FIELD DAY 2010

OK guys, are we serious about doing this? I talked to the club pres and v pres today. They seem ok with it.

If we are really going to do this I'll go to the meeting on the 8th and propose it. They understand this would not make any $$ for the club - i.e. we can't pay for the facility.

We would not shut down the range for this, so there may be some gun fire in the background through the day. Camping would be ok.

What I'm going to propose is:
1) We take over the area near the pond for camping.
2) We'll utilize some space under the pavilion (It's large, no way we'll need it all)
3) We'll be hanging temporary antennas in and between the trees around the pond area and over the parking/pavilion area. All traces of antennas will be removed when we are done.
4) We'll be running 1 or 2 generators for the 24 hour operating period.

For facilities, there is a men's and woman's room, no showers. We may be able to get access to the kitchen, but don't plan on it.

Here's the view of the Parking Pavilion area:
MRGC.jpg
 
the NES shoot coming up would be a perfect time for it... At least we can decide if this is the right place or not. I think squelch is coming. Who else will be there?
 
I think if we're going forward with this we should go to the next step and meet up at the club on a weekend to get some preliminary site ideas in.

If Monadnock doesn't work out, I may have an alternate plan in a location only a few miles down the road in Peterborough NH.
WB5/JMJ (Mike Matteson, a former Mass resident and GOAL Board Member) hosts an open field day at his farm for whoever wants to attend.
Several Waltham club members went last year, including our very own BigBird (Debbie). I spoke to her today and she seems to think that Mike would be receptive to the idea of the NES crew attending.
 
If Monadnock doesn't work out, I may have an alternate plan in a location only a few miles down the road in Peterborough NH.
WB5/JMJ (Mike Matteson, a former Mass resident and GOAL Board Member) hosts an open field day at his farm for whoever wants to attend.
Several Waltham club members went last year, including our very own BigBird (Debbie). I spoke to her today and she seems to think that Mike would be receptive to the idea of the NES crew attending.

This is a good alternative if we decide to really keep it simple.
 
How about March 13th? That's 2 weeks after the shoot.

The 13th would be fine. Like I said, I can get us in whenever.

This is a good alternative if we decide to really keep it simple.

Ditto. Would we be operating under our own club, or under his? Not sure it really matters, it'd just be fun to do with other NES'rs either way.
 
The 13th would be fine. Like I said, I can get us in whenever.



Ditto. Would we be operating under our own club, or under his? Not sure it really matters, it'd just be fun to do with other NES'rs either way.

If you go that route, it's just showing up there and operating under his call, pretty much just for fun.

I could get up to Monadnock on the 13th also.
 
This is just an idea, but it may be a good idea for someone to bring a radio or two in order to find out what kind of effect the surrounding hills and mountains are going to have on different bands.
 
This is just an idea, but it may be a good idea for someone to bring a radio or two in order to find out what kind of effect the surrounding hills and mountains are going to have on different bands.

Anyone have a topo map of that quadrangle?
From what I remember when I was there for GPP, the club grounds look to be in a low spot.
 
I used Google Earth to get my topographical information. You can change your view angle, and it does a fairly good job of rendering the surrounding terrain when looking across the land (from ground level).

It looks like the area we are most likely to be using (around the pavilion), is about 860' above sea level.
Anything west of the club is pretty much out due to mount. Monadnock, which is about 6.5 miles west of the club, and is about 2000' above the club.
There are exceptions, but for the most part, the land surrounding MRGC is about 200' above the club.
 
I think if we are not worried about VHF/UHF then it'll be a good site. There's decent facilities, places to camp, etc.

If we want to do VHF/UHF, then we need another local.
 
Not getting any range on VHF/UHF?

Well, as you noted above it's in something of a hole. VHF/UHF are line of sight, so there won't be much coverage. But then the whole are is kind of like that. I can't get the Gardner repeater from my house that is at elevation in Winchendon when in my truck - I need the 8db base antenna to go that short distance!

The main activity will be on HF though. And I suspect most VHF activity will be SSB.
 
Well, as you noted above it's in something of a hole. VHF/UHF are line of sight, so there won't be much coverage. But then the whole are is kind of like that. I can't get the Gardner repeater from my house that is at elevation in Winchendon when in my truck - I need the 8db base antenna to go that short distance!

The main activity will be on HF though. And I suspect most VHF activity will be SSB.

IIRC, higher frequencies experience less loss when passing through solid objects (a lot of city police/fire departments use 440 or 900 because of this). The compromise is that higher frequencies also have shorter range that lower frequency per watt (line of sight w/no objects in between).

I'll bring my 70 watt mobile 2 meter on the 13th, along with a list of local and more distant repeaters and see what I can do.
 
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IIRC, higher frequencies experience less loss when passing through solid objects (a lot of city police/fire departments use 440 or 900 because of this). The compromise is that higher frequencies also have shorter range that lower frequency per watt (line of sight w/no objects in between).

I'll bring my 70 watt mobile 2 meter on the 13th, along with a list of local and more distant repeaters and see what I can do.

Field Day V/UHF contacts are point to point, not through repeaters. I don't really think the higher frequencies are an issue. Big operations that are looking to maximize every point possible will be running there, but from an interest standpoint, it's very boring just doing ground line of sight contacts. There will be some e-skip activity on 6 by that time, that's about it.
 
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