07/03/2008 | W4FD For the Ashe County (NC) ARC running callsign W4FD Field Day 2008 started in early April. Weekly roundtables on the 147.300 repeater near Jefferson, NC were held to discuss Field Day and the various issues that are a part of it. The planning continued every week right up until the event got underway.

Finally Friday, June 27 arrived and at 8:30 am local time Marty W4MLN and Adam WK4P made their annual trip to the AM broadcast bands to talk about amateur radio and Field Day on the morning talk show. This year we brought sound effects as the boys sent CW over the AM airwaves as they talked about various aspects of the hobby and promoted the Field Day operation..

Shortly before 2 pm folks began gathering at Ashe Park, the location of our Field Day operations this year. Shortly after 2:00 setup began. W4MLN did his David impersonation as he used his slingshot to shoot lines into the trees for the dipoles. The vertical was assembled and deployed in the field and the six meter antenna was erected. At the lower tent Eric KI4LPR, better known as Robin Hood, took his bow and shot a line for the 160 meter dipole that ran along a hole of the disc golf course in the park. The tribander was assembled and put on the secret weapon. I can't reveal more about the secret weapon because, well, it's a secret. As dark arrived everyone was tired and we knew we had a long day ahead. Some went home, some to their tents, some to their campers to get ready for the next morning.

Saturday morning the final antenna was hung and the radios were put into place. W4MLN gave us all a scare when the computers for logging didn't want to work, but being the computer guru he is he quickly got them operational. By high noon we were basically operational...or so we thought.

At 1:30 pm both of our celebrated guests showed up. First was our state senator, Steve Goss. Steve had voted for our PRB-1 bill here in NC last year and he held true to his committment to visit us at Field Day this year. In a few moments our state house representative, Cullie Tarleton, showed up for his second Field Day. Cullie also supportted our bill in the NC House and is retired from the television broadcast industry. It was a true honor to have both our state representatives in Raleigh take time from their busy schedules to join us for Field Day and see first hand the capabilities and resourcefulness of amateur radio.

2:00 pm arrived and we went to crank the generators. The one at the lower tent worked fine. The one at the upper shelter however wouldn't start. A group with mechanical abilities went to work on it while the solar-charged battery was moved into position to power at least one station. Finally about 3:30 the generator was running and the GOTA, VHF, and satellite station went on the air.

Dinner ws served about 5:30 pm, as Todd WB4BBQ worked his magic again with fresh, site cooked, BBQ, slaw, and baked beans. Others had brought desserts, there was truly a feast suitable for kings. Following dinner Duane KF4ZS gave a fascinating demonstration on how to tune an antenna using a noise bridge and several tried their skills at it.

The contacts continued, but it seemed slow going. We recruited teenagers from the disc golf course to come make a contact at the GOTA station. Operators took turns working the various stations, using mostly S&P. Benson K4GST was able to work PAC which gave us all a needed boost. Six ws dead. A thunderstorm shut us down for awhile. As the night went on WK4P slogged along on CW, KI4LPR worked SSB, and KD4SM was having marginal success with PSK31. Finally the night hit rock bottom when KI4LPR announced that the generator at the upper shelter had quit running. That meant no VHF, no GOTA, no Sat station, and only an HF station up there as long as the already used solar battery would run it in the morning.

As Sunday arose KD4SM crawled out of his truck and began working SSB. Of all places he settled in on 10 meters at the bottom of the solar cycle and began calling CQ. Lo and behold stations began coming back to him. Soon he had a full fledged pileup going, trying to work it and log it at the same time. WK4P, having risen from his hour of sleep (he's the two time PSK DeathMatch champion and is said to have some kind of special power for long, sleepless runs at a radio), came to see if he could help. Knowing he had trouble logging because of vision issues KD4SM turned the mic over to him and they continued working the pileup with KD4SM logging. All told they worked nearly 200 stations in in about 130 minutes. One station from England made a second contact to ask if we had heard others from across the pond and told us we were the only North American station he had heard all morning. How cool is that? All this while under a tent just before a tee box on the disc golf course in the county park, gettng eat up by blood-hungry bugs.

In the meantime W4MLN was pushing the paddles, trying to conserve as much power on the solar battery as possible. The battery held until 2:00 when Field Day ended for us. Marty had managed to use the solar-charged battery to add another 100 CW contacts to our score. Measuring the battery afterwards showed 10.8 volts left on TX. The rig shuts off at 10.5. Talk about cutting it close. How many more contacts were left in that battery? The world may never know.

The Ashe County Amateur Radio Club learned to deal wth adversity this Field Day and to work through it. If the generator fails, the battery is not fully charged, and operating conditions tough when a disaster strikes we will be better prepared because of Field Day. And our elected officials in Raleigh and the disc golf playing public will know that we are there. After all, isn't that what Field Dat us all about? -- WK4P