07/28/2008 | N0W The Greater Wichita Field Day (GWFD) - 2008

75 people from the Boeing Employees Amateur Radio Society (BEARS), Wichita Amateur Radio Club (WARC), Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN), and SKYWARN joined forces for a very successful Field Day weekend at the Spirit-Boeing Employee Association (SBEA) Lake in Wichita, KS. The rainy weather on Saturday morning and slow contacts all day Saturday were the challenges we faced. A special event callsign N0W November Zero Whiskey was chosen to commemorate our combined field day and to have an easily remembered callsign. The 2008 Field Day was the highest scoring in both points and QSOs as we continue to fine tune our emergency preparedness - but most importantly it was a wonderfully good time. Thank you to everyone who contributed, attended, encouraged, and provided help during field day!

Setup - Friday

Setup began at 1:00 PM on Friday, June 27th and went on until we had a barbeque supper prepared by Samantha Wing and Evan Fischer about 5:30 PM. We continued setup after that until about 8:00 PM and then took a break for ice cream at Braums. We put up antennas, radios, and tents for 10m, 15m, 20m digital, and 40m digital. The extension cords were run to the tables and the planned positions of the generators. Our generators were turned on and tested. Charlie Rasico setup the network router and we setup the computers inside the air conditioned pavilion for testing. Roger Bailey setup his 20m digital station and wow, is it complete! Rogers truck is well equipped but he didnt use those antennas he setup a very tall multi-band vertical his own generator, and an air conditioned tent complete with TV oh and a digital ham radio station. The GOTA team with some advice from their Elmer (Randy Wing) setup the GOTA equipment. The people that assisted during the Friday setup included: Roger Bailey, Steve Canfield, Nick Farlow, Evan Fischer, Catherine French, Harvey Jones, Charlie Rasico, Dan Rasico, Ben Stranghoner, Sherry Weir, Ben Wing, Randy Wing, Samantha Wing, James Whitfield, and Mary Whitfield. The temperature was in the 90s as was the humidity the tents were absolutely miserable during the night so my GOTA members persuaded me to setup our sleeping bags on air mattresses in the air conditioned pavilion.

Setup Saturday

Saturday morning began with the sound of thunder as Sherry Weir woke the GOTA team up. We hurriedly woke everyone up and got everyone in the tents to safety. The station captains secured their stations. As people slowly trickled and the slow drizzle and lightning continued throughout the morning the station captains began to worry that we might not be able to start field day on time. About 11 AM however, the lightning had stopped; the storm moved on. Everyone scurried to setup the 20m beam, the 40m dipole, and the 80m near-vertical-incidence antenna. The captains who had waited until Saturday morning to setup were pressed for time but we got everything DRIED in the transmission tents before we turned the generators on! The 20m beam had a problem the elements hadnt been tightened sufficiently and a high SWR forced a takedown and a re-tightening.

6-Meter Station

Captain: Randy Wing. Four contacts! Three local! A 4 element 6m beam at 10 feet with a 25 watt Ranger 6m mobile radio.

10-Meter Station

Captain: Steve Canfield. Loyd Williams, Randy Wing, Nick Farlow, Jim Enix, Charles Rasico. A 10m Ringo Ranger atop a 30 foot mast netted a handful of contacts on Sunday morning.

15-Meter Station

Captain: Sherry Weir. Andera Bohl, Dexter Schnebly, Jack Happel, and Everett Hastie III. A 15m vertical made from aluminum downspout sections (lovingly engineered by James Whitfield), mounted on top of a 30 foot tall mast served on 15m. Like 10m, 15m was slow but it picked up a little on Sunday morning.

20-Meter Station

Captain: George Pinick. Charles Davis, Steve Heyroth, Charlie Hill, Jim Kernan, Jay Lies, James Macioniski, and Phil Tatsukawa. Ten Tec Omni D radio with a 3 element 20m beam with an Armstrong rotator. When we started to operate, the VSWR on 20M was 5:1. We had to take the beam down to find the problem - the hardware on the connections to the driven element were only "finger tight". After the aluminum tubing and connecting straps were polished with steel wool, the connections were put back together. Eureka! A VSWR of 1.5:1 !! We hoisted it back into the air with less than an hour lost performing the antenna maintenance.

20-Meter Digital Station

Captain: Roger Bailey. Ten Tec Omni D radio with a 3 element 20m beam with an Armstrong rotator. When we started to operate, the VSWR on 20M was 5:1. We had to take the beam down to find the problem - the hardware on the connections to the driven element were only "finger tight". After the aluminum tubing and connecting straps were polished with steel wool, the connections were put back together. Eureka! A VSWR of 1.5:1 !! We hoisted it back into the air with less than an hour lost performing the antenna maintenance.

40-Meter Voice and CW Station

Captain: Steve Heyroth. Andrea Bohl, Charles Davis, Nick Farlow, Catherine French, Jimmy Macioniski, Phil Tatsukawa, Thomas TBD, and Jimmy Williams. The 40-meter station was situated at the west end of the operating area. Setup was delayed by rain and thunder on Saturday morning, but progressed quickly once begun. The KC0IFQ 40-meter dipole was supported in the center by a 30-foot aluminum mast, and at the ends by 19-foot fiberglass masts. Participating in setup were James N5GUI, Steve K5MNZ and TBD.

Rig was the K5MNZ Icom 706 and LDG autotuner, running 100 watts powered by the quiet K5NN Honda generator. Primary mode was Voice. Operators included two out-of-town visitors, Phil and Charles, who were in Wichita for a square dance convention that occurs annually on the same weekend as Field Day. Their tradition is to find a Field Day site and combine their dancing with some guest operating. Nice to have you, guys. The band was noisy and crowded Saturday afternoon but much quieter (but still 40 meters!) Sunday morning. Jimmy N8NCC operated at a 100+-QSO-per-hour rate for long stretches of Sunday morning and really pumped up our score and section count. Andrea KD0EKB made her first HF contacts ever. Nick KB0YHT kept the position on the air throughout the night, alternating voice ops with Jimmy K5NN operating CW. Most of the time we had one person operating and one logging, and I really came to appreciate our electronic logging program and wireless-linked server.

Sunday morning passed quickly with good band conditions and plentiful operators. Teardown was accomplished expeditiously by James Whitfield, Bill Benton, Jimmy Williams, and Steve K5MNZ.

40-Meter Digital Station

Captain: Harvey Jones. Andrea Bohl, Jack Happel. The system was manned the entire event, with slightly over 100 contacts in the 24 hour period. Harvey used his FT-857 and auto-tuner with a Hy Gain vertical antenna that stood about 18 feet tall. Harvey recorded the ARRL message, too.

80-Meter Station

Captain: Jim Enix. Ron Cowan, Nick Farlow, Larry Macionski, Woody Thompson, Loyd Williams, and several walk-up field attendees. The radio was an ICOM 756 PRO II and a 102 ft long dipole in an inverted V configuration with the peak at 30 feet and the ends about 5 feet off the ground. Ben Stranghoner, Jim Kernan, Lloyd Williams, Charles Rasico, James Whitfield, and Randy Wing, were instrumental in getting this station operational and packing it away. A highlight of the event was Ron Cowan, KB0DTI, KS Section Manager, operating CW and voice for a good portion of the night and morning. Ron used our 80m station to run the Kansas Net on Sunday morning.

We had antenna-tuning problems with the ICOM, which was resolved by the use of an LDG tuner. In the end we made contacts across the US and Canada. The furthest contact was with a station in Hawaii in early Sunday morning not bad for a compromise antenna!

Next time I believe that a sheet of plywood would be a benefit to those of us who are lucky enough to find gopher holes with chair legs. I also would like to have a sign in sheet for those who work the station. I apologies to those who I missed this time. Because of the 80m antenna problems several offers have been made to provide a better antennas for the station. If all works as claimed next FD will be great on 80m.

Based on lessons learned from 2007 we made sure that the station had a key this year. It did come in handy Sunday morning. My thanks to Ron Cowan for his CW skills and taking time from his family to visit various field day sites.

Antenna setup/take down

Roger Bailey, Jim Enix, Evan Fischer, Steve Heyroth, Harvey Jones, Joey Jones, Jim Kernan, Logan Nispel, Charles Rasico, Jack Happel, Dexter Schnebly, Ben Stranghoner, Sherry Weir, James Whitfield, Mary Whitfield, Jimmy Williams, Ben Wing, Randy Wing, and Samantha Wing walked the grounds, loaded vehicles, and ensured the building was swept and clean. Cleanup began about noon and completed about 3 PM. It was wonderful having so many stay to finish the event!

Food

Evan Fischer and Samantha Wing prepared a meal hosted by Randy Wing on Friday night. The Salvation Army donated a meal on Saturday morning. James Whitfield and Mary Whitfield organized a (BEARS hosted) 60 person supper event for Saturday evening and a smaller Sunday morning breakfast feed. Leftovers from these meals were enthusiastically raided from the refrigerator through Field Day. Asking for an (optional) $0.25 donation for each bottled water or pop actually resulted in our beverages breaking even this year!
In Summary

Every Field Day we learn a few new things as we progress up the learning curve and make higher scores. Sometimes we re-learn things that we should have learned last time Here are just a few:

1. We need a dedicated CW station we had several CW operators who would have operated had they not had to kick off some of the voice operators.

2. The GOTA antenna was too close to the 20m voice and the 20m digital there was a lot of interference. This severely limited the number of GOTA contacts in comparison to years past.

3. Improve our antennas every year - we didnt have two dipoles for 40m and it would have helped! We knew our 80m antenna could be improved, but somehow we just didnt have the time.

4. Captains noted that signing up operators for band-time-slots would be a good best practice.

5. A dinner bell should be rung when food is served! A coffee pot should be operational at all times!

6. A sheet of plywood as a floor is a good recommendation for future station captains.

7. A signup sheet so that each captain knows who operated and when would be a good addition in the future.

In spite of some challenges, by combining our local clubs Field Day events into the Greater Wichita Field Day we had some true successes!

1. Sherry Weir provided a SKYWARN display that provided a good show and tell for visitors.

2. Taking field day pictures at planned times during the event was a super idea Im sure well get wide exposure. We had pictures of the Saturday morning attendees, SATERN attendees, and SKYWARN attendees. They will be available by the first week of August from a server so that you can download any that youd like.

3. By posting our Field Day location into the ARRL Field Day location finder, ham attendees at the National Square Dance competition drew in hams from California (K6PMT Phil Tatsukawa) and Texas (KD5KOD - Charles Davis) to our field day event!

4. Similarly, a few new hams found our GWFD event and learned about field day!

5. No one went hungry! Food was plentiful and was well received by everyone in fact, our attendance peaked during the Saturday evening barbeque!

6. Gwen Welshimer, Sedgwick (Kansas) County Commisioner attended around noon on Saturday. Gwen met with Chance Hayes (Wichita, KS National Weather Service) and learned how vital amateur radio is to the NWS and to the local community. Chance noted that the number of SKYWARN affiliated ham radio operators has grown to over 125 this year. Chance explained how SKYWARN operators are linked to the NWS by amateur radio and provide valuable on-the-spot observations that contribute to timely severe weather warnings to the public.

7. Gwen Welshimer also noted that the Salvation Army van had attended in the morning and fed the GWFD team lunch a reverse served agency! (Field Day attendees passed the hat - a good sized donation was made to the Salvation Army).

8. Gwen Welshimer, on 2 July 2008, briefed the Sedgwick County Commissioners on her visit to our GWFD site and on the value that ham radio volunteers provide to the local community through their served government agencies. You can see video of this at about 1:14:50 into the session, almost at the end.
http://sedgwick.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1589

9. The local ABC Affiliate, KAKE, interviewed a few Field Day attendees the spot was shown on the 6 pm news on Saturday, June 28, 2008! -- N0LD