From: "Joel N. Weber II KB1GRS" <nemo@MIT.EDU>
To: w1mx@mit.edu
Subject: Field Day this weekend!  Come operate!
Message-Id: <E17LXg5-00041O-00@xanthine.gratuitous.org>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 19:18:53 -0400

[ This is the only announcement to this wide distribution; further
notices will go to <w1mx@mit.edu>; summer-fun folks, we figure that
some of you might be interested -- the front of W20 is a bit more
accessible than the 54 roof to passersby.  ]

OVERVIEW

Amateur Radio Field Day is this coming weekend, from 2:00pm Saturday
(22 June) until 2:00pm Sunday (23 June). Field Day is an event to
demonstrate Amateur Radio to the public, and practice emergency
preparedness. The MIT Radio Society (W1MX) traditionally operates from
the front steps of W20 (the student center), and we will be in that
space again this year.

The purpose of this message is twofold; to get operators to sign up
for shifts, as well as to let people know what's going on so they
can drop by and check us out.

Field Day differs from VHF contests in that there is more activity,
and since it is primarily HF, there is better propagation and it's
easier to make more contacts.

INTRODUCTION

The on-air portion of Field Day involves attempting to make as many
contacts with other stations as possible within the alloted time.

This year, W1MX is planning to enter as 2A, which means two
transmitters, on emergency power.  We'll likely be stringing two
dipole antennas, one from the W20 roof to the top of Kresge, and one
from the W20 roof to the top of Bexley, one an 80m dipole and one a
20m dipole.  We'll also likely have a vertical antenna for HF.

For transceivers, we'll be taking over W1MX's FT990, and borrowing
W1XM's Icom 746; hopefully we'll have a pair of ICE 419A filters for
to reduce interference between the two transmitters.

There are a plethora of opportunities to collect bonus points.  Nick
Martin and I are planning to do some sort of APRS demo.  There are
additional bonus points that would be available if we did a fast scan
and or slow scan television demo, or some other non-traditional mode
demo, which may be something to explore in some future year.

There are also bonus points available for handling NTS traffic, and
for copying the special W1AW bulletin, which we should make a point of
doing.  If you are experienced at dealing with NTS traffic, please let
me know.

The full rules for Field Day are at
http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2002/rules-fd-2002.html

CALL FOR SIGNUPS

Most of the field day activity runs for the first 24 hours of the
contest, so that's when we'll operate, from 2:00 PM on Saturday, until
2:00 PM on Sunday.

We need people to help with setup, people to operate throughout the
contest, and people to clean up on Sunday afternoon.  The time is
divided into one hour timeslots; please sign up by sending me email.

Since we'll have two transmitters, we'd like to have two operators for
the entire field day period.  We can easily keep four people busy by
having one person talk while another person logs on each transmitter,
since this tends to make each contact go a bit faster, and there's no
shortage of stations to work during field day.

SATURDAY


 NOON    -  1:00pm:	W1GSL, KB1CGZ, KB1GRS
 1:00pm  -  2:00pm:	W1GSL, KB1CGZ, KB1GRS
 2:00pm  -  3:00pm:	KB1GRS
 3:00pm  -  4:00pm:     KB1GRS
 5:00pm	 -  6:00pm:
 6:00pm  -  7:00pm:     
 7:00pm  -  8:00pm:
 8:00pm	 -  9:00pm:
 9:00pm  - 10:00pm:
10:00pm  - 11:00pm:
11:00pm  - MIDNIGHT:

SUNDAY

MIDNIGHT -  1:00am:
 1:00am  -  2:00am:
 2:00am  -  3:00am:
 3:00am  -  4:00am:
 4:00am  -  5:00am:
 5:00am  -  6:00am:     
 6:00am  -  7:00am:     
 8:00am  -  9:00am:     
 9:00am  - 10:00am:     
10:00am  - 11:00am:     
11:00am  -  NOON  :     
 NOON    -  1:00pm:	
 1:00pm  -  2:00pm:	
 2:00pm  -  end:	W1GSL, KB1CGZ, KB1GRS