May 19

FIELD DAY IS JUNE 22-23rd 2013

I’m currently compiling a list of clubs or individual stations who are making plans for Field Day 2013.  If you want me to share your location and hours of operation (some clubs don’t run full 24 hours, and/or shut down during the night and resume in the morning), please send an email to info@sanantoniohams.org with “Field Day 2013″ in the subject line to get my attention. 

2013_Fieldday_Locations

Please include any details you want shared, such as a talk-in frequency especially if you are on private property or a hard to find location.  Let us know if there are any admission fees (such as operating from a public or private park, etc.).  If you require RSVP, please provide the official contact info for that purpose.  If you are limiting the hours of operation, such as taking a recess during the middle of the night and resuming the next morning, let me know that also.  I know you don’t just want folks to show up for meal time, especially if they aren’t a member of your club.

Other than sifting thru the thousands of emails on my computer, I also visited the ARRL official site locator page to see what I could see.  I was very disappointed, but then reminded myself that we’re still about a month away, so some clubs might not have registered their location yet.  As of the date of this article, there were only 646 registered FD sites in the USA.  Wow!

And then I looked for San Antonio / Central Texas area on the map, and said “double wow!”  I know of several clubs not shown on this map, as of today, who plan on conducting a FD event.  Click on the screen shot to the right for details.  The little red map parkers are those FD locations registered as of 05-19-2013 with ARRL.  The little yellow arrows are the locations that I’m aware of, where clubs are planning their event.

CLUBS known to be participating in Field Day in Central Texas include…

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May 10

Field Day Is Just Around The Corner – Plan Now !

Field Day is coming, so here are a few thoughts as you plan your group’s operation (or if you just wish to do a Field Day operation on your own in your back yard or at a park.)

A FEW TIPS FOR ANY FIELD DAY OPERATION  – I’ve posted some of this before but I think they should be repeated. (I’ve updated them a bit for 2013)

1. When setting up antennas within close proximity to each other: If you are using wire antennas such as dipoles, and they run parallel to each other there will be interference on your HF operating bands in the form of hash so arrange them at right angles to each other and at slightly different heights. If you use wire antennas such as dipoles, try to stay away from trap dipoles and use full length antennas instead.  You may also wish to run your dipoles in different configurations such as have one as an “inverted V” and another as a sloper, etc. An antenna cut to the exact band you are using will decrease interference to and from other bands. Do not use compromise, trap or “all band” antennas. (The only efficient “all band antennas” are a log periodic and a “fan dipole” NOT a “folded dipole” or others that claim they use “balancing resistors” as this only wastes rf energy in the form of heat- some, depending on frequency will squander as much as 75% of your power.) With others you may make a few contacts, but they are junk and will cause harmonic radiation. Dedicated operating needs the right antenna. Wasted energy on trap antennas (some of your RF energy is used up in the form of heat) and that equals an inefficient radiator, especially as you go lower in frequency. On HF, if you can, do not use vertical antennas as they receive too much man-made noise from sources such as generators, etc. If you can only have one vertical mast instead of three to make a dipole, make your antenna a sloper instead. I use slopers when I do county activations as they are easy to erect and cost very little.

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Jun 24

I spent about 8 hours at the AARO Field Day at Raymond Russell Park, where they almost ended up with a Marachi Band for entertainment (band went to the wrong pavilion), then moved on to visit the KARS Ham Club in Boerne before swinging back down south around midnight to the SARC Ham Club in Shavano Park.

By the time I left SARC, still running on those 5 hour energy drinks, I started to head south to ROOST, knowing they would be still running full steam ahead even in the middle of the night, but sanity prevailed, and I advised my “extra” wife that I’d be heading home soon instead of visiting more FD sites this weekend.

I used my cell phone to make some videos and take some pics, but the phone battery died & had to be recharged after I left AARO, so no middle of the night pics from KARS or SARC to be shared.  I’ve been promised pics from other hams who were at those locations, however.

AARO did a 1 day only FD event, starting setup around 10am when the park opened (county park hours restricted how long they could stay there), and shutting down & leaving before midnight when the county park turned into a pumpkin one more.  They were running 6 stations in different modes (voice / digital / cw / satellite) on various bands, and had more antennas and generators than I’ve seen in a long time.

Most of the actual radio operators were taking it very seriously, but the bulk of the 50+ hams were just there for the workshops, free food & fellowship.  A few were experimenting with different antennas, mostly home brew, and learning new modes.  There were a handful of brand new hams show up, and AARO took extra time to show them the operations and get them talking on the air to make a contact or two.

Workshops also were conducted on various topics:

  • Proper Soldering Techniques
  • Building DiPole Antennas
  • Quadrafillic (sp?) Antennas
  • Anderson Power Pole

Click the link below to continue this article & see some of the pics I took.

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Jun 24

I’m putting out a request here for area 2012 Field Day reports, complete with photos.

If you visited or hosted a Field Day event, and want to share your photos and stories, or even your results, feel free to post them here. Just register on this site (see link to the right) if you haven’t already done so, then send an email to info@sanantoniohams.org to request a status upgrade to allow you to post stories.

I won’t allow personal flames or attacks, so every new author gets moderated until I know they are doing okay.  I can also offer you assistance and advice if you are having problems uploading photos, or whatever.  One trick it to write up your story in MS Word, or another processor, then copy / paste it into the “Add new post” window online.  Add your title, pick a topic category or two (like Field Day, or club name), upload some photos from your computer to show either one by one, or as a gallery at the bottom of your article, and tada!

If you are a ham operator, already registered on this site, you may be already setup to do that.  Just login and add a new post. If you forgot your password, no worry, just click the link to say “forgot my password” and you will get a link emailed to you to create a new password.  I don’t know your password and don’t want to.  The software will automatically handle that for you without my manual intervention.

Registration for being an author on this site, is NOT the same as subscribing to the newsletter.  That’s a separate registration process.  Send your subscription request to subscribe@sanantoniohams.org to be automatically added to the list.  I’ve got about 450 hams already on that list, after dropping about a dozen that bounced from the last mailing.

Hope to see you here soon!

Lee Besing N5NTG
210-771-7075 cell (voice / text okay)

 

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Jun 22

We have collected information for the following Ham Club Field Day Locations, in and around the San Antonio extended metro area…. 

  • Alamo Area Radio Organization (AARO)…
  • San Antonio Radio Club (SARC)…
  • Radio Operators of South Texas (ROOST)…
  • Kendall Amateur Radio Society (KARS)… (Boerne, TX)
  • Guadalupe Valley Amateur Radio Club (GVARC)… (New Braunfels, TX)
  • Hill Country Amateur Radio Club (HCARC)… (Kerrville, TX)
  • South Texas DX Contest Club (STXDXCC)… (Bandera, TX)
  • Atascosa Amateur Radio Club (AARC)… (Poteet, TX)
  • Coyote Amateur Radio Club (KS5TX) (Uvalde, TX)

ARRL’s Master Field Day Search Site – Map 

See below for details…  Not all clubs have registered with ARRL’s website.

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May 21

Field Day is coming, so here are a few thoughts as you plan your group’s operation.

A FEW TIPS FOR ANY FIELD DAY OPERATION  – I’ve posted some of this before but I think they should be repeated. (I’ve updated them a bit)

1. When setting up antennas within close proximity: If you are using wire antennas such as dipoles, and they run parallel to each other there will be interference on your HF operating bands in the form of hash so arrange them at right angles to each other and at slightly different heights. If you use wire antennas such as dipoles, try to stay away from trap dipoles and use full length antennas instead.  You may also wish to run your dipoles in different configurations such as have one as an “inverted V” and another as a sloper, etc. An antenna cut to the exact band you are using will decrease interference to and from other bands. Do not use compromise, trap or “all band” antennas. (The only efficient “all band antennas” are a log periodic and a “fan dipole” NOT a “folded dipole” or others that claim they use “balancing resistors” as this only wastes rf energy in the form of heat.) With others you may make a few contacts, but they are junk and will cause harmonic radiation. Dedicated operating needs the right antenna. Wasted energy on trap antennas (some of your RF energy is used up in the form of heat) and that equals an inefficient radiator, especially as you go lower in frequency. On HF, do not use vertical antennas as they receive too much man-made noise from sources such as generators, etc.

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Jun 30

We received a batch of photos from the AARO President, Andrew Watson K5NNN, taken during their field day on June 25th at Raymond Russel Park, on the NW side of San Antonio.

Click the link below to see the gallery of photos –

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Jun 28

Wow! This was a great Field Day! It was one of the best that I have attended with the club in my ten years. We worked 45 States and and 4 of 8 Canadian provinces! The states we missed were RI, Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming and West Virginia. Other than those states we only missed two other US sections North New York and Virgin Islands. So out of 71 ARRL in the US sections we only missed seven!!!! We had 444 QSO’s in the log which is way up! This is due mostly to the excellent PSK31 operators!! A big thanks to all that came out to make this so successful, safe and fun!!

Paul Guido, N5IUT

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Jun 26
A little different, but successful none the less, we operated using solar charged battery power in a very minimalistic Field Day using very little in the way of equipment. This was a test of our operating skills as much as it was a test of setting up an emergency station and all worked well.
 
We used a multi-band “inverted V” antenna that worked fantastic. When band changes were in order, all we had to do was unplug/plug band extensions which, being at the lower ends of the V, were easy to accomplish. This kept the loss from using a tuner, with this antenna we didn’t need one, to zero which is advantageous when you run low power. (A tuner usually has a 2db insertion loss! This is also why you don’t use a tuner if your swr is 1.5 : 1. It isn’t worth the insertion loss.) 
 
Running just one station, we managed a little over 530 SSB and 48 CW contacts, all by W2IK, for a total of 578 Qs which was down from last year. This year, it was not a W5BOG operation. Krissy, again, was the chef of the operation, keeping me fat and happy!
Some observations from this operation were: 15 meters was “long and hard” – this means the band was open for working distant stations (long) with no signal fading (hard) and we were hit with DX such as KH6EL whom we worked using only 5 watts with an actual (honest) 5/9 return from him. 10 meters was open at mid-day, but we couldn’t get the distant stations we wanted to.  20 meters was open until daylight hours waned, growing “legs” for a while into the pacific and then it opened in a sporadic manner later.
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Jun 26

Thank you to all !!!

Wow….. AA5RO Field Day was the best !! We had over 80 hams that showed up to the Big event… We had 5 new members that join the club  and made many contacts.

Thank you to Martin for the antenna building Class. Martin’s class built over ten ladder line antennas and had lots of good fun.

Walt had a great class and we would like to see Walt teach his class to the whole club at a future meeting.

Tony our club V.P. did a great job cooking for the club and landing the Field Day spot at Raymond Russell Park.

Thank you to all the Volunteer’s and Members that made this a great Field Day..

Andrew, K5NNN
AARO Club President

“AA5RO ROCKS”
THE # 1 RADIO CLUB IN TEXAS!

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