On Sunday, June 23, 2024, 9:25 PM, Dave Moss <davemoss@...> wrote:

Had another fun Field Day weekend!? A lot of things went really well—special thanks to Eddie for all his work getting the software and radios playing nicely together.? He also got my new IC9700 set up with satpc32 and the azi-ele rotor so making a satellite contact was so simple even a computer dolt could do it, bleary eyed a bit fuzzy headed, alone, at 1:30 am.? ?? Also thanks to Joe AJ2Y and Eric W4MC for helping me work through several failed attempts at sending message traffic.? Finally got that figured out and working reliably (using HF rather than 2m packet) this past Wednesday.? Thanks too to Jeff1 for setting up his raspberry pi widget to constantly rotate among screens showing pie charts of qsos by mode or operator, map that filled in USA/Canada sections as we worked them, and charts of qsos by band, mode, operator, etc.? It was fun to watch—especially on Sunday.?

As an example of the difference a bit of luck can make:?? Anyone remember a fire drill getting the generator going again when it ran out of gas leaving all 4/5/6 stations dead in the water?? C’mon, you know it happened.? More than once.? Well this year the generator got filled periodically, so we never ran out of gas . . . until about 5 minutes past two Sunday afternoon.? Some days you win, some days you lose.? This year we won.? We also learned that the generator can run from 7:00am until 2:05pm on one tank of gas.?

While we didn’t have to work around thunderstorms as we often have in the past, it certainly was toasty Friday through Sunday.? Ceiling fans, box fans, and the pool were put to good use cooling us down.?

Things were going a bit slow on Saturday as we (really Eddie) worked out a fist full of quirks with stations that didn’t want to behave.? So by 10pm when things wound down for the night we only had about 300 qsos.? Another 100 or so, mostly CW, were logged waiting for the satellite pass, so at 0200 there were 415 or so contacts.? We all got some sleep and didn’t really re-engage until after breakfast, around 0900.? Once we got fired up Sunday, we were rocking and rolling, averaging better than 100 qsos an hour for the last 5 hours.? Much mo betta.?

We made just under 1000 qsos on the main N4N stations, plus 24 GOTA contacts from 7 or 8 visitors, and a half dozen satellite contacts.? Qso points should be around 3275 (compared to 2875 or so last year).

Pursuit of bonus points went remarkably well this year.? We got 400 points for operating on emergency power, 100 points for alternate power qsos, 100 points for copying the ARRL bulletin (got it on CW, digital, and RTTY), 100 points for having a safety officer and completing the safety checklist, and 100 points for Eddie’s posts regarding N4N to Facebook.? Using Winlink Express and VARA the message traffic was successfully sent via RF, including one message to the SM, for another 200 points.? Gary served as GOTA coach for more than 10 GOTA contacts for another 100 points.? We also successfully made 8 satellite contacts, for qso points plus a 100 point bonus.? We’ll get another 50 points for electronic log submission, for a total of 1250 bonus points (compared to 750 last year).

So . . . total score should be around 4500, compared to 3600 last year.? All preliminary, of course, but not too shabby!

And Jimmy!!!? Guess who was the top CW op, again!!? ?

More to follow, but for now I’m hitting the sack.? Getting up early tomorrow to get the wire antennas down and coax put away.?

Dave UW

On Jun 23, 2024, at 9:25?PM, Dave Moss <davemoss@...> wrote:

?

Had another fun Field Day weekend!? A lot of things went really well—special thanks to Eddie for all his work getting the software and radios playing nicely together.? He also got my new IC9700 set up with satpc32 and the azi-ele rotor so making a satellite contact was so simple even a computer dolt could do it, bleary eyed a bit fuzzy headed, alone, at 1:30 am.? ?? Also thanks to Joe AJ2Y and Eric W4MC for helping me work through several failed attempts at sending message traffic.? Finally got that figured out and working reliably (using HF rather than 2m packet) this past Wednesday.? Thanks too to Jeff1 for setting up his raspberry pi widget to constantly rotate among screens showing pie charts of qsos by mode or operator, map that filled in USA/Canada sections as we worked them, and charts of qsos by band, mode, operator, etc.? It was fun to watch—especially on Sunday.?

As an example of the difference a bit of luck can make:?? Anyone remember a fire drill getting the generator going again when it ran out of gas leaving all 4/5/6 stations dead in the water?? C’mon, you know it happened.? More than once.? Well this year the generator got filled periodically, so we never ran out of gas . . . until about 5 minutes past two Sunday afternoon.? Some days you win, some days you lose.? This year we won.? We also learned that the generator can run from 7:00am until 2:05pm on one tank of gas.?

While we didn’t have to work around thunderstorms as we often have in the past, it certainly was toasty Friday through Sunday.? Ceiling fans, box fans, and the pool were put to good use cooling us down.?

Things were going a bit slow on Saturday as we (really Eddie) worked out a fist full of quirks with stations that didn’t want to behave.? So by 10pm when things wound down for the night we only had about 300 qsos.? Another 100 or so, mostly CW, were logged waiting for the satellite pass, so at 0200 there were 415 or so contacts.? We all got some sleep and didn’t really re-engage until after breakfast, around 0900.? Once we got fired up Sunday, we were rocking and rolling, averaging better than 100 qsos an hour for the last 5 hours.? Much mo betta.?

We made just under 1000 qsos on the main N4N stations, plus 24 GOTA contacts from 7 or 8 visitors, and a half dozen satellite contacts.? Qso points should be around 3275 (compared to 2875 or so last year).

Pursuit of bonus points went remarkably well this year.? We got 400 points for operating on emergency power, 100 points for alternate power qsos, 100 points for copying the ARRL bulletin (got it on CW, digital, and RTTY), 100 points for having a safety officer and completing the safety checklist, and 100 points for Eddie’s posts regarding N4N to Facebook.? Using Winlink Express and VARA the message traffic was successfully sent via RF, including one message to the SM, for another 200 points.? Gary served as GOTA coach for more than 10 GOTA contacts for another 100 points.? We also successfully made 8 satellite contacts, for qso points plus a 100 point bonus.? We’ll get another 50 points for electronic log submission, for a total of 1250 bonus points (compared to 750 last year).

So . . . total score should be around 4500, compared to 3600 last year.? All preliminary, of course, but not too shabby!

And Jimmy!!!? Guess who was the top CW op, again!!? ?

More to follow, but for now I’m hitting the sack.? Getting up early tomorrow to get the wire antennas down and coax put away.?

Dave UW

On Sunday, June 23, 2024, 9:59 PM, James Nail WA2MBP <james.nail@...> wrote:

Congrats to a great team effort. ?Sounds like you guys had a great FD 2024! ?Ill bow down to that great CW effort, sir!!!

Jimmy da Nail!

On Jun 23, 2024, at 9:25?PM, Dave Moss <davemoss@...> wrote:

?

Had another fun Field Day weekend!? A lot of things went really well—special thanks to Eddie for all his work getting the software and radios playing nicely together.? He also got my new IC9700 set up with satpc32 and the azi-ele rotor so making a satellite contact was so simple even a computer dolt could do it, bleary eyed a bit fuzzy headed, alone, at 1:30 am.? ?? Also thanks to Joe AJ2Y and Eric W4MC for helping me work through several failed attempts at sending message traffic.? Finally got that figured out and working reliably (using HF rather than 2m packet) this past Wednesday.? Thanks too to Jeff1 for setting up his raspberry pi widget to constantly rotate among screens showing pie charts of qsos by mode or operator, map that filled in USA/Canada sections as we worked them, and charts of qsos by band, mode, operator, etc.? It was fun to watch—especially on Sunday.?

As an example of the difference a bit of luck can make:?? Anyone remember a fire drill getting the generator going again when it ran out of gas leaving all 4/5/6 stations dead in the water?? C’mon, you know it happened.? More than once.? Well this year the generator got filled periodically, so we never ran out of gas . . . until about 5 minutes past two Sunday afternoon.? Some days you win, some days you lose.? This year we won.? We also learned that the generator can run from 7:00am until 2:05pm on one tank of gas.?

While we didn’t have to work around thunderstorms as we often have in the past, it certainly was toasty Friday through Sunday.? Ceiling fans, box fans, and the pool were put to good use cooling us down.?

Things were going a bit slow on Saturday as we (really Eddie) worked out a fist full of quirks with stations that didn’t want to behave.? So by 10pm when things wound down for the night we only had about 300 qsos.? Another 100 or so, mostly CW, were logged waiting for the satellite pass, so at 0200 there were 415 or so contacts.? We all got some sleep and didn’t really re-engage until after breakfast, around 0900.? Once we got fired up Sunday, we were rocking and rolling, averaging better than 100 qsos an hour for the last 5 hours.? Much mo betta.?

We made just under 1000 qsos on the main N4N stations, plus 24 GOTA contacts from 7 or 8 visitors, and a half dozen satellite contacts.? Qso points should be around 3275 (compared to 2875 or so last year).

Pursuit of bonus points went remarkably well this year.? We got 400 points for operating on emergency power, 100 points for alternate power qsos, 100 points for copying the ARRL bulletin (got it on CW, digital, and RTTY), 100 points for having a safety officer and completing the safety checklist, and 100 points for Eddie’s posts regarding N4N to Facebook.? Using Winlink Express and VARA the message traffic was successfully sent via RF, including one message to the SM, for another 200 points.? Gary served as GOTA coach for more than 10 GOTA contacts for another 100 points.? We also successfully made 8 satellite contacts, for qso points plus a 100 point bonus.? We’ll get another 50 points for electronic log submission, for a total of 1250 bonus points (compared to 750 last year).

So . . . total score should be around 4500, compared to 3600 last year.? All preliminary, of course, but not too shabby!

And Jimmy!!!? Guess who was the top CW op, again!!? ?

More to follow, but for now I’m hitting the sack.? Getting up early tomorrow to get the wire antennas down and coax put away.?

Dave UW

?

I’m having thoughts on better antennas for next year … perhaps concentric loops pointing (kinda) in different directions. Also have a position for someone not operating to monitor band conditions and vhf openings.

?

On Sunday, June 23, 2024, 9:25 PM, Dave Moss <davemoss@...> wrote:

Had another fun Field Day weekend!? A lot of things went really well—special thanks to Eddie for all his work getting the software and radios playing nicely together.? He also got my new IC9700 set up with satpc32 and the azi-ele rotor so making a satellite contact was so simple even a computer dolt could do it, bleary eyed a bit fuzzy headed, alone, at 1:30 am.? ?? Also thanks to Joe AJ2Y and Eric W4MC for helping me work through several failed attempts at sending message traffic.? Finally got that figured out and working reliably (using HF rather than 2m packet) this past Wednesday.? Thanks too to Jeff1 for setting up his raspberry pi widget to constantly rotate among screens showing pie charts of qsos by mode or operator, map that filled in USA/Canada sections as we worked them, and charts of qsos by band, mode, operator, etc.? It was fun to watch—especially on Sunday.?

As an example of the difference a bit of luck can make:?? Anyone remember a fire drill getting the generator going again when it ran out of gas leaving all 4/5/6 stations dead in the water?? C’mon, you know it happened.? More than once.? Well this year the generator got filled periodically, so we never ran out of gas . . . until about 5 minutes past two Sunday afternoon.? Some days you win, some days you lose.? This year we won.? We also learned that the generator can run from 7:00am until 2:05pm on one tank of gas.?

While we didn’t have to work around thunderstorms as we often have in the past, it certainly was toasty Friday through Sunday.? Ceiling fans, box fans, and the pool were put to good use cooling us down.?

Things were going a bit slow on Saturday as we (really Eddie) worked out a fist full of quirks with stations that didn’t want to behave.? So by 10pm when things wound down for the night we only had about 300 qsos.? Another 100 or so, mostly CW, were logged waiting for the satellite pass, so at 0200 there were 415 or so contacts.? We all got some sleep and didn’t really re-engage until after breakfast, around 0900.? Once we got fired up Sunday, we were rocking and rolling, averaging better than 100 qsos an hour for the last 5 hours.? Much mo betta.?

We made just under 1000 qsos on the main N4N stations, plus 24 GOTA contacts from 7 or 8 visitors, and a half dozen satellite contacts.? Qso points should be around 3275 (compared to 2875 or so last year).

Pursuit of bonus points went remarkably well this year.? We got 400 points for operating on emergency power, 100 points for alternate power qsos, 100 points for copying the ARRL bulletin (got it on CW, digital, and RTTY), 100 points for having a safety officer and completing the safety checklist, and 100 points for Eddie’s posts regarding N4N to Facebook.? Using Winlink Express and VARA the message traffic was successfully sent via RF, including one message to the SM, for another 200 points.? Gary served as GOTA coach for more than 10 GOTA contacts for another 100 points.? We also successfully made 8 satellite contacts, for qso points plus a 100 point bonus.? We’ll get another 50 points for electronic log submission, for a total of 1250 bonus points (compared to 750 last year).

So . . . total score should be around 4500, compared to 3600 last year.? All preliminary, of course, but not too shabby!

And Jimmy!!!? Guess who was the top CW op, again!!? ?

More to follow, but for now I’m hitting the sack.? Getting up early tomorrow to get the wire antennas down and coax put away.?

Dave UW

?

Congrats to a great team effort. ?Sounds like you guys had a great FD 2024! ?Ill bow down to that great CW effort, sir!!!

?

Keep in mind we’re trending in the direction of less work, not more.? ?

?

Eddie’s quick scan of the log yesterday showed the class we worked most was 1D (home setup, permanent installations, not on emergency power) amd not portable/temporary stations. The rules change to allow class D stations to work other class D stations has taken away any incentive to bother with a temporary/portable setup.? I think it’s only a matter of time before most of the top 10 scores are home stations.??

?

So maybe next year we can put up another yagi a week or two ahead of time and operate 6D or 8D on shore power with the permanent antennas.? The only setup will be tables and chairs.?

?

Dave UW

?

?

I’m having thoughts on better antennas for next year … perhaps concentric loops pointing (kinda) in different directions. Also have a position for someone not operating to monitor band conditions and vhf openings.

?

On Sunday, June 23, 2024, 9:25 PM, Dave Moss <davemoss@...> wrote:

Had another fun Field Day weekend!? A lot of things went really well—special thanks to Eddie for all his work getting the software and radios playing nicely together.? He also got my new IC9700 set up with satpc32 and the azi-ele rotor so making a satellite contact was so simple even a computer dolt could do it, bleary eyed a bit fuzzy headed, alone, at 1:30 am.? ?? Also thanks to Joe AJ2Y and Eric W4MC for helping me work through several failed attempts at sending message traffic.? Finally got that figured out and working reliably (using HF rather than 2m packet) this past Wednesday.? Thanks too to Jeff1 for setting up his raspberry pi widget to constantly rotate among screens showing pie charts of qsos by mode or operator, map that filled in USA/Canada sections as we worked them, and charts of qsos by band, mode, operator, etc.? It was fun to watch—especially on Sunday.?

As an example of the difference a bit of luck can make:?? Anyone remember a fire drill getting the generator going again when it ran out of gas leaving all 4/5/6 stations dead in the water?? C’mon, you know it happened.? More than once.? Well this year the generator got filled periodically, so we never ran out of gas . . . until about 5 minutes past two Sunday afternoon.? Some days you win, some days you lose.? This year we won.? We also learned that the generator can run from 7:00am until 2:05pm on one tank of gas.?

While we didn’t have to work around thunderstorms as we often have in the past, it certainly was toasty Friday through Sunday.? Ceiling fans, box fans, and the pool were put to good use cooling us down.?

Things were going a bit slow on Saturday as we (really Eddie) worked out a fist full of quirks with stations that didn’t want to behave.? So by 10pm when things wound down for the night we only had about 300 qsos.? Another 100 or so, mostly CW, were logged waiting for the satellite pass, so at 0200 there were 415 or so contacts.? We all got some sleep and didn’t really re-engage until after breakfast, around 0900.? Once we got fired up Sunday, we were rocking and rolling, averaging better than 100 qsos an hour for the last 5 hours.? Much mo betta.?

We made just under 1000 qsos on the main N4N stations, plus 24 GOTA contacts from 7 or 8 visitors, and a half dozen satellite contacts.? Qso points should be around 3275 (compared to 2875 or so last year).

Pursuit of bonus points went remarkably well this year.? We got 400 points for operating on emergency power, 100 points for alternate power qsos, 100 points for copying the ARRL bulletin (got it on CW, digital, and RTTY), 100 points for having a safety officer and completing the safety checklist, and 100 points for Eddie’s posts regarding N4N to Facebook.? Using Winlink Express and VARA the message traffic was successfully sent via RF, including one message to the SM, for another 200 points.? Gary served as GOTA coach for more than 10 GOTA contacts for another 100 points.? We also successfully made 8 satellite contacts, for qso points plus a 100 point bonus.? We’ll get another 50 points for electronic log submission, for a total of 1250 bonus points (compared to 750 last year).

So . . . total score should be around 4500, compared to 3600 last year.? All preliminary, of course, but not too shabby!

And Jimmy!!!? Guess who was the top CW op, again!!? ?

More to follow, but for now I’m hitting the sack.? Getting up early tomorrow to get the wire antennas down and coax put away.?

Dave UW

On Jun 24, 2024, at 13:39, Dave Moss <davemoss@...> wrote:

?

Keep in mind we’re trending in the direction of less work, not more.? ?

?

Eddie’s quick scan of the log yesterday showed the class we worked most was 1D (home setup, permanent installations, not on emergency power) amd not portable/temporary stations. The rules change to allow class D stations to work other class D stations has taken away any incentive to bother with a temporary/portable setup.? I think it’s only a matter of time before most of the top 10 scores are home stations.??

?

So maybe next year we can put up another yagi a week or two ahead of time and operate 6D or 8D on shore power with the permanent antennas.? The only setup will be tables and chairs.?

?

Dave UW

?

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Gary McConville via groups.io
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2024 9:46 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [N4N-Field-Day] 2024 N4N Field Day

?

I’m having thoughts on better antennas for next year … perhaps concentric loops pointing (kinda) in different directions. Also have a position for someone not operating to monitor band conditions and vhf openings.

?

?

On Sunday, June 23, 2024, 9:25 PM, Dave Moss <davemoss@...> wrote:

Had another fun Field Day weekend!? A lot of things went really well—special thanks to Eddie for all his work getting the software and radios playing nicely together.? He also got my new IC9700 set up with satpc32 and the azi-ele rotor so making a satellite contact was so simple even a computer dolt could do it, bleary eyed a bit fuzzy headed, alone, at 1:30 am.? ?? Also thanks to Joe AJ2Y and Eric W4MC for helping me work through several failed attempts at sending message traffic.? Finally got that figured out and working reliably (using HF rather than 2m packet) this past Wednesday.? Thanks too to Jeff1 for setting up his raspberry pi widget to constantly rotate among screens showing pie charts of qsos by mode or operator, map that filled in USA/Canada sections as we worked them, and charts of qsos by band, mode, operator, etc.? It was fun to watch—especially on Sunday.?

As an example of the difference a bit of luck can make:?? Anyone remember a fire drill getting the generator going again when it ran out of gas leaving all 4/5/6 stations dead in the water?? C’mon, you know it happened.? More than once.? Well this year the generator got filled periodically, so we never ran out of gas . . . until about 5 minutes past two Sunday afternoon.? Some days you win, some days you lose.? This year we won.? We also learned that the generator can run from 7:00am until 2:05pm on one tank of gas.?

While we didn’t have to work around thunderstorms as we often have in the past, it certainly was toasty Friday through Sunday.? Ceiling fans, box fans, and the pool were put to good use cooling us down.?

Things were going a bit slow on Saturday as we (really Eddie) worked out a fist full of quirks with stations that didn’t want to behave.? So by 10pm when things wound down for the night we only had about 300 qsos.? Another 100 or so, mostly CW, were logged waiting for the satellite pass, so at 0200 there were 415 or so contacts.? We all got some sleep and didn’t really re-engage until after breakfast, around 0900.? Once we got fired up Sunday, we were rocking and rolling, averaging better than 100 qsos an hour for the last 5 hours.? Much mo betta.?

We made just under 1000 qsos on the main N4N stations, plus 24 GOTA contacts from 7 or 8 visitors, and a half dozen satellite contacts.? Qso points should be around 3275 (compared to 2875 or so last year).

Pursuit of bonus points went remarkably well this year.? We got 400 points for operating on emergency power, 100 points for alternate power qsos, 100 points for copying the ARRL bulletin (got it on CW, digital, and RTTY), 100 points for having a safety officer and completing the safety checklist, and 100 points for Eddie’s posts regarding N4N to Facebook.? Using Winlink Express and VARA the message traffic was successfully sent via RF, including one message to the SM, for another 200 points.? Gary served as GOTA coach for more than 10 GOTA contacts for another 100 points.? We also successfully made 8 satellite contacts, for qso points plus a 100 point bonus.? We’ll get another 50 points for electronic log submission, for a total of 1250 bonus points (compared to 750 last year).

So . . . total score should be around 4500, compared to 3600 last year.? All preliminary, of course, but not too shabby!

And Jimmy!!!? Guess who was the top CW op, again!!? ?

More to follow, but for now I’m hitting the sack.? Getting up early tomorrow to get the wire antennas down and coax put away.?

Dave UW

No fears, Jimmy.? Your job is safe.? You could have matched my CW totals in an hour and a half, max.? ?

?

UW

?

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of James Nail WA2MBP
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2024 10:00 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [N4N-Field-Day] 2024 N4N Field Day

?

Congrats to a great team effort. ?Sounds like you guys had a great FD 2024! ?Ill bow down to that great CW effort, sir!!!

?

Jimmy da Nail!

On Jun 23, 2024, at 9:25?PM, Dave Moss <davemoss@...> wrote:

?

Had another fun Field Day weekend!? A lot of things went really well—special thanks to Eddie for all his work getting the software and radios playing nicely together.? He also got my new IC9700 set up with satpc32 and the azi-ele rotor so making a satellite contact was so simple even a computer dolt could do it, bleary eyed a bit fuzzy headed, alone, at 1:30 am.? ?? Also thanks to Joe AJ2Y and Eric W4MC for helping me work through several failed attempts at sending message traffic.? Finally got that figured out and working reliably (using HF rather than 2m packet) this past Wednesday.? Thanks too to Jeff1 for setting up his raspberry pi widget to constantly rotate among screens showing pie charts of qsos by mode or operator, map that filled in USA/Canada sections as we worked them, and charts of qsos by band, mode, operator, etc.? It was fun to watch—especially on Sunday.?

As an example of the difference a bit of luck can make:?? Anyone remember a fire drill getting the generator going again when it ran out of gas leaving all 4/5/6 stations dead in the water?? C’mon, you know it happened.? More than once.? Well this year the generator got filled periodically, so we never ran out of gas . . . until about 5 minutes past two Sunday afternoon.? Some days you win, some days you lose.? This year we won.? We also learned that the generator can run from 7:00am until 2:05pm on one tank of gas.?

While we didn’t have to work around thunderstorms as we often have in the past, it certainly was toasty Friday through Sunday.? Ceiling fans, box fans, and the pool were put to good use cooling us down.?

Things were going a bit slow on Saturday as we (really Eddie) worked out a fist full of quirks with stations that didn’t want to behave.? So by 10pm when things wound down for the night we only had about 300 qsos.? Another 100 or so, mostly CW, were logged waiting for the satellite pass, so at 0200 there were 415 or so contacts.? We all got some sleep and didn’t really re-engage until after breakfast, around 0900.? Once we got fired up Sunday, we were rocking and rolling, averaging better than 100 qsos an hour for the last 5 hours.? Much mo betta.?

We made just under 1000 qsos on the main N4N stations, plus 24 GOTA contacts from 7 or 8 visitors, and a half dozen satellite contacts.? Qso points should be around 3275 (compared to 2875 or so last year).

Pursuit of bonus points went remarkably well this year.? We got 400 points for operating on emergency power, 100 points for alternate power qsos, 100 points for copying the ARRL bulletin (got it on CW, digital, and RTTY), 100 points for having a safety officer and completing the safety checklist, and 100 points for Eddie’s posts regarding N4N to Facebook.? Using Winlink Express and VARA the message traffic was successfully sent via RF, including one message to the SM, for another 200 points.? Gary served as GOTA coach for more than 10 GOTA contacts for another 100 points.? We also successfully made 8 satellite contacts, for qso points plus a 100 point bonus.? We’ll get another 50 points for electronic log submission, for a total of 1250 bonus points (compared to 750 last year).

So . . . total score should be around 4500, compared to 3600 last year.? All preliminary, of course, but not too shabby!

And Jimmy!!!? Guess who was the top CW op, again!!? ?

More to follow, but for now I’m hitting the sack.? Getting up early tomorrow to get the wire antennas down and coax put away.?

Dave UW

On Jun 24, 2024, at 12:31, Eric Howell <erhowell@...> wrote:

?

Congratulations,

And another successful Field Day is in the books. I wish that I could have joined you “at the pool” but alas I was relegated to my basement shack. However, in that basement shack I managed to work 689 stations including N4N on two bands. Most of my contacts were on FT4. I found that because the QSOs were quicker I could turn a bit better rate. Now I will have to say that keeping track of two stations running FT4 sometimes got a bit interesting especially in the wee hours of the morning when you are going on hour 25 or so without sleep. In true Field Day fashion, I even had to replace an antenna that I found that the smoke had been let out of the balun. That set me back about 45 minutes or an hour. You may have seen it on the N4N FB page.

?

I finally got the messages sent. I had some issue because everyone else was sending messages but later in the day it cleared up. I included a message to a friend that I worked with who has been inactive for quite a while. I instantly got a text message from him and now he is starting to look at buying a radio and getting back on the air. Wants to work QRP CW.

?

I did manage to do some 6-meter work and Sunday morning there was an opening into STX and LA area. Looking at the summary sheet I worked mor stations on 6 than I did on 10. So overall I don’t think that I did too bad with a total score of 3456. We will wait and see that the other 2E, single op stations did.

?

?

?

?

Eric Howell

W4MC

Email: w4mc@...

???????? erhowell@...

…? - . -

?

?

My golf club has decided (for the last three years) to host the club championship on the 4th weekend in June. That severely hampers any FD activity by this CW OP. I did do 4 hours at NFARL on Saturday evening, but they have deeper resources for the other hours. Dave, you're on a role now, time to beef up the CW skills, ha.

Sounds like a great weekend at N4N FD.

I did finish second in my flight in the tournament...

tnx

Mike / K5JR

Alpharetta GA

No fears, Jimmy.? Your job is safe.? You could have matched my CW totals in an hour and a half, max.? ?

?

UW

?

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of James Nail WA2MBP
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2024 10:00 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [N4N-Field-Day] 2024 N4N Field Day

?

Congrats to a great team effort. ?Sounds like you guys had a great FD 2024! ?Ill bow down to that great CW effort, sir!!!

?

Jimmy da Nail!

On Jun 23, 2024, at 9:25?PM, Dave Moss <davemoss@...> wrote:

?

Had another fun Field Day weekend!? A lot of things went really well—special thanks to Eddie for all his work getting the software and radios playing nicely together.? He also got my new IC9700 set up with satpc32 and the azi-ele rotor so making a satellite contact was so simple even a computer dolt could do it, bleary eyed a bit fuzzy headed, alone, at 1:30 am.? ?? Also thanks to Joe AJ2Y and Eric W4MC for helping me work through several failed attempts at sending message traffic.? Finally got that figured out and working reliably (using HF rather than 2m packet) this past Wednesday.? Thanks too to Jeff1 for setting up his raspberry pi widget to constantly rotate among screens showing pie charts of qsos by mode or operator, map that filled in USA/Canada sections as we worked them, and charts of qsos by band, mode, operator, etc.? It was fun to watch—especially on Sunday.?

As an example of the difference a bit of luck can make:?? Anyone remember a fire drill getting the generator going again when it ran out of gas leaving all 4/5/6 stations dead in the water?? C’mon, you know it happened.? More than once.? Well this year the generator got filled periodically, so we never ran out of gas . . . until about 5 minutes past two Sunday afternoon.? Some days you win, some days you lose.? This year we won.? We also learned that the generator can run from 7:00am until 2:05pm on one tank of gas.?

While we didn’t have to work around thunderstorms as we often have in the past, it certainly was toasty Friday through Sunday.? Ceiling fans, box fans, and the pool were put to good use cooling us down.?

Things were going a bit slow on Saturday as we (really Eddie) worked out a fist full of quirks with stations that didn’t want to behave.? So by 10pm when things wound down for the night we only had about 300 qsos.? Another 100 or so, mostly CW, were logged waiting for the satellite pass, so at 0200 there were 415 or so contacts.? We all got some sleep and didn’t really re-engage until after breakfast, around 0900.? Once we got fired up Sunday, we were rocking and rolling, averaging better than 100 qsos an hour for the last 5 hours.? Much mo betta.?

We made just under 1000 qsos on the main N4N stations, plus 24 GOTA contacts from 7 or 8 visitors, and a half dozen satellite contacts.? Qso points should be around 3275 (compared to 2875 or so last year).

Pursuit of bonus points went remarkably well this year.? We got 400 points for operating on emergency power, 100 points for alternate power qsos, 100 points for copying the ARRL bulletin (got it on CW, digital, and RTTY), 100 points for having a safety officer and completing the safety checklist, and 100 points for Eddie’s posts regarding N4N to Facebook.? Using Winlink Express and VARA the message traffic was successfully sent via RF, including one message to the SM, for another 200 points.? Gary served as GOTA coach for more than 10 GOTA contacts for another 100 points.? We also successfully made 8 satellite contacts, for qso points plus a 100 point bonus.? We’ll get another 50 points for electronic log submission, for a total of 1250 bonus points (compared to 750 last year).

So . . . total score should be around 4500, compared to 3600 last year.? All preliminary, of course, but not too shabby!

And Jimmy!!!? Guess who was the top CW op, again!!? ?

More to follow, but for now I’m hitting the sack.? Getting up early tomorrow to get the wire antennas down and coax put away.?

Dave UW

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