It’s a Wrap – JARC Field Day 2021

Imagine making 800 to 900 US and over seas contacts using CW, SSB and FT8, good food, clubhouse stations and a field station constantly on the air, members working field day using various stations from home, and good crop of members at the clubhouse talking about everything radio, showing gear, planning projects, and building radios.

For those folks who stepped into radio mania at the  JARC clubhouse, that was no dream as JARC and the New Orleans metro played its part in a grand way for 2021 Field Day.

What Is Field Day

Established in 1933, Field Day serves as a radio exercise giving the United States amateur radio community a nation-wide event to test and work emergency communication systems.  Between 40,000 and 50,000 operators participate in the event each year.  Field Day in the U.S. occurs on the fourth full weekend of June, beginning at 18:00 UTC Saturday and running through 20:59 UTC Sunday.  Operators setup stations at clubhouses, in the field, at home locations, and government emergency operation centers.  To add to the realism, operators will typically power radio and supporting systems with emergency generators.

To gauge how well operators and operating stations perform the event includes a friendly competitive dimension.  Points are awarded for a variety elements that include, preparation, promotion/publicity, engaging with the public and local officials, safety,  and the number and type of contacts made.

Final Prep and Commencement

On Friday night, Liz(KG5ONB) and Brian(KG5GJT) started preparations with the setup of the breakfast items at the clubhouse for members arriving on Saturday morning.  Saturday morning, Chuck (NO5W), Doug(WF5O), Chris(W5CMM), Bill(WF9M), Ron(KG5LQ), Nick(W4NDF), and Greg(K5DEU) made final preparations with antennas, radios, emergency power, and safety protocols as the clock moved ever closer to Field Day’s official start time.  The 20 and 40 meter bands were already abuzz with operators prepping, testing, and trying to jockey for a sliver of spectrum in advance of the 1800UTC start time.

At the appointed time, JARC operators in the clubhouse went into gear initially on CW and FT8.  The field station dedicated itself to SSB.  Later in the day and evening, operators in the clubhouse hit SSB and and FT8.  In the early afternoon, Brandon (W5BDW) delivered on the goods with delectable servings of smoked pulled pork and baked beans prepared personally by him.  It’s fair to say there was nary an empty stomach to be had in the house.

In the evening hours, several members continued with operations within the clubhouse. On Sunday morning, operations picked-up again until 1:00pm with the formal conclusion of the event.

In terms of operations, club operators and the field stations used N1MM+ to record contacts.  Members stood-up a wireless data link between clubhouse and field station to ensure proper contact recording to reduce or eliminate duplicate contacts.  Thanks to Mike (KB5OZE)on supplying equipment and the initial configuration for the wireless link, and Doug (WF50) for completing the setup.  A special thanks goes to Andre(KI5BBO) for his efforts to setup – using his on mobile station gear –  and manage, field station operations for the club.

Members throughout the day and evening rotated on the FT8 and CW/SSB stations. Some members such as Ryan(KI5NMJ), Bob(N5VJC), Ethan(KF5VOI), and Alton were new to the Field Day event.  Others such as Jim(N5HZ), Doug(WF5O), Chuck(NO5W), Nick(W4NDF), Bill(WF9M), Natalie(KI5CTQ), Brian (KG5GJT), Sven (Ki5CNE), Greg(K5DEU), Seth(K2DIW) Andre(KI5BBO), Chris(W5CMM), and Ron(KG5LQ) earned the right to put another notch on their belts for helping to usher in another successfull Field Day.  Louis (KG5FRR) a JARC member and one of seven members of the famous Rare Ones of New Orleans talked shop with with fellow operators at the clubhouse.  These were just a few of the members and visitors who coursed through the club or stopped by the field station throughout the event.

Folks took advantage of the large gathering of operators to compare notes on equipment, acquisition of equipment, contacts made and the the rare DX contacts they almost made, operating tips and theories, electronics, modes, antennas, projects, and proposed trips, potential POTA, IOTA, and SOTA activations .  .  .   the topics were endless.

The club utilized its ICOM 7300 for dedicated FT8 QSOs, the Flex 3000 for CW and SSB contacts, and the field station relied on the iconic Yaesu FT-891 for SSB. Club stations had their choice of the 6 – 40 meter vertical, 40/80 meter inverted-V, 10/15/20 classic, and a multi-bad end-fed antenna.

Future Stories

Stay tuned for the following future stores/reports; Ryan (KI5NMJ), has plans to travel west to scale some mountains in the west and do some activations with his cool Electracraft KX3 rig. and Alton has just received his brand new Yaesu FT-991A all-bands rig.

Photos To Share

If you have photos of Field Day 2021 that you would like to share, please contact Ron(KG5LQ) or Greg(K5DEU)

By Greg(K5DEU)