NZART Headquarters Infoline Issue 34s
02 Apr 2012
NZART Website: www.nzart.org.nz

An oversight during preparation for distribution of infoline 248 meant the report on the Jock White Field Day was omitted.

Stuart’s report is included in this special issue, plus an updated results table.

2012 Jock White Field Day Report

A big thank you as always to all of you who went to the trouble to set up and operate field stations. Weather is a big factor in participation and was quite variable over the country. High winds and rain affected operation in the north while further south conditions were much better.

Propagation on 40 was probably the best we have experienced since the last sunspot cycle however DX contacts were markedly down on 80m this year.

This year was my first since taking over from Stan in 2006 where every field station has sent in their logs. All logs were in by the cut-off date allowing me to get this report out very early as well. Thanks you to all, this has probably halved my workload in processing entries.

Another bouquet: there were no reports received of splatter this year, and was my experience as well while operating. This is great to see (or hear!).

It was great to hear Christchurch back on, having missed 2011 for obvious reasons.

Kaikoura was activated by ZL1PY from Lake Tennyson in the remote Marlborough back country.

It was nice to hear a few new ones after an absence of several years: Nelson, Thames, North Canterbury and Wellington.

The Radio Electronics Group in the Waikato activated their new branch number (89) for the first time and I will modify the summary sheet to include them.

Sadly we were not to hear much of the voice of ZL6A as Jim was the head CW operator for the Nelson team.

There were a few absences this year: Papakura, Huntly, Tauranga Emergency, Inglewood and Titahi bay operated as a home station.

South Taranaki managed to take out the Patea trophy ahead of Napier and was a close thing.

This year there were 35 field station active, up from 32 in 2011, but down on the 37 in 2010.

There were the usual large teams at 1AM, 2QF, 2AB and 2KO.

Branch point numbers were lower than they would normally have been in the past for this many field stations as some teams dropped CW and/or 40 metres for this year.

Home Stations

It looked like with the absence of Jakey, ZL2JKY this year Gwynne, ZL1AAR might take out the home station section however Warren ZL2AJ appeared from no-where to scuttle that.

Operating Technique

This is probably a more important factor than your antenna in gaining more contacts for your team. It is in the best interests of everyone that contacts in Field day are made efficiently.

When conditions are good (on phone) there is no need to repeat the cypher, similarly callsigns don’t have to be used exhaustively once the initial contact is used. Obviously as band conditions change, or if there is QRM/QRN then repeats will be needed, sometimes a number of times.

Contacts needed to become a valid branch point

Note that 20 contacts are needed to achieve this on CW for field stations (50 on phone). I reduced from 25 points last year. There were three field stations affected by this rule, one made 19 contacts, however I was quite strict. Twenty contacts is only a little over one contact per hour for the entire event and should be achievable. I will not drop the number below 20 for reasons of fairness. Too few contacts mean many teams miss out on the chance to gain that branch point.

Thanks to Kapiti for persevering and making 51 phone contacts before going QRT.

Logs

The standard of logs this year were at a pretty high standard, I would request again that teams use the summary sheets off the NZART web-pages, having branch point callsigns on refill paper is not that helpful. See:

http://www.nzart.org.nz/activities/contest-rules/

I will be re-distributing some of the branches from sheet 3 to sheet 2 as the last sheet is getting quite crowded.

Team Comments

Great experience for our most junior member

Saturday very windy

Windy but no rain, not like 2011

We hoped there would be more stations on CW

Enjoyable FD we with favourable weather and good attendance by local and distance members

Rained during set up then stopped

Operated in a venue open to the public and FD turned into a most worthwhile PR event.

As per the definition of being competitive or social as branch likes or all points in between. We were!

Operated from a horse float

Having broken my leg whilst on Christmas holidays I was unable to compete this year with our branch: home station was next best.

ZL2.. was a very aggressive operator

Several hundred sheep in paddock, luckily only two ground radials pulled out

Less DX stations this year

40 m definitely up

Had to sleep in the 4WD at Lake Tennyson as wind too strong to put the tent up

Grateful to the stations that persevered with our sometimes very faint signals (QRP).

High winds and rain meant one station ended up at plan C: operating from the front lawn.

Disappointed not to hear more DX

While having dinner felt guilty about no one from the club participating do set up on the front lawn

Check Logs

Received with thanks from ZL2AYK and ZL2DW

Valid branch points (Multipliers)

Total: 90 (86 maximum available to field stations)

80m phone: 01 02 03 04 05 08 10 12 18 20 22 23 25 26 27 28 29 30 37 41 46 48 50 53 58 63 64 68 69 76 79 83 86 87 89

80m CW: 01 02 03 04 05 12 22 25 26 27 28 29 30 46 53 68 86 87

40m phone: 01 02 05 08 10 12 18 20 22 25 27 28 30 37 41 46 50 58 64 68 83 86 87 89

40m CW: 01 02 05 18 22 25 27 28 30 46 50 68 87

73s

Stuart Watchman ZL2TW

Next NZART Official Broadcast is on Sunday 29^th April 2012. Next HQ-Infoline e-mailed on FRIDAY 13^th April 2012. Closing date for this is Thursday 12^th April.