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Field Day 2015 – Comprehensive Report

30 June 2015 | by Larry W2LJ | Leave a Comment (3)

Most of the South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club showed up at Spring Lake Park at 10:00 AM or a little beforehand. There was enough pre-Field Day organization that we all pretty much knew what had to be done and what our roles were. Set up went well:

First - set up the antennas, and organize the tent - our "home" for the next 24+ hours.

South Plainfield Amateur Radio Club - NJ2SP - 3A - NNJ

Battery - all power provided was from solar charged batteries. No generators were used or fossil fuels burned to generate RF for the weekend.

Ron N2LCZ helping with the "tower" guys.

In addition to helping up with setting up antennas, Ron devised and built a network so that we could link the logging computers together. No small feat under the conditions we were operating under. N2LCZ is truly SPARC's resident Computer Expert (in addition to his yeoman's work as Club Secretary).

Notice the ominous looking sky - it was a harbinger of what was to come.

Dave KD2SFI (black t-shirt) putting together antennas for GOTA and VHF/UHF.

Dave Hackett KD2FSI, was our Field Day Committee Chairman this year. Dave was the "gasoline" in our Field Day "engine". Dave may be recently licensed, but he's already built up a good knowledge of what will work and what won't. He's got an enthusiasm for Amateur Radio and Field Day that is positively infectious. Dave is the kind of guy that makes you can't wait for the next operating event. If I was putting together a DXpedition to a very rare and exotic locale, Dave would be #1 on my short list of Hams who absolutely had to be part of the crew.

We had the tri-band beam set up on an extension ladder tower affair designed and constructed by our own Philip DeFort, KD2HPG. Phil is a graduate of our Technician class from last Autumn. In addition to his mechanical contributions, he also added to our score by making some of his first on-the-air contacts as a Ham. He brought along his teen-aged son (also named Philip) who is now serious about getting his own ticket.

Here's a photo of Phil making some of his first contacts.

In addition to the tri-band beam, we brought back the EARCHI for another year. We had a ten meter dipole for GOTA and some VHF/UHF antennas built by Dave KD2DSI. We also had a W3EDP antenna up, which was built for the SSB station in anticipation that 20 Meters would probably close for the evening at some point.

We got through set up high and dry and were on the air promptly for the 2:00 PM EDT Field Day start. And that's when things started to go wrong. First, the winds kicked in and then it started raining buckets. It ended up being the soggiest Field Day that I can remember. In addition, it was pretty chilly all day. I was wearing a t-shirt with a sweat shirt on top, and resorted to adding a jacket as temperatures fell and humidity increased to 100%. There were several times during the night when some of us went to our cars and just sat for about a half hour or so with the heaters on in order to get warm and dry out for a little bit.

Soon after the start, it became apparent that something was drastically wrong with the beam. The KX3 took a long time to find a match and even when it did, the antenna was not performing as expected. My Autek antenna analyzer showed the driven element was somehow resonant way out of band, so we switched the SSB transceiver over to the W3EDP and limped along for the weekend with that. Unfortunately, the W3EDP didn't perform much better, as I think there may have been a balun problem there. We would have been better off using Marv K2VHW's G5RV as we did last year, but it was already raining buckets and I wasn't about to risk pneumonia just to get another antenna up into the trees.

But even with the antenna mishaps, there were bright spots. Marc Sullivan W4MPS, who is a good QRP friend from North Carolina was in town to visit his daughter. He came by the Field Day site with his wife for a quick visit to say "Hello" before heading to his daughter's house. He came back by himself shortly after the starting gun sounded for a longer visit. And Marc's presence was truly a God-send because right around that time, the digital station was having some RFI problems which was causing their laptop to freeze. They needed some clamp on ferrites, which I had at home. Marc volunteered to keep our CW station busy while I was off fetching the ferrites and doing some other things.

Thank you, Marc W4MPS for helping out!

In the photo of Marc W4MPS, the guy in background in the rain poncho is SPARC's own Mario KD2HPF. Undoubtedly due to his experience in Scouting, Mario was about the only one with proper foresight to come properly attired for the weekend. Mario was also a graduate of our last Technician class held in Autumn, along with Phil KD2HPG. Mario was active in the Rookie Roundup and he was active again for Field Day. In addition to being a valuable part of the set up and tear down teams, Mario put in a lot of chair time at the 6 Meter station. He was our mainstay in keeping an eye open for any openings that may have occurred on that band. Mario had a Go Pro with him, and I think there's a video of him calling CQ on 6 Meters kicking around somewhere on the Web.

It was a long chilly night, but it was made bearable by visits from friends from our two neighboring clubs, the Electronic Testing Society of NJ, and the Raritan Valley Radio Club. So many showed up, that it's hard to remember them all and I beg pardon if I forget to mention any - but special thanks to:

Pete KD2ARB for the pizzas, Dave W2OIL and Dan KC2YRC for the home made brownies, the hot coffee and the help with tear down at the end. Marty WB2BEW donated the use of his pop up canopy, kept us company when it got lonely, and was just an all around morale boost. Marty is good people and it was good to have him with us. Same goes for Craig AC2FE, who came in the evening to keep us company for a while. And Hank N2MU who was not only a friendly visitor, but also a critical thinker who helped us iron out some technical glitches. Again, if I left out any K2ETS or W2QW members, or any other visitors who showed up, I apologize, but my brain is still a little addled from the weekend.

On Sunday, around Noon, Mayor Matt Anesh and councilman Rob Bengivenga showed up at the site. We gave them the nickel tour and explained the operation and its purpose to them. The mayor was by last year, so he was familiar with Field Day, but Councilman Bengivenga was not.

Yours truly talking antennas with Councilman Bengivenga.

Marv K2VHW, SPARC President, explaining Field Day and the equipment with the Mayor and Councilman.

And wouldn't you know it, when the dignitaries appeared, the skies brightened up and the sun came out! I was joking around with Mayor Anesh that had we known that he was bringing better weather with him, we would have invited him over on Saturday!

And once again, South Plainfield's Finest parked one of their cruisers by our tent to serve as a little bit of an extra added deterrent against any possible mischief during our overnight stay. Police Chief Parker has been very accommodating towards SPARC, and as the SPPD takes on the role of OEM, we look forward to working with him. I didn't notice it, but fellow SPARC member, Tim Halloran AB2ZK pointed out to me the cruiser's official designation number.

Car 73 - how appropriate!

So even though it was cold, wet and miserable, and we had antenna problems, and band conditions for Field Day weren't as good as they were in 2014, I think it's safe to say we all had a blast, and that SPARC is eagerly looking forward to Field Day 2016. We're going to remedy our problems and we'll be back, ready to once again take on whatever Mother Nature and Old Man Murphy dish out to us.

Drew W2OU working the digital station.

Drew Moore W2OU is our AC Log expert, fellow CERT member from Piscataway and a very valued member of SPARC. Drew is a "Ham's Ham" and is a fun guy to be around and to just sit around and shoot the breeze with. Drew is also an ARRL official, so it's nice to have a little bit of the League with us all the time.

Tim AB2ZK and John AB2VE sharing a laugh during a lighter moment.

Tim AB2ZK was our "food guy" this year. Tim ran out Saturday night at 10:30 PM in the chill and pouring rain to bring us some hot sandwiches. He's always got a joke or quip up his sleeve exactly when one is needed. He was in South Plainfield's first CERT class and was a graduate of our first Technician licensing class back in 1995. John AB2VE helped me set up the W3EDP and the EARCHI antenna. When I was getting a bit frustrated with the way the wind was blowing around the antenna lines I was launching, John kept me focused and on target. John is a veteran member of the South Plainfield Rescue Squad and is a very good friend to have.

W2LJ explaining the KX3 and the CW station to some visitors.

Lastly, two more SPARC members that I want to mention. Wayne Grennier N2LRE is our Vice-President. He's also our publicity guru who gets and keeps SPARC in the town's local publications. There are so many times that friends come up and say, "Hey Lar, I saw your picture in the Observer about that Amateur Radio thing you're involved with." Word of SPARC gets out because of Wayne. I wanted to snap a Field Day photo of him, but he was too busy flitting around with his camera, getting photos of the rest of us!

And our President, Marv K2VHW. Marv saw the need for a new Amateur Radio club in South Plainfield and did something about it. He's our navigator as we sail through uncharted waters. He has a good sense for what's good for the club and he's not afraid to try new things or to listen to a new opinion. SPARC is what it is because of Marv's leadership. We will forever be indebted to him. He keeps us engaged and active - and if a club is going to succeed, that's exactly what you need.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

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Weekly Propagation Summary – 2015 Jun 29 16:10 UTC

29 June 2015 | by Tomas NW7US | Leave a Comment (0)

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2015 Jun 29 0647 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 22 – 28 June 2015

Solar activity was at low to high levels. The period began at high levels when Region 2371 (N13, L=302, class/area Fkc/1180 on 21 June) produced an M6/2b flare at 22/1823 UTC with an associated Castelli-U spectral burst, Type II radio sweep (1480 km/s), 1000 sfu Tenflare, and a full halo coronal mass ejection (CME) with an approximate speed of 1047 km/s. Solar activity returned to high levels again on 25 June as Region 2371 produced a long-duration M7/3b flare at 25/0816 UTC with associated Type II (2056 km/s) and Type IV radio sweeps, 3800 sfu Tenflare, and an asymmetric full halo CME with an approximate speed of 1500 km/s. Region 2371 remained relatively quiet and stable after 25 June, only producing low-level C-class flaring for the rest of the period.

A greater than 10 MeV proton event was in progress at the beginning of the period. The event began at 21/2135 UTC, likely associated with an M2/1n flare at 21/0142 UTC from Region 2371, reached a maximum flux value of 1070 pfu at 22/1900 UTC and ended 24/0705 UTC. A brief enhancement to the S3 (Strong) levels was observed due to a shock enhancement from the arrival of the 21 June CME. Another greater than 10 MeV proton event began at 26/0350 UTC in association with an M7/3b flare at 25/0816 UTC from Region 2371, reached a maximum of 22 pfu (S1-Minor) at 27/0030 UTC and ended at 27/0755 UTC.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit was high levels through the period with the exception of 23 June. A maximum flux of 26,376 pfu was observed at 24/1620 UTC.

Geomagnetic field activity ranged from quiet to severe storm conditions. At 22/0451 UTC, a small shock was observed at the NASA/ACE spacecraft. Total field increased from 8 nT to 17 nT with a corresponding solar wind increase from 360 km/s to 431 km/s. The shock was associated with the arrival of the 19 June CME caused by a filament eruption in the SE quadrant observed in SDO/AIA imagery beginning at 19/0500 UTC. A geomagnetic sudden impulse (SI) of 19 nT (Guam) was observed at 22/0545 UTC. The geomagnetic field responded with unsettled to active levels. At 22/1759 UTC, another shock was observed in ACE data from the 21 June CME associated with a double peak M2 flare from Region 2371 at 21/0142 UTC. Total field increased to a maximum of 41 nT at 22/1935 UTC, solar wind speed increased to 737 km/s and the Bz component went negative to -39 nT at 22/1850 UTC. A prolonged period of mostly southward Bz occurred between 23/0013 UTC and 23/1246 UTC reaching as high as -25 nT. An SI of 48 nT (Hartland) was observed at 21/1650 UTC. The geomagnetic field responded with minor to major storm levels with severe storm periods observed between 22/1800-2100 UTC and 23/0000-0600 UTC. At 24/1258 UTC, the 22 June CME associated with the M6/2b flare on 22 June was observed in ACE data. Solar wind speeds increased from approximately 550 km/s to around 760 km/s with a relatively weak increase in total field from 5 nT to 13 nT. The Bz component was mostly positive during this event with negative values reaching a maximum of -11 nT between 25/0547 UTC and 25/1357 UTC. The geomagnetic field responded with only quiet to active periods on 24 June, but increased to minor to major storm levels mid-period on 25 June. Another CME associated with the M7/3b flare on 25 June arrived at 27/0223 UTC at the ACE spacecraft. Solar wind speeds increased from near 475 km/s to 860 km/s before slowly decreasing to 480 km/s by the end of the day. Total field reached a maximum of 13 nT at 27/0304 UTC and the Bz component was variable between +9 nT and -7 nT. As a result, the geomagnetic field never increased beyond unsettled conditions.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 29 June – 25 July 2015

Solar activity is expected to be at low levels with a chance for M-class flare (R1-R2, Minor-Moderate) activity from 30 June through 24 July with the return of old Regions 2365 (S13, L=079) on 30 June, 2367 (S20, L=002) on 05 July, and 2371 (N13, L=302) on 11 July.

There is a chance for a greater than 10 MeV proton event from 11 July through 24 July with the return of old Region 2371 to the visible disk.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to be at high levels from 29-30 Jun and again from 08-19 July due to residual CME effects and recurrent coronal hole high speed streams (CH HSS).

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to be at active to minor storm (G1-Minor) levels from 06-08 July and again from 11-12 July due to recurrent CH HSS activity.

Don’t forget to visit our live space weather and radio propagation web site, at: http://SunSpotWatch.com/

Live Aurora mapping is at http://aurora.sunspotwatch.com/

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First HAB flights were a success

29 June 2015 | by Andrew MØNRD | Leave a Comment (0)

Two years after discovering the hobby of High Altitude Ballooning I have migrated from being just a passive tracker and finally completed my first flights assisted by other members of the South Kesteven ARS.

Ready to launch

Back in March I posted about the opportunity I had to make a launch at this years Swaton Vintage Day and the 10th World Egg Throwing Championship

South Kesteven ARS were going to hold a special event station with the call sign GB2EGG. During the planning stage I jokingly suggested throwing an egg in to space on board a balloon, I shouldn't have yoked...

The whole venture captured everyone's imagination, sadly putting the special event station in the shade but we certainly got a lot of publicity for the club and amateur radio in general.

Featured on front page of local paper

There was certainly a lot to learn and get organised, not only did I have to design and build the flight computer which was the easy part but I had to build the payload containers get the balloon, parachute, cord the lifting gas (Helium) and build a filler assembly as well as getting official permission from the CAA for the launch.

The information on the UKHAS wiki as well as Dave Akerman's High Altitude Ballooning, From The Ground Up (and back again) were invaluable.

The cost of this venture was not insubstantial and thankfully MADHEN - The Ultimate Party Band agreed to sponsor the flight which helped greatly and I received a nice donation from fellow club member Mark Orbell (M0OBL)

Months of work and lots of last minute hitches but I was ready.

Two flights were planned an altitude 'burst' flight with a raw egg payload with a parachute decent. The main tracker MADHEN would broadcast SSDV images and telemetry with a telemetry backup tracker EGG1 suspended below it. The second flight was a foil party balloon 'floater' with a tracker kindly donated by Steve Smith G0TDJ of ProjectAVR

Both flights flew and were a great success, unfortunately the SSDV tracker failed early in the flight so no in flight images were received.

The main payload is pictured below before the flight resting on its side. The Styrofoam box contained the flight computer and radio transmitter with a camera attached to the Raspberry Pi and the "flying saucer" model which contained the egg was positioned to be visible.

As this test image shows the 'egg saucer' should have had the earth below it.

However the arduino based backup tracker which was suspended below it worked perfectly.

There were some issues with getting CAA approval because the sky was very busy on the day including the last remaining Vulcan Bomber VH-558 making its farewell flight in the area, cue jokes about the Vulcan getting scrambled... but approval was given for a morning flight, not ideal for the organisers but we were still a spectacle for the handful who were there early.

Starting the fill

Checking the neck lift, made difficult by the wind

Stewart (M0SDM) helping me tie off the balloon and payload cord

The strong gusty wind made launch difficult


Me and Stewart making a dash to assist the launch

Someone was on hand to capture it on video for The World Egg Throwing Federation

It started so well, I was receiving telemetry and image packets and then transmission stopped

However as I said the other tracker worked brilliantly and this was the final flight path as visualised in Google Earth. The ascent and decent rate and the burst altitude were exactly as planned and predicted, so I know I got the neck lift measurement right even with the high wind on the day.

Path of MADHEN/EGG1

A splashdown at sea was inevitable due to the wind conditions, hopefully it it survived the landing it may wash up on a beach somewhere and we can retrieve the images.

With what little Helium remained I was able to lightly fill and launch a foil party balloon carrying a blown egg shell as a 'floater' which made a valiant attempt to reach the continent at 6-7km high travelling at 120+km/hr where it reportably hit bad weather and was downed.

Path of EGGDX in comparison to MADHEN/EGG1

All in all an eggscellent day!

Andrew Garratt, MØNRD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from East Midlands, England. Contact him at [email protected].

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First HAB flights were a success

29 June 2015 | by Andrew MØNRD | Leave a Comment (0)

Ready to launch

Featured on front page of local paper

As this test image shows the 'egg saucer' should have had the earth below it.

Starting the fill

Checking the neck lift, made difficult by the wind

Stewart (M0SDM) helping me tie off the balloon and payload cord

The strong gusty wind made launch difficult


Me and Stewart making a dash to assist the launch

Someone was on hand to capture it on video for The World Egg Throwing Federation

It started so well, I was receiving telemetry and image packets and then transmission stopped

Path of MADHEN/EGG1

Path of EGGDX in comparison to MADHEN/EGG1

All in all an eggscellent day!

Andrew Garratt, MØNRD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from East Midlands, England. Contact him at [email protected].

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LHS Episode #149: Coming Up Lemons

29 June 2015 | by Russ K5TUX | Leave a Comment (0)

Hello again, and welcome to Episode #149 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode we tackle a number of interesting and diverse topics: Starting with Field Day and an online course on Climate Change, we move to software patent legislation, deep topics like buildroot and custom Linux images, and then to hardware reverse engineering for your benefit and a utility for helping you save battery power on your laptop. We even manage to get in an interview with our ambassador to SELF, Darrell, KI4LLA. Don't miss one action-packed second.

73 de The LHS Guys

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

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Use SSB on VHF For Better Range on SOTA Peaks

29 June 2015 | by Bob KØNR | Leave a Comment (1)

Previously, I had written about how the use of SSB made the difference while activating Prospect Mountain (W0C/FR-069) for Summits On The Air (SOTA). This time I was the SOTA chaser, trying to work Brad WA6MM as he activated two peaks near Breckenridge, Colorado.

Bald Mountain to Black Forest (click to expand)

It was the Saturday of ARRL Field Day, so I planned to be out at our FD site in Black Forest. Brad and I had coordinated in advance and pretty much concluded that it would be difficult or impossible to make the contact on FM. Brad decided to take his FT-817 along with a homebrew 4-element yagi to give him 2m SSB capability. Out at the FD site, I saw that Brad was spotted on Bald Mountain (W0C/PR-019) via SOTAwatch early in the morning, so I borrowed the FD VHF station to try to work him. It was an FT-897 pushing 50 watts to a 4-element yagi up about 30 feet. I heard Brad clearly on 144.200 MHz (SSB calling frequency) and we made the contact.

I estimate that the contact was about 75 miles. I did not do a careful analysis of the terrain but the the signal had to get over the Rampart Range and quite a few other mountains to get from Black Forest to Bald Mountain. The summit of Bald Mountain is at 13,684 feet, so that certainly helps.

A few hours later, Brad showed up on the summit of Boreas Mountain (W0C/SP-030), another 13er near Breckenridge. By now, the Field Day station was in use, so I pulled out my own FT-817 and a 3-element Arrow yagi. Holding it in my hand, I pointed it towards Boreas Mountain and tuned to 144.200 MHz USB. This time Brad was even weaker but still readable, so we completed the contact.

In both cases, Brad was fair to good copy but just above the noise, I am sure that using FM would not have gotten the job done. For serious VHF work, 75 miles is not that great of a distance but we were running QRP power levels with small yagi antennas.

Brad and I are both concluding we need to encourage the use of SSB for 2m SOTA here in Colorado. It is common to end up on a high peak in the Colorado backcountry and not have enough range to reach the larger population centers. Sure there are more people active on 2m FM, but if no one is within range, it does not matter.

Congratulations to WA6MM for first activations of two more challenging summits in Colorado and thanks for 18 chaser points!

73, Bob K0NR

The post Use SSB on VHF For Better Range on SOTA Peaks appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

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Hard reset time

28 June 2015 | by Roger G3XBM | Leave a Comment (1)

As part of my recovery I usually do a short 5 minute walk morning and night. When out this evening I did a “hard” reset of my 10m and 6m WSPR stations. All power was removed, the PC (used with the FT817 on 6m) was turned off for the duration of the walk. Now home again both the 6m and 10m WSPR kits were turned on again and the whole lot sync’d to Internet time.

I hope to stay on both bands overnight, although, so far, I have not managed to catch any transatlantic Es openings. I remain hopeful. Because of the high thunder risk later in the week I may have to go QRT though, which will be a pity. Hopefully this will be a short break only.

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

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