Posted: 6/24/2012 10:44:38 AM EDT
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Dehydrated. Exhausted. Sunburnt. Happy! 2012 Field Day is in the books. 15 was really disappointing this year compared to last year (2011:396 15m phone contacts, 2012:108 15m phone contacts). The band was attached with the same ferocity as last year, but the atmosphere seemed to have no love for us.
Our 40m voice station did a lot better this year than last (due to using a dipole antenna rather that some crazy concoction from years past). We had a lot of noise on 75 and 20, but we managed to get a few contacts in. Overall, we had a great turnout. My station was 100% solar, and that generated a lot of foot traffic and interest from folks. Our station was the most popular to visit because there was no noise and no odor. Overall, this field day was a lot of fun, but boy am I glad it's over. Off to bed now... |
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Due to circumstances I had to stay home and operate 1D. It felt like a regular field day though I got a new ZS6BKW antenna from W8AMZ in the mail at well after noon and got it up in the air by about 3:00 with the help of a friend.
Didn't try real hard certainly didn't loose any sleep  . I wasn't shooting for lots of contacts got what I could but I was trying to pick up one contact in every state so spent a good bit of time hunting. I ended up with 83 contacts and 35 states and 2 provinces. I heard every state at some point except WA, OR, AK, and HI. All SSB tried to get down on CW but was having too much trouble digging anything out of the mess and they were all about 5wpm too fast. Next year.
Something wrong with my radio I still need to get sorted but all things considered it went pretty well considering. |
i am so glad FD is over. spent way more time on air then i should have. worked all bands but 10 yesterday and today worked pretty much nothing but 40. i believe i had the most contacts of everyone in the club but that will happen when you are parked in front of a radio for 14h.  my back hurts, got a little sunburn but got a LOT of time behind a ICOM IC-7800 so, if you worked K4BW on 40 or 80 you probably talked to me.
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Down in SE NM, our little group's second outing was a success (IOW we and all our gear survived). Temperatures were less extreme than last year, just 90s instead of 114 - so we stayed on site for the full 27 rather than going home exhausted late saturday night as we did last year.
I made a change in antennas this year. I whipped up a ~100' doublet, we had a Baldor trailer mounted genny with a telescopic light pole and I hung the wire from the top with the SG-237, with the broadsides East & West. It seemed to work real well on all bands. 15 & 20 & 40M were all doing well for us this year, and my first and most distant contact for the event was a KH6 on 15M. 15 went real long in the late afternoon with a lot of DX showing up, and one of the guys worked a DL2 with his 857D and a ATAS120 mag mount. I was really impressed with the performance of that ATAS. I had never seen one in action before but he was staying right with everybody with that antenna on all bands including 40M. I tell ya if I had the money I think i'd have to run out & buy one! The menu this year was tri tips & baked potatoes and some humongous dinner franks, and bacon wrapped jalapenos, all cooked over oak. And lots of Gatorade! If any of y'all worked KF5ALV that was us! |
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Our "club" turned out to be me and another guy. We were operating from our city's annual festival from a table in the corner of the city booth. We showed up Saturday to a wet table that was to be our operating station, in a booth directly under overhead power lines. So, we pulled some string to get relocated out of the CERT booth and into the City's booth and decided to only set up one radio, our expectations just weren't to high once we saw what would turn out to be the best antenna location. We ended up setting up a buddipole the other guy wanted to try behind the tent, between the tent and the travelling carnival. Just enough space to set up the tripod and get the dipole in the air. to one side we had a huge wall of carnival trucks about 15 ft away and on the east end we had the powerlines 35 ft away, right in our best path to the rest of the nation. We worked for 6 hours, made 5 contacts (6 if you count the dupe) 4 on 20 and one on 40.
We had pretty good ears in our location just no ability to get out. The combination of buddipole and carny trucks just did not work out for us, but we had fun. Apologies to anyone who may have heard us and the shooting gallery in the background. I think next year, we won't let the city decide where to put our booth; a couple decisions they made on our behalf really hurt. |
Went up Early yesterday for Breakfast and set up (In Local Downtown Park). Left to do farm stuff right at 2pm (as contest began). Planned to get back up there early this am-but 3 kids woke up sick in the night scratch that. Finally got up into my Barn around 1:30p this afternoon, got 17 contacts before 2, came back in and napped after the staying up with puking kids I had last night  .
After we set up the antennas and radios yesterday, I went to the truck and pulled out the EMCOMM Box (aka my shack) and impressed  those in attendance-really, I was surprised at the reception! Met an ARFCOM'er to boot...
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OK.. I am officially a BIG fan of field day... if you make a cursory reading of the rules ... you find paragraphs
4.6 and 4.7 which state 4.6. (Class D) Home stations: Stations operating from permanent or licensed station locations using
commercial power. Class D stations may only count contacts made with Class A, B, C, E and F Field Day stations. 4.7. (Class E) Home stations - Emergency power: Same as Class D, but using emergency power for transmitters and receivers. Class E may work all Field Day stations. So... being ill prepared and equally motivated for 92 deg field ops, I gas up the geni and opperate as a 1E from my now temporarily powered and airconditioned station....
Field day is a target rich environment... you cant turn the dial without tripping over another contact... big fun... might have to set up beside the pool next year!!! That would make a pretty cool Field Day QSL card...
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Thought about firing up the generator but with the cost of gas I figured D would have to do. Honestly I didn't work a single D station although I was hunting not sitting and calling CQ. Might be a temperature and part of the country thing, but I worked 16 D's.... and some E's.... one was a 3E... big fun... my local club set up in a field... I helped them set up and take down... they looked wiped out when it was over... really hot down here yesterday and today... so, the A/C and 1E was a good choice ..... |
Our club W8DYY, worked 3E from our permanent shack leased from the city in the local park and I was working phone on 20m and 40m from probably 2100 to 0100 EST. I probably made over 250 contacts I'd guess. Didn't really look at the logs. The rest of Field Day was spent helping to lighten the keg.  That side job was never ending and made things real interesting when my logger left for my last hour and I made 60 or so contacts myself and logged with paper.
A great time was had by all. |
I worked several Ds and a few Es. Back in Eugene a guy I know has a big place out East of town with room inside for several extra operating positions and extra antennas outside. They usually put together a group of 5 or 6 operators and run class E (not to mention some grilling and beer).
I worked a lot more EOC stations than before. I don't think I worked a single mobile station. |
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It was a good weekend. I noticed an increase in class F too. I was 1B. There apparently weren't many of us out there. Only 1.5% of my contacts were other class B stations. Had a good time even though I got on the air 3 hours late –– I underestimated just how much setup I had to do. |
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BigDaddy0004 came down to visit me for FD. We had a great time, and did a lot of rag-chewing, but not so much on the radios . We setup our antennas (his coil-loaded inverted-V dipole and my 80m OCF dipole) and ran off of generator power with his 7200 and my 7K. We didn't count contacts, this was really just for fun, though we both made a few both voice and digital. We didn't get a response on either the 20m or 40m digital guard channels when we called. We claimed to be 2E, though in further reading we might have been a 2A station (the rules aren't clear to me). Technically we were operating in a combat zone for most of the daylight hours, since there were a dozen 10-12 year-old's having an "airsoft battle" at the same time in the same AO (no casualties, only one short-term MIA). Is there a special classification for that? It was hot, but we ate well, and even survived an experimental dutch oven peach cobbler. A few medicinal beverages and we retired to the camper (w/ Honda-powered A/C ).Many thanks to BD for coming down and staying, in spite of my family's shenanigans and my poor hosting skills. I'd love to participate with a larger ARFCOM group getting together and doing this next year. -Slice ETA: This was my first time operating portable. I totally underestimated the required setup time, and the difference in antennas required for portable vs. permanent (my OCF dipole was heavy, and permanently disfigured my painters pole, for example)... |
Had a great time visiting 'Slice and his family. Radios, good food and cold beverages out in the field. That's how Field Day ought to be in my book. Thanks again for the hospitality! 
ETA: Quoted:
...and even survived an experimental dutch oven peach cobbler. This was excellent, BTW! Even with the extra "Caramelizing"!
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I organized our club's Field Day effort. We operated 2A which is a departure from previous years. In the past years we operated no less than 3A and at times up to 6A. In years past, we almost spent more time fighting de-sense than making contacts.
This year we operated 2 stations and three antennas. By focusing on quality over quantity we were able to maximize our effectiveness. We had one each wire, beam, and vertical antenna. One station operated solely on the wire, which was a multi-band OCF antenna designed by one of our club members. this was setup in our trailer that is equipped with A/C. The other station had the option of an A4S which we had on approx 30 feet of Rohn 25, and a ground mounted multi-band vertical. This station was set up under a picnic pavilion and was cooled by 2 large floor fans. The weather was in the mid 90s during the day, and high 70s during the night. humidity was always high as hell and we missed a thunderstorm by only a mile Saturday night. We saw a 25% increase in contacts over our previous record, even though we operated the smallest number of stations ever. We never detected any evidence of de-sense and we were only in operation for 20 hours. I think one of the defining differences was that we were in continuous operation for that time. I was there and either logging or operating the transceiver for all of those 20 hours and there were two others that did the same. We had catered BBQ for dinner Saturday and enjoyed cigars and scotch overnight. For breakfast, one of the club members served sausage biscuits and sweet tea. Best Field Day so far even though I am nursing some heat exhaustion. |
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My field day involved an actual 4 acre field, a chainsaw, trimmer, tractor and a mower. I operated for approximately 8 hours each on Sat and Sun and the field looks awesome!
Yes, that is what I really did. I have no idea how you guys can sit around and make contact after contact, but more power to you! If I ever did participate all the fun would be over after set up and the first 5 contacts––I"m all about the equipment and the capability and not at all about the commo
I could have run 1E at the drop of a hat (whole house generator). I could have used the same 4 acre field for a 1B station very easily (it's right in front of my house). I still would have had access to all house amenities (except power), it would have seemed like cheating! Although no worse, I suppose, than the clubs with RV's, giant tents, cookouts and whatnot. Did anyone have a better antenna for field day than they do for normal op's?
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My field day involved an actual 4 acre field, a chainsaw, trimmer, tractor and a mower. I operated for approximately 8 hours each on Sat and Sun and the field looks awesome!
Yes, that is what I really did. I have no idea how you guys can sit around and make contact after contact, but more power to you! If I ever did participate all the fun would be over after set up and the first 5 contacts––I"m all about the equipment and the capability and not at all about the commo
I could have run 1E at the drop of a hat (whole house generator). I could have used the same 4 acre field for a 1B station very easily (it's right in front of my house). I still would have had access to all house amenities (except power), it would have seemed like cheating! Although no worse, I suppose, than the clubs with RV's, giant tents, cookouts and whatnot. Did anyone have a better antenna for field day than they do for normal op's?
i could sit around all day to play with that IC-7800 we had. oh, wait, i did. LOL. i LOVE that radio and one day i will own one. to bad it will be 20 years from now. LOL. as for the antenna, yeah, what we have for FD is better than what i have. all i have is a fan dipole in the attic that works pretty good on 17 and 10 but not so good on 20. now, if i want to setup outside i have my nice little PAC-12 that works pretty good on the few coils i have but need to either make more or move up to a premade coil that i can adjust. that 7800 puts my FT-100D to SHAME.
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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
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Quoted:
Had a great time visiting 'Slice and his family. Radios, good food and cold beverages out in the field. That's how Field Day ought to be in my book. Thanks again for the hospitality!
ETA: Quoted:
...and even survived an experimental dutch oven peach cobbler. This was excellent, BTW! Even with the extra "Caramelizing"!
Sounds like y'all had a lot of fun! The club I'm in (Columbus County Amateur Radio Society) was invited by the Bladen Amateur Radio Society to join them at their site. We set up at the U.S. Lock and Dam #2 on the Cape Fear River. It was a really great site. There is a picnic shelter with restroom facilities, lots of open spaces, and (most importantly) some verrrry tall pine trees to hang antennas from. The Bladen club had rented a 25 kw diesel generator that was able to supply everyone with loads of power. Plus there was several grills in action with lots of food to be had.
I got there about 10 am and helped set up the equipment and got everything ready. I stuck around till 3 pm and help log some contacts but had to leave as I was going to head over to visit my Parents. By the time I got home to my station Sunday, Field Day was over. Oh well, I still had a good time.
Vulcan94 |
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Friend sent me this link from a club in MD... this is a serious undertaking...
W3AO in MD Checked my log, I worked them on 40 and 80... going to QSL and see if they can point out the op in any of these pics... Amazing what these guys pulled off.... BTW... they were a 27A class...
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Friend sent me this link from a club in MD... this is a serious undertaking... W3AO in MD Checked my log, I worked them on 40 and 80... going to QSL and see if they can point out the op in any of these pics... Amazing what these guys pulled off.... BTW... they were a 27A class...
The were the 5th station I worked. Worked them on 40m. |
| Spent most of the weekend operating psk with W0ERH so if you have a digital contact with them its a 50% chance you talked to my son or I. We had probably 100 contacts out of a total 200 digital contacts for the club. My sons 11 and he took to psk like a duck to water and wants to work on his general license. |
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Visited R-32 and helped out with his clubs field day. I didn't do a complete 24 hours but was able to put in 12. I was able to make 15 or 20 contacts and I'm not sure what the final count was, but it was fun (not as fun as last year, the air was a lot busier.) I hope to do it again next year. |
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Quoted: Holy mother of pearl. Friend sent me this link from a club in MD... this is a serious undertaking... W3AO in MD Checked my log, I worked them on 40 and 80... going to QSL and see if they can point out the op in any of these pics... Amazing what these guys pulled off.... BTW... they were a 27A class...  We had a pretty awesome series of Field Days with GBARC & Derby OEM in Connecticut, but nothing quite to that scale.I worked W3AO on 20m phone and 40m PSK. I want to know more about that huge military mast!!! |
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Friend sent me this link from a club in MD... this is a serious undertaking... W3AO in MD Checked my log, I worked them on 40 and 80... going to QSL and see if they can point out the op in any of these pics... Amazing what these guys pulled off.... BTW... they were a 27A class...
What are those things? 
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Friend sent me this link from a club in MD... this is a serious undertaking... W3AO in MD Checked my log, I worked them on 40 and 80... going to QSL and see if they can point out the op in any of these pics... Amazing what these guys pulled off.... BTW... they were a 27A class...
What are those things? http://www.n3aln.com/images/FIELDDAY2012/DSCN7784.JPG Microwave radios. |
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Friend sent me this link from a club in MD... this is a serious undertaking... W3AO in MD Checked my log, I worked them on 40 and 80... going to QSL and see if they can point out the op in any of these pics... Amazing what these guys pulled off.... BTW... they were a 27A class...
One of my neighbors can be seen in that video! She's a champion RTTY op from the UK. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Holy mother of pearl. Friend sent me this link from a club in MD... this is a serious undertaking... W3AO in MD Checked my log, I worked them on 40 and 80... going to QSL and see if they can point out the op in any of these pics... Amazing what these guys pulled off.... BTW... they were a 27A class... We had a pretty awesome series of Field Days with GBARC & Derby OEM in Connecticut, but nothing quite to that scale.I worked W3AO on 20m phone and 40m PSK. I want to know more about that huge military mast!!! we used those to hold up the MUCS antennas - I've seen them almost 100 feet high they're pretty tough pieces of gear
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A little late to the party, but I woke up around 5 AM this weekend to the familiar, loud DI DAH <pause> DI DAH DIT of my
guard channel alarm. The cat sleeping on my chest looked at me with one eye open and claws outstretched... so I fell back asleep. Copied Homeslice's CQ ARFCOM 100% but my field day QSO count was 0.
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), even during field day our little carved out piece of the world we call our guard channel was quiet. I think that's quite awesome!|
When I looked in the afternoon on Saturday as I took a an AC break from car repair,
I saw a couple PSK stations off an on, I think they had a QSO going but weren't zero beat with each other (off about 50 Hz or so.) And a tiny bit of CW, otherwise it looked pretty clear to me. |
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Visited R-32 and helped out with his clubs field day. I didn't do a complete 24 hours but was able to put in 12. I was able to make 15 or 20 contacts and I'm not sure what the final count was, but it was fun (not as fun as last year, the air was a lot busier.) I hope to do it again next year. You did good Gibb.
We ended up in the 300's, but worked for the
You know you will be back next year 
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Friend sent me this link from a club in MD... this is a serious undertaking... W3AO in MD Checked my log, I worked them on 40 and 80... going to QSL and see if they can point out the op in any of these pics... Amazing what these guys pulled off.... BTW... they were a 27A class...
i worked them on 20 and i think 40. when the guy i talked to said "27A" i damn near had a stroke. i looked at the other operator and said there is no way in hell they are working 27 radios.
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| forgot to add, there were 2 stations that were pissing me off. one was a legal station out of Ga with a kid working the radio. im guessing they were using a beam and an amp, either the radio or the amp they were using was WAY off freq. i mean when he was talking he wiped out a quarter of the 20m band. it was really pissing me off and i couldnt make any contacts when he was keyed up. was trying to work one station and it took the better part of 5 min to get all the info exchanged. i guess i really should have found the freq he was on and tell him about his scatter but i finally just turned the dial to get away from him. the second was someone that had recorded "CQ field day" and played it over and over and over on 40m. while it was playing he was moving up and down the band. |
| Ran 2F from WB9EOC. It was our second trip and actually only operated about 12 hours. I am helping this group get spun up and started. I ended running the testing (one new general and one new extra), a APRS how to and demonstration, an antenna building demonstration. I ran 15 most of the time and had a ton of contacts. About half of our about 300 contacts were on 15m. Also ended up doing an install on the district comm vehicle during field day. Next year it will be an operating year. Going to make sure everything is set up before the day radio wise so it is not a why does this not work fest. |
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Ran 2F from WB9EOC. It was our second trip and actually only operated about 12 hours. I am helping this group get spun up and started. I ended running the testing (one new general and one new extra), a APRS how to and demonstration, an antenna building demonstration. I ran 15 most of the time and had a ton of contacts. About half of our about 300 contacts were on 15m. Also ended up doing an install on the district comm vehicle during field day. Next year it will be an operating year. Going to make sure everything is set up before the day radio wise so it is not a why does this not work fest. i worked you guys on either 20 or 40, cant remember which. the reason i remember is the call, EOC. my wife is a supervisor at our EOC.
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