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Field Day 2009 this weekend at the Bunker!! Contact Dave, N9LGP for info!
Field Day 2008: Get Ready - Get Set - We Went!!
Dave N9LGP, Field Day Chairman
Field Day 2008 is now a memory. But what a memory!
We ended up with a score of 4028. This is the result of 1037 contacts, which breaks down as follows: 447 CW, 60 Digital, and 530 Phone. Our score included 940 Bonus Points. Included in the phone contacts are a handful of satellite contacts and a handful of hand-crank generator contacts, thanks to Bill N9JWO, Tom AB9LA, and Bruce WD9GHK, respectively. The digital contacts were made at the PSK Station. Many times I looked over my shoulder (from my corner CW station) to see 2 or 3 operators zoned in on the computer screen. Dave W9HW and Renee K9DO set up their operation again in the front room and put forth a great effort on SSB. Jim WD9GXU brought in his Kenwood TS-450S and made some contacts, and Todd KA9IUC manned the GOTA station. Dave N9LGP and Jerry K9PMV provided the CW contacts. Also, Jim KB9VR provided a very interesting and informative Educational presentation, demonstrating proper coax connector soldering and restoration techniques.
Much preparation went into this year’s event. Thanks to Jim NV9X for preparing the computers and the network. Jim put in a few sometimes frustrating hours all week prior to FD. But, on Saturday everything was ready to go, with some last minute assistance from Rich KB9IPS. There was also some antenna farm maintenance in the days leading up to the event. We erected a 40 meter dipole, repaired the Butternut verticals, and took down the G5RV.
“Murphy” made a couple of appearances this year. On Saturday, after making 6 contacts, Dave N9LGP’s memory keyer stopped working with the TS-850. After much troubleshooting, with the help of Jerry K9PMV and Rick W9RJC, Dave decided to take the keyer home to see if it would work with his rig. It did, so he brought the keyer and the rig back, decided to try the keyer one more time with the TS-850, and it worked! So, at 6pm, after enjoying a couple of hot dogs, provided and prepared by Todd KA9IUC and Matt N9OTL for the group, he was able to go to work on CW.
Dave and Renee, W9HW and K9DO, had a visit from “Murphy” as well. The beam antenna got stuck pointing south, right in the middle of a great run. Again, much troubleshooting by W9HW and W9RJC, they could not resolve the problem. Dave and Renee regrouped, and continued on into Saturday night and again Sunday morning to put in a fine effort.
We were visited by 4 Hazel Crest Police Officers on Saturday afternoon. They stated that they were curious about what was going on, and one of them said he’d never been inside the Bunker in his 10+ years on the Force! Police Chief Tom Folliard also paid us a visit on Saturday afternoon, engaging few of us in interesting conversation.
Although turnout was light compared to previous years, we had other visitors, including 3 hams who visited Jim WD9GXU in the very early hours of Sunday morning. And by the way, thank you Jim for keeping the Bunker available all night long! Jim was rewarded Sunday morning by a surprise visit from Pete KE9YX, who provided a Denver Omelet freshly cooked on the stove!
So that’s about it. We had great time this year as everyone who participated had fun and enjoyed the experience. Look for some pictures on the website soon, as Jim W9MAQ and others were operating cameras throughout the weekend. Consider coming out for next year’s event. Who knows what kind of new antenna’s, equipment, band conditions, and visitors we might have!
See you at Field Day 2009!
Fearless Leader for Field Day 2008 is
Dave, N9LGP, Field Day Chairman 2008
Dave, N9LGP has been our FD Chairman for Field Day for the last few Years. He returns as FD Chair to make another run of it! He was done his CW station solo, and with others and has been top point getter 2 or 3 years in a row. Dave is looking for operators for the whole 24 hours (Yes, that means the overnight!) as well as those areas that are not radio related. Cooks, Setup, Tear Down, Greeters for the visitors, Special Bonus Point Specialists! This means You! See Dave or give him a call on the Radio or email him at : n9lgp@sbcglobal.net
Field Day 2008 – Radio Operators, Get Ready…Get Set…
Field Day – the largest on the air operating event of the year – is just 11 weeks away. It’s never too early to start planning, and as I write this in very early April, I feel confident that we will have a well planned, fun event again this year.
Tens of thousands of operators all over the country will be embracing CW, Phone, Digital, PSK31, Satellite and other modes, making the bands come alive with excitement. Let’s throw our signal out there as well! Two big changes this year involve the GOTA Station and the new Educational Activity Bonus.
First, the GOTA station. The major change this year, is that the GOTA station can only be operated by hams newly licensed since last year’s Field Day, generally inactive hams, and non-licensed individuals who want a taste of the hobby. Generally inactive hams are those who have not really been on the air for a couple of years. If you’ve been fairly inactive for a while, come on out and make a few contacts for the club!
Second, the new Educational Activity Bonus. This sounds pretty cool. The idea is to set up a learning, hands-on activity, at the bunker, that is ham radio related, and that involves active participation. Perhaps a soldering seminar? Or a mini-class on how to jumper one of our antennas to one of the radios? Maybe a mini-seminar on how to tune up one of those old, tube rigs? Any ideas out there? Would someone like to do this? It doesn’t have to be done repeatedly throughout the weekend, just once is good. I’m looking for volunteers. Give this some thought, and let me know what your ideas are.
There are other bonus points activities as well…..
Emergency Power Bonus…anyone have a generator? We don’t need to use it, just test it to see if it will power a radio.
Media Publicity Bonus…we don’t need to actually get the publicity, just make an attempt to get it.
Public Information Table…yep, we set up a table with information on the hobby, the ARRL, our club, etc.
Satellite QSO…just one satellite QSO gets us 100 points!
Alternate Power Bonus…Bruce, WD9GHK has afforded us the 100 points by bringing his hand-crank generator to the bunker. 5 QSO’s get’s us the points.
Visit by an elected government official…we need to invite an official, and receive a visit.
Visit by an agency, for example, Red Cross, Salvation Army, local Law Enforcement…could we invite the Police or Fire Chief to visit? Or the mayor??
Youth Participation…this is pretty cool too. Any ham or non-ham, 18 years old or younger, who makes at least one contact, gets us 20 points. 5 youth doing this gets us the maximum of 100 points. Do you know of anyone who might want to make a contact for the club? This is a great way to introduce someone to the hobby, or, give our younger licensed members a shot at the excitement.
Finally, the biggest points activity is QSO’s. So come on out and make some Q’s! Let me know if you’re planning on operating. We’ll have a total of 6 stations set up and able to be on the air at the same time. There’s plenty of operating opportunities. Also, we’ll need a Refreshments Chairman, a Station Operations Manager, and a Computer Troubleshooter/Coordinator. An event like this requires bodies, so please step up and help in any way you can. Send me an email, catch me on the repeater, or call me on the landline, I’d love to hear from you. It’s time to…..GO !!
Dave N9LGP, Field Day Chairman
n9lgp@sbcglobal.net
708-235-1270
Tri Town Field Day 2007
By Jerry K9PMV
Once again, Tri-Town does the ARRL’s annual Field Day communications exercise. I believe that part of the operating criteria is work as many stations as possible under less than optimum conditions. The weatherman certainly made sure of that. Rain began early Saturday morning and did not let up till early evening. It would have been worse if we were setting up operations in the field somewhere. We stayed dry, however, snug in the bunker. The rain kept daytime temperatures moderate so we had a relatively easy time at the club station. Most of our preparations were done Thursday and Friday. A permanent digital mode station was set up using the Yaesu FT 757, a West Mountain Rig Blaster and one of our spare Windows 98 computers. With this station, 50 - PSK 31 QSOs were made. The other big item of preparation was setting up the Mosley TA 33 triband beam. We have attempted to use this beam on previous Field Days but with minimal success. This time, Jim WD9GXU and myself, completely disassembled the traps and associated tubing. We then cleaned, adjusted and reassemble the beam. It took all day Thursday and Friday to do this. We mounted it on a fence pole just north of the bunker door. The beam worked quite well during Field Day even though it was only 15 feet above the ground.
Before operations began Saturday, we had the pleasure of a visit from Craig Dieckman KC9HWK. He is the American Red Cross volunteer communications director for our area. Following a tour of the bunker, Craig showed Tri-Town members the Red Cross’s fully equipped communications van. It was quite impressive. At 17:00Z Field Day began. Dave W9HW and XYL Renae K9DO started operating 20 M SSB and Dave N9LGP worked 40 CW. These two bands were the only bands open. Jim WD9GXU and Brian KC9JVX did work 10 M SSB but the band was good for only 4 contacts. Tom AB9LA and myself tried to work 20 M PSK 31. We made one contact but we had to stop as we were causing Dave and Renae a lot of interference. Mark KA9OOI and I tried a few tricks with ¼ wave coax band traps for 40 and 20 meters to reduce the cross band interference. In spite of our efforts, the intensity of the second harmonic was too strong for the filters to do any good. However, it was worth a try and we learned how to prune coax using Jim’s MFJ antenna analyzer. Since all other bands besides 20 and 40 were dead, Tom AB9LA and myself gave the AMSAT station a try. With Tom spinning the dials and me on the mic, we made a good solid satellite QSO with VE2DWE in Quebec. I might add that this was the first successful satellite QSO that I have experienced using the club station. Bruce WD9GHK came with his WWII hand crank 12 VDC generator. Matt N9OTL made five 2 M FM QSOs using this power source.
We all took a break for dinner at about 5 pm. Brian KC9JVX and myself went to the Ariston restaurant, on the corner of 175th & Kedzie for carryouts. They have a wide assortment of fast food there; Italian beef is my favorite. We went back to the bunker with the food and Mark KA9MDJ, Dave N9LGP, Brian KC9JVX, Jim WD9GXU and I enjoyed a dinner break. After dinner, the SSB and CW operators swapped bands. We had many more visitors and operators come to the bunker during evening time. Anthony KC9ADK and friend Melissa came with his new Icom IC 7000 to operate. I hooked them up to the hustler 3 BTV antenna. At that time, there were strong signals from the west coast on 20 M SSB but we just could not break thru the pile-ups. We switched the antenna to the triband beam and that made all the difference. We were making contacts on the first or second call. Not bad for the beam being only 15 feet above the ground.
Toward the end of my shift, Tom W9SRV and Ken KC9BXA came to operate. Tom had a great time during the wee hours on 75 M SSB using the Drake TR7 and the 160 M inverted vee antenna. Ken KC9BXA and Brian KC9JVX had fun working HF. Also visiting Tri-Town were ARRL ARES coordinator Neil N9NL and friend Matt KC8YFW. I went home at midnight for some rest and returned at 12:30 PM Sunday for the shut down. Here is a summary of 2007 TTRAC Field Day operations:
Total Bonus 600
Total score 2007 2868 (2006 3722) (2005 3396)
Field Day 2007
#4 overall in the 4F Category
#1 in Illinois!!
2155 W6YX 17,158 4F SCV Stanford ARC
2156 W8FY 6,042 4F OH
2157 W1AW 3,554 4F CT Maxim Memorial Station at ARRL HQ
2158 W9VT 2,920 4F IL Tri-Town RAC
2159 AF2C 2,838 4F NFL Flagler Em Com Assn
2160 W9UDU 2,506 4F WI Racine Megacycle Club
2161 KM7EOC 2,476 4F AZ MCECG / SARC
2162 W8DF 2,208 4F MI Southern MI ARS
2163 W4OIX 1,780 4F NC Kinston ARS
2164 W4COV 1,758 4F VA VMARC
2165 KD5OEW 1,590 4F NTX Coppell ARC
2166 N7ACS 1,538 4F AZ Yuma Auxiliary Com Service
2167 W1ECV 1,370 4F CT Southington ARA
2168 N1EG 1,272 4F CT Coastline ARA
2169 W7NYE 1,268 4F NV CO ARES
2170 K9UXZ 950 4F IL
2171 K7S 826 4F WWA Valley Camp North Bend
Tri-Town Radio Amateur Club Field Day 2006
W9VT
�� Total CW QSO's .......... 280 ( X2 )
�� Total Phone QSO's........515
�� Total QSO Points.........………...................................................1075
N9WDG (GOTA):
�� Total Phone/QSO pts.....161
�� Combined QSO pts........………….............................................1236
�� Power Multi ( X2 ) ..........……............................... ...................2472
Bonus pts :
�� 7.3.1. Emer Pwr, 100pts (X) # of xmtrs ( 4 ) ……… 400
�� 7.3.11 Visitation by village govmt …………… ….. 100
�� 7.3.12 Visitation by ARES official ……………… …100
�� 7.3.2. Media attempt ............................................. 100
�� 7.3.3. Public Location ........................................... 100
�� 7.3.4. Public Info table .......................................... 100
�� 7.3.7. Satellite QSO ……………………………… . 100
�� 7.3.8 Hand Crank Power ....................................... 100
�� 7.3.13.1 GOTA 100 QSO pts..................................100
�� 7.3.14 Web score submission ................................. 50
��
�� Bonus total ............................................................................. 1250
�� Total score ............................................................................. 3722
�� 2005 score ............................................................................. 3396
�� 2005 QSO's ............................................................ 832
�� 2006 QSO's ............................................................ 956
2006 Operators :
KC9EUX KC9EUY KA9IUC
AB9LA N9LGP K9PMV
N9QOB WB9RAY W9SRV
WD9HSY NV9X KB8YIO
ARRL Field Day 2005 results are in!
Click HERE to see the Illinois standings!
#1 "3F" Station in Illinois!
#2 "F" Catagory in Illinois!
Field Day 2004 Soap Box to QST
No Murphy this Year! What did we do wrong? No Murphy? No Hot Weather! No Lightning, No Problems! No Cops! Must be the Good Living! Our Club, W9VT has been doing this for many, many decades. This one was just about perfect! How Perfect? We operated 3F from our Village Emergency Command Bunker. What did the Village do the Friday before Field Day to our surprise? ... They put up a 80ft Rohn 45 Tower that they been waiting for the last year to put up... the day before Field Day! Station Manager, Jerry, K9PMV and some of our Club members were out doing some pre-FD clean up and found the tower going up! OH Boy! Our 60+ year young tower climber, Jim, KB9VR just couldn't wait to get up that tower and put a G6 up at the top! It Played, and we Played! Great Field Day! Thanks to the Setup, Tear Down Crews, all the operators, especially our CW Team of Dave, N9LGP, N9LGP, and N9LGP (he did it Solo!), the overnight crazies that stayed all night long! And lastly, Of course Trish, N9WDG (WILD DANCING GIRL) the GOTA Station Captain, Club Vice President, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer! Trish, We all Love You! Great Field Day! ..... till next year! -- WD9HSY
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