Our thanks to Saranac Community Schools for hosting ARRL Field Day 2016 for the Riverside Radio Amateurs ARC.

We had beautiful weather Friday through Sunday morning.

We made over 200 contacts, voice and Morse code.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had four stations running simultaneously throughout the contest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Salvation Army supplied us with plenty of hydration, snacks and food to make sure we had energy to work through the entire contest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had quite a few visitors this year.  Thanks to WION for helping to get the word out about our Field Day activities this year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

K8DC conducted a training exercise dealing with the use of solar power in amateur radio field operations.

The cells pictured in this post are keeping two deep cycle batteries topped off.  The batteries, in turn, are providing power for an Icom IC-7300, as well as lighting and ventilation equipment.

Thank you, Jay, for the informative seminar, as well as for the ABT’s, which kept our individual power cells operational Friday evening ! !

 

After the March business meeting, we adjourned to the tech building workshop to continue our balun-building learning project.

Our instructor Jay K8DC has taken us through the theory and technology of baluns, impedance matching and common mode current filtering.

During one session, we worked on the design of a combination 4:1 impedance matching balun and common mode current rejection filter.

After design was completed, a prototype was constructed and tested, verifying the design’s effectiveness.

Jay then acquired materials and supplies in quantity, and our club members got down to the construction of their own dual-core baluns.  The units are intended to be used as the feed-point of a multi-band HF wire dipole.  They will convert the relatively high impedance of the antenna to a closer and more efficient match to that of 50ohm coaxial cable.  The baluns will be able to handle full legal power.

Thanks again to Jay for his valuable instruction, patience and contribution to the art of amateur radio.