Category Archives: Field Day

NCRC Meeting Mon July 12 at 7 PM

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NCRC will be having our regular monthly meeting via ZOOM on Monday July 12 starting at 7 PM.  Members will be receiving an invitation via email.  If you would like to attend as a guest, please contact WB4SON at gmail.com

In addition to the regular business items, we will have some preliminary results for Field Day. Our guest speaker will be Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, who will give a presentation entitled “Programs Helping Hams and Young People to Develop New Skills and Get on The Air”.  Fred is the current president of the Nashua Area Radio Society (voted best club in America for 2019).  He is also a technical mentor for ARISS, and a strong believer in education.  Fred is running for the ARRL New England Director position this fall.

Work NE1RI on 2m & 70cm Simplex For Points

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The Newport County Radio Club VHF station will be on 2-meter Simplex 146.52 MHz Saturday June 27 at 7:30 PM, and will switch over to 70-cm Simplex 446.000 MHz at 8:00 PM.  Anyone wishing to help the club with some Field Day points is encouraged to dust off your handheld radios and give it a try. You could expect to hear something like:

CQ Field Day, this is NE1RI

At which point you would respond with your callsign like this:

NE1RI this is WB4SON

Assuming they hear you, the club station would reply with their exchange “2 Alpha RI” (Two transmitters in the field with auxiliary power):

WB4SON  2 Alpha RI

And you would give your exchange “1 Delta RI” (one transmitter at home) in response:

NE1RI 1 Delta RI, 73 from WB4SON

If you happen to have a BaoFeng UV5R that was programmed by the club (there are 100+ members with that radio), then use Channel 10, which is 146.52 MHz, or Channel 13, which is 446.000 MHz

Note you don’t have to send in a log or even keep one unless you want to.  Besides generating a few points for the club, this is a great way to know your gear is working.

VHF Traffic Net for Field Day

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NE1RI will be holding a NTS Traffic Net at 18:00 local time on Saturday June 27 on the W1SYE Repeater during Field Day for the purposes of passing Bonus Point messages.  Usually a single message is passed to the RI Section Manager Bob Beaudet W1YRC, and ten messages can be sent to anyone else.  NCS will be NE1RI, with an alternate of WB4SON.

N1CKT will be NCS on the regular Thursday W1SYE net at 7:00 PM, and will do a practice session for those interested after the regular net clears.

The standard ARRL Message Form should be used and a fillable copy is available by clicking on this link.

Chuck says the following YouTube video explains the process quite well:

 

Applicable Field Day 2020 Rules for message bonuses are:

7.3.5. Message Origination to Section Manager: 100 bonus points for origination of a formal message to the ARRL Section Manager or Section Emergency Coordinator by your group from its site. You should include the club name, number of participants, Field Day location, and number of ARES operators involved with your station. The message must be transmitted during the Field Day period and a copy of it must be included in your submission in standard ARRL radiogram or no credit will be given. The message must leave or enter the Field Day operation via amateur radio RF.

The Section Manager message is separate from the messages handled in Rule 7.3.6. and may not be claimed for bonus points under that rule. Available to all Classes.

 7.3.6. Message Handling: 10 points for each formal message originated, relayed or received and delivered during the Field Day period, up to a maximum of 100 points (ten messages). Copies of each message must be included with the Field Day report. The message to the ARRL SM or SEC under Rule 7.3.5. does not count towards the total of 10 for this bonus. Available to all Classes. All messages claimed for bonus points must leave or enter the Field Day operation via amateur radio RF.

 

Field Day at Home

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Newport County Radio Club will be participating in Field Day at Glen Park this year as in all years past, however, due to the pandemic, it has changed from a large social event to a strict operating only event.  CW, Phone, and VHF operations will go on as usual with a strict one person per station rule.  If you are interested in operating please contact Willy W1LY@cox.net and let him know.

For those of us who are staying at home out of concern for COVID-19, you can still participate in Field Day personally, and help the club out as well.  The ARRL has modified the rules to make it easier to operate your home station using your OWN CALL as “1D” (Home) or “1E” (Home Emergency Power).  See the Field Day Rules for more details.  You can even work NE1RI (NCRC’s Field Day Station) on the air for points!  When you submit your log to the ARRL, please enter “Newport County Radio Club” in the “Club or Group Name” box.

Many people chose to do electronic logging, and N3FJP’s Field Day Log is what is used by NCRC for our contests. Those choosing to operate CW may prefer to use N1MM+.  And as always, paper logs are fine too (you submit a list of calls worked on each band/mode).

Don’t forget the various bonus points which quickly add up for small stations.  See the rules for a complete list, but the bonus items listed below add up to 750 points:

  • 7.3.1 Emergency Power (for “1E”) 100 points
  • 7.3.2 Local Media Publicity (send an article to the Patch, for example)
  • 7.3.3 Section Manager Message (Bob W1YRC listening on 145.170 repeater)
  • 7.3.6 Ten outbound NTS messages
  • 7.3.8 Alternative Power (battery charged by solar/wind, etc)
  • 7.3.9 Copying the ARRL Field Day Bulletin Friday night
  • 7.3.14 Submitting your entry via the web
  • 7.3.16 Social Media

We hope you can still enjoy Field Day at home and help out the club too!