[SMCARA] Field Day Itinerary 2015

Mon May 4 09:47:03 EDT 2015

I understand there was to be a FD meeting on Saturday (did it happen?) and these questions may have been answered.  Perhaps there will a report.
Random thoughts:
1.  We have tried having people sign up for particular shifts in the past to avoid the "idle station syndrome", but it was a resounding flop. Doesn't mean we can't try again! An idle station doesn't make any points, just like an idle airliner doesn't make any revenue sitting on the ramp (not "tarmac", that is what a ramp is made of-Tar Macadam).
2.  Regarding the tent, check with Harry Dalton.  His son provided the tent last year at an attractive price (nowhere near $400).
3.  40 and 20 are the daytime "money" bands. Sometimes 20 will stay open late into the night.  If the propagation gods are smiling that day, 10 and 15 can produce good results also. Running 20 full time is a must and foraging for Q's on 10/15/40 is a good tactic.
4.  Dedicating a station to full time digital may be an good idea if we have enough ops (see idle station rant above).  Also, some digital software does self-logging-how do we integrate that into our logging program?
5.  Roger on computer logging. It's the only way to keep track of dupes and it makes the score submission to Newington a lot more practical.  
6.  The software crashed a couple of times and there was no one who knew how to restart it.  Ray had already gone home and probably would not have appreciated the "phone call at 3AM".  Need written gouge on how to restart the program without losing all the data-the crappiest pencil is always more reliable than the best mind. That will keep the "how do I make this thing work" events to a minimum!
7.  Training on the logging program is a great idea, but hard to schedule.  We need to have "crib sheets" with the basics and a short familiarization session held on the day of FD.  Several people need to know how to start/restart the program and have written instructions available for what to do when the screen turns blue.
8.  The normally scheduled club meeting is the 25th.  Will that happen?  If not, we only have one club meeting before FD for planning purposes.

dit     dit dit

Tom/W4OKW

-----Original Message-----
From: SMCARA [mailto:smcara-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Eric Heard
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2015 6:35 PM
To: SMCARA
Subject: [SMCARA] Field Day Itenerary 2015

With all the emails going around about Field Day I think this is the itenerary

St. Mary's County Amateur Radio Association Field Day Saturday, June 27-28, 2015 Hollywood Volunteer Fire Department Bingo Hall. 
24801 Three Notch Rd, Hollywood, MD 20636

"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." 

Pre Field Day
Coordinators :  Carl Dalton KC3CCH Rob McNeely KC3CCN

Order Tent $400... Do we want a tent?
Bingo Hall at the Fire Department? Available?
If bingo hall is available, Shall we set up radios there and forget about tent. Lessons learned from last year...Its midnight an people went home. Radios got stored in Bingo Hall. Some on who wanted to work the 3 am shift needed access to the Bingo Hall to operate. Sunday morning shift was nill no radios...

Shall we create a schedule? Grave yard shift?  End everything at midnight and go home? Tents? RV?

Scoring
Call K3HKI again?
Shall we op 3A

1 Digital
1 10, 15, 20 M
1 80/40

GOTA Freebie
VHF/UHF Freebie

Computer scoring

Last year as I recall the laptops took a dump. Set up a trial run perhaps this year? Training on software would be good.

BTW paper logs suck, I had to type in paper logs one year but couldnt Phone 1pt CW 2 pts Digital 2 pts

100 pts 100% Emergency power (Max. 20 transmitters)
100  Media Publicity Article, blurb in Newspaper or broadcast radio. Enterprise/97.7 Dave Triantos on Cable tv

100 Set-up in Public Place
100  Information Booth
100 Message to ARRL SM/SEC
100 W1AW Field Day Message
varies Formal messages handled (# __________)
100 Satellite QSO completed
100 Natural power QSOs completed
100 Site Visit by invi
ted elected official
100Site Visit by invited
served agency official
100 Educational Activity Bonus
varies Youth Element achieved
Varies GOTA Bonus (total bonus points: ___________)
50  Submitted using the b4h.net apple

We can start with 1150 Pts plus.. for just submitting a log

9 AM   Setup antennas and outdoor tent.

2 PM 1 Gentlemen and Women Start your radios

4 PM --6 PM 1st Amateur Radio Exam Session in the bingo hall

6 PM -- 8 PM Potluck dinner/ hamburgers/ hotdogs

8 PM -- 2nd Amateur Radio Exam Session in the bingo hall

Saturday 2 PM -- Sunday 10 AM general FD operating

Also, when is the educational event?

Please correct if needed

73 de N3UH, California, MD USA

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