Transcript Field Day 2013 Presentation - York County Amateur Radio Society

York County Amateur Radio Society
K4YTZ
Andy Kunik
AE8J
May 28, 2013
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Purpose of Field Day
Basic rules
Contact exchange
Scoring
Station setup
Contact logging
Tear down
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Emergency preparedness
 Training ourselves
 Demonstration of emergency preparedness
to the public, government & served agencies
 Experimentation with antennas,
portable equipment and
emergency power sources
Social gathering
 Eating and imbibing
 Camaraderie and friendship
 Weekend getaway
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Chance to try different radios
Learning new skills
Recruiting new hams and new club members
Challenge of operating in abnormal situations
and less than ideal conditions
Something for everyone
Contest and competition
FUN!
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First Field Day in 1933
Started simple with a few participants and low
scores (by today’s standards)
Annual tradition that grew and grew
The most popular ham event of the year
Detailed history in Dec. 99 QST, page 28
http://p1k.arrl.org/pubs_archive/97445
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Many hams profess no interest in operating
radio on Field Day, but in reality they’re often
reluctant to participate because of:
 “Mike Fright”
 Unfamiliarity with contesting procedures
 No experience on HF
(ham radio is more than 2M repeaters)
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Those of us with experience are here to help
you become comfortable with operating in an
easy and non-threatening way
Consider us your “Elmers”
(ham jargon for mentors)
So here we go….
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All amateurs in US and Canada and
Possessions
DX stations may be contacted for credit but are
not eligible to submit entries
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Contact as many other stations as possible
on all amateur bands
(excluding 60, 30, 17 and 12 meter bands)
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
 Acquainting the general public with the capabilities
of amateur radio
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Always the fourth full weekend in June
June 22-23, 2013
Begins at 1800 UTC (2 pm EDT) Saturday June
22 and ends 24 hours later
Exception: Class A and B stations that do not
begin setting up until 1800 UTC may operate
27 hours
Nobody can start setup before 1800 UTC
Friday
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We will start setup Saturday morning at 10 am
and operate until we run out of operators
Place: YCARS clubhouse
Family members and non-ham friends
welcome to attend
Cookout Saturday from
4:00 to 6:00 pm
Breakfast Sunday
morning at 7:00 am
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Entry categories are based on:
Number of transmitters operating simultaneously
 YCARS will have 2 transmitters
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Both stations will use the YCARS club call
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Does not include bonus stations such as:
K4YTZ
 GOTA Station
 VHF Station if someone wants to set it up
 Satellite Station if someone wants to set it up
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Does include a natural power demonstration station if
someone wants to set it up
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Class A – portable station with 3 or more
operators, using 100% emergency power
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This is our class – we will use a gasoline generator
Class AB (battery) – same, 5 watts max.
Class B – portable station with 1 or 2 ops.
Class C – Mobile station
Class D - fixed station on commercial power
Class E – fixed station on emergency power
Class F – Operation from an established
emergency operations center
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Get On The Air Station
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Must use a different call sign
Only open to Class A and F with 2 or more Xmtrs.
Same exchange as other transmitters
Only open to Novices, Technicians or otherwise
inactive hams or to non-licensed public
A control operator must be present for non-hams
Max. 500 contacts for credit + bonus points
Obey third-party traffic rules for unlicensed
operators
Double points if a dedicated GOTA captain is
appointed
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Phone, CW and Digital are considered separate
bands
All voice contacts (SSB, FM, AM, satellite)
one point each
All digital contacts (PSK31, RTTY, packet, etc.)
2 points each
CW contacts, 2 points each
Batteries may be charged while in use, but not
from commercial mains
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Can only work each station once per band and mode
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For example you can work each station once on 20M phone,
once on 20M CW, once on 20M digital mode, for a total of 5
points
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You can work the same station on other frequency bands and
modes for additional points
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In order to make a valid contact, the
information to be exchanged consists of
Number of transmitters at your site
 Class of operation
 ARRL Section
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Examples
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On phone – “Two Alpha, South Carolina”
On CW – “2A SC”
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71 Sections
Basically each US state and Canadian province
Some states divided into several sections
South Carolina is one section
 New Jersey is 2 sections
 Texas is 3 sections
 New York is 4 sections
 California is 9 sections
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Details in Handout
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Use 2 or 3 letter abbreviations
SC - South Carolina
 GA - Georgia
 EMA – Eastern Massachusetts
 LAX – Los Angeles
 WTX – West Texas
 NFL – Northern Florida
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You MUST memorize and be familiar with ITU
phonetics on phone exchanges
Alpha
Hotel
Oscar
Victor
Bravo
India
Papa
Whiskey
Charlie
Juliet
Quebec
X-ray
Delta
Kilo
Romeo
Yankee
Echo
Lima
Sierra
Zulu
Foxtrot
Mike
Tango
Golf
November
Uniform
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Two basic strategies
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Hunt and Pounce
Roam the bands, looking for stations
who are calling CQ and answering them
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Sitting on a frequency calling CQ and waiting
for stations to answer you
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You can be selective who you contact
Useful in contests where multipliers are ARRL
sections, DX zones and other selective
categories because you can hunt for specific
multipliers to increase your score
You can avoid stations with
big pileups which waste your
time and reduce your Q rate
(QSO’s per hour)
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You never know who will answer
May not work as many multipliers
Usually can work a lot more stations
(more points, higher Q rate)
Easy to do with voice recorder or memory
keyer
May have to handle
a pileup at times
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CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day from K4YTZ, Kilo
Four Yankee Tango Zulu
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K8XYZ, here is Kilo Eight X-ray Yankee Zulu
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K8XYZ, please copy Two Alpha, South Carolina
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QSL, please copy <static crash!>…
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K8XYZ, please repeat the exchange
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Three transceivers
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One primary phone station
One primary CW station
GOTA Station
Antennas
80M dipole
 40 / 15M dipole
 Tri-band Yagi
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1 point for each voice contact
2 points for each CW or digital contact
Add total points for all QSOs
Power level multiplier
QRP 5 watts or less – battery power 5x
 QRP 5 watts or less – generator powered 2x
 Low power (< 150 watts) 2x
 High power (> 150 watts) 1x
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100% Emergency Power – 100 points per xmtr
Media Publicity – 100 Points
Public Location – 100 Points
Public Information Table – 100 Points
Originating message to SM – 100 Points
Site visit by elected gov. official – 100 Points
Site visit by served agency rep. – 100 Points
Web submission of FD Entry – 50 Points
Youth participation 20 points ea. (up to 100)
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Entries may be submitted to the ARRL
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Via internet (50 bonus points)
Via email
Via land postal or delivery service
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Entries must be submitted by July 23, 2013
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See official rules for details
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Used to be manual with paper and pencil
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Needed to record date, time, call sign, exchange
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Needed to fill out “dupe” (duplicate) sheet
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Needed to add up points, multiply by
multiplier and add in bonus points
Tedious and lots of opportunity for errors
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Advantages
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Tracks number of QSOs, Q rate, multipliers worked
and current score at all times
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Avoids working stations more than once (dupes)
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Can format log for digitally submitting entry via
internet so that log can be checked electronically
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Multiple stations can be networked via cable or
wirelessly so others can see progress of the group
Year
Class
2002
1E
2003
No Results
2004
QSO’s
Power
Participants
Total Score Stations
Ranking
376
2
8
782
133
76
1E
818
2
8
1,868
175
35
2005
3A
790
2
20
2,506
260
122
2006
No Results
2007
2E
693
2
21
2,264
22
9
2008
2E
845
2
8
1890
26
8
2009
2D
161
2
4
492
19
11
2010
No Results
2011
4A
273
2
16
1,022
124
120
2012
3A
125
2
12
452
316
316