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The results of the 2016 ARRL Field Day compared to 2015 Results
Field Day Results are in!
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
As is the ARRL’s tradition, they work to publish the results of June’s Field Day exercises before the end of the year in the December issue of QST magazine. And the results are now in! As you will recall, we operated club portable, off the grid, with 6 simultaneous transmitters this year, all at 150 watts or less, this year, all powered from Al’s home-built electric truck with the ‘big bertha’ generator that has served our field day so well in the past available as a back-up. We never needed it.
According to the QST article, Field Day in the US knows no match for popularity. It is the single most participated in 24-hour Amateur Radio operating event, with over 26,000 persons participating across the US, Canada, and beyond. Though there was a national decline of about 15% in the overall QSO count logged, we still had fun, and did quite good without really even trying.
For those who like to keep score, the ARRL has made detailed results available at http://www.arrl.org/results-database?event_id=80253. Operating under our club callsign W2MMD, out of 2696 entries in the database, you can see score was good enough to place us at #73. Wow! #73 out of 2696! That puts us in the top 3% of scores in the nation! Way to go GCARC!
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
As is the ARRL’s tradition, they work to publish the results of June’s Field Day exercises before the end of the year in the December issue of QST magazine. And the results are now in! As you will recall, we operated club portable, off the grid, with 6 simultaneous transmitters this year, all at 150 watts or less, this year, all powered from Al’s home-built electric truck with the ‘big bertha’ generator that has served our field day so well in the past available as a back-up. We never needed it.
According to the QST article, Field Day in the US knows no match for popularity. It is the single most participated in 24-hour Amateur Radio operating event, with over 26,000 persons participating across the US, Canada, and beyond. Though there was a national decline of about 15% in the overall QSO count logged, we still had fun, and did quite good without really even trying.
For those who like to keep score, the ARRL has made detailed results available at http://www.arrl.org/results-database?event_id=80253. Operating under our club callsign W2MMD, out of 2696 entries in the database, you can see score was good enough to place us at #73. Wow! #73 out of 2696! That puts us in the top 3% of scores in the nation! Way to go GCARC!
Field Day Power Experiment Successful!
By Al Arrison, KB2AYU
For this years Field Day we tried something different to power the operation. Instead of our trusty generator, we used battery power. No, we didn’t have to lug a bunch of heavy lead acid batteries around to each station; we used just one lithium ion battery to run all the stations, for the whole 24 hours! How can that be you say? It just so happens that the battery was very BIG because it normally powers my electric Chevy S10 pickup truck down the road.
The lithium ion battery pack in my truck can hold over 24kWh of energy. That is about the amount of energy a typical household uses in a day, (or to drive my truck about 80 miles). By hooking the battery pack to a 4000W pure sine wave UPS (uninterruptible power supply) we were able to supply the usual 120VAC power to all the stations to use for their rigs, computers, lights and fans.
Once all six stations were operational, I noted that the power draw seemed quite low. Since this had never been tried before, we had our trusty generator ready to go in case of any problems. There were no problems and the battery pack easily supplied power to all the stations for the whole 24 hours. It was nice not having to mess with gasoline or hear the drone of the generator and, as a bonus, it saved us some money. The generator typically uses about 25 gallons of fuel for the 24 hours, or about $50 at today’s prices. It took about 16kWh of electricity to recharge my truck, that’s a whole $2.50 worth of electricity.
So the lesson learned is that the battery pack in an electric vehicle holds enough energy to be a valuable resource in the event of a power outage. I have used my truck to power my entire house during recent power outages. Unfortunately, production electric vehicles do not (yet) have a way to easily access their battery pack and use it as a backup power source.
By Al Arrison, KB2AYU
For this years Field Day we tried something different to power the operation. Instead of our trusty generator, we used battery power. No, we didn’t have to lug a bunch of heavy lead acid batteries around to each station; we used just one lithium ion battery to run all the stations, for the whole 24 hours! How can that be you say? It just so happens that the battery was very BIG because it normally powers my electric Chevy S10 pickup truck down the road.
The lithium ion battery pack in my truck can hold over 24kWh of energy. That is about the amount of energy a typical household uses in a day, (or to drive my truck about 80 miles). By hooking the battery pack to a 4000W pure sine wave UPS (uninterruptible power supply) we were able to supply the usual 120VAC power to all the stations to use for their rigs, computers, lights and fans.
Once all six stations were operational, I noted that the power draw seemed quite low. Since this had never been tried before, we had our trusty generator ready to go in case of any problems. There were no problems and the battery pack easily supplied power to all the stations for the whole 24 hours. It was nice not having to mess with gasoline or hear the drone of the generator and, as a bonus, it saved us some money. The generator typically uses about 25 gallons of fuel for the 24 hours, or about $50 at today’s prices. It took about 16kWh of electricity to recharge my truck, that’s a whole $2.50 worth of electricity.
So the lesson learned is that the battery pack in an electric vehicle holds enough energy to be a valuable resource in the event of a power outage. I have used my truck to power my entire house during recent power outages. Unfortunately, production electric vehicles do not (yet) have a way to easily access their battery pack and use it as a backup power source.
Club Field Day 2016 Chairman : Al Arrison, KB2AYU
Field Day - June 25-26, 2016 |
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Band | Operator | Mode |
Chuck Colabrese, WA2TML Matt Rainey, N2EEE |
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Jim Wright, N2GXJ |
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Willie Ustaszeski, WA2DUV |
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Sheldon Parker, K2MEN Gene Schoeberlein, AA2YO Dennis Sandole, K2SE |
CW |
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Support Staff | ||
Checklist |
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Booth/Table |
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Culinary Staff |
Frank Messick, W2FJM Jim Clark, KA2OSV |
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Electronic Logs |
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Al Arrison, KB2AYU |
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Generator |
Jeff Garth, KC2WCS |
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Activity |
Jim Wright, N2GXJ Michael Weldon, KB2UMJ |
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John Zaruba, K2ZA Jeff Garth, KC2WCS |
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Elected Offical |
Harrison Township |
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Served Agency Offical |
Field Day Chairman - Al Arrison, KB2AYU kb2ayu (at) comcast (dot) net Chart update as of July 6, 2016 |
CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day!
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
As you read about in the President’s message for this month, Field Day is June 25-26 this year. Because we want to be ready to go on the air at 18:00 UTC Saturday (2 pm local time), in accordance with Field Day rules, we allow stations to start their setup any time after 00:00 UTC Friday (8 pm Thursday, local time). Some stations will start their setup Friday afternoon. In the past, some folks have had breakfast at the Harrison House before starting setup Saturday morning. Others will just go straight to the site when they are ready, and start setting up. The Field Day Chairperson is responsible for the overall field setup. Each band chairperson is responsible for their own station setup. That includes setup time, and all equipment including shelter and operating positions, laptops and logging programs, radio, antennas, grounding rods, etc. The club has some folding tables and chairs available in the shed, in case didn’t want to bring your own. New for this year, field day safety officers will be appointed, and asked to inspect each station and complete a checklist to certify that a series of safety concerns have been adequately been addressed. While one of the purposes of the event is to have fun, all participants need to practice safety as well. We are likely to have a number of visitors on site this year, making this even more important. A copy of the checklist appears later in this article. The actual cumulative setup time is less than 24 hours. Because we start setup before 18:00 UTC Saturday, we are allowed to operate 24 consecutive hours of the entire 27-hour Field Day period. For us, this means we pull the plug on stations and start collecting their logs on USB stick from their computer/laptops by 2 pm local time on Sunday.
As described in the ARRL’s Field Day 2016 Rules, the object is to work as many stations as possible on any and all amateur bands (excluding the 60, 30, 17, and 12-meter bands) 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.
A successful field day radio contact requires each station to transfer their field day operating class and ARRL/RAC section information with each other. I’ll talk about our operating class first.
The field day rules define a number of different classes for stations. The operating class consists of a number and a letter (e.g. “A”, “B”, “C”, “D”, “E”, “F”). Special designations of “A-battery” or “B-battery” are used when all contacts are made using an output power of 5 watts or less, and the power source is other than commercial power mains or motor-driven generator. That’s not us. We intend to operate as a Class “A” club station. The letter “A” will be our operating class in all of our radio exchanges. We qualify for this by having a group of 3 or more persons set up specifically for field day, using portable equipment in the fields surrounding our clubhouse, with all stations and antennas lying within an imaginary circle whose diameter does not exceed 300 meters (about 1000 feet), and without using facilities installed for permanent station use or using any structure installed permanently for Field Day. That means all our contacts must be made with transmitter(s) and receiver(s) operating independent of commercial power mains. Depending on output power, our total points get adjusted by a multiplier. So that we can get a “2x” power multiplier applied to our score, all of our transmitters operate with a maximum output power that does not exceed 150 watts. There is a “5x” power multiplier defined for if no contact from any station is made above 5 watts output power. That is not us. There is no “5x” bonus to any of our stations making a QRP contact in this configuration when there is any other station operating above 5 watts, so for maximum QSO counts and points, we encourage all our band chairmen to operate above QRP output levels, if they can, during this event.
I’ve talked about the letter part of the operating class, so now, back to the number part of the operating class. The number represents the maximum number of transmitters that you have set up for field day that could simultaneously be transmitting on the air. The minimum is 1. The maximum for bonus points is 20, though you could (in theory) have a number higher than that. That’s not us! Typically we set up with somewhere between 5 and 7 transmitters at our field day site. Occasionally, we have exceeded 10. It just depends. Per the rules, when counting stations, a 'Get on the Air' or GOTA station, if we have one, does not count in the total. Similarly, if we have a bonus VHF station, and/or a dedicated satellite station, neither of those count in the total. Our actual number is determined by the field day chairman sometime after lunch on Saturday, and then communicated to each of the band chairmen, so that all stations are using the same number value in all of our radio exchanges for the duration of field day.
And then that brings us to ARRL/RAC section. There’s a printed list of two/three letter abbreviations for these. In most cases, they match the state’s abbreviations. For example, “DE” is Delaware, “VT” is Vermont, “MDC” is Maryland/DC, etc. However some states are bigger than others, and some areas of the country are more densely populated than others, so there are a number of cases where the ARRL has split a single state into two or more ARRL sections.
Such is the case for us here in New Jersey and for other stations in NJ and NY that have “2” in their callsigns (e.g. W2MMD). New Jersey is split into Northern NJ “NNJ” and Southern NJ “SNJ”. We’re in Southern New Jersey, so our ARRL/RAC section is “SNJ”. New York is similarly split, but into 4 pieces (NYC/Long Island “NLI”, Eastern NY “ENY”, Western NY “WNY”, and Northern NY “NNY”). Still following me?
The other split states include Massachusetts (EMA, WMA) = typically “1” in their callsign, Pennsylvania (EPA, WPA) = typically “3” in their callsign, Florida (NFL, SFL, and West Central FL “WCF”) = “4”, Texas (NTX, STX, and West TX “WTX”) = “4”, Washington State (EWA, WWA) = “7”, and then there is the most sectioned state, California and the callsign region “6”, which has 10 different section identifiers (East Bay “EB”, Los Angeles “LAX”, Orange “ORG”, Santa Barbara “SB”, Santa Clara Valley “SCV”, San Diego “SD”, San Francisco “SF”, San Joaquin Valley “SJV”, Sacramento Valley “SV”, and Pacific “PAC”). Depending on your band and frequency, you might hear a bunch of these.
Putting it all together, if our number is 6, and our letter is “A”, our exchange will be “6A SNJ”. Phonetically, that would be “Six Alpha, Sierra November Juliette”. Make sense? Don’t worry. After hearing a couple exchanges, you’ll get the hang of it pretty quick. Hope to see you at our site for field day 2016!
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
As you read about in the President’s message for this month, Field Day is June 25-26 this year. Because we want to be ready to go on the air at 18:00 UTC Saturday (2 pm local time), in accordance with Field Day rules, we allow stations to start their setup any time after 00:00 UTC Friday (8 pm Thursday, local time). Some stations will start their setup Friday afternoon. In the past, some folks have had breakfast at the Harrison House before starting setup Saturday morning. Others will just go straight to the site when they are ready, and start setting up. The Field Day Chairperson is responsible for the overall field setup. Each band chairperson is responsible for their own station setup. That includes setup time, and all equipment including shelter and operating positions, laptops and logging programs, radio, antennas, grounding rods, etc. The club has some folding tables and chairs available in the shed, in case didn’t want to bring your own. New for this year, field day safety officers will be appointed, and asked to inspect each station and complete a checklist to certify that a series of safety concerns have been adequately been addressed. While one of the purposes of the event is to have fun, all participants need to practice safety as well. We are likely to have a number of visitors on site this year, making this even more important. A copy of the checklist appears later in this article. The actual cumulative setup time is less than 24 hours. Because we start setup before 18:00 UTC Saturday, we are allowed to operate 24 consecutive hours of the entire 27-hour Field Day period. For us, this means we pull the plug on stations and start collecting their logs on USB stick from their computer/laptops by 2 pm local time on Sunday.
As described in the ARRL’s Field Day 2016 Rules, the object is to work as many stations as possible on any and all amateur bands (excluding the 60, 30, 17, and 12-meter bands) 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.
A successful field day radio contact requires each station to transfer their field day operating class and ARRL/RAC section information with each other. I’ll talk about our operating class first.
The field day rules define a number of different classes for stations. The operating class consists of a number and a letter (e.g. “A”, “B”, “C”, “D”, “E”, “F”). Special designations of “A-battery” or “B-battery” are used when all contacts are made using an output power of 5 watts or less, and the power source is other than commercial power mains or motor-driven generator. That’s not us. We intend to operate as a Class “A” club station. The letter “A” will be our operating class in all of our radio exchanges. We qualify for this by having a group of 3 or more persons set up specifically for field day, using portable equipment in the fields surrounding our clubhouse, with all stations and antennas lying within an imaginary circle whose diameter does not exceed 300 meters (about 1000 feet), and without using facilities installed for permanent station use or using any structure installed permanently for Field Day. That means all our contacts must be made with transmitter(s) and receiver(s) operating independent of commercial power mains. Depending on output power, our total points get adjusted by a multiplier. So that we can get a “2x” power multiplier applied to our score, all of our transmitters operate with a maximum output power that does not exceed 150 watts. There is a “5x” power multiplier defined for if no contact from any station is made above 5 watts output power. That is not us. There is no “5x” bonus to any of our stations making a QRP contact in this configuration when there is any other station operating above 5 watts, so for maximum QSO counts and points, we encourage all our band chairmen to operate above QRP output levels, if they can, during this event.
I’ve talked about the letter part of the operating class, so now, back to the number part of the operating class. The number represents the maximum number of transmitters that you have set up for field day that could simultaneously be transmitting on the air. The minimum is 1. The maximum for bonus points is 20, though you could (in theory) have a number higher than that. That’s not us! Typically we set up with somewhere between 5 and 7 transmitters at our field day site. Occasionally, we have exceeded 10. It just depends. Per the rules, when counting stations, a 'Get on the Air' or GOTA station, if we have one, does not count in the total. Similarly, if we have a bonus VHF station, and/or a dedicated satellite station, neither of those count in the total. Our actual number is determined by the field day chairman sometime after lunch on Saturday, and then communicated to each of the band chairmen, so that all stations are using the same number value in all of our radio exchanges for the duration of field day.
And then that brings us to ARRL/RAC section. There’s a printed list of two/three letter abbreviations for these. In most cases, they match the state’s abbreviations. For example, “DE” is Delaware, “VT” is Vermont, “MDC” is Maryland/DC, etc. However some states are bigger than others, and some areas of the country are more densely populated than others, so there are a number of cases where the ARRL has split a single state into two or more ARRL sections.
Such is the case for us here in New Jersey and for other stations in NJ and NY that have “2” in their callsigns (e.g. W2MMD). New Jersey is split into Northern NJ “NNJ” and Southern NJ “SNJ”. We’re in Southern New Jersey, so our ARRL/RAC section is “SNJ”. New York is similarly split, but into 4 pieces (NYC/Long Island “NLI”, Eastern NY “ENY”, Western NY “WNY”, and Northern NY “NNY”). Still following me?
The other split states include Massachusetts (EMA, WMA) = typically “1” in their callsign, Pennsylvania (EPA, WPA) = typically “3” in their callsign, Florida (NFL, SFL, and West Central FL “WCF”) = “4”, Texas (NTX, STX, and West TX “WTX”) = “4”, Washington State (EWA, WWA) = “7”, and then there is the most sectioned state, California and the callsign region “6”, which has 10 different section identifiers (East Bay “EB”, Los Angeles “LAX”, Orange “ORG”, Santa Barbara “SB”, Santa Clara Valley “SCV”, San Diego “SD”, San Francisco “SF”, San Joaquin Valley “SJV”, Sacramento Valley “SV”, and Pacific “PAC”). Depending on your band and frequency, you might hear a bunch of these.
Putting it all together, if our number is 6, and our letter is “A”, our exchange will be “6A SNJ”. Phonetically, that would be “Six Alpha, Sierra November Juliette”. Make sense? Don’t worry. After hearing a couple exchanges, you’ll get the hang of it pretty quick. Hope to see you at our site for field day 2016!
ARRL Field Day Safety Officer Checklist
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
To qualify for the 100-point Safety Officer bonus, a group must appoint a qualified person/s who are present at their site from the beginning of set-up until the end of break-down. The Safety Officer must certify in writing all of the points below. A completed, signed copy of this checklist must be included with the group’s supporting documentation.
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
To qualify for the 100-point Safety Officer bonus, a group must appoint a qualified person/s who are present at their site from the beginning of set-up until the end of break-down. The Safety Officer must certify in writing all of the points below. A completed, signed copy of this checklist must be included with the group’s supporting documentation.
- Fuel for generator properly stored.
- Fire extinguisher on hand and appropriately located.
- First Aid Kit on hand.
- First Aid, CPR and AED trained participant/s on site for full Field Day period.
- Access to NWS alerts to monitor for inclement weather
- Tent stakes properly installed and marked.
- Temporary antenna structures properly secured and marked.
- Site secured from tripping hazards.
- Site is set up in a neat and orderly manner to reduce hazards.
- Stations and equipment properly grounded.
- Access to means to contact police/fire/rescue if needed.
- Safety Officer is designated point of contact for public safety officials.
- Minimize risks and control hazards to ensure no injuries to public.
- Safety Officer or a qualified designated assistant was on site for the duration of the event.
- As necessary, monitoring participants for hydration and ensures an adequate water supply is available.
May 20, 2016 Update:
GCARC members, please have a look at the band chairman chart below. Vinnie, N4NYY, will be on 10M Phone on Saturday only. Maybe someone could do it on Sunday? If nobody wants 10M CW and 15M CW, I would like to see someone run Digital in place of CW on those bands. Maybe Gloucester City can do 80M Phone if no club member steps up. At this time we will not be running Digital on 80,40, and 20 because of interference issues.
Wayne, WA2LET, and Frank, W2FJM, have again agreed to handle the food facilities this year. But we would all appreciate if some of our club members would volunteer to help them out. Either your time and/or bringing some side dishes, etc. would be gratefully welcomed.
Remember, everyone is invited to come out and operate for whatever amount of time you can spare. If you just want to observe and learn a few things, that’s fine too.
GCARC members, please have a look at the band chairman chart below. Vinnie, N4NYY, will be on 10M Phone on Saturday only. Maybe someone could do it on Sunday? If nobody wants 10M CW and 15M CW, I would like to see someone run Digital in place of CW on those bands. Maybe Gloucester City can do 80M Phone if no club member steps up. At this time we will not be running Digital on 80,40, and 20 because of interference issues.
Wayne, WA2LET, and Frank, W2FJM, have again agreed to handle the food facilities this year. But we would all appreciate if some of our club members would volunteer to help them out. Either your time and/or bringing some side dishes, etc. would be gratefully welcomed.
Remember, everyone is invited to come out and operate for whatever amount of time you can spare. If you just want to observe and learn a few things, that’s fine too.
February 20, 2016 Update:
Greetings GCARC members, I will be Field Day Chairman for 2016 and I want to get started on planning well in advance. This year we are going to try some new things to maximize our score and minimize interference.
These include:
As you may know, it is hard enough to have 2 stations on one band (CW and SSB), adding a 3rd (digital) is not really possible without alternating with either the cw or ssb station on that band. The workhorse bands are 80, 40, and 20 Meters. I would like to see a serious effort given on those bands. If you want to run 10 or 15 Meters that is fine, but with sunspots what they are, contacts will be limited unless you get a sporadic “E” opening. VHF and UHF bands are generally not worth the effort for the few local contacts that are available.
I am looking for band captains, especially for the “workhorse” bands 80, 40, and 20 Meters. Band captains are responsible for supplying the equipment and operators for their band/mode. I want to know what rig you will be using and what antenna you are considering. The band captains will be looking for operators to help keep their stations on the air for as much of the 24 hour period as possible.
Important! This event is for everyone. I do not expect everyone to be a seasoned contester. I would like to see as many Club members as possible come out, operate, observe, learn, and have fun.
Greetings GCARC members, I will be Field Day Chairman for 2016 and I want to get started on planning well in advance. This year we are going to try some new things to maximize our score and minimize interference.
These include:
- Station physical layout on the grounds
- All rigs checked with a spectrum analyzer for “cleanliness”
- Use tuned coaxial stubs to notch harmonics
- All stations properly grounded
- Help with obtaining and erecting good performing Field Day antennas
As you may know, it is hard enough to have 2 stations on one band (CW and SSB), adding a 3rd (digital) is not really possible without alternating with either the cw or ssb station on that band. The workhorse bands are 80, 40, and 20 Meters. I would like to see a serious effort given on those bands. If you want to run 10 or 15 Meters that is fine, but with sunspots what they are, contacts will be limited unless you get a sporadic “E” opening. VHF and UHF bands are generally not worth the effort for the few local contacts that are available.
I am looking for band captains, especially for the “workhorse” bands 80, 40, and 20 Meters. Band captains are responsible for supplying the equipment and operators for their band/mode. I want to know what rig you will be using and what antenna you are considering. The band captains will be looking for operators to help keep their stations on the air for as much of the 24 hour period as possible.
Important! This event is for everyone. I do not expect everyone to be a seasoned contester. I would like to see as many Club members as possible come out, operate, observe, learn, and have fun.