2004 ARRL Field Day
07/01/2004 |
K6FQ
High Seas Rescue Demonstrates the Value of HF to Field Day First Timers
The official on-air activities of our San Diego Skywarn group are normally limited to spotting and reporting significant weather conditions over VHF and UHF repeaters situated near the 5,600-foot peak of Mount Palomar in Northern San Diego County, close to the world-famous Mount Palomar Observatory (http://www.astro.caltech.edu/observatories/palomar/). In 1934, Mount Palomar was selected by Astronomer George Ellery Hale as site of CalTechs then-revolutionary 200-inch telescope because of the mountains ideal southwestern location, majestic overviews of the Pacific, year-round Mediterranean climate and easy access by road from Los Angeles and San Diego.
These same factors, it was thought, would make Mount Palomar one of the best locations in the west to participate in Field Day 2004. And thus, Skywarn team leader Steve Smith, WB6TWL, made arrangements to expand our horizons from regional VHF/UHF communications into the world of global HF at a private campground a few miles from the observatory.
This was our first-ever Field Day as a group and the first time that several of our technician-class members had used an HF rig (under supervision). Two modest dipoles, a 20-year old HF transceiver and a QRP GOTA station put us at a disadvantage to larger California Field Day sites with portable towers, 10-element beams and as many as 14 operating positions. But we were determined nonetheless to have fun and learn more about HF operations.
After a day of successful contacts with New England, Hawaii and many points in between, most of our members had tired and crawled into their sleeping bags by midnight Saturday night. The temperature held steady around 62 degrees with no wind, and it became an extraordinary summer night that you experience only in special places such as Mount Palomar. The skies were so clear and the Milky Way so bright that we could almost write our logbook entries with the starlight alone.
The nighttime HF bands piled up with monotonous automated transmissions of CQ Field Day and CQ Contest on both SSB and CW. It was hard for us to find an open frequency to send our own CQ, and when we did we were rarely answered. The novelty of tuning up and down the bands and competing with powerhouse operations in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Francisco for acknowledgements from distant contacts started wearing thin. Only a few DX stations were willing answer our hard-to-hear K6, 2-Alpha station. Our night shift decided to do less talking and focus instead on listening and stargazing.
Shortly after 1:00 am local time we began hearing emergency traffic in the top portion of the 20-meter band indicating that a small craft in the South Pacific was slowly sinking 680 miles from land. Over the next few hours, we listened to the drama unfold as the skipper of the sailboat rationed himself to one or two brief transmissions per hour to conserve battery power as he waited for help from a French Navy rescue ship coordinated by amateur volunteers in the Maritime Mobile Service Net (http://mmsn.org).
The sailboat owned by Australians John and Kelly Hallows was in route from Mexico to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. They had been at sea for 48 days, and when John became seriously ill, a container ship attempted to provide medical assistance, but incredibly, it bumped into the sailboat causing it to lose its two masts, damaging its only lifeboat and seriously injuring Kelly. With both crew members incapacitated, the small craft was in serious trouble.
John Caine, VK4CEJ in Queensland, Australia relayed Lat-Lon coordinates between the Hallows' and the French ship while Bob Botik, K5SIV in Austin, Texas provided phone patches among the sailboat, an emergency physician in the states and the U.S. Coast Guard District 14 Headquarters in Honolulu. Ultimately, the French Navy successfully rescued John and Kelly and transported them to a hospital. The damaged sailboat was abandoned and lost.
We later computed that the sailboat was about 11,500 kilometers from our location on Mount Palomar and was probably transmitting only ten watts or so on a short antenna. Without intending to do so, our antenna team had erected a highly-efficient 20-meter copper-wire dipole and positioned it perfectly on the southwest-facing mountainside for clear reception across the open Pacific, one-third of the way around the world.
With this real-life experience under our belts, several of our VHF/UHF-only operators are now working on license upgrades to expand their privileges into other Amateur Radio frontiers. Our groups first Field Day demonstrated to us that complex antennas, tall towers, big-buck radios and linear amps arent essential to participate effectively in Amateur Radio. Innovative, low-cost solutions, used equipment and quiet listening can be equally rewarding.
From Kurt Barnhart, W6WRJ@arrl.net, San Diego Skywarn -- W6WRJ
The official on-air activities of our San Diego Skywarn group are normally limited to spotting and reporting significant weather conditions over VHF and UHF repeaters situated near the 5,600-foot peak of Mount Palomar in Northern San Diego County, close to the world-famous Mount Palomar Observatory (http://www.astro.caltech.edu/observatories/palomar/). In 1934, Mount Palomar was selected by Astronomer George Ellery Hale as site of CalTechs then-revolutionary 200-inch telescope because of the mountains ideal southwestern location, majestic overviews of the Pacific, year-round Mediterranean climate and easy access by road from Los Angeles and San Diego.
These same factors, it was thought, would make Mount Palomar one of the best locations in the west to participate in Field Day 2004. And thus, Skywarn team leader Steve Smith, WB6TWL, made arrangements to expand our horizons from regional VHF/UHF communications into the world of global HF at a private campground a few miles from the observatory.
This was our first-ever Field Day as a group and the first time that several of our technician-class members had used an HF rig (under supervision). Two modest dipoles, a 20-year old HF transceiver and a QRP GOTA station put us at a disadvantage to larger California Field Day sites with portable towers, 10-element beams and as many as 14 operating positions. But we were determined nonetheless to have fun and learn more about HF operations.
After a day of successful contacts with New England, Hawaii and many points in between, most of our members had tired and crawled into their sleeping bags by midnight Saturday night. The temperature held steady around 62 degrees with no wind, and it became an extraordinary summer night that you experience only in special places such as Mount Palomar. The skies were so clear and the Milky Way so bright that we could almost write our logbook entries with the starlight alone.
The nighttime HF bands piled up with monotonous automated transmissions of CQ Field Day and CQ Contest on both SSB and CW. It was hard for us to find an open frequency to send our own CQ, and when we did we were rarely answered. The novelty of tuning up and down the bands and competing with powerhouse operations in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Francisco for acknowledgements from distant contacts started wearing thin. Only a few DX stations were willing answer our hard-to-hear K6, 2-Alpha station. Our night shift decided to do less talking and focus instead on listening and stargazing.
Shortly after 1:00 am local time we began hearing emergency traffic in the top portion of the 20-meter band indicating that a small craft in the South Pacific was slowly sinking 680 miles from land. Over the next few hours, we listened to the drama unfold as the skipper of the sailboat rationed himself to one or two brief transmissions per hour to conserve battery power as he waited for help from a French Navy rescue ship coordinated by amateur volunteers in the Maritime Mobile Service Net (http://mmsn.org).
The sailboat owned by Australians John and Kelly Hallows was in route from Mexico to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. They had been at sea for 48 days, and when John became seriously ill, a container ship attempted to provide medical assistance, but incredibly, it bumped into the sailboat causing it to lose its two masts, damaging its only lifeboat and seriously injuring Kelly. With both crew members incapacitated, the small craft was in serious trouble.
John Caine, VK4CEJ in Queensland, Australia relayed Lat-Lon coordinates between the Hallows' and the French ship while Bob Botik, K5SIV in Austin, Texas provided phone patches among the sailboat, an emergency physician in the states and the U.S. Coast Guard District 14 Headquarters in Honolulu. Ultimately, the French Navy successfully rescued John and Kelly and transported them to a hospital. The damaged sailboat was abandoned and lost.
We later computed that the sailboat was about 11,500 kilometers from our location on Mount Palomar and was probably transmitting only ten watts or so on a short antenna. Without intending to do so, our antenna team had erected a highly-efficient 20-meter copper-wire dipole and positioned it perfectly on the southwest-facing mountainside for clear reception across the open Pacific, one-third of the way around the world.
With this real-life experience under our belts, several of our VHF/UHF-only operators are now working on license upgrades to expand their privileges into other Amateur Radio frontiers. Our groups first Field Day demonstrated to us that complex antennas, tall towers, big-buck radios and linear amps arent essential to participate effectively in Amateur Radio. Innovative, low-cost solutions, used equipment and quiet listening can be equally rewarding.
From Kurt Barnhart, W6WRJ@arrl.net, San Diego Skywarn -- W6WRJ
Photo Gallery
-
Mt. Palomar Obser...
Back
