1. W6HA Field Day 2016 Wilderness Park, RB Assessment July 19, 2016
Mike Vahey
N6MDV
July 19, 2016

2. Field Day 2016 for W6HA – Many Aspects
Field day is
part contest
part experience building
and intended to be Fun!
The contest is measured by
Number of contacts made – called QSOs and
Bonus points
Emergency power
Alternate energy
Information table
Public interaction
Bulletin reception
Publicity
NTS
Youth
Social media
Safety officer
We did all of this!!

3. Many Participants N6MDV Mike K6VHY Karen N6HEG Eric KK6TAC Paul
AB6VO Al
W6RFI Dick
AD6RW Bob
AC6RW Ron
W1MII Dick
W9GQI Bill
K6UUU Norm
AB6YS Scott
KK6ZDP Vince
AB6UI Brian
WB6MMQ Dale
N6VZF Betty
KI6GUY Steve
AI6HJ Pete
KI6TKT Judi
KM6COH Marilyn
KM6FP Richard
AI6GP Ralph
N4II Ed

4. Another Successful Field Day in Wilderness Park
Participants 21+
Visitors 50+!
Campers, walk-ins, ARRL locator, newspaper…
Around the clock operation
Numerous people camping over night
3A LAX station
HF 1 20M Phone
HF 2 10/15/80M Phone
HF3 40M Phone, CW, Digital
VHF 6M, 2M, 1.25M, 70CM
GOTA 10M, 15M and 40M
QSO’s 1570 (last year 1977)
Bonus points (1430 last year)
Total score 4734 (last year 5484)
New operators & people on the air/logging/setting up, doing More!
This is success: New experiences, New skills, Having fun!!

5. Bonus Points 100% Emergency power 300 - Generators
Media Publicity 100 – Easy Reader, Daily Breeze
Social Media 100
Set-up in Public Place 100 –Wilderness Park
Information Booth 100 – Table, sign-in list and brochures
NTS message to ARRL SM/SEC 100 Yes!
Formal NTS messages handled 100
Natural Power QSOs Completed 100 – Solar panels/batteries VHF station
W1AW Field Day Message 100 – Captured Friday night
Safety officer 100
Site Visit by invited elected official 0 Not this year
Site visit by invited served agency official 100 – Red cross visitor
GOTA Bonus 20 points
GOTA Coach 20 points
Web submission 50
Youth Element achieved – 100 points per youth
Total bonus points 1490

6. 2016 Total QSO W6HA + GOTA

7. Same Location Same Antennas, But…
Contact count was down by 21% (407 QSO’s) vs. 2015
Variables
Solar weather – Sun spots were down this year
Reported 0 sunspots on Field Day Saturday
Affects higher frequency propagation
Atmospheric weather
Lightening / atmospheric noise
Stations shutting down early due to thunderstorm safety
Fires/smoke/strong winds
Different operators
Different transceiver (all but 20M stations)
Visitors
Tours and welcoming
Operating time on non-GOTA station
Power – generator interruptions

8. 2016 QSO By Hour and Band 1519 Phone 0 Digital 51 CW
Field Day Start

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. W6HA Field Day 2016 QSO’s 1570 QSO’sBC YK NT AB 20 NL 11 MB SK 8 ON 4 2
MAR 18 77 QC 18 6 3 5 29 45 27 22 5 VT 9 27 5 CT 20 35 15
MDC 17 9 29 4 NH 21 40 38 10 MA 41 77 16 DE 28 3 5
412 16 21 15 NJ 12 21 7 22 RI 52 24 15 19 12 20 19 6 8 PR 88 16 2 DX 8 2
No contact 1
Total number of QSO
Red numbers mean more than 20% fewer QSO than 2015
Blue numbers mean more than 20% more QSO than 2015
Black numbers about the same 12

13. W6HA Field Day 2016 QSO’s 40M overlay 1570 QSO’sBC YK NT AB 20 MB NL 11 SK 8 ON 4 1 1 2
MAR 18 77 QC 1 18 6 3 5 29 45 3 1 9 1 27 22 2 5 VT 9 27 5 CT 1 4 20 35 1 15
MDC 1 17 1 9 NH 21 38 29 4 40 MA 41 3 10 77 16 3 1 28 3 DE 5
412 11 19 16 21 2 2 15 NJ 1 12 5 3 1 21 7 3 22 1 RI 1 65 52 24 2 15 19 1 12 33 4 20 19 6 8 2 PR 88 1 1 16 9 2 DX 8 2
No contact 1
Total number of QSO
Red numbers mean more than 20% fewer QSO than 2015
Blue numbers mean more than 20% more QSO than 2015
Black numbers about the same 13

14. 40M Band Observations
Good contact flow for first hour averaging 1.2 minutes between contacts while running
Rest of day was very slow with noisy band
Time between contacts minutes
Reduced to 3 minutes in the evening
Then 5-10 minutes overnight
Very tiring and not rewarding
Though… night time crew did pull in many east coast contacts!
Well done!
Much slower contacts all afternoon than last year

15. 40M Band Observations cont’d
Why??
Nominally same antenna, but possibly it is more sensitive to slight variables than expected
Local NVIS like contacts were few, yet east coast stations were higher
Possibly more directional this year as there were many fewer stations found in BC, WA, and OR
Or was all the noise due to atmospherics?
Possible solution for next year
Dropping the reflector wire provides more local communications
Also lowering the apex of the driver will make it more NVIS like

16. 20M Band Observations
Same equipment as last year, same location,… same
Time between contacts averaged 48 seconds from 11 AM until 9PM, then slowed to minutes between contacts
Great flow rate
Results demonstrate the skip zone with few contacts in near by western states and most contacts further east
Contacts were lower by only 11% (106 QSO’s)
No operation from about 10:30PM until nearly 6 AM
“Bands dead”
Last year 81 contacts made during this period

17. 15M Band Observations CW Southeast states
As somewhat predicted long distance eastern stations only in the evening and only in the south
CW visitor N4II took over station at 10 AM
Again as predicted CW and digital should work across country
Southeast states
West coast and Hawaii stations CW

18. 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole Prediction and plotted contacts
7PM
15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole Prediction and plotted contacts
Be active at 7PM!
15 Meter
80 Meter

19. 9AM
20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M 2 element inverted V, 80M NVIS
Use digital or CW
15 Meter
20 Meter
80 Meter
40 Meter

20. 80M Band Observations Awesome addition to this year’s contacts
193 contacts up from 112 last year
Night owl (WB6MMQ) started at 8:20PM and worked until 3AM
Mostly western states
Ranging to Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia
As far east as Texas and Arkansas
Then around midnight getting IA, TN
Then a bit later all the way to Massachusetts
And a few other mid western states
Inverted V hung from the 55 foot tower and FT-1000 with amplifier putting out nearly 150 Watts

21. VHF Station Observations
Great contacts – 67 more QSO (66%) more than 2015
222 band is not heavily used, only 11 contacts
May not be worth the additional effort for 222 antenna and transceiver
Had youth working on this vs. the GOTA station
(Too many interested visitors at the same time?)
NTS message passing overlapped the satellite pass
Missed the satellite opportunity
Next year determine pass times and set messaging at non overlapping time with good margin of time for setup/operation
Primarily Southern California stations

22. 6M Band Contacts by Hour Not highly energized ionosphere
Sporadic E ?
Probably not as most contacts are in Southern CA except few to Colorado and Kansas

23. GOTA Station Observations
GOTA coach AC6RW guided several new hams and visitors through making their first HF contacts
One new ham made more than 20 contacts giving us bonus points
Dale provided 2 GOTA pins for those who made the most QSO’s
They were highly valued by recipients
5 youth made contacts for more bonus points
Ron created a certificate to hand out to them
GOTA used a Icom 706 with tuner, a tri-band antenna, a dual band VHF/UHF vertical and on Sunday we set up a 40M dipole

24. General Observations Bonus point leaders did very well
NTS messaging very smooth with pre-coordinated time
KI6GUY made up messages and addresses for 10+1 messages
Safety officer (AD6RW) hit all the points, no injuries
(Nor a city inspection this year – new management and established trusting relationship)
Public place, information table, solar, … all very well done!
Logging display at info table worked well! And handouts were well liked
Two people camped on Friday night
Made first HF QSO to Portugal for KM6COH!!
Generators and power distribution
A bit smoother last year, some power drop outs as cables moved or generators had issues
(Smaller fuel tank?)
Need to check power wave form as the one generator (noisier one) caused UPS to complain about its power
Food options worked well – tasty
Great logging system no issues – thanks N6VZF

25. More Observations Mosquito netting would have been good at VHF station
Chairs provided by many individuals worked well – Thanks!
By special request the city opened the park at 9AM on Friday, that worked well
However, they locked the generator area when they went home at 4PM and it did not open early enough on Saturday
We need to keep that area unlocked while we are there
Caution tape worked well. Used about 1.5 full rolls
Many interested visitors on Friday and again Sunday afternoon.
Suggest flyers and info booth be set up earlier and left up until the end
Frequency band plan charts in each station worked well
Ditto the charts as to what to say… CQ CQ FD
Bandpass filters worked well to mitigate QRM, but 15M filter needs to be checked – it seems to have an issue

26. Even More Observations
Tour guides and people manning the info booth were very useful, friendly and we even have an from a guest who was very complimentary of how welcome we made him
For CW operations we need a pig tail adaptor from ¼” jacks to 3.5mm jacks as some radios need the smaller fitting. Likely need an adaptor back the other way too.
Need to get more digital options for stations in 2017 – if bads are poor digital and CW will be important
Thursday trailer load went well
City pathway to the concrete pad was awesome and made moving the trailer in easy
Great hanging of cables high in the trees this year.
Note 200 foot Ethernet cable was barely long enough to get to the 40M tent
All tents worked well and were not smelly this year
Social media and newspaper media worked well
Good to start with the city as early as January (like we did this year) to ensure we have a place at the park. They worked well with us.

27. Historical FD Data

28. 40M Section Contacts 2015
Some sections provided the bulk of the contacts

29. QSO Summary FD 2015 W6HA plus GOTA
Band CW
Dig
Phone
Total %
Points 80
130 7
260 6% 40 5 45
551
601 30
1304
32% 20
1007 51
2014
50% 15
112 6
224 34 2 68 2% 16 1 32 1%
1.25 11 22 70 14 0%
GOTA 59 3
118 3% 46
1926
1977
100
4056

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

31. W6HA Phone Contact FD includes GOTA

32. 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

33. 2015 Contacts by Hour of Day by Band 1927 phone 45 digital 5 CW
FD START
Midnight
11 AM
UTC TIME

34. 2015 Contacts by Hour of Day by Band 1927 phone 45 digital 5 CW
20M continues until midnight
FD START
Some 40M digital and then sleep
Resumes at 3AM!
1PM: 2 active bands and less on 15M
Active Start on 3 bands
80M starts 8PM goes until 4AM
Some VHF starts
Earlier ops would be good
Or may be logging artifact
Running resumes on 40M
5AM Day starts with 80 and 20M, 40 continues
Reduced rate vs Saturday
5PM Saturday
Midnight
11 AM
UTC TIME

35. Contacts by Hour of Day by Band
2014
Start of FD
Peak rates lower than 2015
More operation overnight
Midnight
Noon
Local TIME

36. 2015 Contacts by Mode by Hour
Mostly phone contacts
A bit of digital near midnight and again in the morning
Very little time on CW Sunday morning
FD START
Midnight
11 AM
UTC TIME

37. Contacts by Mode by Hour
2014
Start of FD
Midnight
Noon

38. W6HA Field Day 2015 QSO’s 1977 QSO’s with 0 Satellite contacts– digital and phone modes – some dups in this chart BC YK 1 NT AB 63 NL 20 MB SK 5 ON 2 13
MAR 18 93 QC 23 4 7 7 25 77 34 29 5 VT 18 21 10 CT 13 45
MDC 13 25 14 NH 33 32 6 53 49 MA 45 14 68 18 DE 33 1 8
517 24 20 14 NJ 13 24 2 20 RI 80 17 28 11 16 8 16 4 13 2 PR 82 86 2 DX 7 2
No contact 1
Total number of QSO
Red numbers mean more than 20% fewer QSO than 2014
Blue numbers mean more than 20% more QSO than 2014
Black numbers about the same 38

39. W6HA Field Day 2015 QSO’s – 40M Overlay 1977 QSO’s with 0 Satellite contacts– digital and phone modes – some dups in this chart BC YK 1 NT AB 63 MB NL 20 12 SK 5 ON 2 13
MAR 3 18 93 2 QC 20 23 4 7 7 25 77 2 18 34 29 VT 18 3 5 1 21 CT 13 6 10 1 45 10
MDC 13 25 4 14 33 49 32 6 NH 3 53 1 14 MA 45 68 18 8 1 DE 33
517 29 8 24 10 2 20 14 NJ 21 13 13 2 2 1 4 24 2 20 2 RI
323 80 17 28 11 4 16 67 5 8 16 4 13 2 PR 82 1 2 86 2 DX 7 2 11 1
Total number of QSO 2
## number of 40M QSO
Phone 40M eastern
No contact
Digital 40M eastern 39

40. Run Rate Thoughts 2015 20M station first 3 hours Saturday
1 minute each -- FAST
20M station 10AM Sunday
2.14 minutes each– Slowing
40M station first 3 hours Saturday
40M station Saturday 9PM
1.06 minutes each -- FAST
40M station 10 AM Sunday
1.36 minutes each Slowing
Digital station better case
2.6 minutes per QSO
Observations
When there are plenty of stations
And with good
antenna
Band
Transceiver
Operators
A run rate on phone can be 1 QSO per minute for extended periods of time
With digital PSK31, run rates appear to be close to the slower run rate on phone
Possibly could be faster with more stations???
Or possibly just use to collect additional contacts

41. Possible Improvements for 2016
Fun factor…
Have some assured food available for all three days
Keep the number of stations high enough that everyone gets a chance to play and enjoy their way of operating – we did well this year
Contest QSO factor…
Staff the VHF station with operators
We (Pete) did an excellent job setting up a great station
Used very little – we can do more
Keep the run rate high on 15, 20, and 40M from 11 AM until 8 PM
Need focused operators and loggers to hold a frequency
After 8 PM switch 15M to 80M, but keep the 20 and 40M phone stations running
If operators want some search and pounce time
On 40M station from 3 to 5 PM
On 80M station until 7 PM
On 15M after 8 PM
More staffing in the wee hours
Add a digital / CW station able to move around on 15, 20, and 40M bands
Will need good phase noise and roofing filters transceiver
Enhance GOTA with additional bands
VHF or ???

42. Operational Changes for 2016
Steve suggests for messaging
Send the section manager message first
Change content on other messages
Possibly shorter and congratulations on license or upgrade
Ensuring that the VHF FM 2M station is set properly before message send time
Having a formal radio gram sheet at each station for any radio grams received
Keep the 40M station just on 40M; we don’t need the 10M antenna. 40M is so active day and night, that there isn’t time for switching bands
Faster logging server computer and/or careful placement of it on the network
Separate computer for the info booth to display the map of results
If we keep our run rate high on 15, 20, and 40M the server may just need to focus on updates – max rate exceeding 9 per minute
Start trailer loading on Thursday at 2:30 if we have 8 people and a park arrival time close to 4PM
Be sure that all the connections are tight on the yagi, tuners, …

43. Things that went well (please add more)
People to give tours – great!
Class on antennas
GOTA station operators and coaching
New 40 meter 2 element antenna
Lots of help setting things up
Plenty of stations for people to learn and do and/or just go full speed ahead
Gave everyone a chance to build skills and contribute
Tents and shelters
Power distribution, filtering and UPS’s
Logging once the server was moved
Arranging for a special message submission time
(though we had technical issues)
Beans!
Publicity went well, bulletings at park, newspaper, …
ARRL flyers on info table

44. Valuable Things to Do Again (Lessons learned from past)
Logging captain present to solve issues in real time – this really helps!
The band pass filters do a great job avoiding RFI/QRM
Multiple generators and filters
Assignments for each of the bonus point categories
Spreads out the work and gets it done well!
Large pushup / shelter for the info station – makes it welcoming!
ARRL Handouts
ARRL locator and newspaper notifications of field day
Available tarps in case it rains
3+ chairs per station

45. W6HA Field Day 2014 QSO’s 1851 QSO’s with 0 Satellite contacts– digital and phone modesBC YK 1 NT AB 12 NL 5 MB SK 3 ON 1 4
MAR 22 52 QC 8 6 5 7 23 39 9 33 8 VT 13 50 10 CT 7 46
MDC 27 12 10 NH 16 48 63 44 9 20 MA 18 DE 49 20 27 9 6
430 13 38 27 NJ 17 45 4 29 RI 57 19 35 21 19 35 49 21 13 2 PR
113 86 4 DX 10 1 1
Number of contacts
No contact 45

46. W6HA FD 2014 ARRL Submission Field Day Call Used: W6HA
GOTA Station Call: WB6MMQ
Number of Participants: 19
Number of transmitters in simultaneous operation: 3
Power sources used.
Generator
Battery
Solar
Total CW QSOs:
19 X 2 = Total CW QSO points: 38
Total Digital QSOs:
61 X 2 = Total Digital QSO points: 122
Total Phone QSOs:
1781 X 1 = Total Phone QSO points: 1781
Total QSO points: 1941
Power Multiplier:150 Watts or less = 2
Claimed Score: 3882
Bonus points claimed:
100% Emergency power
Media Publicity
Set-up in Public Place
Information Booth
NTS message to ARRL SM/SEC
W1AW Field Day Message
Formal NTS messages handled (# 13)
Satellite QSO completed
Natural Power QSOs Completed
Site Visited by invited elected official
Site visited by invited served agency official
Educational Activity Bonus
Youth Element achieved (# 4)
GOTA Bonus (total bonus points: 0)
Total Bonus Points Claimed: 1130

47. W6HA Field Day 2013 QSO’s 462 QSO’s with 5 Satellite contacts– digital and phone modesBC AB
YK, NT 10 MB NL 3 SK 4 ON 1
MAR 2 34 QC 3 1 2 15 3 2 1 VT CT NH MA DE NJ 6 6 1 5 2 5
MDC 7 1 3 6 5 6 1 6 9 2
242 2 2 24 3 3 RI 1 5 2 3 2 2 1 11 4 3 5 1
Number of contacts
No contact 47

48. How We Did – Field Day 2013 Contacts Score 980 Total Score 2230
Contacts Points
GOTA contacts 22
W6HA contacts 958
Contacts Score 980
Bonus Points
7.3.1 Emergency Power stations
7.3.2 Media Publicity 100 Hawthorne Cable
7.3.3 Public Location 100 Wilderness Park
7.3.4 Public Information Table 100 Yes 22 signed log
7.3.5 Message to Section Manager 100 Barry sent to Greenhut
7.3.6 Message handling 0 none
7.3.7 Satellite QSO 100 Ray capture of 1 SSB and 4 FM sats
7.3.8 Alternate Power 100 Ray and Mike/Karen solar for all contacts
7.3.9 W1AW 100 Mike capture of bulletin on RTTY/PSK31
Educational activity 100 Crystal radio for emergency use
Site by elected gov official
Visit by agency rep
GOTA bonus 0 None made the req’d 20 QSOs
Web submission 50
Field Day Youth Participation youth, 1 BSA, 4 campers
Total Score 2230

49. Comparison to Last Year FD 2012 – Score
Phone QSOs
40M – mostly solar
20M
15M
6M solar power
2M solar power
70CM 2
=============
QSOs Power Multiplier x2 = 324 points (for 150 watts or less)
Bonus Points
100% Emergency Power
W1AW Field Day Message
Formal NTS Messages Handled
Natural Power QSOs completed
Submitted via the Web
=====================
Total Bonus Points
Total QSO Points
Total Score submitted