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The infamous Buena Suerta ARS had a very successful Field Day operation this year. No one fell out of their chair, no serious RF burns, and even more important, no one was arrested. We did have some setbacks. The group originally had planned to operate from Angel’s Roost Mountain high in the mountains of the Callahan County Divide but we had a little setback on our trip up the mountain. We discovered that the site was now a gated community. No one had a key to the gate. We retreated down the mountain and regrouped at Bubba’s Feed Store and BBQ to reorganize. By closing time, we had a new plan and headed out the door. Unfortunately, the plan was on one of Bubba’s table cloths. He didn’t charge us much. It was already stained. We were offered a new site by the leaders of the community of Pueblo. Thanks to a government grant, they have renovated an old goat shed. The shed, also known as the Pueblo Open Air Pavilion, was offered to us for FD 2009. Original plans also involved operations on all HF bands with multiple 4-square vertical arrays and a massive radial system. Unfortunately, the club’s treasure trove of aluminum and copper along with the club’s Treasure seem to have disappeared. We were left with a single six-meter beam. The Buena Suerta ARS reformed as the Buena Serta Sixers and, with the help of a bottle of Midland ARC’s famous Generator Go Juice, 239 VHF contacts were made. Conditions were great to the west with most of our contacts in 6 and 7 land. We participated in an experiment to test the effectiveness of linking West Texas clubs on VHF SSB under emergency conditions with limited success. Bottom line is that our VHF effort apparently won the coveted WTX Section Dead Band Award and disproved the often heard theory that a dedicated VHF FD station is not worth the effort.
Look for the Buena Suerta el Radio Societie in Field Day 2010. We plan on a special QSL featuring the Goat Shed Pavilion. But remember, you will only find us on 6 meters.
ARRL Field Day…where hams get serious about having fun.
Field Day Coordinator
This was the 75th year of the Genesee County Radio Club (MI). We had
a great time and the weather was great also.Everyone enjoyed themselve's and will be back again for more! Our president K8KZB has led the club out of the doldrum's and we have become a vibrant club again. See every-one next year.
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What is the definition of HOT!? Usually every year we have a drenching passing thunderstorm here in Louisiana. Not this year, 107 degrees alongside the Red River in Bossier City LA is the true definition of HOT!
As the sunspot cycle starts comming back to life, our score just keeps improving.
All areas improved over last year. Special thanks to Jason, N5NU. He was amazing, calling CQ with a keyer and carrying on a spoken conversation with you at the same time.
We had all of the usual problems, generator failures, lack of promised operators, the works. BUT!, this is all part of Field Day. The day that Ham radio is tested. After all, disasters are not a planned occurence. Mobilizing a task force to meet the communications needs of any incident will test your metal as ham operators. Field day is where all problems are welcomed so we can test our ability to overcome. I.e., generator failures, lack of promised operators, etc.
Did I mention that we had a fish fry. Without even putting a fire under the grease, it was so hot we almost had to throw some ice cubes into the grease to keep it from over cooking the fish. No, not really, but it was hot. Already getting ready for 2010 FD. 73, Marcel N5VU (Comments to n5vu@arrl.net or n5vu@yahoo.com)
KE4KEM giving the radio merit badge class to a group of scouts in the Dorcas Fire Department engine bay |
Ray Schwartz, the scout commissioner, sent us many thanks for our efforts.
We had 11 hams attending-Cal-W4GMH, Chayne-KI4WBN, Darryl-KE4KEM, Jon-KI4UMT, Richard-KE4BFX, Ron-KI5FR, Bob-KI4MEU, Bob-N4CU, Bob-WA6VVA, Bob-W5RE, and Steve-W6EOD. There were 30 scouts and 3 scout leaders. Our JOTA became a regional event with Scouts and parents coming from Walton, Santa Rosa, Escambia and Okaloosa counties.
Field Day 2009 was a great success. The Fort Armstrong Wireless Association, K3TTK operated as a 3A in the town of Brick Church Pennsylvania. We had two station's working SSB and one working CW. Field Day for us is a great way for the club to gather and operate as one along with some socializing. As usual nobody went hungary thanks to Moe WB3ING's hot sausage, pepper's and onion's. The weather cooperated for most of the weekend. The rain held off until later Saturday night and early Sunday morning.
Thanks to all who worked K3TTK. See you next FD on the radio
73
Michael
KC2EGL
F.A.W.A. K3TTK Field Day Coordinator
This was the first FD effort for our ad hoc group of hams. Of the five who participated, only two had worked Field Day in the past and two others had been inactive for many years. One of those two has since gotten back on the air.
Setting up at a retired fire station building, we operated 1A using a FT-890 transceiver and a 135 foot inverted L strung between a wooden training/hose drying tower and a tree across the parking lot. Logging and CW sending was done on a laptop computer and we used a cheap 2-stroke generator to supply power. Remarkably, Murphy decided not to visit us.
IT WAS REALLY HOT! Mid-90s both days, with the sun-baked asphalt parking area in front of the building adding to the heat. Despite all the liquid we downed, we didn't have to make many trips to the restroom :-)
We kept the station going all 24 hours and made 400 CW and 304 phone contacts. We got a lot of the available bonus points as well.
When the results come out in mid-November we will get together and begin planning next year's effort. Next time we'll remember to bring a camera so we can post some pictures like so many of the others have done.
What a great weekend as I reentered field day for the first time in almost 45 years. Many thanks to the Pottstown Area amateur Radio Club in Pottstown, Pa. especially Reg, N3KAS, ED, K3BVQ, Jim, K3CHJ, Jim, K3JJC, and my own Pop N3CYO for mentoring me back into amateur radio. What a thrill very early Sunday morning making contact with W1AW. You'd thought I just entered the promised land. Boy am I looking forwar to next year. Mike KB3OZD
Our first FD event was a good success, even with gear trouble. Looking forward to a even better FD next year with the bugs ironed out.
A little less of this next year would be good. |
Matt K0TDD |
Terry N0PGR |
Jim WG0D |
Ray K0UEQ |
Al N0NWW |
pana of the site |
What a great time for Field Day!! K1BKE and K1DFQ ran 4A NH again this year and even though we didn't beat last years score everyone had a great time! Most of the bad weather went around us and when it did rain we where all ready set up or taken down as the case may be. I don't know all of the equipment that we used and I will have to try to remember to get a list next year but the following is a partial that I remember:
For Power this year we had the W7QEX 15KW Diesel running the whole show with no problems at all.
80 Meters: Dipole at ~50 feet; Icom 746 Pro and N3FJP's logging software.
40 Meters: Horizantal Dipole at ~50 feet; Don't know the rest.
20 Meters: 3 Element Beam at ~45 feet; Flex 5000A; HP8000 Computer running SDR18.2 and N3FJP's logging software.
15 Meters: 4 Element Beam at ~35 to 40 feet; Don't know the rest
10 Meters: 3 Element Beam at ~30 feet; Don't know the rest
6 Meters: 3 Element Beam at ~30 feet; Don't know the rest
2 Meters: 10 Element Beam at ~35 feet; Don't know the rest
Gota station: Used either the 80 Meter dipole, 15 meter or 10 meter beams and a Yeasu FT-?47
Thanks to all that made contacts with us and we look forward to hearing you again in 2010 :)
More pictures are at www.K1BKE.org
73
NS1O
Al
20 Meter beam almost up |
20 Meter beam |
20 Meter beam Rising |
Satelite Antenna |
Bahnou KB1OIS Working them on 20 Meters (Good Job!) |
One of the storms that just missed us :) but not by much! |
Al working the GOTA station (Not a ham yet but working on it) Great Job! |
Working the GOTA station. |
Part of the FD Site |
The rest of the FD Site |
 The 15KW Diesel Quiet generator; Never had a problem running the whole site with this one!! The little 8KW beside it was for back-up. TNX Paul |
The Proclamation (So it's official) |
2009 Field Day was a great success. We ran 2A - Commercial with a dedicated VHF station on for the whole 24 hour period. We ended up making close to 600 contacts using nothing more than two barefoot Icom 756 Pro II and delta loops for 20 and 40m, 80m NVIS and a Cushcraft 6el 6M beam mounted on a flag pole approximately 20' in the air. A pristine Icom IC-551C and a new IC-7000 were used for the 6m station. Very few visits from Murphy this year made for a very enjoyable time for all.
Highlights:
W5LL: Working Montana on 6m!
W5BL: Cooks a very tasty steak!
K5DAL: Holding down the VHF station.
KA5CJJ: The CW MAN!
KB5TZN: Held down the recliner. :-)
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