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!

Willy W1LY and Paul AC1DW gathered material for the event early, avoiding the rain on Thursday, and setup mostly avoided rain on Friday afternoon.  By late Saturday morning generators were humming quietly (very quietly, the birds were louder), tents were up, and people were making RF to stake out their spots before the 2 PM starting bell.

That starting bell was short-lived as a Thunder/Lightning/Hail storm passed over Glen Park at 2:30, followed by two more storms (another with hail).  Operation resumed around 5:30 PM . So it was a slow start for sure.  Nevertheless things got rolling after an excellent early meal supplied by Ed and Brian, and cheers were often heard coming from the GOTA tent as visitors made their first HF contacts.

Weather was much nicer after the storms passed early Saturday evening, bringing cool temps and low humidity overnight.  By 2 PM Sunday, when the final bell rang, it was up to the mid-80s with gentle breezes and low humidity — perfect take down weather.  By 4:30 the final tower (VHF/UHF) was coming down, and all the others had been loaded on top of Willy’s van.  Expectation is it will be a ghost town (the park) by 5 PM.

CW Beam on left with Moxon and the GOTA beam on the right

Left tower supports GOTA 80/40 dipole and moxon to the middle tower with SSB beam. Rightmost tower is VHF/UHF station (6m/2m beam)

Satellite station (Icom 910H for RF, SatPC32 controlling Doppler and Az/El rotor)

Satellite Antenna after setup at 11 — Note clear skies

Same view out onto the field as first storm hail storm approaches about 2:30 PM on Saturday

Hand model Rob KA1ZZU shows melting hail from first hail storm.

Newly licensed ham Ryan KC1KUF, doing great in the GOTA tent (3 Qs a minute rate). Can’t wait for Ryan to get his General. (John K1JSM logging to his right, and Paul, K1YBE coaching to his left)