Category Archives: Radio

ARRL International Grid Chase 2018

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national association for Amateur Radio in the United States, announced last week a year-long operating activity for 2018. During 2018, participating hams will be trying to contact as many “grid squares” as possible. The event is called the ARRL International Grid Chase, and will run from January 1 through December 31, 2018.

The main requirement is that for the contact to count, both stations must upload the contact to Logbook Of The World (LOTW). If you’re a ham and don’t yet have one, I encourage you to set up a LOTW account. The process is relatively straightforward. There’s sometimes criticism, perhaps justified, that the process is too complicated. But if you can follow instructions, it’s quite easy to create your account. And once you have it set up, the process of actually uploading QSO’s is even simpler. You do not need to be an ARRL member to set up your LOTW account or participate in the Grid Chase.

What’s a Grid Square?

European grid squares. Wikipedia image.

The earth is divided up into 32,400 Maidenhead grid squares. Each of these is assigned a unique code consisting of two letters and two digits, and each measures two degrees longitude by one degree latitude. For example, I live in grid EN34. Since my house is less than a mile away from one of the boundary lines, the 45th parallel north, this means that I live right next door to grid EN35. Other neighboring grids, such as EN33, EN44, and EN24, are all within a hundred miles. In the continental united states, each square measures about 100 miles east to west, and 70 miles north to south. As you move closer the equator, the squares get slightly larger and more “square.” As you move closer to the poles, the squares get smaller and more triangular, with the 18 northernmost and 18 southernmost squares actually being triangles, with their points touching at the pole.

The easiest way to find your grid square is the website qthlocator.free.fr. You simply find your location on the Google map, click on it, and you will instantly see your own grid. You can also enter a grid and the map will center on that location.

First Thoughts About Strategy

Unless someone out there has a well-equipped boat, and someone else is prepared to operate from isolated arctic or mountainous areas, it’s impossible to work all of the grids, or even most of them. After all, most of the earth consists of water (but even some of those grids will see some activations by sea or air). It’s unlikely that any grids in North Korea will be activated, although as far as I can tell, there are no grids located entirely within the Hermit Kingdom. PN30 extends a tiny bit into China, PN31, PN41, and PN42 include larger portions of China, and PN52 staddles North Korea, Russia, and China. As far as I can tell, all of the other North Korean grids include either international (but not necessarily friendly) waters, or South Korean soil. It’s unlikely that any of those grids will see much activation, but it’s not an absolute impossibility.

But as a practical matter, it’s safe to say that nobody is going to work all 32,400 grids. In fact, it’s safe to say that even the most successful operators will only work a small percentage of that amount. But there will be some that work a few thousand. I doubt if I’ll be in that category, but I think it can be done by most hams by employing some strategy.

To be at the top of the leader boards, I think will require concentrating on three things, and I want to share my preliminary thoughts on how to accomplish them. I think the following things will be required:

Work all or most of the “easy” grids in North America
Work all or most of the “easy” grids worldwide
Work all of most of the inevitable “grid-peditions” that will take place later in the year.

Working the Easy Grids in North America

Shown here is a map of the grids I worked during 2016. The vast majority of the grids shown here were worked during the National Parks On The Air event. I wasn’t making any particular effort to chase grids, but I did make thousands of contacts, and this is how they were distributed. Some of these grids (like the ones clustered around Yellowstone National Park) were because I worked someone activating a park. But most of them were stations at home who worked me while I was at a park. They are a more or less random sampling of hams, and the ones that I worked were probably the easiest ones to work, because there are more hams there. (You can create your own map for any date range at N1KDO’s site.)

The ones I didn’t work come in two categories. First of all, there is a big gap in places like Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. This is partly because some of these areas are sparsely populated. But it also shows that I was using 20 meters for most of my activations, and stations in these areas were just too close for me to work. If I had spent some time concentrating on closer states, I probably would have worked many of these grids as well.

But some grids are rare because there are few active hams there. These will be the “rare” grids that will get more attention later in the year. But I think the first order of business will be to work the easy grids first. These will be grids like the one where I live, with thousands of resident hams. I’m sure most active chasers will have EN34 crossed off their list within the first few days.

To get a good start on the event, it will be important to take care of the easy grids as soon as possible. This is important for a few reasons. First of all, it might not be readily apparent which grids are the rare ones. Some might have few hams overall, but they might be very active. So it’s best to figure out as soon as possible what category they are in. Also, they might start out as common, but become rare later in the year. If a grid has just a few active hams, it’s possible that one of them will become inactive, or perhaps move to another part of the country during the year. If you miss them when they are still “easy,” you’ll be behind everyone else, and you’ll need to get them when they are “rare.”

This happened a few times during NPOTA. For example, in April, I worked Kalaupapa National Historical Park in Hawaii. It was a relatively easy contact. But it was also a one-time opportunity, since the park was never activated again later in the year. Another example was Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island. It was a relatively easy contact, but it was only available a couple of times, early in the year. It was easy for me, but it was impossible for someone who got a late start.

And the way to ensure that the “easy” grids get in your log early in the year is through contests. When the ARRL Triple Play Award was announced in 2008, then-ARRL CEO Dave Sumner, K1ZZ, correctly predicted that many participants would get a head start, and possibly complete the award, with three January contest weekends, ARRL RTTY Roundup and the North American QSO Party (CW and Phone).

Contesters happily handing out grid squares. Wikipedia photo by Kenneth E. Harker WM5R, 2001, and is released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Since the mode is not as important for the International Grid Chase, it probably won’t be necessary to compete in all three contests. But it seems that starting the year with one or more of these contests is a good way to get the “easy” grids out of the way. It is important to work multiple bands. As you can see from my 2016 grid map, I’m missing many easy grids within a few hundred miles of home. I’ll need to work the lower bands to get the close-in grids, and the higher bands to get the ones further away. In fact, to ensure that I have the close-in states taken care of, it will probably be worthwhile to actively participate in the CQ 160 Meter Contest in January and February.

As Triple Play Award participants discovered in 2009, most contest stations upload their logs to LOTW promptly, and most of them include their grid square. So by participating in a few contests and working the major stations, the bulk of your stateside grids will be taken care of easily.

Working the Easy Grids Worldwide

I’m not a big “DX” operator–in other words, I don’t concentrate exclusively on getting rare countries confirmed on every possible band and mode. But I also recognize that only 488 of the 32,400 grid squares are located in the Continental United States. Even if I work every last one of those 488 (which might be a personal goal), I won’t be even close to the top of the leader board. To do well in this event, it will be necessary to work some DX.

But just like with the United States, there are plenty of “easy” grids to work. There are thousands of hams in places like Japan, Europe, and Latin America, and it will be easy to color in those parts of the world. And once again, the easiest way to do this is with contests. And probably the best way to get off to a good start will be to include the ARRL International DX contest, which runs two weekends in February (CW) and March (Phone).

Chasing and Activating the Rare Grids

After these “easy” grids are out of the way, it will be important to remain active on the air and watch cluster spots for unworked grids. When you look at a map such as mine above, there’s a natural tendency to color in the empty boxes. There will still be some “easy” ones remaining, and it will be important to keep working them. During NPOTA, there was a very active Facebook group providing encouragement and spots of stations as they showed up on the air. The International Grid Chase has its own Facebook group, and it’s likely that the leaders will take full advantage of it.

Operating from grid ___ Iowa, October 2016.

Operating from grid EN12 Iowa, October 2016.

I think that within a few weeks, it will start to become obvious where the rare grids are. There are many parts of the country with few active hams. As the year goes on, and maps like mine have blank spots on them, two things will happen. First of all, local hams will be encouraged to get on the air and make contacts. Being on the receiving end of a pileup can be exhilarating, and many hams will get the chance.

I also predict that there will be “grid-

Activating grid EN00, Nebraska, Aug. 21, 2017.

peditions.” Grid chasing is already a popular pastime for VHF and satellite operators. And there are a few grids with no resident hams. One of these is CM79, the vast majority of which lies in the Pacific Ocean. But a tiny piece of the California coast is within the grid, and can be accessed over rugged terrain. The video below shows KB5WIA doing a satellite activation after a long hike:

There are many hams who are active in Summits On The Air, an activity in which hams operate from mountaintop locations using portable gear. The equipment required for an HF activation is much less than shown in KB5WIA’s video. I predict that we’ll see many such activations this year.

Many rare grids, however, don’t require this much exertion. Many grids, while sparsely populated, are easily accessible. There should be many opportunities for hams wishing to do a mobile activation and generate big pileups. For example, there are a number of grids in Minnesota that I have never worked, and are within a few hours’ drive.

One particularly intriguing one for me is EN67, shown here. It lies mostly in the waters of Lake Superior, but also includes the town of Copper Harbor, Michigan, population 108. There does appear to be one active ham in town, but I suspect another station operating portable there will do well later in the year.

There are many other such grids in the U.S. and Canada, that are located mostly in the water, but with a piece of land from which a portable station can be operated. For hams living near the coast or the Great Lakes, there is probably an opportunity like this waiting for you.

Of course, many roads run through sparsely populated areas. So if you are traveling at any time during 2018, it will be worthwhile to keep track of your grid, and try to get on the air as you pass through. And even if you don’t have HF mobile capability, simplex contacts on VHF and UHF count. If there’s another ham in the area, and you can encourage him or her to upload the contact to LOTW, you might wind up with having an almost unique one in the log. And if you have more than one ham in the family, there’s no reason why you can’t get out your handhelds and work each other. As long as you both log the contact, you will have credit for the grid. (If you don’t have other hams in the family, this would be a good opportunity to get them licensed. If they read my Technician Study Guide, they’ll pass the 35-question test with little difficulty. If they don’t have a radio, you can set them up with a Baofeng for practically nothing, and they can work you on 2 meters or 70 cm.)

Interestingly, this happened at least once during NPOTA. National Park of American Samoa had a grand total of 6 QSO’s, made by two hams who were there on vacation with their handhelds. They were the only ones to get credit for the park, which was well within the rules. There’s no reason why family groups can’t take advantage of the same rule to bolster their count. Of course, if others want to work you, then you should give them the opportunity. But if you’re the only two within range, then you should get credit for the contact.

Post-Eclipse Report

Minutes after totality.

The total solar eclipse was awesome, and well worth the trip to Hastings, Nebraska!

Travel Report

We left Minnesota on Saturday and drove to Fremont, Nebraska. The traffic was noticeably heavy on both Interstate 35 and Interstate 80. Many of the vehicles we saw were obviously eclipse chasers, with cars packed full of camping gear. The heavy traffic was very apparent when we turned off onto I-680 to get to our hotel room in Fremont. That highway was deserted, which appeared all the more eerie after witnessing the extremely heavy traffic directly on the route to the path of totality. On Sunday, traffic was heavier still as we moved back onto the interstate, but was still moving at posted speeds.

We were in position by Monday, so we didn’t experience traffic the day of the eclipse. It was reported to be heavy, but with no major delays. The only eclipse-related traffic issue was an announcement on the radio that the Nebraska Highway Patrol had closed both I-80 rest areas near Grand Island for safety reasons. Gasoline and other supplies were readily available at normal prices.

According to reports, traffic was heaviest after the eclipse as hundreds of thousands of visitors headed home. Still, no major issues were reported, and traffic, while somewhat slower than normal, was moving along well. We drove home Tuesday. While traffic appeared normal by the time we were on the road, many cars were obviously those of other eclipse chasers, as evidenced by the camping gear filling many of them.

Viewing the Eclipse

The eclipse in Grand Island. NBC Nebraska.

On Monday morning, we set up in American Legion Park in Hastings, a small city park just across the street from our hotel. Other viewing areas were packed, but we shared the park with only about a dozen other visitors, mostly from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. There were street lights on the neighboring road, but we stayed clear of them and they didn’t present any obstacle to our viewing.

We didn’t bother trying to take photos of the eclipse. We only had two minutes, so rather than fiddling with cameras during that time, we simply enjoyed the spectacle and left the photography to professionals.

The best representation I’ve seen so far of what we experienced is from NBC Nebraska at this link. if you click on Part 3 of the video at that link, and then advance to the 4:00 minute mark, you’ll see a live report from a Middle School in Grand Island, about 20 miles north of where we were. The video does a good job of capturing the darkness of the sky, as well as the reaction of those present. The video doesn’t do justice to the corona itself, but all of the other elements reflect very well what we witnessed.

It’s also evident from the video what I kept saying before the eclipse: The eclipse was something that kids needed to see! The reaction of the middle school kids in this video was overwhelming, and the eclipse is something that they will never forget. It’s a shame that some schools locked their kids inside rather than taking them to see it. There are now undoubtedly many future astronomers and scientists among the kids in Grand Island and other places where enlightened educators made it a unique learning experience. The kids who were left inside for the eclipse did not get that inspiration, and any school administrators who took that approach should be ashamed of themselves.

In Hastings, there were thin scattered clouds throughout the morning. However, with the cooling caused by the eclipse, the sky was clear during totality, the clouds not reappearing until about 10 minutes later. It was noticeably cooler starting a few minutes before totality. Even though the surroundings were not noticeably dimmer to the human eye until just before totality, the direct sunlight didn’t feel warm as it had in the morning.

We saw the diamond ring both before and after totality. I did not see Bailey’s Beads, nor did I see any shadow bands. The horizon in all directions had the orange glow of sunset. Venus was plainly visible. I didn’t notice it before totality, but it persisted for a couple of minutes after the sun returned.

Radio Experiments

As shown here, I was doing my part for science by operating in the HamSci Solar Eclipse QSO Party. Along with other amateur radio operators, I was operating in this event to generate data which researchers will use to understand the ionosphere and how it was affected by the eclipse. Radio signals are reflected by the ionosphere, and the effect varies depending on frequency, and depending on the amount of solar energy hitting the ionosphere. The eclipse gave a rare opportunity to show the effects when the amount of solar energy varies over small areas, such as the path of totality. I concentrated mainly on making short transmissions to be picked up by remote receivers. Some of these receivers are connected in real time to the Reverse Beacon Network, which displays received signals almost immediately on the Internet. Unfortunately, my signals were not picked up by these stations, but other software-defined receivers were continuously recording the radio spectrum, and it’s likely that my transmissions were recorded and will be available at a later date.

I didn’t spend much time trying to make two-way radio contacts, but I did make three contacts, which are shown on this map:

All three of these contacts were made before totality. I was operating on the 40 meter band (7 MHz) with only 5 watts of power, and the distances of these contacts does seem much greater than would normally be expected that time of day. The most distant contact was with WA1FCN in Cordova, Alabama, 776 miles from my location in Hastings, Nebraska. We made this contact at 12:29 PM local time, about 30 minutes before totality. It seems likely that this contact was possible only because of the eclipse. The contact with N5AW in Burnet, Texas, 680 miles away, was made at 12:10 local time, and the contact with W0ECC in St. Charles, Missouri, 438 miles away, was made at 11:08 local time. In all three cases, the partial eclipse was underway at both locations when we made our contacts.

The HamSci researchers at Virginia Tech will have a lot of data to analyze, but I think it’s clear that the eclipse was having an effect on propagation. The 40 meter band is generally limited to shorter distances during the day, and the path lengths here seem more consistent with the type of propagation normally seen in the evening.

For those who are interested in the details, my station consisted of my 5 watt Yaesu FT-817 powered by a 12 volt fish finder battery. The antenna was a 40 meter inverted vee with its peak about 15 feet off the ground, supported by my golf ball retriever. The two ends of the antenna were supported by tent stakes in the ground. The station was similar to what I used in 2016 for many of my National Parks On The Air activations. The antenna was running north-south in an effort to have its maximum signal along the east-west path of totality. Since the antenna had an acceptable match on 15 and 6 meters, I also made a few test transmissions on those bands, although I concentrated on 40 meters.

Nebraska and the Eclipse

The State of Nebraska, the City of Hastings, and all of the other towns we encountered along the way, did an excellent job of planning for the eclipse and accommodating all of the visitors. While traffic was very heavy, there were no real problems. The staff of our hotel, the C3 Hotel & Convention Center, was extremely well prepared for what was probably the hotel’s busiest night ever. The accommodations were excellent!

Since virtually all of the hotel rooms in the state were filled, dozens of temporary campgrounds sprung up, and visitors were able to find safe campsites at a reasonable price as homeowners, farmers, and ranchers opened their land for camping.

The only traffic-related problem that I’m aware of was the closure of two highway rest areas shortly before totality. Unrelated to the eclipse, the City of Seward, Nebraska, experienced an ill-timed water main leak, leaving the city without drinking water during the eclipse. We did see units of the Nebraska National Guard on the road, but as far as I know, other than to distribute drinking water in Seward, their services were not needed during the eclipse.

The entire state deserves high marks for its preparations in making the eclipse an unforgettable event for the hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Get your Eclipse Glasses for 2024 at: MyEclipseGlasses.com

Eclipse Radio Experiments

Solar Eclipses & Radio Propagation

If you’ve ever tuned the AM radio dial at night, you know that the sun has an effect on radio propagation. At night, you can hear stations from hundreds of miles away, even though those stations can’t be heard during the daylight hours. This is because the signals are either absorbed by or reflected by various layers of the ionosphere, and these layers behave differently in the presence of sunlight.

Radio propagation through the ionosphere. NOAA image.

In general, lower frequencies (such as the AM broadcast band) work better for long distances at night, and higher frequencies work better during the daylight hours. Observations made during other eclipses show that the brief period of “night” during totality does have an effect on the ionosphere, and this has an observable effect on radio propagation.

This eclipse will allow for the collection of a huge amount of data, and it is likely that this will contribute to a greater understanding of the ionosphere. This is because there are now automatic data collection tools such as the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN).

The Reverse Beacon Network is a collection of radio receivers operated by amateur radio operators all over the world. They are constantly monitoring large portions of the radio spectrum and “skimming” the signals. Other networks listen for different transmission modes, but the Reverse Beacon Network is constantly listening for CW (continuous wave, or Morse Code) transmissions. Whenever it hears “CQ” (a general call) or “TEST” (a test transmission), it records the call sign of the sending station. The network stores this data for later download, and also makes it immediately available for display on the internet.

The image above is a screenshot from the Reverse Beacon Network taken today. I sent a transmission in Morse Code consisting merely of the words “TEST DE W0IS.” That transmission was picked up by several of the skimmers in the network, and the information was almost immediately displayed on the internet.

As you can see, my signals were picked up by skimmers in Alberta, Ontario, Pennsylvania, New York, and Kansas. The numbers on the chart (snr, signal to noise ratio) show my signal strength at each location.

Radio propagation is sometimes more of an art than a science, and it’s somewhat surprising that my signal was heard at these distances at the time of day I did the test, about noon local time. The pattern shown here is more typical for later in the afternoon for the frequency I was using (7 MHz). Typically, at midday, I would expect to see more hits within about 400 miles, and fewer at the distances shown here.

But on the day of the eclipse, comparing the reports throughout the day should show what effect the eclipse is having on radio propagation. I expect that before totality, the propagation toward the west coast will be enhanced, as areas starting in Oregon experience “nighttime.” After totality, I expect propagation to be enhanced toward the east as the path of totality moves toward South Carolina.

While I might change my plans, I think I’ll concentrate on 40 meters (7 MHz) during the eclipse. Lower frequencies such as 160 meters (1.8 MHz) or 80 meters (3.5 MHz) will have more dramatic effects, but the necessary antennas are much longer. Since I’ll probably be viewing the eclipse from a fixed location, I should be able to set up a full-sized dipole for 40 meters (66 feet of wire, fed in the middle) without too much difficulty. If we need to move quickly and use a mobile antenna on the car, then I’ll probably switch to 30 meters (10 MHz), since the mobile antenna starts to be more efficient at higher frequencies, but 10 MHz is probably still low enough to see some eclipse effects.

You’ll be able to monitor my signals yourself in real time by following this link, which shows the most recent times my signal has been picked up. On the day of the eclipse, I expect the map to show reception on the west coast in the morning, moving toward the east coast in the afternoon. (Since RBN won’t have any way of knowing that I’m not at my home location, the graphic display will incorrectly show my signal as originating from Minnesota, even though I will be in Nebraska. When the data is analyzed later, it will show my location correctly.)

The data I generate will be part of a larger project, the HamSCI 2017 Eclipse Experiment. After the eclipse, data will be collected and analyzed by researchers such as those at Virginia Tech.

How Hams Can Participate in Eclipse Science

To increase the amount of radio signals to analyze, a contest named the Solar Eclipse QSO Party is scheduled to take place on August 21 from 1400-2200 UTC (9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Central Daylight Time). Participants in this contest will submit their logs, and data will also be skimmed automatically by networks such as RBN. If you are an amateur radio operator, I encourage you to participate in this event. Even if you are not near the path of totality, it is likely that radio propagation will be affected for thousands of miles.

How Anyone Can Participate

If you are not licensed, but you own a normal AM radio, you can also participate and collect valuable ionospheric data. As noted above, AM signals propagate much greater distances at night, and the eclipse will have an effect. Some night before the eclipse, tune through the dial and note which distant stations you are able to pull in. Write down the call letters, frequencies, and locations of the stations.

If you need help identifying the stations, the easiest way is often to wait to hear the call letters of the station and Google the call letters to find the location. Or if you missed the call letters but heard the name of the city, try Googling the frequency and city. For example, a search for “780 AM Chicago” will confirm that you’re tuned in to WBBM. You can also search the official FCC database, either by frequency or call letters, at this link. Also, this listing at the FCC website shows the strongest AM stations at most spots on the dial.

During the daylight hours, but before the eclipse, tune to those spots on the dial again to ensure that you can’t pick them up. Also, some frequencies might have stronger local stations on during the day, which might cover up the weaker more distant signals. It will be best to concentrate on frequencies where you hear nothing during the day, although the distant signals could very well overpower a closer station.

On the day of the eclipse, tune to those same spots on the dial and see if you can hear the stations. You will probably find that they come up out of the noise when the path of totality passes over the station, or when the total eclipse is on a straight line between you and the station.

For example, I would expect that when St. Louis sees totality, KMOX (1120) will be booming in for hundreds of miles. Similarly, when the total eclipse makes it to Nashville, then WSM (650) will be heard in most of the eastern United States.

Also, listen for some stations on the other side of the path of totality. For example, when the eclipse is over Missouri, I would expect that listeners in Oklahoma and Texas might be able to hear stations such as WCCO (830) in Minneapolis or WHO (1040) in Des Moines.

Before the eclipse, identify some stations, both close to the path of totality, and on the other side of that line. Find stations that you can normally pick up at night, but not during the day, and then listen for those stations to come up out of the noise as the eclipse shadow moves into an optimum spot.

For most people, the best radio to use will be your car radio. Most car radios have good AM tuners, and they usually have the advantage of having a digital display so that you can tune to exactly the right spot on the dial.

For more information on this experiment and how you can participate and submit your observations, see this article at Sky & Telescope magazine. A good starting point for learning about tuning in distant stations on the AM dial can be found at Wikipedia.

If you don’t want to be tethered to your car radio, another alternative is to buy a radio similar to the ones shown below. These radios, even though inexpensive, will provide good AM reception with a digital read out that will allow you to quickly tune various stations. Some of them also have shortwave, which will allow you to do more elaborate observations, as explained at the Sky & Telescope article.

(In addition to radio experiments, it’s important to have a portable radio if you want to receive weather and traffic information during the eclipse. Due to the large number of people traveling to the path of totality, it’s quite possible that cellular and data networks will become overloaded in many areas. Having a radio with you will allow you to learn where the breaks in the clouds are, even if your smart phone is without a signal.)

Radio propagation has been studied during most eclipses in the 20th century. For example, during the 1945 Victory Eclipse, research was done by researchers in recently liberated Norway, and German installations were even quickly re-purposed to do this research. Because of the huge amount of data that will be collected, thanks to technologies such as RBN, this eclipse promises to add to the understanding of the ionosphere, and it’s quite possible for citizen scientists such as you and me to contribute.

For more information on the eclipse, see my earlier posts.

1937 Field Day

This weekend was Field Day, an activity in which Amateur Radio Operators set up portable equipment and make as many contacts as possible during a 24 hour period.

My own effort this year was very minimalist. I operated as I did for most of my National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) activations, with my 5 watt Yaesu FT-817 with a Hamstick antenna mounted on the car. I only operated for about an hour, but made 13 CW (Morse Code) contacts to places such as Quebec, Florida, Kentucky, and North Dakota. My power supply consisted of my 12 volt fish finder battery,

Back in the day, both the equipment and the power supplies were much more intimidating, and a successful Field Day operation almost required a team effort. This video shows Field Day eighty years ago in 1937. The film shows W8NCD/8, the Charleston (WV) Amateur Radio Club. It is narrated by W8NCD, who is now a Silent Key.

Field Day has always been primarily a fun social activity, but it also has a serious side. It shows that amateurs are ready for emergency situations. In 1937, hams were able to set up at a remote location, without external electric power or any other infrastructure, and be in contact with the rest of the world. In 1937, there weren’t any cell phone towers, but hams managed to communicate around the world. Today, there are cell phones available, but in the location I was at today, at the bottom of the St. Croix River Valley at William O’Brien State Park, cell service is not available. But with five minutes of setup, I was on the air and communicating, just like they were in 1937

FCC Approves Two New Ham Bands

FCC Approves Two New Amateur Bands

NPOTA and WWFF

My June 2016 activation of the North Country Trail at Jay Cooke State Park, MN.

The ARRL National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) event concluded on December 31, 2016. During this year-long event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service (NPS), Amateur Radio operators set up their stations in NPS units to make contacts with other stations at home.

1494 hams participated as “activators” by setting up stations in the parks, and almost 17,000 participated by making contacts with them. A total of just over 1.1 million individual two-way contacts resulted. I closed out the year with a total of 59 activations, putting me in 64th place nationwide. I made contact with 329 different parks, giving me a ranking of 386th place out of those 17,000.

The March 2017 issue of QST contains an excellent article summarizing the year’s activity, and it is available for free PDF download at the ARRL website.

Even though NPOTA has now ended, there was a great deal of interest in continuing it in some fashion. The activity isn’t as frenzied, but many hams are continuing to get out to the parks and do activations as part of World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF). WWFF is a very similar concept to NPOTA, but as the name implies, it is worldwide.

The program got its start in about 2008 in Russia by the Russian Robinson Club, and has been very popular in Australia and Europe. During my activations, there were a number of familiar European stations who kept working me, undoubtedly as part of the WWFF program. With the tie-in to NPOTA, the North American chapter of WWFF has achieved similar popularity.

While NPOTA focused on National Parks and other NPS properties, WWFF includes many other parks, including most state parks in the United States. I haven’t been on the air yet from the parks, but in addition to the local NPS units I was able to activate in 2016, I can now do similar operations from other metro area locations, such as William O’Brien State Park, Fort Snelling State Park, and Afton State Park, as well as from most of the other state parks in Minnesota and surrounding states.

Most of my activations during 2016 focused on metro-area parks, but some of them, such as my activations of the Lewis & Clark Trail and the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, were done in conjunction with business travel. Great minds obviously think alike, as shown by Vance, N3VEM‘s recent activation of a metropolitan park in Florida while traveling for business.

Photo courtesy of N3VEM.

As he details at his blog, he recently had a business trip to Florida from his home in Pennsylvania. He immediately began researching parks in the area, and discovered Oleta River State Park, which is actually located minutes from downtown Miami. Rather than book a stay in a more conventional hotel, he rented a rustic cabin at the park, which allowed him do his activation after work. He packed his FT-857, which is almost identical to the FT-817 I used for most of my activations, the difference being that his radio puts out 100 watts as opposed to my 5 watts. His complete station set up in the cabin is shown at the left. His antenna consisted of dipoles for 40 and 20, shown below.

Photo courtesy of N3VEM.

One of the major successes of the NPOTA program was to encourage hams to learn new operating techniques. In particular, many hams discovered that Morse code (CW) can be extremely effective if conditions are marginal or if the station is less than optimum. Because NPOTA focused on portable operations, most of the activators were using stations that were less than optimal. For that reason, more than one ham discovered or rediscovered how effective CW can be, even with extremely simple equipment.

It looks like that tradition is continuing with WWFF, since N3VEM became one of the hams to discover CW. Vance has been licensed only since 2014, and by the time he got his license, the requirement to pass a code test to get a license had been gone for a number of years. But even though it’s no longer required, it’s still permitted, and he used this activation to make his first ever CW contacts. And his very first CW contact was with me!

To show how versatile CW can be, it should be pointed out that Vance didn’t even have a key with him. But like my radio, his allows the microphone to be used as an emergency key, and he used the mike buttons to send the dots and dashes. When I worked him, the band conditions between Florida and Minnesota were very poor, and I could barely hear his signal. It would have been absolutely impossible to work him using voice. But with CW, it was a fairly easy contact, despite his signal being almost completely buried in the noise.

Our first CW QSO was very slow, probably about 5 words per minute. But I’m sure he’ll discover that speed will increase rapidly as he gets on the air, and I have no doubt that I’ll have future CW QSO’s with him.

Four Reasons Why You Need Two Radios: 1936

Eighty years ago, consumers buying a new radio had come to expect that they could trade in the old set. This presented a headache for the retailer, since any sale of the used set would probably cut into sales of new sets. The trade press often contained pointers on what to do with these old sets, such as donating them to charitable organizations, or selling them in bulk to other dealers, hopefully in another town, so that they would be another market’s problem.

The October 1936 issue of Radio Retailing included this graphic to help salesman convince buyers that they would be better off having two sets.
The page was designed to be shared with customers, and noted that “many questions asked by the consumer are difficult to answer because of his limited technical knowledge and inability to visualize.” Thus, the graphic was easier to understand, “and most people believe much of what they see in print.” Thus, graphics such as this one were printed to assist the salesman close a deal by “picturing the answer to a specific question which introduces selling resistance.”

This page notes that the old radio is worth more than the maximum trade-in value any dealer could allow, and suggests four uses for the old set. First, it could be moved to the playroom, allowing the parents to “duck the kid’s programs without breaking their hearts.”

Another viable option would be the bedroom. The magazine notes that it could be connected to an automatic time switch for a musical alarm.

In the kitchen, “any good serviceman can remove the chassis and build it in” for a truly modern kitchen.

The final use would be in the “whoopee room,” where we see a group playing ping pong and enjoying cool beverages, listening to the old set which has been “painted, in color, for that modernistic touch.”

NPOTA: Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail

Preparing to send RF ‘cross the wide Missouri.

During the 2016 ARRL National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) event, Amateur Radio operators are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service (NPS) by setting up their equipment in NPS units to make contact with other Amateurs around the world. Since the beginning of the year, the event has been extremely popular, with over 13,000 activations from 450 different different units of the NPS and over 700,000 individual two-way contacts. As I’ve reported in other posts, I’ve made contact with 281 different parks and operated multiple times from six parks in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

One of the event’s successes has been encouraging visits to the parks. Until recently, my activations have been confined to the NPS units in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Last week, I had to be in Sioux City, Iowa, for one of my continuing legal education programs. The city lies along the path taken by Lewis and Clark as the traveled from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean, and is therefore part of an NPS unit, the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Because the trail’s sheer length, and because it passes through so many other notable sites, it is the NPOTA’s most popular activation site, with over 13,000 individual contacts made. Since my son had recently been studying Lewis and Clark in school, I decided to bring him along.

Wikipedia photo.

Sioux City marks the point where the only death during the 1804-06 Corps of Discovery’s expedition took place. Sgt. Charles Floyd is buried under a prominent obelisk on a bluff overlooking the river. The Sioux City riverfront contains two museums devoted to Lewis and Clark’s journey. The first is in a drydocked former riverboat, the M/V Sergeant Floyd. The ship was an Army Corps of Engineers Inspection Vessel. Interestingly, the ship contains a ham station, although it’s supposed to be a recreation of the ship’s radio room. As you can see from the photo below, the radio room is equipped with an E.F. Johnson Viking Valiant and a Hallicrafters S-40. Even though these amateur rigs appear to be out of place, it was interesting to see this inadvertent ham station set up.

The museum also contains the forensic reconstruction of Sgt. Floyd shown here, created from a plaster cast of his skull.

The second museum on the riverfront is the Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, which includes animatronic versions of Lewis, Clark, President Jefferson. and “Seaman,” the expedition’s Newfoundland dog.

Conditions were relatively poor the day I visited the site, and my initial attempt with a mobile antenna was unsuccessful. Since the day was nice, I returned and set up a dipole at a picnic shelter overlooking the river and made ten contacts on 20 meter CW.

1946 NPOTA Activation

During the 2016 centennial of the National Park Service, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is conducting its National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) event. Amateur Radio operators are setting up their stations in various units of the National Park Service (NPS) and making contact with other Amateurs around the world. Since the beginning of the year, the event has been extremely popular, with over 11,000 activations from 450 different different units of the NPS (with only 39 not yet activated), with over 640,000 individual two-way contacts. As I’ve reported in other posts, I’ve made contact with 251 different parks, operated multiple times from six parks in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and plan to activate additional parks in the Midwest before the end of the year.

Even though this event is recent, operating portable from the National Parks is nothing new, as shown from the photograph above, which appeared seventy years ago this month in the September 1946 issue of Radio News.

Shown here are members of the Washington Radio Club operating Field Day 1946 from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Shown here are Dick Houston, W4QPW (apparently at the mike), along with Major Eric Ilott, G2JK, of the British Army (later VE3XE), and club secretary Barbara Houston. They are operating a 25 watt phone rig on 10 meters, with a Hallicrafters Sky Champion serving as the receiver. Power was supplied by a 300 watt gasoline generator.

Ilott, apparently at the left in the photo, served in the British and Canadian military until his retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1974. He immigrated to Canada in 1947. During the war, he served as a listener for the British War Office, sending reports to Bletchley Park. Among his accomplishments after the war was bringing the first ever television signal to Kingston, Ontario, from an antenna atop a water tower. He died in 2015 at the age of 95. (For another look at the early days of bringing distant TV signals to town, please see my earlier post on the first TV in Marathon, Ontario.)

1946 was the tenth running of the ARRL Field Day, an event in which hams set up stations at portable locations to make as many contacts as possible.

I previously wrote about the 1941 Field Day, in which the high scoring station had made 1112 contacts. That would be the last Field Day before the war, and the one shown here was the first postwar Field Day. According to the results in the February 1947 issue of QST, the top 1946 scorer made 809 contacts.

But the results article noted that it would be pointless to compare the 1946 results with those of prewar Field Days, since operating conditions as of June 1946 were quite different. In particular, hams had not yet regained access to the 160, 40, and 20 meter bands, which had been the workhorses for the prewar events. The 1946 Field Day was limited to 80 and 10 meters on HF, along with the 50, 144, and 420 MHz bands.

Shenandoah was not the only national park being activated in 1946. In addition, according to the results article, there were operations from Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and a battlefield national park in Virginia, as well as numerous other venues.

Photo courtesy of N3KN.

While the Washington Radio Club took the honors of activating Shenandoah National Park in 1946, my own 2016 contact took place on February 8 on 20 meter phone. Fortunately, the 20 meter band was returned to hams shortly after the war, as the contact on 10 or 80 meters in 1946 would have been considerably more challenging. My contact was with Kay Craigie, N3KN, shown here. In addition to being an avid NPOTA chaser, activator, and member of the NPOTA Facebook group, Kay is the immediate past president of the ARRL (a select group which included Herbert Hoover, Jr.). She was at the helm of the ARRL when the NPOTA event was proposed and adopted.

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NPOTA: St. Croix National Scenic Riverway

St. Croix River looking north from Interstate State Park, Minnesota. By Aaron Fulkerson – CC BY 2.5.

Last week, I did two National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) activations of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway. I did both of them from William O’Brien State Park in Minnesota. My station consisted of my Yaesu FT-817, powered by a 12 volt sealed lead acid fish finder battery, The antenna consisted of a Hamstick mounted on the back of my car. The QRP (low power, 5 watts) radio and very modest antenna have proven quite effective, especially on 20 meters.

During the ARRL NPOTA event, Amateur Radio operators are setting up their stations in various units of the National Park Service (NPS) and making contact with other Amateurs around the world. Since the beginning of the year, there have been over 11,000 activations from 449 different different units of the NPS (with only 40 not yet activated), with over 600,000 individual two-way contacts.

William O’Brien State Park, Minnesota. By Greg Seitz (The.dharma.bum at English Wikipedia) – Photo by Greg Seitz (The.dharma.bum), CC BY-SA 2.5.

I made the quick jaunt to William O’Brien on Friday in order to work Patrick, N9OQT, who was set up at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Indiana. Patrick was there doing an Amateur Radio demonstration for a conference of state park superintendents from around the country, and he put out a call for activators to work him from different state parks around the country. My five watts can be extremely effective using CW (Morse Code), but I thought it would be a challenging contact using voice. However, since one of the purposes of the event was to demonstrate Amateur Radio to the gathered park officials, Patrick wanted to use voice only. I started out by setting up in the parking lot of the park’s visitor center. Even though this location is quite a distance from the river, it’s at a much higher elevation, and I thought it would make the difficult contact easier.

I needn’t have worried, since he copied my 5 watt signal quite well. I immediately drove down to the river, and he copied me quite well from there as well. He made a total of 124 contacts, including a total of eight state parks around the country.

Patrick Twigg, N9OQT photo.

Patrick’s operating location was an interesting juxtaposition of history and modern technology. He was set up in the recreation of Thomas Lincoln’s (Abe’s father) 1820’s carpentry shop. In addition, he reported local interference from roosters crowing in the background. His radio and logging computer are shown on the old workbench, with the power source being the battery shown on the floor.

Carpentry Shop at Lincoln Boyhood Home, Patrick Twigg N9OQT photo.

After working Patrick, I went to CW and worked about 30 more contacts over the course of the next hour.

On Saturday, my son and I made another trip to the St. Croix River, and I decided to do another activation. We spent most of the day exploring the glacial potholes at Interstate State Park in Taylors Falls, Minnesota. The parking lot near the potholes is more than a hundred feet from the river, and the other unit of the park has somewhat difficult access due to road construction. So we decided to stop at William O’Brien on the way home, where I set up in the same spot as the previous day near the boat landing. This time, I didn’t get “spotted” on the DX cluster, so I spent about an hour answering other calls in order to make my required 10 contacts. The most interesting contact was with Jim, K7MK, who was doing a SOTA activation in Idaho.

Shafer Butte, Idaho. National Forest Service photo.

Summits On The Air (SOTA) is another Amateur Radio activity in which hams set up temporary stations on various mountain summits. These can range from very modest summits that can be reached by car, to ones requiring serious mountaineering skills. Jim’s location appears to be one that was somewhere between these two extremes, as he was atop the 2311 meter Shafer Butte in Idaho. He reports that his activation involved a 6 mile hike, including a 1400 foot vertical ascent.

William O’Brien is a 1520 acre park founded in 1947, and located on the St. Croix River less than an hour from Minneapolis and St. Paul. It’s location close to the metro area makes it an extremely popular park, but its being on the St. Croix can make it very much of a wilderness experience.

Minnesota’s Interstate State Park is located slightly further away from the Twin Cities, in Taylors Falls, Minnesota. It was founded in 1895. The main visitor center is located immediately adjacent to the downtown area of Taylors Falls, and the campground and other facilities are located about a mile down the river. It’s also a very popular park with Twin Cities residents to explore the glacial potholes, and is also a popular venue for rock climbing. It is located across the river from the Wisconsin state park bearing the same name, from which I’ve done a previous NPOTA activation.

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