VWS Field Day 2018

Results and After Action Review

Aka: “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”Updated: 07/14/2018 w/ AA meeting notes

All Who Participate Are WINNERS

Field Day 2018 - QSO Results

Field Day 2018 - 5A QSO ScoreCW Digital Phone

160m

80m 115 13 114

40m 487 393

20m 188 72 571

15m 121 95

10m 9 2 102

6m 6 45

2m 6

1.25 1

Other 2

Satellite 5

GOTA 35

Total: 926 87 1369 Total QSOs: 2382

Points: 1852 174 1369 Total Points: 3395

Power Multiplier: 6790

Field Day 2018 - Bonus Points

All boxes ticked except:

• 7.3.13• Could work to recruit more

operators.

• 7.3.15• Been difficult getting a group.

Need to grab any kid walking by!

Field Day 2018 - Un-Official Results

Total QSO Points 6,790

Total Bonus Points 1,850

Total Claimed Points 8,640

QSO Count Comparison with 2017

2017 CW Digital Phone

160m

80m 335 23 125

40m 839 369

20m 496 52 414

15m 308 128

10m

6m 48

2m 4

1.25 1

Other

Satellite 1

GOTA 30

Total: 1,978 75 1,120 Total QSOs: 3,173

Points: 3,956 150 1,120 Total Points: 5,226

Power Multiplier: 10,452

2018 CW Digital Phone

160m

80m 115 13 114

40m 487 393

20m 188 72 571

15m 121 95

10m 9 2 102

6m 6 45

2m 6

1.25 1

Other 2

Satellite 5

GOTA 35

Total: 926 87 1,369 Total QSOs: 2,382

Points: 1,852 174 1,369 Total Points: 3,395

PowerMultiplier: 6,790

Comparison Prior Years

2018 2017 2016

Total QSO Points 6,790 10,452 5,260

Total Bonus Points 1,850 1,850 1,750

Total Claimed Points 8,640 12,302 7,010

After Action Report

• Observations

• Lessons Learned

• Good, Bad, Ugly

Site Layout/Prep• Good

• Using transport trailer for mess storage• Mess tent raising

• Bad• Using station tents for storage. Significantly delayed station setup• Hard to read bin labels• Moving tents after setup. Probably a bad idea • Were short tents• Only a few picnic tables provided by park• Near miss on Porta-Potty• Traffic on golf road

• Lessons• Need designated lane/easement for vehicles to/from cook tent. (However, vehicles

by and large shouldn’t be on the field).• Hang “Road Closed to Through Traffic” on golf road at entrance

Site Map

Antenna Deployment

• Good• GOTA Delta loop in great spot

• Lower 80m wire beam height very good

• Thank you Jack 5R8SV / AI4SV for the generous donation of the hexbeam and supporting tower/hardware!!

• Bad• 160m never got deployed

• 80m were still getting hung at dusk

• Safety issues with raising new hex beam (below)

Antenna Deployment (cont)

• Lessons• Need hands on clinics: use of pneumatic launchers, hanging antennas, knots

• Store Moxons as units. Do not disassemble

• Have a volunteer charge of each mast to ensure we have the right equipment available and to oversee safe operation of the masts raising and lowering. • Train more people on the installation and management of the masts used to support the

antennas.

• Appoint someone who is the single point of accountability for the safe operation of each mast. Each SPOC needs to know how to safely raise and lower the mast and be responsible for training a group of helpers who do the raising and lowering.

• Maintenance on donated HexBeam: make sure it mates well with the mast, replace carabiners with stronger locking carabiners.

Computers – Networking/Logging

• Good• All computer updated with latest Windows, drivers, N1MM

• New laptop donations. Thank you Mark KM4IJZ and Rebecca!

• Bad• Op often failed to Control-O log on

• Some failures to perform periodic log backups. Station captains should make ADIF and Cabrillo backs during and after FD.

• Ethernet cables are a mess; twisted and many broken connectors.

• Last minute CAT interfacing problems

• Master copy not consolidated with all logs due to network drops

Computers – Networking/Logging (cont)

• Lessons• Big signs to CONTROL-O

• Clinic on N1MM: Backup, installation, configure, recover from setup issues.

• Download from the website, print out, bring and read Doug’s N1MM-Setup-and-Operations-for-Field-Day.pdf

• Replace networking cables with shorter ones

• Before each FD someone should check all the network cables, and replace broken plugs

• Suggested we get a 16 port network switch and eliminate the tangle of junk that was in the HQ

Operation

• Good• Rogue 5 station was good in that it allowed more operators on the air

• From Digital Station:• Copy of ARRL FD bulletin on Friday evening so that it would not distract during operating

time

• From VHF/UHF• Had two other members run it. One did CW which rocked with Sunday tropo and e skip.

Faster than phone but no greater reach since propagation was soo good.

Operation (cont)• Bad

• Several stations slow to start. Antennas, missing/faulty equipment• From Digital Station:

• Search and pounce didn't work well on PSK31 -- It looked like lots of signals on the band, but only a few were actually able to be copied. However, able to get a couple of good runs with adequate signals coming in.

• Only a few RTTY signals around. Got a few contacts. Didn't try running; perhaps should have.• No luck on FT8. Just tried once. Pain to use it with N1MM. One guy calling CQ FD. Answered him, but

he apparently didn't know how to send the exchange and thus was able to be logged.

• From VHF/UHF:• Should have had someone work CW on 6, 2 and 70cm when there was no tropo or sporadic e to support

long range phone• Even with the driver seat out it was hard for others to get in and out. Need to add an electric rotor so

we can work from a tent and share both the excitement and boredom

• Operators not able to get on the air. This was reported from several source. “Station Hogging”.

• No youth operators. • Difficultly coordinate Rogue 5 operating frequencies

Operation (cont)

• Lessons• Need plans/schedule to allow operators on the air. 40m had a schedule. That

is one solution. Otherwise maybe have the first 15 minutes “open mic” with signup sheets. Need something

• Have operation “cheat sheets” for radio stations.

• Hand the mic to any and all Youth that enter into your tent

• From VHF/UHF• Add FT-8 to the vhf uhf station on 2, 6 and 432. This would make the unproductive hours

productive.

• Add CW to the VHF UHF station. When there is no propogation and after I have worked all the close in stations CW might turn the wasted hours into productive ones. I know there was CW (and FT-8) out there when phone was dead

Inner Station QRM

• Good• Tested Rogue 5 running on CW at the low end of 20 meters and 80/20 Dig

station running PSK at 14.070 -> No inter-station problems when doing so.

• Bad• 80/20m SSB had some CW interference at times. Not sure of source, not

constant. Not as bad as last year.

• 40/15m SSB reported a lot of receiver overload. It was mitigated by reducing RF gain but the antenna configuration for the next year should be optimized to reduce signal pickup

• Lessons• Test other simultaneous CW/SSB/Digital combinations

Tear Down/Pack Out• Good

• Lots of helping hands. Site folded very quickly

• Bad• Needed way more people at the very end• Helter-skelter return of stuff to bins

• Lessons• Have onsite gear-mister to organize/locate and properly return gear.• Have designated sites to drag all rope, extension cords and coax to. Trained

volunteers to coil there.• Velcro or bungee cords to help contain tents while packing• Part of tent clinic – how to easily pull stakes• It would help to leave a couple of coolers filled with water and drinks to be the last

items to be removed, and someone could be assigned to take that. Some very thirsty and hot folks at the end of the day

HQ / Other Notes• Good

• HT usage was very good this year• White board in Mess tent but needs folks to write on it!

• Bad• 2m station in HQ probably not worth deploying if can’t get someone to man it• One set of headphones in one of the yellow radio boxes needs attention. Returned

with a note that it is broken.• Spotting station didn't deliver the spots. Review of the documentation revealed that

we needed to open the Telnet window on the client stations.

• Lessons• More information in each station as to what happening • Have a map and could contain things like the Virginia Cache, ARRL and EMCOM

displays plus meals etc. Also the HT frequency• FAQs sheet – had this in the past but they didn’t get printed this year• Collect bonus document/photos

5A verses 4A

• Good• More stations allowing more folks to get on the air

• Bad• Not able to “compete” score wise as well as we have 4A – Yet?

• Complicates the site plan significantly

• Uses another tent

• Lessons• Can co-operate with other stations but better coordination required

• Might be better to have the 5th station assigned to specific bands. Maybe have dedicated 40 SSB, 40 CW, 10/15 CW/SSB stations to some other mix

5A verses 4ACan’t compete ? But wait …. 2017 Field Day data from ARRL …

Ground Team Specific AAR

Make at least one more ground rod set up w/ a 7 ft stranded braid conductor

Make at least 5 extra 7 ft lengths of stranded braid conductor

Ensure all the cu braided conductors have a ring connector on the free end

Install a spade connectors on one end of the #12 AWG Cu conductors tied to the generators (7 ea)

Purchase safety cones to place over the ground rods

Make sure all generators are grounded, including the (new) mess tent generator

Have a block of wood or metal to use as a pad when the ground is soft

Misc.

• We had a good number of visitor. Seemed like the most yet: Connection News Paper, ARRL Officials, Law Enforcement, Government Represent

• Thanks to all the volunteers.

• Thanks to everyone that sent after action good/bad/ugly notes for this presentation.

All Who Participate Are WINNERS

Dear Bill:

My apologies for my tardy reply to you. My XYL Pam and I just celebrated the birth of our first grandchild, and I

was out of town until today, so I am catching up on old emails.

Jim’s and my stop at Vienna Wireless was a highlight, as I knew it would be from my visit two years ago. While

Jim and I popped up at the inopportune time of ceased operations due to lightning and thunder, we certainly timed

our visit well relative to a convivial welcome supplemented by a hearty meal of haute cuisine. On a more serious

note, Vienna Wireless embraces all the elements for a successful Field Day – a very public location, a public

information tent upon entry, and easily accessible operating positions with friendly operators. Please pass along

our sincerest appreciation to all.

As someone with the same initials of WCM (my real name is William C Morine), I know anyone with the callsign of

W2WCM has to be to an outstanding fellow. Thanks for your leadership at Vienna Wireless, and Jim or I hope to

visit again soon.

73 de Bill Morine, N2COP

Vice Director – Roanoke Division

Representing ARRL members in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia

ARRL – The National Association for Amateur Radio™

Hello, Mike.

I saw on the VWS webpage that you're presenting the Field Day AAR at tonight's meeting. I had hoped to attend tonight's meeting as a first-time visitor, but I cannot make it tonight, thus my email to you...

I want to offer a sincere thank you to members of the Vienna Wireless Society for their time and effort to run Field Day from Burke Lake Park this year. I am a lifelong ham, just getting back into the hobby after a long pause, and I wanted to introduce our 10 year old daughter, Sydney, to this wonderful hobby via Field Day. With my trustworthy Kenwood TS-440S running to a simple 20 meter dipole in the air about 15 feet, Sydney had a blast during Field Day, and she was quick to take the mic once she figured out the cadence. Her first contact was K4XY... on 20 meters! How crazy is that!

On Sunday afternoon, we drove to Burke Lake Park to meet the team. Your Field Day setup was incredible, with an aura of a Hollywood movie set (what an awesome first impression for a 10 year old), and the entire team welcomed us in. We stopped by the GOTA tent, the CW tent, and a couple other tents to watch the team bring Field Day to a close. Sydney loved the entire experience! Later that week, when I asked Sydney what she enjoyed most about Field Day, her resounding answer was the visit to Burke Lake Park!

Thank you, Vienna Wireless Society (to both the operators and those behind the scenes), you have ignited a spark in a 10 year old's mind that will certainly shape the course of her life in a significant way! We are looking forward to joining the VWS team and helping to bring the joy of ham radio to other future hams!

73,

Jeff Baker, KB4YKQ