11/11/2002 | K8SSJ USS JURASSIC (K8SSJ) and USS OHIO (K8SSO) FIELD DAY 2002
By: Carolyn Donner N8ST

Captain's Log - Earthdate 2002.06.21
It was another hot humid day planetside. The Mighty Gorn (aka Gary Donner K8BE) and I (N8ST) were at USS JURASSIC HQ in Hamersville, OH awaiting the arrival of the rest of the landing party. We had several preparations to make before the Field Day events in Hanlon Park started. Captain Barb Buffington KC8SXM (USS OHIO, CO), and Rear Admiral Roger Scritchfield WD8ITD (XO of the USS OHIO) arrived around the middle of the afternoon. After consuming field rations (turkey, ham, Swiss cheese, etc.) we started to work. Barb and I were busy at the computer in one room of HQ, while Roger and Gary were busy putting necessary software on Roger's laptop in the other room. JURASSIC member Charles Chandler KG4DRD soon arrived with another laptop that needed software installed on it as well. While the guys worked on the laptops, the phone rang. It was Paul W8JN who said he was on his way out with the radio we would be using for voice contacts in the park. Little did we know, but Murphy was lurking in the background unnoticed by any of us.

After the software was installed on the various laptops and all was checked, we anxiously awaited a coded (Morse code) message from ARRL (American Radio Relay League). At the appointed time it came through and was decoded by both Chief Engineer Gary and the computer. This was the first of two coded transmissions. The second transmission would be in RTTY (a type of 20th and 21st century radio Teletype transmission). Both messages were received and saved to the computer. This message was worth 100 bonus points for our Field Day entry, so everyone was excited to see the message come in so clear. No subspace transmissions would be used for this weekend event only 21st century amateur radio type transmissions were used.

It was going to be a long weekend in the park, so we all settled into sleep about 10:30 p.m. local time, even though we were much too excited about the weekend activities to actually go to sleep. It's great fun to be allowed to participate in the ARRL's annual Field Day activities. These activities are designed to test emergency preparedness and at the same time introduce the public to Amateur Radio. Even though we get points for various activities through the weekend (and some before), there are no awards for this activity except for the satisfaction of a job well done. However, we look forward to seeing how our group does when the standings are posted in the national QST magazine each year.

Captain's Log Earthdate 2002.06.22
Everyone was up by 7 a.m. The generator which would power our radios, lights, the coffee maker, and computers for the weekend couldn't be loaded into the van until the morning. We also needed to load the gasoline, computers, and radios right before we left. Sleeping bags, tents, antennas, information to pass out to the public, etc. had all been loaded the day before. Oh, and don't forget the food actually I did forget some of it, but no one starved, so I guess we didn't really need what was left behind. Murphy had made his first strike and we didn't even know it yet.

We stopped at the last bit of civilization we would see for two days Burger King for breakfast on our way to the park.

Once in the park in Georgetown, Ohio we were greeted by a new JURASSIC member, Jerry Silman KB8PVY who had also brought equipment we were going to need. We quickly unloaded the van, car, and trucks and set to work creating a working amateur radio station. We took over the shelter, re-arranged tables, setup tents beside the shelter under cover of the trees, hung the JURASSIC banner and flags (USA flag, Ohio flag, MIA/POW flag, and of course a Starfleet flag), and hung antennas on huge tripods and into the trees overhead.

This year was our first year to offer amateur radio licensing tests. Since Gary, Roger, Barb, Jerry, and myself are all VE's (volunteer examiners), we had more than the required 3 VE's to grade tests. The testing session was from 10 a.m. until noon. All together we gave 15 tests to 6 people. Things went smoothly for the testing session. I'm happy to announce that Charles KG4DRD upgraded his license class to GENERAL. Congratulations Charles! We also had one person who went from no license to an EXTRA class license in one testing session. That's 4 tests he had to take and pass, including the 5 word per minute Morse code test. We're still trying to recruit him since he's also a Star Trek fan. Like all of Field Day the testing session was open to the public.

After the testing session was over, we finished hanging the dipole antenna that went from two trees on either side of the shelter. Roger had a great idea this year to bring his diving weights and hang one on each end of the ropes holding the antennas in the trees. This gave just the right tension to keep the antenna from sagging in the middle.

Then it was time for the on air activities to start Saturday 2 p.m. EDT. Paul had his radio (a Kenwood TS570) setup and started calling "CQ Field Day". That's when Murphy hit us full force. The antenna tuner in the radio absolutely refused to tune the antenna properly. Paul managed to get it to tune on one band, but then Murphy hit again and the radio seemed to be overheating transmit for 20 minutes, then shut down for 30 to let the radio cool off. Well, we thought we were ready for Murphy, because we had a second radio. Roger had brought his Kenwood TS830 and an external antenna tuner, but somehow his tuner wouldn't tune up either of the HF antennas. We tried various things, but to no avail. So, we turned briefly to other things

We had a 2 meter radio hooked up to a solar panel to make the necessary 5 contacts using a natural power. This was another 100 point bonus activity. It worked perfectly. We were even able to get a couple of visitors to the site involved in this activity.

Next Gary and Charles hooked Charles's DELL laptop to the 2 meter radio to do some demonstrations of various digital modes of communication. Murphy was back who would have thought that the DELL laptop would be the ONE computer that doesn't work well with an amateur radio. There is a sound card problem that we only found out about a couple of days before Field Day. The problem is fixable with software but we didn't know we would need it in time to solve it before hand. Well, with much effort on Gary's and Charles's parts they managed to get it working well enough to do the demos.

Local amateur radio operator, Al W8UJM, had stopped by to help out if needed. Al also happens to be a pilot, so he took Jerry up in his Cessna airplane and they flew over the Field Day site at about 500 feet altitude. As they left to go to the airport, the rest of us quickly spread paper plates on the ground to spell out K8SSJ (our club callsign) on the soccer field in front of the shelter. To keep the wind from blowing the plates around and spelling something weird, we nailed the plates to the ground. It worked. When we heard the plane overhead we all went out to stand around the K8SSJ and wave at Al and Jerry. Jerry took some great photos of us. JURASSIC members were wearing red t-shirts with our Field Day logo embroidered on them, so we look like a group of red ants on the ground. We also had any visitors at the site join us to wave at the airplane.

We continued to work on the radio problem, and got it solved when Jerry went home for a few minutes after the plane ride. He brought his Kenwood TS850 radio back with him and it worked fine through the rest of the weekend. Gary also went home and brought back our external antenna tuner which worked well with Roger's radio, so now we had two working radios. We switched off from doing voice mode on Jerry's radio, to doing PSK31 on Roger's radio throughout the rest of the weekend. And did I mention that Barb logged all weekend, only getting an hour's sleep during the night? I wonder if she slept for several days after she got home?

Charles brought his Mac computer with some DVD's to help fill the empty spaces when a person wasn't working. This was a good addition to the weekend. And the Dr. Who show was a first for Barb who had never seen a Dr. Who episode (well, she can't say that again). The Prisoner shows were good also. Thanks Charles.

We had lots of visitors during the weekend, but perhaps the most notable was Ohio State Representative Tom Neihaus. He stopped by with a couple of his family members. We were happy to answer his questions about amateur radio and the USS JURASSIC as well as show him how amateur radio can help out in emergency situations. Also stopping by were a couple of off duty police officers from Georgetown, and the Brown County Emergency Coordinator Jeff King N1DJS.

During the morning on Sunday those who weren't on the air, or cooking breakfast, started taking down unnecessary equipment and packing it up. While they were doing this others continued to make contacts on the air. We finally shut down about a half hour early because a couple of ladies wanted to use to shelter to get ready for their school reunion which was to be that afternoon. Of course we could have said, "no, we were here first," but that would be defeating the purpose of presenting a good image of Starfleet and Amateur radio to the public. So, at 1:30 p.m. local time we packed up the remaining computers, antennas and radios and headed for home.

Even though Murphy's Law reared it's ugly head a few times during the weekend, we enjoyed the time spend together and the great feeling of helping others through the use of amateur radio. We're already making plans for next year.

[NOTE: While we were working Field Day at Hanlon Park in Georgetown, OH, other USS JURASSIC members who couldn't travel that far were working Field Day with other Amateur Radio groups in their local areas. Garry Cameron VE7ACM worked with a group on Vancouver Island in CANADA, and Ralph Brigham KG4CSQ worked with his local group in Clarksville, TN.] -- N8ST