FARS Field Day 2009

[Field Day 2008 - Group Photo]

The Foothills Amateur Radio Society participated in the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) 2009 Field Day event on Saturday June 27^th and Sunday June 28^th.

The event was open to the public and visitors were welcomed from 12 Noon and 7PM on Saturday, June 27^th. Field Day is a great opportunity to see Amateur Radio in action and even participate. Learn about ham radio by participating.

You can download a copy of the 2009 Field Day Rules (pdf [64K]), or the complete 2009 Field Day Package (pdf [896K]).

Here's an Article on the FARS 2007 Field Day from "100 Watts Magazine" a Thai HAM radio magazine. Thanks Nimit, KI6JLD.

John L. Gaffey, WS1EA has written a helpful primer for organizing your own Field Day event.

FARS operated in the 3A category, with three HF radio stations on emergency power at a temporary location. We had five operating radio stations:

• HF station operating Single Sideband (SSB) voice on 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m;
• HF station split between operating CW (Morse Code) and PSK31/RTTY (keyboard) on 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m;
• HF station operating (SSB) voice on 80m and 160m;
• VHF/satellite station (not counted in category number);
• GOTA (Get On The Air) station (not counted in the category number);

Field Day Captains

AA6PZ	Paul, AA6PZ, was our HF captain for 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m. The station transceiver was a Yaesu FT-990. We plan to operate 40 and 20 meters, since the low sunspot cycle makes higher frequency bands less useful.
KI6FXY	Charlie, KI6FXY, was our CW/Digital station captain. The transceiver was a Kenwood FT-570S with HamScope and MM-TTY running on a laptop for PSK31/RTTY operation. We operated mostly 40 and 20 meters with some 80 meter activity.
KA6MZE	Phil, KA6MZE, was our HF SSB station station captain for 160m and 80m operation. Phil was also the overall Field Day captain.
K6XOX	Nimit, K6XOX, was our VHF/Satellite station captain. The VHF station was an ICOM IC-910 for satellite and VHF 2-meter operation. We plan to operate on 6m, 2m, and 70cm.
KI6QNZ	Michael, KI6QNZ, was our GOTA station captain. This station was for non-Hams and new Hams to try out an amateur radio HF radio station. Under guidance of our control operator, our guests worked contacts with amateur radio stations throughout the United States, Canada, and further.

Visitors

We welcomed visitors from the general public to visit our Amateur Radio Field Day between 12 Noon and 7PM on Saturday, June 27^th.

Information for Participants

We used W3KM's Genlog32 software for logging at each of the Field Day stations. The exception was the GOTA station which used paper logging. You may download the software (Genlog32). Some instructions for installing and setting up the software for the FARS Field Day

More information

FARS 2008 Field Day Pictures.

FARS 2007 Field Day Pictures.

FARS 2005 Field Day Pictures.

FARS 2004 Field Day Report; pictures July 2004 Newsletter.

FARS 2003 Field Day Report; more pictures July 2003 Newsletter.

FARS 2002 Field Day Report.

Pictures from the 2001 FARS Field Day.

Pictures from the 2000 FARS Field Day.

Pictures from the 1999 FARS Field Day.

Pictures from the 1998 FARS Field Day.

Field Day information at the ARRL's web site.

Story in Los Altos Town Crier on the 2001 FARS Field Day.