Most Recent Blog Posts

  • Field Day 2024 Part 3- Let’s Go!

    More photos from Cushla KD2TCH and one from Norm K2GGE

    K2GGE
  • Field Day 2024 Part 2- Putting Up Antennas

    Photos from Norm K2GGE and Cushla KD2TCH

    K2GGE
    K2GGE
    K2GGE
    K2GGE
    K2GGE
    K2GGE
    K2GGE
    KD2TCH
    KD2TCH
  • Field Day 2024- Part 1
    Closing crew on Sunday

    On June 23, 1778, General George Washington and the Continental Army were camped in Hopewell, New Jersey, just down the road from Rocky Hill. The weather was so hot that soldiers died of heat exhaustion as they marched in woolen uniforms along what is now Route 518 to the river crossing at Rocky Hill. The morning of June 25th they climbed the “Rocky Hill” and marched past Rockingham, a large farm house, to Kingston, NJ, where they rested in the heat, continuing at dusk on their march to the Battle of Monmouth.

    Four years later, Rockingham would become George Washington’s final war-time headquarters. The building is now a state historic site (on Kingston-Rocky Hill Road).

    On June 22, 2024, a couple of dozen ham radio operators climbed the Rocky Hill, near the site of Rockingham to create a communications facility, for ARRL Field Day 2024 #ARRLFD

    Laura, Rob, John D. and FT8

    Just as in 1778, Field Day Saturday was dangerously hot. Heat indexes were over 100, temps in the mid-90s (for four days in a row). Fortunately, Cushla and John F. brought water and ice cold drinks. They also brought canopies to keep us shaded (and enclosed at night). Nobody wore wool.

    John C. and Barb A. got the urge to camp out, so they brought their RV — thankfully with air conditioning — a much needed place of respite from the relentless heat. The RV also provided freezer storage for Kay’s Italian Ices, an excellent noon-time snack shared with the group.

    The site itself had been prepared and weed-whacked on Friday by Josh, Norm, Jim G, Cushla and Bob, and Charlie D. The site is wide open, covered with gravel. That meant lots of sun… everywhere. Fortunately. we could set up tents near the southern tree line, and get a little bit of shade… which helped! Norm, Kevin, and Josh used “nut launchers” to throw fish line over trees. This raised our dipoles to respectable heights. Jim got his drone up over the top of the best tree, but could not set the line. The method was very promising though; maybe next year.

    Dinner Time

    Dinner!
    Taking a break
    Memories

    Cushla provided Dinner– cold foods for a hot evening. John D. provided Belgian Waffles on Sunday morning, and Laura, fresh from the “Golden Horseshoe” of Ontario, provided lunch on Sunday.

    Visitors

    Tom Devine WB2ALJ (SEC for Southern NJ Section) chats with Rebecca
    Ron Fish, KX1W, ARRL Affiliated Club Coordinator for SNJ, talks with John D.
    Bill Kelly, American Red Cross, presents Charlie D. with certificate “For demonstrating the capabilities of Amateur Radio to work in less than optimal conditions.

    Weather

    Speaking of “Less than Optimal,” thunderstorms made radios crackle from the start of the contest at 2 PM to 3PM or so, as Trenton and Edison had rain, but we didn’t. We did stop operations several times based on radar images.

    Then at 5:30 PM, the sky opened, with lightning and 0.3″ of rain. Everyone was safely in cars or the RV, and equipment was mostly safe under the tarps… only some note paper was ruined. The weather, however, did not cool down. Heat continued through 2 PM on Sunday, though no more thunderstorms threatened.

    The sun did allow us to make plenty of solar contacts on FT4 and FT8.

    That’s a wrap!

    Josh, John D, John F, Laura …. Pack it up!

  • Visiting DSRC Field Day site

    The David Sarnoff Radio Club welcomes visitors to our site with a few caveats:

    1. Attend with an attitude for safety. The electronics and antennas can cause harm if touched or disturbed
    2. Supervise Children and those who cannot be responsible for their actions
    3. Bring and drink water. It is hot.
    4. Obey warnings of hazardous weather and other dangers.
    5. Ask questions but please don’t interrupt communications.

    Where?

    “Rockingham Site” was a former location of Rockingham, Washington’s last wartime headquarters. Now it is Somerset County Open Space off of Route 518

    From Rocky Hill: Route 518 one mile east of Rocky Hill bridge UP the hill.
    Turn Left at the second left turn– the one that doesn’t have a wooden gate There will be signs by the road, and yellow cones.

    From Kendall Park, NJ: Take NJ Route 27 South,
    Turn Right onto Route 518 (Georgetown-Franklin Turnpike) to the west.
    After the level part of Route 518, the farms will give way to forest.

    There is a double driveway on the right, take the further (gravel) driveway up the hill and curve to the LEFT. There will be signs by the road, and yellow cones.

    Note that there is no building at this address, just a parking area in Somerset County parkland. Some GPS software doesn’t like the address above. As a last resort, simply go to Rocky Hill, NJ and head east on Route 518.

    GPS can be inaccurate:
    Try: 122 Georgetown-Franklin Turnpike, Princeton, NJ 08540 (make sure you GPS does NOT say “Skillman”)
    Others claim that the address is:
    108 Georgetown-Franklin turnpike, Princeton, NJ 08540 (though this may be east of the location.

    Look for the signs on Route 518, that is the best way!!
    You can also find it using the lat,lon: 40.40267649776452, -74.61275770727383

    When?

    Visitors are welcome any time after 2 PM on Saturday, and perhaps Noon-2 PM on Sunday.

    What?

    We will tell you a bit about amateur radio (“Ham Radio”) also show you the equipment used for talking across the USA or beyond.

    We may offer you a chance to speak into the microphone and even talk to someone at another Field Day Station.

    More about Field Day in general HERE http://www.arrl.org/field-day

    More about our Field Day Exercise: https://n2re.org/field-day-2024

  • May 2024 Meeting Wrap-up
    Good Conversation!

    The May meeting of the David Sarnoff Radio Club was a great success. Pre-meeting tailgating party followed these instructions: Bring a hoagie or other food to eat while you chat with other club members. Also bring any items you’d like to get rid of!

    We also had a chance to look at sunspots, both projected by a spotter scope onto paper (as was done by Carrington) and also with a solar filter on a small telescope. There were two groups of three spots visible.

    A Good Selection of Junk!!

    For the main event, Laura, John NU3E, and Charlie N2CTW presented on Solar activity…

    We showed this video https://youtu.be/PYR6EPlPDPU?si=BlRoRKRtPa-v0TsM

    Talked about Ionograms found at

    https://lgdc.uml.edu/common/DIDBYearListForStation?ursiCode=MHJ45

    and listened to 6 Meter SSB Aurora signals from VA2CST:
    https://youtu.be/Fv5taYjXLf8?si=aB_OndPxr_wsteu8

    and 2M Aurora CW from Steve Meuse:
    https://youtu.be/5EEzIMMV3mQ?si=p1p0i-_enCILeI05

    And Charlie reminded us all of that hit from 1956 “Northern Lights” from Songs of the Pogo.
    https://youtu.be/hl8_DP2m72A?si=rZ3pwjK3n8BZDVP9&t=182

    We also thanked those who have filled out our survey and urged others to complete the survey on Field Day and Summer Activities that was sent out last week (we will send out a reminder e-mail to the groups.io list.)

    Hope we have good weather next month, so we can offer up more pre-meeting junk at our tailgating party. And recruit new hams and old to join us for Field Day 2024

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