ARRL Field Day 2021

[JohnyMac]

If you are a amateur radio operator (ham) and a member of the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) organization, the next weekend is like Christmas for a ham

Field Day in a nutshell, is where 35,000 North American amateur radio clubs get together to use their equipment. Typically, using auxiliary power (solar, wind, batteries, generator, etc.).

I started my journey in being a ham by attending my local club in Rhode Island Field Day event. By using this station locator you can find a participant in your AO.

Field Day is a blast and my clubs (N3SRC) participation is well know among locals - Ham's and non-ham's a like. We serve food, let non-ham's use our equipment, and just hang out to talk transistors & propagation. As the sun sets I typically start a small campfire. The folks that migrate to my tent talk about the world and as a few adult beverages are consumed, solve the problems around the globe. This years discussion should be interesting. 

This year we will have 5 stations. One will be doing digital, two will be CW (Extra points there), and two will be using phone. We will also have one station as the GOTA radio (Get On The Air) for non-ham's that would like to get on the air.

Periodically, I will be giving updates on this thread, so stay tuned. GET IT? STAY TUNED! 

Hopefully, some other Unchainedpreppers will post here what is going on Field Day wise, in their neck of the woods.

73 & God Bless...

[Jackalope]

    Our local club is running 3A, two phone stations and one CW station, callsign N4T.  They're also running a GOTA station and a satellite station.  It should be noted that individual stations can contribute to club points, for this year, due to the Chinese Virus. 

    Local government also proclaimed next week as Amateur Radio Week for the County. The event is set up at a school, which is situated at a major intersection, so they have really good public exposure.  The group is having a catered BBQ dinner Saturday evening, so operators can remain focused on radios. 

    Field Day is designed to test amateur radio station capabilities under emergency/off-grid conditions.  It's a good time to find out what works and what doesn't work.

[Felix]

still minding the dogs in Northern CA, trying to get my Indie serviced/pregnant.
Doubt I'll be home in time to buy the wire and rig a good antennae for my CCrane but remain hopeful nonetheless.
No plans yet to work into transmitting, get rigged for receiving first, learn to walk before trying to run, etc.
Simply being able to snag bits and pieces of info from afar will be a major milestone here.

[JohnyMac]

Felix,
is your Crane a SSB capable radio? I know you are in CA. however, if it isn't you will not be able to listen to broadcasts as most of them broadcast in SSB mode.

[JohnyMac]

Packing up the truck and leaving for Field Day at 1000 hrs.

Some early pics.


Old Fairgrounds Field Brush-hogged


Putting some finishing touches on the field


"When I am done, it will be like a putting green"

Share your 2021 Field Day stories on this thread.

[JohnyMac]

I am on 3.827 Mhz. N3SRC

[pkveazey]

I'm an idiot. I went to 3.827 and tuned up and listened. Then I realized that your post was last night.

[Nemo]

Posted by: JohnyMac
« on: Today at 04:20:35 PM »

    Insert Quote

I am on 3.827 Mhz. N3SRC

Posted by: pkveazey
« on: Today at 04:56:37 PM »

    Insert Quote

I'm an idiot. I went to 3.827 and tuned up and listened. Then I realized that your post was last night.

I could be wrong but it seems those 2 posts are 36 minutes apart. 

Nemo

[pkveazey]

I tuned on 3.827 and all I heard was some guy with a different Call Sign 250 cycles up calling. I'm still listening.

[pkveazey]

I turned the radio on for a while and made 3 contacts to help them get a few contacts. I made one contact on 80, one contact on 40, and one contact on 20. Some of the stations were transmitting waaaayyyy too close to each other and I avoided trying to contact any of those stations.

[JohnyMac]

Short final Field Day AAR, 2021.

> Contacts 687 a few will be added from the GOTA (Get on the air) station along with a few 1E stations.
> Initial Points 1,114. More points (extra points) for extra things we did, along with GOTA, will be added. When all is said and done. I suspect the club will end up just south of 2,000 points.

The club had five stations plus the GOTA station set up, which made us a 5A participant. Our section was EPA (Eastern Pennsylvania). We had two CW, one digital, and two phone stations. Antennas ranged from a dipole, octopus, sloping inverted 'V' and two verticals.

We had many club members filtering in and out over the 24-hour event. A club dinner was held at 1700 hrs. eastern Saturday night. Breakfast, lunch and dinner was served Saturday and Sunday, breakfast and lunch.

Weather was great on Saturday with no rain and some appreciated clouds. Sunday was in the low 90's, sunny, and very humid.

As you can see on the final scoring screen, we were able to make a QSO with all sections but seventeen. Most of those stations were west of the Rocky Mountains. Looking at propagation predictors, we knew going into the weekend, that parts of North America would be a challenge.



Although QSO's and points are the goal, fun was a major part of the event. I can assure you, participants and visitors, had a great time.


Arial view of Field Day camp


Arial view of the Field Day hub

Please add/share your Field Day experiences and pictures with the Unchainedpreppers group on this thread.

73 & God Bless



 

[FeedingFreedom]

Wish I could have participated more, only made 25 contacts from home, mostly on 80, 40 was a dog's breakfast of overlapping signals and 20 was pretty disappointing. But I did get to talk to some great people at the club site, and lend a little bit of a hand with packing up and such. Plus I got to take some pictures with the drone and new camera.

[JohnyMac]

Thank you for your pictures F2. And, thank you for helping is pack up. You rock! 

[Jackalope]

   Not to put a damper on Field Day, but it seems like the event has become mundane, and it doesn't honestly reflect how stations would operate in a true nationwide emergency.  If the ARRL really wanted to simulate emergency radio operations, they should not pre-announce when the event is going to occur.  Instead the ARRL should choose two random weekends, and a random starting time and see what happens.  I'm guessing that weather would have a greater impact on participation, and the mega stations would be less numerous too.  As it is now, operators plan their schedules around Field Day weekend.  How would that work when operators must alter their schedules?  Would generators be ready to go?  How about providing proper shelter and food?  How quickly could stations get on the air?  A simulated, random Field Day would certainly be more interesting and challenging.

[FeedingFreedom]

Field Day is nothing more than a "non-contest contest" at this point, with an emphasis on newer operators and fun. The ARRL grossly oversold the capacity of Hams to provide meaningful emergency comms support. After being the county RACES/ARES Radio Officer for 5 years, and going through several local disasters both in the EOC and in the field, I have come to the opinion that hams should work to provide hyper-local comms for their neighbors, family and themselves. Very, very few hams are equipped, prepared, or are in any physical/mental condition to work in disaster conditions.

There has been some success in passing H&W traffic, and providing some local support in areas hit by tornados, but almost every EOC and 911 center now has numerous layers of redundant systems that require fairly extensive training to use. By the time all of those layers fail, we'd all have much more to worry about than reporting the number of meals served by the ARC.

I could see some local drills/contests where groups are well-organized, trained, and prepared. But nationally? Just don't see it happening.

But that's just my opinion based on my experience.

[JohnyMac]

All valid points Jackalope and FF.

As reported here several times, when Trump got elected mag MAG (Mutual Assistance Group) vanished. There are still a few folks however, for the most part, they are older than my 65-years on this earth. LOL. 

One exercise would be for the MAG, a true emergency radio drill. Maybe do a POTA (Parks on the air) to get QSO's.

Good stuff.

[JohnyMac]

Our clubs final preliminary tally of points was 3,542. This scoring was the second best in the past six years with 2018 at 4,232 points being the best showing. Of course we were 6A that year and this year we were 5A.

All n' all a successful event.