Tag Archives: On The Air

Field Day, General, Newsletter, On The Air

A Newbie’s First Field Day Reflections

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I have been taking a bit of time before I posted on the website about Field Day 2016. I have been recently trying to consciously temper my inherent impulsiveness both in my thoughts and words and therefore found this to be a good opportunity to reflect on my thoughts for this event. Since it was my first Field Day, and I am a new HAM, I definitely want to get this right!

Admittedly, the build up and anticipation for the day had been steadily growing. My wife, co-workers, and family were getting sick of me talking about it. Jealous they were, I would say to myself. They just don’t get it. How could they not think it was cool that a bunch of folks would be erecting antenna towers and wire antennas — operating a myriad of SDRs — figure out how to meaningfully wire together all the hardware and electronics lying around to make some QSO a few hundreds (if not hopefully thousands of miles) away? If you asked me the Friday that we were setting up what Field Day would look like for me, I would have readily replied late nights with my IC-7300, pounding back hot coffee, and chatting up some folks in California. What I didn’t expect, however, was that Field Day became an opportunity to become further invested into a club in which I started to feel like I belonged more and more.

It was pretty obvious early on I wasn’t going to get a ton of operating time. And that was fine. There were so many folks on the air, working pileups, and not noticing the passage of time. Clearly time is a relative quantity — and I didn’t need Special Relativity to explain that one! What struck me, looking around, was that these were my people! Now, I have been to my fair share of physics conferences back in the day. Even after a day of intense workshops, folks would be sitting around in some exotic locale, drinking the local brew, and even in their free time they would talk physics. Ever since I left academia I had missed that. A lot. I became fortunate to re-encounter that again during Field Day. A lot of like-minded, technically competent, curious people, sat around the food tent and talked about something they really loved to do.

So I embraced it. So what if I got 30 minutes here, or 45 minutes there. I am going to have plenty of time to make QSO’s. What I decided was important that weekend, was to be within strike distance of the knowledge bombs being dropped by all the Elmers on the fields of Hollis Brookline High School. And in between the moments of intense radio and engineering carnage, I also found time to just shoot the breeze with folks too. We talked about families, other interests/hobbies (though we clearly do not devote as much time to them — the other hobbies that is), and plans for the rest of the summer.

Field Day 2016…my first Field Day, mind you, did not go as I planned.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t say that was totally fine! I am quite happy for how it turned out and I wouldn’t trade that experience for a different one. I hope to the people that I spoke to, that I helped put a smile on your face and made the weekend as enjoyable as you did for me. Many thanks NARC!

73,
Brian (AB1ZO)

Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

Summits on the Air (SOTA)

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On Saturday, June 18th as I was heading home from a workshop I presented in Portland, ME I heard a CQ from KB1RJD on the VHF National Calling Frequency (146.520) for Summits on the Air from Mount Washington in New Hampshire – over 100 miles away. I answered their call but they could not get the last letter of my call sign, so I could not log the QSO. After getting home I looked up more information on Summits on the Air.  Abby and I both love to hike and be outdoors and of course combining that with ham radio sounded like a lot of fun and didn’t seem to take any more equipment than what I already have – plus I had just purchased a new VHF/UHF 5 element, Elk Yagi.

Making SOTA contacts on Pack Monadnock on 2M with an Elk 5 element yagi!

Sunday morning, Abby (KC1FFX) and I headed up to Pack Monadnock (W1/HA-041). It wasn’t too far away and we thought it would be a great first try for an activation. If nothing else we would enjoy some beautiful weather on Father’s Day together! We jumped in the car with the ELK Yagi and a 5 watt HT on battery power. We also brought my IC-7100 and a buddipole. Let me tell you, we had a blast! We had so much fun on 2 meters with the handheld that we never got to setting up the buddipole.

Abby Pack Monadnock SOTA
The antenna got heavy trying to hand hold it so we found a stick that fit it almost perfectly!

It was a gorgeous weather and we made 12 contacts as far away as Plymouth, MA and Madison, NH! We really enjoyed the directional antenna and trying to “home” in on signals – we seemed to get better as the day went on.

We’re already looking forward to our next SOTA activation. When we got home we started looking at all the other mountains and hills in the area. There is a list of summits here.

Jamey Pack Monadnock SOTA
A gorgeous day and a lot of fun!

We would love to hear from others that have tried SOTA before or if anyone would like to team up and activate a summit!

73,

Jamey KC1ENX
Abby KC1FFX

CW and QRP, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

CW Ops Using Winkeyer and a Decoder

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Ira (KC1EMJ) and I helped set up the IC-7300 80, 15, and 10m CW station. We were short a CW operator.  Having my license for only 8 months with over 1000 SSB QSOs and zero CW contacts in the log I wasn’t a CW op but the station was available and the field day clock was running. My ability to copy is improving but very limited. On the run up to Field Day I had some experience with N1MM, Fred (AB1OC) added a WinKeyer and loaded his macros, and I had CW Skimmer already installed on the laptop. What more could I need?

It only took a few minutes to get the ICOM IC-7300 and CW Skimmer setup for reliable decoding. It was exciting when the decoder finally started displaying “CQ CQ FD DE CALL-SIGN” for each station I tuned in. I have included a simulated display showing a decoded message.image001 I was in business! Or so I thought.

With Search and Pounce selected, the WinKeyer was setup so the laptop keyboard’s F1 key was QRL?, F2 the exchange (class and section), F3 TU for “thank you” and so on through F9.  I assumed one would start with F1, and progress to F2, and then F3, what is QRL anyway? After decoding a “CQ FD call-sign” and entering the call into N1MM I hit F1, and then decoded a “don’t say you do not hear me”.

I moved up the band and tried it again with the same result. It was great I was making contacts, but not so great they was throwing bricks. A quick check with Mike (K1WVO) I found QRL is “Are you busy?”. As a Phone op I had never used QRL, we just ask “is the frequency is in use”. Soon I was responding with N1FD instead of QRL? The Caller returned his class and section.

With his call entered into N1MM it was easy to send his call sign with a tap of the F5 key, F2 for 7A and NH, and after his TU I would send a TU and QSY to the next station and repeat the process. It had transitioned from real exciting (meaning a bit stressful)  to real fun fairly quickly.  The lesson I learned is to take the time to understand the message stored behind each “F” key even when time is short and the contest or Field Day has started.

The experienced CW operators were using the same process that I was using with WinKeyer, N1MM, and the keyboard. The one difference  is they were decoding CW with their ears, and not a decoder.

It wasn’t long before I ran out of new stations to work. I switched from searching for stations in “Search and Pounce” mode  to “Run” meaning I stayed on one frequency and called CQ. The F1 key became CQ. It wasn’t long before I had a short run of 5-6 QSOs one right after another, but it quickly came to an end. There are few targets on 80m in the early evening and I worked them all. I was headed home just as the band was heating up at midnight… Next year I’ll take the midnight to daylight shift and plan to copy code with my ears…and not a decoder.

With a little practice, this form of operating is effective for contests and Field Day where the exchange is simple. The high rate you can add new stations to the log definitely makes it fun.

Hamilton (K1HMS)

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide