2021 Field Day – Big Storms

This year there were 15 pins on the ARRL Field Day Locator page for the state of Oklahoma. This year there were storms forecast for the entire weekend, and the state was slowly coming out of the pandemic, so a number of club operations “took the year off” and encouraged their operators to “work-from-home”.

The following are the reports from each of the fifteen groups that scheduled a Field Day event.

1 – W5IAS / Tulsa Amateur Radio Club

W5IAS, Tulsa Amateur Radio Club, set up at Chandler Park in Tulsa. We had our communication trailer, EZ ups, and a camper. Luckily the rain stopped mid-morning. An estimated 30 visitors though out the day, many families with children. They operated as class 5A, used two Honda generators for power.

Antennas were four dipoles for 15m, 20m, 40m, 80m, and a Buddipole for 10m.

The GOTA station used the 20m band and made 9 contacts with participants from 7 to 70 years old.

Several NTS messages were sent.

Satellite contact attempts were demonstrated.

The ARES go-box was set up to show ARES capabilities and an ARES Net ran from the field on the UHF link system at 3 pm, for the second year in a row. There were 44 check-ins on that net.

In the early evening, we brought in bar-be-cue from Rib Crib.

Arrangements were made to stay the night at the park but no one ended up staying because the rain was forecast to move back in. They were torn down and left the park by 8:30 in the evening.

Ann – K5AEB

2 – WX5MC / Mayes County

The WX5MC / Mayes County group canceled their Field Day activities due to the impending weather forecast.

3 – WI5ND / Owasso

Here is a summary of our weekend and some pictures to share.  again for reaching out to us!

This was our first Field Day as a new club and it was very memorable. Rain and storms in the area challenged the integrity of our temporary shelters and at one point drove us to suspend most operating until the heavy rain passed early Sunday before daylight; except for one station that stayed on the air from the back seat of a pickup truck (with a LIFePO4 battery on the floor and coax cable run into the back sliding window). In all, we had a wonderful time and came away more prepared. We conducted an educational activity using VOACAP to perform a propagation analysis to give our members a better idea of what band conditions would be over the 24 hour period. We had a club meeting and took a club photo with our new shirts, and many of our new members had a chance to experience working data modes that were new to them. It was a challenge to operate four transceivers on battery and solar alone and to work with only QRP power, but with three stations staying active on FT8, FT4, and PSK31, and the fourth on CW, we managed to make 501 QSOs. In between rains, we even had a few guests come to see us, and a reporter from the Tahlequah Daily Press and came out and interviewed members and took pictures for a feature story that will run next week. In all, it was all that we could have hoped for to be more ready to help others when all else fails.

Grant Crawford from the Tahlequah Daily Press did a great job with his article. There were a few small inaccuracies, such as 6 meters being HF, but overall he really captured what we are about; and they put it on the front page and continued on page 2.

73, Jeff

4 – K5WCO / West Central Okla Amateur Radio Club

Field Day happened at the K5WCO clubhouse. This year the group is working with the locals to move the 146.76 repeater to this new 300′ tower.

A couple of folks signed up for the testing session which produced a brand new ham, KI5QMC.

Hamburgers, hotdogs, and all the rest were on the menu for Saturday night.

5 – W5HTK / Enid

Enid canceled their group Field Day activities due to impending severe weather.

6 – K5SRC / Stillwater Amateur Radio Club

K5SRC operated from Couch Park in Stillwater. A group of about 30, about half were at their first field day. They set up through the rain and operated 20 M most of the day on Saturday.

In the first photo, Joseph Anthony AI5DD is shown operating QRP CW on 15m.

In the second photo, William Pendleton KR3LL was operating on 20m SSB.

Kevin O’Dell N0IRW

7 – W5NOR / Norman

SCARS Field Day 2021 is “in the books!” And, by all reports, it was a great success. Last year’s ‘minimal version’ really looked pale compared to all of the activity over the weekend. The statistics still need to be crunched, but all three transmitters, the voice, CW, and digital modes were able to make lots of contacts. The early reports are that the bands weren’t as kind as last year, but we were able to make contacts on 80M, 40M, 20M, 15M, 10M, and 6M. It’s good to see that sun cycle 25 is starting to make its presence known.

This year we had over 100 folks take part in the effort. Some, like Field Day Chief Wayne Dutton KK5IO stayed throughout the entire event. Some, like Eric Singleton KC5KLD, showed up for only a few minutes, but he arrived just in the nick of time. Our digital processing computer wouldn’t boot after it made the trip in. Eric was able to diagnose the problem, reseat the RAM chips, remove an inoperative video card, and save the day!

We started by setting up the three antennas. An 80/40/20 dipole antenna, shown above, was installed 15′ above the top deck of the 55′ tall Norman Fire Training Tower. The ends were drooped down to two 30′ tower trailers to make a monster Vee antenna. The voice station used Ken Sanburn KA5HFE’s DXCommander vertical antenna. He had the pole set up with 40M, 20M, 15M, and 10M wires. Ken said that with the wet ground, the radials didn’t really make much of a difference, the SWR only increased by .5 when he removed the ground radial wires. (He hooked ’em back up.) The digital system used the Moore Mobile Command Center’s Tilted Terminated Folded Dipole from the 40′ tall pneumatic mast.

Setup started at 9:00 am on Saturday. Rodney Barrett KF5UZA had the coffee rollin’ and the donuts started showing up shortly thereafter. The setup went smooth, and the antenna crew of Steve Smith KI5HFN, Michael Wood KE5ASN, Jonathon Jeitz W5JWZ, Jarrod Manning KI5HFT, Wayne Dutton KK5IO, Mark Clayton N5AZQ, and Ken Sanburn KA5HFE got everything up, connected, and operating in no time.

The CW folks operated out of David Grizzle KD5ZLG’s Norman EOC trailer parked at the Norman Fire Training Tower. This group used a generator from Larry Goodwin W5LHG and another from David Grizzle KD5ZLG. The voice and data groups operated from Gayland Kitch WX5MOR’s Moore Mobile Command Center. This vehicle is fully self-contained with power, operating positions, and a pneumatic antenna tower.

Lunch showed up early, and Phil Sinnett KD5UGO and Dean Burch KK6IPL prepared a great sandwich bar that powered the crew through the rest of the setup. 1:00 pm showed up quickly and Mark Clayton N5AZQ, Beth Pearce KC5RWW, Jarrod Manning KI5FHT, and Bob Gibson W5RG started keying the transmitters.

The SCARS Licensing Team, led by Chief Peter Laws N5UWY ran an exam session that netted a brand new Technician, David, KI5QMF!

After the testing session, Lea Greenleaf W5HLG ran a build your own J-Pole session that got a lot of people interested in building these great antennas. Next month’s presenter is Ed Fong who makes these commercially. I’m sure he will get a lot of questions when he shows up via Zoom on the 10th. Lea had so much interest in soldering that he plans to follow this up with some soldering classes at future Elmer Nights. Let him know if you’re interested in learning how to solder! Peter Khor AG5DB talked about a future project that involves building some 300-ohm J-Poles.

Phil Sinnett KD5UGO, Ed Hatch AG5DV, and Wayne Dutton KK5IO operated a hidden transmitter (fox hunt). Nathan Lis KD3ZCC was the first to find the transmitter.
Dinner came quickly, and Phil Sinnett KD5UGO and Dean Burch KK6IPL, and the gang put on quite a feast. Burgers, hot dogs, brats, and hot links disappeared quickly and only left a few for yours truly N5HZR and KK5IO to have for a 1:30 am snack! Shortly after that, we had to shut down for the incoming lightning storms. About 5:30 am it all cleared up and the crew was back transmitting.

David Grizzle KD5ZLG fashioned “Ham”, eggs, omelets, biscuits, sausage, onions, peppers, gravy,
potatoes, pancakes, and more into the best breakfast brunch in all of amateur radio. No telling how many folks went through the line. Omelets, special requests, and all kept the group satisfied for the rest of the event.

At 1:00 pm Sunday the transmitter operations ceased and the tear-down activities began. Small groups formed up to simultaneously clear up all of the locations and put it all back into them into their original condition.

There were many more involved in the process, and we appreciated every person’s assistance. We had a large group of folks that celebrated their first Field Day here, and it appears the ‘FD bug’ bit them all. If you showed up, we hope you had a great time. Put June 25th and 26th, 2022 on your calendar and we’ll do this again. See you then!

8 – W5MWC / Midwest City

Mid-Del scrubbed our Field Day Plans due to the forecast of Heavy Thunderstorms and Lightning the entire weekend for the safety of our members.

Cameron McAntire KC5ZHU

9 – WX5BA / Broken Arrow

The Broken Arrow Emergency Management Amateur Radio Club, operating with callsign WX5BA, operated Field Day from the Broken Arrow Public Safety Complex. After a VE session starting at 1000, we began setting up at about 1130, and all stations and antennas were in place by about 1230. We had sent a press release to all the Tulsa television stations, and Channel 2 sent a photographer, who filmed our setup and interviewed our designated Public Information Officer. Her report was aired later in the day on Channel 2 news. We were also visited by an anchor from Channel 8, who previously held a ham license, and wanted to see what was going on with field day. She took some photos and posted one on her Facebook page. We gave her a copy of the ARRL license study guide to assist her with once again getting her ticket.
Our antennas were scattered around the property. We had a 20M dipole on a push-up pole attached to a trailer at one end of the parking lot. This used a lot of our feedline supply. Inside the fence was another 20M dipole, a Buddipole, and a Cobra folded dipole set up as a shallow inverted V, with the apex at about 35 feet. Later in the day, we experimented with a Buddistick vertical.

We began operations as a 4F station on time at 1300 local time and had our first contact within a few minutes. One of our HF radios was dedicated mainly to assisting some newly licensed hams to make their first HF contacts, and it was really gratifying to help them succeed and enjoy their enthusiasm when somebody responded to their calls. We also got a 13-year-old on the air, and he made his first unassisted HF contact, with his father serving as a control operator.

We had an interesting interruption Saturday evening when we had to cease operations so a contractor could mow the grass where our antennas and feedlines were located. It gave us a chance to regroup and get started right back when they had finished. The six club members present spent time both operating the radios, assisting visitors to try their hand at making contacts, and explaining amateur radio to those visitors who were not necessarily interested in getting on the air.
On Saturday, we made a total of 47 CW contacts, 38 digital contacts, and 58 phone contacts. About midnight, we were advised of approaching storms and made the decision to take down the antennas, pack up the equipment, and cease operations for the day. One of our members returned to the air on Sunday morning and made an additional 66 CW contacts.

In addition to the six club members who were able to participate, we logged 13 visitors to the site, including a served agency representative, and a Section official who stopped by.

Altogether we consider it to have been a fun, successful field day of making contacts, enjoying amateur radio with our friends, and showing some members of the public what we do. We tested our ability to quickly set up antennas and radios for potential emergency situations, and practiced both operating procedures and completing the required ICS paperwork which would be used in an actual incident. We have already had a couple of requests for information from people interested in getting licensed.

73 de Paul AE5PB

10 – KE5OK / Edmond

Preliminary results for K5EOK:

Number of people at the EARS Field Day
Saturday: 39
Sunday: 18

Class: 4A

Modes: CW, Digital (WSJT-X FT4 and FT8), Phone

Antennas:
6M loop-fed Yagi
20/15/10 Yagi
6BVT all band Vertical
OCF dipole for 80/40

Food:
This year we did not host a club dinner but thankfully Jimmy Johns provided several sandwiches and those who performed the setup Saturday morning had time to sit down and eat lunch before the 1 PM start.  Normally we plan a large club dinner and a caterer provides the meal however this year we did not want to make a deposit then have to cancel if required by the pandemic.  So our plan this year was “Keep it simple”.

Contact results:

K5EOK Field Day 2021
Band CW Phone Dig Total %
80 20 0 138 158 9%
40 182 30 350 562 33%
20 83 43 312 438 26%
15 144 17 55 216 13%
10 105 39 52 196 12%
6 0 0 115 115 7%
2 0 0 0 0 0
Total 534 129 1,022 1,685 100%

Al, N5UM, logged a lot of Morse Code contacts!  534!  Wow!

Our point estimate including bonus points is 7,690 points!  Not bad!

We “Worked all States & Provinces” except Canada’s NL (Newfoundland and Labrador), NT (Northwest Territories) and PE (Prince Edward Island).

We happily found FT4 to be more popular but for some reason FT8 was still the most popular mode for a contest and sometimes the only mode on a band.  Normally our phone operators run the bands until the phone slows down then we switch to digital however each operator chose to operate digital only.  Some, like myself, attempted phone mode but after calling CQ for 5 minutes in the noise we would switch back to digital.  We also tried search and pounce however each strong station had a pile-up and we try to avoid spending minutes in pile-ups.  Those issues along with the band-wide noise of the thunderstorms all weekend really pressed moving to digital.  Ironically this field day was the quietest it’s ever been since everyone was quietly operating digital and Al was operating CW!

When Al took a CW break he would also try phone and digital and we just struggled to make any phone contacts.  We only had one lightning shutdown from 4 AM until 5:30 AM which became a nap break.

For digital this year we planned to use only WSJT-X FT4 mode.  We would work all the available FT4 contacts then alternate between the slower FT8 and FT4 until the band was dead.  For radios this year we had two IC-7300’s, an IC-7600, IC-7610 and an IC-9100 as a hopeful VHF station.

We were visited by three fire department deputy chiefs and the head of their IT on Friday during setup and fortunately Sunday morning we were visited by the Emergency Management Director.  We were also visited by a youth actor who is working with others to create a pilot for a project that uses Amateur Radio.
We are very grateful to the City of Edmond, Edmond City Council and the Mayor of Edmond, Edmond Fire Department, and Edmond Emergency Management for everything they have provided and their recognition of our contributions to the community.

City of Edmond Mayor Darrell Davis Recognizes EARS Club – Declares June 21-27 ‘Amateur Radio Week’ in City of Edmond

It’s official…next week has been declared ‘Amateur Radio Week’ in the City of Edmond — signed, sealed, and delivered by Mayor Darrell Davis earlier tonight (Monday, June 14th). Mayor Davis presented the signed proclamation to Edmond Amateur Radio Society (EARS) President Marcus Sutliff – N5ZY in City Council Chambers tonight, telecast on the live cable TV broadcast of the meeting. You can view the signed proclamation at this link. Expect the City’s telecast to be available on its website later.

Here are two photos by EARS club member Anthony Tompkins – K5AJT, who attended the event with his XYL, Kari K5LST. Thanks to them both for covering this event for us!

Of course, ‘Amateur Radio Week’ ends in the City the weekend of June 26th and 27th with EARS annual participation in ARRL Field Day 2021. During Marcus’ speech tonight, he invited the mayor and council members to join us for Field Day and explained how the whole thing worked.

If you have not yet signed up for Field Day, remember setup will be Friday afternoon the 25th, and the event will run for 24 hours — from 1pm local time Saturday, all night, until 12:59pm Sunday. You can participate during any of these times but extra hands for setup and tear down are always appreciated. To let us know you want to help out, please contact me at [email protected]; this year’s Field Day Coordinator, Harvey Jones – WØHGJ, at [email protected]; or Steve Christy – N5ZQ at [email protected]. We’d be happy to welcome you aboard.

73 Dan DuBray NS5G

11 – W5KS

W5KS Field Day 2021 Summary

The group was located at Ralph’s Resort, just north of Lawton OK. The operating mode was primarily SSB, 2A. They coordinated for testing on Saturday morning and traveled to AB5J, an adjacent site. Two operators upgraded to Extra and one earned Technician. Antennas, 5BTV, 2 end Fed, an NVIS, and a homebrew Delta-loop ladder-line configuration antenna. Radios, 2x Icom 7300, 1x Yeasu 991A, and an Icom 7000.

It was good to see contacts being made on 10, 15, 20, and 40. The bands had a lot of lightning static crashes, with plenty of good stations responding. Many of the newer hams were doing a lot of the work. The group used the N3FJP Field Day logging program and they were all networked and using Rig Control. The event closed early because of the severe weather risk.

The group focused on building operator skillsets, hobby enjoyment, and abandoned efforts related to bonus points. Because of local CoVID concerns, the group deliberately did not advertise or promote the activity outside of the ham community. There were 15 amateur participants with another 15 that stopped in to check things out. There was only one non-amateur visitor, and he was there to collect pavilion fees.

Life support, the group enjoyed camp stove cooking and grilling. The menu included BBQ chicken, thick grilled pork chops, potato salad, grilled squash, Corn-on-the-Cob. During the day, Sandwiches/Wraps were available with the standard fare of lettuce, tomato, onions, condiments, and luncheon meats. Breakfast included bacon, omelets, sausage, and of course coffee. Water was the encouraged drink all day long.

W5KS Trailer with a small group getting a short class and getting OUT of the heat for 15 minutes.

KI5HMM slicing up the goods and was it ever SO GOOD!

KC5CYY stopped at the hardware store, bought a 500-foot spool of 12 gauge stranded wire, put it in the air, and started transmitting on it.

12 – W5NS / Bartlesville Amateur Radio Club

The Bartlesville Amateur Radio Club had a successful Field Day at Sooner Park. We had four radios set up and about 10 people on-site throughout the day.

Antennas included:

  • an S9V31 vertical operating on 15m, attempting FT8 and making a few SSB contacts
  • an end-fed wire attempting to operate on 10m digital
  • an off-center wire operating on 20-40 m SSB, making 30-40 contacts
  • an end fed wire operating 20m CW, making a few dozen contacts.Each rig had a bandpass filter so that we could operate close to another.

Food was minimalist this year: pizza for lunch and catered Jimmy John’s for a dinner-time meal. Hopefully, by next year the club will be able to return to our tradition of having a big picnic with XYL’s and some families.

I’m including a few pictures to prove we were really there.

Pete Slater, KF5BMZ

13 – N5PC / Kay County

Kay County ARC operated at the motocross track in Ponca City. We had 20 participants including several unlicensed guests. We operated class 3A with 2 SSB stations and one primarily digital station. We were successful in making contacts at 10m, 15m, 20m, and 40m. Antennas included a fan dipole, an end-fed, and a dipole fed with 600-ohm ladder line. We had a total of 1CW contact, 87 digital contacts, and 65 phone contacts. Saturday afternoon concluded with BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and a visit from our Oklahoma Section Manager N5HZR!

Jeff Northcutt AG5VX

14 – WX5RC / Rogers County Wireless Association

The Rogers County Wireless Association (RCWA) was scheduled to operate outdoors at the Elk’s County Club in Claremore, OK.  However, the large amount of rain on Saturday morning made the site completely saturated and there wasn’t going to be adequate indoor shelter in the event that further downpours occurred during Field Day Weekend.  Therefore the decision was made to cancel FD at the Elk’s Club and move operations to a hangar rented by Rob Giger (KG5AUN) at the Harvey Young Airport in Tulsa.

Radios were operated from inside the hangar, which proved to be good insurance when several long-lived downpours moved through the area on Saturday.  Antennas were erected on the taxiway between the hangar and main runway, but safely away from any potential air traffic.  HF antennas included a magnetic loop from Alpha Antennas and a vertical antenna.  We also installed a two meter colinear vertical antenna that was used by net control Ray Young K5CFY for the Saturday night Simplex Net on 146.55.

WX5RC operated as 3A.  We had a total of 74 contacts, almost evenly split between voice and digital.  Most voice contacts were on SSB, while digital was on PSK31 and FT8.  The number of digital contacts was the highest percentage in club history for Field Day.  Most of the time two stations were operating digital and one on voice.

Outside visitors included Mark Conklin N7XYO and Bart Pickens N5TWB.  Other RCWA operators and RCWA visitors were a total of eight.

15 – AC5XJ / Chisholm trail amateur radio club

To report this weekend