDO Frequency Locking project via the link above.

Fred, AB1OC

Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter, Station Equipment

Field Day 2019 Station Test and Plans

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Several of us got together at our QTH this past weekend to begin testing our stations for Field Day 2019. The image above shows the setup and testing of our Digital and CW stations in progress. The Setup and Test Team included:

Field Day 2019
New Elements for Field Day 2019

As always, our Field Day 2019 plans include several new elements (see above). We will again be using the N1MM+ logger in a networked configuration. The planned size of our station (11A with 14 transmitters, and 4 Towers on the air) makes it essential that we set up and test our stations including the associated computers and software ahead of time.

Field Day 2019 Station test
Triplexer and Filters

We began our tests by configuring and cabling our Filter Boards and attaching dummy loads in place of antennas for testing. The first phase of the test concentrated on the multi-band SSB, Digital, and CW stations so antenna switches were added to the mix to enable us to switch antennas/bands.

Field Day 2019 Station Test
SSB Station Test

The photo above shows the SSB multi-band station test in progress. Most of our stations will be using IC-7300 Transceivers as is the case with the SSB test station shown above.

Field Day 2019 Highlights and Plans

We are planning on being an 11A station with four towers for Field Day 2019. Here’s a list of our planned stations:

  • CW Stations – 20m, 40m, and 10m/15m/80m
  • Digital Stations – 20m, 40m, and 10m/15m/80m (FT8, RTTY, and PSK)
  • SSB Phone Stations – 20m, 40m, and 10m/15m/80m
  • All Mode 160m Station (SSB, CW, and Digital)
  • All Mode VHF+ Station on 6m, 2m, and 70cm (SSB, FM, CW, and Digital) – using an IC-9100 and featuring rotatable yagis and tower-mounted LNAs
  • SSB Phone GOTA Station – sharing four Flex SDRs with the Digital Stations
  • A Computer Controlled Satellite Station – using the new IC-9700!
  • A Talk-in GoKit 2m/70cm FM station in the Public Information Tent

We will have a total of 14 transmitters on the air!

Field Day 2019
Field Day 2019 Site Layout at Hudson Memorial School

Our antenna plans include the addition of a fourth tower for VHF/UHF weak-signal operation. Work is underway to ready our towers and antennas for Field Day 2019 as well.

Overall Schedule for Field Day 2019

We will be holding our Field Day at the Hudson Memorial School again this year. The chart above shows our planned schedule for setup and operations for Field Day 2019.

Field Day 2019 Team Leads

It takes a lot of help and planning on the part of many NARS members to pull off a Field Day at the scale that we do each year. Without everyone’s help, we would not be able to do Field Day 2019. Thank you, team!

Meetings to Plan, Learn, and Sign-up

We are planning to share our plans, sign-up operators and the setup/teardown teams, and provide training for Field Day 2019 at our June Membership Meeting and Tech Night as follows:

Also, we will be holding Field Day Planning meetings as follows:

  • Equipment Prep Conference Call  – Thursday, May 30th at 6 pm (contact Anita at [email protected] for the Webex information)
  • Field Day Planning Meeting – Thursday, June 6th, 6 pm at the Nashua Public Library
  • Field Day Planning Meeting – Thursday, June 13th, 6 pm at the Nashua Public Library
  • Final Field Day Planning Meeting – Monday, June 17th, 6 pm at the Nashua Public Library

All NARS members are welcome and encouraged to attend our Field Day planning meetings.

Fred, AB1OC

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