PAARA will again be holding its annual Field Day event at Bedwell Bayfront Park in Menlo Park on June 28 & 29 this year.
In an expansion from last year’s effort, we will be competing in Class 3A, with 3 primary HF stations, adding a dedicated digital mode station running FT4/8 on 20 Meters. Marty, W6NEV will captain this station.
In addition, we will have 2 other HF stations, running amplifiers to increase transmit power following last year’s rule change allowing up to 500 watts, captained by Ric, N6AJS primarily our CW station and Harry K4YR, running mostly phone.
We have always had a BIG signal from our excellent location, featuring sloping terrain angled down to the saltwater marsh at the edge of the bay giving us the “saltwater amp” effect, increasing our signals even more.
Our intention is to keep these stations staffed and operating for the entire 24 hours of the event. That means there will be ample opportunities to work the biggest operating event of the year, from excellent stations in an outstanding location. Please sign up for some seat time. Advance sign-ups can be made at tinyurl.com/FieldDaySchedule.
As always, we will have our excellent GOTA station to give interested visitors who have never been on HF the opportunity to operate under the guidance of one of our coaches.
Returning to the mix this year will be UHF/VHF/satellite operations, captained by Justin, AI6YM, featuring his impressive home-brewed azimuth/elevation rotor system for the satellite antenna array he has designed and built.
Advance preparation for Field Day will include several (likely 3) antenna work parties at KG6LWE’s San Martin QTH, and Network Day to connect all the radios and logging computers on a couple of tables in Marty’s garage to work out any connection or communication issues before getting to the park.
We have always enjoyed these “work parties” and have found them to be good team-building opportunities, as well as good practice in assembling the antennas and getting them up in the air. If you’re interested in coming out for a couple of fun days in the sun with the team, please let Doug, KG6LWE know. Planning for these is already under way.
We will be returning to our previous practice of beginning setup at the park on Thursday afternoon, with the erection of one of our AB-621 military mast systems with our big triband KT-34XA beam antenna on top. Work will continue Friday morning with the erection of another AB621, with another beam, the 20 Meter monobander for Marty’s digital station, followed by the assembly and erection of the monster 4 element 40 Meter beam on the tower trailer. An 80 Meter dipole will also be strung up for nighttime operations. GOTA’s Buddihex antenna will likely go up Saturday morning.
We will again set up the food and socializing area at the usual spot at the fork of the road leading up to the ridge. This entails setting up the big red canopy, anchoring it against the wind and dragging tables and chairs out of the box trailer and setting them up
With the step up to 3A, there will be even more to do at the park, so we’re looking for volunteers to help with setup and teardown too. Many hands make light work of all of this, so please bring yours out to the park to join the big team effort.
As always, the “You work, we feed” rule will be observed, staring with burgers, hot off the grill at the San Martin work parties, with make-it-yourself sandwiches for lunch at the park on Friday and Saturday, and hot soup and hot dogs for dinner Saturday night. Thanks to Rob for feeding us so well.
For questions about Field Day or to volunteer to help, you can contact Doug, KG6LWE PAARA’s Field Day Coordinator at his new PAARA e-mail address, kg6lwe@paara.org (Thanks Sorin).
Field Day
By Jack Daane, KR6CD
Field day is an emergency communication exercise. Each year, during the last full weekend in June, amateur radio operators presume there has been a major disruption to electric power and commercial communication systems. The power is off, there is no local phone service, no long distance, no cell phone, no internet service, even some of the government radio systems have been knocked out. In response, amateurs assemble two-way radio stations operating on emergency power to transmit messages over the amateur bands.
In a real emergency, radio amateurs would send messages, telegram style, for public officials over these stations. For example, the mayor might write a message to send to the governor, hand it to the radio amateurs who would then relay the message, station by station, to the state capital and deliver it. Similarly, the reply from the governor would be relayed back to the mayor.
That’s the idea behind field day, practice setting up a radio station on short notice and operate it on emergency power. Many amateur clubs such as PAARA take part.
Interested in participating? Well, there are three major activities to work on: moving and setup of the equipment on Friday, operating Saturday and Sunday, and then disassembly on Sunday. Everybody is welcome to join in.
First comes assembling the PAARA station on Friday. The electric generators, radios, towers, antennas, and shelters must be brought to the field day site and put together into working radio stations. This gives you a great hands-on opportunity to work with a variety of equipment. You’ll be piecing towers together, mounting antennas and rotators on them, threading transmission lines on them, and then hoisting them skyward. Down on the ground, there are power supplies and two-way radios to hook up. The generator has to be cabled to the radio equipment. You’ll see equipment you’ll never find in a radio store, and you actually get to use it, not just look at it.
Next comes operating the stations, starting on Saturday. There probably won’t be an actual disruption to commercial communication systems during field day, so instead of relaying telegrams for public officials, amateurs cont act one another to determine the range of each station.
Operators generally work in pairs at each radio. One person operates, the other logs contacts. The operator calls “CQ field day, CQ field day”, and gives the station’s call sign, W6OTX. When a distant operator responds to the call, the logger records the call sign and location of the far station. It is very similar to typical ham radio contesting, and clubs compete to see who gets the most points by contacting the most stations. This goes on for 24 hours straight, but obviously operators work in shifts of a few hours at a time.
During field day there are stations in the U.S., Canada, and many other countries participating on most of the amateur bands, including HF, VHF, UHF, and satellite. Most of the operating modes are used as well, such as CW, voice, packet, FAX, and even TV. Field day is a great opportunity to try a mode that you might not have at your own station.
PAARA typically has a CW and a SSB station on HF plus a station on VHF. Other bands and modes might also be used depending upon what the club members choose to do during field day.
Since a logger can serve as the control operator, you can be the radio operator and use modes that your own license class does not permit. For example, during field day, Technician class licensees can use voice or CW on the HF bands.
After the official field day operating period ends on Sunday, all that equipment has to come back down and go into storage for the next field day, or maybe a true communication emergency.
There is still work to do after field day weekend has past. The contact lists must be submitted to the ARRL for compilation. In addition, the field day planners get together to analyze the contact data to see where each station could reach, where it didn’t reach, and to revise the plan for the next field day in order to maximize the radio coverage area.
Field day is a lot of fun, a great way to work with a team of amateur radio operators, and try out the biggest variety of equipment you’ll probably ever see in one location.
