YCARSYork County Amateur Radio Society

K4YTZ

Andy Kunik AE8JMay 28, 2013

Field Day Made Easy

Purpose of Field Day Basic rules Contact exchange Scoring Station setup Contact logging Tear down

Field Day Purpose

Emergency preparedness Training ourselves Demonstration of emergency preparedness to the public, government & served agencies Experimentation with antennas, portable equipment and emergency power sources

Social gathering Eating and imbibing Camaraderie and friendship Weekend getaway

Field Day Purpose (cont.)

Chance to try different radios Learning new skills Recruiting new hams and new club

members Challenge of operating in abnormal

situations and less than ideal conditions Something for everyone Contest and competition FUN!

Field Day History

First Field Day in 1933 Started simple with a few participants

and low scores (by today’s standards) Annual tradition that grew and grew The most popular ham event of the year Detailed history in Dec. 99 QST, page 28

http://p1k.arrl.org/pubs_archive/97445

Contest aspect of Field Day

Many hams profess no interest in operating radio on Field Day, but in reality they’re often reluctant to participate because of:

“Mike Fright”

Unfamiliarity with contesting procedures

No experience on HF (ham radio is more than 2M repeaters)

So…

Those of us with experience are here to help you become comfortable with operating in an easy and non-threatening way

Consider us your “Elmers” (ham jargon for mentors)

So here we go….

Eligibility to Participate in Field Day

All amateurs in US and Canada and Possessions

DX stations may be contacted for credit but are not eligible to submit entries

Object

Contact as many other stations as possible on all amateur bands (excluding 60, 30, 17 and 12 meter bands)

Learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions

A premium is placed on Developing skills to meet the challenges of

emergency preparedness Acquainting the general public with the capabilities

of amateur radio

Date and Time Period

Always the fourth full weekend in June June 22-23, 2013

Begins at 1800 UTC (2 pm EDT) Saturday June 22 and ends 24 hours later

Exception: Class A and B stations that do not begin setting up until 1800 UTC may operate 27 hours

Nobody can start setup before 1800 UTC Friday

Our Operation

We will start setup Saturday morning at 10 am and operate until we run out of operators

Place: YCARS clubhouse Family members and non-ham friends

welcome to attend Cookout Saturday from 4:00 to 6:00 pm Breakfast Sunday morning at 7:00 am

Entry Categories

Entry categories are based on: Number of transmitters operating simultaneously YCARS will have 2 transmitters

Both stations will use the YCARS club call K4YTZ

Does not include bonus stations such as: GOTA Station VHF Station if someone wants to set it up Satellite Station if someone wants to set it up

Does include a natural power demonstration station if someone wants to set it up

Class of Operation

Class A – portable station with 3 or more operators, using 100% emergency power

This is our class – we will use a gasoline generator Class AB (battery) – same, 5 watts max. Class B – portable station with 1 or 2 ops. Class C – Mobile station Class D - fixed station on commercial power Class E – fixed station on emergency power Class F – Operation from an established

emergency operations center

GOTA

Get On The Air Station Must use a different call sign Only open to Class A and F with 2 or more Xmtrs. Same exchange as other transmitters Only open to Novices, Technicians or otherwise

inactive hams or to non-licensed public A control operator must be present for non-hams Max. 500 contacts for credit + bonus points Obey third-party traffic rules for unlicensed

operators Double points if a dedicated GOTA captain is

appointed

Miscellaneous Rules

Phone, CW and Digital are considered separate bands

All voice contacts (SSB, FM, AM, satellite) one point each All digital contacts (PSK31, RTTY, packet,

etc.) 2 points each CW contacts, 2 points each Batteries may be charged while in use,

but not from commercial mains

Limitation

Can only work each station once per band and mode For example you can work each station once on 20M

phone, once on 20M CW, once on 20M digital mode, for a total of 5 points

You can work the same station on other frequency bands and modes for additional points

The Contact “Exchange”

In order to make a valid contact, the information to be exchanged consists of

Number of transmitters at your site Class of operation ARRL Section

Examples On phone – “Two Alpha, South Carolina” On CW – “2A SC”

ARRL Section

71 Sections Basically each US state and Canadian

province Some states divided into several sections

South Carolina is one section New Jersey is 2 sections Texas is 3 sections New York is 4 sections California is 9 sections

Details in Handout

ARRL Sections (cont.)

Use 2 or 3 letter abbreviations SC - South Carolina GA - Georgia EMA – Eastern Massachusetts LAX – Los Angeles WTX – West Texas NFL – Northern Florida

ITU Phonetics on Phone

You MUST memorize and be familiar with ITU phonetics on phone exchanges

Alpha Hotel Oscar Victor

Bravo India Papa Whiskey

Charlie Juliet Quebec X-ray

Delta Kilo Romeo Yankee

Echo Lima Sierra Zulu

Foxtrot Mike Tango

Golf November Uniform

Basic Strategies

Two basic strategies

Hunt and Pounce Roam the bands, looking for stations who are calling CQ and answering them

Sitting on a frequency calling CQ and waiting for stations to answer you

Hunt and Pounce

You can be selective who you contact Useful in contests where multipliers are

ARRL sections, DX zones and other selective categories because you can hunt for specific multipliers to increase your score

You can avoid stations with big pileups which waste your time and reduce your Q rate (QSO’s per hour)

Sitting on frequency

You never know who will answer May not work as many multipliers Usually can work a lot more stations (more points, higher Q rate) Easy to do with voice recorder or memory

keyer May have to handle a pileup at times

Ask for repeats CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day from K4YTZ, Kilo

Four Yankee Tango Zulu

K8XYZ, here is Kilo Eight X-ray Yankee Zulu

K8XYZ, please copy Two Alpha, South Carolina

QSL, please copy <static crash!>…

K8XYZ, please repeat the exchange

K4YTZ Station Setup

Three transceivers One primary phone station One primary CW station GOTA Station

Antennas 80M dipole 40 / 15M dipole Tri-band Yagi

Field Day Scoring

1 point for each voice contact 2 points for each CW or digital contact Add total points for all QSOs Power level multiplier

QRP 5 watts or less – battery power 5x QRP 5 watts or less – generator powered 2x Low power (< 150 watts) 2x High power (> 150 watts) 1x

Bonus Points

100% Emergency Power – 100 points per xmtr

Media Publicity – 100 Points Public Location – 100 Points Public Information Table – 100 Points Originating message to SM – 100 Points Site visit by elected gov. official – 100

Points Site visit by served agency rep. – 100

Points Web submission of FD Entry – 50 Points Youth participation 20 points ea. (up to

100)

Field Day Reporting

Entries may be submitted to the ARRL Via internet (50 bonus points) Via email Via land postal or delivery service

Entries must be submitted by July 23, 2013

See official rules for details

Logging Contacts

Used to be manual with paper and pencil

Needed to record date, time, call sign, exchange

Needed to fill out “dupe” (duplicate) sheet

Needed to add up points, multiply by multiplier and add in bonus points

Tedious and lots of opportunity for errors

Computer Logging

Advantages Tracks number of QSOs, Q rate, multipliers

worked and current score at all times

Avoids working stations more than once (dupes)

Can format log for digitally submitting entry via internet so that log can be checked electronically

Multiple stations can be networked via cable or wirelessly so others can see progress of the group

Logging Software

K4YTZ Past ResultsYear Class QSO’s Power Participants Total Score Stations Ranking

2002 1E 376 2 8 782 133 76

2003 No Results

2004 1E 818 2 8 1,868 175 35

2005 3 A 790 2 20 2,506 260 122

2006 No Results

2007 2E 693 2 21 2,264 22 9

2008 2E 845 2 8 1890 26 8

2009 2D 161 2 4 492 19 11

2010 No Results

2011 4A 273 2 16 1,022 124 120

2012 3A 125 2 12 452 316 316

Come Join Us at Field Day