1. W6HA Field Day 2017 Results Summary and Preliminary Analysis July 18, 2017
Mike Vahey
N6MDV
April 18, 2017

2. Success W6HA Field Day 2017 Goals: Approach: We had a good time !!
To have fun - keep it light and enjoyable for all
To make many, many radio contacts - more each year
To test new equipment, antennas, and methods
To engage with the public and explain how we are preparing for emergency communication operations
Approach:
Wilderness Park
Family camping weekend
Setup on Friday
Around the clock operation
3 HF stations
1 GOTA station
1 VHF station
Rules changes
Presume same as last year
Should be checked
Success
We had a good time !!

3. W6HA Field Day 2017 Summary 19 participants 3A station
1550 bonus points
Batteries, solar, generators
Publicity, public place, info booth
NTS message and formal NTS messages
W1AW field day message
Site visit by elected and served agency officials
Educational activity
Social media and safety officer
Total score 4106

4. Total QSO’s by Band
1202 QSO’s W6HA
Plus 39 GOTA

5. QSO Count by Hour and Band
11AM Contest Start
11PM
UTC Hours
Gap

6. Observations QSO by Hour and Band
Used all bands except 10M & 1.25M (except 1 GOTA 10M contact)
Strongest activities during afternoon and early evening
Very strong 40M at noon or late logging from 11 o’clock hour
77 VHF/UHF including SF on 2M !
By 11PM until 7 AM things slowed substantially
No ops from 2:20AM until 7AM
As expected 80M good night time from 7PM
11PM
80M

7. QSO by Mode by Hour Late afternoon and evening 21 CW 40M and 1 CW 15M
Sunday morning 13 PSK31 on 20M
Nearly all QSO’s were phone

8. 2017 Propagation Models Field Day
Looking at times of day for each band
Some results plotted on top of projections

9. 6AM
20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS
PSK 31 7AM 20M:
NM, GTA, NTX, STX, STX
KS, CO, OK, WTX, CO, UT
UT, UT
15 Meter
20 Meter
Be active by 5AM
80 Meter
40 Meter

10. 9AM
20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40MNS NVIS, 80M NVIS
Use digital or CW
Possible into midwest
45 15M QSO
Mostly local, but few to east coast,
Hawaii, and northwest
Almost like a sporadic E
Dale reports it was good - then just stopped
15 Meter
20 Meter
PSK 31 7AM 20M:
NM, GTA, NTX, STX, STX
KS, CO, OK, WTX, CO, UT
UT, UT
Benefit of digital SNR
80 Meter
40 Meter

11. 11AM
20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS
Use digital or CW
Appalachians
15 Meter
20 Meter
80 Meter
40 Meter

12. 1PM
20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS
Use digital or CW
Maybe Phone
15 Meter
20 Meter
45 15M QSO
Mostly local, but few to east coast,
Hawaii, and northwest
Almost like a sporadic E
Dale reports it was good - then just stopped
80 Meter
40 Meter

13. 3PM
20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS
Use digital or CW
Maybe Phone
15 Meter
20 Meter
80 Meter
40 Meter

14. 5PM
20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS
As good as it is going to be
Try phone at 5PM!
Be active at 5PM!
East coast open
15 Meter
20 Meter
CW 6PM 40M:
NM, KS, WTX, KY, KS
BC, VA, MT, MT. OK, MO
OK, KY, STX, OR, MT
MDC, TN, WWA, VA
Better match to 7PM chart
80 Meter
40 Meter

15. 7PM
20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS
Be active at 7PM!
Be active at 5PM!
East coast open
Strong everywhere
15 Meter
20 Meter
CW 6PM 40M:
NM, KS, WTX, KY, KS
BC, VA, MT, MT. OK, MO
OK, KY, STX, OR, MT
MDC, TN, WWA, VA
Shows benefit of CW SNR
Be active at 7PM!
80 Meter
40 Meter

16. 9PM
20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS
15 Meter
20 Meter
Be active at 9PM!
Be active at 9PM!
80 Meter
40 Meter

17. 11PM
20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS
Still good for mid west
15 Meter
20 Meter
Be active at 11PM!
80 Meter
40 Meter

18. Comparison to Previous Years
Sunspots lower this year again
Fewer operators this year
QSO count down somewhat
2017: Phone 13 Digital 22 CW
2016: Phone 0 Digital 51 CW
2015: Phone 45 Digital 5 CW
2014: Phone 61 Digital 19 CW
2013: 431 Phone 27 Digital 0 CW
Note: 2013 was first year in Wilderness park. We did not have the band filters. We did have inter station noise and something in the neighborhood that generated bad RF noise on most bands.
Since then we have band pass filters and have improved power generation/distribution.

19. 2016 QSO By Hour and Band 1519 Phone 0 Digital 51 CW
Field Day Start
No gap in 2016

20. 2016 QSO by Hour and Mode
CW: 40M 16, 20M 16, 15M 19 (guest N4II from Florida)
10X more CW than last year, but no digital this year

21. 2016 Contacts By Band 20M by far most QSO’s
Rate 48 sec until 9PM then 2.3 minutes until 10PM
Then 6 minutes until 10:30
Then nothing from 10:30 until 6AM
As expected higher HF frequencies were limited
40M and 80M next most QSO’s
2M most active VHF
6M better than 440
220 limited use
CW contacts limited by amount of time used

22. 2015 Contacts by Band 1927 phone 45 digital 5 CW
20M had the majority of contacts
Strong crew kept the frequency while running
Active running 19 hours
40M had next largest contacts
Running went well also
Active running about 9-10 hours
Rest of 22 hours was search and pounce
plus some CW and digital as well
15 and 80M shared transceiver
Likely had more search and pounce time
VHF station had long periods with no operator
Did well when it was operational

23. W6HA Field Day QSO History Increasing count – high variance on how stations operate
Trend

24. W6HA Phone Contact FD includes GOTA
2014 tower started on 15, then switched to 20M
2015 tower was on 20M all weekend
2015 new 40M antenna and 9 hours of run time
Less use of VHF 2015
2015 less 15M run time
2015 Less use of VHF

25. Field Day Stations
20 Meter Station with 3 element yagi on 55’ crank up tower
10/15 /80 Meter Station with 3 element yagi on 25’ pushup pole and 80M inverted V from tower or NVIS
40 Meter Station with North South Dipole
(East West works well too, just gets more WA and OR vs states East)
GOTA HF/VHF station with 3 element yagi on 20’ pushup & VHF/UHF vertical
Plus
2 Honda power generators
Solar
Information table
Logging computers
VHF station with 5 element 6M yagi, TBD other antennas on 20’ pushup poles
Suggest that if possible just run 15M on CW and or digital – likely skip phone or do it just a little.

26. Modeling Background Using VOAAREA modeling tool
Smoothed sunspot numbers for June 2017 with 25 SSN (less than last year-36)
Model our antennas on EZNEC
Model receiving antenna at 8dBi
Consistent with dipole at other end (2db higher than last year modeling to reflect observations)
Modeling presumes 100W out
Suitable for SSB and CW, but high for digital
90 percent reliability based on SNR
45 dB for SSB (pink on following charts)
27 dB for CW/digital (orange on following charts plus near by green)
Plots at 6am, 9am, 11AM (18Z), 1PM, 3PM, 5PM, 7PM, 9PM, and 11PM pacific
Antenna models
20M and 15M tri element yagi at ¾ lambda above ground
70 deg orientation from North
40M NVIS North South dipole
80M NVIS not updated from last year, pattern is about the same

27. How to Read Chart S9+ SSB Time Band SKIP ZONE
CW/Digital in Orange and adjacent green
S9+
SKIP ZONE
Antenna Direction
One Hop and Two Hop Signals