07/02/2006 | W8DXA The Northern Ohio DX Association participates in Field Day every year. Our goal is to keep it simple; nothing elaborate so it doesn't become an aggravation to set up and take down. We put up two tents in a field (is that why they call it "field day?") and used wire antennas supported in the center by a tree.

Pete, N8TR, skillfully shoots his arrow over the tallest tree available and his wife Mary, N8DMM, always manages to find it in the woods without contracting poison ivy. Bill, W8JGU, brings his 6 meter beam on a 34' tilt up mast with the rotor at the base. The six meter antenna is about 250' away from the wire antennas so that there is no interference (Denny, WB8K, complains bitterly if he hears the cw noise in his ft847, so it was just easier to do it that way!) The generator is off in another direction to minimize the noise as well. After a few years at doing the same thing, you get better at it!

This year we decided to go after the extra points. It did make the event more exciting and it does challenge everyone to think about other modes and activities besides cranking out the q's. We operated 2A with one transmitter on cw and the other on phone. An FT-847 was used to make vhf contacts.

A solar panel, purchased at Dayton, along with an FT817 gave us points for the alternate source of energy used to make 5 qso's. Nick, W8XD, started off on 40cw with this setup and the sun cooperated fully. In 5 minutes, we had 5, 40m qso's using solar energy. Nick remarked, "This is easy!" Right, easy for him to say!

The satellite qso was not as easy. But perseverance pays off if you attempt a qso on every pass. The FM birds were a zoo, the sideband birds were better and Denny, WB8K, with an antenna pointing assist from John, K8YSE, netted a qso with KF0Z in Colorado on FO29, another 100 points! Even Denny was excited about this contact!

The field day message was copied and one was initiated to our SM for extra points. Sending those additional 10 messages was a challenge for me since I haven't sent traffic in many years. The biggest challenge is finding nets to send the traffic on. The pre-field day legwork paid off.

A reporter from the Richfield Times (Richfield is a very small village/township south of Cleveland) came out to see what this was all about. He stayed over an hour and seemed fascinated by it all. We gave him the tour, showing him our APRS setup and our portable packet node, operated by Mike, WB8EVI. The article is scheduled to be printed at the end of July. I'll bet he will be back next year!

But the most rewarding part of field day is seeing a new ham get involved and make her first contact on 6 meters. N8LRS, Linda Sinko, xyl of Metro, W8MET, was just recently licensed. After making a qso with Texas, she was elated! This was her first field day but I think it will not be her last!

Sadly though, we dearly missed our fellow dx'er, Ray, W8BIN. He became a silent key last year. His presence at field day added a spark to the event. It's not the same without him. But we know that he would have been proud of all of the operators that came out for this event and would want us to continue the tradition. He was missed, but not forgotten. -- K8YSE