07/18/2009 | N7OY Field Day 2009 Report

AN EVENT OF MANY FIRSTS (And we learned a few things too!)

Lincoln County Amateur Radio Club N7OY operating in Newport, Oregon

Our club, although well established, now consists of mostly new amateur operators. There is only a hand full of us with any experience and I have been active again for just over a year. The reason that most of these young hams got involved was for emergency services. Two-thirds of our members are either with CERTS or RACES/RATS.

Last year Bruce Wallace KE7FTI asked me to help him with field day. It was my first time. I discovered how much fun it could be and agreed to be the coordinator for this year. Bruce had me handle the reporting. I discovered how ARRL had set up the point system to encourage us to become proficient at emergency communication and to promote amateur radio. Taking this to heart, we determined to help our club grow in experience and to do the best we could to promote our hobby.

PREPARATION:

We started by looking for the most public place we could find keeping in mind that, if there was a real emergency, we would be of no use to the community on a hill top two miles out of town. A friend of mine, Jim Palmer, is the manager of the Staples store. He was delighted to let us use the corner of their parking lot. We were all excited at this prospect, got satellite images from Google Earth and made measurements of our site.

Then we started preparing. What pleased me the most was the number of people came forward to help including those that could not actually participate during field day. One volunteered to write a PSA (public service announcement) for the local paper. Another took that, turned it into a radio PSA, and then submitted them to the local papers and radio stations. Another, without prompting, made name tags for all of us, and another printed all of our flyers that were designed by someone else. I didn't even have to ask! This is a group of people who are motivated to prepare for emergencies. Out of our membership of about 35 hams, 18 signed up to be directly involved in Field Day. Then there were those who could not be there, but went out of their way to help us prepare.

SET UP:

On Friday we started setting up at noon. Unfortunately, as is common for the mid Oregon coast, we had strong winds up to 30 knots. There was no way that we could get Dave Sanford's (N7TEE) portable tower up in that wind. (See the pictures below.) Two of us had built pneumatic antenna launchers but they would be almost useless in that wind. Fortunately, someone had suggested that we invite the fire department to help us set up. At 1300 they showed up to become Thee Big Event. What fun! They used their big rig that can place men and hose 85' in the air. They used it to put our lines over the 30' high lights. Great PR for both of us even though it was such an over kill. However, if they had not been there, we might not have got those lines up. We are now working on a method to put them up even in very high winds. In a real emergency, that kind of resource would not be available to us. For the first time we got to meet the people we would likely be working shoulder to shoulder with in an actual emergency.

With all the problems (some like to gloss these over by calling them challenges) we were having because of the wind, it is a good thing we had so much already planned. Everyone came in knowing where everything was to be placed. We had a 40' motor home, the Silver Twinkie a 31' Airstream, two other rigs and the canopy for our information booth. We also had six antennas to put up. With the lines in place on the light standards we were able to put up two G5RV's and a multi-band dipole. Bruce had his vertical that he put together from a recent QST article. We were using it for our GOTA station.

On Saturday morning the winds gave us a break and we put up Dave's tower with a full sized 20 meter dipole and a 6 meter beam. That turned out to be a difficult, complicated operation which barely worked see photos. However it looked impressive and worked well when we got it up. The process sounded like a bunch of the seals bellowing down here on our bay front! We learned that we need a tower system that was easy to put up even in 30 knot winds.

Setting up our electronic equipment went well for the most part. I think that the easiest was John Cooper's, KU7G, which he set up in his motor home. It was simply a small HF transceiver, an Icom 718, with an automatic tuner and a G5RV.

Dave Sanford, N7TEE and John Wilson, W7BL, set up in the Silver Twinkie with Dave's Yeasu 897D and Icom 746 Pro. Dave was our anchor man with years of Field Day experience. He loves the challenge of the competition and made the bulk of our contacts. John was working on setting up for digital communications. The bigest problems we had were with computers. Dave's would not even boot. For some reason John's serial port would not work even though it was doing just fine at home.

Bruce KE7FTI, set up his Icom 735 with an automatic tuner in the information booth as our GOTA station. He was using a multi-band vertical attached to his trailer hitch. My station was set up in the back of my old Suburban. It consisted of a Yeasu FT-901 DM, a manual tuner, a multi-band dipole, the computer/rig interface from the June issue of QST and my MacBook using the Mac version of Fidigi - great program.

OPERATING:

We all got off to a late start except for John, KU7G, in his motor home. At 1100 sharp he was on the air calling CQ field day. The rest of us took longer to get operating. What was great is that we were all pitching in to help each other solve our challenges. Bruce was not receiving anything on the GOTA station. That turned out to be a bad PL259 connection on one of his cables. Dave showed him how to properly solder one. In actuality that is a difficult skill that all hams should be taught to do properly. Dave and I were busy helping the others get going. Dave's computer would not even boot which took up some of his time. He went back to a paper log for a while until I move the GOTA computer to his station for him to log with. John, W7BL, spent most of the day finding drivers to make his computer work. John was our designated digital man for the day. Eventually we were all operating.

For many of our members, this was the first time they had operated HF. They are all used to checking into the emergency nets on two meters here, but have never operated SSB. So we created a script for them to follow when making contacts. Some of them have fresh General licenses. Bruce had never operated his Icom 735, until now. But, he sat down and worked diligently with others to make contact on our GOTA station. One thing they worked on was developing an ear to hear the call signs. Eventually, we ended up using the rig in the motor home for our first time operators. A familiar scene for the day was three or four people hovering over that radio trying to make contacts and they did! We had people come over from our class and give it a try. It was great. By the way, we just had five people from that class pass their technicians exam!

Going on 1900, I finally got to do some operating. About that time I remembered the ARRL bulletin and just caught the last transmission scheduled from K6KPH in California. Now, I had never received RTTY before when I heard the transmission start. It was coming in at 20 over, but all I was getting was garbage. But, with a few clicks on the Fidigi program and suddenly clear text was showing up on my computer. Was I excited an extra 100 points and something new learned! Then I turned my attention to PSK32. John Wilson, W7BL, and I had made our one and only digital contact a couple weeks earlier. Neither one of us had any other experience with it. We were going back and fourth between my rig and the Silver Twinkie trying to figure it out. After watching several QSOs and working out how to change and use the buttons, I made my first contact. Wow! - back over to the Silver Twinkie - Guess what I just did. . ! I made 13 digital contacts that night. After a while there were just the same stations showing up, so I switched over to SSB on 40 and worked a handful. Going on 0300 some of the mid-west stations started to come in, but by then I was exhausted. Our 0300 security watch showed up about then and I turned in.

We were all pretty wiped out by the next morning and didn't have much operating left in us. However, I knew the ISS was going over and was going to try to use the repeater on it. Was I surprised when I heard VA3CSA on the ISS, International Space Station, calling CQ Field Day repeatedly and I was set up to use the repeater. He was long gone before I figured out how to call him! Arrrrg! Well, lots to learn for next year.

THE TEAR DOWN:

The next morning the winds started picking up early. We knew that we were in trouble if we didn't get Dave's antenna down soon. So, we all dropped what we were doing, called for reinforcements, and started taking down his tower. Oh, boy, that ended in mishap. Fortunately it went down between the two RVs and no one was hurt. The worst was a mangled 20 meter dipole easily replaced.

OUR FIRSTS:

For many of us it was our: First time to get on the air. First time to work HF. First time for field day in a public place. First time to meet the fire chief, firemen, Newport chief of police and officers, the sheriff's deputy in charge of emergency communications. First time to work digital. First time to hear an astronaut on the International Space Station.

WHAT WE LEARNED

Most importantly we learned that we are not ready. We learned that we can have fun even in adverse conditions. We learned how to operate under pressure. We learned that having a plan is essential. We learned that practicing is essential.

NEXT YEAR:

We will do better. Will will have more firsts and we will have more fun!

Oh, yes, Jim who invited us to use the Staples parking lot was so pleased that he invited us back to do it again! I'm very proud of our group. They did a great job!

Joe Joncas -- WA7MHB