June 26-27
Event Contest starts at 10am PT(1800 UTC) Saturday till 12:59pm PT(2059 UTC) Sunday
(Plan “A” Location: Cedar Creek Park, Eastvale, CA)
Excitement is in the air and we are in the planning phase working towards Field Day 2021. This year we have chosen a location in the city of Eastvale. If all arrangements with the city prevail, we will secure Cedar Creek Park as our location to host this years event. For more information about what Field Day is all about, check the ARRL website HERE.
Our Saturday “In The Park” March 6th 2021 Practicing for Field Day 2021:
6709 Cedar Creek Rd., Eastvale, CA 92880 “MAP”
We are closely watching all updates of State and County restrictions due to the Covid 19 pandemic. Our goal is to keep our members safe and in compliance with all ordinances. In light of this, we may experience changes in the following months ahead. In the meantime, plans for Field Day 2021 is ongoing. More information and details will be forthcoming soon. Check back periodically for updates.
In GOTAhams short history we have operated two “ARRL Field Day” events, we have learned many things, had some great successes and stumbled in grand fashion in some areas but as always have learned from each of our mistakes. One glaring example of that is how we have had RFI interference between our stations and limited our transmit time to avoid ruining contacts on our adjacent stations. With Transceivers and antennas so close together it is difficult to avoid these issues. We were certain that other “Multi radio – Multi operator” stations and clubs experienced these same problems, upon researching this it was found that “Band Pass Filtering” was the common solution. Guide to Band pass filters.
GOTAhams “Field Day committee” made a group decision and commitment to purchase several Band Pass filters for use during club sanctioned contests/events for multi-station operation. Many members volunteered to sponsor this purchase and offset the cost to club coffers. Several Club members plan on doing some field testing of these recently acquired filters to get some hands on experience in the proper use of these devices.
The items purchased are as follows: Low Band Systems (LBS) bought through DXengineering: 2ea. 14 mhz filters, 1ea. 21 mhz filter, 2ea. 7 mhz filters, 2ea. 3.5 mhz filters.The committee has outlined a very ambitious Field Day operation for 2021, these filters are essential to the successful multi station plan.
For those of you that plan on operating a station, most will be Yeasu FT991A and Icom IC-7300 transceivers. there are some resources to learn more about these radios on the Field Day 2019 page on this website, Scroll down the page to the Icom and Yaesu videos and Documentation links: Field Day 2019
Our planning stages will quickly move to assigning “Captains” to each station, known as “band Captains” but truly station captains will be responsible for all aspects of a single station. these are the Key players in our field day success, responsibilities include: not actually acquiring but at least finding and reserving all the components of a fully functional field station including:
- pop-up with two side covers
- hold down stakes & weights with tie-down straps
- Table & Chairs
- Grounding rod, cable, buss bar, jumpers
- power system, battery, charger, solar, distribution etc. Low and High voltage
- Transceiver, with spare fuses, manual/documentation, microphone
- Documentation/Manuals for all station equipment
- antenna tuner, Sound card interface (if needed)
- Coax, from antenna, Jumpers, Dummy load, SWR meter
- Band pass filter(s)
- Headsets, headset amp/distribution
- laptop for Digital modes and/or Logging
- paper, pens, markers, highlighters
- Clock, possibly two (One set to UTC time for logging)
- Information board (list and photo to come)
- Basic tools, zip ties, ratchet straps, bungees, tape (Duct, painters, gaffers)
- Basic first aid kit, hand Sanitizer, extra face masks, sunscreen, insect repellent
- Lighting for night work
- Cooler with ice, water, drinks, snacks? etc.
I am certain I missed something in this list, by Field Day we may have it all worked out? or we’ll create another “Learning opportunity” (c;