The Nashua Area Radio Society held our first face-to-face event since the start of the pandemic when we gathered at Keyes Memorial Park in Milford, NH for ARRL Field Day from June 25th – 27th. Field Day 2021 was a great success! It was great to see all of the members who attended, especially those new members who we have previously only met over Zoom.
Station Setup
For a successful Field Day operation, it is important to have a detailed plan for stations, antennas, operating schedules, transportation, and even food. 3 weeks before Field Day, we met at AB1OC‘s and AB1QB‘s QTH to setup the stations, logging computers, and the network to make sure they all worked together. Similar sessions were held to test antennas and also train the teams on how to set up the antenna, tower, and stations and how to operate.
Doug, KC1OUY, Jon, AC1EV, Jim, K1BRM and Fred, AB1OC test out the Field Day Stations
As chairperson of the Station Team, I created detailed documentation of all of the station equipment and connections, trained the team on how to set up stations, and assigned specific roles. We were responsible for setting up the following:
4 HF Stations including coax connections to the antennas
The Satellite Station
The Network and all ethernet connections
The Generators and power distribution
Overhead lights and desktop lights and fans
The Food and Public Information Tables
The Station Setup Team included Jon, AC1EV, Jack, WM0G, Ryan, KC1MAJ, Jeffrey, KC1LWE, and Doug, KC1OUY. We had a great, hard-working team and got the stations set up in record time. We appreciate everyone’s hard work with set up as well as takedown. Special thanks go out to:
Jeffrey , KC1LWE for setting up the Satellite station based on my documentation – few if any changes were needed for Fred to get it to work once the antennas were connected.
Doug, KC1OUY for running all of the cables and making them neat enough so that they were not a hazard for all of the club members and visitors.
Ryan, KC1MAJ and Jack, WM0G for setting up “NARS P&L” – the power and lighting.
Jon, AC1EV for donating his station and helping to set up the HF stations.
Tower Team
Tower and Antenna Setup
The Tower and Beam teams did an equally great job at setup and N1FD was on the air before dark! We tested FT8 before sundown and were able to hear JA stations on 15 meters!
HF Tower with 10m-15m-20m Yagi and 40m and 80m Inverted-V Dipole Antennas
Mentoring and Training
Abby, AB1BY Provides Training on Fox Hunting
Training and Mentoring are an important part of Field Day. We have helped many new members to become licensed in the past year, but it important to help them get on the air as well. Field Day is a great opportunity for new Hams to help out with building stations and develop operating skills. The Nashua Area Radio Society accomplishes this through training and hands-on opportunities during Field Day. Before the official start of Field Day Operations at 2:00 pm Local time on Saturday, we held 2 Training Sessions, one on Satellite Operation and another on Fox Hunting.
Satellite Station Training
Field Day Operations
Our members enjoyed operating and kept the stations busy throughout the Field Day Operating period.
Jack, WM0G Operating at Field DayThe Trost Family -Thomas, KT0MAS, Ted, W1TED, Tory, K1VATAbby, AB1BY and Dave, KM3TJohn (W1MBG) and Joyce (KC1JMK) KesloJamey, AC1EV – Better known as “Abby’s Dad” Competes with her for the Top SSB Operator
Station setup will take place on Friday, June 25th with on-site activities beginning at 11 am.
We will hold a training session on our Stations and other Field Day fun on Saturday, June 26th starting at 12:30 pm. Training will cover:
Operating FT8 Digital and Using the 6m Station
Operating Using the Satellite Ground Station
Fox Hunting
Field Day Operations will begin at 2 pm on Saturday, June 26th, and go for 24-hours ending at 2 pm on Sunday, June 27th. We will take down our station beginning at 2 pm on Sunday.
We will be holding a Message Passing activity on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 pm. This is a great activity for Technicians – bring your HT and learn how to pass emergency message traffic at Field Day. Contact Aron at [email protected] for more information and to sign up.
Field Day at the Nashua Area Radio Society is all about learning and trying new things. We encourage you to sign-up to operate our stations and to learn about modes and bands you may not have experience with. In addition to our planned training, we will have Field Day Coaches available to help you get started and learn to use our Station, and have fun operating.
If you’d like to learn more about Amateur Radio, we’d like to invite you to visit us at Keyes Memorial Park during Field Day. Noon into the evening on Saturday, June 26th, and Sunday morning, June 27th, up until 2 pm in the afternoon would be a great time to stop by. We’ll be happy to show you around our site, answer your questions, and even get you on the air a bit if you’d like. Also, if you have an HT, bring it and you can hunt our Foxes (hidden radio transmitters).
Logistics for Field Day
We will be operating in the Open-Air Pavillion at Keyes Memorial Park. This will provide shelter should we have any rain. The Pavillion is one-air and this will facilitate safe social distancing and an outdoor environment.
We encourage everyone to get vaccinated for COVID-19 if possible before Field Day. Our site is set up to facilitate social distancing and we will have masks and sanitization supplies available onsite for those who need them.
Several members have graciously volunteered to handle Take Out food runs during Field Day operations. We will also have water and light snacks available.
If you have any questions about Field Day, please post them as part of this thread or email us at [email protected]. We hope that you’ll join us for Field Day!
2020 was a year that most people would like to forget. However we had a great year at the Nashua Area Radio Society, as we continued to have great meetings and activities online despite the pandemic. Here is our 2020 Year in Review.
Winter Field Day
WFD 2020 Operations
Winter Field Day 2020 was held the last weekend in January. We improved our score by over 100% and came in 2nd in the Outdoor Category. See this article for more on our operation and this article for the results. This was the last major event that we were able to spend together.
Craig N1SFT Working to setup for Winter Field Day
The Pandemic – Meetings Moved Online
May Meeting – Bob Heil, K9EID
When the Coronavirus Pandemic hit, we could no longer meet together. We moved our meetings online and continue to hold our monthly membership meetings and tech nights over Zoom web conferencing. Although we miss getting together in person, this allowed us to include our internet members in our meetings. In addition, geography was no longer a barrier so we brought in some great speakers for our monthly meetings including Bob Heil from Ham Nation, Tim Duffy, K3LR from DX Engineering, Ray Novak from Icom, Fred Lloyd from QRZ, Doug Grant, K1DG, world class contester, and more!
Tim Duffy, K3LR Speaking at June Membership Meeting
September Meeting – Doug Grant, K1DG – Getting Started in Contesting
Ray Novak, N9JA, tells us about the Icom-705 at our November Meeting
Summer Field Day – 2020 Year in Review
Field Day Virtual Site Visit on Zoom
The Nashua Area Radio Society decided to not hold a large group operating event for Field Day 2020 due to the pandemic and the need to social distance. The ARRL modified the rules to allow Category D (Home w/non-emergency power) stations to contact each other and to allow operators to designate a club with their entries.
We held a social distanced field day but still maintained a few of the annual field day activities. Sterling, AK1K took the lead in teaching us all how to send and receive messages for the messaging bonus, and led a messaging net during Field Day. We also held a Zoom meeting and invited an elected official and several club members who are in public agencies so that the members attending could claim those bonuses. Club members who were operating published articles with their plans on the website. You can visit this link to see the Field Day stories.
Our total club score was 14,952, and put us in the top 3% of all clubs.
Jeff, AC1FX Operating at Field Day 2020
Summer Field Day Antenna Setup at Jon, AC1EV’s Station
Spencer Webb, W2SW, Taught us about Antennas, Feedlines and much more!
In addition to taking our membership meetings online, we also took our Tech Nights online each month. This allowed our members as well as internet subscribers to have access to the live training sessions. We had some great speakers including Spencer Webb, W2SW, Jamey Finchum, AC1DC, Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC and learned all about EME, Antennas, Contesting, Portable Operating, PCB Design with Eagle and more! Members and Internet Subscribers can find video recordings of our tech nights on our website.
Jamey, AC1DC, Teaches us about Portable Operations
Gordon West Checks In to Technician Class
We also took our license classes online this fall. We are now offering an online exam session after the class to all students in the class. Gordon West dropped in to offer some words of encouragement to our Technician class! Our Spring 2021 Classes are on the calendar and registration is open.
Class Zoom
Ham Bootcamp
October 2020 QST Cover
This year we took our Ham Bootcamp program online. We held an all day Ham Bootcamp on Saturday November 7th, where we taught new and inactive hams the skills they need to get on the air. The session was very successful – we had over 200 people attend! The ARRL published an article about our Ham Bootcamp in the October Issue of QST, which helped Hams all over the country and in Canada find out about it. Our next Ham Bootcamp is scheduled for April 24th, 2021. See this article for more information and links to register for Bootcamp.
Thanks to our Ham Bootcamp instructors, Abby, AB1BY, Jamey, AC1DC, Aron, W1AKI, Burns, WB1FJ, Fred, AB1OC and Anita, AB1QB.
Abby Speaks About Fox Hunting in Fall 2020 Ham Bootcamp
Membership
300 Member Cake
2020 was a great year for membership! We celebrated over 300 members at our December Meeting – an increase of over 100 members since 2019! We now have over 240 regular members and over 80 internet subscribers!
Student Teacher Contest Series
Keith Sangillo, KC1IMK – Winner of the Student Teacher Contest Series
We held a Student Teacher Contesting competition this year to encourage young people to get on the air and develop their operating skills. The winner was Keith Sangillo, KC1IMK, who won an IC-7300. Abby Finchum, AB1BY was a close 2nd and will win a DX Engineering Hex Beam Antenna.
NARS in the Media – 2020 Year In Review
Ham Nation Bob with Ham Bootcamp QST Article
The Nashua Area Radio Society got quite a bit of media exposure this year. We published 2 articles in QST, were on Ham Nation twice, and were mentioned in a youth contesting article in the National Contest Journal.
Jim, K1BRM, tells Ham Nation audience about the NARS QSO Party
Our activities chairperson Jim, K1BRM was interviewed by Val, NV9L on Ham Nation to publicize the NARS QSO party, which we held in the fall. We also publicized Ham Bootcamp on that episode.
Note that ARRL Membership is Required to access QST and NCJ online
December Meeting
We ended the year with a memorable December Meeting, where we held Elections, heard from our NH Section Manager, John Gotthardt, K1UAF. We even had a visit from Santa where we could tell him Ham toys we want for the holidays! I hope everyone got what you wanted!
Santa at December Meeting
As we close 2020, we are hoping for a better 2021, and that we can finally get together in person with our fellow club members. We wish all of you a Happy and Healthy New Year!
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