A few things to Remember for Field Day at the Anne Arundel Radio Club

2. A few things to Remember for Field Day at the Anne Arundel Radio Club Field Day Presentation

3. Remember the Third Party Rule during Field Day at the Anne Arundel Radio Club Field Day Presentation

4. Third Party Rule The 3rd Party Rule does not go away on Field Day. The FCC will continue to enforce it, as will the ITU and other countries. This means that although you, or an unlicensed person you are supervising, may be working with a Control Operator who has an Extra Class License, you still become a 3rd Party whenever the person making the transmission is not licensed to make it themselves. This then becomes illegal if you are communicating with a country that does not have a 3rd Party Agreement (aka Treaty) with the United States of America. Though you get points for DX contacts made during Field Day, you must be careful which operator at W3VPR makes those DX contacts. In doubt? Only make or accept contacts with the USA or Canada. Field Day Presentation

5. Third Party Rule The good part is that we haven’t had a problem with this on previous Field Days. But, we don’t want to start now! Though you get points for DX contacts made during Field Day, you must be careful which operator at W3VPR makes those DX contacts. In doubt? Only make or accept contacts with the USA or Canada. The Binders, found at each Field Day operating position, and at the Visitor’s Table have a list of countries with which the USA does have Third Party Agreements. So if you really want to work them, look them up and make sure we have a Third Party Agreement first. Field Day Presentation

6. A Good Rule to follow on Field Day at the Anne Arundel Radio Club Field Day Presentation

7. Please…. People have been assigned various Field Day jobs, like shelters, rigs, masts, antennas, generators, etc. These jobs include being responsible for keeping track of the equipment used, and how it is to be disassembled and stored after Field Day’s over. When the time comes, please check with the person in charge of storage before you put something away. In past years we have lost things that have never ever been found. Our equipment is important to us. Check first, before you put it away wrong. Field Day Presentation

8. A bit about Scoring & Propagation for Field Day at the Anne Arundel Radio Club Field Day Presentation

9. Scoring • Contacts are scored based on a very simple system. You get: • One point per Phone Mode Contact • Two points per CW Mode Contact • Two points per Digital Mode Contact • These QSO points are then multiplied by a power “Multiplier”: • In Category 5A with all contacts under 150 watts, the “Multiplier” is two. • There is NO multiplier for the number of ARRL sections worked. Great for braggin’ rights, but not for scores. Field Day Presentation

10. Scoring We may count only one contact per band/mode combination. Thus with any other ham station we may get one contact on 40 Meter Phone, one of 40 Meter Digital and one of 40 Meter CW and all 3 count. And if we get one contact on 20 Meter Phone and one contact on 20 Meter CW and another contract on 20 Meter digital, we get all 6. Secone contacts on any band/mode combo will be considered a DUPE and will not count. Field Day Presentation

11. Scoring • We may also add bonus points as follows; • 100% Emergency Power (100 pts. for each of our 5 HF stations) • Media Publicity (100 pts. for sending a press release to local media) • Public Location (100 points for being at the DFRC)\ • Public Information Table (100 pts. if you have one, handing out info) • Message Origination to Section Manager (100 pts., message must • be sent from the Field Day site) • Message Handling (100 pts. for sending out 10 formal messages • from the Field Day site) • Satellite QSO (100 pts. for making a satellite QSO) ** • Alternative Power (100 pts. for making 5 QSO’s not using commercial • power or from a petroleum driven generator) • W1AW Bulletin (100 pts. for copying the Field Day Bulletin) • Educational Activity (100 pts. for an educational-related activity) Field Day Presentation

12. Scoring • More Bonus Points Available. • Visit by Elected Official (100 pts. official may be local, state or • national) • Visit by an Agency Representative (100 pts. for a visit by a • representative of an agency served by ARES) • GOTA Bonus (20 pts. for each 20 QSOs, up to 100 point max, this • doubles if there is a “GOTA Coach” supervising at all times, max is • 500) • Web Submission (50 pts. if the Field Day submission is via the • www.b4h.net/cabforms web site) • Field Day Youth Participation (20 pts. for every participant under 18 • who makes at least one contact. Max 100 points) Field Day Presentation

13. For Those Who Don’t Get GOTA • GOTA stations are only for new or inexperienced operators. • To get ANY GOTA bonus a single GOTA op must make 20 QSO’s. • To get ANY GOTA Coach bonus a coach must be present • for every single GOTA contact made. • GOTA requires a second call sign & additional logging etc. • When band conditions are poor, like now, we have 3 choices. We can put an extra station on a band we are already using and cause additional self-interference. We can put them on a band we aren’t already using, because no one is there, so GOTA contacts will be few and far between. We can shut off one of our stations whenever the GOTA station is active. Which one of those sounds like a good idea to you? Field Day Presentation

14. When Do We Go To GOTA In future years when we have additional bands like 15m and 10m available for Field Day operation GOTA may suddenly become much more attractive than it is today. Even then we will need dedicated GOTA Coaches and many likely newbie operators willing to make at least 20 contacts each. Field Day Presentation

15. Propagation Though working more ARRL sections is unimportant as far as the score is concerned, working more sections does tend to increase one’s score. Want to impress visitors? Work more sections! While operating, keep in mind, stations in daylight tend to work stations in daylight. Stations in darkness work stations in darkness. When Field Day starts here it’s 2pm, while it is 6 hours earlier in Hawaii, or 8am. Both are in daylight, and will be until dusk here at 8:37pm. Thus you have a 6 hour 37 minute window. Try 20 meters. In Hawaii dusk is 7:16pm, or 1:16am here. You might try 20 meters or 40 meters to contact them but at 5:41am its over, giving you a 4 hour and 25 minute window. You have to know when to look! Field Day Presentation

16. Propagation Similarly we have a 4 hour time difference with Anchorage, Alaska. Alaska is up north, and its summer so they get long days. So their sunset is 11:43pm, 3:43am here, while our sunset is 8:37pm. And the sun rises in Alaska at 4:21am, 8:21am here, while our sunrise is at 5:41am. So we can work Alaska from 2:00pm till the sun sets here at 8:37pm Saturday, and start from 3:43am to 5:41am, or almost a 2 hour window. Again days use 20 meter, nights use either 40 or 20 meters. Places like San Francisco are only 3 hours from us, and almost due west, resulting in much larger windows of operation. But be aware they will still likely go away as we go into either dawn or dusk and not return for approximately 3 hours. Remember we are the elephant in the room. If we wanna work long distances we need to do it when its not middle of the night there. Field Day Presentation

17. A bit about Frequency Use for Field Day at the Anne Arundel Radio Club Field Day Presentation

18. Frequency Use We are allowed to use 6 of the MF/HF bands. These are 160m, 80/75m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m. We have no antenna for 160m, one for 80m, one for 75m (same band really), two for 40m, and two that work on 20m, 15m and 10m. We are not allowed to use 60m, 30m, 17m or 12m, so naturally we have no antennas for those bands. Note we will also have use of TWO tri-band beams this year. This should improve our chances of making contacts at distance. Field Day Presentation

19. Frequency Use • During daylight, the primary usage will be on 40m and 20m, with 15m and 10m used if, and only if, skip is working on these bands which is unlikely. Our 4 HF stations will most likely be: • 40 meter phone • 40 meter digital • 20 meter phone • 20 meter digital Be aware that one of our digital stations will be available for CW use, but only when no digital operators are present. Field Day Presentation

20. Frequency Use • During darkness, the primary usage will be on 80/75m and 40m. This will mean our 4 HF stations will most likely be: • 80 meter digital • 75 meter phone • 40 meter phone • 40 meter digital Again one of the digital stations will be available for CW use, but only when no digital operators are available. Also be aware that the 80 meter stations may opt to switch to 20 meters at times. This means we have no reason to switch antennas for the phone stations, but we do if CW is used on one of the digital stations. Field Day Presentation

21. Frequency Use We are entering this contest as a Category 4A station. This means we can not operate more than 4 HF stations simultaneously. This means that when Richard Grace (KB3ZYO) wants to make our 5 solar bonus point contacts, he must shut down one of our 4 HF stations. My understanding is that we will be using his KX3, so he will be shutting that one down to go solar, and will just shut off the amplifier and attach it to solar power. Similarly when Satellite contacts are attempted for bonus points, the UHF/VHF station must similarly be shut down. Field Day Presentation

22. Frequency Use As a “4A” station we are allowed to have a ‘free’ station for operating UHF and VHF contacts. The ‘free’ station does not count as part of the 4 stations in “4A”. Thus while contacts on 6 meters, 2 meters and 70cm count for points, they do not affect the number of stations in our category. FYI: Repeater contacts don’t count, so these stations must use Digital, CW, SSB or Simplex FM. (Simplex FM and SSB both count as Phone Contacts) Again you can make contact with a station on both CW and SSB (or Simplex FM) and both count. Repeat contacts in any mode with the same station on the same band are considered DUPE contacts and as a result do NOT count. Field Day Presentation

23. Why we use Ladder Line for some stations on Field Day at the Anne Arundel Radio Club Field Day Presentation

24. Two years ago in 2017 the club used long runs of RG-213 to reach most of it’s antennas. 100 feet to 300 feet was typical. The good news was our SWR’s were fairly low, below 2:1. Note that with a 300 foot RG-213 feed line, at 40 meters, we still lost 31% of our power. On 20 meters this only gets worse, and we lost 43% of our power. Even on 80 meters with a 200 foot feed line we still lost 16%. And remember, these losses are calculated with a prefect 1:1 SWR! Field Day Presentation

25. What if we had switched to RG-8. It would get better, but only by a smidgen. On 40 meters with a 300 foot run we lose 28% of our power, and on 20 meters that goes up to 38%. Obviously RG-8 would not solve our problem, but could have been used. We actually have quite a bit of it and could have used it if we had been able to locate it. Field Day Presentation

26. LMR-400 helps quite a bit. With a 1:1 SWR and 300 feet of LMR-400 we would lose 20% on 40 meters, and 28% on 20 meters. On 80 meters we only lose 10% in our 200 foot feed line. However the cost of LMR-400 at $1.33 per foot would make 100 foot feed lines $133.00. 200 feet would be $266.00 and 300 feet $399.00. Ouch! Field Day Presentation

27. By switching to ladder line we save a ton of money. Now typically one does not worry about the SWR on ladder line, though doing so can make improvements on long runs of the stuff. On 40 meters and at 1:1 SWR you lose only 6% percent on a 300 foot run. That is comparable to LMR-400 but a lot cheaper. This year we will be using 300 feet of ladder line to one 40 meter Delta Loop and 200 feet to another. By using a 1:4 balun at each antenna we can get almost a perfect match to the feed line further reducing loss. Field Day Presentation

28. This year we have chosen to use two beam antennas for 20, 15 and 10 meters with a 100 foot coaxial feed line to one, and a 200 foot feed line to the other. Similarly we will have two 80 meter inverted-V antennas using a 100 foot coaxial feed line to one, and a 200 foot feed line to the other. Coax was chosen because it is much easier to run up the masts to these antennas, especially since a single rocket launcher supports two antennas. If this works well next year we may consider buying some LMR-400 for either or both of the tri-band beams. It is also possible that next year we will relocate the second 80 meter inverted-V several hundred feet away, and chose to employ 1:9 and 9:1 baluns to step up and down from the 450 ohm ladder line to 50 ohm coax. This would reduce interference between the two 80 meter antennas, and reduce the line loss in the process. Field Day Presentation

29. How to manage Self Interference during Field Day at the Anne Arundel Radio Club Field Day Presentation

30. The Receiver Front End As an incoming signal reaches your Field Day receiver the first thing it encounters is a band pass filter. This filter is meant to remove anything that is not in the ham band your receiver is set to, and switches as you switch bands. It would be great if this worked perfectly and removed all the out-of-band stuff. But in reality all it does is turn it down some. If this filter is ‘not matched’ it also filters out some of your incoming signal, which ruins your receiver’s ability to receive weak signals. So it’s a trade off. They don’t design rigs expecting hams next door. Field Day Presentation

31. Harmony Every transmitter produces a certain amount of harmonic output. In a tube transmitter the output Pi network is expected to remove this. In a transistor transmitter there is separate filter that removes it. But no harmonic filter actually removes them completely. These filters simply attenuate, or lower the volume of such signals that get through to the antenna. The idea is to attenuate the harmonics and spurious emissions but let the desired signal get through. Again some harmonics always get through. Field Day Presentation

32. The Problems Usually these filters do their job just fine. Mostly because distance from transmitter to receiver also tends to attenuate the harmonics and spurious signals. In most places hams don’t live that close to each other, so the system works fine. On Field Day its just like we all moved in together. We are in the same shelter, using antennas that are essentially right next to each other. So the bottom line is that on Field Day the built-in filters just are not good enough to do the job. Field Day Presentation

33. Three Common Things That Can Go Wrong Basic Front End Overload: An incoming signal on a band you have not selected, overwhelms the front end filter on the receiver. This plays havoc with your AGC and can make signals unreadable. Harmonics: The second or third harmonic created by one transceiver is on the same band as your receiver. Your receive filter doesn’t help. Signals Within The Same Band: Someone working another mode, but on your same band also gets through. Again your filter doesn’t help. Field Day Presentation

34. The Three Solutions Basic Front End Overload: Add an extra band pass filter to your transceiver tuned for the band you are working. This adds 60dB of attenuation. Harmonics: A band pass filter added to the output of your transceiver will likewise drop outgoing harmonics and spurious emissions by 60dB. It’s a two-fer. One band pass filter cures both #1 and #2. Signals Within The Same Band: This is the tough one. Here antenna placement and power reduction are the only tools that will help. Field Day Presentation

35. Solutions In past years Doug Ellmore and his club station NA3DX have opted to use 5 watt QRP transmitters and spaced their antennas as best they could within the 1000 foot diameter circle allowed by the rules. He used ladder line (as we do now) to reduce loss on the long feed lines needed to reach these antennas. Reducing power seems to help a lot. But here at the AARC we have opted not to do that, in an effort to make it easier for ‘newbies’ to make contacts. Field Day Presentation

36. Let me show you what is possible with unlimited funding And a lot of really smart people. Field Day Presentation

37. Rol Anders PVRC Field Day Presentation

38. Solutions Rol Anders (K3RA) design is time tested, as the PVRC’s W3AO has done well using it on a number of Field Days. Not that the 13 beams or 50 ft. towers weren’t clever too, but the most clever idea may be to place dipole antennas in a straight line. These antennas have the weakest radiation toward the ends. Thus by spacing them at distance from each other, and putting their weakest signal toward each other, they have been able to considerably lessen the effect of signals within the same band. Field Day Presentation

39. DFRC Grounds Field Day Presentation

40. DFRC Grounds Field Day Presentation

41. 2019 DFRC Field Day Layout Field Day Presentation

42. How to use N1MM Logger+ during Field Day at the Anne Arundel Radio Club Field Day Presentation

43. N1MM Setup • Our goal is for the N1MM Networking Crew to complete setup prior to 10am Saturday. At that time the most current version of N1MM+ will be installed on all logging computers along with the most current master.scp and wl_cty.dat. David did most of that Wednesday. In order to network automatically, all 3 files must be the same version on all logging computers as well as the server in the clubhouse. • So if a new file or version comes out during Field Day, DO NOT try to upgrade! You will lose the network! Field Day Presentation

44. N1MM Setup • Setup for stations with Digital capabilities will include either Fldigi or the Fldigi Engine. The Fldigi Engine contains only the more basic capabilities of the program, but will include incoming data, waterfall display and programmable buttons making it sufficient for Field Day operation. Chuck Tanner (K3ACT) will make the decision between modes, and will school all digital operators in their use. • So if you have digital questions, ask the digital expert, Chuck Tanner K3ACT! Field Day Presentation

45. Log-in and Log-out • Logging computers for the main 4 HF stations will be connected to their respective transceivers for direct data transfer. The UHF/VHF, and the satellite station will not have such connections, thus mode and band will be manually logged for these stations. It is up to the operator to get this right. • The N1MM Logger+ will be used to log the call sign of the actual operator, or in the case of an unlicensed operator the call sign of the individual who is the “Control Operator” who is shepherding them. Field Day Presentation

46. Log-in and Log-out WHEN THE PROGRAM ASKS FOR THE OPERATOR IT MEANS THE CALL SIGN OF THE ACTUAL PERSON WHO IS THE OPERATOR. (or the actual person helping a non-licensed operator) DO NOTLOG YOURSELF ON AS W3VPR !!! Field Day Presentation

47. Log-in and Log-out WE DON’T CARE IF YOU ARE A TECHNICIAN GENERAL OR EXTRA WE WANT YOUR PERSONAL CALL SIGN ON THE ELECTRONIC N1MM LOG !!! Field Day Presentation

48. Log-in and Log-out • All unlicensed operators will have a licensed operator logged into N1MM during their period of operation. This licensed operator likely is the Control Operator. Make-no-mistake, this person is responsible for the station’s operation. • Unlicensed operators will therefore never operate a station unsupervised by a license operator, and the supervising licensee will be logged onto N1MM using their own call sign, so we will be able to identify the responsible individual. Field Day Presentation

49. The Unlicensed Visitor Contact Log Here is what the “Unlicensed Visitor Contact Log” spreadsheet will look like when you open it on your desktop. I put one entry on it so you could see how the information is listed. Any reference to Jeff Miller of Lassie fame is strictly intended. Field Day Presentation

50. The Unlicensed Visitor Contact Log You will use this log for all contacts made by unlicensed individuals. Enter day of month, time in UTC, band, contact’s call sign, the name of the visitor and their age of under 18. Ignore where it says on the spreadsheet and think 18. I fixed it on the real spreadsheet. Field Day Presentation