And They Are Off and Running

W1SYE Winter Field Day is off and running.  Things were delayed a bit by black ice and closed bridges, but everything was ready when the event began at 2 PM.  There are two stations:  A Fone Station that will be on the air for the full 24 hours, and a CW or Digital mode station that will swap in/out depending on activity.  We had a satellite station on-air for a single contact (all that is allowed) in the afternoon.

Things are still going on tomorrow through 2 PM.

Willy W1LY used his pneumatic cannon to get two dipole antennas up in the trees for WFD 2018

Conditions were warm for winter (about 50 degrees) but very windy — Even so, it’s going to be cold at night!

Conditions were great — This is a map of the coverage of our 20 meter signals

Great 40 meter coverage into Europe

Satellite Station (used for a single contact) — antenna visible out the side window

Good Signal Levels on 80 meters tonight!

Need Volunteers for Winter Field Day

We are in need for a lead for the Phone Tent, as well as operators willing to remain at the location overnight (so the gear can remain).  In addition we would like to accommodate anyone who would like to try their hand at operating on HF.  Please contact John King WA1ABI (wa1abi at cox.net)

Meeting Monday Jan 8 at 7 PM

Happy New Year!

Our first meeting of 2018 will be this coming Monday at KVH (75 Enterprise DR, Middletown RI) at 7 PM

We have 19 new member applicants and upcoming Winter Field Day to discuss, in addition to regular business items. Our program after the meeting will be a showing of the NOVA film “Secrets of the Sun” (about 50 minutes long).

Hope to see everyone there.

Join the Chase: 2018 International Grid Chase

Don’t forget that for all of 2018, the ARRL is sponsoring an International Grid Chase.  Hams all over the globe will be looking to work as many different grid squares as possible.  Here in RI, our grid square is FN41.  From an ARRL Post:

“The objective of the ARRL International Grid Chase is simple: Work stations in as many grid squares as possible and upload your log data to ARRL’s Logbook of The World. If you are not currently registered with Logbook of The World, this is a good reason to get started. Go to https://lotw.arrl.org/lotw-help/getting-started/. Registration and uploading are free.

Every new grid square contact confirmed through Logbook of The World counts toward your monthly total, so you have an incentive to start the chase as soon as you ring in the New Year.”

If you have a LotW account you can check your score here (while updated several times a day it is not real-time)