Category — Antennas

Field Day brings forth a wide range of antennas used for the event. Clubs even have their own stock of antennas, hidden in local garages, to spring on participants if needed.

Whether it is beams and towers or stuff with wires, here are some Field Day considerations for antennas:

Easy Does It

Antennas have to be put up and taken down. Ham Radio rules apply here as well: everything will take twice as long as you think to put up and take down, so select something easier to do.

Lower is better

Field Day favors working stations close-in relative to the world. Verticals with low angles radiation won’t help you work as many people as you need to, so try horizontal antennas that are not too high up.

Monobanders help

Monoband antennas will give you better SWR across the band and will help reduce inter-station interference. Nothing like operating 20-meters on your triband yagi with the 15 and 10-meter stations chiming in as well.

Any tower must be well supported

Safety is a big deal here and people setting up antennas for an event are more likely to cut corners. Don’t do that; safety first.

Know your antenna supports

If you have a long wire or dipole or inverted vee…where will the ends be supported? The middle of a flat field doesn’t help you support dipole ends, so some other support structure will be needed. Pre-planning on the site will help.

What are your favorite Field Day antennas?

Scot, K9JY

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Field Day is coming up sooner than we think. So I thought I’d spend some time on Field Day and start working through some of the tasks associated with the event.

Most Field Day operations have more than one station. A conventional way of working each station is to have a “Station Captain” responsible for the setup, tear down and allocation of responsibilities for the station and operators.

What follows is a beginning attempt to establish a “checklist” for station captains.

Station Captain Checklist:

Equipment:

Radio

Antenna Tuner

Morse Key

Microphone

Computer

Field Day software

Computer – Radio Interface

Sound Card Check

Coax

Antenna 1

Antenna 2 (if needed or wanted)

Antenna Supports

Network Router or Hub

Network Cable

Wireless Adapter

Plans:

Setup

Take down

Operator Schedule

Bonus Point attainment plan for station

Food

Cooking

Shelter:

Shelter – tent, RV…??

Sleeping bag or equivalent

Clothes

For cooking

For refrigeration

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What else should be added to this list? What other lists should be here?

Scot, K9JY

From AB7E off of a link from the TowerTalk reflector, a great look at how the HD-70 tower goes together and gets put in the air.

And six feet deep of cement is impressive!

Pictures on AB7E’s web site.

Scot, K9JY

On Tuesday (not today…) I intended on posting about my latest project: the zero-five vertical. In the “What’s This?” post, I showed a few unopened boxes that I had delivered, but haven’t said anything about it since then.

That’s because…the boxes are still unopened! With life and work and hobby, other priorities override the hobby.

However, I intend to get this vertical up and working over the course of the next week.

The Plan

The parts are all here from the various manufacturers. This includes the antenna, the radial plate, the balun, and the coax.

The hole is dug. Not to 36” deep, but close. I have a yard that made of rocks with some dirt around them. Makes for a difficult symmetrical hole to place in antennas.

The pipe to go into the hole is purchased, cut, and ready to be partially pounded in. Need to get it right, level and plumb.

The cement is purchased and waiting to be placed in the hole after the pipe is positioned.

Once the cement is in and the pipe is plumb, we wait for the cement to cure and then worry about the rest of the stuff.

So, we are beginning this project. More to come.

Scot, K9JY

SteppIR is introducing the “the first (DB36) of a line of antennas that will cover 6M through 40M with good gain on all bands” at Visalia this weekend.

You can see quite a few pictures of the beam in the Holiday Inn parking lot from K6RIX. It is a very different looking beam antenna.

There is also a brief review from N9ADG, a beta tester of the beam. His review and pictures: SteppIR Dream Beam Prototype.

Right now it looks like delivery times of about eight weeks. You’ll need more than your tax return to buy it as well…

Scot, K9JY