Field Day

The Eastern Massachusetts ARRL section web site contains some of the most comprehensive Field Day resource pages of its kind! Maintained by Bill Ricker, N1VUX, the Field Day pages offer detailed information on individual field day club operations, and much more:

* Hints and suggestions for Safety Officers
* Weather safety
* ICS/FD discussion
* 2007 Logo
* Rules changes
* Previous year’s scores
* Latitude and longitude coordinates
* Links to Google Maps for street maps
* Section staff tour plans
* Past site maps and tour-maps linked and preserved, with old logos

Please check your club’s listings. If you have new information, or can confirm last year’s information as current, please email N1VUX at bill.n1vux at gmail dot com. Also, if you have scores (or pictures) from previous years that are not shown (or linked) for your organization, please send that, too.

The Police Amateur Radio Team of Westford will present an innovative series of 15-minute “Tool Box Talks” to debute at the club’s 2007 Field Day June 23-24, according to “Bo” Budinger, WA1QYT.

“We already have several volunteers for ‘tool box’ presentations. Scott (Andersen), NE1RD will be talking on ‘Using an Antenna Analyzer.'”

Budinger himself has volunteered to present on “HF Propagation for the Beginner.” Another member will speak on PSK31.

“We’ll list the date and time for each talk. We are actively looking for more people to volunteer,” says WA1QYT. “I would love to see some presentations on such subjects like: How to make a dipole; What is ham radio satellite communications like; What is APRS; and so forth.”

Budinger is excited about this new approach, adding, “there’s a lot in it for everyone.”

–Thanks, PART Particles, Volume 12, No. 2

The Police Amateur Radio Team of Westford is planning a field trip to ARRL Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. According to PART president Art “Bo” Budinger, WA1QYM, the trip will be organized by Alan Hicks, KD1D. It’s still in the planning stages but Budinger expects the trip will take place sometime later this winter or early spring. “Stay tuned for more information.”

The ARRLWeb published statistics from the 2006 Field Day, and Eastern MA radio clubs and groups have once again proven their abilities in this “non-contest” operating exercise.

Of course, the published scores for Eastern MA reflect only a small portion of the story. What goes unreported are other important aspects that cannot be quantified: selflessness and comaradarie; Elmering and training; establishing safety and organization out of chaos; preparing wonderful food (and, of course, consuming it!) and the story-telling.

Kudos to the top three Eastern MA finishers: the Falmouth ARA (K1RK), category 2A with 31 participants and a total score of 8,726. Also, the MITRE-Bedford ARC/Billerica ARS W1ON operation, also in class 2A with 26 participants and 8,434 points. Finally, another great showing by the Nashoba Valley ARC/N1NC crew, 24 strong, in the 2A category with 5,202 points.

Congratulations to all clubs and groups who participated in this famous, annual institution known as Field Day.

[See also: The 2006 ARRL Field Day Results: It’s Our Time To Shine… and EMA Field Day Homepage]

A number of field day groups have posted URLs to on-line collections of photos, videos, etc. of their Field Day operations.

In no particular order:

Police Amateur Radio Team http://home.comcast.net/%7Epkrc/FD_Collage.jpg (KB1MCS)

Waltham ARA http://n1jdu.org/wara/wara_slideshow1.ram (N1JDU)

Wellesley ARS/Framingham ARA http://www.fara.org/gallery/v/FD2006/?g2_navId=xed345cd3 (WA1HAM)

“The Green Bean” http://www.train-sim.com/landrover/fd06.htm (K1UR/K1NR)

Billerica ARS/MITRE-Bedford ARC http://home.comcast.net/~n1rxv/barsfd06_w/ulthm1.htm (N1RXV)

Braintree Emergency Management Agency (ARRL web site!) http://www.arrl.org/contests/soapbox/index.html?con_id=106&ofst=30 (N1PAY)

We will post additional photo links in the form of comments to this post as they become known. -Phil]

Bill Bordy, NJ1H writes on the Nashua Area Radio Club list:

“Please bring your 2005 or 2006 QSTs that you can part with to the Field Day site.

These will have Nashua Area Radio Club Labels affixed to them and made available for visitors to take a copy with them.”

[See also: Unique Magazine Campaign Promotes Amateur Radio In The Community]

The Boston Amateur Radio Club is inviting you to a live, on-air demonstration of Emergency Ham Radio.

When: Saturday June 24th 1400 through 1700

Where: Mass. Salvation Army Div. Headquarters, corner of Berkeley St. and Columbus Ave., Boston, Mass. (across from Ladder 17) (free parking in lot beside building)

On the last weekend of June each year, the Nation’s amateur radio club operators test their unique ability in providing emergency radio communications to both themselves and the Nation’s First Responders.

This demonstration is usually done over a 24-hour period in the Field, under simulated emergency conditions, utilizing auxiliary power and all portable field equipment. The Boston Club has done this successfully each year since the late 1980s.

While most groups continue to operate in the field, this year, BARC, and many other nationwide radio clubs, will operate from State/City/Town and Non-Government agency EOC permanent radio rooms to test the equipment’s preparedness.

This will be a great opportunity for you to drop by and see what licensed local ham radio operators, and their knowledge of emergency communications have to offer your community in times of future emergency and disaster responses.

Knowledgeable Police, Fire, and experienced Emergency Response club members will be on hand to answer all your questions. You will also be able to get on the air yourself and talk to operators from across the nation.

Interoperability is NEVER a problem with ham radio.

Westford, MA – Ham Radio operators across the US and Canada will be showing off their emergency capabilities this weekend. Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications in emergencies world-wide. During Hurricane Katrina, Amateur Radio (often called Ham radio) – was often the ONLY way people could communicate, and hundreds of volunteer hams pitched in to save lives and property along the Gulf Coast. Hams are often the first to provide critical information and communications in emergencies.

On the weekend of June 24-25, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with these ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about. Showing the newest digital and satellite capabilities, voice communications and even historical Morse code, hams from across the USA will be holding public demonstrations of emergency communications abilities.
This annual event, called “Field Day” is the climax of the week long “Amateur Radio Week” sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will set up emergency stations in public places across the country. Their slogan, “Ham radio works when other systems don’t! ” is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. More than 30,000 amateur radio operators in the US participated in last year’s event.

In the Westford area, the Police Amateur Radio Team will be demonstrating Amateur Radio at the field adjacent to the Abbott Middle School on June 24 and 25, 2006. They invite the public to come and see ham radio’s capabilities and learn how to get their own FCC radio license before the next disaster strikes.

There are 660,000 Amateur Radio operators in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world. Ham volunteers provide emergency communications for the Red Cross, Salvation Army, FEMA and other Federal, state and local agencies, all for free.

To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to www.hello-radio.org. The public is most cordially invited to come, meet and talk with the hams. See what modern Amateur Radio can do. They can even help you get on the air!

Bill Ricker, N1VUX writes:

“Bruce Pigott, KC1US has kindly updated and expanded his Safety Officer For Field Day memo for the EMA FD website again this year. It’s available (as a PDF) along with prior years’ Weather, Lightning, Heat safety statements on the Field Day Safety page http://ema.arrl.org/fd/Safety.html
at the EMA Field Day Directory, which lists all confirmed club Field Day sites. The Safety Page attachments are recommended readings to all club Field Day Committees, who are also encouraged to review their site listing (are you Confirmed yet? anything changed?) at http://ema.arrl.org/fd/fd_dir.php.

Mike Neilsen, W1MPN writes in his Monthly Eastern Massachusetts Section News Summary:

“We extremely fortunate to again this year have the services of Bill, NIVUX, as our FD editor. Bill’s fantastic pages are available on our section web pages http://ema.arrl.org/fd, so please check it regularly! As before, the pages offer pertinent information on location, times, and other FD site information. However, his presentation is only as good as that provided by our clubs, so please check them now and offer corrections directly to Bill. He will leave a link directly to his email address for your convenience. Bill also has a wealth of reference pages for your perusal to help with your FD preparations.

“Please also review proper and grounding procedures now with your club, as FD always falls at the height of the thunderstorm season. We are fortunate to have the support of SKYWARN again this year for lightning protection. Please make provisions to guard your nearest Skywarn repeater during the weekend for weather events or to receive other vital information should that be necessary.”

Bill Ricker, N1VUX writes:

The EMA Section Field Day Directory continues to receive donations of safety resources. All Field Day participants owe it to their loved ones and fellow club members to review the documents on avoiding Heat Stroke (from Kentucky ARRL), Lightning Safety (From NWS, another posted daily all week thru Thursday), Rob’s 2004 Skywarn note, and KC1US’s Safety Officer description. http://ema.arrl.org/fd/Safety.html

Of course, the FD Directory also has maps and directions for all 23 club sites in EMA (counting two on Worcester border), and plans of the touring Section Leadership, and hints on scoring points while practicing your ARES and NTS skills. http://ema.arrl.org/fd/fd_dir.php

(And for our friends in WMA, the Class A and F stations from FD2004 are plotted on a bonus map, http://ema.arrl.org/fd/nediv.png )

Good luck in the /c/o/n/t/e/s/t/ Operating Event

and be Safe,

73 de Bill N1VUX

Editor, http://ema.arrl.org/fd

Bruce Pigott, KC1US writes:

“Between tower raising, generator fueling and late night wanders around the site, being at Field Day can be dangerous. One person should be on the look out for hazardous situations.

“Here are some notes from having been responsible […] at the Wellesley Amateur Radio Society and […] also some observations at other sites…”

http://ema.arrl.org/fd/Safety_Officer2005.pdf

Bill Ricker, N1VUX writes on CEMARC-List:

The Field Day planning season is well under way. And so the EMA Section Field Day Directory is being updated. But this requires input from the clubs, too.

Please check your club’s listing — if you can confirm same as last year, or have changes, please drop us an email. Also, if you have prior years’ scores (or pictures) that aren’t reflected (or linked), drop us an email on that too.

http://ema.arrl.org/fd/

FD2005_Directory_Enhancements

* Updated ICS/FD memo
* 2005 Logo
* links to 2005 rules changes
* 2004 Scores
* Links to Google Maps for street maps
* History page ehnahnced with past Section site maps or tour-maps linked and preserved, with old logos
* ALL Menus syncronized
* 1999 Scores added to history (Plus HPARC History 1993-Present)
* Commentary on 2005 rules changes

73,

Bill, N1VUX
EMA FD Directory Editor

Miles Mann, WF1F writes on BARS mailing list:

This weekend it may be possible to listen to the Crew on board the ISS. And if you are a licensed Ham, you may even get a chance to talk to them directly by ham radio, too.

Voice Tips:
http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/issvoicetips.html

Packet Tips:
http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/isspacketmanual.html

The Space Station will be transmitting on 145.800 FM. If you have a proper licens you can try to call them using the posted Uplink channel. The uplink channels are different depending on what part of the world
you are located in.

Channel 1 145.800.0 RX 144.490.0 TX Voice North America
Channel 2 145.800.0 RX 145.990.0 TX Packet (Worldwide)
Channel 3 145.800.0 RX 145.200.0 TX Voice (Region 1Europe, Africa)

Audio from the 2002 field day links with Susan Helms on ISS

http://www.marexmg.org/fileshtml/issaudiofiles.html

—
From the Amsat BBS June 22, 2004

by Scott H. Stevens / N3ASA

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station may participate in Field Day operations this year. Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, and Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, may participate in Field Day activities as time permits.

Fincke should be operating as NA1SS, 1 Alpha, ISS. If Padalka can participate then he should sign RS0ISS, 1 Alpha, ISS.

ISS Ham Radio Project Engineer Kenneth G. Ransom, N5VHO, sent Field Day operating instructions and pass times to the ISS support team at Johnson Space Center for relay to Fincke. Best pass times sent to Mike are for June 27 and include:

07:53 – 08:11 UTC Southern & NE U.S.
09:27 – 09:47 UTC Western U.S.
11:03 – 11:23 UTC Northwest U.S.
14:15 – 14:35 UTC Northeast U.S.
15:51 – 16:11 UTC Central U.S.
17:27 – 17:43 UTC Southwest U.S.

The plan is for Fincke to be on voice using the standard ISS voice frequencies for contacts in ITU region 2 of 144.49 up and 145.80 down in the FM mode. If Padalka participates, he will also operate on the same 2 meter frequency set and they will probably trade off on passes.

The prospect of two operators being available and operating simultaneously is possible since ARISS now has 2 radios on board. One of them is a dual band and that makes activation of another band possible though not guaranteed. If we are fortunate enough to have 2 operators on at the same time, one of them would operating on 437.55 simplex in the FM mode while the other is on the standard 2 meter FM split voice frequency. Keep in mind that the Doppler shift in the 70 centimeter band is significantly greater than on 2 meters.

Doppler will be the biggest challenge for earthbound hams trying to work ISS on 70 cm. The Doppler on 70 cm is plus or minus 10 kHz. Most radios include 5-kHz tuning steps, and to work ISS on voice you will need to get within 3 kHz of the ISS receiver frequency. Setting up memories on a 5kHz stepped radio would require 5 memory channels. Start with channel 1 at the beginning of the pass and proceed to the next as the pass progresses.

TX Channel RX Channel Doppler
1 437.540 437.560 +10
2 437.545 437.555 +5
3 437.550 437.550 0
4 437.555 437.545 -5
5 437.560 437.540 -10

Ideally, you would be able to have tuning steps of 2 kHz and the table would look like this:

TX Channel RX Channel Doppler
1 437.540 437.560 +10
2 437.542 437.558 +8
3 437.544 437.556 +6
4 437.546 437.554 +4
5 437.548 437.552 +2
6 437.550 437.550 0
7 437.552 437.548 -2
8 437.554 437.546 -4
9 437.556 437.544 -6
10 437.558 437.542 -8
11 437.560 437.540 -10

As with any amateur radio operation aboard the ISS, the crew gives of their free time to participate and as such may not be available on every pass or more pressing events may preclude any participation at all. It is planned that if the crew is unable to participate that the packet station will be on and available for ground stations to work each other via the packet digipeater using ARISS as the alias for the callsign in UNPROTO mode using 145.99 up and 145.80 down.

Keep in mind that an EVA is scheduled just a few days before Field Day and the crew will still be in the process of getting back to a normal schedule when Field Day is in full swing.

73 & good luck on Field Day!
Scott H. Stevens / N3ASA

NNNNNNNN

Marexmg Web page
http://www.marexmg.org

Information on the crew’s activities aboard the Space Station, future launch dates, as well as Station sighting opportunities from anywhere on the Earth, is available on the Internet at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

73 Miles WF1F MAREX-MG

Until we meet again

DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F

Bill Ricker, N1VUX has updated the Eastern Massachusetts Field Day web site at http://ema.arrl.org/fd.

The site is an amazing compendium of Field Day facts and information. It features: the new 2004 ARRL Field Day logo; EMA 2003 scores, as reported by ARRL Contest branch; 2004 Field Day rules; each site’s county; sites linked to NWS zone forecast; rules commentary; projected Field Day visits by EMA ARRL staff and much, much more.

Please visit the site and review/update your club’s or field day group’s information today!

The September, 2003 QST’s “ARRL in Action” column features a photo taken by Boston ARC member Ramon Kolb, KX1T. The column and accompanying photos highlight visits to Field Day sites across the U.S. by Section Managers and other League field organization volunteers. Shown in the photo are (l-r): Bill Ricker, N1VUX; Phil Temples, K9HI; Paul Olivieri, N1ZKR and Bill McIninch, KA1MOM.

A group of amateurs spearheaded by Tom Kinahan, N1CPE are planning an Amateur Radio exhibit/message fair for the Milford Hospital “Monster” Field Day September 13, 2003. The fair celebrates events from one hundred years ago.

“We’re trying to re-create a bit of the magic of Marconi 100 years ago,” commented N1CPE.

Below are minutes from the first organizing meeting.”At our organizing meeting in attendance were: Bruce Piggot KC1US, Steve Schwarm, W3EVE, Fran Belliveau KA4FRH and Tom Kinahan N1CPE.

We’re not being asked to “coordinate” or help them run the events of this day. We’re only doing a display of Ham Radio.

1) We need a CW person/demonstrator that can do a good demonstration for kids, and come up with the appropriate keys / oscillators and materials.

2) We need Signage. We would like to have signage to talk about FARA, Ham Radio, Marconi, CW, and NTS how messages get through.

These are assumed to be our biggest issues.

We will need 40 feet of tables to go under a tent provided by N1CPE/Wellesley ARS. It’s 20′ x 10′.

We expect to apply for a special event callsign (Under W1FY).

We would like to demonstrate the phonetic alphabet as a different “code” for kids. Need a poster/handouts.

We calculated that we’ll need 120V@ 10A or a 1200- 2000 Watt generator. This sill be supplied by the MRH.

Fran and Steve will arrange the HF antenna given the field layout.

We put together a “blurb” for the advertising for our part of the event. We will run a “message Fair” and a ham radio demo using HF and 2m,70cm FM.

We want to be able to use the name of Framingham ARA as our group, and will apply for a special event callsign of K1H, N1H, or W1H for this event.

We’ll need to have some scheme for special event QSL cards.

-Tom K.