Field Day 2004

Photos
Results

Field Day is held every year in June and gives amateur radio clubs around the country a chance to demonstrate their emergency operating skills. During a 24 hour marathon (Saturday 2 p.m. to Sunday 2 p.m.), radios are operated without commercial electrical power. Only batteries, generators, or other alternative energy sources, such as solar power, can be used.

Field Day 2004 was on June 25 and 26 and the New Providence Amateur Radio Club once again operated from the Governor Livingston High School atop the second Watchung Hill in Berkeley Heights.

Our station setup included 2 radios: one on HF (High Frequency/long distance and one on VHF (Very High Frequency/shorter distance). We also ran a GOTA (Get On The Air) station, which is an HF radio specifically intended for operation by non-hams or beginner class hams under the guidance of one of our experienced hams.

We competed in Class 2A with our club callsign N2XJ. "2A" means we were a club station operating 2 radios at the same time. (The GOTA station  doesn't count in determining your competition class, although contacts made do count in determining total points.)

 In addition, we operated a separate '1F' class station using callsign WK2I -- an Emergency Operating Center /RACES station with one radio -- at the New Providence Fire Station.

Scoring points in Field Day are calculated by adding the:

See below for NPARC's scoring results.

Photos

Click on the links below to visit our photographers' pages:

Bob KB2IKC

James KB2FCV

Tom K2ESE

Results

Congratulations and many thanks to all who participated. It was a good showing all the way around. Both club stations -- N2XJ and WK2I -- were in the top half of all participating stations, and both stations were in the top-20 in NNJ.

N2XJ was #169 out of 455 "2A" stations with a score of 3,044 points on 728 contacts (QSOs). Of  all stations in all categories, N2XJ was #594 out of 2,248 -- a pretty good showing since some of the top stations were running many, many radios. For example, the top score of 32,372 points on 9,304 contacts was earned by the MDC Potomac Valley RC and Columbia ARA clubs which had 50 (!) radios running.

N2XJ's point score was calculated as follows:

1. CW QSO's: 394 x 2 (mode multiplier) x 2 power multiplier (150 watts or less)   = 1576
2. Phone QSO's:  334 x 1(mode muliplier) x 2 power multiplier (150 watts or less) = 668
3. Bonus points of 800

Just for comparison, in 2003 we had less total QSO's (397) but a higher score (3,915), because we were able to use the QRP (5 watts or less) power multiplier of 5.  In 2002, we had 957 total QSO's with a score of 7,520 as a QRP station (better solar conditions?).

Our WK2I station was #3 nationally out of 25 1F (EOC) stations with a score of 1,910 points!   In 2003, we were #5 out of 56 1F stations.  Of all stations in all categories in 2004, WK2I was #990 out of 2,248.

Top Northern NJ Stations for 2004:

* W2GD was #6 nationally for all stations!

Top 5 Nationally for Class 1F (2004):