W2MMD 9A SNJ
Attention : All Operators and Staff Must Have An HT Tuned To 147.540 MHz Simplex. This is to provide Announcements and Notifications in case of approaching bad weather, meetings, etc.
Here are the links to Neil H. Davis' NJ Advance Media article featuring the GCARC 2024 Field Day activities
Three more articles from NJ.COM :
This Year’s 20M Field Day Antenna
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
Field day is and can be many different things to different people. Among the things that field day can be for me is a chance to play with home brew wire antennas that I might not otherwise had an occasion to try. Such was the case this year. In the past I’d set up a radio as part of our group field day efforts to operate digital with an antenna that allowed the radio to switch between multiple bands. The downside of a multi-band antenna use at a multi-radio field day site is that digital reception did get impacted by a nearby CW station, even when not on the same band as that station. So for this year, I decided early that I’d be operating on just one band, 20M, instead of on multiple bands like I normally do at home. For better adjacent band rejection, this would allow me to try a mono-band 20M antenna, in conjunction with a band-pass filter tuned to pass that just that band to the radio. So that is what I tried. And it worked quite well. For the first time ever, a digital station was competitive with the CW stations we had on site. Might you want to try something like this in your future? Here’s some details, in case you ever do.
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
Field day is and can be many different things to different people. Among the things that field day can be for me is a chance to play with home brew wire antennas that I might not otherwise had an occasion to try. Such was the case this year. In the past I’d set up a radio as part of our group field day efforts to operate digital with an antenna that allowed the radio to switch between multiple bands. The downside of a multi-band antenna use at a multi-radio field day site is that digital reception did get impacted by a nearby CW station, even when not on the same band as that station. So for this year, I decided early that I’d be operating on just one band, 20M, instead of on multiple bands like I normally do at home. For better adjacent band rejection, this would allow me to try a mono-band 20M antenna, in conjunction with a band-pass filter tuned to pass that just that band to the radio. So that is what I tried. And it worked quite well. For the first time ever, a digital station was competitive with the CW stations we had on site. Might you want to try something like this in your future? Here’s some details, in case you ever do.
Configured as illustrated in the picture, the antenna wire was a super-simple single continuous loop of 74 feet of THHN #14 insulated stranded copper wire, long enough to give good SWR with a 4:1 balun at the low end of the 20M band where digital signals are found. The loop was roughly configured into the shape of an upright right triangle, with sides having a 3-4-5 length ratio, with the balun positioned at the bottom corner with the 90 degree angle. The vertical side was the 3 (~18 feet), the horizontal was the 4 (~24 feet), and the sloping long side was the 5 (the remainder, ~32 feet). Mechanically, a single support rope was shot up over a tall tree, then sloped down at an angle with the long side of the antenna wire attached to it. One more piece of rope was attached to the balun and then pulled and tied off at ground level to stretch the vertical and horizontal legs of the antenna out to create the 90 degree angle in the balun corner, resulting it what looked like a floating right triangle overhead suspended by a sloping roping along the triangle’s hypotenuse.
Why shaped like this? Modeling with 4nec2 showed this would be a good mono-band configuration, with broadside gain over dipole, plus some signal going off the sloping side. That’s good for here on the East Coast, where by pointing the sloping side towards the NNW, you would get a desirable pattern of signal spread up and down the East Coast, and out into Alabama and up into Ohio and the Midwest. This worked out quite well, with the added bonus of contacts stretching out all the way out to California and the West Coast later in the day.
To complete the picture, with an approximately 200 ohm impedance with these wire dimensions and feed point location, the 4:1 balun made for a reasonable field-day friendly match to the 50 ohm coax we used. Down at the radio end of the coax, a 20M band-pass filter was attached between the coax and the radio. A built-in tuner in the radio took care of the rest.
That’s it! Feel free to copy and tweak for your own purposes if you ever want to give this design a try.
Good luck!
Why shaped like this? Modeling with 4nec2 showed this would be a good mono-band configuration, with broadside gain over dipole, plus some signal going off the sloping side. That’s good for here on the East Coast, where by pointing the sloping side towards the NNW, you would get a desirable pattern of signal spread up and down the East Coast, and out into Alabama and up into Ohio and the Midwest. This worked out quite well, with the added bonus of contacts stretching out all the way out to California and the West Coast later in the day.
To complete the picture, with an approximately 200 ohm impedance with these wire dimensions and feed point location, the 4:1 balun made for a reasonable field-day friendly match to the 50 ohm coax we used. Down at the radio end of the coax, a 20M band-pass filter was attached between the coax and the radio. A built-in tuner in the radio took care of the rest.
That’s it! Feel free to copy and tweak for your own purposes if you ever want to give this design a try.
Good luck!
Field Day eQSL Cards
20 Meter Digital Field Day Station
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
Thanks to everyone who came by for a bit of socializing and operating at the 20 Meter Digital Station at Field Day this year. It was a very popular station! Many of those who helped at the 20 Meter station also helped at other stations. That’s great! Thank you so much! A huge recognition of thanks in general to everyone who participated in field day this year, given the hot weather conditions. Special thanks to those who helped at the 20 Meter Digital Station, including :
And to the many others who stopped by for a visit and/or to give digital a hands-on try. Without your help, we would not have been able to achieve the positive results we did. Thank you!
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
Thanks to everyone who came by for a bit of socializing and operating at the 20 Meter Digital Station at Field Day this year. It was a very popular station! Many of those who helped at the 20 Meter station also helped at other stations. That’s great! Thank you so much! A huge recognition of thanks in general to everyone who participated in field day this year, given the hot weather conditions. Special thanks to those who helped at the 20 Meter Digital Station, including :
- Jim Wright, N2GXJ
- Earl Moore, KC2NCH
- Rolf Wurmbach, KD2VQG
- Chuck Lanard, KD2EIB
- Marc Federici, WM2Y
- Mark Gottlieb, KK2L
- Alex Duboski, KB2YEF
- Stan Slachetka, WA2JRZ
- Mike Resnick, N2WOQ
- Rose Williams, Associate Member
- Kevin Frank, Recent college graduate
And to the many others who stopped by for a visit and/or to give digital a hands-on try. Without your help, we would not have been able to achieve the positive results we did. Thank you!
How Did We Do At Field Day 2024?
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
A huge thank you to everyone who helped out and participated in this year’s Field Day! So how did we do?
The punch line might be, we survived!
As you probably already know, it was heat-wave hot out this year. And not just for us. It was like this in many locations across the country this year. Yet, as a testament to the can-do attitude and tenacity of your fellow Club members, somehow, collectively we pulled off a 9A sized multi-day outdoor field day effort with bonus activities, with plenty of great food and camaraderie shared by all who came out!
Thank you to everyone, it was quite the group effort!
But more about that at the July 3rd Club meeting and in next month’s CrossTalk. So how did we score this year?
Well, as the guy who volunteered to collect up the station logs and the required evidence of the bonus point activities we wish to claim from our on-site w2mmd field day activities and get them electronically submitted to the ARRL for their review, I’m still working on that. Though the official scores and rankings won’t come out from the ARRL until published in the December edition of QST, I hope to have a preview of our claimed scoring ready in time for the July Club meeting.
So come on out to the July 3rd meeting for some free pizza, crazy field day stories, and (hopefully) an early glimpse of our claimed score. Hope to see you there!
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
A huge thank you to everyone who helped out and participated in this year’s Field Day! So how did we do?
The punch line might be, we survived!
As you probably already know, it was heat-wave hot out this year. And not just for us. It was like this in many locations across the country this year. Yet, as a testament to the can-do attitude and tenacity of your fellow Club members, somehow, collectively we pulled off a 9A sized multi-day outdoor field day effort with bonus activities, with plenty of great food and camaraderie shared by all who came out!
Thank you to everyone, it was quite the group effort!
But more about that at the July 3rd Club meeting and in next month’s CrossTalk. So how did we score this year?
Well, as the guy who volunteered to collect up the station logs and the required evidence of the bonus point activities we wish to claim from our on-site w2mmd field day activities and get them electronically submitted to the ARRL for their review, I’m still working on that. Though the official scores and rankings won’t come out from the ARRL until published in the December edition of QST, I hope to have a preview of our claimed scoring ready in time for the July Club meeting.
So come on out to the July 3rd meeting for some free pizza, crazy field day stories, and (hopefully) an early glimpse of our claimed score. Hope to see you there!
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Donation | Name |
(36) Hot Dogs | |
(36) Hamburgers | |
Rolls - Hot Dogs/Hamburger | |
Meatballs | |
Verchio's Hoagies (14) Hoagies Ordered June 7, 2024 Kathy will pick up Saturday 22nd AM |
Kathy Romeo |
Potato Salad | |
Pasta Salad | Tony Starr, K3TS |
Macaroni Salad | |
Green Salad | |
6 Dozen Eggs | |
Deviled Eggs | |
Baked Beans | |
Sausage/Peppers | |
Water Bottles | |
(50) Breakfast Sausage | |
(30) Hash Browns | |
Lettuce, Tomatoes, Onions (Sliced) | |
3 lbs American Cheese | |
Potato Chips | |
Pretzels | |
Ice (Needed for both days) | Glen Geunther, KE2BUO |
Baked Mac & Cheese | |
BBQ Operators | |
Desserts | |
Desserts - Brownies | Glen Guenther, KE2BUO |
Desserts - Dirt | |
Kitchen Helpers | |
Kitchen Helpers | |
Kitchen Helpers | Jonathan Romeo |
Kitchen Helpers | |
Kitchen Helpers | Updated As Of June 17, 2024 |
Eligibility : Field Day is open to all amateurs in the areas covered by the ARRL/RAC Field Organizations and countries within IARU Region 2. DX stations residing in other regions may be contacted for credit and may submit entries as check-logs.
Object : To work as many stations as possible on the 160-, 80-, 40-, 20-, 15- and 10-Meter HF bands, as well as all bands 50 MHz and above, and in doing so to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less-than-optimal conditions. A premium is placed on developing skills to meet the challenges of emergency preparedness as well as to acquaint the general public with the capabilities of Amateur Radio.
Object : To work as many stations as possible on the 160-, 80-, 40-, 20-, 15- and 10-Meter HF bands, as well as all bands 50 MHz and above, and in doing so to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less-than-optimal conditions. A premium is placed on developing skills to meet the challenges of emergency preparedness as well as to acquaint the general public with the capabilities of Amateur Radio.
2024 ARRL Field Day Rules.PDF
Field Day - June 22 - 23, 2024 |
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Band | Operator | Mode |
Mary Delemarre, W2TDS Lee Hafele, WA2LH |
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Earl Moore, KC2NCH Rolf Wurmbach, KD2VQG Chuck Lanard, KD2EIB Marc Federici, WM2Y Mark Gottlieb, KK2L Alex Duboski, KB2YEF Stan Slachetka, WA2JRZ Mike Resnick, N2WOQ Rose Williams, Associate Kevin Frank |
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Herb Dyer, KT2Y Mike Pentimall, KC3VTF |
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John Zaruba Jr, K2ZA Jerry Barnish, K2EAB |
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WinLink Station |
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(Get On The Air) Station |
Lee Hafele, WA2LH |
100 Bonus Points |
Field Day Chairman - Tony Starr, K3TS tstarr1450(at)gmail(dot)com Chart updated as of June 29, 2024 |
Field Day - June 22 - 23, 2024 |
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4-H Fairgrounds |
Points |
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Checklist |
Points |
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Table |
Points |
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Support Staff |
Todd Foster, W2TEF Beth Barnish, KB2EAL Aimée Ortiz, K9RVT Kathy Romeo Jonathan Romeo Bob Kay, KE2CEG Bob Keogh, KD2NEC |
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Electronic Logs |
Points |
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/Transmitter |
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Generator |
/Transmitter |
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Power |
Points |
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Activity |
Points |
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Participation |
100 Points Max |
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Points |
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Points |
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To Section Manager |
Points |
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Day Message |
Points |
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Message Handling |
100 Points Max |
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Elected Official |
Points |
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Served Agency Official |
American Red Cross |
Points |
Points |
Field Day Chairman - Tony Starr, K3TS tstarr1450(at)gmail(dot)com Chart updated as of June 18, 2024 |
W2MMD Clubhouse
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