FIELD DAY 2010

OK, so Radio just posted an interesting comment in the Club thread. When we get a little more coherent in what we want to accomplish on Field Day in this thread - maybe the next thing would be to take advantage of one of the online collaboration services to really plan stuff, since we're all far-flung. A face to face would be good, but they have a way of not meshing with every member's plans for any given date that's thrown out as a meeting time.
 
I've been a ham 30 years and swore I would never ever join another ham club but this is MORE than a ham club. We will be the voices of NES whenever the SHTF, just one more area of our survivalist nature that will be organized, structured and dedicated to the preservation of NES freedom!
 
Radio said:
I've been a ham 30 years and swore I would never ever join another ham club but this is MORE than a ham club. We will be the voices of NES whenever the SHTF, just one more area of our survivalist nature that will be organized, structured and dedicated to the preservation of NES freedom!
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Yup, I can tell you know what I know about clubs more often than not being a deadly spike in the heart of enthusiasm in ham radio, bro -- BTDT. I also agree this one has the potential to be way different.
 
I also nominate the "Wolverine" as the NESARA mascot.

wolverines.jpg
 
As was already mentioned, I say try to do this at a gun club. It would be a lot of fun to be able to shoot too! :)

I have 40 ft of tower I can donate to this project (It's in two 20' sections, it's not Rohn or anything valuable, but would do find for a field day station). The only catch, it has to go home with someone else besides me when we're done! It can become property of the NES Radio club.
 
R1ch said:
As was already mentioned, I say try to do this at a gun club. It would be a lot of fun to be able to shoot too! :)
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I'm not sure, while both are fun, operating while people are shooting will be very difficult, and shooting could be a major distraction.
That would also require a club that will let us camp out (taking up a lot of room), as well as set up antennas and a generator.
If people think we can remain focused and if a centrally located club will let us then I'm all for it.
 
So... Monandnock is up for it. Except that is the weekend of the kids fishing Derby... Kind of ok since it is buried in the hills anyhow.

I can see about Winchendon, but they are not as friendly to outsiders as Monadnock - not sure non-members would be able to shoot. We tried to do an NES shoot there but they wanted big bucks.

In my mind an ideal location would have:

1) A covered pavilion of some sort for people and gear.
2) Room to cook with water source and fire pit
3) Camping space (with some facilities)
4) Have some high trees spaced far apart, but not too far, for stringing antennas
5) free access

Also needs to be:
1) Controllable space so kids don't get zapped on antennas
2) OK with 24hrs of generator noise
 
matt said:
So... Monandnock is up for it. Except that is the weekend of the kids fishing Derby... Kind of ok since it is buried in the hills anyhow.

I can see about Winchendon, but they are not as friendly to outsiders as Monadnock - not sure non-members would be able to shoot. We tried to do an NES shoot there but they wanted big bucks.

In my mind an ideal location would have:

1) A covered pavilion of some sort for people and gear.
2) Room to cook with water source and fire pit
3) Camping space (with some facilities)
4) Have some high trees spaced far apart, but not too far, for stringing antennas
5) free access

Also needs to be:
1) Controllable space so kids don't get zapped on antennas
2) OK with 24hrs of generator noise
Click to expand...

Monandnock would be great (assuming we have kitchen access [wink] ), but it might be a little far north for some people.
It's 20min from me, so no complaints here, just might want some other peoples input (John and Chris are farthest from Monandnock IIRC).
For curious minds; the upper area of Monandnock R&G (the firing line area), has an elevation of about 880ft above sea level. Not great, and it looks like it's in a valley, with hills and mountains all around... [thinking]

I will say this; if Monandnock becomes unavailable, and the location is changed to Winchendon R&G, I will not be attending. It's only one town away, but I went to WRG once, and that was enough for me. I won't go into it, but I will say that I don't like that idea. [thinking]
The average elevation of the Winchendon R&G is only 900ft above sea level anyway, and there are still hills and mountains around it (with a large plateau to the south with an average elevation of 1100ft), so there isn't much of a height advantage.
 
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guessing it had either something to do with the bar or the 4 wheelers cutting across the range while your shooting? That's why I'm not a member there anymore...

Anyhow, Monandnock is off because of the fishing Derby as I said, so I'm open to other locals including your backyard!
 
matt said:
guessing it had either something to do with the bar or the 4 wheelers cutting across the range while your shooting? That's why I'm not a member there anymore...

Anyhow, Monandnock is off because of the fishing Derby as I said, so I'm open to other locals including your backyard!
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The bar was a big part of it. I don't like a gun club that people go to just to drink.

tele_mark said:
The Fishing Derby would work to our advantage, as we'd be able to get the operation some exposure to non-hams in a public place and get the Public Exposure multiplies easily.
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^this

If Monandnock still says absolutely not, then that's all there is. But we don't need to get anywhere near the pond, so the concern would be whether or not there was enough space under the pavilion. That is a valid concern, and I think you may be right about that not working...

My back yard is still available, and I'll take some pictures, and you guys can decide if it'll work.


I have a HUGE 15 person tent (dubbed the "canvas condo" by the previous owner, an NES member). It's 2 rooms, and quite spacious, and it will also be available for club use.
 
OK, just to clarify things... mainly for myself...

Field day is Saturday June 26th to Sunday June 27th. We can start setting up after 11AM on Friday. The contest starts at 11AM Saturday and goes until 11AM Sunday.

Now that that is cleared up... at least for me... Monadnock IS AVAILABLE if we want it. Turbocharged hit the nail on the head with it being in the hills and not at the high an altitude, but it would be a great location otherwise. I'll leave it to more experienced folks as to if there is a better location.

Lake Dennison may be better for radio, but I have no doubt that Monadnock will be more fun. (with the fire pit and covered pavilion, etc).

you could be operating qrp cw from this bench:
ClubPond.jpg
 
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matt said:
OK, just to clarify things... mainly for myself...

Field day is Saturday June 26th to Sunday June 27th. We can start setting up after 11AM on Friday. The contest starts at 11AM Saturday and goes until 11AM Sunday.

Now that that is cleared up... at least for me... Monadnock IS AVAILABLE if we want it. Turbocharged hit the nail on the head with it being in the hills and not at the high an altitude, but it would be a great location otherwise. I'll leave it to more experienced folks as to if there is a better location.

Lake Dennison may be better for radio, but I have no doubt that Monadnock will be more fun. (with the fire pit and covered pavilion, etc).

you could be operating qrp cw from this bench:
ClubPond.jpg
Click to expand...

Just a slight correction -- 1800 UTC in the summer is 2PM EST, so you can start setting up at 2PM on the 25th, and start the contest at 2PM EST on the 26th.

As far as the HAAT of Monadnock, we'll be setting up some VHF/UHF gear, but they're secondary, and shouldn't be the focus of the site choice. The meat and potatoes of FD is HF.
 
Thats fine. But everyone should know that as a club we can use extra class HF privileges as long as we use a extra class call sign. We can either use one of our members calls or a club call if we have one then (I think we will). This means even the Techs will be able to operate HF. And since Techs normally dont have the option to operate HF I would think they would want to spend most of their Field Day operating as much HF as they can.....maybe.


/John
 
Agreed, but there will likely be some tech's there. It would be good for them to be able to participate with their gear.
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That's my intent too. I'm just saying that unless we're setting up on Mt. Wachusett, there will be action on 6 meters to 70 cm, just not really alot, just slow but constant. That's just the way it is in this area working direct on those bands. So, it's good experience learning to put together portable antenna systems that can maximize those types of contacts. Rich said he's bringing 40 feet of tower, and I have 50 feet of milsurp fiberglass mast. Put a couple j-poles up and some yagis and those stations will be busy the whole 24 hours, guaranteed. I can also bring my 6 meter Moxon on 10 feet of mast with a rotator.
 
We need to plan a class to operate in and what bands. Planning the placement of the different antennas for the different bands is crucial to a successful field day. I think we could do a Seven Alpha, what say ye?
 
Radio said:
We need to plan a class to operate in and what bands. Planning the placement of the different antennas for the different bands is crucial to a successful field day. I think we could do a Seven Alpha, what say ye?
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It definitely should be something Alpha -- QRP Battery isn't the way to go where the theme is fun and experience building.

The question is the coverage --

Separate stations for 160m CW & SSB? (Only good at night, so if you operate there, you want to have 2 stations going there), or just one to simplify things? Not usually a big activity band.

80 meters -- bread and butter band, probably definitely want simultaneous coverage.

40 Meters -- ditto

20 meters -- ditto

15 meters -- starting to wake up a bit, but could possibly be left as a single transmitter/dual mode station

10 meters -- probably useless and equivalent to the VHF bands at this time.
 

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