The Utah Valley Amateur Radio Club, K7UVA, will be participating in Field Day June 23 to 24, 2018 as a club!

Scroll to the bottom for Willow Creek Fire updates!

What is Field Day?

ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. On the last full weekend of June of each year, more than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations.

Field Day is a picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!

It’s a time where many aspects of Amateur Radio come together to highlight our many roles. While some will treat it as a contest, other groups use the opportunity to practice their emergency response capabilities. It’s an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Amateur Radio to the organizations that Amateur Radio might serve in an emergency, as well as the general public. For many clubs, ARRL Field Day is one of the highlights of their annual calendar.

The contest part is simply to contact as many other stations as possible and to learn to operate our radio gear in abnormal situations and less than optimal conditions. You can read more about Field Day at http://www.arrl.org/field-day

When:

Contest operating times will run from Noon Saturday to Noon Sunday our time.

• Setup will begin at 8:00am Saturday June 23rd.
• Tear down will start at 12:01pm Sunday June 24th.

If you would like to head up into the mountains a few days earlier to help reserve the spot, that would be greatly appreciated. While we have a permit from the Forest Service, it does not reserve our spot. So those that are available to head up as soon as possible, are strongly encouraged to do so.

Technically, we can start setting up as early as 6 pm MDT on Thursday. 3.3. No class A or B station may begin its set-up earlier than 0000 UTC on the Friday (Thursday afternoon or evening local time) preceding the Field Day period. Cumulative set-up time shall not exceed a total of 24 hours.

Where:

UVARC is heading to the hills!

We will be going to Forest Road 451 in the Co-Op Creek area Directly North of Strawberry Reservoir. 40.283134, -111.168512

• Take US Highway 40 Eastbound from Heber Utah and turn North onto Forest Road 082 just past Mile Marker 41.
• If you hit Mile Marker 42 you are too far East.
• Go North on FR 082 for 2.9 miles.
• Turn left onto FR 451 where you will find Field Day site.

Video Driving Instructions

Drive Video Time Lapse Video

Link to share the map shown below: tinyurl.com/2017-uvarc-map

Potluck Saturday Night:

There will be a potluck dinner Saturday Evening at 6 pm.
The meat will be provided.
Please bring a dish to share at Field Day.

We are coordinating the Potluck Dishes for Field Day here: https://www.facebook.com/events/196731160966849/permalink/196731730966792/

Food & Water:

Please plan on bringing your own supplies to cook and prepare your own food.

There is no water up there, so you will need to pack all of your water in with you!

Radio Equipment:

Please feel free to bring your HF, VHF & UHF Equipment.

You never know when you’re going to need back up gear. We, however, ask that you do not transmit or operate on any of the HF frequencies at the UVARC QTH, to prevent damage from overloading the other radios. We are coordinating all of the stations so we don’t step on each other.

Activities and Facilities:

Restrooms (port-a-potties) will be provided. Additionally there are Forest Service outhouses at various locations along the roads.

There is a general store at the Daniel Summit Lodge, at the Strawberry Bay Marina, in Fruitland (East), and Heber has several stores 30 minutes away.

There will be an educational class at the site, the class is still to be determined.

Technical Details & Rules Summary:

• Talk-in Frequency will be the 146.540 Simplex Frequency
• We are class 3A with a GOTA Station
• Region 7, ITU 6, CQ Zone 3
• We will be using N3FJP Field Day Logging Software (requires Windows)
• Cannot setup before 0000UTC Thursday
• Operating Time is 24 hours starting 1800 UTC Saturday until 1800 UTC Sunday (Noon to Noon our time)
• No using existing structures/buildings
• Everything, including antennas, need to stay with in the 1000 foot diameter
• Zero commercial power is allowed. Batteries, Solar Panels, and Generators only
• 3 Stations will use the Club call K7UVA
• 1 GOTA Station must use a different call.
  • This will also use the same exchange of 3A with a call sign of K7GSL.
  • 150 Watts Max
• Exchange is 3A UT (What we tell them: “Three Alpha Uniform Tango“)
  • Example of the full exchange “Please Copy Kilo 7 Uniform Victor Alpha, Exchange 3 Alpha Uniform Tango, QSL?“
• If you participate with the club, you cannot call the club from the parking lot and qualify it for a QSO
• Different Modes on the same band are considered “separate bands.”
  • Example: We can work W1AW on both 40 meters CW and 40 meters SSB, and have it count as 2 QSOs.
• No Cross Band Contacts
• All stations MUST stay on different bands from each other
  • Example: If Station A is on 40 meters, and Station B is on 20 meters… Station B CANNOT QSY to 40 meters using the same mode.
• No Repeater Contacts

Volunteer!

We are looking for volunteers to help with both the setup and take down. Please register as a volunteer here: tinyurl.com/uvarc-fd-2018-volunteers
You will be contacted and told where you are needed the most.

Cost:

Field Day is Free and Open to the public

RSVP:

You may RSVP Here: https://www.facebook.com/events/196731160966849/

Is this RSVP required? No, but it does help us track how much food and anticipate the size of the turn out.

What you will need to bring:

This is a location in the National Forest. Please bring a means of shelter such as a Tent, RV or Camper as well as a warm sleeping bag. Also bring a warm jacket and coat. It has been known to snow at these elevations during the summer. Please bring everything you normally would on a regular camping outing.

Forest Service:

Please remember that we are guests for the Forest Service and they are granting us our Special Event Permit for Free. If we pack it in, pack it out. Let’s show the Forest Service we are appreciative and good stewards of the land and leave it better than we found it.

Media:

Please see our Press Release here: 2018 UVARC Field Day Press Release [PDF 88 KB]

Willow Creek Fire Updates:

Please come to this section for all official updates and news regarding the fire situation near our Field Day site. It doesn’t matter what you hear on the Radio, via Facebook or email, this is the Official Update and will contain the latest status regarding the fire. I will keep the updates in chronological order.

June 12 11:00PM

I (Jeff, N1SC) was tagging by a friend on a Facebook page post for the U.S. Forest Service Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, informing me that the area where we got our Permit (Auth ID HKD911701) for Forest Service road #451, was closed due to Closure Order # 04-19-360. A map of the closure can be found here.

I immediately informed the leadership and sent an email to our contact at the Forest Service at midnight, asking for a secondary back up location at on Forest Road 134 (Clyde Creek Road) which is West of Strawberry Reservoir, at 40.227508, -111.206693 (google maps link).

June 13th 1:00PM

I had not heard from our contact at the Forest Office yet, so I gave the number a call. Turns out our contact Gina (who has been wonderful to work with) is on vacation and didn’t receive the email. I talked with Brenda (who was answering the phones) and gave her our situation. She said that she was going to contact the head District Ranger and discuss it with him. She could call me back sometime Thursday. She said there are a couple of options/ideas (no promises):

• We might just still be allowed to use the area anyway since it is just barely inside the closure line with their permission. (fingers crossed)
• We are relocated to somewhere nearby.
• There is still more than a week away, and the closure might be lifted, and we can still use the site.

There is not an official fire ban according to the online map (this takes a LONG time to load), but I said I do not want to risk it, and will tell our group that we shouldn’t have fires.

As for now, we are still planning on going to this area, hoping that the closure is lifted or we have been given permission to still use the space.

June 13th 8:00PM

No word yet, as expected. The Forest Service said that the fire went from 10% containment at 650 acres to 10% containment at 1100 acres in 24 hours. You can see a Helicopter video footage on their most recent post. The fire is considered “Incident 5837” and you can see up to date details about it here.

As for now, we are still planning on going to this area, hoping that the closure is lifted or we have been given permission to still use the space.

June 14th 12:00PM

The fire is at 25% Containment (up from 10%) as of last night at 10PM. It grew from 1100 to 1400 acres roughly. I also put together this map on Google Maps to give you a rough idea as to where the Closure is located, where the fire is located, and where the Field Day location is located. Link to Google Map.

June 14th 8:30PM

I got a call from Brenda and she had spent all day up at the fire as the PIO. She discussed and visited the location where we were are permitted for our Field Day event. She stated:

• The ranger believes we’ll be just fine for our event, without any issues.
• The fires that they started yesterday to help clear pathways had already burnt out by themselves.
• The fire is on the other side of the ridge.
• The area is not smokey at all, and you can hardly even see the smoke coming up now.
• We are still 100% good to go in the Rangers mind.

So, at the end of the day, we’re still good for our original location!