07/07/2007 | W7NYE Field Day 2007
Pahrump, Nevada

The 23rd of June started off the way any other Saturday would have. Woke up, took care of the dog, shaved, showered, fixed breakfast, turned on the radio and got ready for my AM nets. Then proceeded to get into the truck and headed for the Field Day site. This year it was at the Pahrump Nugget Hotel and Casino (in the parking lot).

Arrived to find that I was the only one there at that time. Within thirty minutes, some of the other club members started arriving. The command trailer, followed by the repeater/portable antenna mast trailer was next to arrive. From that time until around noon, it was interesting to say the least. It seemed that everyone went off in different directions with all of them doing different things at different times. Not much organization or so it would seem. However, it was what some would call mass organized confusion.

Our first problem of the day: found out that we did not have enough insulators. Again hamming at its best jumped to the rescue. Someone in their go to war bag had a few of them. Which reminds me - where did I put mine? Have you ever tried to push a long piece of wire through a rubber hose? That was a fun event to participate in and it could have made the funniest home video movie. Next, the hooking-up of the random wires to the crank up tower (we could make another movie just on this event as well). OK it went up. Every antenna seemed to have its own personality. Once they all where coaxed into the command trailer, the hook-up procedure began.

The trailer has one HF radio installed and we added three others (try putting five pounds of sand back into a three pound sack). High noon arrived and we hit the air. All four radios and operators doing their best to fill up a twenty lined sheet with their contacts. Of course, we had more blank sheets if they should happen to fill one up (good planning). Dinner arrived around 6:00 pm and the day was progressing smoothly. Some of the bands worked rather well and some did nothing. That is the fun of Field Day. Around 3:00 am in the morning on Sunday, the four operators that stayed all night took a quick break. The breeze was blowing softly through the palm trees and the air was cool and crisp. We all stepped out for some air. Around 3:15 am a big gust of wind came along and woke us up (of course none of us had been asleep, or would admit that they had dozed a bit). A good operator never sleeps you know (or so I have been told).

Sunday morning at 11:00 am we had a raffle and the tickets were drawn for some coveted prizes. After that, the most amazing thing began to happen. The people that had been standing around listening to the drawing, began to bring the whole thing to a close. The antennas came down, the radios went out of the trailer, and just like that, Field Day was over. It all came to a sudden close (faster than it went up).

Well that is my story and I am sticking to it. Until next year, to all of you HAM communicators, happy DXing.

Jerry/KC6ILH, Southern Nye County Emergency Coordinator and Field Day operator. -- KE7KHD