Author: Tom Bruegge

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Wrapping Up Field Day 2026

Field Day 2026 is in the books, and Carol, KE6SRN, has submitted our results to ARRL.  We earned 7626 points from our QSOs, and 2335 bonus points for a total of 9961. 

Once again, Field Day was a collaborative effort between SPARC, Pasadena Radio Club, JPL Amateur Radio Club, and the Caltech Amateur Radio Club. Dedicated members of all four clubs contributed to make this a great success. 

A special recognition goes to David, N6AN and Mark, WB6CIA who ran a 24-hour marathon on the CW key and logged 1029 contacts. 

Mark, WB6CIA pulling an all-nighter at the CW station. Photo credit: Carol, KE6SRN.

Steve, KO6DTY and Neil, N7YUY came through getting our 2 antenna trailers to the site, then had help from another handful of volunteers to get them set up. 

Steve, KO6DTY and Neil, N7YUY our muscles (antenna tower leads). Photo credit: Carol, KE6SRN.

John KK6ZVQ rounded up our VIPs, including Congresswoman Laura Friedman, members of the Glendale and South Pasadena Fire Departments, and ARRL Section Manager Diana Feinberg, AI6DF. Several media mentions helped bring members of the public to ArtCenter to learn what ham radio is all about . 

Congresswoman Laura Friedman, Representative of the 30th district of California.  Left to right: John Aboud, KK6ZVQ; Laura Friedman; Mark Seigel, W6MES; Bruce Nolte, N1BN.  Photo credit: Bruce N1BN.
Vince, KF6FLJ and Frank, K6FOD with members of the Glendale Fire Department. Photo credit: Carol, KE6SRN.

We earned all of our Bonus Points this year.  Yeah!! 

Thank you Hal KF6RRR for rounding up the Scouts, and thank you all the Station Captains and all who turned out to make it a successful 24 hours. 

Ellie from BSA Troop 5 with GOTA coach Rick KI6ZKM. This young lady is destined to be a scientist when she grows up.

Thanks also go to Mark, W6MES and Carol, KE6SRN for being our Field Day co-chairs again this year.  There are a lot of details to attend to in order to make this all happen, and Mark and Carol did a great job.

Field Day chairs Carol, KE6SRN and Mark, W6MES

Carol has created an event blog post (link below) — but please if you have any stories to share, let me know.  Carol’s favorite story is meeting eleven-year-old Scout Ellie, who told her that she wants to be a quantum physicist when she grows up.  And after working with her on her Radio Merit badge for an hour, Carol said she can go wherever her dreams take her.

Thanks again to everyone who turned up at the Art Center or worked Field Day from home.

—Tom, KE6SRO

Field Day 2026

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March 2026 Meeting: Building a 6m J-Pole, Part One

SPARC holds a monthly 2m simplex net. Many of us also have 6m capability which we wish to explore. To this end we will use two club meetings to build 6m antennas, then test them following a future 2m simplex net.

In this build we will aim for low SWR in the 50.3 to 50.6 MHz region of the band. This region is designated as “all modes” in the 6-meter band plan. If you’d like to target a different area of the band, you will need to make adjustments. This is accomplished during the tuning process by lengthening or shortening the radiating element. (It will be cut on the long side, and we will trim. So “lengthening” really means “not trimming as much.”) The J-Pole design does not have a broad resonant region, so targeting your desired operating region will be necessary.

Click here for a nice online calculator for J-Poles made strictly from ladder line.

The build that we will be doing uses ladder line only for the matching section, so the calculator is somewhat off. The ladder line has a velocity factor of 0.91, while the 14-gauge silicone wire that we use for the radiating section has a velocity factor of 0.97. This means that our radiating section should be about 1.066 (0.97/0.91) times longer than the ladder line design.

This YouTube video explains a similar build:

Below is a handout featuring full instructions for the build.

JPole instructionsDownload

At our April meeting we will tune the antenna using a mast and an analyzer.