Field Day Antenna Plans

Several of the people involved in planning for the VWS field day event came over to my house on Wednesday evening to brainstorm about antennas and setup for the 80/20cw station. By the end of the evening, we had run through quite a few possible configurations, some fancier than others, but in the end we decided to use two dipole antennas. I’ve updated the map showing the layout. Ian’s Buckmaster OCF dipole will run roughly East/West, between ropes suspended from the tree at the top of the hill next to the 80/20 SSB station, and to a tree across the road on the other end.  To help support the antenna, a 40′ double-guyed pole will be positioned near the 80/20cw tent. The same pole will also support one end of a multiband dipole oriented more or less North/South. Between the two antennas, we should have broad coverage (10-80m on the OCF, and 40/20/15/10 on the multiband).

At the station, we’ll have two radios, but only one will be used for transmit (according to the 2011 FD rules, class is determined by number of transmitters). Byron has made available his TenTec Argo VII transceiver, which I believe has been used in previous years as well. At the other position, we will have Jim Nagle’s ICOM 7000. If we have adequate staffing, the other radio can spot, populating the band map, while the other runs a frequency. After the bandmap is full, the second position can efficiently S&P the marked sites, while the other position marks another band.  Since all the band map information is shared on the LAN, we could also mark spots on 40/15, if desired.

I’m still looking for some CW operators for the 80/20cw station — if interested, sign up  or email me.