We’ll be hosting our first of what we hope will be many radio direction finding competitions, otherwise known as a fox hunt, on May 11th, 2024. We’ll meet near the boat ramp at Stevenson City Park, in Stevenson, Alabama. https://maps.app.goo.gl/pjR5dafzK6ZrspvTA
We will start our regular monthly meeting at 10AM, keeping it as short as possible. We’ll then brief the fox hunt participants on the rules of the event, do some equipment checks, and get started.
This event is open to the public! You don’t have to be an amateur radio operator to participate. We encourage you to bring your own radio, antenna, and any other equipment you have, but we have a few radios, antennas, and attenuators available to borrow.
Email club President Josh Brooks at W3JKB@JCAR.US with questions.
WHEW did we have a blast at Winter Field Day 2024! We did the thing, and we did it pretty well.
The short version of the story is we got a great location, had enough people and equipment to keep transmitting for 24 hours straight, we had enough food to keep us (and some of the local wildlife) fed, and we had enough coffee to put hair back on my head. We learned a lot and even made a new ham! You can’t ask for much more than that.
The long version: This is only my second Winter Field Day, and my first with Jackson County, but everything I’ve seen and heard indicates it was a great success. A few of us had been going to Stevenson City Park since the land it’s on is now a Parks On The Air entity (K-9880, Crow Creek Nature Refuge) and we quickly realized it would be an excellent Winter Field Day location. I reached out to Stevenson City Hall, made the arrangements, and we had their park pavilion for WFD.
We did a good deal of planning and preparing for WFD. We bought band pass filters and kept stations on one band each, and gave our antennas as much separation as we could, to ensure we didn’t have stations interfering with each other. We located and worked on a club-owned HF rig, a Kenwood TS-50S to ensure it could run digital modes, CW, and phone effectively. We even planned on having our monthly exam session there.
We used moving blankets and tarps to enclose part of the pavilion, giving us plenty of room to operate. We had electric and propane heaters to keep us warm. It was a rainy day and a chilly night, but our hard work and effective planning made it a safe and enjoyable situation.
We encouraged hams with less experience on HF to get on the mic and make some contacts. We watched these guys gain experience and become better operators, which is a big part of any field operation. We tried different antenna types, from an off-center fed dipole to verticals to plain old speaker wire from Walmart, tuned as a random wire.
I brought my charcoal grill and some meat, and a couple other folks brought food to grill. Bringing food and grilling it is a cheap and effective way to feed everyone what they want to eat for an outdoor event. The only snag was when we didn’t secure the leftovers well enough, and a local kitty cat got into it. We still had plenty left, and that cat ate like a king.
The club rig had some rig control issues after many hours, but otherwise it performed very well. The random wire antenna I was running on the Kenwood let too much RF get into the external keyer on higher bands, and it kept sending extra dits and dahs, so I had to run my paddle as a straight key for the last hour or so of the event. Note to self, bring a backup straight key next time!
We had ups and downs, but we accomplished a lot, and we’re taking what we learned to ARRL Field Day in the summer!
73, Mike Kelly KY4LV
Yaesu FT-710Club President Josh, W3JKBSteve, KI4WJGClub Vice President, KY4LV, waking up from a napExcellent and affordable ham radio headphonesSetting up a vertical antennaSetting up a vertical antennaSetting up a vertical antennaLate night WFD operationsThe club rig, a Kenwood TS-50S, set up for digial and CWThe club station running JS8CallKY4LV running JS8Call on 40mAnother shot of the club rig running 40m JS8CallUsing a paddle as a straight keyLate night WFD operationsOh ham of the wall, speak your wisdomGrilling delicious meats!Grilling delicious meats!Grilling delicious meats!Steve at the 10m stationJosh, Scott, and SteveGeorge, KX4WZ, running 15m phoneVarious goings on outside.Mark, KN4JXL, running the 15m stationA wide view of the JCAR WFD operating areaSteve and his 2m stationGeorge and Mark, best budsJCAR made a brand new ham at Winter Field Day!At the very begnning of setup.
Jackson County Amateur Radio is participating in Winter Field Day 27th-28th January at the Stevenson City Park Pavilion (https://maps.app.goo.gl/avemEiYvC8vv8qvb8). Our goal is to operate up to four stations for up to 24 hours. The number of stations and duration of operations depends on you! Please follow the link below to fill out the WFD registration form: https://forms.gle/CQWCs2khTauf9Bxa8
JCAR will be having demonstrations suitable for all experience levels prior to WFD, starting at 0900 26 January 2024.Setup begins at 1100. WFD starts at 1300 and goes until 1259 27 January 2024. Tear down will begin at 1300. All times are CST. Even if you aren’t interested in operating, your presence is greatly appreciated during setup, tear down, and throughout field day if you want to learn more about field operations. You do not have to be a club member or even a licensed amateur to be part of WFD.
If you want to camp overnight, the city of Stevenson charges $30 per campsite with water and electricity. A couple of club members will likely reserve a couple campsites for others to use.
We will be operating outdoors. You should bring space heaters, either electric, kerosene, propane, any that don’t use an open flame. We will have a designated warming area for the safety of those out there in case someone gets too cold. Dress according to the weather and you will most likely have a very comfortable and enjoyable experience.
If you want to bring any off-grid power sources, WFD is the perfect time to try them out. It’s okay if they fail. We will have outlets available.
We will be using K4SCO exclusively during WFD. Operators can log using any method they choose, but the logs must be legible and must contain all required WFD information: Call sign, class, category, location identifier, frequency, date, and UTC time. Familiarize yourself with the WFD rules here: https://winterfieldday.org/rules.php
Please be respectful of the operators while they are making contacts. If you want to talk to an operator, be patient and wait until they have a free moment. If you want to hang out and have a conversation, please take it somewhere away from the operators. You’ll be asked to leave if you repeatedly distract or interfere with an operator.
There will be food and beverages if you bring them. There will likely be coffee, water, sodas, and snacks brought for all by the operators. Want grilled meats? Bring a grill and meats. Bring your smoker and get a nice brisket going. There are several places to eat nearby, and anywhere that delivers food will most likely deliver to the park.
One of the most important things you can do if you can’t make it out to Winter Field Day at all is to make contact with our stations. You help the operators and the club by working the club once per band and mode.
A few JCAR Members were in attendance at the DeKalb County Hamfest this Saturday. Congratulations to Craig for passing his Technician test and becoming our newest Ham and to Richard KB4RMA for winning a radio!
The 147.36 repeater has been relocated back to the Section area in preparation for the severe weather season. This new location will be it’s home for up to a year while work continues on finding a permanent home and tower site in the area. Below are pictures taken from both days showing the tower construction and installation. Click an image to see the full-size version.
Jackson County ARES/RACES and Amateur Radio Club were present at the annual Jackson County Fair this year. The booth was fully operational each night with VHF, UHF, HF, Digital, and Satellite Tracking stations. Saturday evening was also the Boy Scouts of America annual workshop where our members demonstrated Amateur Radio to the Scouts and Scout Leaders including portable operation, Go-Boxes, and Digital Modes.
If you have any additional pictures to add please send them to K4NHA.
