07/06/2009 | W9R The Rifles & Radios group deployed for our FTX and ARRL Field Day '09, on 26JUN2009. Our site was located on KB9WJL's (our safety officer's father) property north of St. Charles, IL. Our primary mission was to evaluate our capabilities as a field comms unit, as defined by our entry class, 4A-Battery; and within the rules of Field Day. We carried two secondary missions, 1: take the class 4AB highest Q-count, 2: have as much fun as possible. While we all had a blast, we are quite sure that 182 Q's won't be enough to take the class; we do know what needs to be done to be more successful for FD2010. A big thank you, and 73 goes out to every station that we worked. Pulling out 5 Watt phone signals on any band this year was really difficult at times, this we know, thanks for sticking with us! Our antenna array consisted of 5 wire antennas supported by two 40' USGI masting systems. A jumpered inverted-V for 40/80, and a 40 meter OCFD on the South mast. A 40 meter OCFD, and a jumpered sloping dipole for 6 & 15 Meters on the North mast. Between the two masts a 20 meter EDZ was supported broadside, East & West. These antennas fed to 3 operating positions (one of which was solar powered). Our 4th operating position was the VHF/UHF trailer, which included stacked Yagi's for 2 Meters & 432 MHz. -- KB9UIY