07/25/2007 | W3AO FD 2007 is now just a warm feeling and pleasant thoughts for the 45+ participants at the W3AO 19A entry--a joint effort of the Potomac Valley RC and the Columbia (MD)ARA. Under absolutely clear blue skies and warm but pleasant temperatures, we erected 700 feet of tower, unrolled (and later rerolled) 1 mile of coax, networked 13 computers, and set up 19 independent stations--all in 24 hours! Then took it all down again 24 hours later. What fun!!!!

Details of the admittedly "over the top" approach to FD at W3AO were described in the 2006 ARRL FD Contest Soapbox on this site. (Select 2006 ARRL Field Day in the Contest window, then insert W3AO in the Search for call sign window below.) The 2006 page focusses on the AB-577 "rocket-launcher" towers and the antennas we use, plus it highlights our GOTA activity.

As last year, in 2007 we were located at the Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School in Howard County Maryland. Space weather was not as cooperative as the terrestrial variety, so band conditions, with the possible exception of 40 meters, were not nearly as good this year as last. As a result, our score was down a bit. There was very little sporadic E on 10, except to the south, and 6 was virtually without any openings. We had a lot of fun on the digital bands, although we made only 6 contacts on our 15 meter digital tower and 3 element monobander--a lot of work for 6 qso's, although it was one of our 19 transmitters, so it was worth a 100 point bonus.

While this effort obviously requires skillful and dedicated operators, it can't be done without a lot of other talented and devoted team members. We can't list them all, but here are a few: Our friends at CDI Medical came through again with the loan of a 45 KVA diesel generator and a huge "inflatable" hospital tent that allowed the entire team to operate together in a single shelter. Audrey Suhr (Mrs. K3RA) provided delicious meals and snacks for the 45+ team members for the entire weekend from a well-stocked food tent that was a major attraction for all. Dave, W8AJR, was the FD Chairman from the CARA side and was involved in lots of the planning as well as acting as our "field general" during the operation. Dave, N3OYF, configured and installed the 13-computer CT logging network that worked flawlessly. Jim, N3KTV is our "Homo Erectus" who lays out the tower locations and supervises the safe erection and tear-down of all the towers and antennas. Jim also built all of our wire antennas. Frank, W3LPL, built the 8 3-element yagis we use for 20/15/10, and provides the mile of coax we need to connect to all those antennas. Rich, KE3Q, stores all of those towers and computers, and transports them to and from the site in his long-bed trailer. Jon, KF3O, did our SSTV, APRS, and Airmail/Winlink demos, as well as staffing the Info Booth. Maurice, KA3EJJ, again provided the VHF/UHF rigs, tower and antennas. Rich, WR3F, handled our FD traffic with the W3HEM field day team. And, we couldn't do this without the cooperation of the Howard County Board of Education who generously allow us to use the superb field at the elementary school.

Final score was:

CW QSO's: 2954
Digital QSO's: 349
Phone QSO's: 4844

Total QSO's 8147

We missed only 1 bonus opportunity in that Gail Bates, the Howard County delegate who has visited us for the last 3 years, had to cancel; and two other elected officials we invited did not make it.

Total claimed score with bonus points: 27,150.

Here are photos from this year: -- K3RA