H.F. Antennas

This year’s Field Day site lends itself to the installation of BIG H.F. antennas.

There was even some talk about creating a hinge on a truck and hoisting a tower with a three-element beam for 20/15/10 meters. The Brampton club used beams on Field Day to great advantage. Maybe next year especially if 15/10 start to open.

The reason for hesitation here is the bane of all Field Days is complexity. What seems simple on paper can become a nightmare at 2 p.m.

The other big issue when running multiple transmitters on Field Day is R.F. overload. We do have a few multi-band band-pass filters but even these devices can’t prevent front-end overload.

One of the ways to minimize station-to-station interference is to run with contest-quality rigs that have tight front-ends and to use rig attenuators and never use pre-amps. The other method to minimize interference is to be careful where antennas are placed.

The CW and SSB antennas should be erected in one straight line at the same height with as much separation as possible. The digital antenna needs to erected as far away from the other two as possible and the same goes for the GOTA station.

Neither station should run a vertical but if 80-meters is’t a consideration then a G5RV-JR would be quite effective despite the vertical, open-line feeder.

Any standard trap or fan dipole fed with coax or a doublet fed with open-wire at 30′ minimum or 60′ optimally will work really well. I’ll be bringing a 130′ Carolina Windom and I’m considering buying a DX Engineering full-size open-wire fed doublet.

We’ve used Lazy-H antennas in the past and I’d love to setup a ZL-Special which is a two-element wire 40-meter beam.

Again maybe next year.

Field Day 2013 Site Inspection

A big group from the Oakville Amateur Radio Club showed up on Saturday morning to inspect the new site at Bronte Provincial Park.

All the band captains attended and the reaction to the new location at the Breckon shelter was very positive.

The Breckon site is large enough to accommodate the CW, SSB, digital and even the GOTA station in the same shelter. Of course this will necessitate the use of headphones but we’ve always used headphones in the past so this should work.

The shelter has 110-volt power plus lighting so it can eliminate the need for setting up tents or pulling trailers onto the site.

Best of all there are lots of trees in the 30- to 60-foot range that are aligned in an east-west direction to allow for multiple dipoles setup end to end to minimize RF interference.

A washroom building is just down the road.

Each of the band captains is currently assessing rigs and antenna needs and a list of operators and times will be setup early in June and posted.

We have commitments from members to help setup the barbecue which is located at the rear of the shelter so expect hamburgs and maybe hot dogs Saturday night. For those with more or less refined tastes theses a Tim Horton’s located just outside the park.

Discussions among the band captains are ongoing about whether or not to run batteries instead of the generator. We’ve got access to some large-capacity batteries and at 100-watts for 24-hours they should hold up just fine. Using batteries at 100-watts doesn’t change our category but it sure makes for a quieter Field Day.

Using the generator would require someone to volunteer to set it up and run power cables to the four stations that have been spoken for to date. So far, we’ve not heard from anyone wishing to do this job.

When it comes to 100-volt power we can use the power in the shelter for the lights and computers so long as the computer isn’t being used to generate the on-air signal.

This means the CW station on battery power couldn’t use the logging computer on 110-volts to generate CW from the CW memories and would have to use an external keyer of which we have several.

Same goes for the digital station but we could put the computer on a transverter and run it off the battery.

The one position that it would be really nice to see filled is “Bonus Points Manager.” It would be this person’s job to help the club realize as many Field Day bonus points as possible.

Here’s a link to the ARRL Field Day rules.

Anyone interested in this position or helping out in any other way can email me at ve3hg@cogeco.ca.

Who’s In Charge?

The question of who is making the decisions around Field Day came up this morning at the Saturday morning breakfast.

As I said when I volunteered to be Field Day Co-Ordinator it isn’t me. I just move the paperwork around.

The actual decision-making is done by those who volunteer to help. So right now that’s the four station captains and Rod, RHF, in his position as president.

The four station captains will be making decisions around which rigs and antennas they want and which source of power (batteries or generator) they prefer. We’ve had several requests for a battery-powered Field Day but that decision is yet to be made by the captains.

This decision may or may not affect which category we end up in.

Rod is going to circulate sign-up sheets for the operating times for all four stations and the time slots are likely to go on a first-come, first-served basis. If you know you’d like a specific time let Rod know.

The arrangements for the weekend food and Saturday night social are still up in the air as no one has volunteered to take this role so far but it’s still early.

As the coordinator, I want to thank the guys who have stepped up and volunteered or who have emailed me to let me know they are looking forward to attending the Oakville Club Field Day.

If you’re sitting at home wondering if there’s anything you could do to help out, just send me or Rod or one of the station captains an email.

 

Field Day Update

Thanks to Rod for booking the shelter at Bronte Prov. Park and good news on the entry fees.

Now more good news on the volunteer front. Along with Todd volunteering to captain the  SSB station we’ve heard from Harry, VA3EC who will captain the CW station and Rod, RHF, who will captain the digital station.

Now there are some more roles that need filling (see posts below) and room on the operator sign up sheets for the 24 hours of the contest (talk to the station captains).

If you’re interested in participating in Field Day 2013 please let me know.

Club Field Day Shelter Booked

We have booked the beautiful Breakon Shelter at Bronte Creek Provincial Park!

This large, enclosed shelter is a real “Upgrade” from last year’s accommodation, at last years attractive price. Located in the southern end of the park, you can almost see lake Ontario. Let can rain, we will be snug. In the heat, we can open the doors and let the hilltop breezes float through. And trees, lots of trees!

As an added bonus, we have secured admission to the park for club members, so I am very happy with the support the parks staff is giving us.

Rod ,VE3RHF

Volunteers Stepping Up

I’m pleased to announce that Todd has volunteered to be the SSB station manager this year.

Todd is a relatively new ham and he’s going to appreciate the support and kind guidance of all of us.

As station manager Todd will be circulating an operator sign-up list likely sometime later in May. In the meantime he’s getting his equipment list together and making arrangements for a shelter, power and antennas.

OARC President Rod has confirmed a site at Bronte Provincial Park is still available so I’ve cancelled our tentative request at Rattlesnake. Rod is going to checkout the site on the weekend (It’s different from last year) and will report back on the availability of trees for antennas (remembering we’ve got tons of poles in bags).

Looks like Field Day 2013 is starting to come together.

All Aboard!!

So far we’ve got five of us who have declared an intention to participate in the Oakville ARC’s Field Day.

Five is all we need to run an SSB and a digital station and we’re starting to get organized.

We’ve got two rigs and at least two antennas so far plus a couple of manual tuners. I recommend manual tuners instead of internal or external auto-tuners as auto-tuners under Field Day conditions often find the extraneous R.F. floating around too hard to handle.

We’re confirming the Bronte site’s availability and signing up station managers and other opportunities.

I would think that we’ll be closing off the volunteer manager sign-up list sometime around mid May so the managers can start organizing operators by putting names on a list and making sure they’ve got their equipment nailed down.

If you want help out, send me an email to ve3hg@cogeco.ca