07/06/2004 | K4HSM This was a great weekend to do Field Day outdoors. The rain that plagued the East Tennessee area and threatened to dampen the mood cleared out the Friday before, and when we arrived Saturday morning, the weather was not too hot, not too cold, just right.

After we got started another group of gentlemen approached our site and said they were going to run their own contest group, but since we had our group set up, they could bring in their CW skills and allow us to use their bus (on loan from Oak Ridge National Laboratory) for power to the site and a place to cool off from the muggy weather. We couldnt have had a more symbiotic relationship, as they hammered out QSO after QSO on CW, and in fact did about as many as the other 3 mostly voice stations combined!

This was our first attempt at PSK31, and we were able to manage 29 contacts before Jim, KE4UHZ had to pack up the station. Plans are already underway to get PSK31 available for the full 24 hours next year.

Bob, KC4URW, had brought along his RTTY setup but unfortunately the TNC failed after setup and another was not available to be configured, so we were unable to log more digital QSOs than what we accomplished on PSK31.

We attempted to make a satellite QSO and contact the ISS while they were passing over, unfortunately the birds and the timing was not in our favor.

We had hoped to use 2m and 440 sideband during this event, but they were unusually quiet. We hope that there will be some changes to re-vamp those VHF/UHF freqs for future Field Days.

Plans are already underway for next year, including use of a 1X1 callsign for the event. The group that helped with CW plan to return next year and we plan to use Melton Hill Dam at least one more year. We had a few curious folks come by and pay a visit, and a former ham operator sold his unused equipment while attending.

Overall I think this was the groups best performance to date, and we learned a lot about how to hold Field Day in a public locale. -- K4HSM