06/28/2005 | N8CPA I have not participated in a "real" Field Day for several years. And over the past few years, I have started out planning a backyard operation, only to change my mind at the last minute, and operate from inside the house, CW and digital only.

This year, however, my nephew and elmeree (Jason--N8XE) managed to talk me into an outdoor operation. He promised he would do all the physical labor associated with shelter and extra antenna setup. In addition, he would bring a ham he elmered (N8KRS) to operate a phone position for his first taste of HF, and to provide us with 3 hamdom "generations." He also agreed to bring extra laptops to experiment with wireless networking, using N3FJP Field Day Network logger.

We started shelter setup on Friday night, reinforcing the joints of the sectional poles of the lightweight "pavilion" with duct tape to prevent collapse under the weight of the tarp that would keep out the predicted rain for Saturday. We placed the first operating table at that time. By the time the sun set, it looked like the barest beginnings of a Class A station--too bad it was in my backyard. We also experimented a little with networked logging to make sure it would work for us, which it did quite well.

On Saturday morning, I disassembled my station, taking my HF transceivers, tuners--mostly one item at a time--and my old portable operations tub out to the table. The tub contains various experimental wire antennas, extra co-ax runs, barrel connectors, etc. Its contents had not been used for 3 years. [Okay, I cheated a little. I had managed to drag the tub close to my patio door Friday afternoon.] By 10 AM, I had a battery, transceiver and antenna set up under the pavilion.

Even with the advanced start on setup, we were still not QRV at event start time. The last item on the main table was the power supply. Concerned about how time consuming cabling in the DSP filter would be, I left the Timewave 599zx in the house. My dedicated CW position (IC-735) would be filterless throughout the event. The IC-735 was connected to my newly reconfigured--one leg had just been moved that day from a N-S to an E-W heading--homebrew antenna. It had been a Vee, now it was a bent dipole. The TS-50 was connected to my tower mounted R-7 vertical. When the power cords of both the CW and phone (TS-50) positions were connected to the power supply, I turned to "grand-Elmering" N8KRS. Jason in the mean time, had been setting up the laptops.

According to the log, at 2005FDET (2005 Field Day Elapsed Time) 0:54:29, under the attentive tutelage of his grand-Elmer N8CPA and Elmer N8XE, N8KRS made his first HF contact, with (of all stations!) W1AW. And for the informal group at the "Smiley Road Telegraph Station," Field Day 2005 began. It began for Jason's Digital station and my CW position about one half hour later.

Shortly after that, Murphy struck! We started hearing the faint rumbles of distant thunder. Jason brought up a radar image on his laptop and kept us informed about the track and proximity of the invading storm cell. We continued operating. When an apparent gust front began rustling the tarp loosely placed over the pavilion, we stopped for a few minutes to secure the tarp with stakes and ropes. But no rain fell, at that time.

In a few minutes even the distant clouds quit talking--but so did the CW position! Received signals became intermittent, SWR fluctuated. The gust had apparently broken a questionable solder joint at the balun, 40 feet in the air, and necessitating some 60/40 surgery. It took the 3 of us, but the feedpoint of the antenna was quickly roped down, and the connection was resoldered--resulting in what sounded like a 20dB increase in RX sensitivity before it was rehoisted. I hoped for a similar improvement in transmitting once it was back in the air. I got what I hoped for.

After that, Murphy left us pretty much alone, except for the half hour it took for another brief storm to pass through, a little after sunset. We quickly disconnected antennas and ran into the house. As the storm flashed and rumbled outside, we enjoyed the AC of the house. We returned to the pavilion-turned-tent to enjoy the remainder of Saturday night when the dangerous noises subsided. The noise of the fans, the hiss, beeping, and quacking of HF modes, mixing with the pelting of the rain on the tarp, lent our Class D setup a sound and feeling like a Class A station.

By the time it was over the following afternoon, we worked 250 CW, 10 Digital, and 33 Phone QSOs. I can't count how many Class D contacts we rejected. Maybe a 100 or so answered our CQs. Since we used low power, we mostly hunted and pounced, and could usually detect whom not to answer. But there were others who answered when we did call CQ. When that happened, we'd send the exchange, sigh, and let the software not log them. There were so many of them, it made me wonder if, maybe, a further restriction should be added for Class D operation. To further simulate disaster conditions, Class D shouldn't call CQ, but be restricted to H&P. In an actual disaster, the stations in affected areas would be calling out, not stations in unaffected areas calling in for the most part, after all. -- N8CPA