ARRL Field Day 2024

Field Day 2024

Saturday, June 22 and Sunday, June 23

Location: Naga-waukee County Park

Picnic area #4

Park Map     Directions

Operate | Educate | Social-ate

ARRL Field Day, the fourth weekend in June, puts amateur radio on full display nationwide when operators fan out to parks, fields, and other public places to simulate emergency communications in time of a disaster. The MRAC utilizes a public location and invites other amateur radio operators to join in the effort to showcase reliable communications using Morse code, voice, data, and satellite modes. The public is welcome to view our operations and find out more about Amateur Radio.

Operate
The object of Field Day is to communicate with as many other Field Day stations on the designated HF, VHF, and UHF bands. We encourage all club members and guests to participate and enhance their radio communications knowledge and skills. The public is welcome to observe and learn about this fascinating hobby in a simulated emergency communications environment.

Educate
How to work the satellites with an HT (handy talkie) and handheld antenna is our educational activity this year. No doubt, a fox hunt could break out at any time. Want to learn about setting up in a park? Want to learn about the hobby? You’ll be in the right place for answers.

Social-ate
Ok, so it may not be a real word, but we do it anyway. We enjoy the camaraderie of our members and ability to tell a good story. Bring a chair and join in the conversation when you’re not on the air. BYO food and drinks. Park grills are available.

We will be operating within the spirit of Field Day by setting up on the day of the event.

  • Our class is 3A, meaning a maximum of three transmitters will be operating under the call sign of W9RH at any point in time. This does not include a GOTA station which has a separate call sign. We will also have a VHF (2 meters) station operating simplex (146.520 MHz).
  • We will be operating under emergency power during the entire event for all transmitters, making this a true simulation of emergency communications.
  • Club members wishing to operate may operate one of the three transceivers onsite or bring their own radio for familiarity.
  • EFHW and vertical antennas will be installed and positioned for maximum coverage and least interference with each other. We also employ the use of Band Pass Filters to eliminate cross-band interference.
  • Maximum power output is limited to100 watts.
  • We will pursue available bonus points, including public information table, educational activity, safety officer, media publicity, ARRL bulletin, message to Section Manager, satellite contact, as well as a GOTA (Get On The Air) station for new or non-licensed hams.
  • Feel free to operate or observe. On-air operators would also welcome the help of “loggers”; those who input the call sign and exchange information for each contact.
  • Come for a while or stay for the day. Cool refreshing lake water is nearby. Hiking trails offer a tranquil setting to unwind.
  • Food and drink is BYO
  • A social area will be designated to leave a quiet zone near the on-air stations.
  • Special note: W9RH is not available for at-home operation. Only the Field Day site.

Field Day Summary by Carter Davis, W9ERR, on-site leader

Started off with some rain, then more rain. Rinse and repeat.

We got the 80m  EFHW up and set up a station by 11am

Then we put up the 40m EFHW and had that up at 12pm.

Setup a dipole which Jeff AD9AB brought along. Had that setup by 1pm.

Don W9ATU got onto 40m at the start. Had Nick K9NCH logging. Those two went at it calling CQ for 2-3 hours and made a lot of contacts on 40m  Mostly close in, IL, WI, MI, OH, MN  but did log a lot of contacts.

Jeff AD9AB jumped on 15m and was working some contacts there as well. We did have some CW contacts with the CW skill of Jim KS9Q.

Jeff KD9VGH had some station issues and found that the dipole he was setup on was not working for him. We took down the antenna and put up a folded dipole that he had brought along. Once we got that up, he was able to start making some contacts with that on 20m.

We also had the GOTA station up and running with a few contacts there.

We were up and running till about 7:30 pm when the severe storms started rolling in. We shut down for the night about 8:00 pm due to the weather.

Sunday morning, we got going again about 7:30 am.

I set up FT8 on the 40m station, and we played with the day, at least until my radio went South. About 10:30 am, we were switching over the antenna from the EFHW to my Magloop antenna. SWR was checked, but after we made the change, we were not getting any contacts. It was noticed then that there was no output power being seen on the meter. We went through and checked everything we could think of, but no output power was being seen. So we shut down that station for the day.  (Still not operational at the home QTH.)

The other stations we operated ‘til the end of field day.  We closed down at 1:00 pm. And of course, that was when we finally began to see some sunshine.

We only used the generator for a short time, probably less than an hour this year, as we had battery boxes up and running the stations. Those worked well, and I did set up a solar panel for a bit on Saturday, but with all the clouds, I was only getting about 20-30 watts of recharge, so we packed it up as more rain came in. That was on the station while contracts were being made by W9ATU, so that should count for solar power.

Bonus Points…