As can be seen in the accompanying photo, the Mississauga Amateur Radio Club (MARC) VE3MIS had some challenges for Field Day 2012. Besides warped masts, our location in Mississauga was on the flight path for Pearson International Airport (Toronto, Canada). We ran 11A for FD 2012 with good results using a variety of antennas ranging from dipoles to home-built Yagis. We had 65 participants.

David Kingsland VE3MDX led the FD planning team and made sure sufficient resources were available to keep us fed and on the air. We were able to use the Meadowvale Conservation Area located in the northern part of Mississauga, Ontario. This location provided a pleasant operating area by the Credit River with good public accessibility as the park is quite popular. We showcased our emergency response vehicle by using it as the primary CW station, giving the public another view of our emergency preparedness. Mississauga is familiar with emergencies as much of the city was evacuated in 1979 after a train derailment released toxic chlorine into the air.

In past years, we have had trouble with QRM from nearby stations so members built filters which would limit the interference. Multi-band dipoles were known to cause interference so our antennas were limited as much as possible to single band dipoles or Yagis. Combined with the filters, this worked well and reduced our interference considerably. If we could only find a filter for airplanes flying overhead, we would be in fine shape. (Actually headphones worked pretty well to eliminate much of this QRM!)

MARC was proud that this year we had a new ham volunteer to operate the Get-On-The-Air (GOTA) Station for us. As part of VE3MIS, Thomas Gernon VE3ETG operated the GOTA station and also provided an area for the general public to learn about amateur radio. Thomas' dog Shanoa was always available to put visitors at ease.

This year we reached out to the general public. Kristin Gorsline daughter of George VE3YV managed to get an article published in the Mississauga News inviting the public to visit our FD operations. Thanks Kristin! The club developed a brochure for visitors providing information on Field Day and Amateur Radio in general. The brochure also highlighted club activities and invited those interested to join us for our radio classes and other club activities.

With propagation on the rise, the memory of cooperative weather, excellent food, good equipment and lots of good-will, MARC is looking forward to next year's Field Day and having even better results to report! Thanks to all who made FD 2012 happen with such success!

73,
Earle VE3XEL