Every year on the fourth full weekend of June, the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) and the RAC (Radio Amateurs of Canada) sponsor Amateur Radio Field Day, when amateur radio operators all across North America practice emergency communications, operating either from outdoors stations they set up for the event using non-commercial power, or from Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs).
In addition to providing ham radio operators with the opportunity to practice operating in challenging conditions, Field Day is also an opportunity to give amateur radio greater exposure in the public eye as our sites are open to general public and many include a GOTA, or Get On The Air station where unlicensed persons can experience communicating on the ham bands with the help of a licensed operator.
I am a member of the Meriden Amateur Radio Club / Wallingford Amateur Radio Group. Since our club station is located in the Wallingford EOC at 143 Hope Hill Road, it makes good sense that we operate there as a class “F” (EOC) Field Day station.
W1NRG Open to the Public. 
Operating at the EOC. 
John Bee, N1GNV, operating phone this.morning.
This is the second time that I have participated in Field Day with the MARC/WARG folks, and once again I had a great experience. My ongoing amateur radio resolution for this year has been to work on improving my CW (Morse Code) skills and Field Day provided a great opportunity to practice my ‘fist’ as I signed up to take the graveyard CW shift from 2:00 – 6:00 am along with my friend K1STM, Anne.
Anne has been a licensed ham radio operator longer than I have been alive, and her CW skills are amazing. Not only can she copy Morse Code sent at a much faster speed than I can, she can also pick out the faintest Morse Code signals burried under the background noise that I completely miss!
In preparation for the start of my 2 am shift this morning, I went to bed early last night (before the sun set!) and set an alarm for 1 am. Before turning in, I had the coffee maker programmed to brew a pot of coffee which I brought along in my trusty Stanley vacuum bottle.
Arriving at the Wallingford EOC around 1:30 am, I met up with KC1SA, Steve, who was wrapping up the prior shift. He walked me through some of the basics of operating the club’s Yaseu FT991A transceiver which is linked to the N1MM logging software and controlled by the shack PC.
Operating CW in a contest from a PC keyboard is pretty easy. The software allows for the easy transmission of several pre-recorded messages such as our club call sign, the basic Field Day exchange, etc.
I operated the first ninety minutes of our of shift and made 13 contacts on the 40 meter band between 2:00 and 3:30 am. The band was not crowded and most ops were sending at a speed I was comfortable copying at, right around 20 words per minute. I was able to work several stations on the west coast in Arizona, California, some in Florida and even one station in Hawaii.
Anne took over around 3:30 and she also made 13 contacts on 40 meters before our shift ended at 6:00 am. Anne is blind so she relied on me to log the contacts she made in the N1MM logging software. Instead of using the computer keyboard to transmit, Anne operated using the Bencher paddles.
By the time our shift was over, I was exhausted, but felt good about the work we did. We were rewarded with a feast of a breakfast that included omelets, pancakes and Chorizo. In addition to making contacts on the air, we hams really love to eat too. Last night at the EOC, John Bee, served his famous “road kill stew” – a MARC/WARG Field Day staple for years.
KB1MFU, John, prepared this scrumptious breakfast of omelets, pancakes and Chorizo! Hams love to eat – go figure!
After breakfast, I drove Anne home and then decided I would make a few additional contacts from my home station. I worked another dozen stations, mostly in the midwest, running 100 watts on 40 meters using my Kenwood TS2000 radio to my G5RV antenna.
I worked them at 1256 UTC from my home QTH.
So, Field Day 2019 is done and I had a great time once again. Did you operate Field Day? Let me know how it went!
73 de AB1DQ
James
By the dawn’s early light. 
Straight Key at AB1DQ 
At the Wallingford EOC
AB1DQ 