Activities: Auction | Campout Party 2023 | Digital Systems | DX & Contests | Emergency Communications | Field Day | Holiday Banquet | Nets on MDARC Systems | Nets on Other Systems | Vehicles
Photos by: Pete KE6ZIW, David WA6UHA, Matthew N4DLA and Grant K6CBK
Field Day - 2023
June 24, 2023 11:00AM Pacific Time
To
June 25, 2023, 10:59AM Pacific Time
(That’s 1800 UTC Saturday to 1759 UTC Sunday, for you purists.)
Set up from 2:30 PM on Fri, June 23. Tear down from 11:00 AM on Sun, June 25.
Olympic High School
2730 Salvio Street
Concord, CA
Field Day is one of the biggest events in North American amateur radio. It runs around the clock from start to finish on the fourth weekend of June every year. More than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups and friends to operate from remote locations.
Per the ARRL, the objective of Field Day is:
“To work as many stations as possible on any and all amateur bands (excluding the 60, 30, 17, and 12-meter bands) and to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions. Field Day is open to all amateurs in the areas covered by the ARRL/RAC Field Organizations and countries within IARU Region 2. DX stations residing in other regions may be contacted for credit, but are not eligible to submit entries.”
Volunteers are needed!!
Our Field Day chair, Larry Loomer, KI6LNB, and his crew will start setting up at 2:30 on Friday afternoon before the event, so come on down and help out, stay to work some bands and generally have a good time. Bring your RV, trailer camper or sleep in your car and stay overnight. Basic food and drink will be provided. We will have portable toilet facilities available. If needed, a shopping center with a Safeway store and other food vendors, is six blocks away.
Contact Larry at KI6LNB@arrl.net to let us know what help you can provide. Thank you.
Multiple volunteers are needed to supervise the food availability at the Field Day site: Friday dinner, Saturday breakfast, Saturday lunch, and the BBQ dinner, and Sunday breakfast. We need to find a BBQ grill and a person to do the BBQ cooking.
Remember: You don't need to have HF privileges, or even be a licensed ham, to make contacts at our Field Day site. We will have Band Captains on hand to act as control operators. So come on down, tell your friends and get involved in ham radio!
MDARC Bands:
• 2 Meters (144.100 MHz – 148.000 MHz)
• 10 Meters (28.000 MHz – 29.700 MHz)
• 15 Meters (21.000 MHz - 21.450 MHz)
• 20 Meters (14.000 MHz – 14.350 MHz)
• 40 Meters (7.000 MHz – 7.300 MHz)
• 80 Meters (3.500 MHz – 4.000 MHz)
Other Activities
There will be a Getting-on-the-Air class for HF privileges at 10:00 AM Saturday, given by Pete, KE6ZIW.
There will be a demonstration of two-way telephone service on the MESH System by John, KM6ZJT.
FT-8 and other digital methods will be demonstrated at the MDARC Communication Trailer by Mike, W6MEW.
HF contesting and Amateur Television will be demonstrated by Jim, K6SOE, from the MDARC Communications Van.
License testing will be available at 1:00 PM on Saturday.
Visitors will be able to write their names in Morse code and then tap the code using a code key.
Looping introductory video from ARRL.
A demonstration of solar charging of the communication trailer battery will be provided.
An auxiliary generator demonstration for powering the trailer will be provided.
A mobile (car mounted) solar power system will be demonstrated.
For Getting on the Air, a call can be made by anyone to a ham on a ham radio.
Jonas Desyatnik, the eighth grade, $200 first prize winner of the annual Contra Costa County Science & Engineering Fair demoed his winning two axis solar tracker project (ARRL Club news article) with his father Yuri KI6UDA.
Cal Poly ARC w6bhz.org visited our Field Day. ARRL featured CPARC for licensing their 2,000th examinee on May 23, 2023. They have been conducting exams since 2009.
In conclusion, we know we are members of a hobby that has a long and proud history of providing emergency communication in many different situations. Field Day provides us with the opportunity to demonstrate to the public that we can operate effectively and safely, even during restrictive times, and without using utility power.
Field Day Promotion
You can help publicize Field Day. Just click on the image to the right to download the PDF and print out one or more copies of the 8.5X11 poster and post it at your business, grocery, coffee shop or wherever it is allowed. Print them in “landscape” format on plain paper. Let’s get the word out! Please remember to remove them after Field Day.
Many additional resources are provided from the arrl.org/field-day page. A field day locator map shows the nine other registered clubs in Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano and Napa (and beyond) that are holding Field Day events.
Field Day Results
2023 results were submitted like this:
Call Used: W6CX GOTA Station Call: (NONE) ARRL/RAC Section: EB Class: 3A
Participants: 64 Club/Group Name: Mount Diablo Amateur Radio Club
Power Source(s): Generator
Power Multiplier: 2X
Preliminary Total Score: 1,682
Bonus Points:
100% emergency power 300
Public location 100
Public information table 100 - Documented by 2023 Visitor Log.xlsx
Formal message to ARRL SM/SEC 100 - Documented by FD2023 W6CX FM Message .pdf
Formal messages handled (1 x 10, max of 100) 10 - Documented by W6CX-N6ORI 2023FD Msg.pdf
Site visit by invited elected official 100
Site visit by invited served agency 100
Educational activity 100
Safety officer 100 - Documented by Field Day Safety 2023.pdf
Social media 100
Entry submitted via web 50
Total bonus points 1,160
Score Summary: (Cabrillo log/dupe sheet file: ARRL-FIELD-DAY 2023.adi)
CW Digital Phone Total
Total QSOs 40 64 53
Total Points 80 128 53 261 Claimed Score = (QSO points x power mult) = 522
Submitted by: Richard C. Wade, WM6G [...]
Band/Mode QSO Breakdown:
CW Digital Phone
QSOs Pwr(W) QSOs Pwr(W) QSOs Pwr(W)
160m
80m
40m 40 1k 37 1k
20m 22 1k 16 1k
15m 42 1k
10m
6m
2m
222
432
Other
Satellite
GOTA
TOTAL 40 64 53
Results are published each year in QST articles. field-day.arrl.org/fdresults.php
Our club scored: (QSOs, Power, Participants, points, section, number of entries)
2023 157 2 64 1,682 EB 3A 1
2022 94 2 56 1,318 EB 3A
2021 1,528 EB 1
2020 2,348 EB 8
2019 93 2 75 1,348 EB 3A
2018 0
2017 161 2 15 1,272 EB 2A
2016 2 10 1 88 EB 2A
2015 117 2 55 834 EB 2A
2014 177 2 50 1,504 EB 3A
2013 400 2 45 1,852 EB 3A
2012 684 2 150 2,138 EB 3A
2011 617 2 50 2,208 EB 3A
2010 848 2 75 2,710 EB 3A
2009 723 2 27 2,182 EB 2A
2008 831 2 75 2,932 EB 5A
2007 0
2006 636 2 10 2,466 EB 4A
2005 1483 2 10 4,056 EB 5A
2004 361 2 25 1,972 EB 4A
2003 887 2 75 3,182 EB 5A
2002 1216 2 27 3,440 EB 5A
2001 603 2 35 1,606 EB 3A