AAR

After an iffy start at a local festival due to a bad storm, it settled down about 09:00 local time and quit raining.  We
had the pavilion (right in the middle of it all, concrete slab, roof overhead, primo spot) set up how we wanted, tables
and chairs supplied by the city.  There was a pole with pulley on top, rope threaded, for us to hang the balun of our
66' overall length OCFD.  

Frank used his casting rod to place a line right over the branches we needed to pull some heavier line over and
stretch out the ends of the OCFD.  We had that up in about 15 minutes, coax run back to the pavilion.  I keep
some 50' lengths of RG-8X on extension cord reels for such occasions.

Used my IC-7200 in SKB case station.  

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_10_22/675680_.html

There was AC power nearby, and we ran an extension cord.  Plugged in coax, powered on, and soon were on the
air before 10:00.  Ran the full 100 w.  Headset was Heil Pro Set Elite 6 Icom model with FS-3 footswitch.  Good
sound isolation from all the noise around us, music, police going by on 4-wheelers, etc.

From the Louisiana Gulf Coast we made contacts on 20 meters up and down the east coast of the USA, from
Florida to Virginia.  To the north, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan.  Some mobiles, too.

To Virginia we made contact with a ham at a Boy Scout camp who was QRP, running just 5 w.  Said hi to the
Scouts.  Signal was 5-7 both ways.

To the west we made contact with states from Texas to Washington.  No Canadians. But I did notice hams had
occupied 14.313 mhz and it was all clean language.  So the bad boys must have been chased off.

Food offerings at the Festival ranged from alligator-on-a-stick to shrimp kabobs, onion flowers, fried green tomatoes,
fried eggplant, burgers, to Asian food, to corn dogs.  Some big sausage sammiches smothered in sauteed onions
and bell peppers.  Really, BIG sammiches.  Prices were not too bad, but portions were VERY generous.  My wife
and I split an onion.  She also got some kind of Asian chicken on a stick, BBQ'd with a sweet & sour sauce on it.  
I ate most of the onion.  

Weather was nice... overcast, no rain the rest of the day, nice breeze, cool.  Didn't break a sweat.  

Despite the QSO parties in Nebraska and Michigan, we found a slot and could work stations as fast as we could
take them.  At one point I had 5 stations stacked up, and more joining as I worked them.  Those operators were
all polite and waited patiently for their turn.  Thank you!

Another operator experimented with her old "Spider Antenna", which is a mobile antenna that looks more like a
hat rack than antenna.  Little stubs sticking out all over each loaded/tuned for a different band.  

http://www.spiderantenna.com/info.html

Actually she made some contacts on it, good signal reports both ways.  Not as good as the OCFD, but she was
fighting the bizarre menus of a FT-857D she had not run before.  She said, "I see what you mean."  I used to have
an FT-897 and warned her about it.  She continued, "I don't know where I am now... I must have bumped something
and can't get back to the regular screen."  After a while she made it back but did not know how she did it.  That's
why I got rid of the 897.

A bunch of kids wandered by.  One little girl, oh, 8 or 9, had been watching me from out front, and they came
under the pavilion to look at materials we were giving out.  They were all very polite, well behaved, and the adult
with them did not have to work at keeping them that way.  

So, the little girl that had been eyeballing me was doing the same up close.  I signaled her, while working a
QSO, to sit down in the chair beside me and handed her some headphones plugged into the Y with my Heil
Pro Set.  If she had big eyes before, now she had really big eyes.  

Her mother started to tell her to get away, come back over to them, but saw she had the headphones.  Soon
the other kids came over and they took turns listening, too.  I did not know at the time, but was told the lady
took photos, as well as a reporter and cameraman, of me operating and the kids gathered around and listening.  
Will have to see what comes of that.

A number of area hams dropped by, some we knew, a few we didn't.  This was not at our usual area of operation,
but at a town about 15 miles away.

All in all, we had a good time, and I came home and took a much deserved nap.

We don't have to wait until Field Day to find out half of our gear doesn't work, and what does doesn't work well.  
Everything worked as it should.  We have this portable stuff down to a fine art.  Don't try this at home.  We are
perfeshinuls.

FB OM!

Outstanding!  Sounds like a great day.

What was the special event?

Louisiana Black Bear Festival

Doctor Tesi was there from the local hospital doing surgery on Teddy Bears and other
stuffed animals, getting them back to good health.  She sutured split seams, missing
eyes, and other such surgical care.

http://www.bayoutechebearfest.org/activities.html

Our club is listed, as well as a pdf to read about the club.  I am proud to be a member and former officer.

Radio / antenna performance:

Mostly solid contacts.  What few problems we had copying signals was due to QRM from
adjacent frequencies.  There were several QSO parties, and Michigan was especially busy.  

We even made a good contact with a guy at a Boy Scout camp running QRP, less than
5 watts, and more than 800 miles away.  Also a number of good mobile contacts.

But for the most part, 100 w barefoot, and a simple OCFD hung in the trees got us solid
signals all over the USA.

20 meters went long, and 40 meters got us contacts as close as 40 miles away.

Everything worked.  No equipment failures.

My very first audio report, I had to turn Compression OFF as it sounded like the Heil mic
with the Pro Set Elite 6 was overdriving a little.  With Compression off it sounded just fine
and I received good signal and audio quality reports the rest of the day.

Each contact was from 1 to 4 minutes.  We were not trying for contest speed, but rather
chatting about the festival and local area, which was the point of the special event station.  
Still, we made about 75 contacts in 4 hours, took a break for lunch somewhere in there.

We have everything just about "plug and play".  Almost no twiddling trying to get anything
to work.  All tried and proven gear.

Guys, seriously, do NOT wait until Field Day to find out you are going to have problems.  
There's nothing like just getting out and doing it to find problems and fix them.  You want
to do this well ahead of that next hurricane, tornado, earthquake, or flood.  

Something as simple as setting up informally in your local park on a nice Saturday morning
will do.  Musicians say, "You are never going to play better in performance than you did in
rehearsal."  And something something about sweating in training vs. bleeding in combat.  
Well, just go out and work the radio.  Find out what works, what doesn't, and fix it.  Make
that special event a non-event, just routine operation.

Field days are routine for me because I simply use the '320.

It needs virtually nothing but a tree to throw a wire over.

I watch the club and they go through all sorts of Boo-Ha running extension cords for computers and stuff they do't need. I really pissed off one of the club biggies when I held up a pencil as he was demonstrating the so-called club field day computers.

"It makes it easier, yada yada yada."

My reply was "It's supposed to be a FIELD day, not a case of dragging a home station out onto your porch."

"I don't know what you use..."

I interrupted him by holding up a pencil, a notebook and a PRC 320. "THIS is a field rig. Completely independent of ALL infrastructure which is what FIELD DAY is supposed to be about."


"Yeah, well... yada yada yada."

Truth is if you are going the typical club Field Day route Jupe is 100% dead on. Sweat in peace so you don't bleed in war.

The one  I don't get is for Field Day, clubs using cranes, manlifts, etc, to hold up antennas.  Really?

A tornado rips through Joplin, MO, do you think they had cranes available to hold up ham antennas?

Hurricane Rita squeegies Galveston.  I doubt they had cranes to hold up ham antennas.

I could go on, but you get my drift.

On the other hand, my club could be set up and on the air anywhere in 15-20 minutes.  Piccolo in
about 3 minutes.

Last few Field Days my club operated from our club station as an EOC.  One of the things you get
extra points for is running a generator.  I'll go you one better... I STARTED the generator in 100 mph
winds during Hurricane Isaac when city power went out.  I didn't do it for extra points.

OK, I was partly shielded from the wind by my pickup.  Still, just a few minutes and I was soaked
to the skin.  The generator started on the second pull.  We run it every club meeting.  

Think about what you will be facing in a real SHTF event and prepare accordingly.  What will I do if
________?  And upon hearing hoofbeats you don't have to prepare for zebras.  But it might be
prudent to expect horses.

So, use these Special Event Stations as practice for when you really need your skills.  

That, and it is a great way to introduce ham radio to the general public.  Unfortunately ham radio is
like model railroading.  It is done in your attic or basement, and no one knows about it.  Getting out
in public, some literature, a club public information officer, some of ARRL's "When All Else Fails"
brochures, and a lot of other free stuff ARRL will be glad to give you.  

Have some extra chairs for visitors and Y's for headphones.  Some cheap headphones (and wet
wipes to clean them for each user), and let them sit in with you and hear what you hear.

No other time will what we do get better exposure to the general public.  And it impresses the
hell out of public officials when they drop by and you are talking across the country... or
another country altogether.  "Hi, Mr. Mayor... yes, I am indeed talking to a ham in Buenos Aires
right now.  The other operator is on the 40 meter band, and he's talking to hams across the state
and surrounding states.  We're covering the entire gulf coast region.  During hurricanes we activate
hurricane nets across all these states, and immediately after we send in reports on local conditions,
pass emergency traffic..."

And you do not need a club to do Special Events.  You can do this as "An Army of One."

That's known as a "digital logging program."




That's what I use, too.

Actually, I think it is an "analog logging program"

I thought that was a digit logging program.

The things on your hand that hold the pencil are "digits"... therefore "digital".

Digitally-driven encoding device using graphite storage media on fibrous substrate.

Yeah!

You win.

Cards just in from the printer, envelopes ready to stuff, labels printed.  

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface, and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 degrees Celsius.

The Russians used a pencil.


I like simplicity when it comes to HAM radios. This is one of the reasons I don't like using computers with my radios. All of my logs are kept on paper. I don't like having a bulky "Emm-comm" box either. My "go bag" is small and packs several radios, batteries, a tuner, coax cables etc. Everything is neatly stored in the bag. It takes several minutes to get what I need out of the bag and interconnect it the way I want for the particular operation. FT-857D is my primary "go to" radio. I like it because it's small, has an excellent performing receiver and it's very simple to operate.  30 watts out seems to be an optimal power vs battery usage combination.  I'm usually up and running in less that 3 minutes. The bag is small enough to carry it on my "dual-sport" motorcycle. It's simple and efficient.

Closeup of card.




The actual card looks better, sharper, brighter, but this is the limitation of scanners.  The artwork is colorful and interesting.

Back side has usual blanks for freq, time, signal report, etc.

The cards are filled out, mailing labels printed, a nice typed up log for the event people, envelopes stuffed.  Will bring back
to their office in the morning where they will run everything through their postage meter and will mail for us.

This special event is a done deal.

I see the Stark's are well represented!

"A bear, there was, a bear, a BEAR, all black and brown and covered with hair!"