How was everyone's winter field day?

Here's mine with a bit of added dramatic effect because, let's face it, I don't take playing radio quite as seriously as some.

It sounded like a fun idea when JC10311 posted about it at the beginning of the month. I decided, like some others that I wouldn't buy anything specific for the field day and I will only use what I had on hand when I heard about it. On top of that, I was going to consider it a "test" of my equipment and I would do no preparing of any kind for it before the day of the event. Fast forward to the Saturday morning...

OK so now we get to imagine that TEOTWAWKI is finally upon us! It's about time if I do say so myself. The power is out, there is no cell service, and zombies are eating brains left and right. What do we do? We go outside and play with our radios so we can call in reports for where the Chinese are parachuting into our AO.

Time to fire up the generator!!! "...crap, I'm out of gas."

"Guess I need to go get some."

I went and picked up some gas and returned home with 10 gallons of liquid QSOs. I filled that puppy up, turned the petcock to "ON" and...gasoline everywhere. "...crap bad fuel line."

"Guess I need to find a piece of fuel line"

After looking everywhere and cursing myself for not being prepared, I sucked it up and  drove to The automotive store and purchased a small length of fuel line that looked like it might work. I finished installing the fuel line (an interesting feat on a Chinese generator that requires you to remove all manners of parts to access the top of the carb) with 3 minutes to go before the start of the contest.

I fired it up got my rig on and running at exactly 17:00 UTC. I started calling CQ and was answered by a slightly grumpy Canadian who was not aware it was TEOTWAWKI. He informed me that my contest didn't start until 18:00 UTC. I looked up the time in the rules while I still had him on the air and shoved it in his face that he was wrong and therefore the U.S. is a better place to live. I did manage to get his category, section and temperature though so it was a good contact in the end.

Once I got started, it was all downhill cruising from there, yada yada yada, it was a fun contest and I had a good time for being the first event like this that I have participated in.

How was your Winter Field Day and how do you think your score will stack up?

Well . . . after all the prep, I ended up with family issues that kept me from participating.  I heard that it was well attended.

Glad you safely made it through the fuel issues.  Something like that can easily spark out of control.  

I was unable to participate due to the 160M thing, a virus, according to the doctor that I saw today, and other things that 50 year old guys moan about.  

I spent the time in my living room with the pellet stove cranking so I did not freeze my tubes off in the back yard trying to catch some waves!
Although, Winter Field Day sounded like a great idea, I HATE THE COLD WEATHER!

Bill

I tried to make an ARFCOM contact-couldn't hear squat...pouted about no Football the rest of the weekend

Went out to my pond at the back of the farm about 1500z  Set up 1/2 mile from the house.  Took about 45 minutes to have everything set up.  Still too early for the contest so made a quick PSK31 and a CW contact on 20.  Everything working good.



Homebuilt New Carolina windom cut for 80-10 meters set up as an inverted V with the center at 24 ft on military poles.  used the aluminum ones for the tripod and fiberglass for the vertical so it wouldn't affect the vertical part of the antenna.  Ends were tied to the Zip line tower and a tree on the other end.  Set the ice fishing tent with the KX3, 20 watt Powerfilm solar panel and LiFeO2 battery and controller.  Computer, radio, mic and key.  Had my grandsons 7 and 9 years old with me so we were running MO IN 32F.  They were very slow at logging so we didn't get nearly as many contacts as I could have alone.  Several friends from our club stopped by to visit.  One friend came with her plane and was going to land on our runway which was within 200 ft of the setup but it was too soft by the time she got here so landing was out of the question.  We made about 50 contest contacts and worked a few DX stations (Canary Islands, Argentina) who weren't in the contest.  Didn't hassle them for contest exchange.  My 7 year old grandson really wanted to make a CW contact so we found a real slow op on 10 meters who was willing to work him.  He still needs a cheat sheet for some letters.  He did make his first CW contact at about  4 wpm   I doubt if any arfham would have had the patience to work him that slow.  That one wasn't a contest contact.
Took us about an hour to take down the station Sunday morning.




Solar panel on the ground next to the tent.





Had the band chart printed out for my grandsons.  Also the phonetic exchange.




LED light and rig after dark





Battery and charge controller




Ready for Tege's cw contact.  condensation on the camera lens.




messed around.  visited with friends. played hockey on the pond.  watched N9O** circle with her plane.  made 51 contest contacts, 2 non-contest DX and one non-contest CW.



Operated on 40, 20 15 and 10 meters.
One guy ticked me off.  Non-contest guy came on when 2 of us were trying to make a 2 way qrp contact.  The other guy had been on that frequency for over an hour.  First one "XX!XXX this is YYY2YYY  there is some interference on this frequency but it is weak.  We can get over it.  I turned on the amp so you can hear me.  Running 873 watts"  Other guy "I hear it too but you are getting over it fine.  Have my amp on too.  How copy?"  GRRRRR  if you can hear us why the F*** are you coming right on top of us and turning your amps on?  Then they went on bitching about the winter field day guys taking "their regular frequency"  We tried to work through them but never did complete the contact.





There you have it.  the good and the bad.  Equipment worked excellent and the grandsons had a great time and want to do it again.






 

Awww, come on. You had the pro-bowl... Which sucked so bad they couldn't even get the announcing correct. Cutting to commercial right in the middle of the play, flipping back to the studio before the guy in the announcer booth was prepared (so you got 10 seconds of him sitting there blinking), and then the calls... God the calls...

So, yeah, it should have been called "the amateur bowl" instead.



I didn't get a chance to run anything special, I did make a couple contacts while driving around through.

You must not have listened very well if you couldn't hear my big mouth.  I worked several SC contacts.

Hmmm...I worked a young man in in a MO station. PM me your call, I'm curious if I have you in the log.
And if he ever wants to do another 4wpm QSO I'll be HAPPY to go that slowly for him...though I think my rig may only go to 5wpm if he can keep up. If not, I'll break out the straight key.

Looks like you guys had a great time!
I was spinning the dial in the middle of the day on Saturday and heard a CQ from what I thought was a Canadian station VE3-something. I listened again and it was actually a VK3 station beaming long-path on 20m. That was a surprise. I got him in the log and managed to get all the info but the temp before we lost each other. It was a nice break.

I think I managed 65+/- QSOs over the course of the 24 hour period. 10, 15, 20, and 40 on a mix of modes.
I managed a 40m Olivia rag chew with a very nice older gentleman and a few quick CW contacts who weren't in the contest but were more than happy to give me the exchange for some multipliers.

I have a feeling the competition for placing this year is going to be a lot more than previous years judging by what I heard on the air. LOTS of 1H and MO stations calling. I had fun for sure.

No Dish, No Cable, No ESPN-sounds like I missed NADA

Totally forgot about it.  

Give him 2 more whacks for me.  





 

Don't feel bad stimpson, I forgot about it too

It's too bad because we got our first shot of actual winter in months this weekend!  Whatever antenna I put up in the -6° F and full day of snow would have been booming.

I drove to Greeley Co. to pick up my airplane

Quit teasing us.. what is it?  Did you get a kitfox?  Doesn't look like a kitfox in that picture.
 

Challenger II. I wanted a Kitfox, but this deal was too sweet to pass up. I figure It'll teach me a lot and be a learning experience in plane ownership while I look for a Kitfox.

Greeley to Wheatland was 40-50 mph winds. A trailer same shape and size was blown off in the median halfway back to Casper, by that time we were going about 45 mph.

After Casper it calmed down a bit then decided to have a nice little blizzard until Buffalo. Buffalo to Sheridan was black ice. So far everything's going fine.

The plane traveled well and is rigged down in the trailer like we knew what we were doing and didn't shifted in spite of the trailer whip.

Will you be flying it to Oshkosh in July?  I plan to have the Kitfox there.  They have an amateur radio station there too.  Also I plan to take the KX3, buddistick and solar charger.





 

Fuck off!

Very nice! What's it like to fly a plane that light in MT? You folks have some beautiful flying country there. I'd be chicken dealing with the wind and/or mountains!

It's not bad as long as the string doesn't break.

I just about forgot to send in my log. Thought of it this morning.  They have to be in by 0000Z march 1

*bzzzzzzzzt* *snap*
*crack*


WHOOOOOOSHHHHHHHH

Same. I just sent mine yesterday.
I have no idea if it is formatted correctly or not. I've never submitted a Cabrillo log to anything before.

If anyone else is trying to send a log make sure you have the new email address.  The old one won't work.

Yup... me too... we need a PSA for these sorts of things.