Category Archives: Field Day

Activity, Field Day

Winter Field Day team at Henry Coe State Park

Many, many warm thanks to Steve Sergeant, KC6ZKT, and his lovely wife Jean for the excellent job they did organizing and feeding our Winter Field Day team at Henry Coe State Park this past weekend.  

Saturday night’s chili was especially fantastic, the weather was near perfect except for a little overnight rain, and we all had a really great time.  I also learned a whole bunch about debugging quirky antenna/radio/laptop issues that never occur when I’m sitting at my home station.    

I’m already looking forward to WFD-2021.- Jim, K6EI

Here are a few photos from WFD. Wayne N6BTU

Activity, Field Day

Winter Field Day 2020

WVARA members: Please complete this short survey about your potential interest in Winter Field Day 2020:

[ https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9WBRHZX ]

Winter Field Day, the event is held in late January (the next one is
1/25 – 1/26). The emphasis is on a contest that can prepare operators for emergency communications deployments in harsh environments.

More details are here:

[ https://www.winterfieldday.com ]

–… …–
SteveSgt, KC6ZKT

Field Day, News

Field Day June 21-23

Field Day is June 21-23, and this year WVARA will be participating in the 9 Alpha Battery category. Here’s a tentative list of the HF band captains and equipment based on last year’s event.  

Feel free to let me know if you have additional information or suggested changes:

Band     Mode  Captain    Rig            Laptop
20/160   SSB   Jack B     K3 (Jack’s)    Jack
40/10    SSB   Mark S     K3 (Mark’s)    Mark
80/15    SSB   Jon K      K3 (Jon’s)     Jon

20       CW    Greg O     K3 (Greg’s)    Bill Fehring
40       CW    Jim P      K3 (Jim’s)     Bill Fehring
80/15    CW    Jim P      KX3(Jim’s)     Bill Fehring

TBD  Digital  Bill AE6JV  K3 (AE6JV’s)   AE6JV
TBD  Digital  TBD         TBD            TBD

GOTA    SSB    Kevin      KX3 (AE6JV’s)  TBD

Jim Peterson

Contests, Field Day, Meeting

June 13th WVARA Meeting – N1MM+ Logger Review + Field Day Strategies

It’s time for the June WVARA meeting! June 13th at 19:00 in Meeting Room 5 at the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, 2731 N. First Street at Plumeria Drive (southwest corner) in San Jose. Talk in is available on the association repeaters, 2m is a good choice.
I’m sure none of us have forgotten, but just in case, Field Day is June 22nd-24th, and when we’re this close to Field Day, it’s hard not to talk about Field Day.
In this meeting, we’re going to do a deep dive into N1MM+, the logging software we’ll be using at field day this year. Last year, standardizing on it ended up working out really well — but this year we’ve refined some rough edges, learned from a few mistakes, and are using a few new features. Specifically, the waterfall bandmap will likely be of interest to a few people as well as the use of skimmers (which according to the ARRL, believe it or not, is allowed on Field Day.) You don’t have to have to be an expert at N1MM+ to use it by any means, but knowing a few shortcuts probably won’t hurt our score. Additionally, we’ll talk about some strategies and operating tips for the various modes. Perhaps we’ll even have time to make some eyeball-QSOs. I’ll lead the discussion and present some slides, but there’s quite a bit of wisdom elsewhere in the room, so we’re sure to learn something.
Field Day isn’t a contest, but they do keep score and publish/rank the results at the end, so it sure feels like one sometimes. There are some folks in this club that almost never contest, and others, who can’t stop contesting (hi.) No problem, but one of the most important goals of Field Day is to a) get as many of us on the air as possible, and who knows, maybe we’ll even get you hooked and talk you into taking a road trip for a real contest in the not-so-distant future.
A few of us usually meet for dinner somewhere near the Red Cross (I’ve been rotating between a few locations) around 6 pm prior to the meeting. This month, it’s back to Dish’n’Dash just a block down the street: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dish-n-dash-san-jose  I’m thinking of trying somewhere new entirely for our September meeting, so look for that!
See you there!

Bill/W9KKN

Field Day, News

Field Day results are here!

ARRL released the latest QST at their web site today. Among other things, it contains the results for Field Day 2017.

To say the least, “we did good”. Our score of 19350 in 13AB was the 4th highest score, just 410 points behind 3rd-place W4EZ (9AB).
W4IY (12A) scored 20930, still pretty close. First place was once again held by W3AO down to just 16A, at 39430, about twice our score!
(How do they do that every year???).

Interesting that W4EZ and ourselves were the only AB stations in the top 10. I guess the other guys need power to do the job.

Congrats to all, it not only was a fine effort under trying propagation conditions, but a very fun one as well. Especially thanks to Bobbie and Bill for their organization efforts! May this years Field Day be even more fun, and please someone arrange for some sunspots for that weekend.

73,
Jack, W6FB

Field Day, Photos

Field Day 2017 Photos

IMGP9351 Turkeys visit
IMGP9338 N6FFC waiting in GOTA
IMGP9331 AD6RY
IMGP9328 GOTA w-N6FFC
IMGP9323 Bobby chases a satallite
IMGP9310 Fading sunset
IMGP9302 Sunset over camp
IMGP9296 N6GD
IMGP9293 Sunset over the peninsula
IMGP9285 Sunset sky
IMGP9282 Tower at sunset
IMGP9280 VHF & CW tents in setting sunlight
IMGP9272 Digital station
IMGP9271 BBQ Dinner
IMGP9266 KJ6WH & N6FFC
IMGP9263 W6PI
IMGP9260 CW Operator
IMGP9259 Nick KZ2V
IMGP9257 W1UE
IMGP9255 GOTA tent crowd Rebecca, Chuck (AD6CL), Elizabeth, Rachel, and Peter (K6UCK) Kamas
IMGP9254 CW, Digital & GOTA tents
IMGP9257 W1UE
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For a larger view visit our Photo Page.

Field Day, News

Great job, team!

It’s interesting comparing WVARA’s band results from 2014 through 2017.   The sunspots may have clearly taken their toll, but we’ve made impressive improvements over the years on 40 and 80 meters — and 2 meters also.

QSO Totals

2014

2015

2016

2017

80

120

206

262

307

40

545

529

636

700

20

755

862

790

629

15

610

597

175

198

10

2

24

3

2

6

27

29

33

26

2

23

37

65

66
Field Day, News

Oh Great WVARA FD Team,

While in the middle of FD, I know there was much talk about “dead bands” and such, but it seems that was all talk. I will be submitting our score shortly, and the ARRL may have some QSO matching to do, but according to N1MM+ and a pile of XLS time, our final score was 19,250. This would be a second place score in the 2016 event, and time will tell if we achieved our goal of a 13A record. In any case, here are the highlights:

80m SSB / CW / Digi: 120 / 174 / 13 QSOs
40m SSB / CW / Dig: 173 / 444 / 83
20m SSB / CW / Dig: 119 / 420 / 90
15m SSB / CW / Dig: 70 / 126 / 2
10m SSB / CW / Dig: 2 / 0 / 0
VHF SSB+FM / CW / Digi: 134 / 4 / 0

…for a total QSO count of 1971 (after several dups were removed). I then tallied up 1 pt  per SSB/FM contact and 2 pts/QSO for CW and Digi to get a base QSO score of 16,650 (which includes the GOTA QSOs). Adding in 2600 bonus points (emergency power, public location, satellite, etc) got us up to our 19,250 grand total score. I will crunch up some charts showing QSO rates and qtys by hour, but this is what they will all add up to.

I must thank each and every one of you for the dedication and effort you each put forth through this event. It never ceases to amaze me how much A Game each of you brings. Tower trailers, networks, radios, tents, antennas galore, intense operating skills, and all the glue in between. Quite a lot happens to make this one day event successful. Little things like falling masts, dead batteries, and no sleep just don’t slow any of you down.

Thank you,
B-

Field Day, News

Major kudos for Field Day

Major kudos to Bobby Barnett and Bill Fehring for organizing and running WVARA’s Field Day event on Mora Hill this weekend.   You guys did a really great job!

Likewise, many thanks to Kevin Smith for running/coaching the great GOTA station, and to Svend Jensen for getting all the big towers / antennas successfully installed.   And a special thanks to Greg DesBrisay for stepping into my shoes to test/deploy/maintain the three stations in CW station.

Y’all done did good! Jim Peterson