07/15/2004 | K8PI K8PI Field Day Report

Field day for the Dial Radio Club was a tremendous success. We had the biggest crowd in attendance on Saturday for the picnic and visit. We had the Butler County VHF members joining with us this year and that allowed us work with some new people. And the weather was absolutely perfect. We again located in Smith Park in Middletown, Ohio. This park is filled each weekend with all kinds of sports activities. So we had plenty of visitors

The setup on Friday went so well, that we were finished long before dark. We had only minor things to address on Saturday morning before the start. The reduction in number of telescoping towers to the two we set up, helped save our strength and time. The switch to light weight tarp canopies instead of the army tent saved our backs. The radio command trailer that Bob, N8TVU, brought was the center of attention. Wow, did anybody count how many antennas were on top of that trailer. We need one of those. He even had satellite TV. (Bob is the Butler County ARES EC and also into search and rescue.)

The only downside to the event was that we will never know our exact score. At 7 am they were making contacts on the two phone stations, when some glitch happened. They looked at the network log to discover that our number of phone contacts went from 375 to 3. The log database had gotten corrupted. We dont know if the network caused the trouble or what, but the end result is loss of all contacts before 7 am Sunday. So, starting from scratch, we slowly worked our way up to 60+ contacts before field day was over. Most stations we tried to work after 7 am said we had already worked them.

The CW station was an example of how to plan and schedule. This year a hand full of operators were able to keep the station running all 24 hours. They finished with a total of 690 contacts in the log. Its a good thing that they were not networked with the phone stations. Good job.

The VHF station was in a good position this year. We mounted the VHF/UHF beams on N8TVUs pneumatic tower. Mount beams, add air, thats all it took. This got them a great deal higher in the air than in the past. This station made 43 contacts when 6 meters opened up Saturday evening.

We had many visitors to the site and there were some that are now interested in getting their license.

The most interesting thing was the success with the Extension Ladder Antenna. N8HP built this 40 meter vertical antenna out of a 28 extension ladder. It was standing on a piece of foam insulated wood and guyed with rope. At the top was a short piece of angle stock to bring the length to resonate on 40 meters. Boy that antenna was efficient. We were working stations left and right on 40. Even had a pile up going several times. -- W8EH