For the third year in a row we held Field Day in the Staples Parking lot. We chose this place because it is centrally located and easy to reach by the some 10,000 residents of Newport. In a real emergency it is intended that they will know where to find us and can do so on foot if necessary.

  Our club, the Lincoln County Amateur Radio Club - N7OY, is located on the central Oregon Coast and has been around for many years. However, most of our members are fairly new hams with less than four years experience. We have a core of us "old timers" that are working hard to bring along our newer members. In the last couple of years our "younger" members have been gaining in their skills. This year our main goal was to improve operating skills. As a result we nearly doubled our operating score over 2010.  

EQUIPMENT and ANTENNAS:

At the opening we had four transmitters set up and ready to operate on SSB, CW and digital modes. This was our first year for a CW station and demonstration and it was a great success. We had 5 antennas in the air ranging from 80 through 10 meters. They consisted of wire antennas, a vertical and a 3 band 3 element beam at about 40'. We had one stations set up for SSB, one for CW and two for digital. We also had a GOTA station.  

OPERATIONS:

Last year we concentrated on our GOTA station in order to get as many people to experience HF as possible. This year we also had great hopes for the GOTA station. However, we started with a transceiver that had a receive problem. After replacing it, we could hear plenty of stations, but we just couldn't make contact. It turned out we had an antenna with a broken lead. We didn't carefully examine it before putting it up. Lesson learned. However, to prove that any antenna will work, we had one new operator try to contact one station for 45 minutes and finally got through. It was our only GOTA contact. Then he went on to operate another station on 40 SSB. He made several contacts and would not quit. He made our last contact of the event within one minute of the end. I think we have a winner in the making!  

Last year we were set up so that people could see us operate and encouraged them to learn. Our main goal was to have as many people experience as many modes and types of equipment as possible. With six transmitters and antennas in such a confined area we soon learned that we could not all operate at once. Last year front end overload and intermodulation distortion were a serious problem. This year we built and used bandpass filters. We also spread out our antennas over about three times the area. It made a phenomenal difference. The only problem we now had was with digital on one end of a band and SSB on the other. On twenty meters it resulted in about an S9 noise level. Something new to work on.  

A note about antennas:  Having a three element beam at about 40' made a big difference. Last year we only had wire antennas at a height of 30' and one vertical on which we made many of our contacts.  

FUN:

We had lots of fun. We spent a lot of time talking among ourselves as well as operating the radios. We really enjoyed our time together and meeting a lot of new people.  Probably the best was all the good food which is a must for a good Field Day!  

CONCLUSION:

We had no problem reaching our goal to improve our operating skills. We also greatly improved our antennas and equipment setup. Setting up a networked log made a big difference even though we had some problems with the network. It was our best public relations event ever and we should see several new amateur operators in our club soon because of it.