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Chesapeake/' a tcni ami a huge lead-acid battery
<br />for dc power. Norm, N4NGV, came through
<br />with some really fine antennas. I supplied a
<br />makeshift operating table. Jim, N4hZA, Dave,
<br />my two sons and I went out briday evening and
<br />strung some antennas.
<br />Saturday was a disaster! We were wiped out
<br />by thunderstorms until late In the evening. After
<br />getting zapped several times by lightning while
<br />trying to connect antennas, I decided to dis
<br />connect everything. Later that night. Norm came
<br />and salvaged what was left of the day by making
<br />a few contacts while I logged with a splitting
<br />headache. Every now and then we would have
<br />to dump the water off the canopy to keep it from
<br />drowning us. After a couple of hours, we decided
<br />to quit for the night.
<br />My two small sons (ages 6 and 9) had been
<br />wanting to go •'camping'* for some time. That
<br />night, in a tent full of mosquitoes, was "real
<br />fun"! I spent until 3 AM swatting the bugs.
<br />Meanwhile, everyone but my sons and I had left.
<br />Around 8 AM Sunday, as Dave and Norm
<br />began to get things going again, 1 ran my sons •
<br />home and took a break. Norm had returned with
<br />a much needed ground red on the second trip.
<br />The huge battery held out stupendously. It
<br />never indicated any fatigue, according to the
<br />voltmeter used to monitor its output.
<br />When I returned from home. Dave and Norm
<br />had things in good shape. The weather turned
<br />out to be fantastic, and things finally got rollingl
<br />We got somewhere between five and sw good
<br />hours of operating a real Field Day. I did most
<br />of the logging, while Dave did most of the phone
<br />operating. Norm occasionally relieved Dave at
<br />the operating position, and managed to experi
<br />ment with a couple of different antennas. All said
<br />and done. Sunday turned out to be a magnificent
<br />dayl We learned what to do and what not to do
<br />next year. Thank you!
<br />NfDJS. 3A
<br />Our plan for this activity was to begin setup
<br />at 0800 local and go on the air at 1300 local and
<br />operate for 24 hours. However. 15 minutes prior
<br />to the sMtion opening, there was a 2-car head-
<br />on collision. Immediately, members of our group
<br />activated a local two-meter autopatch and
<br />contacted the police. We h?d police and an aid
<br />vehicle on site within five minutes of the oc
<br />currence of the accident. In addition, members
<br />of our group provided radio-assisted traffic
<br />control for over an hour before the local
<br />authorities could take over. This was a major
<br />accident, which incurred three fatalities. There
<br />would have undoubtedly been secondary ac
<br />cidents had we not provided the assistance we
<br />did. The bottom line this year is that we all
<br />learned a lot. and once again proved the ef
<br />fectiveness of short-and long-range Amateur
<br />Radio conununications.
<br />V,...
<br />KGfN, SA
<br />^ The Carver/Scott ARES and HTCSCARS
<br />' began setup at 9 AM on June 28. at Carver Park
<br />Reserve. IS miles west of Minneapolis and St
<br />Paul. The sky didn’t look very promising, as it
<br />was cloudy and looked like rain could begin at
<br />any time. By 10:30. however, we noticed that it
<br />had suddenly cleared up and looked hke it was
<br />going to be a perfect aay.
<br />We were to be class SA again this year, but
<br />this year we had decided to use more wire
<br />antennas. This shortened the antenna and tower
<br />erection process considerably. A tribandcr lor
<br />10. 15 and 20 was installed on a 35-fooi tower.
<br />The remainder of the antennas were various wire
<br />ri?-
<br />. I1
<br />. i» ^ - •:
<br />■ ■
<br />Andy, KA3PGJ, at the Novice station of the
<br />Mid-Atlantic ARC. W3SC.
<br />arrays and configurations we thought we would
<br />experiment with. Some Interesting results were
<br />observed on 40-meter CW with a full-wave loop
<br />and on 80/75 meters with an end-fed random
<br />wire.
<br />For power, we had a 3-kW diesel generator
<br />feeding three of the stations, with two ?a$-
<br />powered generators for the other stations. The
<br />VHF packet station was also run off the big
<br />generator (we made 1 1 contacts).
<br />It was a great Field Day, with lots of
<br />interesting spectators looking on and asking
<br />questions. Amateur Radio also got a big boost
<br />in the arm from a local newspaper that did a
<br />front-page article on our operation. We are
<br />already making plans for next year!
<br />KTTR. 4A
<br />Approximately 60 members of the Scotudale
<br />ARC and their famUies attended this year ’s Field
<br />Day. The weather was near perfect at the
<br />6800-foot site near the town of Strawberry,
<br />Arizona on the Mongollon Rim. Temperatures
<br />ranged from a warm 85 degrees in the daytime
<br />to the low 40s at night. We even had a
<br />momentary sprinkle of rain early Sunday
<br />morning.
<br />All stations were spaced around the periphery
<br />of an 800-foot circle clearing with tall pines
<br />around the edge and a natural 30- to 40-foot
<br />depression in the center where the two gasoline
<br />generators were located. This resulted in almost
<br />inaudible engine noise ... Yes, it was a super
<br />"site!
<br />Thanks for the unexpected opportunity for
<br />additional bonus points for 12-mcier contacts.
<br />The band openc'^ up for just long enough for
<br />us to garner the required QS ''si
<br />W7FIII. 4A
<br />Field Day has come and gone for another year,
<br />and I’ll have to say I’m sorry that it’s all over.
<br />Our club is rather small and it always seems that
<br />we have a hard time getting enough people that
<br />are interested in coming along on this most
<br />iniporluni weekend. Nevertheless, we did
<br />manage to have an exceptional outing this year.
<br />As always, things don’t always work as
<br />planned. Brian, KA7.SSU, spciii most of this year
<br />restoring a World War II vintage 5 kW generator
<br />for use, only to trailer it up to the FD site and
<br />have it refuse to start. After six hours of
<br />cranking, and with help from W7FHI and
<br />K7ZUR. it was running. It was a good thing the
<br />club brought along their own 2.4-kW unit.
<br />W7JHS and K71AW were on 75 phone and 40
<br />CW running off battery power while the
<br />generator woik was going on.
<br />All looked good, so I started the 40-m phone
<br />and 2-m packet stations around 0100 UTC. We
<br />only managed one packet contact over the entire
<br />event.
<br />At 0500 UTC. disaster striicx. On a routine
<br />check of the generator, it was dis'xiver^ that the
<br />radiator wa» V^kingl We had no choice but to
<br />shut the generator down and use our two backup
<br />generators. All in all, we were quite pleased
<br />with the club’s performance. We improved our
<br />score by almost 500 points from past years.
<br />KS3L. 3A Battery
<br />This was the first attempt by the Baltimore
<br />Amateur Radio Television Society to run a QRP
<br />Field Day. The site chosen was on the end of a
<br />high ridge in the McKeldin area of the Paupsco
<br />Sute Park in Maryland. Three screen tents were
<br />set up with a TS-130 in each, throttled back to
<br />5 W output and run on batteries. All antennas
<br />were dipoles or inverted Vs; the lowest of which
<br />was the driven element off an old tribander,
<br />which was suspended from repes about 65 feet
<br />up. The highest antenna was a dipole for 40
<br />meters, the ends of which were at about 100 feet.
<br />The park had some tall treesl
<br />As a result of our press release, we were visited
<br />by a photographer from WBAL-TV Saturday
<br />afternoon. If he had arrived about 15 minutes
<br />later, we would have probably received better
<br />coverage. Just after the photographer left, a
<br />rather upset mother drove down to the site and
<br />asked if we had seen three lost chil^en. For
<br />tunately, all six of us were equipped with 2-meter
<br />hand-helds and an immediate search party was
<br />formed. One ham went back to the mother’s
<br />camp site, another stayed on top of the ridge to
<br />act as net control, while the remaining four of
<br />us began searching in different directions down
<br />the rides of the ridge. After a short tiine, the
<br />children were located trying to find their way
<br />back to the camp site. The search party was then
<br />disbanded.
<br />Since I have been in FD operations for the past
<br />18 years, the logs were given to me to double
<br />check and redupe. In almost 15 years of serious
<br />contesting, this was the first time I had to dupe
<br />almost 2000 contacts. Phew! Our club is
<br />primarily a VHF club, and in 18 years of Field
<br />Day operations, I have never seen so much
<br />cooperation and a desire to do it right by a group
<br />of :7 hardworking people.
<br />9
<br />W6SRQ. 3A Battery
<br />The Zuni Loop Mountain Expeditionary Force
<br />is a group of hams who are all QRP enthusiasu.
<br />We met on the QRP ARCI Western States Net
<br />and have become friends over the years on the
<br />air. This year was our second attempt at Field
<br />Day. What makes it a unique group effort is that
<br />none of us lives less than 40 miles from any
<br />other. Our planning is done on the air and
<br />through the mail.
<br />Our FD location is a public campground in
<br />the San Gabriel Mountains about 50 miles east
<br />of Los Angeles, at an elevation of 7300 feet. The
<br />various loops inside this campground are named
<br />for Indian tribes, hence our name. At this
<br />Q&Tt
<br />i .«# • fcW %twnmiifiPP
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