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A Few Other FD Details
5
As of now, we have 6 folks in for Field Day: AE4TQ Eddie, KB4SLV John, KE4QFB Larry, KE4UW Dave, N1KDO Jeff, and WB4SQ Gary. Gary is also bringing a neighbor who can operate as a GOTA operator (John can also operate GOTA as well). We have 3 or 4 radios committed: Eddie¡¯s IC-7300, Larry¡¯s FTDX-10, my TS-590, and maybe Jeff¡¯s K3. We can decide FD weekend if we want to operate as 3A or 4A. We have the option to use all four radios and be 3A if one radio is used only for GOTA and/or 6m. The TS-590 will be set up for CW, digital, or phone. The IC-7300 and K3 for digital, and the FTDX-10 for phone. I have a TS-2000 for a spare, but it¡¯s good for phone or CW only. Barring some unforeseen solar snafu, we should have access to 10/15/20/40 during the day, so we can keep four radios busy. At night we should have 80 and 40, and 20/15 until the wee hours when we won¡¯t have four operators left awake anyway. ? The goal is to have enough radios to keep everybody who wants to operate operating enough to make it fun. Take time to cool off in the pool, shoot the breeze a bit, or watch others to learn something new. Maybe a couple other folks will come by and operate a little bit¡ªuse that time to take a break. Here are some opportunities for bonus points: ¡¤ 300-400 points for Emergency Power: We will have a Honda EU2000 generator and a couple of solar panels. One station may run full time on solar. ¡¤ 100 points for Message to Section Manager: I¡¯ll try WINLINK again, maybe on HF this time. ¡¤ 100 points for Message Handling: Again, I¡¯ll try winlink. I¡¯ll have 10 messages ready to send. ¡¤ 100 points for Satellite QSO: I¡¯ve got it this year. (Thanks to all the help from Eddie) ¡¤ 100 points for Alternate Power: We will be able to make at least 5 QSOs on solar charged battery power ¡¤ 100 points for Copying the ARRL Bulleting: Eddie will have FLDIGI ready to copy the bulletin on CW and Digital. Probably Eric too. ¡¤ 100 points for Educational Activity: Eric will treat us to an educational activity via zoom. ¡¤ 100 points for GOTA coach: Gary will be the GOTA coach and is bringing one GOTA operator. We may have other GOTA ops. No limit to GOTA QSO¡¯s per operator ¡¤ 5 points per QSO for GOTA operation, any mode, and no power multiplier: Could be a big deal. Maybe some GOTA digital too? 200 QSOs would add 1000 points. Our total score last year was 3600. ¡¤ 50 points for Web Score Submission: I¡¯ve got it. ¡¤ 100 points for Social Media: For promoting N4N Field Day on Facebook, etc. I¡¯m sure you computer savvy folks can do that. ¡¤ 100 points for Safety Officer: Having a designated Safety Officer using the Safety Check List to keep us all safe. Need a volunteer. So if we do 4A, that¡¯s 1350 points plus whatever we get from GOTA (assuming WINLINK cooperates, otherwise 1150). Menu TBD, but I¡¯ll make arrangements for lunch and dinner on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. Bring you bathing suit and a towel. We can cool off in the pool from time to time. No glass bottles in the pool, but cans or plastic cups/mugs are OK. If you want to spend Saturday night here FD weekend, that¡¯s fine. In the (air conditioned, carpeted) basement there is sofa and a cot. I also have an air mattress and, if the WX is nice, a hammock. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ve forgotten a few things, so more to follow. If you have any questions, let me know. Dave UW
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Planning gathering?
3
If any of those interested in participating in Field Day are going to the hamfest Saturday, afterwards maybe we can get some lunch and chat about FD. Some of us are going to the Cuban Diner on Roswell Rd about ? of a mile east of the big chicken: ¡¤ The Cuban Diner, 1484 Roswell Rd, Marietta 30062, on the south side of Roswell Rd about ? of a mile east of the Big Chicken. Let me know if you are interested so we can get a big enough table. Dave UW
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Hamvention
3
Not sure if any others in the group made the trek, but Eric and I had a pretty fun time. Things started a little rough with steady rain Friday morning, which drove everyone inside an jam-packed the building aisles. Could hardly move anywhere, aggravated by the usual FFC traffic jams. But the rains quit around 11:00 or so, before the mud in the flea market got too bad. Friday afternoon was overcast but no rain, so the flea market returned to life. A friend from my working days is trying to refurbish a 1940 Philco radio that his grandfather used for, among many other things, hearing the reports of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I managed to find all of the tubes he needed, but struck out on the 450VDC electrolytics he needed. I probably just missed them amongst the other debris in the boneyard. Business was brisk on Saturday. Lots of people with money to spend, and I sold enough stuff to pay for a new IC9700 (well, almost). M2 had a great deal on the LEO pack antenna setup, so I picked up one of those as well. I also managed to find one of the little S.A.T. boxes that provides all you need to work satellites using the 9700 and the yaesu azi-ele rotor. It does the satellite tracking, rig interface, and rotor control, and only needs a wifi connection to something (laptop, ipad, etc) to see the displays. Seemed like a cool thing for field day. Lots of folks were selling them to ship to you, but only HRO actually had them there, so that¡¯s where I bought it. So I¡¯m about to re-engage with the satellite world. But first, of course, I have a lot of RTFM to do (unless I can get Eddie to do it for me). ? Flex made their anticipated big announcement about their 8000 series. No 8700 model (yet), but some hint there might be one day. I didn¡¯t see a great deal of ¡°new products¡± from the other big manufacturers, although to be honest, I wasn¡¯t looking that carefully. I didn¡¯t notice anything new at ICOM. Kenwood¡¯s new product is the same THD75 HT they were rolling out last year. (Phil Parton said their next product would be a mobile. As usual, no details on if it¡¯s vhf/uhf only or also HF, or what the price might be, or what decade it might be available for sale. ) The only thing I saw new at Elecraft in a quick pass through was a 5W 7m-15m CW transceiver about the size of an HT. Hand-held CW transmission is for someone way more into CW than I am. I never went into the Yaesu display. Just not a Yaesu guy I guess, and I already have a lifetime supply of Yaesu ball caps. FWIW, basically everybody was selling radios for the same price as you could buy it online¡ªnothing special for hamvention . . . except the folks at Chattanooga Radio (or something like that). Everyone else sold the 9700 for $1750 + tax (after the instant rebate). Got it from Chattanooga Radio for $1675 including tax, IF you paid cash. So there¡¯s at least one guy offering a bit of a deal. I didn¡¯t interact with the ARRL folks or get any update on the web site problems. I¡¯m pretty fed up with ARRL at the moment, and I was pretty sure that any interaction I had with Minster or Roderick wasn¡¯t going to end well, so I didn¡¯t let it spoil a wonderful hamfest. I also skipped the Saturday ARRL forum (Glad I did, because it was at about that time that carrying the AL-82 became someone else¡¯s problem. ) I¡¯m sure someone will post a summary of what transpired at the forum at some point. This was one of more enjoyable Hamventions in recent years for me. I hit a sweet spot of balancing time between the indoor exhibits, wandering the boneyard, and hanging out at our flea market spaces. Had a blast catching up with Eric and chatting with folks passing by¡ªeven got a packet of vegemite from a passing Aussie! Best of all, I managed to sell the AL-82 amp so I didn¡¯t have to lug that beast back home. The IC9700 is way easier to carry. Dave UW
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Dayton
6
Eric, Eddie and I will once again be in the boneyard at Hamvention this year. We have spots 7214-7217 on the outer row on the north side (facing the bleachers), maybe 10 or 12 spots down from the end. Best landmark is probably the row of porta-potties¡ªwe are across the path from the west end of the row. ? Anybody else making the trek? If so, feel free to come sit a spell, get in out of the sun/rain, and maybe have a cold beverage (courtesy of Eric). You can also drop off any boat anchors you find for later retrieval. Dave UW
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FD 2024
4
Gents, It¡¯s less than two months now to FD 2024. I¡¯ve heard from AE4TQ, N1KDO, and WB4SQ that they are interested in participating this year. Anybody else interested? I¡¯m happy to host the event again this year. My personal preference is to keep the setup fairly simple (as we¡¯ve done the past few years)¡ªwire antennas for 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10m, and a yagi for 6m. But if others want to take on more, I can be talked into it. The last few years we¡¯ve had 3 stations. Some years two on digital and one on phone, sometimes one on CW, and two on whatever mode the operator wants (phone, CW, or digital). We have not had a separate station for VHF or GOTA, but if we have folks to operate them, those could be arranged. I have a TS-590 available, and it can be set up for phone, digital, and/or CW. What other radios might we have available? I have dipoles for 80, 20, 15m and loops for 40 and 10m. I also have yagis for 10/15/20 and the triplexer so we could use a yagi on 3 bands at the same time, if we want to do that. The past couple years we have operated with a combination of solar/battery and generator. I have a Honda EU-2000 that has operated 3 stations without a problem. Eddie had operated his IC-7300 from solar/battery only the last couple years. I have a couple of battery boosters if we want to try solar. The 5W category has been somewhat unrewarding when we tried that in the past, but the multiplier of 5 can be enticing. My preference is to stay with the 100W category, but your mileage might vary. Open to suggestions. Other thoughts? Dave UW
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1 ticked for Hamcation
3
I won a ticket for Hamcation. Who wants for free? Tom KT4XN Sent from Mail for Windows
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Lawrenceville Hamfest
4
Anybody going to the hamfest? I plan to be there Saturday morning early, parking in the boneyard. It¡¯s supposed to be a bit chilly in the morning, so bundle up. But it should warm up nicely. I¡¯ll probably be there until 10:00-10:30. It never seems to keep my interest until lunch time. ? Dave UW
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15,000 QSOs on LoTW as of today: About 74% confirmation rate. Not bad. Jeff n1kdo
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A couple folks asked for a report on how Shelby was, so here goes . . . First off, the weather was outstanding. High in low 80s, sunny skies, and a nice cool breeze almost all day, Friday and Saturday. It was a little warm standing in the sun, but in the shade it was like the boneyard was air conditioned! I spent most of my time wandering the boneyard (and maybe 10 full minutes inside all of the inside exhibits combined, and half of that was wasted.) But Charles and I sat in our shade and enjoyed a pretty day. Sort of, well, nice day for a funeral. I couldn¡¯t find any attendance numbers (other than that at it¡¯s peak in the 90s attendance was around 10,00), but it seems to be tapering off each year. A reasonable number of flea market vendor setups, and there were lots of things available¡ªpower supplies, rotors, CW keys, antenna tuners, and mostly older radios (the most modern I saw were several TS-2000s and an IC-746). There was the normal Shelby collection of amplifiers by brands like ¡°Ass-Kicker¡± for a kilowatt on 11m. But very few folks were walking around shopping in boneyard. I doubt there were 200 people there other than the vendors and SARC folks, maybe not even 100. Only one food vendor was open, with service as slow as molasses in January. But there wasn¡¯t nearly enough demand to make it worthwhile for a second one to open up. The covered area outside the building where Wireman sets up has been paved, but there were only 3 or four tables in there. The vendor support has all but disappeared. In the air conditioned Goforth Hall, there was one vendor (Km4MPH Sales out of Chattanooga) plus one booth making hats and badges. ARRL had a table, and the rest were flea market guys. Ham Source (out of Birmingham) and Quicksilver Radio, both of whom were there the last few years, were gone. Almost nobody in the long, white, non-airconditioned barn. Vendors seem to have given up on Shelby, like HRO, ICOM, and MFJ did over the last few years. I don¡¯t know why, but I suspect it¡¯s because attendance isn¡¯t enough to make it worth their while. My sense is that Shelby Hamfest is circling the drain. SARC seems to be sitting idly by and watching this event sink. If they are doing anything to get vendors back, I can¡¯t see it. Quicksilver¡¯s web page said they would be there, and I thought I saw the guy Friday mid-day, but they were never set up and selling. Not sure what happened but it can¡¯t be good news. The hamfest web site has a long list of vendors, apparently anybody who has ever been there in the past umpteen years. The vast majority were not there this year, including most of the ones in bold print. Maybe they think by lying about how many vendors are coming they can boost attendance? Not a particularly good plan. SARC seems to following the game plan of the Atlanta Hamfest. If this event moved to Dallas, NC now, I¡¯m not sure the businesses in Shelby would know or care. And the way its spiraling down faster and faster, I don¡¯t think it will be long before it¡¯s hospice time. Sad to see. I have a lot of fond memories of Shelby Hamfests past, and I really, really would like to see it regain it¡¯s former self. But I¡¯m convinced now that ain¡¯t going to happen, and I don¡¯t need to go anymore to watch it die. I¡¯m done. Huntsville is the new Shelby. OK, rant over. Sorry. Dave UW
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ARRL Forum at Huntsville
5
For those planning to go to Huntsville . . . I looked at the forum schedule for Huntsville, and I was surprised that there was no ARRL member forum. Given the recent dues increase and that even paid up members will have to pay extra for QST after Jan 1, 2024, it seemed a bit odd that ARRL would not show up (as they have for many years) to explain their position. So I sent an email to the forum contact to ask WTF? Got a note back from Kevin KG4TEI (forum coordinator) that ARRL confirmed today that they will be there for a member forum. Noon Saturday. I plan to be there . . . might be interesting. Dave UWI
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OK, I'm tooting my own horn a bit
12
I finally got the LOTW confirmation for South Dakota on CW, thanks to the W1AW/0 VOTA operation. That was the last one I needed (for about 3 years now) for the Triple Play award. I¡¯m worked SD on CW before, and I even got a card, but the triple play award is for LOTW only. So I finally managed to get a SD CW op who uploaded to LOTW. Yeee Haw! Soooooo, if you log into LOTW and on the home screen look at the latest Triple Play WAS Award Winners, you may see a familiar call sign. ? Serial number 2599. I also have 8 grids confirmed now on satellite! Only 92 more to go for VUCC! Dave UW
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WB4RTH repeater
9
Sorry but the repeater is intermittently deaf, so wouldn't NF4GA be a better alternative until Mike K5JR and team have another look at it? I've offered to help of course...no dice 73 Eddie AE4TQ Sent from AT&T Yahoo Mail on Android On Wed, Jul 19, 2023 at 19:08, KE4UW Dave <mossdj@...> wrote: We can¡¯t add him Gary. He needs to go to groups.io, create an account if he doesn¡¯t already have one, and then join the N4N_Field_Day group. Dave UW Sent from Mail for Windows From: Gary McConville via groups.io Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2023 1:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [N4N-Field-Day] Prospective 2024 FD cw op Scott Weiss N2WF recently did some tower work for me. Though he lives in McDonnough He showed interest in our group. Please add him to the N4N emails. Tnx ¡
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FD 2023 Score
Gents, I just submitted the 2023 FD score for N4N. Total score was 3622 points (2872 qso points and 750 bonus points). After trimming some test qsos from the beginning of the log (entered before the contest started), we had 194 CW, 386 digital, and 276 phone contacts. Bonus points were for emergency power (300), ARRL Field Day message (100), Natural Power QSOs (100), Safety officer/checklist (100), social media (100), and entry submittal via web (50). We made the attempt for bonus points for message to SM, sending 10 messages, and satellite qso, but were unsuccessful with those. Hopefully we can get those next year. The 856 total qsos and 3622 points was a bit lower than the 1016 qsos and 5016 points last year. Last year all were 2pt digital qsos, while 276 this year were 1 pt phone qsos. I think a big part of the lower score was down time¡ªwe all took an hour or so for dinner and socializing with xyls, and we had about 8 hours overnight with no operation at all. So while the score was lower, we were well fed, well rested, and having fun during the time we were operating. We did all seem to get plenty of operating time. But maybe with a couple more operators next year we can fill in some of the dead time. But the level of effort this year was about right for me. All set up and ready to go by lunch Friday, and all torn down and in the pool by 4:30 Sunday. Operated pretty much whenever I wanted, slept when I wanted too. I did miss some operating time fixing meals, but it was time well spent. ? Anyway, another one in the books. Looking forward to next year. Dave UW
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Finally made a few satellite QSOs!
8
Thanks to the hard work by Eddie figuring out how SAT32PC works, and the really hard work by Eddie to jam enough of that information between my ears, I successfully made a few contacts via the RS-44 satellite this afternoon. Wow, FINALLY! I managed one contact on July 3, but only through the exemplary skills and extraordinary patience of K0JM Mark in Minneapolis. He stuck with me as I wandered around in frequency, at least long enough to complete the QSO. But it was rather embarrassing showing the world I still didn¡¯t know how to do this properly. Since then Eddie gave me more remedial instruction, and today was much more successful. If you need someone to teach you how to do this, Eddie is your man. Patient, persistent, and will/can actually thoroughly RTFM. I know I got it right today. After some additional help from Eddie I managed to upload the QSOs to LOTW, and damned if all five weren¡¯t already confirmed. I guess satellite ops are pretty good at uploading to LOTW. Eddie, thanks a million. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m 100 percent there yet, so don¡¯t throw away all your crib notes. But it was a heck of an afternoon. ? Dave UW
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Prospective 2024 FD cw op
2
Scott Weiss N2WF recently did some tower work for me. Though he lives in McDonnough He showed interest in our group. Please add him to the N4N emails. Tnx ¡
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[NFARL] Need antenna help
Tnx Don. Just need someone or someway to get twenty feet above my roof.
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Need antenna help
Twenty years has finally taken its toll. Tape/ties holding my coax lines feedlines have broken free of the mast and boom. Need someone to refasten the cables.
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wow. I just worked 7 JAs on 6M. Already have a new DXCC!
15
Date Time Call Band Mode Submode Station Call Result 2023-07-09 22:52:00 JR7WFC 6M FT8 N1KDO new confirmation for Japan: 6M 2023-07-09 22:52:00 JR7WFC 6M FT8 N1KDO new confirmation for grid square: QM09 2023-07-09 22:51:00 JH0INP 6M FT8 N1KDO new confirmation for grid square: PM96 2023-07-09 22:43:00 JA7QVI 6M FT8 N1KDO log vs LotW mismatch: updated GRIDSQUARE with QM08ka from LoTW; was previously logged as QM08kc 2023-07-09 22:43:00 JA7QVI 6M FT8 N1KDO new confirmation for grid square: QM08 2023-07-09 17:46:00 KE0ESG 6M FT8 N1KDO new confirmation for grid square: DN96 LotW operations: 5 QSLs processed, 5 log entries updated, 0 errors
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Field Day
7
Field Day Another fun Field Day is in the books. I think a good time was had by all¡ªI certainly had a great time. The weather was outstanding! Friday we got a bit of rain while we were out eating lunch, but that was after all the antennas were already up (except the satellite stuff). By the time we got back from lunch the sun was out and we enjoyed a sunny afternoon of mother nature¡¯s air conditioning with temps in peaking around 80. Saturday was more of the same¡ªmother natures AC the whole day. We had a total of participants this year. The bulk of the operating was done by AE4TQ, WB4SQ, KE4QFB, and KE4UW. Joe AJ2Y came by for a bit Saturday afternoon and even made one CW QSO. John KB4SLV spent most of Saturday afternoon and evening with us and logged a couple of FT8 contacts. A friend of Larry¡¯s also stopped by Saturday evening and seemed quite interested¡ªmight be a new ham in the making. Saturday dinner we had AE4TQ (+XYL), WB4SQ (+XYL), KE4QFB, WB4SLV, and KE4UW (+XYL). We might have lost an hour of operating time, but we had a great steak dinner. The setup went smoothly. Three of us (AE4TQ, WB4SQ, and KE4UW) had the HF antennas up and two of the three radios all ready to go before we left for lunch Friday. In the afternoon we got the 6m yagi and satellite antennas up and had the satellite stations up and running, and set up and tested the generator and solar setups. Kudos to Eddie for getting the SAT32PC satellite up and running with my TS-2000 and Yaesu azi-ele rotor. KE4QFB joined us around supper time and Eddie quickly got his radio/computer set up with N1MM. So by the time the ARRL bulletin was broadcast at 8:00pm we were all ready to go. Not ¡°almost¡± ready. We were done done. So Saturday morning I tinkered more (rather unsuccessfully) with trying to send winlink messages via 2m packet. I suspect we are just too far from the nearest packet nodes. Could connect, but not reliably enough to get a message through. Eddie and I played around with the satellite tracking and all seems to be working well. After lunch we were all set to rock and roll! We logged 859 contacts¡ª386 on digital, 279 on phone, and 194 on CW. Joe made one of the CW contacts and the rest were courtesy of yours truly. Yea, you read that right. So for the second time now, KE4UW was the top CW operator for N4N! Eat your heart out Jimmy. ? (I¡¯d tell you who was tops in digital or phone, but I don¡¯t know how to extract that info from N1MM. I thought there were some tools to show qsos by computer, operator, etc (maybe by hour as well as total), but I can¡¯t seem to find them. ) The total was down a bit from last year¡¯s 1000 Qs. I suppose that was more a result of us all taking an hour off for dinner, and a much later start Sunday morning than in the past. It wasn¡¯t the equipment. Everything worked flawlessly. There were a couple of things that didn¡¯t quite pan out. I never got the message traffic/message to SM to work. The equipment seemed to be working just fine, but the nodes that were up and running just seemed to be a bit to far from me to reliably connect. I also didn¡¯t make a satellite contact. Not sure exactly why. We never heard anything from CAS-4A and CAS-4B which in the past were the most reliable way to get a contact completed. I missed a couple of passes with the XW-2 satellites just doing other things. We tried an FM satellite and could hear others but did not make a contact in the bedlam of FD weekend on a single channel satellite. But the software was controlling the rotor just fine, and Eddie used his IC9700 to verify the TS-2000 was transmitting on the correct uplink frequency, so I think the equipment setup is fine, but the operator needs to get smarter. I¡¯m working on it. Other than those two things, I can¡¯t think of anything that didn¡¯t work out exactly as expected. At 2pm Sunday when the operation ended, Eddie gathered the electronic logs, I threw some burgers on the grill (thanks Larry!) and Larry/Gary started tearing things down. We took about a 40 minute break for lunch, and still by 4pm the deck was completely cleared off and the
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Lunch Saturday
5
A few folks are getting together for lunch Saturday at 1130 at the Smokehouse BBQ in the Publix shopping center at the intersection of Johnson Ferry Rd and Shallowford RD. Join us if you want to swap any Field Day stories. Smokehouse BBQ, 4401 Shallowford Rd, Roswell, GA 30075, in the Publix shopping center at the intersection of Shallowford Rd. and Johnson Ferry Rd. It is a Roswell address, but it is in East Cobb. Dave UW
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Sat 8:39am
Sat 8:39am