Fishing In the Woods: Looking for Radio Signals

This was the first Winter Field Day that justified a reason to purchase an ice fishing tent.

The tent manufacturer claims you can set this up in under a few minutes and pack it up even quicker.  Lets see what the breakdown looks like.

 

Inside the Tent:  Gear needed

We all like lists right?  Here is what was in use in the photo below.

• Icom IC-705

• Emtech ZM-2 Manual QRP Tuner

• Heil HTHD-Y headset

• Lenovo T495 laptop

• 12aH DIY LiPoFe4 battery pack

• Polaroid Brand Travel Tripod

(Photo Courtesy:  Ken Campbell AD2T)

Excluding the table, chair and propane heater, this was a minimal operation which proved pretty comfortable even in the low temperatures during Winter Field Day.

The goal was to operate 10m or 15m  PSK31, JS8CALL or SSTV but most of the time it seemed that FT8 was more popular, so that would not count for Winter Field Day. Too bad!!   The 15m band was wide open which was really nice.  A few contacts were made on 40m SSB, hence the need for the headset.

Antenna Questions

A 40m Off Center Fed home made dipole was used with good success.  This design allows for 40m, 15m and 10m operation without really needing the tuner..  One leg of the dipole is 44 feet and the other is 22ft.  At the center point is a 4:1 DIY balun.  The antenna center was mounting with velcro ties on the 20ft orange Jackite fiberglass mast.   

The mast was secured to the ground with a ground stake and length of PVC pipe which the mast simply slides over.  The longer end of the dipole was attached to a nearby tree with a length of paracord.  The shorter end was attached to an artificial tree known as a tripod.

Even with heavy winds, the antenna system as expected maintained upright for the 24 hour event in the frigid cold!

This antenna system works great and easily stows in a bag designed for audio equipment.  Many other accessories for additional HF and VHF antenna also fit in this bag along with a few 25 and 50 foot RG-8X feedlines. 

I would estimate that my entire antenna kit which includes the storage bag, surplus tripod (RIP KE2EJ), feedlines, support stake, full wave 2m loop, Arrow II antenna, 40m OCF, 10m-17m-20m-30m linked dipole,  End Fed 40m/80 and a few other odds and ends cost less than $200.  This is a lot of antenna gear for different applications mostly meant for POTA operations and not SOTA activity which is much smaller scale.

(Photo Courtesy:  Ken Campbell AD2T)

An article like this can get really long if I wanted to detail how to set up Wi-Fi on the Icom IC-705 to talk to the laptop with virtual com ports and audio cables, but there are great tutorials on YouTube which cover that already.  

The only issue I really ran into which continues to be a level of annoyance is that the "705" has such a broad front end that semi decent antennae can easily overload things, so backing the RF gain down is a good idea.  

Nearby strong out of band signals also are problematic and an external band pass filter will be needed for the 705 to perform better during group special events like Hudson River Radio Relay coming up in June..

Last year during that event, the 705 on the 6m band was useless when nearby 20m or 40m CW and SSB activity was taking place.

Not really sure if this article answered any questions for anyone, but it was fun setting this up for Winter Field Day and spending some time playing radio plus teaching others about how to set up a minimal self contained field station.

Recipe for Success: What is RTTY?

Radioteletype or "RTTY" is a digital data mode that allows text to be sent over radio and has been around since the 1930's.   

Before RTTY signals were sent over wireless, teletype was used going back to the mid 1800's which makes this one of the oldest modes of non-spoken communication, just like Morse Code.

Within amateur radio, RTTY is commonly sent on HF bands by using 45.45 baud at 170 Hz shift width along with a mark frequency of 2125.  It is also possible to use RTTY on all other bands such as the popular 2m band and at even greater speed. What does this all mean?  Lets find out.....

RTTY Basics

The term "baud rate" is used to explain how many words per minute can be sent and there are 60 (45.45 baud), 67 (50 baud), 75 (56.25 baud) and 100 (75 baud) options as standard within amateur radio.  

Here is where sending large amounts of data really started thanks to RTTY since even trying to speak more than 60 words a minute may be a challenge for many people.

If you think about how that translates to 1200 baud which is what APRS uses, or the last generation of "dial up internet modems" in the late 1990's which used 56,000 baud and now, all the way to modern broadband which would be too fast to even easily think about, RTTY sounds pretty interesting, right?

Some of the earliest RTTY activity took place just down the Hudson River on Long Island and a brief history is available on the RTTY Wikipedia page.  Lets keep building on our regional history by keeping RTTY alive! 

Here is what a RTTY signal would look like and how the "mark" and "space" are visualized.

Each of the signal peaks are one of opposing tones that help identity bits in the symbols being sent which translate to letters, numbers and special characters.

While there are more efficient modes of "keyboard to keyboard" communication available today, RTTY is not only reliable, but easy to be sent with basic equipment.

We learned with SSTV experimentation during the weekly UNDR Net in September 2021 over the 146.805 MHz repeater operated by the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club, its possible to send images, so now its time to send some text.

RTTY takes up around 250 Hz of receiver bandwidth if your radio is set for 170 Hz shift between the high and low tones. This is more than ok if you plan on sending RTTY over FM since a typical signal is 25 kHz wide, so there is more than enough room to send RTTY over FM.

The year 2021:  Why RTTY?

While RTTY is mainly used during special contests or between just a few friends, its still a mode that is worth keeping in your communications tool box.

A benefit of audio frequency shift key (AFSK) based modes is that they are easy to decode simply by holding a smartphone near your radio speaker. You can even send RTTY by holding the microphone of your radio near the speaker on your smartphone.

Better results can be had with a wired interface like the Easy Digi device for use with most any handheld radio or the Masters Communications Model RA-40. 

Some radios even include a built in decoder for RTTY like the Icom IC-7000, IC-7100 and IC-705. 

As we learned by sending the PD50 SSTV mode which takes about one minute over FM,  this should mean we can send at least 60 words of text or more in the same time using RTTY.  This capability could be very useful in certain situations where accuracy counts and a digital signal is better than speaking.

What if we wanted to share Uncle Grants Field Day Chili recipe over the air?  

According to the below photo courtesy of the ARRL, this recipe page has 313 words and it may actually be quicker sending a recipe like this over RTTY compared to multiple smaller sectional photos sent over PD50 SSTV or one higher resolution photo using the PD290 SSTV which would take almost 5 minutes!

The above recipe can certainly be condensed and reformatted for more "human readable" reception if sent over RTTY.

This will be one of our first tests in sending some interesting information using RTTY in the month of November during the UNDR Net.

If you are interested in joining our experiments, feel free to come up with your own interpretation of the above recipe and lets see who can transmit it the fastest that is human readable on the receiving end. 

Please join us every Tuesday at 8:00 PM Eastern US time in the month of November to listen in or participate with what we are doing each evening with RTTY.

IMPORTANT:   Starting December 6th 2021, UNDR Net will be moving to Monday 8:00 PM 

Winter Field Day 2021: How was it?

January 30th and January 31st of 2021 marked the 4th annual Winter Field Day which the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club participated in. It also marked the first year that Hudson Valley Digital Network (HVDN) was invited to participate in the event and was the first time, due to COVID, that we operated as a group under the pavilion instead of the cabin at Ferncliff Forest in Rhinebeck, NY.

This year rather then setting up antenna in advance on the Friday before Winter Field Day which starts at 2:00 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, we started to setup our scaled back operation at 9:00 AM Saturday morning.

Even with the single digit temperatures for much of the morning, we made short work in getting the fire going and setting up the generator, radios and antenna.

The goal of all this planning was to attempt to make long distance contacts across the US and beyond using amateur radio spectrum under tough conditions while using emergency power, temporary antenna and easy to set up radio stations.

WFD 2021 plan of attack

The plan was to only operate on the 15m, 20m and 40m bands from 2:00 PM until about 5:00 PM Saturday and then resume operations the following morning and until about 2:00 PM when Winter Field Day ended.

This year due to COVID and cold temperatures, it was hard to make as many contacts from Ferncliff Forest compared to years past and our new digital station proved not up to the task when it came to typing with gloves, so the only contacts that K2OMD were on SSB. 

We did however anticipate that the conditions this year would be a challenge and we set up a remote logging server for those to participate in Winter Field Day from home incase they did not wish to join those that were willing to spend a few hours outside with facemasks, gloves and cold feet.

Under tough conditions, as a group we collected 26 contacts thanks to three OMARC members who used the remote logging system and another 30 during our time at Ferncliff Forest.

Not just CQ CQ CQ WFD DE K2OMD 3O ENY

During the warmest part of the day on Saturday, a few brave souls participated in a mini Fox Hunt at around 3:00 PM Saturday.  This proved a good opportunity to further refine group skills in locating a hidden transmitter using a variety of antenna and other radio direction finding equipment. A basic overview of radio direction finding and our nice informational card can be found here that will also be part of future RDF events.

For everyone involved, it seemed that an enjoyable time was had by all who attended.  Courtesy of CJ KD2IIN, there is a nice short video further highlighting the operating conditions during this frigid version of Winter Field Day.

There were way too many people to thank that made this event possible this year, but we are glad that we had such a great team helping to make this a success and lets hope that the 2022 version will be warmer and without a pandemic to deal with.

Hacking in USB CAT control to the Kenwood TS-50

The Kenwood TS-50 was a great radio in its day and still holds its own against modern radios over 30 years later.

When Kenwood released this mobile 100W HF radio back in 1993, it was in the early days of modern computer aided transceiver or CAT evolution.  

This article explains how to add USB based CAT control to a vintage Kenwood TS-50 and maybe squeeze some extra life out of this great radio when it comes to digital modes.

Gathering Supplies

The bottom of the TS-50 has a small removable plastic disk that allows the user to access a 6 pin connector which the no longer available (and expensive) Kenwood IF-10D computer interface connected to along with the also expensive (and no longer available) Kenwood IF-232C serial converter.  

The original Kenwood IF-232C accessory permitted the inverted TTL communications native on the TS-50 to work via standard RS-232 serial communications at a blazing 4800 baud which is more than fine for simple communications between a radio and computer.

While there are some other aftermarket solutions still available in 2020, there is a cheaper way.

For less than $20 in parts, you can add modern CAT control to your TS-50 for easier use of digital communication modes like PSK31, FT-8, FT-4, JS8CALL and so much more. 

We will also not need to be removing that little plastic disk, so leave that alone.

To add modern USB CAT control to a Kenwood TS-50 you will need:

• CP2104 USB-TTL UART Serial Adapter
• JST ZH 1.5MM 6 Pin Female Single Connector with Flat Wires
• Some ingenuity to mount the CP2104 in your TS-50

Both items can be easily sourced via Amazon.com and you will even end up with 9 more sets of wires and matting PCB mount connectors that you can save for some other projects. Mounting inspiration is illustrated and detailed below.  

A small donation from the purchase link of either item is also headed to the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club located in the Hudson Valley to help them maintain its famous 146.805 analog FM repeater and to add to its treasury for future additions like a DMR repeater or advanced APRS digipeater plus support great events like ARRL Field Day, Winter Field Day and other special outdoor events.

Connections on the TS-50

The below photo diagram illustrates which  of the six pins on the Kenwood TS-50 offers what function.

On the CP2104 USB-TTL UART serial adapter, we are going to need to attach the following wires.

For this to work, matching up the TX to the RX and RX to TX pins are needed between both devices.

While some other less detailed guides made it seem that only the TX, RX and GND pins were needed, on the recommended UART serial adapter, we also need to connect the 5V line for a total of 4 wires used. The remaining two wires from the 6 pin pigtail were just left for future use and taped up.

You will see the onboard green LED blink to show that communication is happening between the radio, TTL adapter and computer. You will not be able to see this LED since it will be hidden inside your radio if you install it the way that I did.

Mounting the CP2104 inside the TS-50

After removing all the outside case screws, go ahead and remove both covers of the TS-50.  You may wish to use a piece of painters tape to hold the TS-50 speaker in place while you flip the radio chassis over.

There are not many places to put the TTL adapter inside the Kenwood TS-50 unless you want wires hanging out of the TS-50 which looks messy and unsafe, so now is the time to get organized. If you wish to be neat with this modification, you will need to cut a hole into the side of your TS-50 on the side of the bottom cover.

The support bracket  for the TTL adapter was fashioned out of a brass corner bracket on hand and was insulated with a piece of heat shrink to ensure the metal to did not contact any PCB traces on the bottom of the TTL adapter.

Some zip ties were used to hold the TTL adapter in place, but another piece of heat shrink was used during final assembly to hold things in place. A screw and double nut were also used to attach the bracket to the radio for mechanical strength, but this is optional if you trust glue 100%.

Finally, some epoxy was used to fill up some small gaps left behind from cutting the TS-50 case so that the TTL adapter PCB can add additional structure to the finished modification.

To complete the assembly, simply route the connector end of the 6 pin wire between the front face and main chassis near where shown below.

You can then plug the connector into the radio and reassemble your radio carefully.

If cutting a hole in the side of the bottom cover of your radio, be sure to make sure your mounting bracket or the TTL adapter will not accidently squish board level components such as the picture toroid's.

Using the TS-50 CAT Upgrade

When using software like FLdigi, you can use the "hamlib" for control and select the TS-50 from the menu of supported radios. This is the easier path for CAT control. 

Be sure to set your speed to 4800 baud and you select the correct COM port. Most other settings should be automatically found when using FLdigi and most other software.

After you have the software configured, then go ahead and power up your radio after connecting the USB cable to the TS-50 and into the USB micro port. 

You should be easily be able to change frequency on the radio and have it track correctly in your software of choice. 

Using a TS-50 on digital modes with CAT control

Adding CAT control only offers control of frequency and some other basic functions of your TS-50.  This upgrade does not route any transmit or receive audio, nor does it offer PTT control.

It is possible to use the TTL adapter and a simple 4N26 optocoupler with the CTS wire to add on PTT, but its possible to accidently trigger transmit while the radio powers up or down when the USB wire is connected between the radio and computer, so this feature was left out of this article on purpose. If you wish to enable this convenience, that is up to you.

You can follow this article by HB9AMO  to add PTT if you wish and by using the extra wires we taped up before from the 6 pin connector.  

Routing of audio signals and PTT is done via the 8 pin microphone connector through your interface of choice such as a Rigblaster, Signalink or something like those devices.

 Summary

So now that we have near total control of the TS-50 using only two sets of wires, one for CAT and one for audio/PTT, the old Kenwood TS-50 is much easier to use for digital modes. 

It was decided that the Kenwood TS-50 was the perfect radio to use as part of an inexpensive dedicated digital data station for the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club and joint HVDN special events. 

Given that the radio, computer, power supply, antenna tuner came from inventories held by both organizations, this was the perfect project to show how old and new can be used together to aid in digital awareness of amateur radio in the Hudson Valley and beyond.

If you enjoyed this radio, please support HVDN or OMARC with a small donation via the links below:

Support the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club - 501.c3 charitable organization

Join Hudson Valley Digital Network as a supporting member

And, if you happen to be looking for a great portable case for your own go kit digital or otherwise, the Kenwood TS-50 along with its supporting cast of support components as a self contained digital station has a new home in this great 4U Gator Case and if purchased, a small donation also goes to the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club too!  

You can see this in action at the upcoming COVID compliant Winter Field Day event at Ferncliff Forest in Rhinebeck between the hours of 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM Saturday January 30th and from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Sunday January 31st 2021.

RDF in the HV with OMARC and HVDN

As the article title suggests, the recent radio direction finding (RDF) event in the Hudson Valley (HV) thanks to both the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club (OMARC) and Hudson Valley Digital Network (HVDN) was a fun time to be socially distanced and educational simultaneously.

Here is a summary of the first "Fox Hunt" to take place in northern Dutchess County since COVID-19 disrupted normalcy while using directional antennae to find a hidden transmitter.

Did we find Alf at Ferncliff Forrest?

Funny things happen when amateur radio operators invade local nature preserves when waving around strange looking antenna contraptions.

The goal of this joint radio direction finding event between two great organizations and its membership was to hide a remotely controlled transmitter box known as a "Fox" and participants were going to try to find it/catch it somewhere in the well maintained Ferncliff Forest Game Preserve located in Rhinebeck, NY. 

Ahead of the hunt which took place on November 21st, many hunters constructed a directional antenna known as a Yagi which was optimized for finding the location of transmitters thanks to Joe WB2HOL, formerly of the Hudson Valley and charter member of the Putnam Emergency & Amateur Radio League (PEARL) club before relocating to warmer weather in North Carolina.  

Made from inexpensive materials such as PVC pipe and discarded tape measures, each hunter was able to find the peak and null of the hidden transmitter to help find which direction to travel and be the first to find the transmitter hidden which was inside a common case found at Harbor Freight Tools. 

While conducting some pre-event education in the parking lot and during the hunt, a number of families who were out enjoying the day commented about our antennae and some children thought we were looking for aliens when they heard the signal coming from each hunters radio. 

1st Hunt Near Success Story

Steve K2GOG was the organizer of the event and was tasked with hiding the fox after a basic  demonstration of antenna and radio direction finding theory for those who would go and try and find the transmitter.

Beyond the easy to build Yagi antenna designed for the amateur radio 2m wavelength band at a frequency of 146.565 MHz, Steve showed off other options he has used such as a handheld TDOA from Rainbow Kits (Time Delay of Arrival) and UHF half Egg Beater, of Steve K2GOG own design and inspiration for the HVDN HASviolet antenna V1 on 900 MHz.

Lloyd K2JVX brought his Arrow DF loop antenna which amazed other attendees at how small it was. Rob W2RWS was eager to try his Arrow II antenna and its 70cm capability for tuning to the harmonic of the transmitter found on 439.965 MHz. All these mentioned types of antennae are easy to build or purchase and each offers unique benefits and challenges when used for RDF.

The hidden transmitter was based around the combination of a Byonics Piccon V2 and a Lanch HG-UV98 radio. This arrangement provided the primary ability to remotely control the transmitter by sending a DTMF tone to sequence the transmitter which sent out a combined set of random tones followed by a cryptic Morse code message on 146.565 MHz that the hunters used to find the fox. 

The secondary ability was to also transmit an APRS beacon on 446.500 MHz which allowed GPS, temperature and voltage to be sent back to Steve K2GOG should the fox become abducted by someone or malfunction in some way.

Lloyd K2JVX was the first to find the transmitter hidden towards the rear of the pond.  Rob W2RWS was close behind and both hunters almost found the fox before it stopped responding to command codes, which meant a rescue operation was needed.

Bob KD2QAK used a different method to find the fox by taking signal readings at known locations and plotted the direction of the signal on a map. He drew lines to see where they intersected and clearly defined the general area where he thought the signal was coming from.

This first hunt was very successful as it taught everyone that multiple techniques and equipment could be used to find the general location of a fox, but the strong 1 watt signal actually made it hard to find the fox as each hunter got pretty close to it, even within the last 15 feet. Other equipment designed for closer detection was needed.

Attention about attenuation

While a 1 watt signal radiated from a simple Radioshack telescoping antenna sounds like it would be easy to find, its strength made it hard for all hunters, so a demonstration using a dummy load as the antenna was done to show how to better tune to the null of the fox or how to attenuate the received signal through the use of methods like the "body fade" method using a standard rubber duck or better design or selection of antenna or receivers.

Certain radios like the Kenwood TH-D74 and Icom IC-R20 seemed to work the best due to advanced attenuation and  RF gain features. Much more inexpensive radios like the Yaesu FT-70DR, Yaesu FT-4XR did not due as well since the receivers in them were easily overloaded by strong local signals. 

Guy KD2TLF found success by tuning away 10 or more kHz away from the actual signal to attenuate the signal in his Yaesu FT-4XR while both Bob and Zina focused on using the harmonic and null to get closer to the fox with the FT-70DR. 

We also learned as a group that the dummy load Steve used radiated its signal horizontally compared to the RadioShack antenna which was vertically polarized. This knowledge may come in handy for the future to confuse future hunters.

Walk in the woods: 2nd hunt results

As Lloyd found the first fox, he was elected to hide the transmitter for the next round. After an unexpected malfunction with an external blinking safety light on the fox, the hunt was declared open season and the hunters took off to see where Lloyd hid the fox.

Steve K2GOG decided it may be an unfair advantage to use some of his more advanced tools like the TDOA array or even his specialty field strength meter, so he started the hunt using nothing more than the standard rubber duck with his Kenwood TH-D74 and relied upon the body fade method of signal detection.  

He got his bearing by holding the radio close to his front and rotated around until the signal decreased towards his rear.  Walking another 15-20 away, he took another bearing and did this every so often to see if he was headed in the right direction.

Not too much later, he came across Ken KD2TQS (Official event photographer) who had followed Lloyd into the woods to hide the fox.  Steve knew he was getting close and pressed onward.  

Soon after Steve got to a location that the transmitter must be close to, he found Lloyd sitting on a nearby log having a snack.   Just after a few minutes later while trying to get closer to the fox, Rob W2RWS and Guy KD2TLF showed up from a different direction trying hard to find the fox.

Because Lloyd was tricky in where he hid the fox next to a thick tree that was tilting over at about a 30 degree angle and some rocks that are known to contain iron ore, it took the 3 hunters more than 20 minutes to find the fox which was covered with leaves and its antenna just barely poking out.

Steve followed by Rob and Guy finally found the fox and we decided to call it a day after roughly 3 hours and 10,000 steps in Ferncliff Forest. 

Final words

After the group met back up with Bill KD2UEN and Zina KD2UEO back at the parking lot, some prizes were awarded to commemorate the event.  An offset attenuator kit courtesy of KC9ON was awarded to Rob, a dual band rubber duck was given to Lloyd and a set of orange and black zipties were given to all other participants.

Much was learned during this on foot fox hunt and the day was enjoyed by all who came out to brave the nice weather and clean air away from home.

We are going to be planning future events like this and weather permitting, the next fox hunt will likely take place during the Winter Field Day event that OMARC has done the past few years.

Please visit the 146.805 MHz repeater broadcasting from high atop Overlook Mountain in Hurley NY to talk to those mentioned in this article and to learn about Winter Field Day 2021 or other OMARC activities. 

OMARC/HVDN Fox Hunters pictured right to left are Guy KD2TLF, Zina KD2UEO, Bill KD2UEN, Rob W2RWS, Lloyd K2JVX and Steve K2GOG

WFD 2020: Hudson Valley & OMARC Edition

Part of the OMARC "Over Night" team. Pictured, counterclockwise:  Aaron KC2NDA (Flex 6300), Alan KD2HLX, Doc KJ2DOC, Mike KB2AQW,  "JR" KA2TMU  and  Kate KD2RYD. Photo taken by Steve K2GOG.

2020 marked the 3rd annual  Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club participation in Winter Field Day.  This non-ARRL sanctioned contest style event has challenged and inspired the United States amateur radio community through different sets of goals where amateur radio capabilities can be tested in bad weather in most parts of the country the last weekend each January.

This article captures the essence of this fantastic event and its opportunity to not only hone amateur radio skills but to also engage with the public about the convergence and modern relevancy of amateur radio today.

OMARC WFD 2020 Summary

This year, the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club set up four HF stations for making contact during Winter Field Day from Ferncliff Forest in Rhinebeck, New York.

OMARC is the only Hudson valley region club running a winter field day operation and continues to grow its list of achievements and accomplishments. A full list of known participants can be viewed here.

The major goals for this year  for OMARC were to add PSK31 and CW modes on HF to generate more points beyond our normal "voice only" operation and to also be ready to have at least two stations on the air at the start of the official contest time of 2:00 PM Eastern US time.













WFD HF Antenna Fun

"Hey Dave K2JLV, is that an antenna?"  The green wire was leftover from the inverted L.  It looks like it should be re-purposed as another 20m vertical for 2021 WFD  (L-R, Dave K2JLV, David KD2MQE)

80m+ Inverted L:  70ft wire fed at the ground with a 4:1 balun with an LDG RT-100 auto-tuner protected from the elements in the "hobbit house".  The 90 degree angle was at the 35 foot mark and then sent horizontal another 35 foot.  Goal for this antenna was 80m operation to fill in pattern gaps from the inverted V 40m/80m dipole and to also act as a general purpose all band antenna.  We fed it with almost 400 feet of LMR400. 

Charles KD2BID and Steve K2GOG positioning one leg of the 80m/40m dipole for OMARC WFD2020

40m/80m Inverted V Dipole:   We spent the most time making sure this antenna was set up correctly and was oriented to provide north south coverage in the US. The center of the dipole had a 1:1 balun and 15 inch spreaders to keep the 40m and 80m wire elements isolated from each other.  This antenna was fed with 250 feet of LMR400.

David KD2MQE and JR KA2TMU using a sling shot to position an end rope for the other end of the 80m/40m dipole to pull it up past an annoying tree branch. No, they are not hunting for "sqweeeeeerl" 

10m/15m/20m Aluminum trap dipole:  Hung up in a tree about 60 foot high almost directly over the pathway to the immediate right of the cabin. This antenna was fed with about 100 feet of  LMR400.


20m Wire vertical: Suspended from a tree and the feed-point of the antenna was about 15 feet from the ground with its two radials held in place at 45 degree angles. This antenna was fed with about 100 feet of  LMR400.

OMARC WFD 2020 HF Radio Discussion

This year we operated as "Four Oscar" status per the official rules and used the following radios.

• Flex 6300
• Icom IC-725
• Icom IC-718
• Yaesu FT-450

A Kenwood TH-D74 was used for our AO-91 satellite contact and a Yaesu FT-450 was used for our PSK31 contacts on 20m.

Doc KJ2DOC fine tuning his "Military Go Box"  to get it just right for a weekend of radio operation at OMARC WFD2020

Dave K2JLV learning about PSK31 from Bob KD2QAK. Looking onward was Winn KD2HAF and Bob, a curious drone enthusiast who came with Winn and Ted K2MKD to his first Winter Field Day experience

Powered by OMARC: Doing it the safe way!

Newly elected OMARC VP, Alan KD2HLX confirming generator operation along with OMARC President Dave K2JLV. Nice work guys!

Keeping the generators far away from the radio shack and proper grounding eliminates any interference or noise when trying to receive weak signals on the HF frequency bands.

This Kingston, New York based club has made considerable investments in its generators and being able to run them continuously thanks to external fuel tanks. 

The first year the club ran WFD, they realized a need for some higher wattage generators to run electric heaters and also made sure we always use non-ethanol fuel.  

Even though there are no gas stations in Dutchess County that carry this fuel, its worth the extra trip across into Ulster to get this higher grade and better quality gas to keep the generators running perfectly.

CJ KD2IIN and Dave K2JLV inspecting the generators late at night Saturday. Needs more cow bell!

OMARC WFD 2020 Satellite Contact Discussion

Steve K2GOG again focused on getting the club its 1500 extra points for making one satellite contact. This year he was successful during the Sunday 10:03 AM EST pass of AO-91 thanks to a low elevation contact with Dana VE1VOX about 750 miles north east in Nova Scotia.

Everyone else looking for satellite contacts seemed to be creating a traffic jam again on AO-92 which was passing over at the same time! 

The prior evening, AO-92 and SO-50 were also packed with contacts trying to score points for Winter Field Day and Steve was not able to bust through the pile up to make a qualified contact.

The audio recording was made with the digital recorder that is built into the Kenwood TH-D74, but I forgot to set it to record both sides of audio, which is why you do not hear me ask "Are you participating in WFD?" in which Dana says, no he is not and just having some fun in the rain. This was then followed by me comment on everyone else being on AO-92 and I appreciate the nice contact with him.

Steve K2GOG making contact via AO-91 with Dana VE1VOX to earn 1500 points for WFD. 
Kate KD2RYD was kind enough to capture the moment . 

Wait, there was a movie filmed at WFD?

C.J KD2IIN, who runs the Farming and Gardening Net but now recently re-branded as the Sunday Evening All Things Natural Net took a nice video that he posted on his popular Farmacy Seeds Network YouTube channel. For those unable to make WFD, this may give a better glimpse into the shenanigans that happen at the event.

OMARC WFD 2020 Moments & Miracles

Starting around noon Saturday was the expected sleet and freezing rain, which was right on time! The good news was OMARC was ready to get on the air before the official start time of 2:00 PM. A few hours later, former OMARC President Ted K2MKD and a few others needed to leave and Steve K2GOG was kind enough to give them a ride down the trail to avoid getting wet.

Miracle #1: Rather than spend a few minutes to get out of the car to unlock the gate to turn around, Steve decided to do a three point turn that did not go as planned. The ice and rain created some pretty bad road conditions and he slid off the road, but safely navigated to a spot that would allow Master Yoda to use the Force to pull him from the icy trail side muck. 

Reality Check:   Mark from T and N Towing came by to assist with a flat bed tow truck and masterful winch skills to free Steve's RAV4. Not a single scratch happened thanks to Jedi like diligence and focus at the controls. Thanks Mark!! 

Stuck in mud , are you, hmmm yes?

Drive carefully one must during Winter Field Day 

Moment #2:

Kate KD2RYD attempted to get a few hours (minutes?) of sleep in her hammock slung under her ultralight tarp.

Miracle #3:    No one put graffiti on the N2HVD "Alice" camera that Steve K2GOG constructed.  The goal was to share and control video from on top of the Ferncliff Fire Tower. Due to technical difficulty on the ground, the 900 MHz link was not making contact, but local access over 2.4 GHz was possible.  A version 2.0 is being planned for the next event at Ferncliff Forest that does not weigh 14 pounds!  More about this in another soon to publish article.

Moment #4:  The OMARC team continues to do a great job showing the best way to run generators by following proper safety at all times.

Miracle #5:   Our new sign for Winter Field Day was still standing by the end of the event!

Miracle #6:  Not a single person went hungry or without a hot drink for the duration of the event.  Pizza, donuts, coffee and tea kept everyone running at top performance levels. Saturday night, Dave K2JLV cooked burgers and dogs, but no pictures of that seem to exist!

Charles KD2BID keeping a close eye on the coffee and tea pots. Cold pizza anyone?

Please visit the official Facebook page for more pictures and details about the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club Winter Field Day. Hope to see you next year for another OMARC WFD!

               

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