Category Archives: Field Day

Field Day 1941

19410609MilwSentinel

Seventy-five years ago, this day’s issue of the Milwaukee Sentinel, June 9, 1941, carried this report of ARRL Field Day, which had just concluded.

The Milwaukee hams had operated for 26 hours from a location at 43rd Street and West Edgerton Avenue in Milwaukee, a site which “presented a strange mixture of homemade and expensive commercial equipment. Above the tent strewn field a 60 foot all-wave telescopic antenna reached up for messages from the sky.”

The article reported that 291 contacts were made with all nine call areas. The furthest contact was with Puerto Rico. The paper noted that this was a test of emergency communications, and demonstrated how Milwaukee would reach the outside world should catastrophe wipe out power and telephone lines.

This was to be the last pre-war Field Day, with Amateur Radio operation silenced after Pearl Harbor. In 1940, the FCC had severely restricted portable operation, restricting it to weekends, only with self-powered apparatus intended for emergency use. 48 hour advance notice was also required. At the ARRL’s request, the FCC relaxed these requirements in a March 11, 1941 order:

It Is Ordered, That during the period of the American Radio Relay League Field Day test from 4:00 P.M. E.S.T., June 7, 1941, to 6:00 P.M. E.S.T., June 8, 1941, the prohibition contained in Commission Order No. 73 shall not apply to communications transmitted by licensed portable and portable-mobile stations participating in such tests.

The announcement of this order in the May 1941 issue cautioned that the relaxation applied only to stations participating in Field Day.

Results were published in the January 1941 issue of QST, and noted that at least 2180 individuals had participated from 163 club stations and 119 non-club stations.  The Milwaukee group’s showing was overshadowed by the Tri-County Radio Association of Plainfield, NJ, W2GW/2, with 1112 contacts.  That club’s contacts were evenly split between CW and phone.  They had 163 worked on 160 meters, 447 on 80 meters, 245 on 40 meters, 32 on 10 meters, 20 on 5 meters, and 61 on 2-1/2 meters.

Like most Amateur Radio traditions, Field Day resumed after the war.  This year’s running will take place on June 25-26.  The event has continued to grow over the years.  In the 2015 running, the high scorer, Potomic Valley Radio Club and Columbia Amateur Radio Association, W3AO, logged a total of 9700 contacts from 18 transmitters.

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1941 “Prairie Dog Special” Transmitter

1941MarRadioNews

1941MarRadioNews2Seventy-five years ago this month, the March 1941 issue of Radio News carried the plans for the “Prairie Dog Special” transmitter, specially designed for Field Day or emergency use. The set was named after the Prairie Dogs, a Chicago area radio club, which had assembled a number of the transmitters, resulting in first place in the four transmitter category in the 1940 running of Field Day.

The transmitter covered 160 through 10 meters, and would put out about 24 watts on phone or 35 watts on CW. It had built-in power supplies for either AC or 6 volts DC, making use of a vibrator.

The circuit consisted of a 6V6G oscillator, with cathode keying for CW. The final amplifier was a HY60 tube, although the article noted that the venerable 807 could also be used. The modulator consiste of a 6C5 audio amplifier, followed by a 6V6 modulator. Two 6X5’s in the power supply did the rectification duties.

Portable operation required FCC notification, and the rules were somewhat complex:

A word about operation. The FCC regs specifically provide that portable operation can only be done on the week-end and then only on 48 hour’s notice to the Commission’s nearest office to your home QTH. Besides this the law provides that the transmissions MUST be from portable power sources. These are batteries, or some generator or another. The use of 155 v a.c. house lines even if they be strung out into a field is specifically prohibited; though a motor generator producing this voltage is not. So use your P.D. Special only on 115 v a.c. at home, or if in the field, then only from some motor-generator or battery. The provisions concerning reception are left open, and there is not any requirement that the receiver be battery or motor-generator powered.

The article’s author was Raymond Frank, W9JU.

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