07/22/2005 | K9CVC K9CVC Chippewa Valley VHF Contesters Field Day 2005

The K9CVC crew got together at the Field Day site Friday Afternoon to start setting things up. The same location was a large flat field at a fairly high elevation on Eau Claires West side. We used this field last year for the N9TTX Field Day operations, but decided to use our club call of K9CVC this year. The layout was expanded for better separation.

Antennas consisted of two Tri-banders (an A-4S on 20 Meters and an A-3 on 15), a homebrew 4-element yagi on 10, and homebrew wire dipoles were used on 40, 80, and 160. The transmitters consisted of old to new: Yaesu FT-101ZD, FT-920, FT-847, FT-100D, Kenwood TS-2000, (2) TS-120Ss, and an RCI 2990. Five transmitters were basically dedicated to a single HF band, with a sixth one running various CW bands and maybe 160-meters. We ran as a 7A operation in case we had enough operators to fill the extra slot for HF or as a second VHF op.

Bob (KB9PJL) was the VHF man this year in his motor home running a generator and solar power for contacts. Mike (KC9EXW) was the designated camp cook. OOFDAwe were extremely well fed during the weekend. He cooked up brats, pork ribs and roasts, eggs, sausage, hash browns, pancakes and more. There was not a lack of food to go around. Dave (N9TTX) had stiff neck problems, which got worse when the tower bottom scooted out when raising the A-3. A couple chiropractor visits helped his neck become bearable during the weekend.

Marys (KC9FVS) youngest daughter Kayla got interested in 10-meters at first and with Marys help as control op, ran that rig. Later on she and Mary commandeered the 15-meter rig and worked there until the end of the contest. She made 4 contacts all told and was delighted to talk to someone from outside the U.S. when she made contact with VE7UF. She was disappointed when we had to stop at the end of the contest. Chris (W9CDL) told her that if she studied and got her license, he would buy her a rig and let her use one of the towers (to be eventually put up) at home. She is 9 years old by the way and when we were tearing down she was continually asking how tall of a tower, what antennas she was going to have etcthe ham bug definitely bit.

David (KB9SGY) showed up and we teased him for taking pictures and being a spy for the other Eau Claire radio club. We roped him to the chair and made him work for us as a guest operatorall in fun of course. He had so much fun during the weekend, his dad came looking for him when he came back out to work with us on his way home from the other site, and didnt tell anyone. Charlie (N0AKC) ended up working a lot of HF and actually enjoyed it again. Bob (KB9PJL) actually was found running a KENWOOD TS-2000, and could actually hear stationsimagine that. He is a staunch Yaesu man. Chris (W9CDL) and Dave (N9TTX) were the photographers.

We originally had problems with the 80-meter TS-120S, and figured out it was microphone incompatibility. Transferring the Heil Proset+ from the 101-ZD, which was being used for CW only solved this, and the rig was talking hard. The Field Day operations were visited by various city and county police officers. (We got their signatures instead of the other way around), as well as Senator Dave Zien during the course of the weekend.

The Towers were lit up at night, so the site was visible around the clock. The weather was un-Field Day like as there were no major storms or a lot of rain. The Weather was beautiful. We did get a bit of wind and some very light rain, but it did not turn worse. Despite the worries that the field would be too mushy for vehicles (a few were towed out weeks prior to the contest when they sunk in up to their frames), apparently the near constant rain all spring had evaporated in the recent heat, so we never got a vehicle stuck. Teardown went smooth, and everyone went away tired but in great spirits. The camaraderie, feeding of the masses, visitor tours/explanations/chatting made for a very informative and fun time for all. -- N9TTX