07/08/2009 | W0DK AND STILL THEY COME

With apologies to Elliott Robert Barkan (And Still They Come: Immigrants and American Society)

Who are these intrepid souls who, each and every year, on the last weekend in June invade the pristine wilderness of the mountainous terrain west of Boulder, Colorado? Men and women, both young and the old who seem to be intent on bringing structures of aluminum and strands of copper to capture some ethereal voices from the skies. Is this some mystical cult of people who must make this annual pilgrimage in order to preserve their culture?

Well, sort of The ARRL Field Day crew from the Boulder Amateur Radio Club gathered once again at the Betasso Preserve some 7000 feet high above the Boulder Canyon in order to best their previous years Field Day efforts. Never satisfied, these adventurous souls were even more intent on realizing an even greater score from their preparation and planning since the close of Field Day 2008 Lo those many months ago. They have spent numerous hours going over what they accomplished in the past and analyzing every facet of their operation while creating an even better strategy and tactical plan for this year.

This year will be the best Field Day yet! they sang in unison. We have taller towers, bigger antennas, more feature-laden radios, skilled operators and a dedication not seen in this primeval wilderness since at least last year. Yes, we are ready We are here and we will conquer and vanquish the follies of our past and deliver to we, the deserving, our hard-fought victory! This last minute speech delivered by Field Marshall, John Reilly, NA inspired the BARC troops to go forth into the fray and send the Morse code at a furious rate and with accuracy never before realized. The voices of the Phone soldiers would be heard far and wide whilst holding their ground on any band or frequency they choose to do battle on for they know they will be the strongest and loudest of all! We were reminded though that the competition would be fierce in our 2A category as many contestants planned to do battle in this, the most populous of all Field Day categories.

The construction of the battlements shall begin For it is time, shouted Field Marshall Reilly. The troops responded quickly to their stations. The strategy for this Field Day was to start exactly at 1800 hours Zulu and take advantage of the 27 hours awarded for starting with last minute preparations. These BARC members were well-drilled and hopefully, not too well-oiled, and gleefully took to their positions. In a scene reminiscent of a Roman siege tower being constructed, the newly built portable 50-foot tower was rolled into its location by a H2 Hummer behemoth battle-wagon. Next, the even newer (and yet untested) but mighty SteppIR beam, boasting it's imposing 30/40 meter trumpet elements, was quickly assembled and the coax and control cables were made ready. The large SteppIR array was raised from the sawhorses in a manner reminiscent of the immortal flag raising on Mount Siribachi and guided carefully onto the awaiting tower mast and rotator assembly. The portable tower designer and constructor, Field Sergeant, Allen Bishop, KRK barked orders to his troops Level the platform man the guy lines... hoist the main sail (forget that last order, but it sounded good anyhow) and stand clear. The DC powered winch brought the tower to its upright and vertical position with little strain and effort. Then the main winch hoisted this big gun weapon some fifty-two feet high above the forest floor and up into the heavens. Our Phone position was now ready!

Simultaneously, our CW team prepared their antenna installation. They were more conservative in their approach and used the forest itself as tower-like supports for their multiband dipoles. The slingshot and projectiles were readied for the lead-line launch. Much like in the story of David and Goliath, we would entrust this most critical duty to the most capable sling shooter of this Legion of Field Day troops. Tommy Thompson, WVJ was our chosen warrior. Tommy pulled back on his sling until it was taut, released the projectile and line high aloft and well over the limbs and bows of the outstretched Ponderosa Pine trees, some 40 feet above the forest floor. His first shot was true and was sent to the BARC Legions assigned Missile Catcher, Gary Carroll, WN who managed to track down the projectile, now buried among the pine needles and grasses. Gary then quickly attached the 80M-10M fan dipole antenna array, which was hoisted into place by the BARC crew manning the capstan. Their voices could be heard singing in unison... Ho... Heave Ho until the wire structure was finally in place. They strategically placed this antenna to allow the signals emanating from these not-so-gossamer strands of copperweld high aloft to direct the CW signals east and west. This east-west position was along the main battlefield area across the breadth and width of the USA and our RAC Allies in Canada.

The Commander of CW Forces, Larry Benko, WE was somewhat happy with the dipole antenna but directed his obedient troops to have the forest grow at least another twenty feet higher by this time next year. Our first critique had been voiced and noted! Larry, a well known contester and county hunter did yeoman work on the CW station and was the main architect for our Field Day station's setup. Larry and other BARC RF Wizards did much testing of rigs, filters and antenna placements throughout the year in order to come up with a plan to keep the phase noise between our stations at a minimum. Undoubtedly, this important aspect helped us to achieve our total success this year. Of course, further improvements will be looked at for next year too!

Next, but not least, the GOTA station antenna, a trusty R7 Vertical was raised and guyed by our highly seasoned (or is that well seasoned?) VHF/UHF/Satellite First Officer, Don Nelson, NE. He was ably assisted with this task by visiting DXer, Colin Bradley, KH9/WA2YUN who can usually be found at his DX outpost on Wake Island. We were glad for his assistance, and while Colin busily searched for a salt-water ocean counterpoise in these mountains, like the one he is used to having for his verticals on Wake Island, the rest of us proceeded to finish with the GOTA setup. Don, NE is our veteran VHF/UHF contester and with his homemade 6M Moxon he made nearly 100 contacts on a few nice band openings during Field Day along with assembling a satellite station and teaching others to make contacts with the "Bird" overhead. Don also brought along and set up the GOTA station in its entirety. He is the "Swiss Army Knife" of all the hams in this talented group.

The generators roared into action (sort of) and 120 VAC emanated from the long cords snaking across our field positions. The power supplies, radios and notebook computers came to life and the battle for the supremacy amongst the 2A Class in Field Day 2009 had begun for the BARC Legionnaires. But wait Murphy has struck the Phone station! The usually dependable Yaesu FT-950 radio would not succumb to the computers commands, as it should have. Panic overcomes the Phone operation. The big SteppIR antenna awaited RF, but nothing happened. The battle tacticians quickly decided that Plan B should be put into action while the often needed, but usually invisible, software types put their heads together to devise the Fix. Time was being lost and if this problem was not solved soon, the battle could be lost as well. Had we tried "ALT, Control, Delete?" Why didnt we find this glitch before? Who was to blame? What exactly is Plan B anyway? Should we revert to logging by *Gasp* pencil and paper while *Double Gasp* we operate the radio manually? All of these options came flashing to our minds combined with the smells of battle, (mostly consisting of a smell of after-shave and sweat). Adding to the Fog of War was the cacophonous din of the GOTA station down on our left flank screaming CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day, this is uhhh uhhh Nancy Zero Tango Alpha, uhhh... Nancy Zero Tango Alpha. Finally, a consensus was reached to deploy the backup computer into service. It was hastily, but very skillfully, attached to the ports of the main SSB radio. The software was tested and now worked well and all seemed to be operating normally once again. Finally, the BARC Legionnaires main battle cry of CQ Field Day, CQ Field Day this is Whiskey Zero Delta Kilo was again heard far and wide, most assuredly sending utter terror across the airwaves to the ears of our competition.

The CW battle was well underway and one of our fiercest and ambidextrous CW soldiers, John Bredehoft, KTC could be seen banging CW QSOs out with one hand while logging with the other. John had already contributed to our overall effort by copying 100 percent of the dreaded W1AW Field Day Bulletin.

We were visited by Alpha Radio owners, Molly, WOM and Gordon, WUN Hardman. Unfortunately, they didn't bring up to our site one of their world-famous Alpha 87A or Alpha 9500 amplifiers for our use... HI! Gordon took a shift on the CW position, just as he had done so many times on those great DXpeditions he has operated from, like 3Y on Peter I Island and more recently, K5D on Desecheo. Gordon easily coasted along handling the much, much smaller pileups of a Field Day operation.

From across the Big Pond, BARC members, Joan, KCUZ and Ueli Hauser, KB9TTI came back from their chalet in Switzerland just in time to participate in this year's Field Day campaign. Ueli and Joan along with Charlie Wilber, N1AOK and BARC President, Jack Ciaccia, WM contributed to the propaganda for Field Day by conspicuously appearing on the cover of the June 2009 issue of QST magazine. Their appearance on this nationally circulated amateur radio magazine surely added to the mystique of this years Field Day effort by this now legendary (mostly in their own minds) BARC group.

And Still They Come BARC members eagerly came from their homes in the surrounding countryside to our Field Day site to join in the ensuing combat for on the air supremacy. Many of these operators would leave their XYLs at home to ponder what fate their OMs would endure during this years Field Day. Veteran DXer Don Hume, KR would add many new entries to the Field Day SSB logbook. Don trusted that BARC had a good enough Field Day operation to bring along his granddaughter, Timon to attempt a contact on the GOTA station.

This annual Field Day battle brought out the newly-licensed and the new-to-HF operators as well. Betty Grebe, KDHT sat for a while on the GOTA SSB station after filling us with her delicious home made brownies. Larry Nelson, KCYX, a long time member of this BARC Field Day team helped out with construction and logistics once again. Larry is a sometimes reluctant HF operator, but this year he contributed some needed additional GOTA contacts towards the total Field Day effort.

NTS traffic messaging was also featured. We were pleased to have our local NTS NCS operator, Ed Schlichting, KBVH attend our Field Day along with the AEC from Boulder County ARES (BCARES), Dale Scott, KAPV. They fired up one of the BCARES Portable Packet Sets and managed to get all of our NTS traffic as well as our Field Day messages via packet to Colorado SEC, David Markham, WBI and Colorado Section Manager, Jeff Ryan, KM.

Had we waited another hour, we could have just handed the messages to these ARRL Officials in person! Because our dedicated Rocky Mountain ARRL dignitaries braved the Sirens of the Highway having to stop time and time again to quench their parched throats on the dusty byways and highways with a Starbucks Caramel Macchiato (venti, of course). Yes, our fearless leaders had braved the narrow, curvy and dusty roads up the steep mountainside to visit our fortress-like Field Day QTH on their annual Grande Tour of Colorado Front-Range Field Day sites. We had once again been honored by their very presence!

The PSK-31 operating mode was the training effort for our club this year. Mike Taylor, N7KRC brought along his radio and new Rigblaster while BARC Newsletter editor, Michael Stutzer, KDDJ brought along his QRP FT-817 PSK-31 equipment for this years Show & Tell. Michael also demonstrated how easy it was to make low-power contacts in this mode by running less than 5-watts and further handicapping his chances for a QSO by loading it into a very low and somewhat inverted, vertical antenna. There was very good interest in PSK-31 by the troops on hand and we plan to use this digital mode during our 2010 Field Day operation.

Many visitors wandered by this public park setting and stopped at our encampment to see just what the heck we were doing. Seemingly alarmed and cautious locals noticed we were not wearing our tin-foil hats and decided that maybe these Radiophiles might be sane after all. Our disguises had worked! BARC members even helped a few of the very appreciative bicycle riders on the trails with mechanical problems on their bikes with the wide array of tools and mechanical knowledge we brought along. We were fortunate enough to coerce a few of these inquisitive visitors onto the GOTA station where a couple of the local youngsters made contacts under the direction of GOTA mentor, Jack, WM and they appeared to leave our site quite delighted with their accomplishment. One of the youngsters and his parents even wanted information on our famous youth ham radio organization, the BARC Juniors, that are now in their 18th year of operation. Then as quickly as they had appeared, these friendly locals left to return to their multi-million dollar hovels that dot the nearby mountainside.

This year the large and hungry predators seemed to be repelled by our presence (along with a couple of human visitors). No black bears, mountain lions or even large grey foxes that usually habituate these parts were seen during this glorious weekend. All that we saw were a few beautiful Mountain Bluebirds. They taste jest like chikkin according to one of the locals we talked to. We also saw a very brave and curious salamander that seemed to be attracted by our presence and crawled around our radio gear. We thought at first they might be filming an insurance commercial with the famous TV gecko, but that theory was disproven once it was found that this salamander didn't have an Aussie accent.

Saturday evening brought us a brief, but well-earned respite from the days radio battles with a hamburger barbecue, a variety of salads, cake desserts and even some raspberry and chocolate Gelato (how would we ever survive this wilderness while enduring such hardships?). Everyone, once sated, went back to the radio battles refreshed and filled with enough caloric energy to finish their quest. The very cool evening mountain air caused us to break out our cold weather gear once again as temperatures hovered just above 40F degrees. The cold temps did not dissuade any of our hardy ham radio operators and all radio positions were well staffed around the clock. The morning brought another beautiful sunny and mild day. Breakfast was served beginning at 7:30 AM with eggs cooked to order complemented with sausages, toast, juice and hot coffee. Thanks to BARC VP and Chief Chef Gary, WN for handling this most important part of the Field Day effort. Everyone knows that an Army travels on its stomach and so do Field Day hams, except that a few of us may travel with larger stomachs.

Maybe it was the food, or maybe the excellent Field Day radio operation, or maybe it was just the comraderie of the BARC hams there, but we managed to sign up three new dues-paying BARC members from the visiting hams that had found our site on the ARRL Field Day Locator and joined us this weekend. Now, that was an unexpected bonus!

Everything went very well Most noticeably, even the weather cooperated. After enduring 14 straight days of evening thunderstorms and lightning around the foothills, this weekend was just perfect. No rain, wind, fire or brimstone! Pleasantly absent were the usually voracious mountain mosquitoes, bees and other biting insects. Fortunately, I never had to spray on my powerful, plastic-melting insect repellant at any time during our stay. You know you have some powerful insect repellant on when you can leave perfect impressions of your fingerprints on the plastic CW paddle!

BARC finished the battle with 925 CW QSOs and 1483 Phone QSOs plus another 132 QSOs on the GOTA station. We just about had a clean sweep on the Bonus points too. We finished this years battle with BARCs best Field Day score to date (8036 points). More importantly, everything went up and came down safely and as planned. Another great BARC Field Day effort is in the books. Now the hard-working BARC Field Day crew can start planning again for next year!

NOV. 6, 2009 - EXTRA! EXTRA!

FIELD DAY RESULTS ARE IN - WK placed 96th out of 2612 entries or, in the top 5% in the Overall results for ALL classes in the USA, 24th out of 441 for ALL in the 2A category (top 5% finish). For the 2A Colorado and 2A Rocky Mountain Division, WK placed FIRST! -- WM