Tag Archives: Station Building

Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

2020 Field Day Plans for W1YCZ – My First Field Day

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As a new ham, I have been eagerly anticipating the ARRL Field Day 2020 and the opportunity to learn from my fellow club members. While plans have changed due to social distancing measures surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, the challenge of planning the logistics of my first Field Day at home has me just as excited. I plan to divide my time between my home station, and a small park in my neighborhood (weather permitting). The following is what I am planning for W1YCZ’s first Field Day.

Home Station on Emergency Power

W1YCZ Field Day
W1YCZ Home Station Operating Position

I will be operating from my home station for most of the Field Day period. I will be using an Icom IC-7300 Transceiver at up to 100W. The antenna is a MyAntennas End Fed Half Wave Antenna, mounted about 40 feet up from the roofline of my house into the tree line across my yard. With this setup, I can reasonably cover 80m through 10m with the 100W of power provided by my transceiver. I have had great success with this station so far. While operating from my home, I will be operating SSB and will spend a fair of time in the FT8 and FT4 digital modes.

W1YCZ Field Day
Primary Antenna – MyAntennas End Fed Half Wave Antenna (EFHW8010) covering 80m through 10m

The emergency power source for my station will be an 8kW portable generator connected via a transfer switch. The generator will provide power for all essential circuits in the home for the duration of my Field Day operation.

Portable Station on Battery Power

W1YCZ Field Day
Typical Portable Station setup for W1YCZ | Icom IC7300, Chalemeon F-Loop 2.0, 15Ah Bioenno LiFePo Battery

Depending on the weather, I may spend some time operating at a small park down the street from my home. When operating away from home I bring my Icom IC-7300, a portable antenna, and a battery pack. My antenna is the Chameleon F-Loop 2.0, which covers 80m through 10m. The antenna admittedly has relatively low power limits (10W full duty-cycle, 25W SSB). Though I would love to run a full 100 watts when operating in the field, operating QRP is a fun challenge. I will primarily operate SSB with this setup.

15Ah Bioenno LiFePo Battery mounted in a mini ammo box

Power for my portable station is provided by a 15Ah Bioenno Lithium Iron Phosphate battery. I recently built an enclosure for the battery using a mini ammo box. I mounted the battery inside the box and added a bank of Anderson Powerpole connectors to the top of the box. The box is light, only takes up a small amount of space at my operating position, and protects the battery from the elements.

More Information about W1YCZ

If you are interested in more information about me, please visit my QRZ webpage at http://www.truland.net.

Matt, W1YCZ

Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Getting Started With Amateur Satellites (and Progressing to Linear Birds)

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We get quite a few requests from folks to explain how to get started with Amateur Radio Satellites. Requests for information on how to build a computer-controlled ground station for Linear Satellites are also pretty common. I recently got such a request from our CWA class so I decided to put together a session on this topic…

Source: Getting Started With Amateur Satellites (and Progressing to Linear Birds)

We recently put together a presentation and demonstration on Getting Started with Amateur Radio Satellites. We covered quite a bit of ground during the presentation including:

  • How to put together a simple station and work FM EasySats with HTs and a handheld antenna
  • A recorded demonstration of some contacts using FM EasySats
  • How-to build a computer-controlled station and work Linear Transponder Satellites
  • Fixed and Portable Satellite Station Antenna options
  • A recorded demonstration of some contacts using Linear Satellites
  • How-to work digital (APRS digipeater) contacts
  • How-to receive SSTV Transmissions from the ISS

We recorded the session so that we could share it with folks. The link above will take you to our Blog where you can view the presentation video and Powerpoint. The post also includes links to many additional articles about building and operating Amateur Satellite Stations.

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Antennas, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air, Station Equipment

June Meeting – The K3LR Super Station

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Don’t miss our June membership meeting, where we welcome Tim Duffy, K3LR who will speak about the K3LR Super Station.

Tim’s station is one of the top Multi-Multi Contest Stations in the world.  He is also the CEO of DX Engineering.  Tim’s accomplishments in Amateur Radio include the following and more:

  • Founder and Chairman of Contest University
  • President of the Mercer County Amateur Radio Club
  • Active in RACES, ACS and ARES
  • Hosted Youth Contest teams at the K3LR Super Station for major contests
  • Member of the CQ Contest Hall of Fame
  • Was on Team USA for the World Radio Team Championship (WRTC) five times.
  • Chairman of the World Wide Radio Operators Foundation (WWROF)
  • Recipient of the 2015 Amateur of the Year Award presented by the Dayton Hamvention® Awards Committee and the 2016 YASME Excellence Award.
K3LR Super Station Photo from QRZ.com
K3LR Super Station Photo from QRZ.com

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 2nd starting at 7:00 pm and will be held online via a Zoom Conference.  You can find the Zoom link on our main page, n1fd.org.  Scroll down to the meeting announcement to see the link.  If you have not been on a Zoom meeting before, I would recommend joining at least 15 minutes early.

Join us on Tuesday, June 2nd to hear all about the K3LR Super Station.  Hope to see you on Zoom!

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide