In preparation for Field Day, we are going to have our annual antenna party on Saturday, May 11, at 9:30am in the parking lot of Pinecone Lumber — 895 E Evelyn Ave in Sunnyvale — https://goo.gl/maps/zmXCCxp7tRNsTp1b7
This is our opportunity to assemble and test our HF yagi on its tower, Hope to see you there!
Winter Field Day is coming up soon, on January 27 & 28th. And past year’s WVARA participants want you to have as much fun as we did.
WVARA will be taking over an area of Henry W. Coe State Park to operate four stations on CW, SSB and FM phone, and assorted digital modes, on all allowed bands from 3.5_MHz to 1.2_GHz. We plan to operate continuously from 11am-pst on Saturday through 11am-pst on Sunday.
We’ll start setting up a bit after noon on Friday, January 26th. All are
welcome to check out our set-up and participate.
Watch the WVARA “chat” group for details on our organization meeting, to be held online on January 22nd. For more details on Winter Field Day in general, see [ https://www.winterfieldday.org/ ].
To get there: As you drive toward the park on E. Dunne Ave. from highway 101 in Morgan Hill, CA, look for us in the first parking lot on your right immediately past the park’s entrance sign.
The ARRL has posted this year’s Field Day results. While we all recognize that Field Day is not a contest, the scores still get published each November.
We were in the 12 Alpha Battery category and finished with 2,878 QSOs completed and a final score of 27,570 — a 30% jump from our score in 2022. Awesome job!
And in case you were wondering, that score puts us at #2 out of all 4,445 submitted logs from this year’s Field Day, with the only score ahead of us being from the Potomac Valley Radio Club (W3AO) — their final score was 35,633.
In 2022 we were likewise #2 nationwide, and our score was 35% below that of the Potomac Club. In contrast, this year our score was only 23% behind the Potomac team. So I guess you can say we’re gaining on ‘em.
So start thinking about ideas for Field Day 2024. We’ll hold our annual brainstorm session in January or early February.
You can see the ARRL’s new Field Day write-up at:
https://contests.arrl.org/ContestResults/2023/Field-Day-2023-FinalQSTResults.pdf
Thank you to everyone on our team for an awesome Field Day experience! This year’s WVARA Team members included: W9KKN, N5YJZ, W6IA, K0XI, K9DK, KF6EMB, W6ESL, AD6RY, AK6BY, KK6VF, KB6NTW, KC7XE, NK6FGH, KN6ZMT, K6XM, KZ2V, KC6LBJ, W6VVQ, AJ6PV, W1MVY, WA2CRQ, and K6BBY.
Our projected score of 27,395 is almost 50% higher than last year’s. And for reference, last year our score placed us at #2 out of roughly 5,000 entries nationwide — second only to the East Coast W3AO mega-station. Not shabby!
Here’s a rundown of our contact totals this year per band and mode:
Band Mode QSOs
80 CW 87
80 DIG 81
80 PH 76
40 CW 368
40 DIG 172
40 PH 155
20 CW 558
20 DIG 228
20 PH 227
15 CW 328
15 DIG 165
15 PH 172
10 CW 33
10 DIG 33
10 PH 0
6 DIG 39
6 PH 12
2 PH 61
222 PH 8
420 PH 39
SAT PH 11
GOTA 24
TOTAL QSOs 2,877 (compared to 2,058 QSOs last year)
Total QSO Points* = 4,945
Claimed QSO score = QSO pts x power mult = 4945 x 5 = 24,725
Total Score = Bonus Points + QSO Score = 2,670 + 24,725 = 27,395
* Each CW or Digital QSO is worth 2 QSO points; each Phone QSO is worth one QSO Point.
According to the ARRL’s propagation bulletin, conditions were favorable over Field Day weekend with the exception of a brief period when the planetary K index rose to 5 on Saturday night. The sunspot number on Saturday peaked at 200 (wow!!!) with a solar flux around 160. There was plenty of action on 15 meters, and 20 meters stayed open the entire 24-hours. Sadly, 10 meters band conditions were a bit of a disappointment.
We had a Get-On-The-Air (GOTA) station, three HF CW stations, three HF SSB stations, three HF digital stations, and five VHF/UHF stations including one with satellite link capabilities. Our GOTA station (W6ZZZ) was particularly popular with plenty of drop-in visitors including a good number of kids, and Mark (W6IA) single-handedly netted us eleven satellite contacts.
Being outdoors also meant that we got to put up wild-n-crazy antennas that our spouses and neighbors would never allow back home. Antennas on Mora Hill this year included a pair of 4-band (10/15/20/40) yagi antennas for CW and SSB, and a traditional tribander (with 40m driven element resonator) for the digital tent. SSB, CW, and Digital each had a triplexer which enabled sharing each yagi between multiple transmitters. We also had separate 80m dipoles for each mode. GOTA had a multiband fan dipole and VHF antennas.
In order to minimize interference within our site, we took care to have HF transceivers with well-designed front-ends in order to minimize spur transmissions and receiver pumping/de-sensing. Most of our site’s HF stations used Elecraft or Flex transceivers. We likewise set up most of our antennas in a line pointed at the East Coast, so the side lobe rejection helped reduce interference. Being QRP further helped control cross-mode interference on each band.
Our digital stations benefitted from Bobby K0XI’s van which came with a self-contained 30 foot telescoping mast. In order to minimize interference between the CW and digital stations, we located the digital yagi about 200 feet from the rest of the site. The digital team was able to avoid long runs of coax by installing the digital RF hardware for both of their stations in the van and then running 200 feet of Cat5 Ethernet cable to the main site where the digital tent and the Flex terminals were located.
Be thinking about ideas for how we might improve things next year. And be sure to let us know if you’d be interested in getting involved with our plans for 2024. If you have any thoughts or questions regarding Field Day, you can reach our club via email at CQFieldDay@gmail.com
In preparation for Field Day, we want to get an idea of who is likely to be around to assist with set-up, tear-down, and operating. If you are planning to participate at Mora Hill, please complete the following on-line survey. We want to ensure that everyone who has a desire to operate gets an opportunity: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7HWZMDB
This year’s Field Day operation (June 23-25) will once again be at the top of Mora Hill located in the San Antonio Open Space Reserve. We will likely be running HF/SSB, HF/CW, HF/Digital, as well as VHF/UHF stations at 5 watts output in the Battery category. There will also be a Get On The Air (GOTA) station for rusty hams.
We will operate for the entire 24-hour period (11am Saturday to 11am Sunday). This means we will need operators throughout the event. Your involvement is welcome during set-up, tear-down, and throughout the 24-hour on-the-air period! You can see a description of one of our previous Field Day operations at: http://www.arrl.org/soapbox/view/9899
Jim Peterson, K6EI
WVARA Field Day Coordinator
The weekend between 1/28/and 1/29/2023 marked another successful Winter Field Day endeavor for our association.
Originally scheduled to be held in Henry Coe Park, bad weather forced us to “relocate” to Mt. Madonna County Park.
The day started cold and foggy…
But we set up successfully and celebrated appropriately:
more setup:
Green light @ 11:00 AM PST on 1/28/2023:
And, of course, a gift from mother nature to make the experience truly unforgettable:
This was my first Winter Field Day but I highly recommend it to all the WVARA members. Join us next year! You will be glad ! ! !
73,
Max – W6BG
Thank you to everyone who made this past weekend a truly awesome Field Day!
In preparation for Field Day, we are going to have our first antenna party this Saturday at 10am in the parking lot of Pinecone Lumber — 895 E Evelyn Ave in Sunnyvale — https://goo.gl/maps/zmXCCxp7tRNsTp1b7
This is our opportunity to assemble and test one of our HF yagis on its tower, Hope to see you there!
This year’s Field Day operation (June 24-26) will be at the top of Mora Hill located in the San Antonio Open Space Reserve. We will likely be running HF/SSB, HF/CW, HF/Digital, as well as VHF/UHF stations at 5 watts output in the Battery category. There will also be a Get On The Air (GOTA) station for rusty hams. As a COVID precaution, we will not be providing a GOTA coach this year, and will be encouraging social distancing at all our stations.
We will operate for the entire 24-hour period (11am Saturday to 11am Sunday). This means we will need operators throughout the event. Your involvement is welcome during set-up, tear-down, and throughout the 24-hour on-the-air period! You can see a description of our previous 2019 Mora Hill Field Day operation at: http://www.arrl.org/soapbox/view/9899
In preparation for Field Day, we want to get an idea of who is likely to be around to assist with set-up, tear-down, and operating. If you are planning to participate at Mora Hill, please complete the following on-line survey. We want to ensure that everyone who has a desire to operate gets an opportunity: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7HWZMDB
Jim Peterson, K6EI
WVARA Field Day Coordinator
For those who are interested, the ARRL has issued an updated set of FAQs at:http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-contest-program-issues-field-day-2020-faq
