Ham Radio Field Day

prerunner1982

Adventurer
For those new to Amateur Radio, Field Day is the largest ham radio event in North America. Clubs/Groups set up temporary stations and portable antennas and operate off back up power(battery/generator) to simulate a wide spread disaster. The event runs for 24 hours and each group tries to make as many contacts as possible......or just enjoy hanging out, or both.

This is a good time to get on HF if you are a tech or get on the air if you are not licensed.

Field day starts at 1800 UTC (2pm Eastern / 11am Pacific) time on Saturday June 23 but set up begins typically around 8am. Set up is a good time to take a look at different antennas and how they can be erected and most clubs are always looking for people to help set up…and take down.

There are groups participating around the country. You can find them at www.arrl.org/field-day-locator

Or you can post your area below and I will be happy to find one for you.
 

PhulesAU

Explorer
Pearland Amatuer Radio Club or PARC K5PLD We'll be at the American Legion hall, the local repeater is 147.22 PL 167.9 and of course on the book of faces.
 

sonoronos

Usually broken down on the side of the road
The 40m band is piled up pretty high right now.

The 20m band is looking pretty busy as well - the amount of CW is pretty staggering....
 

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prerunner1982

Adventurer
This year we ran 7A rather than 3A as we had done for at least the last 4 years that I have helped.
We had always used a tri-band beam (20/15/10) but it was always connected to one radio. This year with use of bandpass filters we connected it to 3 separate radios. We also had a 6m beam on top of the tower as well as a multiband vertical on the other side of the building for CW, a 40/80m trapped dipole and a satellite VHF/UHF antenna.
1pm start came around and I was on 10m, made a couple good contacts to Canada (from Oklahoma) when someone realized that the logging computers were not communicating with each other. When that was resolved all contacts were lost. Made 1 contact after that and 10m died. This was rather disappointing considering all the 6 and 10m propagation the previous week or two. The 6 and 10m remained mostly idle all day Saturday with only a few close contacts. 15m was ok at best.
Unfortunately very early in the morning we had to suspend operations for 5 or 6 hours due to a torrential rain which really hurt the clubs hopes of a high scoring station. The storm however provided an exceptional light show.
Back at it as early as we could Sunday morning after the lightning moved out and 6, 10, and 15m were hopping! It was great but just as she had done over night mother nature stepped in and ended our FD early with another line of approaching storms. And we proceeded to take down the antennas in the rain.
Not a bad field day, not as successful as we had hoped but it was out of our hands.

Up up and away!
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6m on top, 10/15/20 lower. 40/80 trapped dipole running off side of tower, and Sat antenna in front of trailer.
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Best lightning shot I got very early on Sunday morning just after the storm passed.
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Skeptic

Adventurer
The club operated 2A GA, so the 6m station was a freebie. We were "guest" operators to supply and operate the 6m station, and we had the usual ups and downs on Es.
About 200 contacts on phone and FT8, and a more relaxed event than the usual multiop operation in the VHF contests.
 

prerunner1982

Adventurer
Looks like I will be operating as a 1E this year. Just not feeling the whole club/fire station thing.
Since the radio is the Jeep I will deploy the "awning", set up my portable antenna and have a go at it.
 

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
Looks like I will be operating as a 1E this year. Just not feeling the whole club/fire station thing.
Since the radio is the Jeep I will deploy the "awning", set up my portable antenna and have a go at it.
That's my plan too. Go mobile, set up camp somewhere and just see where it goes.
 

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