07/10/2006 | W5FC DARC Field Day a Big Hit! 25-Jun-2006 --
The Dallas ARC (http://www.w5fc.org) hosted the ARRL Field Day event back at Dallas White Rock Lake this year. Many of you probably recognize the site from previous years Scout Hill at Buckner & Mockingbird. We originally planned to use Flagpole Hill located a short distance away, but the City of Dallas had planned to renovate the site after we requested it. However, our very capable Field Day Chairman, Mike Futrell-K5MTF, was able to recover and we ended up back at our old site which served us so well in the past. That would not be the only challenge facing him, however. Having ordered the requisite portable facilities well in advance and confirming the week before the event, the citys preferred vendor left us high and dry. Once again, Mike recovered and was able to secure the compulsory accommodations. The city was made aware of their recommended providers dereliction.
The HF beam provided by Joe-N3JI was brought to the site Friday evening and assembly was begun. Since it had never been put together, it was a bit more time consuming. Mason-K5YHX and Joe worked on the antenna and had everything but the feed assembly completed, which took until about midnight. That included the optional 40m add-on rotatable dipole kit which made it a little more of a challenge. Also, since the kit was optional, there were different things that needed to be done to accommodate it. The change in the feed point was enough for them to call it a night. Some things are better left attended to after a good nights sleep! The next morning, the feed wasnt nearly as challenging, and it was completed quite quickly. Fortunately, our expedient antenna building party yielded a perfectly matched antenna on all covered bands and no tweaking was required. WHEW!
While the beam was being completed, Sergio-KC5FEX arrived with his bucket truck. The remaining minor details of how to secure the antenna and rotor to the trucks arm still needed to be worked out. Jim-K5WLQ and Sergio came up with an awesome plan that worked perfectly! It was elegantly simple. A couple pieces of pre-drilled steel channel stock, some bolts long enough to span the arms width, a couple U-bolts, and a piece of galvanized steel pipe that was cut for use above the rotor, too. Everything held in place nicely, and it was definitely strong enough for the job. Thanks Jim & Sergio!
The other usual antennas were brought by John-K5SN and were deployed Saturday morning as well. Thank you John for always being there for us! They consisted of the Hy-Gain 40-10m vertical, the 40m full-size quarter-wave vertical, and the Whit Griffith Special 3/8th wave 75m vertical, otherwise known as the secret weapon!
With a minor hiccup on getting our logging PCs interconnected (once again our highly adept Field Day Chairman came to the rescue!), Field Day was started right on time on 20m with the beam. The other stations were brought up shortly thereafter. Lee-AB5IG was also there setting up his satellite station. Thanks to Lee for putting together really cool portable satellite setup!
The stations were put to good use Saturday afternoon, until the world-famous DARC BBQ arrived. Thanks again to Lee & Dave-KD5RYM for a delicious Saturday afternoon Field Day Feast! Each brought briskets done up a little differently, but all were excellent, to state the obvious! Also thanks to Ginger-W5AAN & Don-W9VE for volunteering to bring water, ice, drinks, and the sides for the Saturday BBQ.
Shortly after the food arrived, Mother Nature let us know that she is alive and well! Last year, we had a reprieve from the rain, but that was not to be the case this year! We were keeping an eye on the clouds all day it didnt take long for us to get word that a very strong cell was moving through the area. It contained 60mph winds, hail, heavy rain, and dangerous lightning. It was also very small, so what are the chances of it hitting us? Since it was Field Day, I would say 100%! The campers that stayed Friday night had a short downpour visit, enough to get a few folks wet, and this second one came right about the time the last of the wet items dried out (of course!). The excitement didnt end there, however. When the lightning seemed to be getting close, we decided to pull the plug on the operation, and disconnect the antennas. We also decided to lower the beam on the bucket arm, and were glad we did! Sergio and Joe werent back from the truck for 30 seconds when a VERY CLOSE lightning strike hit the area! It very likely would have hit the antenna had it remained in the fully extended position. Thankfully we were spared, but our banner was blown off the arm during the short-lived event.
We had a fairly impressive list of visitors, including the Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, Jim Haynie-W5JBP, the previous ARRL President, and Dr. David Woolweaver-K5RAV, the West Gulf Division Vice Director. There were numerous other non-ham visitors, and we thank all of them for coming to visit!
Overnight, 40 & 75m were cranking and the antennas did a marvelous job! Joe-N3JI worked 75 solid from about 2am until after sunrise using the Secret Weapon, while Don-W9VE worked 40m CW well into the morning hours.
Sunday morning brought the wrap-up of the event, and several showed up to finish working the bands, and help with recovering everything. Recovery and cleanup never seems to take as long as setup, so everything was finished up in short order Sunday afternoon. A great time was had by all, and lets make sure we give our brand new Field Day Chairman a big round of applause for a fantastic first go at the job! The DARC would like to thank all that attended, and if you missed it, you missed a great one! We hope to see you next year! -- N3JI