Ham Radio Field Day 2008

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Ham Radio
• Date: Jul 17,2008

A few weeks ago was the Field Day for Amateur Radio operators throughout Canada and the United States.  Field Day, basically, is a contest for Ham Radio operators about who can get the most amount of confirmed contacts within a 24 hour period using only temporary installations.

This is how the Wikipedia describes the field day :

Field Day is an annual amateur radio exercise, widely sponsored by IARU regions and member organizations, encouraging emergency communications preparedness among amateur radio operators. In the United States, it is typically the largest single emergency preparedness exercise in the country, with over 30,000 operators participating each year.

Since the first ARRL Field Day in 1933, radio amateurs throughout North America have practiced the rapid deployment of radio communications equipment in environments ranging from operations under tents in remote areas to operations inside Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs). Operations using emergency and alternative power sources are highly encouraged, since electricity and other public infrastructures are often among the first to fail during a natural disaster or severe weather.

To determine the effectiveness of the exercise and of each participant’s operations, there is an integrated contesting component, and many clubs also engage in concurrent leisure activities (camping out, cookouts, etc.). Operations typically last a continuous twenty-four hours, requiring scheduled relief operators to keep stations on the air. Additional contest points are awarded for experimenting with unusual modes, making contacts via satellite, and involving youth in the activity.

In the past field day’s that i’ve been involved in, this meant setting up in a field.  We put up huge shelters and powered everything with Generators. We installed temporary towers and masts to hold our antenna’s.  The last field day I went to (almost 10 years ago!) we had about 2 HF Voice stations, 2 HF Morse Code Stations, a Satellite Station, and a Packet Radio Station. There were always LOTS of people present during the 24 hour period.  We even had a cooking station to make food for all the operators !

This year was different.  Originally we were supposed to have 1 morse code station and 1 HF Voice station, although we ended up only having the 1 HF Voice station because the operators who were supposed to operate the morse stations had prior engagements.  Also, our station was setup INSIDE the cabin of the park we were in.  So we had a REAL shelter and even electricity ! (I think we get less points during the contest because of this)

We were about 6 or 7 people that were there to setup the antenna’s, but most of the people left within just an hour or two of the contest starting !! Only Jeannot (VE2ION) and I (VE2RIF) were left to man the HF station until the next morning !!

We were generally 2 at the HF station at all times.  One person to do the talking, and the other to log the contacts and help the other decipher the foreign contact’s callsign and field day code.  At around 2 in the morning, Jeannot and I decided to go take a nap.  We were both exhausted and there was no sign of “backup” operators coming.  So we went to our cars and slept for about 3 hours.  (Well I slept for 3, Jeannot slept for 2)  Eventually, (around 9am) other people came to the field day and I was able to get a few other operators on the radio so that I could take a break.  I left for home at around 11 (just 2 hours before the contest ends) since there were now enough operators to keep the station going and take down the antenna’s after.  Jeannot stayed there the entire time ! I have no clue how he did it !

I had planned on staying there for the whole event, but I had no idea I would be one of the only operators !  I expected to spend more time standing behind the operators and chatting with other Ham’s, and MAYBE have the chance to do some contesting of my own.  It turned out to be quite the opposide, but I must admit in a way it was a good thing.  I’ve never had so much time to talk on HF Radio and I really enjoyed it !

I didn’t have time to take many pictures since I was on the radio most of the time, but I got some that I took and some that other tooks and made a mini video slideshow that can be seen below :

A big thank you to THE HAM BAND (www.hamband.com) for giving me permission to use their song in the background of this video.  If you would like to hear more, they have an entire ALBUM of HAM RADIO SONGS !!

Thanks for Reading TechieNATION’s Ham Radio Field Day article ! Feel free to email me at digitalmind (AT) techienation (DOT) com if you want any more details or a high quality version of the above video!

73’s de VE2RIF