York County Amateur Radio Society
K4YTZ
Andy Kunik
AE8J
May 28, 2013

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


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








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!






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


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)


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….



All amateurs in US and Canada and
Possessions
DX stations may be contacted for credit but are not eligible to submit entries


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





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






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 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 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


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






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


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


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”




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

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


You MUST memorize and be familiar with ITU phonetics on phone exchanges
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Lima
Mike
Sierra
Tango
November Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-ray
Yankee
Zulu


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



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)






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


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


Three transceivers

One primary phone station


One primary CW station
GOTA Station

Antennas

80M dipole


40 / 15M dipole
Tri-band Yagi





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










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)


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


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


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

2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Year Class QSO’s Power Participants Total Score Stations Ranking
2002
2003
1E
No Results
376 2 8 782 133 76
2004
2005
2006
2007
1E
3 A
818
790
No Results
2E 693
2
2
8
20
1,868
2,506
175
260
35
122
2E
2D
No Results
4A 273
3A
845
161
125
2
2
2
2
2
21
8
4
16
12
2,264
1890
492
1,022
452
22
26
19
124
316
9
8
11
120
316