Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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Field Day 2003
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July 14, 2003
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
Here are some submissions from eHam contributors for you to enjoy -- ed.
From Tom Blatch, VE4HQ
The day after Field Day 2003:
With echo's of 2A MB ringing in my ears after spending the evening shift working the 40 meter band for the Winnipeg Amateur radio Club, I wonder what great stories my fellow hams have had "the day after"
We fed lots of mosquitoes and hope the beer protected us from any West Nile critters. We had some short skip and worked many old friends in North Dakota and Minnesota (see you guys at the International Peace Garden Hamfest.
Well I better catch some ZZZ; this old body doesn't like it when I lose a nights sleep. Better rest up for the Canada Day Contest. 73 Tom, VE4HQ.
From Jeremy Williams, KC9CNI
Field Day Brought Me Back!!!
I've been in the hobby since October and, for the most part, have enjoyed. I only have my technician's license so my capabilities are fairly limited. In recent weeks I became less than interested in the hobby and was almost convinced to give it up.
This past weekend was field day and I decided that I would go hang out for a while and maybe jump on an HF rig and see what its all about. I'm sure glad I did!!! After only being there for 15 minutes, I was sold on HF!!! -- It's great. I have decided to try to get my General license by the end of this summer. I'd love to get an HF rig, but as we all know, they aren't cheap, especially for a college student!!! But I just wanted to say that thanks to our local field day, I'm sticking to the hobby and pursuing it to the fullest!!!
From David Kanitra, WB2AZE
Field Day Chow…
Hello All, hope everybody survived Field Day. Other than hockey pucks and burnt rubber duckies (hamburgers and hot dogs), what kind of chow did you have and would you recommend for next year?
From Barry Baker, K0QV
Field day pictures:
http://www.barrybaker.net/Ham%20Radio.htm
73
Barry
Do you have any Field Day 2003 or other Field Day stories that you would like to share? If so, please feel free to post them here as a comment on the article for others to share. -- ed.
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by MY_OPINION on July 14, 2003
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With all of the positive comments about Field Day, consideration should be given to a second Field Day each year. Perhaps October would be a good time. Building on success and maintaining positive momentum might help unite hams and remind us of some of the reasons that we are hams.
73,
M_O
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by KB9YUR on July 14, 2003
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If the original intent of Field Day is to be prepared, how about having a second one
in January when it's cold and there's snow on the ground ?!?
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by KB2FCV on July 14, 2003
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A field day in winter? I suppose then it would be a good idea to break out the old boat anchors to keep everything warm!!
James, KB2FCV
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by WD8JMM on July 14, 2003
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Actually, we had some discussion during Field Day about doing an "emergency preparedness" drill later in the year. Everyone knows when Field Day is, so it's easy to line up the generators, the extra rigs, dig out the deep cycle batteries, etc...
But 'what if' you had to do that on a moment's notice, say after severe weather hit your area? Would you be able to put together a functional HF station as you did during Field Day? Remember, that's part of what Field Day is all about, emergency preparedness.
I don't necessarily think we need another Field Day, but it might be nice for individual clubs or organizations to try to do a 'panic test' when nobody's expecting it. That way we could REALLY find out how prepared we are.
Don't get me wrong, I think Field Day is a wonderful event, and I had a fabulous time at ours (Lake Erie Amateur Radio Assn, Cleveland, Ohio). But when you have a year to prepare, it's pretty easy to 'be prepared'.
Just my .0344 (adjusted for inflation)
Alex
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by K9FE on July 14, 2003
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Field Day this year was at a new site. With a 20 acre lake just to the east and surrounded by woods. There was plenty of space for our stations, even though the trees were less than we were used to in stature. Every once is a while a scent of rotting something would drift across the site. We didn't think too much of it during the operation. Bands were fair, at least below 20m. Not much action on 15 and 10. 6m was open on and off. The 6 meter beam, a homebrew, had some structure problems. We ended up changing antennas on my 40ssb station since the newly acquired vertical just didn't seem to perform. The old vertical worked great...a Sunday 5am change! Due to the aroma of the site eventually we called the Park District, who called the Police, who found what they first thought was a dead body in a plastic bag deep in the weeds. Turned out it was a huge bag of fish guts just rotting away in the sun. Every once in a while the gas pressure would build up and the bag would vent. I guess we had our Law Enforcement personel show up! (even though it was not for our event!)
We did find that the GOTA station was very sucessful thanks to WA9LRD, who teaches electronics at a local High School and invited his classes. Many of us setup in open tents or popups with speakers outside the enclosed area to give the band activity some airplay. Actually it was a good idea for the phone stations, the CW were in a closed camper, but had open access to anyone. It was a great time as usual, a short stint of rain, but not too major. Good food and great fellowship made the event another to remember. A lot of new hams came out with their new tech licenses. After 10 minutes on the HF bands, with a control op, they had vowed to upgrade before summer was over. I still can hear W9CEQ 5A IL in my sleep however! I am in my one month radio free period however. My wife request this every year for me to recover. She is a ham also and at least made it out for dinner on Saturday.
If you have no Field Day memories, you haven't worked a field day. Even a 1D from home can be fun if you have limited time, but with a group where you can help one another and learn AND teach the ins and outs of setup and ops is something you will never forget.
If we did not work you this year, listen for W9CEQ next year! 73 DE K9FE
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by KA4KOE on July 14, 2003
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Station K4S, 5A.....running CW at 30 WPM on the bug, recovering from surgery but no way in hell am I gonna miss this.
Managed 140 contacts, not bad considering the circumstances.
Had a lava lamp on a power supply next to the operating position....set the mood perfectly.
Band conditions were, shall we say, less than optimal, to put it politely.
Philip
KA4KOE
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by K8FFO on July 14, 2003
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Our club, the Drake Amateur Radio Club, K8UU, takes advantage of Field Day each year and has a pig roast for the member's families. We also have a group breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings. That way everyone is well fed and ready to operate. Everyone has a great time and always look forward to the next Field Day.
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by KT8K on July 14, 2003
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The ARROW/W8UM Field Day was our best ever. We had at least two dozen people show up at our site on Domino Farms (Domino Pizza World HQ) and, yes, one of our members works for them and, yes, we did eat Domino's Pizza at least once during the weekend (Thanks Pat, N8PJR). A number of people went away intent on either upgrading to HF privileges or honing their CW skills.
The bands were not too bad (except we didn't get the openings we hoped for on 6 and 2). We eclipsed our best previous score by at least 45%, though we missed a bunch of bonuses. Next year (for SURE) I will build the contest filters I didn't get around too this year. I was glad I had two antennas for my 40M CW operation, as the dipole was getting clobbered by one or both of the other HF stations, and at times I had to use the vertical (with aluminum foil radials, which didn't work quite as well) to hear anyone. Of course, I was clobbering them back.
One interesting feature was that I could hear our 2M SSB station clearly in my headphones on 40M, whether I was receiving or transmitting. They were running about 3KW erp and their antenna was sometimes aimed right at my dipole. I didn't think I'd need a contest filter for 2M!!
Some of the pictures are at www.tsshome.com/w8sgz/, and the club website writeup is at www.w8pgw.org.
Thanks to WD8DPA Mark for letting us use the U of Mich club callsign again (a long tradition), and N8GNQ Jim for getting us the use of the site, providing his radio van for one of our stations, and much help all around.
Hope you worked us at W8UM or GOTA station W8PGW.
73 de kt8k - Tim
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by KT8K on July 14, 2003
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BTW, some club DOES run a Field Day in January or February (can't remember if it's QRP only). The fun thing is that the multiplier is based on the temperature you have to endure. The lower the temperature the higher the multiplier!
73 de kt8k - Tim
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by W5USB on July 14, 2003
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Another great idea for field day:
Maybe we can REALLY see how prepared we are. No advanced warning of the weekend for the contest. When everyone hears the "alarm" on a pre-designated frequency, then the following day begins "field day".
I mean, how valuable is it to be prepared for an emergency 4 months in advance? Just a thought.
Art
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by W5WJP on July 14, 2003
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Those of in 5 land are more than willing to have a 2d Field Day in October or November! No sweating, no fans running. Nice comfortable weather.
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by W5WJP on July 14, 2003
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Those of us in 5 land are more than willing to have a 2d Field Day in October or November! No sweating, no fans running. Nice comfortable weather.
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by KB1GMX on July 14, 2003
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KT8K... You thinking of FYBO (Freeze Your Butts Off) which is a QRP to the field in the winter event. I believe the roles were QRP and the multiplier was the difference between 68F and where you were sitting!
I'd go for a Field day where the sunburn, dehydration and the EMA mosquito and black fly weren't present.
Allison
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by KA4KOE on July 14, 2003
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GMX, actually, it is more accurately described as FYAO, as we say in Georgia. We'll leave the remainder of the exercise to the student.
P
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by N8WP on July 14, 2003
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There is no reason to have a second formal Field Day every year. Just get the club together to participate, as a group, on one of the many contest weekends. I would like my club to put a Field Day type effort into the California QSO Party this year.
Willie N8WP
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by NH2CW on July 14, 2003
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Greetings from Guam! The Marianas ARC (MARC) conducted a Field Day operation this year from the northernmost tip of Guam on the edge of a 200 foot cliff over the blue ocean. While conditions limited our contact count, we had to be in the top five of the world's most gorgeous FD sites. :-) The rain tried hard to wash us off the cliffline but our two tribanders and other assorted wire antennas held up. The tents had a more difficult night.
Here on Guam, with its typhoons, earthquakes, and generally crummy infrastructure, you're never far from "Field Day." There are probably more generators per capita here than anywhere in the U.S.. The push from Homeland Security to maintain emergency preparations was greeted with yawns on Guam. Anyone here with more than a double-digit IQ already had that much and more. So you'd think the hams on Guam would be the most prepared operators around when it comes to emergencies. Not so.
We endured a very, very destructive typhoon in December called Pongsona. I'll spare the descriptions, you can look up "Pongsona" on Google if you want to see the pix and reports. In short, most any ham with an antenna left in place before the storm didn't have it afterward. Many a beam and tower were lost that day. In fact, ALL communications to Guam were cut including phone, Internet, and other. In my case, I had just returned to Guam after a four month absence just 36 hours prior to the storm so all my gear was packed away. The only ham that I know of that put us back on the map right after Pongsona was Duncan, KF6ILA. But even he, and pretty much all of the rest of us, didn't know where to go on what bands, who was listening for us, or what to do. There was no communication around the island since our lone repeater lost its antenna. That severely limited what we could have told someone about the aftermath. Several of us could have set up field stations. We're actually pretty good at that from our previous Field Day experiences. But we would have been all dressed up with nowhere to go. Field Day is excellent preparation for setting up a field station but it's not particularly helpful for preparing for an emergency communications facility. We pretty much stunk up the place in our hour of greatest opportunity.
We have vowed to never allow a repeat of that situation. Through the generous donation of Decibel Products we have a new and more rugged repeater antenna. We've also bought a spare. We're working on other non-repeater-based comms around the island as well, such as simplex with yagi's, NVIS, etc. (Guam is very mountainous.) We are working on building a relationship with Civil Defense who have shown resistance to ham participation in the past. (It's up to us to show them that we can be counted on.) We'll soon be getting the proper information about emergency operations. It may be years before another "Pongsona" (or not!) but I hope to be able to say that the hams of Guam will put in a much better performance next time.
73,
Chuck, NH2CW
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by KZ1X on July 14, 2003
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Despite the truly lousy band conditions, worst I've ever experienced, our club bested its own previous high scores for 6A Battery QRP.
Hopefully, we'll get our usual 1st or 2nd place overall score again.
Our Congressman stopped by, as well as our State Senator. That was cool.
Every year, it gets more fun, I get better at it and better prepared, and it's been 24 years for me.
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by KC7BDP on July 15, 2003
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Well according to several pundits, the Yuma ACS group didn't do a "proper Field Day". No groaning generators, no sweat-soaked tents (hey guys, it was 114 when we set up antennas on the gravel lot and metal firehouse roof - 1.5 hours before firing up at 1100 MST), no maniacal drive to capture every last contact.
What we DID have:
Non-ham public visitors...public officials - especially our local FEMA rep....a newspaper photographer...two TV reporters (yeah, everybody actually covered us in their venues)....new friends on 40, 20, 10, 6, 2 and IRLP....an ATV station....pretty good food (thanks Ed and the ladies)...."real" practice on each other's gear....practice working together....fun
Hmmmmmm, I guess it wasn't a "proper Field Day"......
Jimmy
KC7BDP
Part of the N7ACS crew
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by K0RGR on July 15, 2003
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Well, lots of fun was had by all. I ran the GOTA station for my club, and we operated mostly on 40 and 80 meters in order to avoid interference from the club's KW's on 15 and 20.
Overall the conditions on 40 and 80 were pretty poor. 40 was good for the mid-USA in the daytime. We had to shut down briefly for a passing thunderstorm, and afterwards, 40 and 80 were useless due to static. I never had to work so hard to get 100 QSO's on Field Day.
The highlight of the weekend was how we raised our GOTA antenna - a Carolina Windom. Our host offered the use of his 50 foot grain silo as a support for the Windom, but we needed to get a rope over the top of the ladder at the top of the silo. We had various volunteers to climb the ladder, but overall, it looked pretty unsafe.
So, our non-ham SWL club member came prepared for this!
Before we knew it, he had a huge kite flying over the silo, at about 100 feet in the air. We attached a rope to the heavy kite string, and let out another 50 feet of line, then steered the kite so that the heavy rope draped over the top of the ladder. At this point, we pulled the kite string down, pulling the rope end back down to the ground. Now, we had a neat 'halyard' for hoisting our Windom!
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by KC8TCQ on July 15, 2003
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This was the second year I was able to attend a FD activity. Last year I was content to observe the other amateurs as I was just recently licensed. This year I was there in time to help set up which was fun as well as educational, I also operated some, had a blast, and also helped tear down. I had a great time hanging out with the clkub members, sharing experiances, learning new tricks. I am looking forward to next year.
73 de Keith
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by WA8URE on July 15, 2003
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On the thought of a "true" emergency field day. One realistic problem is how to get people to devote 4 to 40 hours on a moments notice, when they know it is not an emergency. Field day is planned for and put on the calendar.
Here is a thought. While your group or club members know the weekend date, they are not told the location until one hour before setup time. One or two club members would scope out ten locations, secure approval, and make the decision at the last minute.
This would still allow everyone to "book" the weekend, yet, it would test your group working on the fly.
Any group or club could do this without changing anything on the national scene. Something tells me that some group is already doing this.
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by KA8VIT on July 16, 2003
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As Alex WD8JMM mentioned above, our club has discussed doing another "Emergency Prepardness" type exercise. We also talked about just doing a radio weekend some where in a Field Day fashion.
Our Field Day worked out great this year.
We were a 2A OH with a phone station, a CW station, a VHF/UHF station and a GOTA station and much more.
We were set up in a State Park located on the edge of Lake Erie 3 miles east of downtown Cleveland, Ohio and obtained a special use permit to stay and camp over night in the park.
As an officer and trustee of the Lake Erie Amateur Radio Association, I invite you to look take a look at some of our Field Day pictures.
2003 Field Day pictures
http://www.qsl/net/ka8vit/fd2003
2002 Field Day Pictures
http://www.qsl.net/ka8vit/fd2002
73,
Bill KA8VIT
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by KA8VIT on July 16, 2003
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I missed typed the links to the Lake Erie Amateur Radio Associtaion Field Day pictures.
They are...
2003 Field Day picture
http://www.qsl.net/ka8vit/fd2003
2002 Field Day Picture
http://www.qsl.net/ka8vit/fd2003
73,
Bill KA8VIT
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Field Day 2003 -- A Look Back:
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by G3VGR on July 16, 2003
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Again this year, I crossed the pond to enjoy FD in the US with the Southborough Rod & Gun Club in Massachusetts. Unlike previous years, we went to some guy's hunting cabin in Northern Maine instead of the home comforts of Mass - more like an expedition into the unknown than a normal FD foray. The site was in a swamp & I was eaten alive by the blackfly & mosquitoes. Erecting antennas was a matter of sheer willpower against the angry bugs.It was also 40 miles from the nearest decent pub (the Blue Ox in Millinocket). Prior to FD, I went backpacking in Baxter State Park which was really FB. The actual FD after all the heartache in assembling a station was as much fun as previous years. I love the ability to work across to the West Coast with ease, something I can't do back home in the UK. It's also great to hear & work all the FD operators, some seasoned contest ops & many inexperienced but very enthusiastic FD participants. Maybe a winter FD would be good, it'll certainly put paid to the mozzies & blackfly & I'm sure the people in Minnesota would also welcome it. My highlight was working some club on an island in Southern Maine who insisted they never had any biting critters, so I offered to bag up a few thousand & drop 'em off on the way home. See more on http://www.qsl.net/g3vgr/fd2003.html
BTW - I've been licensed since May 1966 & it just gets better...
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by KB2FCV on July 17, 2003
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Our club, NPARC had a great field day this year. We ran QRP in the 2A class. Everything was battery powered, even a breadboard tube transmitter and receiver! We had also GOTA station, a VHF station, and the class F station (running under a different call) was located at a local firehouse.
The weather went against all laws of field day and turned out to be beautiful. A good time was had by all. Feel free to check out the pics!
http://www.qsl.net/nparc/FD2003.htm
73's de James, KB2FCV
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by KQ6Q on July 19, 2003
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Field Day is always a great practical laboratory, and a reality check! This year I took my TenTec Argosy with me to the Hospital Group (www.hdscs.org) site at Huntington Beach Hospital. I also brought along my portable antenna - an old Webster Bandspanner allband mobile, with a pole-lamp antenna base conversion, and my little MFJ 945 antenna tuner. My jump-kit coax wasn’t enough to reach from the good antenna spot to the shaded operating table (only about 30 feet), so I took a few minutes to put some SO-239's on some unterminated RG-8 I’d brought along ‘just in case’. One connector went on perfect, the second had a short, so I cut it off and did it right - bingo! (What, you’ve never put a connector on coax, much less in the field, running on a generator?? Time to give it a shot! No fair using a ruler - just eyeball it using the connector as a guide!)
The station already running HF on site was operating on 15 and 20 meters, so I decided to use 40 meters, my original haunt as a Novice. The SWR was a bit high, so I could only put out 30 watts, into a mobile antenna on a lamp.... with a set of jumper cables as a ‘counterpoise’. A waste of time, you say? NOT! K7LED - 6A Western Washington, KN6OX 2A Sacramento Valley, W6YX 7F San Fernando Valley, W6GGF 4A Santa Clara Valley, W6CO &A East Bay, K6LY 4A Santa Clara Valley, W6UQ 2A Santa Clara Valley, W6AK 5A Sacramento Valley, KQ6AR 5E San Joaquin Valley, W6SF 2A San Joaquin Valley, W6BXN 7A SJV, K6CSL 1D SJV, KU6S 5A EB, K6SS 2E ORG, K6IN 2A SJV, N6TU 1A SV. That was in a 1 hour stretch about starting 1320, followed by two 5 minute sessions a bit later Not bad for a really minimal setup. How come so effective - magic - I was on CW!!!! The simplest, most effective mode. Requires the use of some brainpower and concentration, and minimum equipment and power!
Location also helped - we were on a sort of ridgeline, if you can call it that, in Huntington Beach, so we did have a nice shot at the northern horizon. Why did I stop? After my first hour, we decided to go ahead and put up a G5RV that one of the other chaps brought - it took some ingenuity, my car keys, and some 40 foot lengths of parachute cord that I’d brought - we got one end up on the 4th floor level of an exterior stairwell, and the other end about 20 feet up in a tree, and kept the twinlead part of the feedline off the ground and into another tree. Once we put that beauty up, the voice guys got on with an FT-100D and started running the East Coast on 20 meter SSB, and we wanted to stay in classification 2A. But I’d had a lot of fun with my minimum setup too. We were using K6EW as the FD club call for Hospital group, and most of our visitors were hospital staffers, coming or going from work - people who we wanted to be aware of our possibilities!
Fancy, new, expensive, sophisticated gear is nice, but you don’t HAVE to spend a lot of money to have fun. You might need a frugal Elmer to point the way to success on a limited budget though. See you in the CW SS,first weekend in November!
Fred Wagner, KQ6Q
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