10/26/2007 | K0GQ Note: The attached photographs will generally open to a larger size in a separate window if clicked on using the mouse.

The Raytown Amateur Radio Club (RARC) again operated a class 2A, Field Day from the grounds of Raytown City Hall in Raytown, Missouri and we are pleased to report that we improved upon our previous years' performances. After many weeks of planning and anticipation, many of us met for lunch on the Friday before Field Day at Las Chilis Mexican Restaurant for what has become a traditional activity before we begin our annual station setups.

The city of Raytown offered their 35 foot emergency communications trailer for RARC to use during Field Day. This shelter housed the phone station, GOTA station, information booth and APRS demonstration. CW operations were in a separate 26 foot Winnebago, provided by Jim Sherrow, KM0E. A homemade trailer, built by Paul Watts KC0DDZ and outfitted with a 38 foot crank-up tower, was set up for the VHF/UHF station. A last minute addition to the Field Day location was a 30 foot trailer furnished by Ted Hatfield, N0YSX-- this addition gave the satellite station a better shelter than the tent that was originally planned! The phone station, GOTA station, and CW station each had its own 40 foot tower with either a Cushcraft A3 or A4 tri-band beam antenna. All of the towers were assembled under the direction of an appointed safety officer (Robin Cross, W0FEN) with a team of club members and others that enjoy participating in Field Day assembly and disassembly. No Field Day is complete without a shelter for socializing, picnicking and grilling, so our last structures were 12' x 12' canopy tents.

The Field Day message from W1AW was copied by Steve Lufcy K0OU at the CW station Friday evening. Saturday morning was spent finalizing computer interfaces, testing radios and adjusting antennas. The HF CW and HF phone station computers were networked. Each station was powered by a gasoline generator. The organization and plans for the Field Day setup went smoothly, reducing the stress that is an integral part of a 1:00PM CST start.

The main operators of the HF CW station were Rebecca Rich KB0VVT, Bill Henderson K0VBU, along with Steve K0OU, our CW station Captain and Field Day Supreme Commander. Rebecca has been participating in the RARC Field Day for 10 years now. She was first licensed at age 7, 20 wpm Extra at age 8, and she is now a 19 year old sophomore attending Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With future summer internship possibilities, we are not sure how many more times she will be able to attend the RARC Field Day. Unfortunately, we have no young person waiting in the wings to take her place. One day Rebecca will be missed at the RARC Field Day!

Dave Rich KG0US was the Captain of the HF phone station. There were many phone operators during the course of Field Day including Barbara Rich KG0UT, Robert Fadler N0XI, Leif Bahl W0RDE, and others listed below. Two surprises for this year were the operating styles of new members Bob Kimbrell W7KU and Ted N0YSX. We operate the HF CW and Phone stations contest style and Bob and Ted as well as others did a very fine job. At K0GQ, although we operate our stations in a fast paced contesting mode, we still try to treat the person on the other side of the QSO with dignity and respect. We realize that we will run into first time operators and that not everyone is accustomed to contest style operating so we will slow down when necessary and give that operator some encouragement to continue on and to most of all, have fun! Please read what our friends at W0DK wrote about us in their soapbox. This author remembers thanking each of the dozens of home operators that came by to give us a QSO on 80 meters on Sunday morning. Those contacts were greatly appreciated and resulted in an all time club high of 501 QSOs on 80 meters phone!

This year we used RARC Vice President Norma Libbys WB0JNP callsign for the GOTA station. The GOTA station captain was RARC Treasurer, Joel Grieshaber KC0ELZ with help from Norma WB0JNP and her husband Dave Libby K0DCL providing some of the radio and antenna equipment. The new rule change that allowed GOTA operators to each make just 20 QSOs instead of 50 QSOs helped create more participation than we had anticipated. In fact, we had more participation than the ARRL electronic entry was ready to handle. The ARRL electronic entry was still setup under the old GOTA rule which allowed a maximum of 10 operators with 50 QSOs each. We had to enter our operators as groups to file electronically this year. Hopefully, the ARRL will have the form updated for next year to allow up to 25 operators with 20 QSOs each for a total of 500 QSOs. More than 19 operators were introduced to amateur radio, tried HF operating or were re-acclimated after long inactive periods with the assistance of a coach. RARC President Barbara KG0UT did most of the coaching as she has in the years past. Our GOTA operators were lucky to have the excellent hearing assistance of Dale Hamm, K5LN and Jose Lopez, NOSMC. These two were patient and not as easily distracted as sighted operators. Wayne Yost KA0JJH helped us out this year and was happily surprised to see his son Warren make 20 GOTA contacts. Leif W0RDE brought his girlfriend Cindy Chesley out to her first Field Day where they both made contacts on the GOTA station a hams dream date Field Day! William Mc Ferren KB0SAU and Trevor Elliott KC0VXI also contributed to the GOTA score. Holly Cross KA0VTB surprised us all and did a great job and added 40 contacts to the score. As stated earlier there were too many operators to mention but hopefully they are all listed somewhere in the table below.

Paul KC0DDZ was again the Captain of the VHF/UHF station with help from Eric Cartner AB0WA. Special thanks go out to Eric and his fathers business, Westport Research Associates, for donating some new heavy duty rope to be used to safely guy our towers for Field Day this year. Paul also took care of our natural power contacts this year. We had a new former member from years ago return to Field Day this year. Norm Lampton KC0FNA recently had moved back to the area and joined the RARC and then helped out with the VHF/UHF station this year. There were also many other operators that stopped by the VHF/UHF station during the weekend to help out. These poor guys have not had a good 6 meter opening for quite a number of years. Still, they come out and setup each year with the hopes that this year will be the year. Well, maybe next year!

Jim Reicher N8AU was again the Captain of the Satellite station. Jim and Steve K0OU were able to improve on last years Satellite score. Jim also made 100 CW contacts on the GOTA station.

Many youths participated in FD this year with ages ranging from four years old to seventeen years old. We had the twin brothers Nathan and Anthony Mixon, the grandsons of Robin W0FEN, and Holly KA0VTB. Pauls KC0DDZ youngest son Jonathan along with his 17 year old son Joe KC0UNB joined us for Field Day. Caleb and Sean Hatfield the sons of Ted N0YSX enjoyed their first Field Day. We had Alena Mahaffey and yet another set of twins with Karsen and Kaden Mahaffey, the grandchildren of Dave K0DCL and Norma WB0JNP. Having twins created a problem because in each case we could not tell which twin brother is in the attached photograph. Former Missouri House Representative Bill Boucher KC0OGV enjoyed participating in Field Day and watching his teenage grandson Jonathan Blank making contacts on the GOTA station. Jim N8AU coached his young son William into making his first Field Day radio contact. Eleven youth made at least one contact on the GOTA station, the HF phone station, or the VHF/UHF station. We had a system where we coached the young person at the VHF/UHF station if the person was very young or wanted to make only a couple of contacts. Making real contacts gave them the thrill of talking to a person that they can only hear through the radio and also earned them a specially signed RARC Field Day information card complete with a smiley face. Of the eleven youth contacts, only three were made by returning participants.

This years Field Day GOTA station brought together two old college friends from Kansas State University that had not seen each other for over 30 years! Dennis ONeill K0DNG credits his longtime friend Carl Watterson K0YCR for getting him interested in the amateur radio service. Dennis says that without K0YCR there would be no K0DNG. A second reunion occurred when John Zimmerman, formerly K0JVX, visited the Field Day site only to discover his old CW buddy Bill K0VBU operating the CW station on Saturday afternoon. John and Bill had operated many a Field Day together 20 years ago for another area club.

The information booth and visitors log were located most closely to the GOTA station. Being in a shelter increased the chances of using the materials again next year and invited visitors to take part in Field Day. As usual we balanced operating, coaching, visiting, reminiscing, and sharing amateur radio with the yet-to-be operators. One visitor was Captain Frank Stranimier, of the Raytown Police Department, who was newly licensed as KD0AWF and made his first ham radio contact with K0GQ, with coaching from Barbara KG0UT. It is unclear who was more excited the youth that he contacted or Captain Stranimier who was making his first contact on the air! This was one of the many highlights of the FD weekend.

The RARC teamed to complete another terrific operation with great operators making the most of Field Day rules and figuring out ways to earn bonus points. This year we had demonstrations of the following alternate modes of amateur radio:
Joel KC0ELZ demonstrated Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS). Ed Davis KC0UZZ, Dave K0DCL, and Joel KC0ELZ demonstrated Slow Scan Television (SSTV) by using notebook computers and various mobile and HT rigs. Fast scan Amateur Television (ATV) was demonstrated with the now famous "helmet cam" worn by the Barbara KG0UT transmitting on 433.97 MHz.

The canopy tents are always positioned in the middle of the Field Day festivities and provided a focal point for visitors and club members to meet, socialize and picnic. Roger Snowdall W0KWJ brought out his grill and cooked hamburgers and hotdogs Saturday afternoon. Everyone enjoyed the picnic. Roger is one of our retired senior members and when he is not operating amateur radio he is also building and flying RC model airplanes. He also keeps busy working part time for a local hospital and helps operate and maintain his churchs sound system. Roger is very technically minded and quite a writer as can be seen in his latest contribution to the Hints & Kinks article shown on page 61 of September, 2007 issue of QST.
RARC completed another great Field Day with a total score of 12,696 in class 2A (including GOTA and bonus points). Everyone was tired but very proud of the results. Disassembly began promptly after operations ended at 1:00 PM Sunday under the direction of the safety officer. All towers were guided down one at a time, using the entire team. The process was without incident and marks the first year in many that no damaged hardware was taken home. The field was returned to normal operations and everyone was home by 4:00PM. Of course, there was the one or two items that went home with the wrong person or appeared to be lost until the rest of the items had been unpacked. WOW! What a weekend! Field Day 2007 will be remembered for a long time.

Last year, with 3,450 contacts, we finished 3rd in the nation for class 2A and were the highest scoring Field Day entry no matter the class in all states and Canadian providences north and south of, and including, Kansas and Missouri. This may seem extreme to some readers but keep in mind that there are normally at least 20 other Field Day teams in other classes that score higher than K0GQ. The most awesome Field Day team is the incredible class 22A team of W3AO making 9,504 contacts last year. As an example closer to home, several hundred miles northeast of K0GQ is the W9CA operation. The biggest difference between our operations is that W9CA now operates class 3A, puts up 40 meter beams, and they somehow find generally inactive people each year to make 500 CW contacts on the GOTA station. Oh, did I mention that they eat better than us serving steak and Lobster tails one year! When we grow up, we want to be like W9CA except we will not be making 500 CW GOTA contacts as almost all of our unlicensed and general inactive GOTA operators are not that much interested in CW.

Operators and Support:

Leif Bahl W0RDE,
Bill Boucher KC0OGV,
Eric Cartner AB0WA,
Holly Cross KA0VTB,
Robin Cross W0FEN,
Ed Davis KC0UZZ,
Trevor Elliott KC0VXI,
Robert Fadler N0XI,
Tom Faulconer W0GMV,
Joel Grieshaber KC0ELZ,
Dale Hamm W5LN,
Ted Hatfield N0YSX,
Bill Henderson K0VBU,
Bob Kimbrell W7KU,
Norm Lampton KC0FNA,
Dave Libby K0DCL,
Norma Libby WB0JNP,
Jose Lopez N0SMC,
Steve Lufcy K0OU,
William Mc Ferren KB0SAU,
Dennis O Neill K0DNG,
Jim Pietschmann KC0EMC,
Jim Reicher N8AU,
Barb Rich KG0UT,
Dave Rich KG0US,
Rebecca Rich KB0VVT,
Jim Sherrow KM0E,
Roger Snowdall W0KWJ,
Carl Watterson K0YCR,
Joe Watts KC0UNB,
Paul Watts KC0DDZ,
Wayne Yost KA0JJH


Unlicensed Participants:

Daniel,
Michael,
Jonathan Blank,
Cindy Chesley,
Caleb Hatfield,
Sean Hatfield,
Alena Mahaffey,
Kaden Mahaffey,
Karsen Mahaffey,
Anthony Mixon,
Nathan Mixon,
William Reicher,
Warren Yost

Station Descriptions:

HF CW Station:
Shelter: 26 foot Winnebago.
Radio: ICOM IC-775DSP.
Computer: Win98 Desktop PC networked to HF Phone Station.
Logging Program: Writelog.
Antennas: Cushcraft A3 on 40 foot Universal Al tower, Butternut HF6V.

HF Phone Station:
Shelter: Raytown Emergency Communications Trailer.
Radio: ICOM IC-775DSP.
Computer: Win98 Desktop PC networked to HF CW Station.
Logging Program: Writelog.
Antennas: Cushcraft A3 on 40 foot Universal Al tower, Hy-Gain DP-2BDQ 40/80 meter dipole.

VHF/UHF Station:
Shelter: Custom Built Trailer made by Paul Watts KC0DDZ and friends.
Radio: Yaesu FT-847.
Computer: Win98 Desktop PC.
Logging Program: Writelog.
Antennas: 5-element 6 meter Yagi, 8-element 2 meter Yagi, 25-element 432 MHz Yagi with all antennas on a 38 foot crank-up tower.

Satellite Station:
Shelter: 30 foot trailer.
Radio: Yaesu FT-847
Computer: Notebook PC running SatScape.
Logging Program: Hand written log.
Antennas: 11-element 2 meter Yagi and 11-element 432 Yagi both vertically polarized elevated approximately 30 degrees mounted on a tripod antenna base.

GOTA Station:
Shelter: Raytown Emergency Communications Trailer.
Radio: ICOM IC-746PRO.
Computer: Win98 Desktop PC.
Logging Program: Writelog.
Antennas: Cushcraft A4 on 40 foot Rohn tower, Butternut HF6V, and Alpha Delta DX-A Sloper.

Thanks to everyone for another great weekend! -- KG0US