Best Field Day Ever

K6OZY

This Field Day, the Phoenix Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club had an all-Flex 6000 series event. We were 4A with a 6700 and three 6300's. We proved that the superior phase noise of the 6xxx series transmitters makes a HUGE difference on in-band use for contesting. We were able to have a 6700 on CW, a 6300 on PSK31, and a 6300 on phone SSB all on 20M at the same time without interfering with each other! Our antennas were all within 400ft, and we were running 100 Watts. Take a look at this screenshot from my 6700. 



This shows a PSK31 transmission from the 6300 station. It was about 3 wavelengths from the 6700's antenna. The 6700 was a Carolina Windom 80 at 65ft, and the 6300's antenna was a Carolina Windom 40 at 65 ft. There was ZERO increase in the noise floor after the fall-off of the signal +/- 20Khz from the PSK signal. The CW Ops couldn't even feel it! This was INSANE! Everyone at the FD site was amazed that we could all operate in the same band. The 6700's phase noise is rated at -148dBc/Hz and the 6300 is at -140dBc/Hz. This puts them at the top of the pack, and our experiment this weekend proved it. Last year, we had to isolate the radios to separate bands when using various Kenwood and Yaesu radios. Our club now insists on using Flex 6000 radios going forward.

The dual receivers on the 6300 made it quite a bit of fun to receive the W1AW bulletin on two bands at once.  I ran one slice on 20M into DM780 and the other on 17M into FLDigi.  The 17M had a lower signal strength but less fading.   It was a significantly better quality copy on 17M.



I setup the 6300's with dual pan adapters.   The top one had Slice A and was where the operator interacted.  The second one was spectrum only and I resized it for a band scope.



We ran N3FJP Field Day software on their own dedicated computers and connected them via SmartCAT to their assigned radio.  I used 42" Samsung TV's on two of the main stations for easy visibility.





The CW guys wanted to handle logging and operating on a single computer, so I set it up on a 21:9 ultra wide LG 34UM95.





We had lots of kid involvement too!







We used a Flex 5000 for the free 6M station and snagged over 56 Q's!



22 Operators, 40+ visitors...



 .. including the Mayor of Flagstaff.   It went pretty well!



We ran a VE session and had over 18 passed exams





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVU71hETmlI


Thank you, FRS, for making this the best Field Day to date!

Ernest - W4EG

Beautiful the way you documented the FD event.

W9OY

I was hoping you would post this!

73  W9OY

KY6LA_Howard

What was ur score?

geep

Wonderful article!  I reposted part of it to our club website.  Thanks for putting it up.

Gerald-K5SDR

LOVE THE KID PARTICIPATION!!!!

Stu Phillips - K6TU

FD is not a Contest. ;-)

Stu K6TU

KY6LA_Howard

Sure. Tell that to the participants and see how many believe you. Still curious as to the score

Ed, K0KC

I need one or more of those big monitors for my old eyes!

Ed, K0KC

Stu Phillips - K6TU

Hence the :-)

100 lines for you Howard...
Field Day is not a contest - right!
Field Day is not a contest - right!
...

How is EU?
Stu

KY6LA_Howard

Stu:

I have an anterior motive... I posted it to the SD DX Reflector and was immediately bombarded by the 3800 results for 4A where these results were NOT posted... So to defuse the situation, it would be interesting to find out their score

BTW.. Back in the USA for a few weeks before resuming international travels again...

Friedrichshafen is easily the best Social and the cleanest and most welcoming Hamfest .  Dayton is embarrassing...

K6OZY

Total CW QSOs: 520 X 2 = Total CW QSO points: 1040
Total Digital QSOs: 188 X 2 = Total Digital QSO points: 376
Total Phone QSOs: 615 X 1 = Total Phone QSO points: 615
Total QSO points: 2031
Total QSOs Made: 1323
Power Multiplier: 2
Claimed Score: 4062
Total Bonus Points Claimed: 1160
Total Score: 5222

Everything was run on generator.  We had solar, but didn't get our GOTA, Sat and were short 2 kids for the full 100 points on the kids bonus.

We also did not treat this as a serious contest, so I am unsure if that score is any good or not.   We always have a blast, but there is always enough free spots for everyone to get as much radio time as they want.

Can you provide me the link to your post?

KY6LA_Howard

Great Score So far you look to be #1 on 3800 4A LP Call CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs Op Time Score Club W7OTV 670 576 103 24 4,244 K4LM 1360 1294 179 24 4,212 K4NRC 1057 934 103 48. 3,254

KY6LA_Howard

http://www.3830scores.com/editionscores.php?arg=NemqPzwfigaP

WA6FXT Mike

Great article on Field Day 2014 with the all Flex 6K's Mike