06/25/2007 | K5ARC FD-2007, My second Field Day, may prove to be the most memorable for me! A good time was had by all in the group. Our Club, The Ascension Amateur Radio Club or K5ARC, is a fantastic bunch of guys scattered throughout SE Louisiana. We are lucky to have a great 2 meter repeater with broad coverage that has drawn a good crowd over the years. The turnout was perhaps low but the enthusiasm of those in attendance was not!

As has been the case for many Field Days, we operated 3A at under 150 watts. We set up in Galvez, LA at the Volunteer Fire Department facility under generator power. We were pleased with the expected performance of our rotatable tribander and military surplus crank-up mast as well as the exceptional performance from our new (for this year) OCF dipoles on push-up poles. A lot of planning and craftsmanship went into modifying our supports for quick deployment this year. Thanks to our club VP KD5OLB(Keith) and president KD5NVE(Al) for the pre-planning and work. Also thanks to all the ops who kept the generators running. FD takes a lot of effort to keep things going!

Equipment was up and operational with time to spare for some needed rest before on-air activities kicked off. The hot and humid Louisiana sun can be brutal. Many thanks to the XYLs and several club members for putting together the food and beverages. The main dish was Cajun style Sauce Piquant served over rice or noodles a'la club member KB5DNF(Warren). Yum! Several thoughtful members brought doughnuts from Krispy Kreme for that much needed early morning FD pick-me-up. I think we had 10x's more food than we could eat! Oh, and lets give a special thanks to our Columbian friends to the south for supplying America's need for coffee!

Operating went smoothly. Our main station ran CW the whole 24 hours as usual. Many thanks for the experience of cracker-jack CW op K5KV(Benny) for leading the way at the CW station. I myself am a CW enthusiast of two years and operate at contesting speeds. The first few of hours I manned the keyer while Benny logged our progress and verified my copy. This is a good time to thank Jim (KC5ODI)for putting together a network for the laptops. Logging was a breeze!

Things got going quickly. Of course the first hours you can't beat QSOs off with a stick! Eventually Benny and I switched positions to give me a break from the key. Other club members worked SSB on the two remaining stations but it seemed that we didn't have fluid coverage on the phone equipment. Our plan had been to have 2 phone stations running but the plan changed when we saw that steady operation wasn't happening. A guest operator named Al (I believe) showed up and got CW kicked off on 40 meters on the unused station while Benny and I kept 20 meters humming with the tribander.

This is about when our one and only glitch occured. Benny and I detected some broadband noise that sounded like CW. In fact, we found the harmonic of our guest op's rig and monitored him working his contacts. There was no getting away from it and we suspected a malfunction. After a half hour or so of trying to work around it we investigated the trouble and our suspicion was confirmed. One of our coax feedlines had not been soldered properly at the PL-259 connection and some arcing was occuring. Spark Gap CW anyone? We had a roll of solder and a low power iron on hand. We couldn't get the connector hot enough to take the solder! But Field Day is about working with the tools at hand and member Jim was there to teach us all an old trade secret. Out came a Bic lighter and viola! Hot connector and flowing solder. Problem solved!

Our guest op had to vacate in the evening which left the spare station unmanned again. This was prime 40 meter propogation time so this was not acceptable! It was about this time that another new CW guy showed up, Wade(KC5AML). He's a straight key guy and isn't into high speed code yet but I was very impressed with his contesting abilities! He volunteered to help me on the other rig and we went after it, me manning the keyer while he logged and checked my copy. On into the night Benny needed some rest and went home to sleep while Wade and I kept 40 meters rolling through the night. Yes, I operated the entire 24 hours with plenty of breaks! Club president KD5NVE kept the SSB station alive through the night. Thanks to Keith's teenage sons for helping out with logging on the SSB station!

Benny showed back up in the morning and found 15 meters alive. He churned out points on that band while Wade and I moved back to 20 meters on the OCF. By the end of the day, we had in the vicinity of 900 CW QSOs and over 200 phone QSOs. This was a (recent memory) record for our club that can be attributed to multiple CW stations. (All the more amazing given the sunspot cycle). Who says CW is dead?Considering the atmosphere was more social than competitive, I'd say FD2007 was a resounding success for K5ARC! The end of activities saw a brief downpour of rain as the crew took down the antennas. I had to get my son (Phoenix Roberts, pictured on the scooter) to his mom's house that afternoon so I was fortunate enough to be spared the storm!

See you next June for FD-2008!
Heath Roberts -- KE5FRF