FIELD DAY 2017 IS HERE!

The Decatur Amateur Radio Club will participate in its 64th consecutive Field Day contest on Saturday and Sunday, June 24th and 25th. We have once again reserved the picnic shelter behind the main stage at Point Mallard Park in Decatur. We will be monitoring the 147.00 repeater so we can answer questions or give directions.

We will begin the setup between 8:00 and 9:00 on Saturday morning and begin radio operations at 1:00. For the following 24 hours we will attempt to contact as many stations as possible using up to 4 radio stations. Then on Sunday afternoon we will take everything apart and celebrate a fun outing.

Come out and help us, visit with us, or even use one of the radios for a short while. We’d love the company!

See you at Field Day!!

The June meeting of the Decatur Amateur Radio Club will be held at Libby’s Catfish and Diner at 6:00 on Tuesday evening, June 6th, at 6:00. Libby’s is located on Highway 67 in Priceville to the east of I-65.  Just follow Highway 67 until you get to the top of Priceville Mountain.  Libby’s is on the right.

During and/or after our meal we will be discussing our plans for the club’s 64th Field Day exercise on June 24th and 25th.

The July meeting will likely be cancelled, since the first Tuesday of July is the 4th, and most of us will have other things planned for the holiday.

The August meeting will be held at the Morgan County Courthouse as regularly scheduled.

Come greet, eat, and meet with us on Tuesday! And make your plans for Field Day later this month!

The score and documentation for the 2016 Field Day operation have been posted to the ARRL for scoring.  We actually scored a little better this year than last year.

Here’s the breakdown:

Number of participants:  31

CW contacts:            166
Digital contacts:        88 (all by GOTA)
Phone contacts:        335 (includes 12 GOTA SSB contacts)

QSO points – CW:       166 x 2 =        332
QSO points – Digital:   88 X 2 =        176
QSO points – Phone:   335 x 1 =        335

Total QSO points = 843

Power multiplier:      150 watts or less = QSO x 2

Claimed QSO score =                     1,686

Bonus points:

200 points – 100% Emergency power
100 points – Alternate (solar) power – 5 contacts
100 points – Set-up in Public Place
100 points – Information Table
100 points – Site Visit by Invited Elected Official
80 points – GOTA bonus
50 points – Online entry form submission

Total bonus points =                        730

Total submitted score:       2,416 points
(66 points MORE than last year)

Here are a few interesting observations:

• We had 40 more CW contacts this year than in 2015 (THANK YOU Byron, N4AX!!!).
• We had 40 fewer phone contacts on the main stations than last year.
• We had 88 digital contacts on the GOTA station this year (2 points each).
• We only had 12 phone contacts on the GOTA station this year. Last year was 145 total GOTA contacts, all phone (1 point each).
• We get 80 bonus points because 4 operators of the GOTA station each got 20 or more contacts.
• We do not get any media publicity points this year. The Decatur Daily and the cable company were not contacted.
• We were not visited by an invited agency official.
• We were visited by an invited city council member but no other invited city or county officials.
• We get 100 bonus points for making more than 5 contacts with solar power.

All in all it was a great outing, and I think everyone involved had a great time.

Now, wait till next year!!!

Field Day 2016 is coming up shortly. The Decatur Amateur Radio Club will operate from the picnic shelter behind the main Spirit of America stage at the Point Mallard Park in Decatur. We plan to have 2 main stations, a 6-meter station, and a GOTA station operating all 24 hours.

The club meeting for June will be held at 6:00 on Tuesday evening, June 7th, at Libby’s Catfish and Diner on Highway 67 in Priceville.  We will meet together, eat together, and then make our major plans for the Field Day operation.  All are welcome to come to both the meeting and the Field Day activity.

Hope to see you there!

The ARRL has posted the Field Day 2015 results on the website.  They will be printed in the December issue of QST magazine.

Once again, this wasn’t our club’s best showing.  But we DID make a great effort, as always!

Here’s the breakdown:

– Out of 2,720 entries overall, W4ATD was #769.

– Out of 209 entries in the SE Division, W4ATD was #79.

– Out of 44 entries in the AL Section, W4ATD was #16.

– Out of 391 Class 2A entries overall, W4ATD was #159.

– Out of 30 Class 2A entries in the SE Division, W4ATD was #16.

– Out of 6 Class 2A entries in the AL Section, W4ATD was #3.

Looks like we had a mid-range showing.  Again.  But we did have a bit more competition this time.

Let’s be better next year! June 25th and 26th will be Field Day 2016!

The database can be found at http://www.arrl.org/results-database?event_id=68929.

The scoring is complete, all of the bonus documentation has been collected and is being submitted, and Field Day is over for another year.

At least, until the scoring summary is published in QST Magazine in November or December.

Here’s the rundown on the club’s submitted score:

Number of participants: 23

CW contacts:            126  (THANKS Byron N4AX!!!!!)
Digital contacts:        0
Phone contacts:       508 (includes 145 GOTA contacts)

QSO points:

126 x 2 =        252
363 x 1 =        363
145 x 1 =        145

Total QSO points =                          760

Power multiplier:      150 watts or less = QSO x 2

Claimed QSO score =                     1,520

Bonus points:

200 points – 100% Emergency power
100 points – Media Publicity
100 points – Set-up in Public Place
100 points – Information Table
100 points – Site Visit by Invited Elected Official
100 points – Site Visit by Invited Served Agency Official
80 points – GOTA bonus
50 points – online entry form submission

Total bonus points =                        830

Total submitted score:       2,350 points

(38 points less than last year)

Photos taken by Richard KB4CAY, by Bob K4MLR, and by Craig KJ4LAA have been posted to the club’s Flickr account.  If you happen to have a photo or two of Field Day that you’d like posted in the album, e-mail it to the secretary and they’ll get included.  Here’s the address to look at the pretty (NOT!!) pictures:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/darc_w4atd/albums

Thanks again to everyone who participated in any way!  Please be thinking already about next June.

NOTE:  Post edited to correct error by fat-fingered typist who left out 100 CW contacts.  Apologies and thanks to N4AX for pointing it out!

It’s that time of year that we all really look forward to:

FIELD DAY!

The Decatur Amateur Radio Club will hold its 62nd Field Day event at the usual location: the picnic shelter behind the Spirit of America Stage at Point Mallard Park in Decatur, Alabama.

Set will begin around 9:00 on Saturday morning, June 27th. The contest begins at 1:00 and continues for 24 hours. Then we clean up, lick our wounds (which will hopefully be few!), and tally up the score for submission to the ARRL.

Last year was a pretty good effort (see the previous post for details), but there is certainly room for improvement. There are already several newcomers who have expressed an interest. If you are reading this and are curious about ham radio, or if you are now or have been a ham and would like to get on the air (GOTA – there will be a special station for that!!), then come out and join us at Point Mallard on Saturday or Sunday.

Field Day 2015. See you there!!!

• Out of 2,686 entries overall, W4ATD was #761.
• Out of 195 entries in the SE Division, W4ATD was #69.
• Out of 26 entries in the AL Section, W4ATD was #12.

• Out of 392 Class 2A entries overall, W4ATD was #157.
• Out of 33 Class 2A entries in the SE Division, W4ATD was #14.
• Out of 5 Class 2A entries in the AL Section, W4ATD was #2.

Field Day is over a month gone, and some of us are just now recovering from the long weekend.  Special thanks to the club’s Vice-President, Craig – KJ4LAA, who put in a 28-hour all-day/all-night effort to help make Field Day (mostly) successful.

Our overall attendance was higher than before, but we had fewer contacts to show for it.  We had visits from Morgan County EMA director Eddie Hicks, Morgan County Commission Chairman Ray Long, County Commissioner for District 2 Randy Vest, and State Representative Terry Collins (who made a contact on the GOTA station!).

We had 148 contacts on CW and 483 contacts on phone (including 135 from the GOTA station).  Our QSO score was 1,558.  Bonus points add an additional 830 points to the total, for a submitted score of 2,388.  This is approximately 300 points less than last year’s effort, but still not terrible for the group we have.

Now we wait for November or December when the ARRL posts the final results.

And then . . .

Wait till next year!!!  June 27th and 28th will be the dates.  Reserve them now!!

Photos are posted on Flickr (click here).