Winter Field Day 2020 is almost here! A few weekends ago, Jerry K1OKD, Jon AC1EV, Andrew NF1H, Anita AB1QB, and I got together at our QTH to complete the final station test for our planned 5O operation in Winter Field Day (WFD).

Portable Wireless Networking

In preparation for WFD 2020 and our test, I built a new Wireless Networking Pod. This unit was made possible by a very generous donation of a router with LTE wireless access capabilities by Dave, K1DLM.

The system consists of the following components:

• A FortiWiFi 60D 3G 4G Router which includes an LTE modem for wireless internet access
• A NetGear GS516TP 16-Port enterprise-grade managed Ethernet Switch with PoE
• A Cyberpower 700  VA Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS)
• A FortiGate Rackmount kit and patch panel assembly for the Fortigate Router
• A Gator 6U portable rolling enclosure to package all of the components

Our Networking Pod will be used in a number of ways to support Nashua Area Radio Society activities including Youth Expos, Ham Bootcamps, Field Day Operations, Portable Operations, and others. It provides a wired and wireless (via WiFi) network capability including DHCP, DNS, Firewall and other IP services that can be used to network computers running the N1MM+ logger and other apps. It can also be used to provide wireless internet access via LTE in situations where we need this.

Station Testing

We had already assembled and tested our two Winter Field Day 2020 HF/VHF+ Stations during a previous station test so the final test was focused on the three planned HF stations and the networking of the N1MM+ Loggers that we’ll be using.

We set up the three HF stations and connected the associated laptop computers to the Network Pod for the test. Each of our HF stations includes:

• An Icom IC-7300 Transceiver (100w)
• A WinKeyer with a set of CW paddles
• A Heil Headset with a Boom Microphone
• A Footswitch
• A Windows Laptop Computer with an outboard second monitor

We also tested our Triplexer and Bandpass Filtering system along with the radios.

A big part of this test was to get the N1MM Logger+ working with the radios and in a network configuration using the Networking Pod. Networking N1MM+ enables us to maintain a common log across the 5 stations in our Winter Field Day setup. All of the stations were also set up for SSB Voice, CW and Digital operation via N1MM+.

All of the station tests are complete and we are ready for Winter Field Day! Come on out and join us for what I am sure will be a lot of fun!

Fred, AB1OC