W6HA Field Day 2017 Results Summary and Preliminary Analysis July 18, 2017 Mike Vahey N6MDV April 18, 2017

Success W6HA Field Day 2017 Goals: Approach: We had a good time !! To have fun - keep it light and enjoyable for all To make many, many radio contacts - more each year To test new equipment, antennas, and methods To engage with the public and explain how we are preparing for emergency communication operations Approach: Wilderness Park Family camping weekend Setup on Friday Around the clock operation 3 HF stations 1 GOTA station 1 VHF station Rules changes Presume same as last year Should be checked Success We had a good time !!

W6HA Field Day 2017 Summary 19 participants 3A station 1550 bonus points Batteries, solar, generators Publicity, public place, info booth NTS message and formal NTS messages W1AW field day message Site visit by elected and served agency officials Educational activity Social media and safety officer Total score 4106

Total QSO’s by Band 1202 QSO’s W6HA Plus 39 GOTA

QSO Count by Hour and Band 11AM Contest Start 11PM UTC Hours Gap

Observations QSO by Hour and Band Used all bands except 10M & 1.25M (except 1 GOTA 10M contact) Strongest activities during afternoon and early evening Very strong 40M at noon or late logging from 11 o’clock hour 77 VHF/UHF including SF on 2M ! By 11PM until 7 AM things slowed substantially No ops from 2:20AM until 7AM As expected 80M good night time from 7PM 11PM 80M

QSO by Mode by Hour Late afternoon and evening 21 CW 40M and 1 CW 15M Sunday morning 13 PSK31 on 20M Nearly all QSO’s were phone

2017 Propagation Models Field Day Looking at times of day for each band Some results plotted on top of projections

6AM 20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS PSK 31 7AM 20M: NM, GTA, NTX, STX, STX KS, CO, OK, WTX, CO, UT UT, UT 15 Meter 20 Meter Be active by 5AM 80 Meter 40 Meter

9AM 20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40MNS NVIS, 80M NVIS Use digital or CW Possible into midwest 45 15M QSO Mostly local, but few to east coast, Hawaii, and northwest Almost like a sporadic E Dale reports it was good - then just stopped 15 Meter 20 Meter PSK 31 7AM 20M: NM, GTA, NTX, STX, STX KS, CO, OK, WTX, CO, UT UT, UT Benefit of digital SNR 80 Meter 40 Meter

11AM 20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS Use digital or CW Appalachians 15 Meter 20 Meter 80 Meter 40 Meter

1PM 20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS Use digital or CW Maybe Phone 15 Meter 20 Meter 45 15M QSO Mostly local, but few to east coast, Hawaii, and northwest Almost like a sporadic E Dale reports it was good - then just stopped 80 Meter 40 Meter

3PM 20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS Use digital or CW Maybe Phone 15 Meter 20 Meter 80 Meter 40 Meter

5PM 20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS As good as it is going to be Try phone at 5PM! Be active at 5PM! East coast open 15 Meter 20 Meter CW 6PM 40M: NM, KS, WTX, KY, KS BC, VA, MT, MT. OK, MO OK, KY, STX, OR, MT MDC, TN, WWA, VA Better match to 7PM chart 80 Meter 40 Meter

7PM 20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS Be active at 7PM! Be active at 5PM! East coast open Strong everywhere 15 Meter 20 Meter CW 6PM 40M: NM, KS, WTX, KY, KS BC, VA, MT, MT. OK, MO OK, KY, STX, OR, MT MDC, TN, WWA, VA Shows benefit of CW SNR Be active at 7PM! 80 Meter 40 Meter

9PM 20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS 15 Meter 20 Meter Be active at 9PM! Be active at 9PM! 80 Meter 40 Meter

11PM 20M 3 Element Yagi on 55’ tower, 15M 3 Element Yagi on 25 ft pole, 40M NS NVIS, 80M NVIS Still good for mid west 15 Meter 20 Meter Be active at 11PM! 80 Meter 40 Meter

Comparison to Previous Years Sunspots lower this year again Fewer operators this year QSO count down somewhat 2017: 1206 Phone 13 Digital 22 CW 2016: 1519 Phone 0 Digital 51 CW 2015: 1927 Phone 45 Digital 5 CW 2014: 1771 Phone 61 Digital 19 CW 2013: 431 Phone 27 Digital 0 CW Note: 2013 was first year in Wilderness park. We did not have the band filters. We did have inter station noise and something in the neighborhood that generated bad RF noise on most bands. Since then we have band pass filters and have improved power generation/distribution.

2016 QSO By Hour and Band 1519 Phone 0 Digital 51 CW Field Day Start No gap in 2016

2016 QSO by Hour and Mode CW: 40M 16, 20M 16, 15M 19 (guest N4II from Florida) 10X more CW than last year, but no digital this year

2016 Contacts By Band 20M by far most QSO’s Rate 48 sec until 9PM then 2.3 minutes until 10PM Then 6 minutes until 10:30 Then nothing from 10:30 until 6AM As expected higher HF frequencies were limited 40M and 80M next most QSO’s 2M most active VHF 6M better than 440 220 limited use CW contacts limited by amount of time used

2015 Contacts by Band 1927 phone 45 digital 5 CW 20M had the majority of contacts Strong crew kept the frequency while running Active running 19 hours 40M had next largest contacts Running went well also Active running about 9-10 hours Rest of 22 hours was search and pounce plus some CW and digital as well 15 and 80M shared transceiver Likely had more search and pounce time VHF station had long periods with no operator Did well when it was operational

W6HA Field Day QSO History Increasing count – high variance on how stations operate Trend

W6HA Phone Contact FD includes GOTA 2014 tower started on 15, then switched to 20M 2015 tower was on 20M all weekend 2015 new 40M antenna and 9 hours of run time Less use of VHF 2015 2015 less 15M run time 2015 Less use of VHF

Field Day Stations 20 Meter Station with 3 element yagi on 55’ crank up tower 10/15 /80 Meter Station with 3 element yagi on 25’ pushup pole and 80M inverted V from tower or NVIS 40 Meter Station with North South Dipole (East West works well too, just gets more WA and OR vs states East) GOTA HF/VHF station with 3 element yagi on 20’ pushup & VHF/UHF vertical Plus 2 Honda power generators Solar Information table Logging computers VHF station with 5 element 6M yagi, TBD other antennas on 20’ pushup poles Suggest that if possible just run 15M on CW and or digital – likely skip phone or do it just a little.

Modeling Background Using VOAAREA modeling tool Smoothed sunspot numbers for June 2017 with 25 SSN (less than last year-36) Model our antennas on EZNEC Model receiving antenna at 8dBi Consistent with dipole at other end (2db higher than last year modeling to reflect observations) Modeling presumes 100W out Suitable for SSB and CW, but high for digital 90 percent reliability based on SNR 45 dB for SSB (pink on following charts) 27 dB for CW/digital (orange on following charts plus near by green) Plots at 6am, 9am, 11AM (18Z), 1PM, 3PM, 5PM, 7PM, 9PM, and 11PM pacific Antenna models 20M and 15M tri element yagi at ¾ lambda above ground 70 deg orientation from North 40M NVIS North South dipole 80M NVIS not updated from last year, pattern is about the same

How to Read Chart S9+ SSB Time Band SKIP ZONE CW/Digital in Orange and adjacent green S9+ SKIP ZONE Antenna Direction One Hop and Two Hop Signals