WCARES Field Day 2023 & Tape Measure Yagi build photos


WCARES Field Day 2023 – Update 2 HamDash, 2nd SSB, GOTA, Tape Measure YAGI

Update 2  – be sure to check out the introduction to HamDash in Paul’s June Monthly Meeting video.

Update – we have added:

  • a second SSB station so there are additional time slots available and
  • a GOTA station so bring your family and friends.

And: Build an antenna for Fox Hunting June 24th

During Field Day, at the Public Safety Center. Dave Matthews (KI4PSR) will be hosting a “Tape Measure Yagi” antenna-building exercise. Tape-measure Yagi antennas are great for Fox Hunting events. If you would like to participate in this kit build please get in touch with Dave.

Dave will have kits for the first dozen participants. The cost is anticipated to be around $28 for the parts. Please bring cash to pay Dave for the parts.

The Antennas will be great to have for the upcoming WCARES Fox Hunt later this year. Fox hunt participants do not need to be licensed to the antennas as it is a receive-only event. So this is a great way to get kids, XLS, XYLS and friends to participate.

Field Day is always the fourth full weekend of June, beginning at 1800 UTC / 1300 CDT Saturday and running through 2059 UTC / 1259 CDT Sunday.

Field Day 2023 is June 24-25.

Again this year, we will be operating from the EOC for SSB and CW or your QTH or other designated location for any Digital mode in order to minimize interference on the bands.

And again we’ll use the aggregate scoring as WCARES-TN.

For all the details please read the WCARES Field Day Rules for 2023 which you can find here. This document includes the link to sign up for an operator slot or slots! at the EOC for CW and/or SSB.

Be sure to also read the ARRL new rules which you can find here along with everything else about Field Day here.


June 2023 In-Person & Virtual Monthly Meeting: Field Day, HamDash and digital troubleshooting

Paul KM4PT discussed Field Day and along with Cliff N4CCB introduced the group to HamDash:

Troubleshooting Digital Modes
Hoop K9QJS presents a framework for solving problems with digital modes… which can encompass operating system, soundcard, transceiver, and software issues.

If you’ve ever had your system working perfectly only to have it fail for some mysterious reason, this presentation is for you!

A PDF of his presentation is available here and the video is here (Recorded on June 17th, 2023 at the monthly WCARES meeting):


WCARES Field Day 2023

Field Day is always the fourth full weekend of June, beginning at 1800 UTC / 1300 CDT Saturday and running through 2059 UTC / 1259 CDT Sunday.

Field Day 2023 is June 24-25.

Again this year, we will be operating from the EOC for SSB and CW or your QTH or other designated location for any Digital mode in order to minimize interference on the bands.

And again we’ll use the aggregate scoring as WCARES-TN.

For all the details please read the WCARES Field Day Rules for 2023 which you can find here. This document includes the link to sign up for an operator slot or slots! at the EOC for CW and/or SSB.

Be sure to also read the ARRL new rules which you can find here along with everything else about Field Day here.


WCARES Field Day 2022 – change of location

Note the change of location – now Public Safety Center (EOC) and home

Out of concern over the currently forecast high temperatures, the decision has been made to move this years WCARES Field Day back to the Public Safety Center for SSB and CW and at-home (for digital.)

Note that set-up will not happen until 8 AM on Saturday morning.

If you did not sign up because of weather conditions now is a good time to sign up for air conditioned spaces!

WCARES Field Day information can be found here.

To sign up and participate with WCARES click here.

There are still lots of openings for Phone, Digital and CW Operators.

Look for more details to follow here on the website, WCARES Notes and the Monday night net.

If you have other questions please contact Paul Tampien KM4PT (KM4PT@arrl.net) .


Field Day 2021 in pictures

Another WCARES Field Day is in the books. After a long period of only virtual events we were able to enjoy a limited in-person Field Day at the EOC in addition to members operating at home or in the field.

The pictures were provided by Josh N4CSV, Robert KA5WMF, Doug W4DML, Cliff N4CCB and Phil W4PHS.


June 2021 Monthly Meeting at the EOC: Field Day Plan and Shack Tour #12 – WCARES EOC

The June 2021 WCARES Monthly Meeting was in-person at the EOC.

Cliff Batson (N4CCB) gave a presentation on the final plan for the WCARES Field Day 2021 event:

and Jack Cox (KA4OTB) gave a tour of the Auxiliary Communications room inside the Williamson County Public Safety Center:


Field Day 2020 Results are in!

As you read in a recent WCARES Notes, our EC Ed Hudgens, WB4RHQ had exciting news:

“The results are in the Dec QST and WCARES wound up 5th in the country with 26.7K points. The winner, not that it was a contest, had over 45K. The others were slightly above us.”

The December QST ( http://www.arrl.org/qst ) should be in your hands now and includes a summary of the scores starting on page 69 (the digital edition of QST and the ARRL Field Day Page at http://field-day.arrl.org have the full listings.)

You can find a list of WCARES entries at http://field-day.arrl.org/fdentriesrcvd.php under

Williamson County (TN) ARES

Try Sort by Club Name to seem them grouped togther and be sure to check out the Soapbox section http://field-day.arrl.org/fdsoapbox.php to see comments and photographs from the day, including by our own Jeff, WB5WAJ!


July 2020 Virtual Monthly Meeting (Update) – Field Day, GRLevel3 and more

This past Saturday, Cliff, N4CCB hosted the WCARES Virtual Monthly Meeting. The agenda was:

ARES Task Book – member progress update by Ed Hudgens (WB4RHQ)
Field Day recap by Cliff Batson (N4CCB)
GRLevel3 Presentation by Adam DeLand (W8IFG)
First Virtual Ham Shack Tour by Cliff Batson (N4CCB)

ARES Task Book & Field Day Recap: https://youtu.be/kdIGymaG0jg

Ed provided an update on the progress of members who are pursuing the ARES Task Book and Cliff and provided a recap of this year’s unique Field Day event that saw WCARES members participating while social distancing. The ARRL introduced waivers for this year allowing home stations (Class D) to work other home stations and to allow for aggregating individual scores as a “club score”.

Adam’s GRLevel3 presentation to WCARES: https://youtu.be/yoTVI9PhvUc

Adam, W8IFG gave a detailed presentation on GRLevel3 http://grlevelx.com/grlevel3_2/, with particular emphasis on expanded functionality using shapefiles and placefiles. Adam demonstrated various use cases like adding route and rest stop information to the map for a cycling event like Jack and Back and adding more detailed local street layers or feeds of dynamic information such as APRS beacons for weather spotters. Adam has another longer presentation and demonstration done last year for DCARES: https://youtu.be/knHRLZQ_N78 .

Virtual Ham Shack Tour by N4CCB: https://youtu.be/UqUdav1yp4Y

Cliff wrapped up the meeting with the first virtual shack tour, giving us a tour of his second floor radio shack. Cliff talked about his limited but effective HF antenna situation, his solutions for running coax from the shack and what gear he has set up on his radio desk. Cliff enjoys operating portable and likes using a simple wire antenna such as those from SOTABEAMS ( https://www.sotabeams.co.uk/antennas/ ). During the discussion Tim, AD4CJ recommended the https://www.sotamaps.org/extras HF Linked Dipole Antenna Designer tool.

Cliff also talked about his mag-mount VHF/UHF antenna on a filing cabinet and this led to some discussion of VHF/UHF antenna solutions, particularly those which can be used indoors or in antenna-restricted environments. Bob, AK4RO and Mark, KA4BKA both like the PVC or the rollup versions of Ed Fong WB6IQN’s antennas ( https://edsantennas.weebly.com/ ) while Paul, WD9IOK has some ingenious solutions for antennas in the attic of his house. As Paul pointed out, there is no wind load in your attic and he used 1 1/4″ or 1 1/2″ pipe threaded into a flange mounted on a 1×10 x 32″ board and anchored to the attic beams to make a small platform. And Tim mentioned the Ventenna solution from https://www.ventenna.com/ .

Ed will be doing the Virtual Shack tour next month with tours by other WCARES members to follow.

Some of Paul’s attic setup:


Winter Field Day 2020 – N4FR took 7th place!

Results are in and N4FR took 7th place in the Outdoor category with a calculated score of 24815! You can find all the results here:

https://www.winterfieldday.com/wfd-2020

Congratulations to everyone who took part!

Another Winter Field Day is done – thank’s to all who participated!

And thanks to Jon, Cliff and Ed for the photographs included below:

Photos of setup from Jon, KK4AIZ:

Photos from Cliff, N4CCB:

Photos from Ed, KN4TIX: