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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Howard Bernstein, WB2UZE, pointed out that learning Morse code is “a fun and educational activity for children of all ages that can fill part of the gap left by the current unfortunate situation that has closed so many schools across the country.”