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Here we go and welcome to... Good evening, everyone.
It's HamTalk Live, episode number 217, Field
Day Q &A 2020, recorded live on Thursday, June
18th, 2020. I'm your host, Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of HamTalk
Live. Tonight, we're joined by Paul Bork N1SFE
and we'll be talking about field day and he's
going to take your field day questions and we'll
give you a chance to call in in just a few minutes.
Last week it was Sterling N0SSC and Jocelyn KD8VRX
here to talk about the summer youth on the air
events. If you missed that show you can listen
anytime at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite
podcast or over on YouTube. And don't forget,
you can catch the rebroadcast of HamTalk Live
each week, Saturday afternoons about 3 .30 PM
Eastern time on WTWW 5085 AM. So tonight we want
to get your field day questions in and we are
a week earlier than normal we usually do the
last -minute ones, but there's a lot of questions
this year just because there are some rule changes
and we're gonna start off with that and Then
we'll get into some other things and your calls
and questions. So let me tell you how you can
do that If you're listening to us live on Thursday
night, you can call us. The phone number is 859
-982 -7373. Again, it's 859 -982 -7373. You can
call in when we get to that part of the show.
We won't take calls just yet. But when I let
you know, that's the number to call. It's 859
-982 -7373. You can tweet us. We'll be watching
Twitter throughout the night. Our handle on Twitter
is at HamTalk Live. So you can tweet us whenever
you want and it'll sit there until we're ready
for you. So you can do it that way. And if you're
on Spreaker, of course, you can type into the
comments and do it that way. So I'll be back
with Paul right after this word from ICOM America
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cheese. You're listening to HamTalk Live with
Neil Rapp. Be sure to visit ICOM at icomamerica
.com slash amateur. They help bring HamTalk Live
your way each and every week on Thursday evenings
9 p .m. Eastern Time at hamtalklive .com. Tonight
my guest is ARRL contest program manager Paul
Bork in one SFE. Paul has just completed his
first full year in that role. He's been licensed
since 1994 and, like me, he listened for distant
AM stations quite a bit and later developed a
career involving various aspects of broadcasting.
And he started at a broadcast station at the
University of Parkford. where the station's general
manager John Ramsey W1JNR pushed him to get his
license. He grew up in Newington and wanted the
opportunity to give back to this hobby and he
likes to find ways to get newer hams into contest
and dispel the idea you need tons and tons and
tons of equipment to participate. So Paul, welcome
back to the show from that location for the last
time. Yeah, I think thanks for it. Thanks for
having me Neil. Yeah, it's very exciting I just
bought a house so I'm in the process of moving
so of course, you know moving over field day
weekend That's the best time to move right? especially
if you're you're like It's time to taking care
of field day It's The timing couldn't be any
better Yeah, oh my goodness well It's been an
absolute crazy year. Life has been turned upside
down on so many different levels. And even in
April, you know, when people said, Oh, well,
what's going to happen with field day? What are
we going to do with? with field day we're still
gonna do it and and wasn't long and then all
of a sudden is like oh we're still having field
day it just may look a little different and then
some rule changes happened and that seems to
be a lot of the questions I'm getting and talking
with you before the show it seems to be a lot
of the questions you're getting so let's start
off right off the bat with these new changes
that are just for this year because of the pandemic.
Well, I just want to say early on, we weren't
quite sure where this was going because when
we first started getting the stuff ready for
field day, that was back in February. And early
on, we weren't quite sure what was going to happen
with everything. And stuff had to get published
in QSC. Of course, we had publication deadlines,
which are set out quite far. So we weren't quite
sure exactly how everything was going to pan
out. early on we went with the adapts and uh...
that battle battle messaging uh... very early
on but back in late may the programs and services
committee had uh... agreed to uh... to make a
couple of changes which you just reference and
uh... one of those was uh... the big one was
since we're encouraging participants to uh...
uh... participate from home if they can't get
together due to social social distancing they
would be operating from home as either a Class
D Delta or Class E Echo stations. And Class D
normally cannot count contacts for field day
with other Class D stations. In other words,
that would be two home stations working on commercial
power. It'd be like your normal ham shack at
home. It'd be like just a normal home -to -home
contact. Normally those don't count for field
day point credit. This year, this year only we
are allowing those contacts to count for field
day points. So there's going to be a lot more
class D operations we would expect. Because a
lot of people are going to be operating from
home and they're going to be running class D
and so normally you could only work Other classes
you couldn't work the class D because it was
we didn't want a home -to -home thing But but
this year is different. We're trying to really
kind of differentiate, you know field day of
course is not a contest where we're trying to
differentiate it from a normal event where people
just get off of their homes and work each other
and you know really field days is a slightly
different animal than you know, then most amateur
radio contests seeing as it is a not a contest
there are points i think you know the points
really me one of the questions i get a lot of
you know is well if it's not a contest why are
there points it encourages participation and
also some groups like you know some groups have
a little friendly competitions with their neighboring
clubs or you know clubs across the country even
uh... you know so some of them do do make it
into a competition a little like a friendly competition
or even It could be something to gauge your performance
from year to year. So that's really the only,
you know, that's really the only reason why there
are points. Now there was a common saying around
the teaching field whenever, you know, the pandemic
was going on that it was kind of like, whose
line is it anyway? You know, the points are made
up and they don't matter. So anyway, so class
D to class D contacts can count for credit. And
you're right, there will probably be a lot more
just all around entries to field aid this year.
Because last year we had about 3 ,100 distinct
field day entries that were submitted. And with
all the class D to class D, we were expecting
that number to be a bit higher. Because a lot
of the participants that would have gotten together
in a you know a class a or a class f you know
a big group will all be getting together separately
well not getting together but they'll be separate
but they'll they'll be able to participate individually
from their own homes so that's going to drive
the numbers up i i would expect so and so to
kind of simplify this let me make sure i'm i'm
correct here in saying this so if i'm not correct
me if i'm wrong But there are no restrictions
on who you work during field day this year, no
matter what class you are. Exactly. That is 100
% correct. All right. Well, then there's the
club thing. So why don't you go ahead and address
the club situation. OK. So what they decide to
do is instead of, you know, people can't get
together as a big club, what we're allowing is
Individual participants, like if you or I participated
using our own call signs from our homes, we can
declare a club name in the entry form. This is
on the online entry form. And our score would
be attributed to what they call an aggregate
club score. It's not going to go towards a field
day entry under the club call sign. It's going
to go, there will be a list of club names. And
if anyone's familiar with the way we do club
scoring for contests, basically what happens
is individual participant scores all the participants
will get counted towards the club score and it
will just add up a club score so we're doing
something very similar to that so what you will
see is you will see like like say neil you and
i were both participating in the same as the
same club from our homes you'd see a listing
for my call sign under whatever class i operated
like say i operated mobile so i was a class c
and you operate as a class D because you were
home. Your score would show up under your call
sign as class D with the club name that you that
you entered into the field day form. My score
would show up under the class C scores because
I was class C mobile with the club name and then
there will be a listing under the club with the
scores of Mine in yours and if the club did a
100 club call sign from it did a class a or a
Class F or even a class B if it was a small group
Those scores will all be tallied together and
show up under a different section with the club
total all together So it's kind of like there's
two different scoring so there's the club scoring
and then there's the station scoring Right, so
you see the station scoring, right, so in other
words, if your club got together, and this is
one of the questions I'm getting a lot. A question
would be similar, like, well, my club is doing
a Class A this year, and I just, you know, they're
using the club call sign, I don't feel that I
really wanna head out and get together socially
like that, so I'm gonna participate from home.
What do I do, and how does the score count? Some
parts of this, one is, Do I use the club call
sign? And the answer is no. The club call sign
can only be used in one location, and any of
those transmitters needs to be within that 1
,000 foot diameter circle. That is the rule under
class. It's listed under class A, but it's true
for every class with the exception of class C
mobile. So you'll use your own station call sign
from your own individual location. and then when
you submit the field day entry separately you're
going to submit your own field day entry and
you will put the name of the club in the club
name field on the on the entry form which normally
we don't even publish club names for class D
and E stations but not only are we going to publish
them then there will be another list that will
combine not only your club's class A score but
also your class D scored or any other individuals
that chose to attribute their score to the club.
Does that make sense? Absolutely, it makes perfect
sense to me. And I had actually talked to you
before because we planned something for Youth
on the Air and I wanted to confirm it with you
before we started letting everybody know about
it and that was You can put any club in there
you want it's not a set list so contesters may
be familiar with this like set list of contest
clubs and those are fine, but you can type anything
in there so Trying to spell it the same and you
know capitalize the same and that kind of thing
would be really helpful So yes, so really what
needs what needs to happen is we were really
trying to discourage clubs from using a straight
acronym like an organization might be called
M .A .R .S. and there could be a million of them
depending on where they're from. I would really
recommend spelling out the name of the club,
common abbreviations and acronyms like amateur
radio society and putting in M .A .R .S. is middle
sex in Connecticut. What if you were to put in
middle sex A .R .S.? I would understand what
that means because ARS is amateur radio society,
but you need to stay away from common acronyms
that could be used by other groups all throughout
the country. It'd be very hard to determine which
club they're actually meeting. So what we're
working on is on the field day form, when you
start typing, it's going to pre -populate suggestions
of club names that will seem to fit. Now again,
as you mentioned, you can put any buddy's You
can put any name in there, like a class B Bravo
entry is a one or two person club. If you and
I were doing it, we can put Paul and Neil's field
back. And that would be perfectly acceptable.
You'll see that if you ever looked in the class
B scores, you'll see things like that that aren't
even a club name. So you don't have to be an
ARRL affiliated club. You don't need to be registered
as a contest club. I get a lot of questions about
that too, because in the contest, you have to
register as a contest club and there's your set
rules about who can participate where you need
to be located and none of that's applying for
field day we're really kind of keeping this as
simplified as possible just to help individuals
who don't want to or can't participate in the
group because of COVID -19 that they can still
at least make their their efforts count towards
the club as a whole. And if you can standardize
your club's official name, that would make Paul's
life much easier. Right. So I would probably
recommend if you are a ARRL club or if you are
even any club, I would recommend using your official
club name. That would probably make the compilation
of the results online and not that I just want
to make my life easier, but what's going to happen
is I'm going to have thousands of entries and
this is not an automated process at all. This
is something that I will get a spreadsheet of
results and I'll have to figure out what club
everybody meant to attribute their scores to.
So it's going to be an interesting task when
it comes time to compile the results for the
December QST. Now I'll give an example and that
gives me another way to. sneak in another plug
for youth on the air but youth on the air we're
going to do a compilation club score so we're
trying to get everybody that's 25 or under in
age we're trying to get everybody if you don't
have a club that you want to go ahead and assign
yours to to put in youth on the air and not yoda
but youth on the air So, you know anybody 25
or under that You don't have another club to
put it under Put it under youth on the air and
we'd like to kind of see how the young people
can can Compile a score and again that you're
still going to get your individual score But
we'd kind of like to see how that would would
go So so I'll put in the plug for the youth on
the air thing, but that's for ages 25 and below
so Now that we've we've addressed the big things
that you're getting a ton of questions about
Let's talk just a little bit about planning because
there are some groups that are still going to
go And they're still going to social distance,
but they're still going to have a club Activity
so let's talk a little bit about some of these
changes that were recommended to to maintain
social distancing, whether that be operate from
home or whether that be, you know, come up with
a way to separate everybody. Sure. Well, I mean,
really what the with the ARL stance is really
first and foremost, pay attention to the guidance
from your local and regional state health health
authorities. You know, we don't know what the
situation is like from, you know, from New Hampshire
to California could be totally different. So
the first and foremost is really pay attention
to that guidance, decide whether you A, can gather
in any large group and if you can gather in some
sort of group, either you need to limit the amount
of people that can be there or keep the different
field day stations so far apart and using sanitization
protocols. I mean, there's just so many different
things that can come into play here. So there's
really no one size fits all. First of all, there's
so many different situations throughout the whole
country, which is really kind of hard to set
one set rule for everyone given as the country
is so spread out. Okay, some good ideas there.
And then aside from all of this, aside from all
of the club entries and all that kind of stuff
that we're doing this year, In past field day
submissions, what are the most common mistakes
that you notice on those entry forms that people
should watch out for? So one of the things I
notice if you're claiming bonus points, there
are certain bonus points that require a supporting
documentation to either be uploaded in the field
day entry. Or you can send it in as independent
documentation. I have some people that will email,
say, hey, this is for this entry's bonus point
documentation. So when you're uploading the documentation,
one of the things we notice is if the file is
very large, or if you have several very large
files, you may have to split them up and do them
as more than one upload. When you upload an entry,
you're allowed to go back and and either make
changes or add more documentation. Either you
don't have everything at one time or if they're,
we set a file limit of six megabytes last year
and sometimes what was going on last year and
we were working on this because there was a little
computer glitch where it wouldn't give you a
confirmation page when you upload it. If it was
too big, it would go right back to the entry
form and it would be blank. So one thing you
wanna make sure, especially when you have large
files, is to make sure that you get a confirmation
page and a confirmation email. A properly submitted
field day entry through the web app, which is
at field -day .arrl .org. If you click on the
top of the page where it says entry form, it
will bring you to the entry form. It will give
you, you'll be able to submit your email address
and it will give you a confirmation email but
also the computer screen will display a page
that has a confirmation number and a confirmation
that was submitted. So it's important to make
sure that you receive your confirmation number.
If you don't, either give us a call at the contest
program manager's office, which is me, or send
an email and we'll help you step you through
it. So I really think that the two things were
the missing bonus point documentation, which
means you would not get that bonus point. In
other words, if you claim bonus points for, say,
media publicity, and you did not upload supporting
documents for it, you would not get that bonus
point. And it will tell you that when you submit
it. It will tell you that you are missing certain
ones. All right, very good. Well, we're going
to take a break because we want to get to some
questions and we do have a couple of questions
that have rolled in already. So we want to give
everybody a chance to ask those so we can we
can talk more if if not, but I know we've got
some coming in. So we're going to take a break
and do that. And we'll be back to do that right
after this word from Tower Electronics right
here on HamTalk Live. Jerry, what's up, man?
I haven't seen you at Sunbucks in a while. I
used to see you every morning getting coffee.
What's up? Well, I can't afford Sunbucks five
days a week anymore. I had to spend my money
on PL -259s. You know, those antenna projects
I've been meaning to do. I had to do them before
my HOA finds out I have antennas. That's too
bad, Jerry. I miss seeing you and catching up
over coffee. You should get your PL -259s from
Tower Electronics. They have great stuff. Jerry,
you're back. Oh, QRM Heterodyne Frappuccino.
That's a good choice. How's it going? Did you
get all those antennas up before the HOA police
showed up? Yeah, I got them all done. Thanks
for telling me about Tower Electronics. Now I
can have my coffee. I just saved a bunch of money
on my PL259s by switching to Tower Electronics.
Don't get caught without PL259s. Visit Tower
Electronics online at pl -259 .com or at a ham
fest near you. Or give them a call at 920 -435
-2973 and be sure to pick up some power poles,
adapters and cables too. Join the conversation.
give us a call at 859 -982 -7373. Again, the
number to call is 859 -982 -7373. Or if you'd
rather type than talk, tweet us at HamTalk Live.
Now, here's Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live.
CQ Field Day. CQ Field Day. This is HamTalk Live
with Neil Rapp. Welcome back to ham talk live
Ham talk lives on the air every Thursday night
9 p .m. Eastern time Right here at ham talk live
comm and be sure to check us out on Facebook
Twitter and Instagram and it's time for your
calls now So if you have a question for Paul,
give us a call at eight five nine nine eight
two seventy three seventy three or you can tweet
at HamTalk Live, and if you're listening to us
on WTWW or on the podcast edition, you won't
be able to reach us live since the show's on
Thursday, and we have a call. Let me see if we
can take the call here. Good evening, welcome
to HamTalk Live. Hey, my name is Jerry, KI4IO
here in Fireway, Warrenton, Virginia. I was just
gonna go set up in my yard in the tent, throw
up a new antenna, and operate Class B. but according
to their questions i've seen i can't do that
this year is that true well so what class are
you yours you're saying class of the uh... uh...
uh... battery i was going to operate just battery
and then throw up and then not use my not use
my uh... home antenna so so so normally a class
b and this is this is actually for a for a for
every year not just for this year but normally
class b is really kind of portable where you
actually move away from your normal QTH now I
don't know what your setup is but I'm thinking
that if you know you were to go set up an attack
out and out away from the house and you're Really
making an effort to really be like a portable,
you know Think to think of a portable operation
as if you were backpacking somewhere or something
like that So, you know again, normally we're
trying to encourage class B to be groups that
are not using their normal stations, not using
any of their normal station antennas and running
completely off the grid and on portable power
sources. I'd be out in my front yard and not
that far from the house and most of the state
parks around here probably don't even have the
toilets opened up yet so that's why I'm opting
for something like this. If you are operating
on a fully fully portable power source that's
not on the commercial power grid, you would probably
be more like a class E echo. So really the intent
of that rule is to really encourage people from
operating in, like if you were to go to a park
down the street or something, or a farmer's field,
or you got somebody at a big piece of property
that says, hey, you can set up over here. Certainly
go ahead and then get class B So that is not
just a for this year thing that is normally the
that is normally the intent of a class B is to
really Really make an effort to be a portable
station away from your from your home station
at home facilities Yeah, no last couple years.
We've been you know 50 miles from home So out
in the Shenandoah National Park, but can't do
it this year. Okay. Thank you very much for your
response All right, you're welcome. Jerry. Thanks,
right? Thanks for calling Jerry. 859 -982 -7373
is the number and we do have some that have come
in on Twitter here. Brett wy7bg says I'm thinking
of putting one of my rigs on zoom perhaps with
a temporary field day antenna and allowing members
of my local club to join the zoom meeting and
remote control the rig. Which, by the way, will
be set up for FT4 and FT8. What class would that
setup be? Well, there's a lot going on there.
Yes, there's a lot going on there. One is FT4
and FT8 are allowed modes. Any digital mode is
allowed as long as it supports the field day
exchange. The real question about what class
it would be is, is he at home? Is he running
on commercial power? think about all the stations,
he said one of his rigs. So if he has one of
his rigs, like his main rig at home running on,
it's his regular station rig, he's on commercial
power, that would be a class D home station.
So the Zoom remote controlled rig would not be
considered a different class. So I'm not sure
whether he's doing that as a club. Is he using
the club call sign? There's a lot of variables
there. I would really recommend sending in an
email to us or giving us a call and discuss those
particulars because there's a lot going on there.
What class? It depends on a lot of variables.
How many total participants are there? There's
another one too. So if he had more than three
people participating, even though it was set
up at his home, that would be back in as a Class
A again. So there's a lot of different variables.
So really, I would recommend kind of contacting
us with your specifics, and we can help you out
there. Okay, yeah, remote, you know, it's come
up, and like for youth on the air, we're going
to have a remote station. So kids, you know,
that are uh... uh... and and there is no i don't
have a regular home and get on and do that but
it's gonna it's going to be in the same location
you know every time that way nothing in the field
day rules that prohibits you know it's somebody
from act is from from getting in in remotely
accessing a field day transmitter so uh... you
know you know a lot of clubs are even doing that
in their class a say hey we have this one transfer
set up a lot of people are rolling access we
just have to get others there's certain FCC rules
they got to make sure as to which you know which
part of the bands you're transmitting out whether
there's a control operator it has the correct
the correct privileges and all that stuff too
so there's there's those concerns as well with
the remote operation sure so so where where was
the line then between making that a D or an A
on commercial Well, it really is the class the
class a is a club or non club group of three
or more persons So it depends on how many told
you three there are So if it was just I again
how many participants are there? So, you know,
you have to look at the scene and that is Participants
are people that help set up people who are in
and not only not only licensed teams But non
licensed hands or not even there are non licensed
people It could be anyone a participant is anyone
who comes to your field aid and it helps set
up an antenna You know, you know does anything
if they're considered a participant. They don't
have to be a licensed ham So again, it all depends
on how your specific setup is As to which class
it is. So just the remote operation itself wouldn't
really drive what class it is Okay, very good
Alright well we've got another call on the line
so let's see who we have here even though I know
who it is. Welcome to HamTalk Live. Hi Neil,
hi Paul, this is Jocelyn KD8 VRX and I have questions
like everybody else. First I think Neil said
it already but Paul nobody I think envies your
position because of the whole situation. Normally,
I think it's easy. We all show up at the club
and, hey, we're a 3 alpha, and that's what I
am. Since a lot of us are operating from home,
we have lots of questions that you can understand.
I have the same question that Jerry from Virginia
had. I thought I could be a B operate from my
backyard because I looked at an E station as
operating on battery power from my shack in the
basement, not being outside. I think maybe I
know it's clear for you, but it wasn't for me.
It wasn't for Jerry So, you know, I will say
maybe we clarify that in in future in the future
Say, you know portable is this many feet or miles
away from home or something similar. I Really
think it's really about really whether you made
a significant effort to release. You know really
to really Not just sit up set up on the deck
five steps from your kitchen sliding door and
You know the deck there and you're right right
right outside the door to me that that is not
really in the intent of the class B is I mean
if you if you have a yard that's deep and you're
out in your Bush watch your way out to the back
40 and you set up antennas, you know, think about
really what is Think about what the intent of
the rule is and really did you satisfy? I mean
if you were if you were just doing to say well
I'm doing this just so I can be class B and you
set up portable, you know Yes, they're portable
antennas, but you're right outside your kitchen
door. Is that really is that really portable?
I mean, yeah, it's portable because it's not
hooked up to anything but Yeah, and that's what
I mean like the rule is and again normally in
the past we've not had this We've not had really
to worry about it because, like I said, we normally
go at a club or something and, you know, we do
the same thing similar every year. So we kind
of know. But this year, like I said, everything's
been flipped on its head. So everybody's got
questions. So like I said, I did not intervene.
And usually what we see, I'm sorry, usually what
we see for Class B entries is you'll see, like
last year there was a couple guys. that went
up to a hilltop up in California and the two
of them backpacked in and set up batteries and
solar up on top of the hill and camped out there
on top of the hill and ran all weekend as a Class
B. I mean that's normally what we see as a Class
B. Things like that and just a couple guys setting
up in a small park down the street in their town
or something that's not a normal station location
is really kind of the keywords there, and I'm
sorry I keep interrupting you, Jonathan. No,
no, I appreciate the clarification, and I'm sure
all the other people listening, you know, other
operators listening on the show also appreciate
it. I had a question regarding points, so let's
say I'm going to be a home station running on
emergency power, and I'm going to be running
150 watts. Is my point multiplier 2? Or because
as soon as you throw in battery, it seems like
it throws you, it wants to throw you into different
categories. Right, so if you're looking at class
B, I'm sorry, class D, I'm sorry, I stay corrected.
So yeah, there is the power multiplier thing,
so that is, and I'm scrolling to that section
of the rules right now, I apologize. That's okay,
that's okay. Power multiplier, where are you?
Power multiplier, there we go. So the power multiplier
is determined by the highest power output of
any of the transmitters used during field day.
If all contacts need using 5 watts or less, you
said you're going to be 150 watts? I'll be running
100 watts or QRP, but obviously I have to go
with a higher one, so we'll go with 100 watts.
Right, so if you were running 5 watts or higher,
and you were under 150 watts, your power multiplier
would be 2. Okay, and that's what I read, but
since I had a chance to get in touch with you,
I thought I'd take the moment to clarify that.
Right, so that would be a power multiplier of
two, because basically it's between five and
between QRP at 150 watts would be two. And then
if you were great at 150, like if you were running
an amp or something, your power multiplier is
one. So what happens is the power multipliers
go up as you use lower power. And then if you're
using five watts or less, but the source is from
commercial main or a motor driven generator.
In other words, either an alternator from a car
is actually considered motor driven generator
because that's driven out the motor, or a gasoline
power generator, you're still would be a power
multiplier of two. When it jumps up to five,
is you're using a power source other than commercially
supplied power or a motor driven generator. In
other words, batteries, solar cells. Squirrel
on a little wheel. Yeah, we're gonna need a couple
of squirrels. We've actually seen some people
doing it on a bicycle power generator. I do remember
seeing that at Hamvention. I think somebody had
like the army style where you don't do it with
your feet, but you do it with your hands. And
just thinking, you know, you got to be committed
at that point. But I wanted to make one more
comment, and this is, and Neil's aware of this,
because I passed it by him earlier. But our club,
and I encourage other clubs to be doing the same
thing. Because there's going to be so many stations
running from home, we're having a Zoom session
with our club to show people how to set up their
logging software ahead of time. And, you know,
if there's any questions and things, so that
part at least, you know, most people know how
to set up their radios portable. That's, you
know, they know how to do that. We're trying
to backfill where the computer logging will be
done, so we're gonna have a quick session on
doing that, and then we'll have another session
after field day to show them how to use your
website to post their entries and how to do it
effectively. And as far as the... As far as the
club name, we have the same thing. What do we
put in the acronym, the full thing? And I think
what we've decided, we're just gonna put the
club call sign, because that's probably a unique
and very easy thing for everybody to know. So
I didn't know if that was okay or not. A club
call sign is an easy thing to identify, but what's
gonna happen is in the results, it'll just show
the club call sign. So if you wanna have your
club name, If you want to have your club name
in the results, I would suggest using just the
official club name. And what we're going to do
on the field day entry form, as I mentioned this
earlier, we're going to have an autocomplete
thing set up. So when you start typing in the
name of a club, it's going to give you a list
of suggestions. Because again, you can put in
any name. We're really trying to I mean I mean
call signs for some for some groups probably
they're going to be they're going to do that
But I would probably recommend putting in the
the name of the club because that way that it
will appear as the name of your club in the results
But the one sounds good. The one thing is to
be to be consistent. So if you What's the name
of your club? Westchester amateur radio association
Alright, so if you were to put Westchester A
.R .A. and everybody did that, I would probably
know who you were unless there was more than
one Westchester. If that's the official name
of the club and there's only one Westchester
Amateur Radio Association, using a common acronym
like A .R .A. on the end or A .R .S. for Amateur
Radio Society or A .R .C. for Amateur Radio Club,
those are pretty common. And a lot of times in
the field, they write an article in QST. We abbreviate
those back down to them for space limitations
as well. Yeah, and we may just even tag in, like
I said, the call sign at the end, put the name
in the call sign just to make it absolutely unique.
Anyways, thank you very much, Paul, for answering
all those questions. I'm sure there's other people
that have tons of questions that want to get
on. So I will let you guys go. And thank you
very much for being on the show. And Neil, thank
you for having the show. It's a hot topic this
year. So I'll say 73 for now. All right. Thanks
73. Thanks for calling. Thanks Jocelyn for calling.
Talk to you soon. Bye. Yeah. Yeah. It is a, it
is a hot topic this year. Sometimes we're sitting
around going, are there going to be any questions?
Yeah, not this year. So. Let's see what else
we have here. 859 -982 -7373 is the phone number
if you'd like to call in. Let's see, you haven't
gotten to the speaker comments yet. So, Troy
W9KVR wants to know any significant changes in
acceptable modes or bands that we need to know.
Modes or bands? Pretty much no changes. It's
still the amateur bands excluding the work bands.
So basically bands are 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and
10 on HF as well as all bands 6 meters and up.
So anything 50 megahertz and above. All bands
are acceptable there. So it's the HF bands that
I mentioned, again, 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and
10. And then as far as modes, any amateur radio
mode that's authorized and legal is accepted
as long as it supports the field day exchange.
And the only other rule that was changed, and
this is actually a rule change, not just a temporary
waiver, is that the limit of the Gota stations
uh... contacts you used to live for a go to station
which is a get on the air station that class
a can uh... can operate with class a at actually
uh... anyway anyone who can be in the world and
who could use a get on the air station you were
limited to five hundred quesos for the go to
station now it's limited to a thousand quesos
that really is the only uh... the only significant
rule change aside from the the temporary 2020
waivers. All right. Chris, AA4CB says the only
major change we're going to have this year is
pulled pork and chicken. No dominoes this year.
So there we go. No dominoes. Troy says they're
having Iroquois County Pork Producers Association
pork burgers on the grill. So there we go. And
it sounds like the food is still going to be
good for field day. Lisa says she's going to
be running the Gota station this year. So that's
a great thing. So thank you, Lisa, for doing
that. That's something that I've been doing for
many field days in a row now. No, I want to operate
but I guess this year's my chance to operate
now Let's see Skeeter Nash in five a sh says
at our last meeting some of our members proposed
Smoking the Boston butts before bringing them
to field day Others want to wait and smoke them
on Friday night into Saturday morning has been
done in the past. What would you suggest? well
as long as You gotta go low and slow. I recommend
low and slow. If you're smoking something, it's
always low and slow. And what kind of wood are
you using? That's really the question. All right,
Carl, KD9HQT asks, can you operate under class
D and E under the same call? Like if you want
to operate some bands on commercial and others
on emergency. well basically the answer is no
so you're going to so if you're on commercial
power that is going to override if you were working
anything on the non -commercial power so in other
words it's almost like the higher power source
will win so if there's any contact was made on
commercial power that would that would automatically
push your entry into class D instead of D Okay,
very good. Well, I think we're here It's almost
like kind of like with the power The power multiplier
if you made a whole bunch of contacts on five
blocks, but me too on 150 You're just all the
five watt ones basically are everything is gonna
be 150 because it's it's the maximum of what
you What you did throughout the whole field day
period? Very good 859 -982 -7373 is the phone
number and we're going to make that the last
call for questions here tonight. 859 -982 -7373
or tweet us at HamTalk Live, but we'll take one
more look here in just a minute. So besides moving,
what are your field day plans this year? well
let me put you this way i took my last antenna
down at my old at my old qth yesterday so that
that is uh... that was a uh... that was a uh...
uh... a four -band fan dipole which is now out
of my garage hopefully it won't be tangled up
while i don't do this i tried at my best not
to tell us about but you know how that goes so
i i also have a uh... just a couple of model
band i post i'd be set up at the new QTH with
one of my little portable radios and just throw
a dipole up and see if it can make some contacts.
It all depends on how much painting I get done.
Now there's something you probably never heard
of for field day before. It all depends on how
much painting I get done. It's kind of like the
honeydew list too. You have that. Well, you've
been on the job for a year now, so what are your
thoughts after the first year? uh... well i i
did my first thought is i'm glad that that this
this was at my first year and having field day
i because i was i was hired in june third of
our first start those are start date so last
year's field day was kind of like a trial by
fire i got i got i got thrown in feet first uh...
just inside all by the way here's field day you
know of course i had a lot of support from from
part of the night jay jay and and i don't know
all the staff but again henderson and you know
all of it all the art that the Ghost of Field
Day passed. But I'm just glad that this year
was not my first year doing this and having the
COVID thing hit at the same time. But there was
definitely was a lot of learning and I'm really
starting to get into the groove of everything
that goes on. There's so many little cogs. and
different years that all have to turn between,
you know, log checking your contests and the
results of publication. And there's a lot of
people involved and, you know, definitely I think
the first year is really making the contacts
with those people and getting a good rapport
with them and, you know, it makes life a lot
easier. Well, very good. Well, okay, I've checked
the... The tweets or through those, I've checked
the comments, we're through those. The phone
isn't ringing. So I'm going to get the last question
in for the night. And this may be the most important
one of them all. Are you going to include a Ted's
steamed cheeseburger in the field day? Oh, oh,
geez. The Ted's steamed cheeseburger. Well, as
you know, I got to watch my diet and the last
Ted's I had. Was when I was with you so my goodness
That was that was July Yeah, and and I and I
moved further from Ted's. Oh No, oh my you don't
know a steamed cheeseburger is a very central
Connecticut thing So basically they literally
steamed the meat and then they steamed this chunk
of cheese and they pour over the top and it is
Some people love them, I kind of tend to, but
some people are like, eh, I don't know. But it's
totally a Central Connecticut thing. So if you're
ever coming up to visit HQ, ask for Paul and
on SFV and he'll tell you where to find a good
steamed cheeseburger. Yeah, there you go. I enjoyed
my trip to Ted's with you and it's good that
we could get away and do that one evening while
I was up Newington Way. So I think that's going
to do it, Paul. So we've got another week for
questions. If people want to ask questions in
this last week, tell them how to do it. All right.
So you can send us an email and what is that
email address? You can either send it to contests
plural at a r l dot org uh... yet or or you can
send it to uh... f d info field day info at a
r r l dot o r g uh... you know is that or or
my call sign uh... michael's i'll get to me direct
the other ones are a uh... my uh... inbox monitored
by more than one person so if i just happen and
i want to know be moving or something uh... uh...
But I usually do tend to get back to the emails,
even the ones in my inbox, even though I am between
two houses and we're working remotely from home,
I usually try to check that mailbox at least
several times a day, even when I'm off moving.
Well, very good. We appreciate all of your work
on field day and making this work and giving
some options here for Doing this in the middle
of a pandemic, it's a first for everybody, so
we thank you ahead of time for all those hours
you're going to have to put in extra to get all
this scoring going, too. And I thank you for
not using the term unprecedented times. Oh, yes.
Well, you know, in these unprecedented times,
we're all in this together. I was, you know,
so buy our car. I think I tried to write for
any of the, you know, the website or QST. I've
been purposely, I understand this is unprecedented,
but the term is just like, I gotta stop using
that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got a whole big
spiel on that. You probably don't want to hear
it, but yeah. I think really, Neil, the whole
crux of it is really be safe and really pay attention
to what your local authorities are telling you
to do. I think the biggest thing is to be safe.
We want us all to be healthy. We want us all
to see fuel day 2021. So again, I think safety
is our first priority. And that is the perfect
place to leave it. I think that's a very good
place to end. So thank you, Paul, for being on
the show. We appreciate it and enjoy the move.
And I look forward to hearing more and seeing
the place after the painting's done. All right,
well, hey, thanks for having me on, Neil. It's
always a pleasure. All right, thanks, Paul. Well,
that is a wrap for this week's edition of HamTalk
Live. Thanks to my guest, Paul Bork, N1SFE, and
everybody out there in cyberspace for listening,
calling in, typing in. And I invite you back
next Thursday night, 9 p .m. Eastern Time. Kevin
Zari, KK4YEL, and Robert Bankston, KE4AL, will
be here to talk about satellite courtesy and
running a special event. So you don't want to
miss that. For a list of all of our upcoming
guests, go to HamTalkLive .com. And if you like
the show, please leave us a review. That's all
we ask. So for now, this is Neil, WB9VPG, saying
73. 7 -5 and may the good DX be yours.