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

 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 AlphaHotelOscarVictor BravoIndiaPapaWhiskey CharlieJulietQuebecX-ray DeltaKiloRomeoYankee EchoLimaSierraZulu FoxtrotMikeTango GolfNovemberUniform

 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 …  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  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

Year Class QSO’s Power Participants Total Score Stations Ranking E No Results E , A , No Results E , E D No Results 20114A , A