Emergency Power At ARRL Field Day

ARRL field day is a good idea as far as it goes.  It has the purpose of helping us train to use our equipment in the field – without regular utilities like power, phones, internet, etc..  And that is a good start.  But I think that the idea of ARRL field day has untapped potential.  Some of this may not be accepted by everyone.  But here goes…

Raise An Antenna To Talk!

Does this sound familiar to you?  The leadership of the local ham radio club and maybe a few of the “guru” operators get the club antennas and maybe a couple of their own and head out to field day.  Maybe a few others help raise the antennas.  When start time rolls around the crowds of hams show up that want to operate.  How about a new rule…  you want to operate at field day – bring your OWN antenna, put it up, then operate.  Give points for the most antennas operated and the lowest ratio of operators to antennas and the highest ratio of contacts per antenna.

Be Rewarded!

I can hear it already…  sounds expensive!  Doesn’t have to be.  Just has to be meaningful.  Take the YoYo Net annual awards.  A yoyo glued to a piece of wood.  I believe anyone that times out the repeater gets an award…  It’s an award you can display and it gets a chuckle.  The point is – it’s meaningful and inexpensive.  How about Field Day ham of the year?  Etc…  People love to receive and compete for awards.

Exchange Ideas

Consider sending representatives to surrounding community ham radio club meetings to discuss what each group does for ham radio.

Write Your Own Articles

I once ran the National Ski Patrol at Ski Brule Mountain in Iron River, Michigan.  Back in the day, we needed fresh recruits.  I wrote a series of article about the patrol and we got people to sign-up to volunteer to serve and protect in brutal weather conditions for free – and provide their own first aid equipment.  Don’t wait for press coverage.  Go out and get it.  I was told that reporters are busy and papers welcome well written articles – can save time and money.  Submit them in advance to prompt them to send a photographer.  And include several high quality photos (with digital files) for their use with the story.  Include a good, short headline.

Have Greeters

Have someone in charge of seeking out incoming hams.  Show them around.  Answer questions.  Explain how they can operate.  Get an e-mail address and get them on the club’s mailing list.  Find out what the club can do to help.  No one likes to go to an event where they may not know a lot of people and are not sure of what to do, etc..

Have Antenna Tune-ups

Publish well in advance that someone at field day will have fancy meters to help check and advise how to tune radios for free.  I have had people help me with that in the past and that is one quick way to get someone’s gratitude.

I think there are a bunch more ideas that people can come up with if the think about the process.  I hope that this blog post will generate some thought…

Stay Radio Active

Jon Kreski, AB9NN

http://www.HamRadioResources.com

http://www.Twitter.com/AB9NN

Dan shoots an arrow into a tree to raise a ham radio antenna

I attended my first Yo Yo Net annual picnic today and got a nice education on the Carolina Windom antenna for HF ham radio use.  Ultimately it could also be used for shortwave radio listening.  I got interested in the antenna once I spotted a bow and arrow on the picnic table that had a fishing real taped to one portion of the bow.  Of course, I thought, this is going to be used to get that antenna into the trees.  I had heard about the plan on the drive to Oconto, WI from Appleton, WI.

Sure enough.  The arrow (with a blunt tip and weight) was shot up and over branches of the tree.  A stout weedwacker style bright yellow line rolled freely off of the reel.  The weight was enough to allow the arrow to drop back to a height where it could be grabbed.  Eventually the antenna mid-point of the inverted V was hoisted up to the point that the arrow went over the branches of the tree.  I would guess 15 – 20 feet up.  But first more about the Carolina Windom.

This link http://www.radioworks.com/ccwcover.html contains some good information on the Carolina Windom.  It is relatively simplistic design and yet the darn thing radiates on quite a number of bands.  Part of the secret to this antenna is that a large part of the feedline is a radiating element.  I will let you read a bit about the antenna at the link above.  Below I will describe my impressions of the antenna’s performance.

I’ve operated on HF for a few years now.  And I know good signals when I hear them.  This antenna was used with an ICOM HF radio (7 something – no pro I don’t believe) with an MFJ antenna tuner and no amp – and with a 12 volt battery.  This was in a park at a picnic.  If it were not for the lack of neat coils and needed to be untangled the antenna would have gone up in minutes.  It does need SOME height.  A mast attached to the side of a house probably would work like the height used today.

The antenna was tuned to 20 meters.  A contact was made between N9JKX (owner of the Carolina Windom antenna and other gear) and a 6 call (I think it was N6DXO – I am not sure on the first letter).  The 6 call was in San Francisco, CA.  His signal was very loud and clear on our end.  He reported an S9 from us.  That was the first contact.

The sweet thing about this antenna is the number of bands it can operate on and the various configurations you can hang it in.  If you want one antenna that is relatively inexpensive to build, durable and easy to hang and is portable – then consider the Carolina Windom.  I was impressed – I think there may be one in my future at some point…

Stay radio active!

Jon Kreski, AB9NN-9

http://www.HamRadioResources.com

Jane, Kd8KRS had a better idea.  She passed her general class license exam at the AES Ham Fest in the spring of 2009.  At the ham fest was a vendor selling some slick software.  RT Systems (http://www.rtsystemsinc.com).  At first glance it seemed to be just some database software of some sort.  There were no crowds at that time, so we let the rep do his song and dance.  And dance he did!

He showed us how to use the A.R.R.L. Travel Plus CD for Repeaters (http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=1417) with their software to download a quickly customized list of ham radio repeaters for any given trip in literally a few seconds.  My way had taken a few days!  Oh geeze I thought.  Of course, I didn’t have a lap top at the time.  But Jane did.  Lucky lady!

The software from RT Systems worked with the repeater and road maps from Travel Plus.  Drag the cursor down the travel route, specify the radius and bam!  The system instantly built a database (or spreadsheet – whatever) of all the repeaters that would be within range of the road travelled.  AND it had all of the settings for the repeaters.

Jane bought the system.  Given the price of the radio and the time involved to input everything I thought it was quite reasonable.  I’ll let you make your own judgment.  It was nice to have two people to work through the instructions – one familiar with the radio and one familiar with the laptop.  It could easily be done alone.  But so much nicer with a good friend.  And NOW she has to buy me lunch at “Elmer’s” Restaurant in Escanaba, MI…  chuckle.  Within a couple of minutes we were able to connect the laptop (check cable type and connection type on the PC side!) to the radio and download a complete list of repeaters for Michigan and Wisconsin travels!

You still have to customize the tags for the repeaters – the software will load the FCC callsign for the repeater as the tag.  But MAN!  What a nice little system for busy hams.  Another nice thing is, since we have the same mobile radios we now can clone each other’s radios and have back-up files of them.  Believe me…  that comes in handy.  I did a full reset of my radio once already.  That was not a good day…

I would check to see if your HT, mobile or base could use the software and data described above.  I’m not big on making plugs for products – marketing types get paid quite nicely and probably do a better job of them than I ever would – but this little system gets my thumbs up!

Stay radio active!

Jon Kreski, AB9NN

http://www.HamRadioResources.com