I’ve been a bit slow in posting about Field Day, partly because I spent most of Sunday catching up on sleep, worked all day Monday, finished the Field Day video Tuesday night, and still haven’t started editing the still photos. Anyways… I produced a short video again this year of things happening at our Field Day site. The Vimeo video is embedded above, and is also available in sub-optimal quality at YouTube. I think I still like last year’s video better, but I was able to get set-up and antenna raising into the video this year.

The 2010 W0AK Field Day went really well. I ended up at the site at about 10 a.m. Saturday morning to help set up. Station set-up was well underway by the time I had arrived, and the antenna raising was about to commence. It was a hot and sticky day — about 90 degrees with a heat index just shy of 100.

PowerFilm Solar set up their 1 kW military-grade Solar Shade the night before, and a storm had blown through the area at about 5:30 a.m. Saturday, and boy I really underestimated the strength of that structure. It stood up to about 60 mph winds without even batting an eye.

The Solar Shade powered pretty much everything except the logging computers without a hiccup. The solar power was stored in two 120 Ah Humvee batteries, which were more than enough for our needs. Having such a unique, huge structure there for solar power gave us great talking points with visitors to our Field Day site.

We had two dignitaries visit us on Saturday from served agencies (which scored us extra points!): Joyce Flinn, the Readiness and Response Bureau Chief for the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division; and Lt. Col. Kevin Plagman of the Iowa National Guard. Both took a tour of the Field Day site and learned the purpose and goals of the Field Day event, and then visited with operators.

Unfortunately, as in years past, Field Day was competing with other major events in the Des Moines metro area — this year it was the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Drake and the Des Moines Arts Festival downtown, so it’s difficult for amateur radio to compete with these events for news coverage. I did a phone interview with WHO Newsradio 1040 Friday morning but I didn’t get a chance to listen to see if we made the cut.

After dinner, I sat down at our 15m sideband station and called CQ for about an hour and a half, making just over 100 contacts, mostly with stations on the east coast that were booming into Iowa.

At about 2:30 a.m. a storm began to approach our location. There was plenty of lightning to our north and northwest, rendering the bands more useless as they came closer. Eventually the gust front blew through, we gave up with the static, disconnected and powered off, and covered the stations with plastic sheeting before retreating to our cars where most of us took naps until the storm left the area at 5 a.m. Luckily everything stayed dry, but the lightning now to our south was still making the bands too noisy to do any meaningful operating. The air cooled down by a brisk 20 degrees by 5 a.m. — a welcome change from the 90-degree temperatures we had been experiencing late in the week.

With the breakfast crew’s arrival soon after the storm, I decided it was time for me to throw in the towel for the night and go home to get some sleep.

I had made the goal for our Field Day to reach 1,000 contacts this year after making 915 last year. Even with the thunderstorms disrupting the event for a good 4 hours, we accomplished this goal and made 1036 contacts. The only mode that we suffered a decrease of contacts in was PSK31 — last year we made 1 PSK contact, and this year we made none — a sharp decline from last year! Okay, maybe it’s just one contact… but still…

Field Day is the last major event for my club until the chili feed and auction around Thanksgiving time — but planning has already started for next year’s Field Day. In the past year, there’s been a push to move out of our comfort zone at Big Creek State Park, where we’ve held the event for years, to a new, more urban location. We looked at moving the event this year but it didn’t pan out. We are compiling a list of possible locations for next year, and will be narrowed down in the coming months before further planning.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon this little gem on YouTube from amateur radio’s heyday. The uploader writes:

Found in the attic of my dad, the “real” W3PYF, Clarence Snyder – a short piece of 8mm film of a Delaware Lehigh Amateur Radio Club Field Day from, I am guessing from the cars, 1950. I recognize my dad’s 1950 Dodge as one of the “shacks.” The heavy-set guy is the “real” W3OK; my father is the guy running around in the undershirt. I recognize Bill Werner and the faces of a few others. Hope you all enjoy seeing what ham radio was like in the war surplus era; you could buy a pair of “Command” sets for about $10 back then on “radio row” in NYC where the World Trade Center once stood (you could buy them for less at hamfests, if the original owner screwed them up).

It’s interesting to see how technology and Field Day has evolved since then. Thanks for sharing this with us, Mel!

Operating under the lights overnight at the Jollyboat Shelter at Big Creek State Park near Polk City, Iowa, for the 2009 W0AK Field Day.

Again this year I will be operating under the callsign W0AK for this year’s DMRAA/ARTS Field Day that will be based at Big Creek State Park near Polk City, Iowa (just outside of Des Moines). I will be mostly operating during the overnight hours, since my girlfriend will be home from 9-land for the weekend from her clinical rotation… she’s demanding attention even though it’s Field Day weekend! The nerve!

There’s been a lot of shop talk about what equipment everyone will be using and what class. W0AK (along with the GOTA station W0SCI) will be operating Class 2A, Iowa — same as last year. We may not be totally on battery power, since we will have one or two Flex SDR machines that seem to be happier on AC mains.

1 kW Power Shade by PowerFilm Solar

PowerFilm Solar, based just north of us in Ames, is graciously donating a 1 kW military-grade Solar Shade which is basically a large tent with flexible solar panels. I can’t wait to show it off. We’re still deciding on what will be put underneath the Power Shade, our operating area or the welcome area. The solar panels will be used to charge the batteries used for the radios.

Two generators will power the logging PC’s, lights, and the coffee pot. The generators will be a 3 kW EU3000I and a 2 kW EU3000I.

The radios and antennas may consist of (rough plan):

• Flex SDR
• Kenwood TS-690SAT
• Kenwood TS-850
• Yaesu FT-100
• Whatever other radios people want to bring out
• Two masts/rotators/controllers, with 200′ control line
• Carolina Windom
• Ladder line
• G5RV
• Buddipole (6m)
• Some random antennas and towers from the NWS station

I feel pretty confident that our club has come up with a very good operating plan. Last year we made just shy of 1,000 QSO’s, and I’m hoping that we can break that number. Looks like the weather in central Iowa will cooperate for Field Day activities, which is a much-needed reprieve from the daily heavy rainfall we’ve been receiving.

If you’re in the Des Moines area, please do come out to our Field Day site to see what the DMRAA is all about. It doesn’t cost a thing, and there will be free food! Operating activities start at 1 p.m. Saturday and goes until 1 p.m. Sunday. We will also be holding a potluck supper on Saturday at about 5 p.m. For a map and directions, visit the W0AK Field Day website.

At last year’s W0AK Field Day I decided on a whim to produce a short video with only my Nikon Coolpix P3. It mostly focuses on the ambience and atmosphere of the operation aspect of it. This year I think I’m going to do the same, but hopefully catch some of the setup and some time with dignataries that we have invited. The only thing I’m grimacing about for this year’s video is the audio quality. For a point-and-shoot, the P3′s video quality is very decent (YouTube’s converting lost most of the quality though) but the audio is downright crap, so it’ll be difficult to do interviews or sound bites. I wouldn’t mind receiving a loaner 5D Mk III though…

Iowa is no exception, as my local ham club received a copy of the Iowa proclamation last week. The proclamation will be on display at the W0AK Field Day site at Big Creek State Park, near Polk City.

The text of the proclamation reads as the following:

WHEREAS, the State recognizes the services amateur radio operators provide to our many emergency response organizations, including FEMA, DHS, and Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management; and

WHEREAS, these same individuals have further demonstrated their value in public assistance by providing free radio communications for local parades, bike-a-thons, walk-a-thons, fairs and other charitable public events; and

WHEREAS, the State of Iowa recognizes and appreciates the diligence of these “hams” who also serve as weather spotters in the Skywarn program of the National Weather Service; and

WHEREAS, amateur radio once again proved its undisputed relevance in the modern world in 2005 by providing emergency communications when other systems failed in the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the USA and in the tsunami catastrophe overseas; and

WHEREAS, these amateur radio services are provided wholly uncompensated; and

WHEREAS, the ARRL is the leading organization for amateur radio in the USA; and

WHEREAS, the ARRL Field Day exercise will take place on June 26-27 and is a 24-hour emergency encampment exercise and demonstration of the Radio Amateurs’ skills and readiness to provide self-supporting communications even in fields without further infrastructure:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Chester J. Culver, Governor of the State of Iowa, do hereby proclaim the week of June 20-26, 2010 as Amateur Radio Week in Iowa.

The presentation covers the use of the Big Three — Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube — plus the new myARRL and homebrewed social networking sites that can benefit amateur radio by connecting amateur radio operators together and expose non-licensees to our hobby. Other new online technologies related to amateur radio are discussed in the presentation.

Some of the websites mentioned have been discussed on this weblog before, and other websites will also be discussed on this weblog at a later time.

If you missed the presentation, you can download the presentation in the following formats:

• PPT PowerPoint format (10 megabytes, in a ZIP file)
• PDF Adobe Reader format (42 megabytes)

The websites that were featured in the presentation (plus some bonus websites) are listed below:

• Des Moines Radio Amateurs’ Association
• Amateur Radio Technical Society
• Mid-Iowa Skywarn Association
• Facebook
  • Iowa ARES
  • ARRL
• Twitter
  • DMRAA
  • Mid-Iowa Skywarn
  • Hashtag search for #hamr or #hamradio
  • KC0ZMX’s APRS-to-Twitter gateway
• YouTube
• ARRL
  • How to navigate the new ARRL website
  • myARRL profile management (must be logged in)
• 73s.org
• Ham Radio Nation
• The Practical Amateur Radio Podcast
• This Week in Amateur Radio Podcast
• QRZ
• Google Maps APRS
• K6IB 3D APRS
• K5EHX Repeater Mapping
• callbyTXT
• RadioReference
• DX Clusters
  • DX Watch
  • eHam
  • QRZ
  • ham-radio.ch
  • F5LEN
  • DXFUN
  • 2-meter propagation
• Reverse Beacon Network

The presentation will cover the use of the Big Three — Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube — plus the new myARRL and homebrewed social networking sites that can benefit amateur radio by connecting amateur radio operators together and expose non-licensees to our hobby. Other new online technologies related to amateur radio will be discussed.

Executive board members will also be elected at the meeting. Friend and mentor George, KK7FM, has been nominated for president, and I have again been nominated for re-election as vice president.

You do not need to be a member to attend the meeting, but if you are a new ham (within the last year), your first year of membership is completely free.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Waveland Room of Plymouth Congregational Church, located at 42nd and Ingersoll in Des Moines. We have plenty of room, so bring a friend!

Since Field Day is probably the biggest event year after year for most clubs, it requires a lot of help and a lot of logistical planning and general forethought for it to be pulled off without a hitch. Some ham groups tend to not be very organized, and/or they don’t move swiftly and efficiently at putting together a plan of attack and then setting it into motion.

So, it’s no surprise that it brings some clubs great consternation when it’s time to request help and resources from their membership. A lot of clubs have memberships that have become complacent with having everything fed to them with no participation required.

Luckily, my amateur radio club doesn’t have this problem. Tom, the president, says “participation breeds participation” — we have a board that is highly active in the central Iowa amateur radio community, and we get input from members on what presentations they would like to see at general meetings.

Or perhaps it’s because “participation” and “volunteering” isn’t heard just around Field Day — we request it year-round in a multitude of ways. One way is to have “show and tell” as a part of some of our general meetings. If we’re doing a presentation on homebrew, then we’d like for our members to bring their homemade trinkets to the meeting to talk about them and share their knowledge.

We recently had our annual hamfest at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, and we couldn’t have done it without the help of our members. Because of this, our hamfest is likely the largest gathering of the amateur radio community in the state of Iowa. Big enough, in fact, that we will have to move to a much larger venue next year.

Because of these constant, yet subtle, expectations of participation and leadership, It’s never a surprise to our members when we ask our members for help in putting together the W0AK Field Day. Our members see the value in providing help to the hamfest — and other club events and projects — they see the success grow year after year, and it truly does show that “participation breeds participation.”

I came across a piece by Jeff, KE9V, that really sums up my thoughts about the curmudgeons that argue Echolink/IRLP/WinLink/AOR/PSK31/D-STAR/P-25/insert_variable_here isn’t “real “radio”. As usual, Jeff puts it in a very eloquent way, in such a way that I just can’t make my own thoughts any more clearer than he does:

That I can be driving my car in Atlanta, Georgia and with a UHF mobile radio punch a few buttons on its keypad and be connected to my son’s handheld VHF radio in the middle of Illinois while we chat for fifteen minutes still amazes me. That the long-distance link is provided by an Internet connection is of absolutely no consequence whatsoever to me. We communicate via ham radio. Get over it.

He goes on to say:

First of all, the not real radio meme is a conflicting and destructive message for newcomers who might well have been attracted to the hobby because of these newer forms of communication. Perhaps they witnessed a demonstration of IRLP or D-STAR and because of it, decided to obtain a license. And after going through that process they attend their first club meeting only to hear someone make derogatory comments about what attracted them in the first place!

Which is entirely true!

When I went and took my test at Iowa State, there was another person there testing to get his tech license as well. He had been studying, listening to repeaters, and reading about amateur radio on the internet. Before testing started, he was making small talk with the VE’s about how things like D-STAR wasn’t “real radio.” The VE’s played it safe (understandably) and didn’t agree or disagree. While it wasn’t anything or any mode in particular that prompted me to take the test, I couldn’t help but to get a little worked up inside about those comments. But I bit my lip and stayed silent. Think about it: that guy’s comment about D-STAR — something that I am now heavily involved in — was my first exposure to amateur radio.

When preparing to fill out my ARRL membership renewal, I could not find the box to check for the Senior (past age 65) discount. I called HQ and was given the answer that costs have risen and additional income was needed so the discount was eliminated as of January 2008, approved by the board of directors and mentioned in QST (I didn’t see it).

…

Perhaps the junior members felt alienated because seniors had a benefit they didn’t. But, it is THIS SENIOR GENERATION THAT HELPED BUILD THE ARRL TO THE LEVEL IT IS TODAY !!!

I find this interesting, as a large portion of the ARRL membership base would have qualified for the senior discount. But that’s also why it’s so reasonable. It’s only a $3 discount, but when such a large portion of the club members qualify for the discount and club operating costs are increasing, that can be a drain on the budget.

The $3/year discount equates to less than six cents a week.

As I see it, the original poster feels he has such an entitlement, because apparently his generation is god’s gift to today’s younger amateur radio operators. The senior discount was not guaranteed for life, and nobody is entitled to it. It is an incentive for marketing purposes. And then when it’s taken away, one of them claims that it’s a sign of disrespect to senior citizens and senior citizens are the ones taking the price hit? Wasn’t it the regular members that were subsidizing the senior discount all along?

Members receiving the senior discount and regular members both receive the same services. So why does one group pay less than the rest?

While senior citizens in most cases live on fixed income, I don’t see any reason for anyone aged 65 and older to be entitled to a discount. I’m 23, living paycheck to paycheck paying rent, utilities, student loans, fuel, and other expenses… yet I ponied-up and paid the $39/year to be an ARRL member without whining about there not being a “younger citizen” I’d wager the paycheck I received today that the senior citizens living off Social Security and retirement are earning much more than I am.

Judging by the responses at QRZ, I think the responses are overwhelmingly against the original poster’s argument that senior citizens are entitled to the discount.

If there were any discounts to be given, I’d love if it were something like a paperless discount, where the ARRL doesn’t send you anything via US Mail and delivers QST Magazine exclusively electronically.