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Field Day Plan, Progress to Plan and Help to Implement

  • 23 Jun 2017
  • 25 Jun 2017
  • The Military Museums 4520 Crowchild Tr SW, Calgary AB

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Last night, Jim Leslie, VE6JF sent the following to me for posting and further distribution. Jim and a few others have put a considerable amount of time planning and organizing this year's club event.

This year's FD is located at the Military Museums and concurrent to one of their contributions to Canada's 150th birthday. The event will be broadly attended by the public and covered by the media. The exposure will be good for amateur radio.

So, it's now our turn to: jump into the boat; grab an oar and row it to the Field Day event.

Grab a coffee, get comfortable and "Read On".

Field Day is fast approaching and to avoid last minute scrambling to make arrangements, I need to have an idea as to the number of members planning to attend this event. To date we have 9 registrants. If you are planning to attend, please email me or go to the website to register. In either case, please fill out a waiver for the museum and bring it along on Field Day. This helps also in estimating how much food we should budget for. Feel free to email me with any FD questions.

Where we stand so far:

1) Tents suitable for operating have been purchased. (Jerry, VE6TL & Jim, VE6JF)

2) Laptops purchased, configured and tested with N1MM including networking with router. (Jerry, VE6TL - Jim, VE6JF and Joe, VE6JHH)

3) Dipoles constructed. (Jerry, VE6TL - Jim, VE6JF & Gerry, VE6QLT)

4) ARRL FD locator (Jerry, VE6TL)

5) GOTA station to be manned by Ken, VE6DXM

6) Satellite station - Bill, VE6WK and Glenn, VE6ND

7) Antenna trailer tested and ready to go by Dana, VA6DJH and Jim, VE6JF

8) Beam antenna located & ready - Gordon, VE6TI and Jim, VE6JF

9) Publicity submission - Jim, VE6JF

10) Comms trailer move to site.  Peter, VA6RPL

11) Borrow (and return/re-install) Kenwood TS-2000 from Club Station.  (Jim, VE6JF)

12) The last fan 80/40M dipole was built today.  (Jerry, VE6TL - Jim, VE6JF)

13) Misc. sundry items and other "Bucky Gopher" jobs.  - Jim, VE6JF; will do more as required. No volunteers will be refused. :)

If there have been any changes to the above or if you are unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances please let me know ASAP & we will try to find an alternate.

*Important* TODO items -> *Request for participation* - we need people to champion and/or assist with (the biggies are in RED) the following tasks:

1) Site publicity banner. I think it may be in storage somewhere. Retrieve and display.

2) Transport antenna trailer to FD site and return to club station at end of the event.

3) Comms trailer move from site at end of FD and return to storage.

4) Retrieve generator from club station and transport to/from FD site.

5) CARA has a solar panel. We need someone to bring it to/from site for our solar bonus points. I have heard about it but I do not know where it is; can someone help with this?

6) Setup tents, tables & chairs. I will volunteer for a large part of this as I really miss camping!

We need one additional table but I can supply some chairs.

7) Erect the masts and setup / tune the antennas and General setup as required.

8) Setup and make operational the generators, including electrical extensions for all stations, grounding, drip pan, ground rods (required) and obtain sufficient gas for generators. (I have purchased and will bring caution tape and stakes required to satisfy museum regulations.)

9) We need someone to bring a full tank of propane for the BBQ.

10) Someone to maintain an ample supply of food and coffee for operators. Especially coffee! :)

11) An enthusiastic member to man the publicity booth for additional bonus points (Public Information Table) i.e.: ensure CARA membership forms are available as well as other related amateur radio information.

12) Someone to copy the W1AW bulletin for bonus points. The schedule is posted here:

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Field-Day/2017/2017%20W1AW%20Sked.pdf

13) The “Educational Activity Bonus" is an interesting and fun source of bonus points. If somebody can provide some type of formal activity that would be of interest to the public, we can take advantage of this opportunity. One idea I had read about was a spectrum display on a monitor showing the current on-going FD activity as well as general RF activity in the area. The idea is to explain in general terms to the public the RF signals they are seeing on a monitor. The hardware could be something as simple as an SDR dongle in a laptop set up in the military public reception tent. I attended the Dominion Radio Observatory event last year and as part of that demo people were invited to use their automobile key fobs to see the signal on a spectrum analyzer. At any given point in time there are many signals that will show up, TV, radio stations etc. This would satisfy the requirements for this bonus, as well as engage and educate the public and be a lot of fun too! Does anyone have a laptop and a SDR dongle? I would volunteer some of my time for this to talk with and answer questions from the public, but I don't have any hardware. Other ideas are welcome.

14) Someone to take photos during the event. With the tanks in the background, I'd like to submit photos to RAC and/or ARRL after FD.

15) Not as much fun as setting up, but helping to tear down is appreciated. Leaving the grounds as we found them will go a long way to being welcomed back next year.

16) Finally and very importantly, we need someone to ensure the N1MM logs are submitted to the ARRL following the event.

There are a few things above that are critical (in red) and could potentially make or break the entire event. Specifically these are items 2, 3, 4, and 8. Items 2 and 3 require someone with the ability to tow a single axel trailer, with a 2-inch ball. I can help move the generator up the stairs and out of the club station, but with a small car cannot move it to/from the FD site.  Please: let me know if you are able to assist with any of these items by sending me an email directly to the address below. Once I know who is able to help, we will come up with a plan together and I will co-ordinate as need to make it happen.

Also let me know by way of either registering for the event or preferably in this case with an email, if you can/intend to operate and for how long. We need to know as soon as we can if we will have enough people interested to operate 3 stations. If not, we may need to downsize our expectations in order to make it easier on the committed participants. And not having idle stations increases our chances of winning our section.

Remember to wear your CARA badges during FD weekend identifying you as an amateur radio operator and CARA member to the public. It will increase the chances of being approached by the public with questions. We are told by the museum host that they are expecting a lot of people that weekend and the more exposure and visibility we have, the better.

To summarize, the museum is happy to host us, and we are fortunate that Ameer found for our CARA Field Day such a tremendous and convenient site from which to operate one of the most enjoyable amateur radio activities of the year. This is what we do! Let's all work together and make this an event to remember.

Thanks & don't hesitate to let me know by way of email or phone if I have forgotten anything....

73, Jim

VE6JF

Galoot @shaw.ca

403-226-5933

Register here: http://cara.memberlodge.com/event-2562400

Waiver: http://cara.memberlodge.com/resources/Documents/FORMS/TMM_Waiver.pdf


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