07/09/2009 | KC2SHB After a few years at another location, the East Coast Long Wire Assocation returned to Belleplain State Forest. It was the nicest field day weather in recent memory. Last time we were here in 2006 we had 7 inches of rain in about 3 hours with massive localized flooding.

Joe Glessner N2YIR brought his popup camper along with a Free To Air Satellite, a Solar Portable 440 repeater, his 5KW generator, his 450S and his girlfriend. He had a portable antenna tower with a 160m slinky antenna, a 80m dipole and G5RV.

I (KC2DUX) bought my 2 daughters, my girlfriend, my laptop, my netbook with a sprint broadband card, a Linksys Wireless AP, a fishing pole, my 450SAT and a G5RV (for our GOTA station).

Michael KC2MTM bought his camera (as our offical camera man), laptop and his 706, which we hooked up to a 40m/15m dipole.

Dan KC2GYU brought out his laptop, TNC, dual bander, his homebrew J-Pole and APRS software.

Joe setup in camper in the ballfield and Dan, Michael and I setup under a Pavilian. I setup my netbook as the server and connected it directly to the wireless router. We had logging software and internet on all computers, even Joe who was 200 feet away.

All and all we had hams and family stop by thoughout Saturday and operate with us. My oldest daughter Trinity worked GOTA half the afternoon and then again in the evening till after midnight! Trinity and I feel asleep around 4AM, Joe, Dan and Mike weren't far behind.

At 6AM I was awoken by Jeff KB2M telling me to hurry and get out to the field, AO-51 was going overhead in minutes. We get on there and no one else was there. We even could hear outselves. About 20 mins later ISS makes a pass over and we heard CQ CQ CQ VA3CSA. We didnt know the uplink at the time to get back. About 40 minutes later AO-50 passes over head. SUCCESS! A satellite contact! About 25 minutes following that contact we knew ISS was coming back around and managed to find there uplink freq. I threw out our call, SUCESS!! VA3CSA 1A ISS QSL! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HDWgArAnng

Follow that we ended up with over 500 contacts and 24 hours of fun! Look forward to next year! -- KC2DUX